Myron "Grim" Natwick (' Nordveig; August 16, 1890 – October 7, 1990)
was an American
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
,
animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...
, and
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...
. Natwick is best known for drawing the
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of ...
' most popular character,
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleisc ...
.
Background
Born in
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Natwick studied at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
and had five brothers and two sisters. Natwick's parents, James and Henrietta (Lyon), owned a furniture store. His grandfather, Ole, was one of the earliest Norwegian immigrants to the United States arriving in Wisconsin in 1847 (Ole was born on April 8, 1826, to Ole Torkjellson Natvig and Anna at Sagi Natvig, Ardal, Sogn, Norway). He had eleven children in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin (now part of Wisconsin Rapids), including James W., Grim's father, and Joseph, who was the father of
Mildred Natwick, Grim's first cousin.
Natwick had his nickname since before high school as a takeoff on his "anything but Grim" personality. He was well known even in high school for his artwork and his poetry. Although never published, many pages of his poetry were displayed in the summer of 2011 at the South Wood County Historical Museum in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, where there was a permanent exhibit of Natwick's works. His brother Frank was reputedly one of the first Wisconsin athletes to be invited to the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
in 1908. He was a high hurdler for the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
where he was president of his class.
After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, he went to the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...
.
[Comment Magazine: Jan-Feb 1975 p. 58]
/ref>
Career
Natwick's artistic career started with cover designs for sheet music
Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, ...
, initially for a friend who worked at a music publishing company. Natwick found that he was good at this type of work and contacted other publishers in Chicago, eventually illustrating the covers for many song sheets, usually in no more than two colors. A former school friend, Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 – March 1, 1952) was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including ''My Man Godfrey'' and ''Stage Door'', which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best ...
convinced him to try animation at William Randolph Hearst Studio, which only animated their comic strip properties. Natwick stated, "I was having lunch with LaCava one day and he said, 'Why don't you try this thing?' He found it very hard to get artists to do this; nobody knew how to animate. They would come in and see somebody drawing a hundred drawings a day and it would frighten them. We knew each other well, and I had apparently shown a knack of drawing humorous drawings, so he persuaded me to try it for a couple of weeks. That lasted about fifty years.” The studio was under the direction of Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 – March 1, 1952) was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including ''My Man Godfrey'' and ''Stage Door'', which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best ...
. In 1925, after one year at the studio, he took his savings and sailed to the Vienna National Academy, where he mostly drew anatomy of women. Natwick was influenced by Egon Schiele
Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portrai ...
and Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's pr ...
. He graduated in late summer of 1928, moving back to New York.[ Natwick is best known for creating the Fleischer Studio's most popular character, ]Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleisc ...
, under the direction of Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he becam ...
. Although legal ownership of the Betty Boop character remained with the studio (as Natwick was an employee), Grim created the original design of Betty Boop at the request of studio head Max Fleischer, who requested a girlfriend for his successful creation "Bimbo". Natwick would remain one the primary animators of Betty Boop from the Dizzy Dishes to Bimbo’s Initiation, his last cartoon for Fleischer’s before moving to the West Coast.
Natwick worked for a number of American animation
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
studios, including the Ub Iwerks
Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), known as Ub Iwerks ( ), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentiou ...
studio, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fr ...
, Walter Lantz Productions
Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios.
The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...
, UPA, and the Richard Williams studio. Seeing Natwick’s animation of Betty Boop in The Bum Bandit
''The Bum Bandit'' is an animated short film created by the Fleischer Studios in 1931 as part of the ''Talkartoons'' series. Betty Boop is voiced by Harriet Lee.
