'Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold'.
Jack Hannah was a Disney animator who directed numerous classic Disney shorts, particularly starring 'Donald Duck'. He is credited with the development (not the creation) of the chipmunks Chip & Dale. Hannah was also active as a comic artist for the company and best remembered for collaborating with the legendary Carl Barks on two longer 'Donald Duck' adventure comics before returning to animation again. Later in his career, he was also active for Walter Lantz.
Early life and career
John Frederick Hannah was born in 1913 in Nogales, Arizona. In 1931, he moved to Los Angeles where he studied at the local Art Guild Academy. He found work as a film poster designer for Hollywood theaters and the advertising firm of Foster and Kleiser.
Walt Disney Company
In January 1933, Disney was employed by the Walt Disney Company. According to Hannah, he was hired for a "two-week try-out that lasted 30 years." The young man started out as an in-betweener and clean-up artist, moving his way up to being an animator and scriptwriter. In 1944, he was promoted to director, a position only shared by his colleagues Jack King, Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, Dick Lundy, Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen. Hannah directed one cartoon starring Mickey Mouse and Pluto ('Squatter's Rights' [1946]) and four Goofy cartoons ('A Knight for a Day' (1946), 'Double Dribble' (1946), 'Foul Hunting' (1947) and 'They're Off' (1948)). As an inside joke, several basketball players in the Goofy cartoon 'Double Dribble' are named after Disney animators at the time.
Donald Duck
Hannah remains best-known as a productive director of 'Donald Duck' cartoons. Between the late 1930s and early 1940s, when he was still an animator, he and Carl Barks thought up several plots and gags for many classic shorts. In 'Frank Duck Brings 'em Back Alive' (1946), Donald and Goofy are cast in an unusual set-up. Donald is a jungle explorer (spoofing real-life explorer Frank Buck), while Goofy is a feral man whom Donald tries to catch and bring back to civilization. In 'Clown of the Jungle' (1947), Donald is on a jungle expedition again, facing the Aracuan Bird, a silly bird he encountered before in the feature films 'The Three Caballeros' (1944) and 'Melody Time' (1946). Hannah voiced a moose in the 'Donald Duck' cartoon 'No Hunting' (1955).
During Hannah's run, several new side characters were introduced in the 'Donald Duck' cartoons, usually cast as the duck's foes, among them Spike the bumblebee, Louie the Mountain Lion, Humphrey the Bear and the chipmunks Chip 'n' Dale. While they proved popular enought to reappear in several cartoons, some critics argued that they often receive more screen time than Donald. Humphrey and Chip 'n' Dale were even given their own spin-off series. Another criticism is that Donald often comes across more as a villain than a pitiful, but aimable loser. In some cartoons, he acts mean towards these forest animals for no particular reason and is then punished accordingly. This may have something to do with Hannah's later revelation: "I got so damned tired of that duck's voice. I just could not stand having to work with it all the time."
Spike the Bumblebee debuted in Jack King's 'Window Cleaners' (1940), starring Donald Duck and Pluto, and would torment Mickey and/or Pluto again in a few cartoons afterwards. He was Donald's adversary in Hannah's 'Inferior Decorator' (1948), 'Honey Harvester' (1949), 'Slide, Donald, Slide' (1949), 'Bee at the Beach' (1950), 'Bee on Guard' (1951) and 'Let's Stick Together' (1952). In 'Lion Around' (1950), the duck was threatened by Louie the Mountain Lion, whose design was similar to the tiger who attacks Goofy in 'Tiger Trouble' (1945). The silly lion faced Donald again in Hannah's 'Hook, Lion and Sinker' (1950) and in C. August Nichols' 'Grand Canyonscope' (1954), but was otherwise more an antagonist of Goofy in Jack Kinney's 'Lion Down' (1951) and 'Father's Lion' (1952).
Humphrey the Bear
Humphrey the Bear originated in Jack Kinney's 'Goofy' cartoon 'Hold That Pose' (1950), but became a regular foe of Donald Duck in Hannah's 'Rugged Bear' (1953), 'Grin and Bear It' (1954), 'No Hunting' (1955), 'Bearly Asleep' (1955) and 'Beezy Bear' (1955). Hannah also redesigned Humphrey slightly, making him more a dopey, pitiful character than an outright villain. In most of Hannah's cartoons, the bear simply wants to get some food or find a place to hide for hunting season or keep his hibernating sleep. In 'Grin and Bear It', Hannah introduced the rule-abiding park ranger J. Audubon Woodlore, who expects the bear to keep the park clean and not steal food from the tourists. Humphrey's panicky antics and the fast-paced slapstick sequences were well-received by audiences. In his book 'Enchanted Drawings' (1989), Charles Solomon argues that the 'Humphrey' cartoons prove that Disney could've competed with the zaniness of the Looney Tunes cartoons "if they wanted (or were allowed to)".
