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Animated Energy

October 6, 2012, 10:01 pm
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These animation roughs by Milt Kahl are from The Martins and the Coys section in the feature "Make Mine Music'" from 1946.
I find the exuberance and vitality in these dance poses infectious, when I look at them.
The characters are Grace Martin and Henry Coy, and they are in the middle of their spirited wedding barn-dance.
(You won't find this section on the edited DVD, released years ago.)

The animation is not based on live action here, the characters' cartoony design didn't require it.
And yet there is an elegance and clarity even at this first pass rough stage. 
The sheets are not numbered, which indicates that they haven't been timed out. The final animation probably differs a little from these exploratory sketches.
Pure joy !








In a different scene wedding guests join in the folk dance.
Look at how the two main characters make eye contact in the second sketch!



The hilarious square-dance caller as a rough and as a clean up drawing.
I love the fact that at times his head almost disappears in his oversized collar.




You can see on this cel that during these fast dance moves the inking wasn't always spot on. Watched in motion though everything looks terrific !


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Four Mouseketeers

October 8, 2012, 6:32 pm
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This is the year when some of Animation's Royalty turn one hundred years old.
Chuck Jones, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who will be 100 this Halloween.
Marc Davis will hit this mark next year, and Ward Kimball in 2014.
For this Disney Magazine photo shoot these four got together in December of 1997 at the local Tam O'Shanter restaurant. What a rowdy bunch!! 
I wonder if they ever had the chance to meet up again after that day.

The Tam opened in 1922, and it was one of Walt Disney's favorite restaurants.
And I can see why. It has the authentic charm of a Scottish Highland's Inn. And the food is very good, too.
During a recent visit there a waitress pointed out to me what used to be Walt's reserved table.
Who says LA has no history?

©Disney

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Action-Reaction

October 10, 2012, 9:41 pm
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I don't think I could have found a better drawing than this one to illustrate the point of action and reaction. And this is a one that Milt Kahl trashed, because in his mind something needed to be changed, which called for redrawing the poses.

Toward the end of The Rescuers Medusa is kicking Snoops in order to keep him away from the diamond. This is magnificently staged. From Medusa's shoulder all the way down to her right foot, one continuous line !! Her hands are holding the diamond up high in the opposite direction of Snoops. The idea being, you can't have this, it's mine!
Snoops reaction is very simple to read as well. Head, arms and legs, they all face forward to support the backward kick. What a drawing, sophisticated simplicity!

A little later in the film, Penny gets a hold of her teddy bear with the diamond in it. Medusa and Snoops are trying to stop each other from catching up with Penny.
Here Snoops has just grabbed Medusa's legs, as he is hitting the floor, his legs still up in the air.
Medusa's upper body reacts in a big upward stretch before falling down flat. 
All this action follows typical animation rules of overlap, weight and squash and stretch.
But it is just presented in a such a brilliant way.

It's fun to study the key drawings of the entire scene below.
I love the way Snoop's water balloon belly reacts when Medusa steps on it.













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Just for Fun

October 12, 2012, 11:30 pm
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                                                                Lilo & Stitch ©Disney

I don't think you are ever "done" with the characters you animated. 
When I finished my last scene with Mama Odie for The Princess & the Frog  I remember thinking, I am just warming up to her. An idea for a Mama Odie short film kept going through my head.
How much fun that would have been!
Animating Lilo was very special to me, too , so recently I imagined this little situation which is not in the movie. I used color pencil and watercolor.
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Si and Am

October 14, 2012, 10:32 pm
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I came across this drawing by Milt Kahl a few years ago, and it is interesting for a variety of reasons.
Milt rarely did sketches of Disney characters for fans or friends. This one is dedicated to the 86 year old Mae Orman, who was a friend of the Kahl family.
The following note was written on the back of the framed piece.



Attached with tape was also this small unusual cut out photo from a magazine, picturing Milt and Walt Disney. I wonder where the picture was originally published, I've never seen it before.



As far as the Siamese Cats from "Lady and the Tramp", Milt didn't do any animation with them, but he set their final design based on story sketches by Joe Rinaldi.
The cats were animated beautifully by Bob Carlson, Bill Justice and John Sibley.
So how does Ward Kimball fit into all of this?
As I understand, Ward actually started out animating the sequence featuring the Siamese Cats. The result apparently was way too zany (think Three Caballeros) for the more conservative animation style of the film. So his work was cut, and the characters were re-assigned.
Ward left the production and started directing very successful short films and TV shows at Disney.
But wouldn't it be great if the original Kimball footage was found? It might not have fit in with the other characters in the film, but I bet it was hilarious.

