Sally Cruikshank
Encyclopedia
Sally Cruikshank is an American
cartoonist
and animator
whose work includes animation for the Children's Television Workshop program Sesame Street
, and whose short "Quasi at the Quackadero
" (1975) was inducted into the United States National Film Registry
.
, New Jersey
, the daughter of parents Rose and Ernest. Her parents were both Southerners
, with her father, an accountant
who worked in nearby New York City
, New York
, holding a Phi Beta Kappa key from Duke University
, in North Carolina
. Ernest's mother had been the president of the boarding school formerly known as St. Mary's College
in that state. Cruikshank has a brother, and had a sister, Carol, who died in 1991. Their maternal aunt, Bea, was a painter from the 1910s to the 1940s, whose work included a portrait commission by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Cruikshank studied art at Smith College
, where in her junior year art teacher Elliot Offner
sent slides of her colored-pencil and clay-relief-on-paper drawings to a screening committee that resulted in a scholarship to the two-month Yale
Summer Art School. At the urging of a classmate there, Warner Wada, she began considering adapting her drawing style to animation. Returning to Smith for her senior year and obtaining the primer Animation by Preston Blair
, Cruikshank, with additional research, arranged for a special-studies class in animation. With an animation stand consisting of a Bolex
camera attached to a photo enlarger, constructed by instructor David Batchelder, she produced her first animated short, the three-minute, 16mm "Ducky". Done with watercolor and paper animation, it starred a prototype version of her future recurring character Quasi, which one writer characterized as "an infantile duck with buck front teeth, thick glasses and a red cape." Cruikshank, describing her anthropomorphic characters, said, "My ducks are based on the ducks from Carl Barks
' comics. But I guess they got twisted in memory, because people don't seem to see much similarity between them."
Encouraged by the response of "Ducky," Cruikshank, after graduation, enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute
, in San Francisco, California
, to study filmmaking. Under instructor Larry Jordan
, she made the five-minute animated short "Fun on Mars" (1971), which utilized watercolor, crayon
markers on paper, cutouts
, and collage
. Produced for $100, it also featured early versions of her trademark duck-creatures. Her next short, "Chow Fun" (1972), created with a $400 grant secured in association with PBS, mixed paper animation and cutouts glued onto animation cels.
company that also rented space and film equipment, Cruikshank, at an employee's suggestion, showed her work to company president E. E. Gregg Snazelle, who gave her a job a week later "to experiment in animation and do TV commercials when there was work." By the end of summer 1972, Cruikshank was head animator there. In 2009, she recalled of her time with Snazelle,
At Snazelle, Cruikshank began developing her best-known work, "Quasi at the Quackadero
" (1975), working title
s of which included "I Walked with a Duck", "Hold That Quasi", and "Quasi Quacks Up." The 10-minute, 35mm short, with 100 watercolor backgrounds and approximately 5,000 cels, took two years for Cruikshank to draw, followed by four months for photography and post-production
. Cruikshank independently financed the $6,000 budget, which went primarily for cel painting, sound recording and lab and camera work. Underground cartoonist
Kim Deitch
, then Cruikshank's boyfriend, did much of the inking
, using dip pen and rapidograph, with Kathryn Lenihan doing most of the cel painting. The short starred Quasi, voiced by Deitch; Anita, which one writer described as "Betty Boop
with a New Wave
wardrobe" and whose Mae West
-like voice was supplied by Cruikshank; and robot Rollo. They progress through the Quackadero, a Coney Island
-esque sideshow with such attractions as the Hall of Time Mirrors, which depict the viewer as he or she will look in "old age" or "100 years from now", and the Time Holes, in which one can lean on a railing and see a live slice of three million years B.C. unfold. The music, by the Berkeley, California
band the Cheap Suit Serenaders
, used slide flute, xylophone, ukelele, duck call, boat whistle and bagpipe to create what Cruikshank called the "strange, gallopy feeling" of 1920s/1930s dance-band music, of which she is a devotee.
"Quasi at the Quackadero" won awards and was shown at the Los Angeles Film Exposition
, and made its first theatrical booking at the Northside Theater in Berkeley, not far from Cruikshank's home at the time at 1980 Arch Street in that city.
at a party, the $14,000 film also was financed by Cruikshank, with the higher budget going toward the hiring of additional cel painters and increased lab fees. Of its slicker look than her previous short, Cruikshank said, "People didn't know what to make of 'Quasi.' It was pretty hard to absorb in one sitting, sold. So, I thought I would try directing the eye more, by simplifying things and giving the next film a clearer focus." The Cheap Suit Serenaders again supplied music.
