Disney on TV

March 13, 2017, 2:10 am

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I didn't grow up in the US, where millions of kids grew up with Walt Disney's regular TV shows.
Walt was still alive when I was a young kid in Germany, and I remember vividly watching him on very rare occasions during German Disney TV programs. Of course Walt spoke German fluently, thanks to his dubbing voice, actor Friedrich Schoenfelder.
Naturally I was particularly fascinated when the show's content was about animation. The world's master magician telling the audience about past achievement or what he was planing to do next.
Nirwana!

Here is a magazine article featuring Walt's history with Mickey as shown on TV.

The ultimate program for me was when Disney artists were introduced as they worked on various animated feature films. Here is Milt Kahl animating the introductory scene of Tramp From Lady &the Tramp.

In this TV episode Disney animators study human movement in preparation for Sleeping Beauty.
The model is Helene Stanley, the animators are Marc Davis, John Lounsbery and Milt Kahl.

Ollie Johnston is getting ready for his close up in a mock office, put together on one of the Disney sound stages. The filmed segment starts out with Ollie animating Merryweather and leads to the topic of model trains, a hobby he shared with Walt. See framed photo on top of his desk.

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Mushka Research

March 14, 2017, 11:43 pm

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I remember gearing up for my film Mushka. For a while it was all about tigers, and adding to the knowledge I already had about these magnificent cats. The sketch above was done at the LA zoo, at the time they had an exhibit with a tiger mom and two cubs. Lucky me!!
I sketched them as the cubs grew in front of my eyes over a period of a few months. I also took footage to study at home frame by frame. TV nature programs were useful as well. I even studied tiger cub "appearances" on late night shows, David Letterman etc.
They showed me that restless quality of a tiger cub when held by a human. That definitely made it into the film. You find yourself studying your subject wherever you find interesting tiger behavior.
YouTube is wonderful for this. Before animating Mushka yawning, I checked and found five or six extremely useful video clips of a tiger yawn. There is much more to it than the mouth just opening wide and closing. I love studying this stuff.

Below is a sketch I made for a possible poster, announcement or whatever. I might use it later or not.

Gaston in "Real Life"

March 17, 2017, 10:58 am

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I saw Bill Condon's Beauty and the Beast a week ago, and was very happy with Luke Evan's portrayal as Gaston. A role like this one could be overplayed in a cartoony way very easily, but Evan's performance is nuanced and entertaining. Check out the film!

My previous posts on Gaston's 1991 cartoon version:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/08/gaston-model-sheets.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/08/more-gaston.html

I had great help from these terrific animators:
Joe Haidar, Ron Husband, Dave Burgess, Alex Kuperschmidt, and Tim Allen.

Reminder

March 19, 2017, 11:06 pm

≫ Next: "And besides...I don't have any claws!"

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I will give a presentation for members of the Walt Disney Family Museum on Tuesday, March 22, at 4pm.

"And besides...I don't have any claws!"

March 23, 2017, 11:27 pm

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This whole tree climbing sequence from The Jungle Book has always been one of my favorite pieces of animation. The storyboard sketches suggested basic ideas for action and acting, but Milt Kahl went to town with this material, and really got the most out of it in his brilliant animation.
In an effort to climb up a tree to spend the night, Mowgli ends up hanging on to Bagheera, as he continues to move upwards. There is so much entertainment packed into these scenes. The way the boy hangs on to the panther, Mowgli planting a foot into Bagheera's face and so on. Sublime anatomy. Animated gold!

Check out how incredibly graphic Milt's drawings had become. Yet when seen in motion you believe you are watching three dimensional, believable characters performing a comedy routine.

I added a frame from the preceding as well as one from the following scene, to remind you of the action's continuity.

Milt's birthday was on March March 22. The day before this blog had almost ten thousand visits! Perhaps some of you were expecting me to post some Milt Kahl art.
Consider this post a celebration of his life's work.

Last Tuesday in SF

March 26, 2017, 11:17 pm

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I had an amazing time in San Francisco last week.
My exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum is so well put together and designed by the amazing Marina. I feel flattered beyond belief. It was great to see Ron Miller along with his daughters Joanna and Tamara. A once in a lifetime experience!

One wall was entirely dedicated to Mushka. There are plenty of character sketches as well as Vis Dev art by the amazing Peter Moehrle.

That's Sybil Byrnes in the middle, daughter of Milt Kahl. She came with her granddaughter Zoe and her mom.

As you can see it was a glorious day in SF!!

The Three Caballeros

March 28, 2017, 9:50 pm

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Wouldn't it be great to resurrect this type of film making? Finding a great story that needed to be told with hand drawn animated characters as well as live actors. I am not talking Roger Rabbit II, I would prefer brand new material. There is just something wonderfully nonsensical about combining these two worlds. And when done well, completely magical. 

Here is a Popular Science article from September of 1944 about how Disney made the then upcoming feature The Three Caballeros.