Hannah even gave Humphrey a spin-off series, directing two shorts starring him, 'Hooked Bear' (1956) and 'In the Bag' (1956). A catchy song from 'In the Bag', titled 'Put It In the Bag', was later released on the music album 'Goofy Dance Party' (1959). Interestingly enough, the lyrics to the song were written by actor Daws Butler, who'd later voice Yogi Bear. Humphrey the Bear was the obvious inspiration for Walter Lantz' Fatso the Bear and Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear.
Chip 'n' Dale
By far the most enduring side characters in Hannah's 'Donald Duck' cartoons were the chipmunks Chip and Dale. The duo was created by animator Bill Justice, while his colleague Bill "Tex" Henson gave them their names, puns on the 18th-century furniture designer Thomas Chippendale. However, it was Hannah who developed them into the personalities as audiences know them today. The dark brown-colored Chip is the straight character, while the lighter brown-colored and red-nosed Dale provides comic relief. In their first two cartoons, 'Private Pluto' (1943) by Clyde Geronimi and 'Squatter's Rights' (1946) by Hannah, Chip and Dale were pitted against Mickey Mouse and his dog Pluto. Hannah came up with the idea to make them foes of Donald Duck, which started off with the short 'Chip an' Dale' (1947).
In the next twenty 'Chip 'n' Dale' shorts, the nosy chipmunks would frequently terrorize the aggressive duck. Only two shorts, 'Food for Feudin'' (1950) by Charles Nicholas and Hannah's 'Pluto's Christmas Tree' (1952), would cast them against Mickey and Pluto again. After a while, the characters were strong enough to carry entire shorts on their own, as proven by Hannah's 'Chicken in the Rough' (1951), 'Two Chips and a Miss' (1952), 'Working for Peanuts' (1953) and Jack Kinney's 'The Lone Chipmunks' (1954). This naturally paved the way for their own comic strip too. In issue #4 of Dell Comics (1955), Chip 'n' Dale received their own long-running comics title. Decades later, they were featured in their own animated TV series, 'Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers' (1989-1990), for which various new side characters were created.
Lambert, The Sheepish Lion
Hannah also directed the one-shot cartoon 'Lambert the Sheepish Lion' (1952), about a lion who is adopted by a sheep. All the other sheep mock him, until he saves the day by defending the flock against a wolf. On 30 June 1953, a comic book adaptation was published by Western Publishing, drawn by Dick Moores. Between 5 August and 30 September 1956, a Sunday comic adaptation of 'Lambert, The Sheepish Lion' was launched, scripted by Frank Reilly and drawn by Floyd Gottfredson. The original 'Lambert, The Sheepish Lion' animated cartoon was a personal favorite of Japanese Emperor Hirohito. During his imperial state visit to the United States in 1975, he also went to Disneyland on 20 October. According to Dave Smith's book 'Disney A to Z: The Updated Official Encyclopedia' (Hyperion, 1998), Hirohito afterwards received an original print of the film as a souvenir.
'Sleepy Time Donald' (from Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #78, 1947).
Donald Duck comics
For a short while, Hannah was also active as a 'Donald Duck' comic artist. The short-tempered duck had already starred in a newspaper comic by Al Taliaferro since 1938, but this was strictly a gag-a-day comic. Since Donald was already more popular than 'Mickey Mouse' the idea arose to let him star in longer adventure stories, similar to Floyd Gottfredson's 'Mickey Mouse' comics. Former Disney animator and gag writer Carl Barks received the task of providing the artwork, while Hannah was his assistant. Together they worked on two comic books, they scripted 'Pluto Saves the Ship' (1942) and drew 'Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold' (1942). The latter book was based on a script for an animated feature starring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto, which unfortunately never left development hell. Various reasons have been given for its eventual cancellation. A huge strike among Disney's animators in 1941 changed the original atmosphere in the studio drastically. Several talents even left. The same year, the United States also got involved in the Second World War. The Disney Studios were now officially ordered to create propaganda films to help the war effort. In the light of these events, the film was scrapped.
'Donald Duck Pilots a Jet Plane'.
