Posted on 12/18/2006 3:37:09 PM PST by Borges
LOS ANGELES - Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.
Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.
With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.
The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."
Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.
"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year - without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.
"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.
Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."
The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.
Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.
After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed - and expensive - action featured in theatrical cartoon.
And their's were the only good "Tom and Jerry" episodes, the Gene Deitch ones (which were produced in Communist Czechoslovakia) and the later Chuck Jones ones, could not compare.
I haven't ever heard.
A heck of a try...but Gilgamesh was a Sumerian king.
The character you tried to name is Gargamel.
The one sitting to the right of Yogi Bear looks like a cartoon version of Jack Nicholson.
I named a Teddy Bear Boo Boo. (wet eyes; I had forgotten till now)
No he wasnt. That tv reviewer was a moron.
Whoever he was.
Andf the "Don't know!" before Shaggy is named "Snoop". His sidekick was named "Blab"....your other "Don't know!".
Good long run. Rest in peace to Mr. Barbera and a thanks for your creations !
Anyway, Hanna-Barbera is always a name I remember (didn't think it was 2-person name).
Ditto.
Does it matter whether he was conservative or liberal? People of all ilk are capable of producing good work, and ideology doesn't should not have to be inextricably linked to everything.
Rest in peace, Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna. Thanks for the entertainment.
I believe that is a rendering of the gentleman that just passed away.
No disrepect to Bugs Bunny and friends, but Hanna Barbera defined TV animation in the Sixties and Seventies. In a time of turmoil their cartoons were an oasis of laughter. And Johnny Quest kicked butt.
I always found something funny about that "Hurricane Hippo Holler!"from that one cartoon.
~Blue Jays ~
Tom and Jerry was my favorite. The Saturday morning cartoons these days are unwatchable to me.
Maybe because I'm getting old ? :(
yeah, me too when I was just a little kid.
I couldn't stand Scrappy.
May our Boo Boo's be happy, wherever they are.
It appears that 'BOOM' (channel 297 on DirectTV) is playing a number of these old 'toons for the next few hours.
I don't know anything about the political ideology of the man, that's why I'm asking. At the same time, will you be overcome with grief when Barbra Streisand and Michael Moore kick the bucket?
~ Blue Jays ~
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