Chuck Menville
Encyclopedia
Charles David "Chuck" Menville (April 17, 1940 – June 15, 1992) was an American
animator
and writer
for television
. His credits included Batman: The Animated Series
, Land of the Lost
, The Real Ghostbusters
, The Smurfs, Star Trek: The Animated Series
, and Tiny Toon Adventures
.
, but moved to Los Angeles
at the age of 19 with aspirations of becoming an animator. There, he got a job with Walt Disney Productions and served as an assistant on the 1967 film The Jungle Book
. Unhappy with the climate at Disney, Menville soon branched out into writing, and began a long working partnership with his friend Len Janson
.
During the mid 1960s, Menville and Janson co-produced a series of short live-action films, among them the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, an innovative stop-motion pixilation
experiment in which the main characters "drive" down city streets in invisible cars.
Pixilation, the animation of living beings, and object animation, was nothing new to film, having been refined by Norman McLaren
and his National Film Board of Canada associates during the 1940s and 1950s, most notably in the Academy Award-winning Neighbours
in 1952.
Disney and other Hollywood studios saw little use for the technique, and so the pixilation technique became largely forgotten after McLaren moved on to using other animation techniques for later films. But Menville and Janson revived the all-but-forgotten technique, introducing it to a new generation.
They followed Stop Look and Listen with their acclaimed 1967 short film, Vicious Cycles a comedy shot in 16 mm, featuring a gang of hard-core biker
s intimidating a motor scooter club. Menville played the head of the scooter club. Clips from the film were featured in a 1970 summer television series on the American Broadcasting Company
network called The New Communicators and made Menville's pixilation technique famous in the USA.
Gulf Oil
(Union 76) soon hired them to do a series of pixilation commercials for its "no-nox" gasoline, which allowed them to increase the production value of their films.
They graduated to 35 mm with their next short film, 1970's Blaze Glory, a spoof of cliche western movies in which heroes and villains rode around the old west, without horses. Menville played the title character. It was an ambitious and elaborate short film, in which a full-scale stagecoach
, with no wheels, was physically animated, along with an animated moving camera, frame-by-frame for a complex robbery scene. The film, with its other elaborate animated sight gags, was a hit short film at midnight movies
in the early 1970s.
They followed this with another 35 mm short film, Sergeant Swell
(1972), a spoof of superhero
es. The film was mostly live action with a minimum of their now-trademark pixilation animation technique, and failed to garner a large audience, but by then Menville and Janson had established themselves as a creative force within Hollywood animation production circles.
In the mid-1970s, the team began a stint at Filmation
, during which they brought their irreverent style to Star Trek: The Animated Series
. (Menville authored an episode titled "The Practical Joker" for that series, which is now seen by many within Star Trek
fandom to have been the genesis of the holodeck
.)
series, including The Smurfs
, The Real Ghostbusters
, and Kissyfur
. Among his last projects before his death in 1992 was the episode "Opah" of the live-action Land of the Lost
, for which he was nominated for the Humanitas Prize
in Live-Action Children's Programming. His final project was writing an episode of Batman: The Animated Series
, but Menville died before the episode could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the teleplay for the 1993 Batman episode "Birds Of A Feather" based on Menville's story, for which he received a story credit on the completed episode.
Menville was the author of The Harlem Globetrotters: Fifty Years of Fun and Games, a history of the famed basketball team. It was published by the D. McKay Company in 1978.
Menville died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Malibu, California in 1992. He was the father of Scott Menville
, an American
musician
and voice artist and Chad Menville, an American
writer.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. His credits included Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
, Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (1974 TV series)
Land of the Lost is a children's television series co-created and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. During its original run, it was broadcast on the NBC television network....
, The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The series ran from 1986 to 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. "The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with...
, The Smurfs, Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
, and Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
.
Pixilation: career in 1960s and 1970s
Menville was born in Baton Rouge, LouisianaBaton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, but moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at the age of 19 with aspirations of becoming an animator. There, he got a job with Walt Disney Productions and served as an assistant on the 1967 film The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
. Unhappy with the climate at Disney, Menville soon branched out into writing, and began a long working partnership with his friend Len Janson
Len Janson
Len Janson is an American animator, writer and director whose career in animated cartoons and live-action motion pictures spanned several decades beginning in the 1960s. He began work as an in-betweener at the Walt Disney cartoon studio. By 1965 he had become a story man with his first screen...