Plot
Bimbo prepares to rob a train that he has forced to stop. He then sings "The ...
promoted Disney to make him an offer, but believing Iwerks to be the real creative force of the two he chose to work at the latter’s studio. At Iwerks, Natwick animated a number of Flip the Frog cartoons and designed Wille the Whopper. More and more, Iwerks came to rely on Grim Natwick to supervise the actual production of his cartoons. Natwick eventually wound up running the studio day-to-day, while Iwerks worked on mechanical improvements in the studio's basement. At the studio Natwick would direct Flip the Frog, Willie Whopper Willie Whopper is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. The Whopper series was the second from the Iwerks Studio to be produced by Pat Powers and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 14 shorts were produced in ...
and Comicolor Cartoons
The ComiColor Cartoon series is a series of 25 animated short subjects produced by Ub Iwerks from 1933 to 1936. The series was the last produced by Iwerks Studio; after losing distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934, the Iwerks studio's senior co ...
along with many of the same young animators he had supervised at Fleischer. Natwick was offered partnership in the studio but declined in order to work at Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
. Natwick heard about the studio's plans to develop the first fully animated feature-length film and stated, “An opportunity to work on the first animated feature intrigued me. Ted Sears
Edward Robert Sears (March 13, 1900August 22, 1958) was an American animator during The Golden Age of American animation. Sears worked for the Fleischer Studios in the late-1920s and early-1930s, and was hired away from Max Fleischer to work at ...
, at that time, headed a Walt Disney story group. He was a good friend of mine. I asked Ted if he would intercede for me, pick a moment when Walt was in a good mood, and suggest that I would like to join the Disney staff. Two weeks later Ted telephoned and said, "Walt will meet you after work next Monday."
On November 12th 1934 Natwick was hired to work at Walt Disney Animation Studio. Natwick’s first assignment at the studio would be doing the female lead in The Cookie Carnival
''The Cookie Carnival'' is an animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released May 25, 1935. It is a Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen at the cookie carnival, and a homage to the Atlantic Ci ...
. In his scenes Natwick brought an expertise to animating human characters which was lacking in Disney’s previous effort The Goddess of Spring. This along with Natwick’s work on the blind girl doll in Broken Toys reinforced Disney’s intention to assign Natwick to the female lead in the upcoming feature.
At Disney, Natwick became a lead animator on ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...
'', and was the person chiefly responsible for animating its titular heroine, Snow White. Natwick was given some of the studio’s top assistants to work with including, Marc Davis, Lester Novros
Lester Novros (January 27, 1909 – September 10, 2000) was an American artist, animator, and teacher.
Early life
Lester Novros was born in Passaic, New Jersey on January 27, 1909. Novros studied painting at the National Academy of Design in ...
and Jack Campbell. Regarding his scenes, Natwick did not rely heavily on rotoscoping stating, "We went way beyond rotoscope," and "I remember one scene I had where there were 101 rotoscoped tracings; that would mean that they traced every second frame on the film. I used drawing one and drawing one hundred and one, and I filled in the rest, because there wasn't enough in it to give us anything to animate." By the end of the picture, he had animated over 120 scenes, with six assistants working under him. Natwick was responsible for animating some of the most iconic scenes in the film, including the sequences where Snow White cleans the house to Whistle While You Work
"Whistle While You Work" is a song with music written by Frank Churchill and lyrics written by Larry Morey for the 1937 animated Disney film ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was performed in the film by voice actress Adriana Caselotti. It ...
, the scene where she dances with the dwarfs, and her singing "Someday My Prince Will Come
"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the ...
".
While working for the Fleischer studios in 1939, Natwick was in charge of drawing the Prince and the Princess for '' Gulliver's Travels''. He also helped to animate Mickey Mouse in ''Fantasia
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
'', Mr. Magoo, Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.[Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characte ...](_blank)
and many other 1940s and 1950s cartoon greats. Three of Natwick's former assistants included Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.
Biography
Early years and start in animation
Lant ...
(Hearst), Chuck Jones (Iwerks) and Marc Davis (Disney).
During the 1980s and 1990s, Natwick served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute The National Student Film Institute (NSFI), formerly the Los Angeles Student Film Institute (LASFI), was founded in 1978 by Brenda Norman, Dave Master, Jutti Marsh and Ralph Rogers as a festival for films made by children from kindergarten through n ...
.
There is evidence Natwick did some commercial work later in his long life. He appears to have contributed to the early images of Sonny & Gramps, according to then-contemporaries who collaborated with Natwick during his career. Sonny is the "cuckoo" animated mascot of General Mills' Cocoa Puffs.
Natwick died on October 7, 1990 in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, California of pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
and heart disease, two months after celebrating his 100th birthday, with a party with friends such as Shamus Culhane
James H. "Shamus" Culhane (November 12, 1908 – February 2, 1996) was an American animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for his work in the Golden age of American animation.
