Jules Engel (born Gyula Engel, March 11, 1909 – September 6, 2003) was an American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher. He was the founding director of the experimental animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught until his death, serving as mentor to several generations of animators.

Early life

Engel was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, to an American mother, and immigrated to

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when he was thirteen years old. He lived in Oak Park, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago, and attended Evanston Township High School, where he began developing his drawing style. At the age of 17 Engel moved to Los Angeles seeking an athletic scholarship to either USC or

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

. He lived in Hollywood while attending the Chouinard Art Institute and started to draw for magazines. He worked in the studio of a local painter sketching landscapes, Ken Strobel. Through his relationship with Strobel, he was referred to work as a background artists and as an inbetweening animator in Mintz Studio, the studio founded by Charles Mintz and his wife Margaret J. Winkler, which later became known as Screen Gems.

Career

1938–1941: Disney period

In 1938 the painter and art teacher

Phil Dike Phil Dike (1906-1990) was an American painter and art teacher. He painted watercolors, and he taught at Scripps College and the Claremont Graduate University. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National ...

helped him get an opportunity to work at Walt Disney Studios in

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

''Fantasia''

At Disney Engel worked in the film '' Fantasia'', released in 1940. At the time, Disney intended to integrate "low" art (animation) and "high" art ( classical music), and the studio needed someone who was familiar with the timing of dance. Because of his drawing talent and his growing knowledge of dance, Engel was assigned to work on the choreography of the Russian sprites and Chinese mushrooms dance sequences of Tchaikovsky's '' Nutcracker Suite'', animated by Art Babbitt. For these sequences, Engel emphasized the contrast between the bright figures and dark ground, which critics consider as an important development of modern animation away from naturalism.

''Bambi''

David Hand, director of '' Bambi'', asked Engel work with him on the film. Engel did the storyboard for the sequence where Bambi first encounters the doe Faline. After completing the sequence, he did color sketches that diverged from the naturalistic color schemes being used in production. Engel's time at Disney would come to an end with the development of the Disney animators' strike. While the union won the case over the studio, Engel didn't go back, largely because while he enjoyed the place, he felt uncomfortable being surrounded by colleagues that he felt didn't share his passion for the aesthetics of animation.

1942–1944: Motion Picture Unit

He was an animator in the First Motion Picture Unit during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, alongside the likes of Ronald Reagan, and

Theodor Geisel Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Hal Roach Studios Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on Ju ...

in Culver City. He would eventually work on drawing aerial maps and instructions for weapons.

1944–1959: UPA days

Engel was one of a group of animators—including John Hubley, and Herbert Klynn—who left Disney to join the United Productions of America (UPA) studio. At UPA, Engel worked as a background artist on cartoons including the Oscar-winning '' Gerald McBoing Boing'', '' Madeline'', and ''

Mr. Magoo Mr. Magoo (known by his full name: J. Quincy Magoo) is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo is an elderly, wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of comical ...

'', becoming art director in 1950''.'' The environment at UPA was much more open to experimentation, unlike at Disney. Engel brought to UPA his distinctive use of color, influenced by abstract painting and the work of Kandinsky,

Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Miró, Matisse, Dufy, as well of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 2 ...

book "Language of Vision". Engel would later claim responsibility for discovering the children's book ''Madeline'', and suggesting to

Stephen Bosustow Stephen Reginald Bosustow (November 6, 1911 in Victoria, British Columbia – July 4, 1981) was a Canadian-born American film producer from 1943 until his retirement in 1979. He was one of the founders of United Productions of America (UPA) and pr ...

to buy, copyright, and develop the series.

1959-1962: Format films

Together with Herbert Klynn and Buddy Getzler, former colleagues from UPA, Engel founded the television animation studio

Format Films Format Films was a television animation studio which was founded by Herbert Klynn in 1959 with Jules Engel as vice president, Bob McIntosh and Joseph Mugnaini, all of whom were animators. It was most active during the 1960s, producing episode ...

. It produced episodes of popular TV series such as '' The Alvin Show'' and '' Popeye the Sailor.'' The film ''Icarus Montgolfier Wright'', scripted by Ray Bradbury, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1962. Klynn closed the studio in 1962 when Engels left for Europe, but reopened it by 1965 as Format Productions.

