Funny Face (1957) Opening

 

I recently watched Funny Face (1957) and it was such a glorious and beautiful film. I would recommend you watching it. This movie was made by Paramount and it felt like an MGM musical. I admired all the songs and the aesthetic was memorable.

This movie was truly 50s. Everything about it feels like that decade alone.

I find the opening really unique and interesting so here's some screencaps.

Recognize these names? 

This feels abstract but in an appropriate way. It feels like the opening to films like One Hundred and One Dalmatians and how they used surrealistic patterns and textures throughout it. 

This movie especially the first and second acts uses alot of photography and effects. I never experienced something like this before. They even showed a scene of Astaire in a dark room similar to the ones we painfully experienced in school when I was in 10th grade. Thanks movie.

This is pretty cute. I like their hats and the camera angle choice.

This is stellar. Probably my favorite one.

I like this bit. The magnifying glass is quite satisfying here.

Gotta love Technicolor.

What's extremely minimalistic...

Turns into something simply exquisite fast. 

I love this type of stuff. It's old cinematic magic at it's finest.

The rest of the movie is filled with emotion, experience and great characters. I was fully invested in what was going on in this film. My favorite moment was in the He Loves and She Loves sequence when both Hepburn and Astaire slowly walk in a garden. Its about half a minute long and it feels like a dream. I also loved the Bonjour Paris song.

Richard Scarry's I Am A Bunny

 

When I first discovered these illustrations, I immediately wanted to know who made these. It was in fact Richard Scarry who you may know made my childhood.

I remember having loads of Dr. Seuss and Bright and Early Books and the one I had was The Early Bird. I loved how different it looked than the other books I collected.

Last month I bought "I Am A Bunny" and it was just beautiful. I saved a few images online of the illustrations. These are truly gorgeous.

This book was published in 1963. This is my favorite era of Scarry. In my opinion, his later decades were timeless and fun, but I do feel more drawn to his earlier work.

There's more space and personality like adding a background and more natural environments.

I love Nicholas's personality. I sense him as being down-to-earth, living in the moment, enjoying nature. 

I have over a ton of books like this. I have a whole collection of Little Golden Books (mostly the Disney ones) and vintage 60s books I bought at Goodwill. I'll definitely be showing you some cool and cute illustrations sooner or later.

Classic Animation Backgrounds

 

I've been loving the heck out of animation backgrounds lately. I got some that are outstanding and very pleasing to me.

This is from The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad, my favorite Disney film, I love that sky. I also love the green grass, and roads. This is such a sweet and beautiful image.

The best parts of Lady And The Tramp were the backgrounds and similar to the Mr. Toad scene I just showed you, the skies are gorgeous, the dog pound almost looks realistic to me as well. I love everything about this.

Same as I said about Lady And The Tramp, the best thing about Sword In The Stone is the backgrounds. My favorite is this one in particular. So nostalgic. 

This angle is really good too.

I always loved the Sam and Ralph cartoons, and the backgrounds to those were fun. I love this one the most. From Woolen Under Where (1963) 

Ralph chatting with Sam, I adore it so much.

This is a perfect frame from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937). That sunset is really nice and the bottom of the image looks astonishing. Those colors are extremely pleasent. I love the dwarfs in this movie and this whole scene is just cinematic.

Now here's a Looney Tunes cartoon, Kitty Kornered, what I love about this frame in particular is the color scheme, those bottles, the snow, the door, it brings that warm feeling of what I'm like about the night especially in the wintertime. 

The final scene of The Jungle Book is really beautiful. Baloo and Bagheera are hilarious characters in my opinion, I love when their hanging out together, this has incredible colors and fits the jungle perfectly. 

I love the colors in this shot of Robin Hood (1973). I unfortunately cropped this image, but it's perfectly good like this honestly.

Bambi is my comfort film, this film is both handsome and intense. I love this frame. 

I always loved how The Curious Puppies cartoons looked. This one's awesome. The color scheme to me looks unique.

Here's some screencaps from Farm Frolics (1941)

Back then, this was one of my favorite Looney Tunes cartoons background wise, still agree today.

From Lion Around (1950), this has a peaceful and comforting background choice. I love the trees and the sky is so natural. Definitely an underrated one.

Lastly is another Snow White frame grab, this is perfect to end it off. Because it's the final bit of the film. I love the whimsical orchestra playing in the background and it just looks highly professional and real. 

This was a great selection. I'll definitely be adding more images sometime in the future. Want something similar to this?

Click on these links.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/essence-of-beauty-in-art.html?m=1

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/05/one-hundred-and-one-dalmatians.html?m=1

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/classic-cartoon-backgrounds.html?m=1

Spongebob Season 1

Spongebob Squarepants was something special to me when I was a kid. This show introduced me to a whole new style of comedy, character personalities and color scheme. My favorite season is the 2nd one, but the best looking season to me will always be the 1st. This was the only season in the entirety of the show to use cel animation.

It was sometime in late 1998-1999, the episodes were made like this. It was also the final years of it's rise before digital computers became the main tool for animation and continued it's presence.

With cel animation, the colors looked more natural, and the characters have more expressive designs. 

My favorite episode is Ripped Pants and that has some incredible backgrounds and camera angles in it. 

While this season in particular didn't have the most timeless episodes ever, it was one of the more relaxing and grounded seasons, and that's a perfect way to start a show let alone a franchise.

I also have to mention the Bikini Atoll scenes, they made this island look too cartoony nowadays in the newer seasons. This one's my favorite. Love that sunset.

While I love nighttime backgrounds in animation, it was my least favorite parts of the episodes. Maybe it's because it looks so ominous. Barely any houses, just a barbaric environment, not too much lights, but I kinda dig this one with the Krusty Krab. 

I also loved the personalities to the actual main characters. Mr. Krabs in particular was at his best in the first season. He wasn't at his most greedy, and he actually was an honest and sincere character to his employees, that being Squidward and Spongebob of course.

This show is what got me into this natural vibe of other cartoons and art. The style of comedy is what got me to Looney Tunes and the Tex Avery shorts. This show barely had complexity and deep storytelling, and had some amusing jokes, memorable characters and a little variety. I would recommend you watching this show if you haven't. And I think you probably have because it's one of the most popular TV shows of all time.

Some of the other episodes from Season 1 caught me off guard like Rock Bottom with the green cyclops creature. This was the episode that got me more into the actual show.

I want to talk about more shows from my childhood or just anything that has beauty and nature like Spongebob. I already talked about a Disney short, you can click the link to it.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-goddess-of-spring-1934-disney.html?m=1