History Creator / GeneDeitch

From 1968 until his retirement in 2006, Deitch adapted children's picture books for Weston Woods/Scholastic. He was awarded the [[UsefulNotes/AnnieAward Winsor McCay Award]] in 2003 for his contributions to the animation industry.

Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 -- April 16, 2020) was an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning American animator and director born in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1956, Deitch took his talents to the Creator/{{Terrytoons}} studio, where he became supervising director. There, he was known for bringing some well-needed creative punches to the studio; among his notable works a series of made-for-TV shorts starring WesternAnimation/TomTerrific, as well as shorts featuring new characters like WesternAnimation/SidneyTheElephant, Clint Clobber and Gaston Le Crayon. Among the films he supervised was ''Sidney's Family Tree'', which was nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward in 1958. His tenure at Terrytoons was short-lived however, and that same year, he was fired from the studio.

In 1959, he started his own studio behind the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he resided till his death. He started a partnership with William L. Snyder of Rembrandt Films to make films for him; their first project was "WesternAnimation/{{Munro}}", a story by cartoonist Jules Feiffer about a four-year-old boy drafted into the Army. It went on to win the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedShortFilm in 1960. In the 1960s, Deitch directed shorts featuring characters from a variety of clients, such as some TV shorts starring ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} and ComicStrip/KrazyKat for Creator/KingFeaturesSyndicate, and, perhaps his most widely-known work, a series of 13 theatrical WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry shorts for Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer. Among his independent projects included "WesternAnimation/SelfDefenseForCowards" and a theatrical series of shorts starring the character Nudnik, which Deitch considers his most personal work. He also worked on Czech dubbed versions of television shows, including translating the scripts for the first 52 episodes of the original Czech dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|1987}}''.

In 1959, he started his own studio behind the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he resided till his death. He started a partnership with William L. Snyder of Rembrandt Films to make films for him; their first project was "WesternAnimation/{{Munro}}", a story by cartoonist Jules Feiffer about a four-year-old boy drafted into the Army. It went on to win the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedShortFilm in 1960. In the 1960s, Deitch directed shorts featuring characters from a variety of clients, such as some TV shorts starring ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} and ComicStrip/KrazyKat for Creator/KingFeaturesSyndicate, and, perhaps his most widely-known work, a series of 13 theatrical WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry shorts for Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer. Among his independent projects included "WesternAnimation/SelfDefenseForCowards" and a theatrical series of shorts starring the character Nudnik, which Ditch considers his most personal work. He also worked on Czech dubbed versions of television shows, including translating the scripts for the first 52 episodes of the original Czech dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|1987}}''.

** In 1966, he produced a pilot called ''Terr'ble Tessie'' (a GenderFlipped version of his short-lived comic strip ''Terr'ble Thompson''), about a girl who could travel back in time to help historical figures. [[DescendedCreator Detch himself voiced]] [[CrossDressingVoices the title character]].
** He was originally to write a feature-length version of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' for Snyder while he still had the film rights, but the plans fell through. The end result was an AshcanCopy short produced solely to hold on to the rights so Snyder could sell them.

* OldShame:
** Deitch considers his ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' shorts to be this, mainly because he and his staff didn't quite get the gag-driven nature of the original shorts.
** He regretted how WesternAnimation/JRRTolkiensTheHobbit ended up as an AshcanCopy, feeling it was a disservice to Tolkien's work and a waste of a good feature film.

** His directorial debut ''Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat'' was missing for many years; Howdy's creator, "Buffalo" Bob Smith, felt it was unfaithful to the source material and ordered all prints to be destroyed. Deitch managed to keep a 16mm print for himself, but he lost in in Prague. A 35mm print was found at the Library of Congress in 2010, and was presented to the public for the first time on Blog/CartoonBrew.

* OldShame: Deitch considers his ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' shorts to be this, mainly because he and his staff didn't quite get the gag-driven nature of the original shorts.

** He was originally to write a feature-length version of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' for Snyder while he still had the film rights, but the plans fell through.