Wednesday, December 17, 2008

the funtastic world of animation addiction

this is an oddity of a video. produced in the end of the 1980s and released on June 7th 1990, this is a video of the ride simulator known as The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. originally at Universal Studios Florida, it was one of the first ride simulators of its kind, being produced concurrently with the Back to the Future ride which would come out a bit later. the whole thing, according to The New York Times, was part of a big push by David Kirschner (the creator/producer of American Tail and the Chucky series), when he was appointed the President and CEO of Hanna-Barbera in October 1989, to make Hanna the next Disney.:
''Disney is a classic company that has supplied classic features,'' Mr. Kirschner said. ''We have been a television company that's entertained a generation of baby boomers with characters. It's easy to point to Disney and what they've done as a model.''

the actual animation was split up to a few companies, namely Rhythm and Hues (in one of their earliest projects), Don Bluth Entertainment, and deGraf/Wahrman who did the bulk of the backgrounds and CG work in the film. the Don Bluth studio, while simultaneously working on Rock-A-Doodle, did the work on the characters in cel while everything else was rendered in the computer. though Kirschner didn't bring Hanna Barbera into the Disney realm (unless you count the original live-action Flintstones film a wild success), this ride is pretty fun and often forgotten. it was retired to make way for Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast in 2002. its jumped around since then from theme park to theme park, currently residing in Six Flags Kentucky. without further ado:

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