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The world of animation art is engaging. It's a real
treat to own a piece of original production art that was actually
used to make one of your favorite cartoons. The history behind
the art is often as fascinating as the art itself and sometimes
even more so. Whats truly amazing about animation art is that
it was not created with the intention to survive. The art needed
to last only long enough to be photographed beneath the camera.
The finished cartoon was considered the real work of art. Lucky
for us, 60+ years later, old stashes of vintage animation art
are still being discovered intact.
Production art from the Warner Studios is particularly special
because a tremendous amount of the production artwork was destroyed.
There are 2 stories as to why this happened. The first and most
accepted is the fact that after decades of making cartoons the
Warner Brothers warehouse was becoming overcrowded with production
art and the studio wanted to make more effective use of the space.
This was back in the late 60's when it was thought that the production
artwork from these cartoons had little or no value. Consequently,
the works were destroyed. The art that exists today comes from
the actual animators, the ink and painters, or were items gifted
to studio visitors or VIPs. It is indeed tragic so we are lucky
to have the beautiful works that escaped the studio and exist
today. As I said, there are infact 2 stories as to why the Looney
Tunes artwork was destroyed, the second story is that the warehouse
contained so much paper and early cels (which were made from
a very flammable nitrocellulose) that the insurance company told
the Warner Brothers Studio to get rid of the clutter or face
dramatically raised insurance rates. This story, although quite
probable, seems to be less accepted. It's quite possible both
stories are true.
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