LifeTimeline
Robert Balser
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Balser discovers his love for animation at UCLA
Los Angeles, California
After serving in the Navy, Balser was able to attend UCLA on the GI Bill of RIghts. He majored in Advertising Art, and in his last year, he took an animation class to satisfy a requirement. The class was taught by Disney's Bill Shull. Balser graduated from UCLA in 1950, and the rest is history! -
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Bob works with Saul Bass on the epilogue for "Around The World in 80 Days"
Early on in his career, Balser helped Saul Bass, famed graphic designer and filmmaker, with his "Around The World in 80 Days." Watch the epilogue here: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/around/.../n-eighty-days/ -
All aboard the Maasdam, New York-Le Havre
In 1959, Cima and Bob each bought a one-way ticket for the Maasdam, New York-Le Havre. They planned on taking a six month sabbatical, taking with them $1800 in travelers checks and a copy of "Europe on $5 a Day." To earn money throughout their trip, they wrote reviews for UCLA's Film Quarterly. When the money ran out, they followed the work. This meant traveling all over Europe: from Spain to Finland to Germany to Italy to Denmark and more. Bob and Cima would eventually settle in Barcelona, Spain, where Bob set up his own animation studio, Pegbar Productions, more than ten years after boarding the Maasdam, New York-Le Havre. -
El Sombrero
Spain
While traveling around Europe, Balser headed to Estudios Moro to work as animation director for the short, "El Sombrero," which was written and designed by Alan Shean, a "fixture of the Fifties animation scene."
Read more about "El Sombrero" here: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/lost-films/lo/.../lser-78599.html -
The job of a lifetime: Bob works as Animation Directon for Beatles' "Yellow Submarine"
London
United KingdomIn a memorial to Balser, Rolling Stone describes the making of "Yellow Submarine":
"The feature film was borne out of the Beatles' hatred of their American cartoon series: A similar deal with a production company for an animated series in the U.K. resulted in the Fab Four only agreeing to do the film due to contractual obligations; they didn't even voice their own animated counterparts. With only the film's title track and four new Beatles songs to work with, Balser and his collaborators created a story concocted only by 'whiskey and imagination,' the animator told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 2012, when the remastered film was released on Blu-ray.
'When I came onto the film on the first day I said, 'OK, what do we do?',' Balser said. 'They didn't know what to do. I said, 'At least we know we have to use the songs and take a trip on a Yellow Submarine.'
'No matter what money you had, you could never get the freedom we had,' Balser added of making Yellow Submarine. 'We didn't say we're going to do this because of this or that — it just happened. I see how it works with little kids, with teenagers, how it's engraved in the memory of older people. I think it resonates today, but I don't know why.'
(http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ro/.../at-88-20160108)
The hand-drawn film was pulled together in eleven months, working frantically day and night, and recruiting art students to help. In an interview with TribLive, Balser recalls, “The final script was typed up a week before the premiere. It's not a way to make a film. And whenever I've given lectures and seminars to talk about film planning, I make that damn clear. The fact it worked was one in a million.”
(http://triblive.com/aande/1977609-74/.../animated-animation) -
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Pegbar Productions
Barcelona
SpainBalser and his Spanish partners established Pegbar Productions,
"Pegbar" referenced the animation peg bar, which was used by the animators to ensure animation papers stay aligned. The animation studio released films and TV series such as "Luvcast USA," "Kid Power," "Count of Monecristo," "Three Musketeers," "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe," and many more. Balser shut down Pegbar Productions in 1993. -
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Founded the Benjamin Franklin International School
Barcelona
SpainBob and Cima, along with four other couples, founded the Benjamin Franklin International School in Barcelona. According to the school's website, a "group of Barcelona parents, passionate about education, had come to realize that the school they wanted for their children did not yet exist, and so they put their thoughts together and the idea of founding a new school began to take shape." (http://www.bfischool.org/welcome-to-bfis/history-of-bfis/) -
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