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| Formerly | Format Productions |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation |
| Founded | October 1959 |
| Founder | Herbert Klynn Jules Engel |
| Defunct | 1970s |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Herbert Klynn Jules Engel Rudy Larriva |
Format Films was ananimation studio which was founded byHerbert Klynn in 1959 withJules Engel as vice president,[1] Bob McIntosh andJoseph Mugnaini, all of whom were animators.
Format Films was founded in October 1959 by formerUPA animatorsHerbert Klynn and vice presidentJules Engel. When the studio first launched, it had a staff of 15 people, with its original studios located inBurbank, California.[2] The number of animation staff immediately grew by the following year. On March 11, 1960, Jerry Abbott, a Chicago top-sales representative at UPA, took over as vice president for Format Films.[3]
In July 1960, the studio was relocated to a larger 10,000 square-feet building in theValley Village area ofLos Angeles.[4] Following its move to the Laurel Canyon Boulevard building that year, the number of employees grew from 62 people in May 1960 to 125 people in April 1961. At the same time, Format produced a total of 90 television commercials and several industrial shorts within a span of its first two years of business.[5] The company itself was widely known for producing their own cartoon series, such as the entirety ofThe Alvin Show and over 100Popeye the Sailor episodes.The Alvin Show was Format's biggest hit, with a budget of over $1,500,000 for all 26 episodes of the series.[6]
In October 1960, Format Films andMark VII Limited made a reciprocal arrangement for Format to supply animation for Mark VII's television spots.[7] That same year, Format Films released its first theatrical animated cartoonA Tale of Old Wiff (or simplyOld Wiff), the only cartoon that was produced inSmell-O-Vision. The cartoon, released on70mm film, produced by Nathan Zucker, directed byAlan Zaslove, written by Leo Salkin (who later worked withThe Shrimp andThe Alvin Show) and animated byMr. Magoo animatorJohn Hubley, bombarded moviegoers with distinctive smells.[8]
Just before the company'sAlvin era became Format's stardom, Format Films had already finished making a handful of pilots before its contract was made to bothCBS andRoss Bagdasarian, including a proposed half-hour animated series calledThe Shrimp. In October 1960,Four Star Television signed a contract with Format Films to produceThe Shrimp that was originally pitched in for CBS, but was immediately tossed by the Eye Network themselves after finishing its unsold pilot.[9] At the same time, Format originally planned to produce a movie that Four Star denied on making,The Illustrated Man, based on the best-sellingRay Bradbury book, but was never made nor released.[10]
The following year in 1962, another Bradbury-based film,Icarus Montgolfier Wright, was released on December 21 of that same year as Format's second theatrical animated cartoon, and was known for its artistic designs, explanatory history, and poetic writing.[11] The short itself was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1963.[12] That same year in 1963, Klynn briefly closed his studio when Engels left the United States forParis, France to directThe World of Siné.[13] Klynn returned to Format soon afterward and reopened the studio again by 1965 as Format Productions, with Henrietta Jordan taking over as vice president of the studio.[14] At the same time, its headquarters were relocated again toStudio City, California. The studio made eleven sub-contracted shorts inWarner Bros.' theatricalRoad Runner series as well as threeDaffy Duck andSpeedy Gonzales shorts, and producedThe Lone Ranger animated series forCBS in 1966.
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