Career
Shamus Culhane worked for a number of ...
.
In 2010, the Wisconsin Historical Society erected a memorial plaque to Grim Natwick in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The South Wood County Historical Museum in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin is home to an extensive Grim Natwick exhibit. ''Wisconsin Rapids native Myron "Grim" Natwick'' (Wisconsin Historical Society)
/ref>
Since 2010, the Grim Natwick Film Festival has been held annually over three days in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, featuring animators from across the state and beyond in panels and screenings of work.
Recently, Natwick's name is an inspiration to a character in the 2017 video game ''Cuphead
''Cuphead'' is a run-and-gun video game developed and published by Studio MDHR. The game follows the titular Cuphead who, in a deal with the Devil after losing a game at the Devil's casino, is sent on a quest to repossess the souls of runaway ...
'', a run-and-gun game that has a style and tone of 1930s cartoons (mostly influenced by Fleischer Studios). His name was adapted to a dragon character named Grim Matchstick, who has a similar stutter and speech to that of Natwick himself.
Partial filmography (as animator)
As animators were often uncredited, many of the films featured below do not credit Natwick as animator. Similarly there may be other films on which he worked which have not yet been attributed to him.
* 1993 ''The Thief and the Cobbler
''The Thief and the Cobbler'' is an unfinished animated fantasy film co-written and directed by Richard Williams. Originally conceived in the 1960s, the film was in and out of production for nearly three decades due to independent funding and ...
''
* 1977 '' Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure''
* 1963 ''The Mighty Hercules
''The Mighty Hercules'' is an animated television series based loosely on the Greek mythology character of Heracles, under his Roman name Hercules. It debuted on television in 1963. The show ran until 1966, coinciding with the sword-and-sandal ge ...
'' (TV series) (directing animator - 3 episodes; Double Trouble, Guarding of the Olympic Torch, & Medusa's Sceptre)
* 1960 ''Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characte ...
'' (TV series)
* 1959 "Terror Faces Magoo" (short)
* 1954 "Spare the Child" (short)
* 1951 "Georgie and the Dragon" (short)
* 1951 " Rooty Toot Toot" (short)
* 1950 "Bungled Bungalow" (short)
* 1950 "The Popcorn Story" (short)
* 1950 "Trouble Indemnity" (short)
* 1947 "The Bandmaster" (short)
* 1947 " Solid Ivory" (short)
* 1947 " Well Oiled" (short)
* 1947 " The Coo Coo Bird" (short)
* 1947 "Smoked Hams" (short)
* 1946 "The Wacky Weed" (short)
* 1946 "Fair Weather Fiends
This is a list of animated cartoons that star Woody Woodpecker, who appeared in 203 cartoons (196 Woody shorts and 7 miscellaneous shorts) during and after the Golden age of American animation. All the cartoons were produced by Walter Lantz Produ ...
" (short)
* 1946 " The Reckless Driver" (short)
* 1946 "Bathing Buddies
This is a list of animated cartoons that star Woody Woodpecker, who appeared in 203 cartoons (196 Woody shorts and 7 miscellaneous shorts) during and after the Golden age of American animation. All the cartoons were produced by Walter Lantz Prod ...
" (short)
* 1946 " Who's Cookin' Who?" (short)
* 1945 "The Dippy Diplomat
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
" (short)
* 1945 "Chew-Chew Baby
This is a list of animated cartoons that star Woody Woodpecker, who appeared in 203 cartoons (196 Woody shorts and 7 miscellaneous shorts) during and after the Golden age of American animation. All the cartoons were produced by Walter Lantz Produ ...
" (short)
* 1945 "Pied Piper of Basin Street" (short)
* 1945 "Enemy Bacteria" (short)
* 1944 "Ski for Two" (short)
* 1944 "Abou Ben Boogie" (short)
* 1943 "Take Heed Mr. Tojo" (short)
* 1940 "Popeye Presents Eugene, the Jeep" (short)
* 1940 "The Fulla Bluff Man" (short)
* 1939 '' Gulliver's Travels'' (animation director)
* 1938 "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
''Mother Goose Goes Hollywood'' is a 1938 animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The short was released on December 23, 1938. The film parodies several Mother Goose nursery rhymes using cari ...
