ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996 TAG: 9611290104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: DAVID A. MAURER CHARLOTTESVILLE DAILY-PROGRESS
The scrawl was on the wall for Gene Barretta at a very early age.
It left little doubt what was in store for the artistic toddler.
When just a baby, the future animator took a crayon and drew a purple elephant on the wall next to his crib. He has since refined his techniques considerably.
Last Monday, one of Barretta's animated segments helped ``Sesame Street'' launch its 28th season. The one-minute, five-second cartoon taught millions of preschoolers a little bit about the number 10 and a blueberry-beaked budgie.
``It was magical to see my creation in the context of the whole show,'' said Barretta, as he sat next to his drawing table in his Charlottesville apartment.
For his segment, Barretta not only did the animation, he wrote the blueberry-beaked budgie song and sang and played guitar.
Barretta's multiple talents will again be presented on the popular Public Broadcasting Service show Dec.30 with a segment on the meaning of empty and full. He also has a spot Jan.3 with an animated short on communicating through writing.
Becoming a member of the Sesame Street family has been a dream for Barretta since he first saw the program shortly after it debuted on PBS in 1969.
The future cartoonist's interests expanded into puppeteering after seeing Sesame Street characters on television in 1970. Soon, Barretta and his brother, Bill, were building their own Muppets.
``We used to daydream about working for Disney or the Muppets creator Jim Henson when we grew up. The remarkable thing is that the first big studio work we did was for Disney and Henson.'' Barretta wrote a short script for Disney's ``Bonkers'' cartoon series in 1993.
Barretta is no stranger to film work. He's a graduate of the New York University film school and, for a time, lived in Los Angeles, where he worked in the production of action films and commercials.
Barretta moved to Philadelphia, but it didn't take long for the artist to realize he wanted to live in a place that was new to him. He chose Charlottesville.
``I came here for a visit and found the town really inspiring. I've lived in six states and major cities like New York, L.A. and Manhattan, and Charlottesville is the closet thing I've found to Mr. Rogers' neighborhood."
Still, a lot of kids would probably be surprised to know where the blueberry-beaked budgie and his friends were born.
``I think kids would be very surprised to see our small studio here,'' said Tom Crawley, who does the coloring for Barretta's creations. ``We did a tremendous amount of work here on the three Sesame Street segments,'' Crawley said. ``Each one-minute piece took between 400 to 500 drawings.''
Although Barretta uses a computer to compile the drawings to create a segment, he draws all the art work in the traditional way. It takes 15 drawings for each second of animation. Crafting each drawing by hand has paid big dividends for Barretta.Baretta is the first Sesame Street animator to be given more than one assignment.
Each of Barretta's Sesame Street segments are a little more than a minute long. He designed them to not only teach, but to entertain.
Children with quick eyes may get a few surprises when Sesame Street airs Dec.30. In order to teach his young viewers the difference between full and empty, Barretta created two opera singers. When the opera singer with a bad voice sings, the concert hall empties. When the opera singer with a good voice sings, the hall fills.
The lesson being taught is obvious. What isn't so obvious are the people in the audience. ``In a wide shot of the audience I put in people I admire, like Elvis, Ben Franklin, the Beatles and Leonardo da Vinci.''
Although Barretta said there are no guarantees, he hopes to work on Sesame Street projects for six months out of the year and fill the other half with commercial work.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Charlottesville artist Gene Barretta mixes animationby CNBand education on his favorite kids' show.