By Lee Reinsch
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – If you fell in love with the character of Scooby-Doo as a kid, it’s no mystery why.
The creators of Hanna-Barbera’s ever-hungry mystery-tracking dog designed Scooby to be “instantly irresistible,” said retired animator Ron Campbell.
Over his more-than-50-year career, Campbell animated dozens of cartoons familiar to millions of children of the 1960s through the present.
He brings his own presence to the Art Garage this weekend, from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday; 12 to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 12 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
His original paintings of characters from The Beatles cartoon and the “Yellow Submarine” animated Beatles film will be available, as will others he worked on.
Some of Campbell’s resume includes “Scooby-Doo,” “The Smurfs,” “The Jetsons,” “The Flintstones,” “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “Yogi Bear,” and “Big Blue Marble,” which won an Emmy and a Peabody award.
With each piece of art comes a certificate of authenticity, which he’ll personalize with the cartoon of the buyer’s choice.
He’ll be on hand to talk with visitors and answer questions.
Scooby’s creators engineered Scooby-Doo to resonate with kids, especially those still learning their words.
“Scooby-Doo could barely speak, but he understood everything that was being said,” Campbell said. “They (small kids) have not yet developed the muscle and voice-box control to speak, and that’s a frustration to them. When they see the dog is similarly frustrated, they’ll automatically empathize and will find the animal irresistible for the rest of their life.”
Campbell’s own story
Growing up in Australia in the 1940s, before television, Campbell looked forward to the Saturday afternoon movies at the local theater.
“We would say, ‘Hey, are you going to the pictures this weekend?’ We called them the pictures,” Campbell said. “And then we’d all race each other to get to the front row.”
That front-row seat opened a world of mystery and wonder for a 7-year-old Campbell.
Disney characters such as Dumbo, Snow White, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and others captivated him.
“I thought they were real animals, animals that I’d never seen in a zoo,” he said.
One day he asked his great-grandmother where he might find these critters.
“She said, ‘Ronnie, those aren’t real; they’re drawings.’”
Instead of being disappointed that he’d never be able to see such creatures in real life, he felt excited.
“I thought, ‘You mean I could make drawings come to life like that?’” he said.
That launched his mission to become an animator.
As a young man, he worked on Beetle Bailey, Cool McCool, and Krazy Kat, and directed The Beatles cartoon series.
He moved to the United States, where Hanna-Barbera and other companies hired him to bring their characters to life.
Campbell said he’s constantly being asked which of his characters he’s liked the most, and he said he loves all of those he’s worked on, but a few stand out.
“I loved Angelica (from Rugrats) – she’s such a bitch, and I loved Smurfette – she was so sweet and lovely, and they’re polar opposites,” he said.
He also cited Astro, the Jetsons’ dog; Dino, the Fred-flattening dinosaur from The Flintstones; and of course, Scooby-Doo.
Campbell said he tried not to work on cartoons he couldn’t feel empathy for, such as superhero shows.
“I loved superheroes when I was a kid; I don’t feel antipathy toward them, but I didn’t much like working on them,” he said. “I like soft, gentle, sweet, humorous stuff and I preferred my own children to watch the (softer) stuff.”
People get nostalgic when they see Campbell’s art. Some people even cry.
He said it’s been his observation that seeing a favorite cartoon from childhood reignites favorable memories, no matter what kind of childhood someone had.
“In large numbers, what I’ve consistently found is that if you had an unhappy childhood, some of your happiest memories from that unhappy childhood are of watching that cartoon, and if you had a happy childhood, some of your happiest memories are still of watching the cartoons we made on a Saturday morning,” Campbell said. “I think we had a profound effect on children, not necessarily on their education or any of the important things, but we certainly had a profound effect on their happiness.”