" (short)
* 1937 ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...
''
* 1936 "Little Boy Blue" (short)
* 1936 "Alpine Climbers" (short)
* 1936 "Dick Whittington's Cat" (short)
* 1936 "Ali Baba" (short)
* 1936 " Mickey's Polo Team" (short)
* 1935 "Broken Toys" (short)
* 1935 "Simple Simon" (short)
* 1935 "The Three Bears" (short)
* 1935 "Mickey's Fire Brigade" (short)
* 1935 "Sinbad the Sailor
Sinbad the Sailor (; ar, سندباد البحري, Sindibādu al-Bahriyy; fa, سُنباد بحری, Sonbād-e Bahri or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Persian origin. He is described as hailing from Baghdad ...
" (short)
* 1935 "Summertime" (short)
* 1935 "The Cookie Carnival
''The Cookie Carnival'' is an animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released May 25, 1935. It is a Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen at the cookie carnival, and a homage to the Atlantic Ci ...
" (short)
* 1935 "Old Mother Hubbard" (short)
* 1934 "The King's Tailor" (short)
* 1934 "Viva Willie" (short)
* 1934 "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" (short)
* 1934 "Jungle Jitters" (short)
* 1934 "Cave Man" (short)
* 1934 "Reducing Creme" (short)
* 1934 "Insultin' the Sultan" (short)
* 1934 "Robin Hood, Jr." (short)
* 1933 "Jack and the Beanstalk
"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Co ...
" (short)
* 1933 "Soda Squirt" (short)
* 1932 "The Music Lesson"(short)
* 1932 "Phoney Express" (short)
* 1932 "The Goal Rush" (short)
* 1932 "Stormy Seas" (short)
* 1932 "Room Runners" (short)
* 1932 "The Office Boy" (short)
* 1932 "The Milkman" (short)
* 1931 "Africa Squeaks" (short)
* 1931 "Jail Birds" (short)
* 1931 "The New Car" (short)
* 1931 "Bimbo's Initiation
''Bimbo's Initiation'' is a 1931 Fleischer Studios Talkartoon animated short film starring Bimbo and featuring an early version of Betty Boop with a dog's ears and nose. It was the final Betty Boop cartoon to be animated by the character's co- ...
" (short)
* 1931 "Silly Scandals" (short)
* 1931 "Ragtime Romeo" (short)
* 1931 "The Male Man" (short)
* 1931 "The Bum Bandit" (short)
* 1931 "Teacher's Pest" (short)
* 1931 "Tree Saps" (short)
* 1931 "Please Go 'Way and Let Me Sleep" (short)
* 1930 "Mysterious Mose
''Mysterious Mose'' is a 1930 Fleischer Studios animated short released through Paramount Pictures as part of the '' Talkartoons'' series. This film contains an early version of Betty Boop and the studio's star, Bimbo. "Mysterious Mose" is a ...
" (short)
* 1930 "Accordion Joe" (short)
* 1930 "Mariutch" (short)
* 1930 "Swing You Sinners!
''Swing You Sinners!'' is a 1930 animated cartoon short, produced by Fleischer Studios as part of the ''Talkartoons'' series. The cartoon is notable for its surreal, dark, and abstract content.
Plot
Bimbo is seen late at night, trying to ste ...
" (short)
* 1930 "Barnacle Bill" (short)
* 1930 " Dizzy Dishes" (short)
* 1930 "Wise Flies" (short)
* 1930 "Fire Bugs" (short)
* 1930 "Hot Dog" (short)
* 1922 "A Joy Ride" (short)
* 1920 "Yes Dear" (short)
* 1919 "Breath of a Nation" (short)
References
External links
*
*
"Grim Natwick Scrapbook" Animation Resources
"Barnacle Bill" Clip
Grim Natwick 100th Birthday Party at YouTube
Retrieved August 18, 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Natwick, Grim
Animators from Wisconsin
American animated film directors
American centenarians
Men centenarians
1890 births
1990 deaths
Deaths from pneumonia in California
People from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
American people of Norwegian descent
Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Film directors from Wisconsin
Fleischer Studios people
Walter Lantz Productions people