Animation Cel-ebration

Bradley Cooper bought his first piece of art Saturday--a $200 animation cel featuring characters from the Walt Disney film “The Rescuers.”

He’s wanted it most of his life.

“It was the first movie I ever saw,” said Cooper, who saw it in 1977 when he was 3.

The dealer who sold Cooper the cel--short for a painting on celluloid film--understands the craving, though he didn’t have to wait until adulthood to satisfy it.

As a boy, Arnold J. Kowan wrote a fan letter to Hanna-Barbera and in return was sent a cel of Yogi Bear. Now, at 39, he’s owner of the Animation Collectible Center in Van Nuys.

The novice collector and the pro came together Saturday at Anifest ‘96, a cartoon art festival at the Universal City Hilton. It was sponsored by the International Animated Film Society, a 1,300-member group dedicated to preserving, promoting and celebrating animated art.

Among the several hundred cartoon aficionados on hand were two young animator/collectors from Phoenix, an electrical engineer from Garden Grove and a Disney employee from Gardena who collects Disney memorabilia. (She bought two original Pocahontas dolls.)

The crowd, most of them in their 20s and 30s, prowled through bins of art looking for something that struck their fancies--and pocketbooks. They also waited patiently in line for their favorite animators’ autographs.

“People go through the bins, say, ‘Look at that!’ and break out in a smile,” said dealer Richard L. Trethewey.

The spoken cartoon word was not forsaken either. Periodic performances featured voice-over actors you’d never recognize who climbed the stage and suddenly transformed themselves into the likes of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

“This is for the fans,” said Antran Manoogian, president of the society.

While he acknowledged the skyrocketing value of the most sought-after animation art, which can run to six figures, Manoogian stressed that for most die-hard fans cel collecting is more about love than money.

“Don’t think of it as real estate,” he said.

Animated art is enjoying a renaissance sparked by the success of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and television’s “The Simpsons.” The animation boom has contributed to a rise in entertainment-industry employment in the San Fernando Valley from 32,168 in 1987 to 51,924 in 1992.

“It’s about time,” said June Foray, better known as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel and Natasha in Rocky and Bullwinkle. She’s the only remaining member of the original cast.

Foray said the field foundered because of two decades of bad television cartoons in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“It was an adult medium,” Foray said. “With the advent of television and Saturday morning cartoons it became for kids.”

In her long career in voice-overs, Foray has played Lucifer the Cat in “Cinderella,” two mermaids in “Peter Pan,” and Granny in the “Sylvester and Tweety Bird Mysteries.”

It’s not just the art, but the artists who matter to cartoon art fans.

Phoenix animator Vicki Pena, 24, had just gotten the autograph of Eric Goldberg, who worked on “Aladdin.” He drew a little genie next to his signature.

At another table, veteran Warner Bros. cartoon artist Norm McCabe, who was drawing long before the fans in line were born, signed photocopies of a Tweety Bird drawing.

Across the room, two controversial artists, John Kricfalusi and Jim Smith greeted fans.

They are the creators of Ren and Stimpy, a Chihuahua and a cat, respectively. In some episodes, they are owned by an autocratic father figure, named George Liquor, a character that did not endear the pair to their former network.

“Their cartoons are outrageous,” explained Shawn Gibson, a 23-year-old animator from Phoenix. “They’re the ‘bad boys’ of animation.”