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Mike Jittlov (born June 8, 1948) is an American animator and the creator of short films and one feature-length film using forms of special effects animation, including stop-motion animation, rotoscoping, and pixilation. He is best known for the 1988 feature-length film '' The Wizard of Speed and Time'', based on his 1979 short film of the same name.


Life

Born in
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, Jittlov became a math major at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
. Jittlov took an animation course to satisfy his art requirement. He made a super-8 film, ''The Leap'', enlarged to 16mm to participate in film festivals in the early 1970s. Jittlov entered a 16mm film made for his UCLA class, ''Good Grief'', into
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
competition. That short made it to the professional finals for nomination, the first of several of his short films to do so. Afterwards, Jittlov bought his own 16mm camera, designed his own multiplane animation system for $200, and began his career. Some of his other original film shorts, including ''The Interview'', ''Swing Shift'', ''Animato'', and ''Time Tripper'' (released separately and as a collection called '' Animato'') won many top awards and repeat film festival screenings, bringing him to the attention of The
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
Studio. In 1978, Jittlov co-starred on Disney's two-hour TV extravaganza, " Mickey's 50", with the short film "Mouse Mania", creating and animating the first stop-motion
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...
, along with 1,000 other Disney toys marching around a psychiatrist's office. The short is now featured on the Disney DVD ''Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two''. Since Disney did not usually allow individual creators to receive credit on their television productions (preferring a generic thanks to "the many Disney animators who made this possible") Mike put his and partner Deven Cheregino's name on the toys in the final production number, where they could not be easily edited out. In late 1979, he co-starred again on Disney's ''Major Effects'' television special – this time introducing the world to the green-robed "Wizard of Speed and Time" via the short film version. With an improved soundtrack, the short was released to 16mm film collectors in 1980, along with four of his other short films. Jittlov also created the inaugural short film played on the
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. It featured an animated satellite shaped like Mickey Mouse's head, which was later reproduced for the special features of the DVD version of Disney's 1937 film, '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. The Mickey Satellite film played to park-goers waiting in line at Space Mountain for years, and is still shown to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts employees during orientation. The prop was also used in a scene in ''The Wizard of Speed and Time''. Jittlov is best known for his feature film '' The Wizard of Speed and Time'', which he directed and starred in. The film did poorly in theaters but has established a cult following since its release on videotape and laserdisc. It can often be found online. It is known for being self-referential. He later worked as a special effects technician on the film ''
Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
'', and in fan films including '' Darth Vader's Psychic Hotline''. Jittlov maintains a distinctive appearance at
science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction subgenre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of ex ...
s by wearing his traditional green jacket and green shoes, similar to the ones seen in ''The Wizard of Speed and Time''. He was an early Internet user, with his own website, and frequent poster to his own
Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
group, alt.fan.mike-jittlov. He is also a prolific practitioner of origami.


References


External links

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Mike Jittlov's ''The Wizard of Speed and Time'': His Life's a Special Effect!
��Night Flight
"We're off to see the Wizard: An Interview with Mike Jittlov by Kent Hill"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jittlov, Mike 1948 births Living people American animated film directors Disney people American special effects people American stop motion animators