The vintage writing style cracks me up, you'll see what I mean.

Merryweather Pencil Test

March 31, 2017, 12:07 am

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I haven't posted a vintage Disney pencil test in ages. The main reason for this is, they take a lot of time to put together. 

This scene featuring Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty was animated by Frank Thomas. This is his rough animation, drawn much cleaner than on other productions. Everyone who animated on Sleeping Beauty drew tighter because of the demanding character designs. The animators did not leave any drawing issues for the clean up artists to solve, the unique graphic quality needed to be in the rough animation. 

Merryweather wants to turn Maleficent into a hop toad. During her dialogue she jumps up and down to simulate a toad's action. The scene is beautifully analyzed and animated, a real Thomas gem!

The little splash of tea that Frank added was unfortunately eliminated in the final color scene.

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Frank Thomas goes Wild

April 4, 2017, 1:26 am

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There are many hilarious moments in Disney's 1949 film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl animated scenes during the classic dance sequence at Van Tassel's party.

Brom Bones tries desperately to get close to Katrina, but the overly enthusiastic, love struck Tilda stands in the way. Frank Thomas goes to an exhaustive routine in which Brom Bones tries everything in his powers to rid himself from this energetic, clingy girl, but to no avail. 

Animation drawing # 331 shows a type of exaggeration seldom seen in Thomas' work. He gets the idea across that Tilda is "glued" to her reluctant dance partner. For one frame only Disney realism goes out the window, as B. Bones' finger elongates illogically, but to great effect.

This long scene is a comic masterpiece, beautifully timed and drawn exquisitely. Milt Kahl helped Thomas by contributing numerous tie down sketches in order to maintain solid anatomy during these wild movements.

A lot more key drawings from this scene are published in my NINE OLD MEN book on pages 232 through 235.

Jose Carioca

April 6, 2017, 10:19 pm

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Just a fun comparison between an early version of Jose Carioca (possibly drawn by J.P. Miller during the El Groupo trip to South America) and his final appearance in the 1943 film Saludos Amigos.

Fred Moore finalized the design and animated numerous beautiful scenes with this character.

More on Fred's work for Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/11/freds-flair.html

Another Kley

April 7, 2017, 11:52 pm

≫ Next: Disney Roughs

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A beautiful composition featuring two satyr type characters admiring a lady, who seems displeased at being starred at. I like the muted color choices, browns against blues. I am dying to animate those kind of characters. I even have an idea for a short film...but that's way in the future, after I finish my film with the girl and her tiger.

Disney Roughs

April 10, 2017, 11:32 am

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A bunch of Disney rough animation drawings to show the various drawing styles of the animators.
As usual Ollie Johnston has a light touch in his work, allowing him to animate faster than most other animators (he spent less time in each drawing.) The first three images are by him.

Fred Moore's loose energy and confidence are evident in this rough of Doc.

Bill Tytla drew the scenes with the dwarfs before and during Grumpy's bath outside.
Terrific animation, but drawings like this one need a top clean up assistant to add detail.

Eric Larson indicated on the right side how part of Cinerella's dress should flow. This is important information for the in-betweener.

The beaver from Lady and the Tramp examines the log-puller.

A John Lounsbery rough of King Hubert. the shape language is very close to Milt Kahl's.

A powerful pose of Maleficent, not by Marc Davis, but by animator Amby Paliwoda, who I believe didn't get any credit on Sleeping Beauty.

Pinocchio's Evolution

April 11, 2017, 10:21 pm

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I am sure you've seen some of this art work before, but it is good to compare Pinocchio's development beats in one row. I don't know who drew this preliminary model sheet, it is reminiscent of the original book illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti.

The second sheet starts to show feature film qualities, it looks like Fred Moore might have had something to do with this version. Quite a bit of animation was done using Pinoke looking like this, but Disney wasn't satisfied.

An early color model cel with a still unrefined Geppetto.

Here Milt Kahl comes into the picture. He drew these poses after having animated a test scene featuring Pinocchio under water. (Which is sort of an odd choice for selling a new character design as far as environment).
Anyway, we all know that Walt loved Milt's model, and the rest is history.
Milt was right, a little kid personality is more important than the wooden marionette look.

Bob Jones created character models like this head of the title character.

A cel set up from the final production.

If you want to find out about the film's Making of, get J.B. Kaufman's fantastic book:
Pinocchio, the Making of the Disney Epic.

For a Milt Kahl pencil test, go to the bottom of this page:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/milt-kahl.html


Images Heritage Auctions

A Blast from the Past

April 14, 2017, 4:00 am

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Gosh, I sure wished I had a hi res version of this photo from the early 1980s. Didier Ghez posted this pic a while ago on his blog. We are celebrating master layout artist Don Griffith, who is about to retire. Don was a gentle soul with enormous talent. His career with Disney Animation goes all the way back to 1943. He worked on so many classic films. 

