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JOSEPH BARBERA IS DEAD
Joseph Roland Barbera, better known as Joe Barbera, died on 19 December 2006 at the age of 95. Together with William Hanna (who died in March 2001) he was the father of the famous television cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones,
the Yogi bear,
Huckleberry Hound,
Scooby Doo, Magilla Gorilla, Luca Tortuga and an infinity of series, which would be really difficult to name them all.
 Joe Barbera was born in New York in 1911 and his surname suggests his Italian origins, in fact his father was Sicilian. Despite his diploma as an accountant, in 1929 he made his debut as a cartoonist with local newspapers, but it was in 1932 that he began his career as an animator, working in the Van Beuren studio both as a draftsman and as a screenwriter. His innate talent for this artistic genre leads him in 1937, none other than to the studios of the famous film house Metro Goldwyn Mayer where a few years later, he meets William Hanna, with whom he begins the production of Tom & Jerry until 1957, then for almost twenty years, thanks to which they won 7 Oscar awards.  The same year in Hollywood, they founded the production company Hanna & Barbera, which specializes in cartoons for television, which was starting to take its first steps in those years, so it was a territory still to be discovered. Hanna and Barbera invented an animation system that allowed to save a lot of drawings, which in terms of production guaranteed television seriality, savings of time and money, but also the possibility of inventing multiple series and characters, ranging between different genres , from prehistory to science fiction, from bears to dogs, from yellow to comedy, from adventure to superheroes. If you notice carefully, unlike Tom & Jerry made with countless interlayer drawings, cartoons from 1957 onwards are much more static and simplified. If for example we take the Flintstones, we will notice that the character always walks in the same position (generally by 3/4), with a backdrop that moves cyclically behind him, furthermore there is the total absence of shadows, at least up to the axes. 70 and the shots are mainly directed towards close-ups, which only require movements of the mouth and eyes. This made sure that the very young audience became attached to these characters, who could keep them company every day, with always new and funny stories, which given their popularity, allowed them to be included in the merchandising of different products such as food, toys, clothing, stickers and more. The characters of Hanna and Barbera have been followed for several generations, also adapting to the times, just think of Scooby Doo and his friends, who follow the stereotype of the young people of '68 or the "hat" bear Napo Orso Capo. It would be enough to zap the TV to see how current these cartoons are being broadcast on Italia 1, Boomerang
e Boing. This shows how Hanna and Barbera have left their mark not only in American culture, but also in Italian culture, to the point that their characters have become the theme of studies and university theses.
Here are some of the many characters made by Hanna & Barbera.
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