1962-1967: Paris

In 1962 went to Paris to direct ''The World of Siné,'' an animated cartoon of the work of Siné and which received the La Belle Qualité Award. ''The World of Sine'' was purchased and released throughout Europe by Jacques Tati. In 1964, Engel designed the set for ''The Little Prince,'' using abstract sculptural forms on stage. This was a theatre production in Paris for produced and directed by Raymond Gérôme which combined animation by Engel with a live performance on stage. Engel was also set designer for ''Le Jouex'', an avant garde play starring Michelle Boucett. During his stay in Paris, he was friendly with other artists, including Man Ray. After moving to the village of Coaraze, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, he directed an experimental live-action, partially animated film also called ''Coaraze'', which won the

Prix Jean Vigo The Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. It was founded by French writer Claude Aveline. Since 1960, the award is given to a director of a feature film and ...

in 1965. In the late 1960s he began making his own personal fine art animation. He also made several documentaries on other artists.

Teaching career and CalArts

Back in the U.S., Engel continued working on films about artists, directing ''A Look at a Lithographer and American Sculpture of the Sixties'' for Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and a film about the Swiss artist Max Bill. In 1969, Engel became the Founding Director of CalArts' Animation Program; subsequently becoming the Founding Director of the Experimental Animation Department in the School of Film and Video. Engel's department became known for its animation teaching. CalArts, located

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, is the first higher education institution in America to offer a formal degree in animation. In 1973, Engel self-published a collection of typographic art, entitled 'Oh'. During the 23rd Annual Annie Awards, in 1995, he received the Winsor McCay Award for his lifetime contributions to the field of animation. He was also recipient of five Golden Eagle awards, the Fritz Award, the Norman McLaren Heritage Award, and the

Pulcinella Award Cartoons on the Bay is an international festival held in Italy dedicated to television-, film- and transmedia- animation. The ''Pulcinella Awards'' are presented at the festival for excellence in animation production. Its purpose is to promote the ...

for Career Achievement.

Death

Engel died of natural causes on September 6, 2003 in Simi Valley California, at the age of 94 years old.

Legacy

In one of his final acts, in May 2003, Engel established the Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund. The recipients of the awards are those students who have carried out their work at CalArts in Jules' name, having demonstrated rigor, daring imagination and great curiosity about the world, leading to inventive, interdisciplinary projects. Engel was also a painter and produced a prolific body of oil abstract paintings, lithographs and other graphic artworks. During the late 40s and early 50s his works were exhibited at 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 mil ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

, and the De Young Museum, and throughout his life he exhibited in more than sixty museums and galleries such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Walker Art Center. He was still working on a new series of lithographs just before his death. Many of his students carried out his influence through their work, including John Lasseter, Henry Selick,

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

, Stephen Hillenburg,

Joanna Priestley Joanna Priestley (born November 25, 1950) is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley ...

Christine Panushka Christine Panushka is an independent filmmaker, freelance animator, artist, and teacher. She is a Professor in the John Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Biography Panushka received her MFA in Exper ...

, Peter Chung, Glen Keane,

Ellen Woodbury Ellen Woodbury is an American stone sculptor, former Disney directing animator and character animator who worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Woodbury grew up in Corning, New York, and she earned a BFA in Film and Art from the College of ...

, Eric Darnell, Mark Osborne,

Steven Subotnick Steven Subotnick is an animation teacher and award-winning independent animator. He received a BFA in Film from UCLA. He later received an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts. While at CalArts, he was mentored under ...

, Patrice Stellest, and Mark Kirkland. The Engel Animation Advancement Research Center (EAARC) offers a slate of animated shorts drawn from leading international festivals. The program is structured around the themes of personal struggle and forbidden desire in the context of a polarized, conflicted world. In 2003, the Center for Visual Music, Los Angeles (CVM) and Cal Arts presented a major retrospective of Engel's films at Cal Arts' REDCAT Theatre. Both iotaCenter and CVM have preserved a number of Engel's films; CVM established the Jules Engel Preservation Project shortly after Jules' death. Engel's 1976 film ''Shapes and Gestures'' was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001. '' The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'', co-written and directed by Stephen Hillenburg (one of Engel's students), is dedicated to the loving memory of him.