In 1980, Cruikshank won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
to create a storyboard
and three-minute sample reel for a proposed animated feature, Quasi's Cabaret, which she described as involving "three hedonistic ducks who try to open the ultimate tropical nightclub." She also tried developing feature projects combining live action and animation, one a comedy set in a mental institution, the other, Joystick, a "sort of a humorous horror story" about the effects of computer animation on an artist modeled on herself. Additionally, she attempted to sell cable-TV networks on "Weird Airways", a projected series of three-minute shorts starring Snozzy as the owner-pilot of a charter airline and Anita as a flight attendant
.
and psychedelic
elements. Her film "Face Like a Frog" (1987) bears a musical score by Oingo Boingo
, with the group's Danny Elfman
singing his song "Don't Go in the Basement."
Cruikshank has contributed animation
sequences to feature films, including Twilight Zone: The Movie
(1982), Top Secret!
(1984), Ruthless People
(1986), Mannequin
(1987), and Madhouse
(1990), and the opening credits of Smiley Face
(2007). She has also worked in commercials and Web site design, and was the head of animation for Snazelle Films in San Francisco from 1972 to 1981. Cruikshank also animated and produced many music videos for Sesame Street
from 1989-1999.
Cruikshank and her husband, producer Jon Davison
, were married March 17, 1984, and have a daughter, Dinah. She wrote in September 2009, "So I haven't had work in a couple of years. By work I mean where someone calls you up and says, 'I'd like you to do this for x amount of $'."
animation of such producers as the Fleischer Studios
and the Van Beuren Studios
, as well as early Bob Clampett
. In a 1981 interview, she said of her own style at the time,
Several other short films are on Cruikshank's YouTube
channel.
Award for Independent Film and Video Artists given by the American Film Institute
, along with Stan Brakhage
and Nam June Paik
.
"Quasi at the Quackadero
" was voted #46 in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals (Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1994; ISBN 1-878685-49-X), edited by animation critic and historian Jerry Beck
. In 2009, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
whose work includes animation for the Children's Television Workshop program Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, and whose short "Quasi at the Quackadero
Quasi at the Quackadero
"Quasi at the Quackadero" is a 1975 animated short by Sally Cruikshank. This cartoon follows two ducks and a pet robot at an amusement park in the future where time travel is exploited...
" (1975) was inducted into the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Early life and education
Sally Cruikshank was born in ChathamChatham, New Jersey
Chatham refers to two neighboring municipalities in Morris County, New Jersey – Chatham Borough and Chatham Township. The two are separate municipalities, the first a municipality that was settled in 1710 as a colonial English village in the Province of New Jersey...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, the daughter of parents Rose and Ernest. Her parents were both Southerners
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, with her father, an accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
who worked in nearby New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, holding a Phi Beta Kappa key from Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. Ernest's mother had been the president of the boarding school formerly known as St. Mary's College
Saint Mary's School (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Saint Mary's School is a private, four-year female boarding school serving grades 9-12 in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is operated as an independent school, but has an historic association with the Episcopal Church and has an episcopal chapel, St. Mary's Chapel, on the school's grounds...
in that state. Cruikshank has a brother, and had a sister, Carol, who died in 1991. Their maternal aunt, Bea, was a painter from the 1910s to the 1940s, whose work included a portrait commission by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Cruikshank studied art at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
, where in her junior year art teacher Elliot Offner
Elliot Offner
Elliot Melville Offner was an American sculptor and longtime professor of art at Smith College.Offner was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at Cooper Union before receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from Yale University. He joined the faculty at Smith College...
sent slides of her colored-pencil and clay-relief-on-paper drawings to a screening committee that resulted in a scholarship to the two-month Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
Summer Art School. At the urging of a classmate there, Warner Wada, she began considering adapting her drawing style to animation. Returning to Smith for her senior year and obtaining the primer Animation by Preston Blair
Preston Blair
Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
, Cruikshank, with additional research, arranged for a special-studies class in animation. With an animation stand consisting of a Bolex
Bolex
Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for...
camera attached to a photo enlarger, constructed by instructor David Batchelder, she produced her first animated short, the three-minute, 16mm "Ducky". Done with watercolor and paper animation, it starred a prototype version of her future recurring character Quasi, which one writer characterized as "an infantile duck with buck front teeth, thick glasses and a red cape." Cruikshank, describing her anthropomorphic characters, said, "My ducks are based on the ducks from Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
' comics. But I guess they got twisted in memory, because people don't seem to see much similarity between them."
