Documentary: A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez

[ganon23000]

Very very well done!

[NekZissou]

That's a great Video! Probs! :-)

[danceswithcrayons]

Brilliant! Learned a lot and enjoyed very much. Thanks!

[reelblack]

Excellent work.

[Aldrenz12]

from poptropica

[jamesharvey]

Bill Melendez also directed the 'Cathy' movie. You should do a breakdown of that for your next video watch?v=8w_wZ0YyxLI

[LoneLatinGuy74]

What an awesome documentary! I must confess I had never noticed all the details in the animation, backgrounds, colors, and style used by Melendez in his work. As a kid growing up in Mexico, watching classic cartoons, I became quite familiar with the names of some of the greatest animation artists of all time: Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna. I truly believe Bill Melendez deserves a place among them. Thanks for posting!

[benfleminc]

Fantastic!

[sssr8mjr]

the wes anderson/ bill melendez connection fills me with warmth... thanks for the great video!!

sSsR8M

[AIVNHU]

I never knew either until I was stationed with he son in Japan. It was during this time that I learned about it.

[MoldytoasterMedia]

so?

[Bimallove]

I never realized that Bill Melendez was the voice of Snoopy and Woodstock.

[otukel]

Nice job, Matt.

Nicely written, edited and voiced.

But please, get a better microphone.

[gabrielmattar1]

Amazing!!!! tanks a lot for this video. Every designer, filmmaker animator should watch this..

[hell0hkitty]

thank you so much for this, Bill Cuahtemoc Melendez was my Uncle, my late Dad's, last living brother, and its been terrible losing this talented, gentle man. His memory lives on!

[lovestopanic]

this is fantastic! Something has finally put into words what I always knew was wonderful about peanuts but couldn't quite figure out. really really brilliant

[rrpauldoran]

Wow, very good video.

[jmm1233]

very nice documentary , thankyou for making this

[MEponyfan]

What is the song from the Rolling Stones?

[gilgamess]

"I Am Waiting", from the Aftermath album.

[MEponyfan]

Bill Melendez, 1 of my personal heroes in drawing I do.

He was a amazing great man with his art.

I love it.

God bless Bill Melendez!

[ejhdigdug]

Amazing, really well put together. I had the privilege of seeing Bill Melendez in a talk in school. What struck me was how bitter he still was over the Disney strike.

[electrojones]

Bravo. This is an interesting and touching tribute to a great filmmaker. Excellent.

[whoiseyevan]

Thank you for posting this. Well put together and a very good watch.

[anispor]

Film combines many different arts and artists' work, and one person has to make the many decisions and accept responsibility for that decision. The director.

When a film is artful, it's those decisions that make it art. When many of the films have the same traits, it becomes obvious where the art comes from. The person making the decisions.

Bill Melendez was an artist and a

kind and considerate person. You've found him in your documentary and have done him honor. Thank s for the work.

[ivanfaerman]

One of the best things i've seen on youtube.

[PrinceBishop3]

Pure genius, even as an Englishman there is something about his art that reminds me of home

[Kevin90028]

Great stuff.  Where did this come from?

[insomniacdad]

From me. I made it for YouTube.

[Zeppo3]

lol thanks for the quick answear keep it coming! =D

-DJ ZEPPO3

[Zeppo3]

0:35

was he born with the mustache too? =P

-DJ ZEPPO3

[insomniacdad]

Actually, yes, he was. Bill Melendez was a very manly man.

[jamesharvey]

Was Bill Melendez really the auteur this documentary makes him out to be, or were the Charlie Brown specials a result of the combined talents of him, Schulz (who wrote the specials), and the other producers? A lot of the cinematic tricks cited in this documentary probably came from Schulz' script (cutting from the skating to Linus and Charlie Brown, for example), and the rest just sound like standard tropes of limited animation. Even the backgrounds would have been painted by someone else!

[insomniacdad]

It could be that little or nothing in the specials was Melendez' doing. But one could say the same of any director, and ultimately, the director is the interpreter and boss -- particularly in animation. That which he doesn't create, he approves. Even small touches like the cut you cite are a director's decision -- and the script (which I've read) gives no instructions as to timing, framing, shot length or anything else. And the design is absolutely Melendez's. He was an artist above all else.

[Marbles471]

With Melendez gone, we've lost probably the last remaining important figure from the "Golden Age." All the other heavy-hitters have shuffled off their respective mortal coils, but Melendez just kept on going for the longest time. Seemed like he was gonna live forever.  But nope.

When June Foray goes, that will also be a sad day. There are so few people left from that era.

[Marbles471]

It's amazing to me how the first few Peanuts specials were so strong, and then over time they just got so weak. The series was a rare example of something that hit the ground running, where they hit all the right notes right from the beginning--usually series need some time to "find" themselves.

Melendez's direction was so strong in those first few ones. Everything about them--the design, the color, the TIMING, the vocal direction--just works so perfectly. The later ones feel so...tired.

[stinkriverstudios]

Bravo my friend. I teach Fim,TV and media productions. At heart, Im still just a kid. This was great. Bill was a great animator and great man. His comments on Disney in another doc really opened my eyes to how much of a cruel bigot that Disney was. Suggestions for great book: "Cartoon Modern" a great look at a classic style. -Tim Jones,Detroit.

[insomniacdad]

"Cartoon Modern" is indeed a great book, and a great resource when editing this piece.

[Marbles471]

"His comments on Disney in another doc really opened my eyes to how much of a cruel bigot that Disney was. "

What exactly did he say?

[holtaprid]

Is it just me, or did Schulz look like the Angry Video Game Nerd youtube celebrity when he was younger?

[davebutning]

Excellent job.

[donschnitzius]

Insightful and very well said. More please! Perhaps an Ub Iwerks piece?

[insomniacdad]

Wow, Ub Iwerks! You're taking me back to the animation classes I took in film school (when cars were powered by foot pedals -- oh, no, wait, that was "The Flinstones"). Definitely material there for a short film; I'd need to revisit him first, though.

[donschnitzius]

Yeah -- sorry if that's a pretentious request, but I know so little about him (mostly from Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic" -- I know he came up with Mickey Mouse, and was an influential animation pioneer), and I'd love to see your take on "The Man Who Made Disney".

Or maybe I should just research the subject and make my own damn film, huh?

[insomniacdad]

Not a pretentious request at all -- in fact, it's a spur for me to reconnect with animation history, something I started to do, in a somewhat limited capacity, here.

[Marbles471]

donschnitzius:

Actually, there's aleady a feature-length documentary about Iwerks, made by his son or grandson (forget which) and produced by Disney. I forget what it's called, but I'm sure you could find a copy.