LifeTimeline

Robert Balser

    • MAR 25

      Robert Balser is born!

    1927
    • Balser serves in the Navy

    1945
    • Balser discovers his love for animation at UCLA

    • MAY 25

      Bob and Cima get married

    1950
    • Bob works with Saul Bass on the epilogue for "Around The World in 80 Days"

    1956
    • All aboard the Maasdam, New York-Le Havre

    1959
    • El Sombrero

    1964
    • The job of a lifetime: Bob works as Animation Directon for Beatles' "Yellow Submarine"

    1968
    • Jackson 5

    1970
    • Pegbar Productions

    1972
    • Television adaptation of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe"

    1979
    • "Den" segment of "Heavy Metal"

    1981
    • Founded the Benjamin Franklin International School

    1986
    • Retired to Marina del Rey

    1999
    • JAN 04

      Died

    2016
  • Robert Balser is born!

    Rochester, New York
    On March 2, 1927, Robert "Bob" Balser was born in Rochester, NY. He and his family later moved to Los Angeles, where he went to Junior High, High School, and began taking art classes at the Chouinard Art Institute.
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Balser serves in the Navy

    After graduating from high school, Balser served in the Navy for one year at the O.S.S. Office of Research and Inventions in New York.
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • 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!

    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Bob and Cima get married

    United States
    ...and a life of adventure commences!
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • 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/
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • 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.

    By Jaime Mishkin
  • 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
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • The job of a lifetime: Bob works as Animation Directon for Beatles' "Yellow Submarine"

    London
    United Kingdom
    In 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)
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Jackson 5

    In the 1970s, Balser produced the Saturday cartoon series about thte Jackson 5.
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Pegbar Productions

    Barcelona
    Spain
    Balser 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.

    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Television adaptation of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe"

    Pegbar Productions worked on the central 30 minute section of the TV feature film, "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe," which later won an Emmy.
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • "Den" segment of "Heavy Metal"

    Balser contributed to the "Den" sequence of the cult-classic animated film, "Heavy Metal."
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Founded the Benjamin Franklin International School

    Barcelona
    Spain
    Bob 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/)
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Retired to Marina del Rey

    Marina del Rey, California
    After a long and international career, Balser retired to Marina del Rey in California, where he gave lectures, served as a consultant and member of many animation and film organizations.
    By Jaime Mishkin
  • Photo courtesy of Dan Sarto. / awn.com

    Died

    Los Angeles, California
    Balser died on January 4 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 88. The cause was respiratory failure. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Cima, his son, Trevel, along with grandchildren, siblings and countless friends.
    By Jaime Mishkin