Encouraged by the response of "Ducky," Cruikshank, after graduation, enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, to study filmmaking. Under instructor Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan is an independent filmmaker who has been working in the Bay Area in California since 1955, and making films since 1952. He has produced some 40 experimental and animation films, and three feature-length dramatic films. He is most widely known for his animated collage films. In 1970 he...
, she made the five-minute animated short "Fun on Mars" (1971), which utilized watercolor, crayon
Crayon
A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, drawing, and other methods of illustration. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel; both are popular media for color...
markers on paper, cutouts
Cutout animation
Cutout animation is a technique for producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs...
, and collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
. Produced for $100, it also featured early versions of her trademark duck-creatures. Her next short, "Chow Fun" (1972), created with a $400 grant secured in association with PBS, mixed paper animation and cutouts glued onto animation cels.
"Quasi at the Quackadero"
While editing "Chow Fun" at San Francisco's Snazelle Films, a commercial-filmSponsored film
Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited time...
company that also rented space and film equipment, Cruikshank, at an employee's suggestion, showed her work to company president E. E. Gregg Snazelle, who gave her a job a week later "to experiment in animation and do TV commercials when there was work." By the end of summer 1972, Cruikshank was head animator there. In 2009, she recalled of her time with Snazelle,
At Snazelle, Cruikshank began developing her best-known work, "Quasi at the Quackadero
Quasi at the Quackadero
"Quasi at the Quackadero" is a 1975 animated short by Sally Cruikshank. This cartoon follows two ducks and a pet robot at an amusement park in the future where time travel is exploited...
" (1975), working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
s of which included "I Walked with a Duck", "Hold That Quasi", and "Quasi Quacks Up." The 10-minute, 35mm short, with 100 watercolor backgrounds and approximately 5,000 cels, took two years for Cruikshank to draw, followed by four months for photography and post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. Cruikshank independently financed the $6,000 budget, which went primarily for cel painting, sound recording and lab and camera work. Underground cartoonist
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...
Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch
-Sources:* at Lambiek's Comiclopedia-External links:* Ford, Jeffrey. *Heller, Steven. **...
, then Cruikshank's boyfriend, did much of the inking
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
, using dip pen and rapidograph, with Kathryn Lenihan doing most of the cel painting. The short starred Quasi, voiced by Deitch; Anita, which one writer described as "Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
with a New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
wardrobe" and whose Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
-like voice was supplied by Cruikshank; and robot Rollo. They progress through the Quackadero, a Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
-esque sideshow with such attractions as the Hall of Time Mirrors, which depict the viewer as he or she will look in "old age" or "100 years from now", and the Time Holes, in which one can lean on a railing and see a live slice of three million years B.C. unfold. The music, by the Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
band the Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders are a string band playing songs from, and in the style of, the 1920s. Their three 33⅓ rpm albums, all recorded in the 1970s on the Blue Goose label, were titled R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders , R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 , and R....
, used slide flute, xylophone, ukelele, duck call, boat whistle and bagpipe to create what Cruikshank called the "strange, gallopy feeling" of 1920s/1930s dance-band music, of which she is a devotee.
"Quasi at the Quackadero" won awards and was shown at the Los Angeles Film Exposition
Filmex
Filmex was an annual Los Angeles film festival held in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was the predecessor of the American Film Institute's Los Angeles International Film Festival...
, and made its first theatrical booking at the Northside Theater in Berkeley, not far from Cruikshank's home at the time at 1980 Arch Street in that city.
Other early projects
Cruikshank's next short, the eight-minute, 35mm "Make Me Psychic" (1978; working title "Mesmeroid Madness") returns Quasi and Anita and adds the suave Snozzy. Built around a device that taps into one's latest telekinetic power, leading to slapstickSlapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
at a party, the $14,000 film also was financed by Cruikshank, with the higher budget going toward the hiring of additional cel painters and increased lab fees. Of its slicker look than her previous short, Cruikshank said, "People didn't know what to make of 'Quasi.' It was pretty hard to absorb in one sitting, sold. So, I thought I would try directing the eye more, by simplifying things and giving the next film a clearer focus." The Cheap Suit Serenaders again supplied music.