Yet Bob Karp, who scripted Taliaferro's newspaper comic about Donald, felt the story could still be useful. He rewrote the plot and made it a Donald-centered narrative instead. Barks illustrated the first two pages, followed by the fifth and then continued from page twelve until forty. The rest was drawn by Hannah. This also makes it one of the earliest examples of a crossover comic. The comic book is impressive given that it had to be whipped out in such short notice and both Hannah and Barks had no prior comic experience. Still, some scenes betray that they were originally intended for a cinematic experience. Barks and Hannah lifted some moments directly from the storyboard sketches, which explains the much bigger reliance on visual gags than dialogue. Even during action scenes there is notable absence of typical comic book onomatopoeia. Nevertheless, 'Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold' was an immediate bestseller and launched the legendary comics career of Barks. He would remain Donald's main artist until 1966.
Disney comics for Dell
Hannah, drew a few more comic books for Western Publishing in 1947. He made at least three premium give-away books for Cheerios cereals, such as 'Donald Duck and the Pirates' (1947, basically a remake of 'Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold'), 'Donald Duck Pilots a Jet Plane' (1947) and 'Pluto Turns Sleuth Hound' (1947). He also had a couple of stories published in 'Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'. Some 'Donald Duck' cartoons were also adapted into comic strips, such as the 1947 short 'Sleepy Time Donald' - in which Donald suffers from sleepwalking and is unknowingly rescued by Daisy Duck. While the original cartoon was directed by Jack King, Jack Hannah adapted it into a comic strip, adding narration in rhyme.
In 1952, one of Hannah's animated 'Donald' shorts, 'Trick or Treat' (1952), was simultaneously adapted into a comic book by Carl Barks. The plot revolved around Donald's refusal to give his nephews candy for Halloween, after which they take revenge with a little help from Witch Hazel. Since the short was only seven minutes long, Barks came up with more ideas to pad the comic out to 32 pages. Witch Hazel later became a recurring character in many Disney comics, where she is often paired up with another Disney witch: Madam Mim from 'The Sword in the Stone' (1963). In 1954, Chuck Jones also introduced a witch character in 'Looney Tunes', also named Witch Hazel.
'Donald Duck and the Pirates'.
Lantz & Disney
When Disney moved into television in the 1950s, Hannah and his crew animated segments for 'Walt Disney's Disneyland' (1954-1959), the first of many shows to broadcast old Disney cartoons and promote their new productions. He also filmed Walt's host segments. Hannah hoped this would lead to a position as director of Disney's live-action films and series, but Disney preferred him to stay head of his cartoon department. This caused a falling out and Hannah left to join Walter Lantz' studio. There he basically ended up doing the same thing he did at Disney: animation. He directed various 'Woody Woodpecker' shorts and made segments for the TV show 'The Woody Woodpecker Show' (1957-1958). Lantz also created new characters like Gabby Gator, Fatso the Bear, Willoughby, the Beary Family and Sam and Simian. Fatso was very similar to Disney's Humphrey the Bear, a character Hannah originally co-designed. Hannah also brought along several animators from his Disney days, namely Riley Thompson, Ray Huffine and Al Coe.
Interviewed by Jim Korkis, Hannah stated that Lantz was an enjoyable boss, open to creative suggestions. Yet, in 1962, he returned to Disney, where his long-time wish to become a live-action director was partially granted. Hannah: "I left Lantz on good terms. I felt I just needed to move on. The only trouble is, once you’ve been at Disney’s, everything else at another animation studio was just a job. No extra effort was needed and the people you were working with were just not at that level that was at Disney’s. And as a result, I just got bored there. I always gave Walter my best and he was terrific to me but I wasn’t feeling challenged and I wasn’t having any fun." Between 1962 and 1967, Hannah became a story consultant for Disney's live-action films.
Recognition
Hannah was nominated seven times for an Academy Award for 'Best Animated Short', but lost each time. The pictures in question were: 'Squatter's Rights' (1946), 'Chip 'n' Dale' (1947), 'Tea for Two Hundred' (1948), 'Toy Tinkers' (1949), 'Lambert the Sheepish Lion' (1951), 'Rugged Bear' (1953) and 'No Hunting' (1955). In 1988, Jack Hannah received a Winsor McCay Award. Posthumously, he was also bestowed with a Disney Legend Award (1992).
Final years and death
In 1975, Hannah was co-founder of a character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts and worked as its head until June 1983. He passed away in 1994 in Burbank, California.
Legacy and influence
Hannah and Barks' 'Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold' was a strong inspiration for Osamu Tezuka and Sakai Shichima's similar pirate story 'Shin Takarajima (' 新宝島,新寶島,新寳島 ', 'New Treasure Island' , 1947).
Jack Hannah (left) with Clarence Nash, Donald's cartoon voice.