OK, based on the comments Didier received on his blog, here are the names of the folks in the picture:

Way in the back is background painter Jim Coleman. Next row from left to right:

Layout artist Guy Vasilovich, Don Griffith, blue sketch artist Kathy Zar, Joe Hale (producer, former layout artist), Ed Hanson (management), director Rick Rich, story artist Dave Jonas, layout artist Karen Keller.

Next row:

Director Ted Berman, me, layout artist Bill Frake, layout/vis dev artist Mike Hodgson, and in front layout artist Carol Grosvenor.

I remember this party as if it was yesterday. We were still in Walt's Burbank animation building.

Magic!!!

House Cat Studies

April 17, 2017, 9:13 pm

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This is my cat Joan in 1991. She served as an early model to study cat anatomy, because we were just getting ready to animate big cats. Joan, the miniature lioness lived a full and happy life.

For some sketches I used a brush pen, a regular felt pen for others.

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Song of the South Art

April 19, 2017, 3:56 pm

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These gorgeous storyboard sketches by Bill Peet as well as the preliminary background/color studies (presumably by Mary Blair) show that the art of Disney Animation was still riding high during the mid 1940s. Song of the South was released in 1946. 

The studio had gone through a sizable staff reduction after a few of their high profile animated features failed to generate profits. Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi all disappointed at the box-office.

How an animation studio can survive a severe blow like this one is a mystery to me. And on top of it Disney continued to produce beautiful short films that still had a sense of experimentation in terms of style and story.

Sleeping Beauty Color/Design Studies

April 21, 2017, 1:05 am

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All those color key paintings by Eyvind Earle for Disney's Sleeping Beauty are breathtaking. Simple, strong composition that emphasize the design and mood for individual scenes from the film.

Earle signed most of his work, but not always. 

There are plenty of fake Earle design paintings (along with Mary Blair) offered at various auctions these days, but the ones shown here are the real thing. 

The Walt Disney Family Museum is about to open a huge exhibition featuring Eyvind Earle's art.
Paintings from his work at Disney as well as his personal art will be on display. For more information go here:

http://waltdisney.org/exhibitions/awaking-beauty-art-eyvind-earle


For more on Earle check out this previous post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/06/eyvind-earle_27.html

Never before Seen Kahl Drawings

April 23, 2017, 6:45 pm

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I recently came across these two beautiful sketches by Milt Kahl. They show Jim Dear and Darling from the film Lady and the Tramp, engaged in some sort of conversation. Milt didn't end up animating these characters, that assignment went to Ken O'Brien.

There is little doubt in my mind that photographs were used as reference in creating these images.

It is always fascinating to me how Milt interprets straight realism and comes up with forms and shapes that can be animated. 

Wonderful insight into an early stage of Lady and the Tramp character design. 

Ken O'Brien came very close in his animation to what Milt did graphically in the design phase:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/01/young-lady.html

Woolie and Ken

April 25, 2017, 11:53 pm

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A great photo of director Woolie Reitherman and Ken Anderson, visual development artist.
The pic was probably taken during the mid 1960s when the animation crew was finishing work on The Jungle Book. The Aristocats was the animated feature that followed, and Ken is busy developing personalities as well as environments for the story. He did an enormous amount of design sketches for the film. Ken Anderson was what you would call a compulsive draughtsman. On his own time he kept sketchbooks, many of them illustrated his travels around the world.
The only other Disney animation artist who also did this was Marc Davis. To animators like Frank and Ollie and Milt Kahl, drawing was a means to an end. Their philosophy was, you draw for animation, that's it ( which certainly makes sense, when you think about the intense brain work involved in their type of animation).
Here are just a couple of sketched situations from Ken Anderson's vast Aristocats inventory.

Snow White , 80 Years Old

April 28, 2017, 1:23 am

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At the end of this year Disney's first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be 80 years old. This movie manages to stay relevant as a personal statement by Walt Disney and his artists.
As the look and feel of animated features has changed, Snow White keeps glowing as a reminder that there is such a thing as the ART of animation.
When you do something so well, so wholeheartedly without compromise, then that piece of work is for the ages.

There are very few people who worked on this film that are still with us: Scene planner Ruthie Thompson, animator Don Lusk and live action reference model Marge Champion. I feel lucky to have met them all and even discussed their contribution to the film.
This is Marge in full costume, getting ready to act out scenes for the animators. I love the black contours which help tracking her movements on film.

This cel set up might show its age with all those wrinkles, but as a piece of art it still looks astonishing!

 

A rare photostat of the Queen. I've always wondered how animator Art Babbit ended up with this assignment, since he had been known for very cartoony work like animating the character of Goofy.
But he sure pulled it off, this queen is beautiful and ruthless at the same time.

A lot of the muted color palette for the film was inspired by designer Gustaf Tenggren.