The Adventures of the Maltese Cat is an adaption of the Rudyard Kipling short story. Producer Larry Spangler had just produced a documentary feature film about polo and he thought having a cartoon proceeding it would add a little something! So he came to Buzzco Associates to produce this very ambitious short.
We could never say "no" to an opportunity and this one was a doozie! A 7-minute animated short about 2 teams of polo ponies (all with 4 legs!) and riders (2 more legs and 2 arms) mallets and a ball...and they would be playing polo almost the entire time.
We approached designer George Cannata with his signature cartoony style that would give the ponies their special personalities and we all learned a lot about polo!
So we said yes- we expanded our workforce, squeezing our staff both literally and figuratively (we had to produce a lot of drawings and then painted cels). And we did it! And people loved it! See for yourself!
CREDITS:
The Adventures of the Maltese Cat
©1991 Pollo AG
Designed by George Cannata
Music composed by Randall Crissman & Lauren Wild
Song "The Maltese Cat" written by Randall Crissman & Lauren Wild
performed by Lauren Wild
Production Manager Marilyn Kraemer
Produced entirely at Buzzco Associates, inc. NYC
Produced by Larry Spangler
Written by Jane Angus
Directed by Candy Kugel & Vincent Cafarelli
Additional Design: Candy Kugel & Bryon Moore
Layout: George Cannata, Howard Beckerman, Candy Kugel
Animation: Vincent Bell, Vincent Cafarelli, Paul Sparagano, Norton Virgien, Willis Pyle
Assistant Animation: Bryon Moore, Mike Baez, Gordon Bellamy
Inbetweening: Robert Andujar, Mak Bykov, Tom Warburton
Backgrounds: Cotty Kilbanks
Ink & Paint Supervisor: Steve Parton
Camera: John Rowohlt
Voice Track Producer: Becky Hoffman, recorded at Nutmeg Recording
Voices: Bob Sevra, Robert Lydiard, Len Maxwell, Don Peoples, Chriss Phillips, Marsh Savella
Track Analysis: Max Seligman
Sound Editor: Sue Demskey
Sound Mix: PhotoMag, engineer: Steve Rosen