Michael Maltese

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Michael Maltese (also Mike Maltese ; born February 6, 1908 in New York , † February 22, 1981 in Los Angeles ) was an American screenwriter and storyboard artist . Maltese wrote the scripts for numerous cartoons in the Looney Tunes - and Merry-Melodies - series before moving from Warner Bros. to Hanna-Barbera , where he worked on various animated television series.

Life

Michael Maltese grew up as the son of Italian immigrants in New York. He became interested in animated films at an early age and, after several attempts, finally found a job in New York's Fleischer Studios in July 1935 . There he rose from the painter of the Cels to inbetweener in a short time , but was released again in 1936. Maltese then tried his luck at an animation studio in Detroit before finally moving to California .

In Hollywood he was hired in May 1937 by Leon Schlesinger as an inbetweener for his Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons. Michael Maltese initially aspired to a career as an animator , but he soon switched to the story department at Schlesinger. Maltese's name was first mentioned in the opening credits of the cartoon The Haunted Mouse in 1941 . While initially a pool of authors worked together with the various directors, permanent teams of director and author were soon formed. Maltese initially worked with Friz Freleng . Together with Yosemite Sam, they developed a new character who became one of Bugs Bunny's most popular adversaries .

In the mid-1940s, Maltese moved from Freleng's department to Chuck Jones . A longstanding partnership developed in which Jones and Maltese created numerous classic animated films for Warner Bros. While Maltese developed the gags in his storyboards, Jones was able to concentrate on the further development of the characters. Her best-known films include the Hunting Trilogy with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd , published between 1951 and 1953 , the opera parodies Rabbit of Seville (1949) and What's Opera, Doc? (1957) and the Daffy Duck films The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), Duck Amuck (1953) and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953). 1950, written by Michael Maltese was Pepe le-Pew -Cartoon- thickness of air ( For Scent-imental Reasons ) with the Oscar named best animated short.

In 1948, Maltese invented the characters Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote , which he had conceived as a parody of the then common car chases in cartoons. Maltese remained the sole writer for these characters, which were staged by Chuck Jones, for the next ten years. In 1952, the dog Marc Antony and the kitten Pussyfoot made their first appearance in the cartoon Feed the Kitty . Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese both appeared in a total of five films. For the short film One Froggy Evening , published in 1955 , Maltese created the (not always) singing frog Michigan J. Frog , who became the mascot of the TV station The WB in the mid-1990s . For this cartoon, Maltese wrote the ragtime The Michigan Rag together with composer Milt Franklyn .

When Warner Bros. closed the animation studio for several months in June 1953, Michael Maltese moved to Walter Lantz Productions , where he worked with Tex Avery . Maltese's guest appearance at Lantz ended after 14 months and resulted in only one short film, the Chilly Willy cartoon The Legend of Rockabye Point . Maltese returned to Warner Bros. and worked again with Chuck Jones, who had meanwhile come to Disney .

In October 1958, Maltese finally left Warner after working on around 200 films in 20 years. He moved to the Hanna-Barbera studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera , which had specialized in the production of cartoon television series. Maltese wrote episodes for the series Hucky and Friends , The Yogi Bear Show , Quick and Friends , Flintstones, and The Jetsons . Maltese provided numerous ideas for the series Wacky Races , which premiered in 1968, and for its spin-off Flying Men in Daredevil boxes , some of which were reminiscent of his road runner stories. His last work for Hanna-Barbera was the series The Funky Phantom in 1971 .

Michael Maltese died in Los Angeles shortly after his 73rd birthday.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons. American Animation in its Golden Age . Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Time : Milestone , March 9, 1981 (accessed February 27, 2010).
  2. ↑ Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons. P. 494.
  3. ↑ Michael Barrier: Hollywood Cartoons . P. 538.
personal data
SURNAME Maltese, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maltese, Mike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter and storyboard artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1981
Place of death los Angeles