.
During the mid 1960s, Menville and Janson co-produced a series of short live-action films, among them the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, an innovative stop-motion pixilation
Pixilation
Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet...
experiment in which the main characters "drive" down city streets in invisible cars.
Pixilation, the animation of living beings, and object animation, was nothing new to film, having been refined by Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
and his National Film Board of Canada associates during the 1940s and 1950s, most notably in the Academy Award-winning Neighbours
Neighbours (film)
Neighbours is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses the technique known as pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects...
in 1952.
Disney and other Hollywood studios saw little use for the technique, and so the pixilation technique became largely forgotten after McLaren moved on to using other animation techniques for later films. But Menville and Janson revived the all-but-forgotten technique, introducing it to a new generation.
They followed Stop Look and Listen with their acclaimed 1967 short film, Vicious Cycles a comedy shot in 16 mm, featuring a gang of hard-core biker
Outlaw motorcycle club
An outlaw motorcycle club is a type of motorcycle club that is part of a subculture with roots in the post-World War II USA, centered on cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals celebrating freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the...
s intimidating a motor scooter club. Menville played the head of the scooter club. Clips from the film were featured in a 1970 summer television series on the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network called The New Communicators and made Menville's pixilation technique famous in the USA.
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
(Union 76) soon hired them to do a series of pixilation commercials for its "no-nox" gasoline, which allowed them to increase the production value of their films.
They graduated to 35 mm with their next short film, 1970's Blaze Glory, a spoof of cliche western movies in which heroes and villains rode around the old west, without horses. Menville played the title character. It was an ambitious and elaborate short film, in which a full-scale stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
, with no wheels, was physically animated, along with an animated moving camera, frame-by-frame for a complex robbery scene. The film, with its other elaborate animated sight gags, was a hit short film at midnight movies
Midnight movies
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides...
in the early 1970s.
They followed this with another 35 mm short film, Sergeant Swell
Sergeant Swell of the Mounties
Sergeant Swell of the Mounties is a 1972 short film written and directed by Len Janson and Chuck Menville, and starring Menville in the title role.The film is a pixilation spoof of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon....
(1972), a spoof of superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es. The film was mostly live action with a minimum of their now-trademark pixilation animation technique, and failed to garner a large audience, but by then Menville and Janson had established themselves as a creative force within Hollywood animation production circles.
In the mid-1970s, the team began a stint at Filmation
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
, during which they brought their irreverent style to Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
. (Menville authored an episode titled "The Practical Joker" for that series, which is now seen by many within Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
fandom to have been the genesis of the holodeck
Holodeck
A holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
.)
Later career
In the 1980s, Menville contributed to a number of Saturday morningSaturday Morning
-Album credits:*All tracks produced by Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Executive Producer/Concept: Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Engineered by Peter McCabe and Larry Fergusson....
series, including The Smurfs
The Smurfs
The Smurfs is a comic and television franchise centred on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo on October 23, 1958...
, The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The series ran from 1986 to 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. "The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with...
, and Kissyfur
Kissyfur
Kissyfur is a 1980s animated children's television series which aired on NBC. It was produced by Jean Chalopin & Andy Heyward and created by Phil Mendez for DIC. The series was based on a half-hour NBC prime-time special called Kissyfur: Bear Roots and was followed by three more specials until...
. Among his last projects before his death in 1992 was the episode "Opah" of the live-action Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost may refer to:* Land of the Lost , the original 1974 children's television series* Land of the Lost , the 1991 remake of the 1974 series...
, for which he was nominated for the Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
in Live-Action Children's Programming. His final project was writing an episode of Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
, but Menville died before the episode could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the teleplay for the 1993 Batman episode "Birds Of A Feather" based on Menville's story, for which he received a story credit on the completed episode.
Menville was the author of The Harlem Globetrotters: Fifty Years of Fun and Games, a history of the famed basketball team. It was published by the D. McKay Company in 1978.
Menville died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Malibu, California in 1992. He was the father of Scott Menville
Scott Menville
Scott David Menville is primarily an American voice actor, actor, musician, and comedian.-Early life and career:The son of Chuck Menville, he was bassist for the Southern California rock band Boy Hits Car, which released three albums until he left the band in 2006. He was with the group since...
, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and voice artist and Chad Menville, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer.