Giant in Animation has fallen... William Hanna lives on in toons

How to react when you hear one of the great creative forces in your youth has passed on?

Early this afternoon I heard that William Hanna, half of the Hanna-Barbara team had left our plane of existence. I sat there... looked about my room, imagining Fred without Barney, Astro without George, Dynomutt without the Blue Falcon, Tom without Jerry, Boo Boo without Yogi, Auggie Doggy without Doggy Daddy... and so on...

I mean here was half of the team that brought me Johnny Quest, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla, the Mighty Mightor, Dick Dastardly and Muttley, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, the Impossibles and Frankenstein Jr. They introduced me to Herbie as being part of the Fantastic Four because the Human Torch was too dangerous to have on the team lest a child set themselves ablaze.

I can't imagine Saturday Morning without Hanna's influence... I mean... it'd be filled with Pokemon and Snorks and Smurfs and all of that junk... well ok, he was partly behind the SNORKS, but I'll forgive him because Dynomutt rules!

All of the songs that are stuck in my head because of this man... "Up from the depths, 40 stories high, he's here he's now, Godzilla in the sky... GODZILLA thump tha thump GODZILLA" "Scooby dooby doo, where are you, we've got some work to do now..." "his boy Elroy..." "From the, Town of Bedrock, they'll go down in history..."

Nevermind all of the theatrical cartoons that he was a part of... Most people will never see the brilliant beyond words GOOD WILL TO MEN from 1955 which was nominated for Best Animated Short... and packs so much emotion and power that it completely disarms you. The telling of the last days of man on earth from the forest animals that inherited the earth in the aftermath of man.... AMAZING WORK!

I sit here and watch the paralyzed creative atrophy of the 'Creative Execs' overseeing the various television animation departments... and all they come up with is BABY SHOWS and LITTLE KID SHOWS... where are our shows... the stuff that adults could watch WITH their children and not suffer?

Goofy concepts like INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE or HONG KONG PHOOEY or GRAPE APE... Wonderfully fun and inventive... I mean... now that Hanna is gone, can the Wonder Twins' powers ever again activate? He was 90 years old... and had in tandem with Joe Barbara brought to us more characters and joy and love in the mornings and afternoons of our lives than I can ever imagine any two person team ever doing again.

The world is sadder without him...