In 1980, Cruikshank won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
to create a storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
and three-minute sample reel for a proposed animated feature, Quasi's Cabaret, which she described as involving "three hedonistic ducks who try to open the ultimate tropical nightclub." She also tried developing feature projects combining live action and animation, one a comedy set in a mental institution, the other, Joystick, a "sort of a humorous horror story" about the effects of computer animation on an artist modeled on herself. Additionally, she attempted to sell cable-TV networks on "Weird Airways", a projected series of three-minute shorts starring Snozzy as the owner-pilot of a charter airline and Anita as a flight attendant
Flight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
.
Later work and life
Cruikshank evolved a recognizable style with surrealisticSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
elements. Her film "Face Like a Frog" (1987) bears a musical score by Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...
, with the group's Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
singing his song "Don't Go in the Basement."
Cruikshank has contributed animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
sequences to feature films, including Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 science fiction horror film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis as a theatrical version of The Twilight Zone, a 1959 and '60s TV series created by Rod Serling. Those starring in the film are: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers,...
(1982), Top Secret!
Top Secret!
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer , Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films...
(1984), Ruthless People
Ruthless People
Ruthless People is a 1986 black comedy written by Dale Launer, starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater. It also features Bill Pullman as a supporting role in his film debut....
(1986), Mannequin
Mannequin (1987 film)
Mannequin is a 1987 romantic comedy film, starring Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Meshach Taylor, James Spader, G. W. Bailey, and Estelle Getty...
(1987), and Madhouse
Madhouse (1990 film)
Madhouse is a 1990 film starring Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette as a successful married couple whose idyllic California life is ruined when their house is overrun by unwelcome houseguests. This begins when their mail is delayed due to forwarding issues and they find out a cousin, Fred, and his...
(1990), and the opening credits of Smiley Face
Smiley Face (film)
Smiley Face is a 2007 American/German comedy film written by Dylan Haggerty and directed and co-produced by Gregg Araki. It stars Anna Faris as a young woman who has a series of misadventures after eating a large number of cupcakes laced with cannabis...
(2007). She has also worked in commercials and Web site design, and was the head of animation for Snazelle Films in San Francisco from 1972 to 1981. Cruikshank also animated and produced many music videos for Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
from 1989-1999.
Cruikshank and her husband, producer Jon Davison
Jon Davison
Jon Davison is a film producer.-Biography:His producing credits include Airplane! , RoboCop , RoboCop 2 , Starship Troopers , The 6th Day and Phasma ex Machina ....
, were married March 17, 1984, and have a daughter, Dinah. She wrote in September 2009, "So I haven't had work in a couple of years. By work I mean where someone calls you up and says, 'I'd like you to do this for x amount of $'."
Influences and style
Cruikshank prefers the early New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
animation of such producers as the Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
and the Van Beuren Studios
Van Beuren Studios
Van Beuren Studios was an American animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons from 1928 to 1936.Producer Amedee J. van Beuren first became involved in the animation industry in 1920, when he formed a partnership with Paul Terry and formed the "Aesop's Fables Studio" for the production of...
, as well as early Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
. In a 1981 interview, she said of her own style at the time,
Animated short films
- "Ducky" (1971)
- "Fun on Mars" (1971)
- "Chow Fun" (1972)
- "Quasi at the QuackaderoQuasi at the Quackadero"Quasi at the Quackadero" is a 1975 animated short by Sally Cruikshank. This cartoon follows two ducks and a pet robot at an amusement park in the future where time travel is exploited...
" (1975) - "Make Me Psychic" (1978)
- "Quasi's Cabaret Trailer" (1980)
- "Face Like a Frog" (1987)
Several other short films are on Cruikshank's YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel.
Awards and honors
In 1986, Cruikshank won the initial Maya DerenMaya Deren
Maya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...
Award for Independent Film and Video Artists given by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, along with Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
and Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
.
"Quasi at the Quackadero
Quasi at the Quackadero
"Quasi at the Quackadero" is a 1975 animated short by Sally Cruikshank. This cartoon follows two ducks and a pet robot at an amusement park in the future where time travel is exploited...
" was voted #46 in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant...
: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals (Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1994; ISBN 1-878685-49-X), edited by animation critic and historian Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
. In 2009, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
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