In this picture Ward is still working away on those darn cats.


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Mama Odie Maquette

October 17, 2012, 10:50 pm
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As supervising animators at Disney we got to keep our character's maquettes.
They were produced by very talented sculptors and were meant to help with drawing problems and to keep the character on model throughout the film. 
Sometimes though these mini sculptures arrived somewhat late in production, but even then It was always fun to see your character in three dimensions.
Over the years I accumulated quite a few of these, the only one that's missing is King Triton.
Ruben Procopio sculpted the cast of The Little Mermaid way back, and his beautiful sculpt of Triton just turned out to be very large. It was decided that at that size he would be too complicated to cast for reproduction.


Mama Odie along with all the characters from Princess & the Frog were sculpted by the gifted  Raffaello Vecchione. It was amazing to see how close Raffaello got to my drawings I gave him for reference. I did have some input after he showed me a rough sculpt, but he really is a master at interpreting animators' two dimensional drawings.

While on the topic of Mama Odie, this is a sheet I drew that shows different hand positions.  I do this for all my characters, since their hands need to be distinctive to fit the personality.
You often get away with only one joint for each finger, except in close ups when you need two.



Making Mama Odie talk with all her loose facial flesh was too much fun.
I did do some research before I started animation. Studying different films featuring American comedienne Moms Mabley and British character actress Margaret Rutherford was very useful and inspiring.
But in the end her face needed to work with Jennifer Lewis' wonderful vocal performance.



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Ken Anderson's Robin Hood

October 20, 2012, 1:09 am
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When Walt Disney Productions decided to produce an animated film based on the classic tale of Robin Hood, it was Ken Anderson who who got to get to work before anyone else.
During conversations with the animators Ken found out that some of the most fun they ever had was animating the anthropomorphic animals in Song of the South.
So he suggested that the story of Robin Hood be told with animal characters. Everybody loved the idea and after completing early design work Ken presented his research to some of Disney's top talents.
This photo was taken during a lively meeting which included, from left to right, director Woolie Reitherman, Milt Kahl, Ken, Dave Michener (a former assistant to Kahl, who had moved into story), Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and writer Larry Clemmons.
As you can see in the back Ken had done a ton of work. Once a character concept had been approved, it was up to Milt Kahl to finalize Ken's designs for animation. Usually Milt greatly finessed the look of the characters, but in my opinion there were exceptions.



Ken's version of Friar Tuck really looks like a badger. Something got lost in Milt's translation.
I remember that some people thought he was another bear.




Allan-a-Dale looks fantastic in Milt's final version.




Lady Kluck is a Kahl masterpiece.




Sir Hiss didn't improve from Ken's concept, Milt's version looks a little conventional.
Ollie Johnston though did a great job animating the snake.

Let me know if you'd like to see more of Robin Hood's design work. Robin, the fox himself went through quite a few changes.

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Crocodile Announcer

October 22, 2012, 11:07 pm
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I don't have any of Ken Anderson's sketches depicting this character from Robin Hood, but there is no doubt that Milt Kahl's final design is based on Ken's.
The crocodile's role in the film is very limited, he announces the archery tournament and is a little involved in the fight that follows. Most scenes were animated by Art Stevens. 
The character's voice is provided by Candy Candido, a Disney veteran, who had lent his talents to the Indian Chief in Peter Pan.
Milt is so great with alligators and crocodiles. I think his Nero and Brutus from The Rescuers are amazing, and he even had his hand in designing the crocodile in Peter Pan.



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Early Robin Hood

October 25, 2012, 11:13 pm
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What a beautiful character line up for a Disney animated feature!
This is how Ken Anderson envisioned the cast for Robin Hood. Nice contrasting shapes and silhouettes  make for a visually pleasing set up.
Although the one character who doesn't seem to represent his animal type clearly would be the Sheriff of Nottingham as a wolf. More on him in a future post.
Robin Hood himself is of course a caricatured fox, drawn here with a thin neck and with proportions that make him appear much younger than the final version.

These sketches by Ken of the title character represent a spunky mischievous type.
They date back to August of 1970. The movie's release was November of 1973.






Milt Kahl tried to preserve the "spunk" from Ken's drawings and explored animatable shapes, forms and expressions.

  

   






At that time John Lounsbery was cast as the animator for Robin Hood. Here are some of his exploratory sketches, based on Ken's and Milt's work.


I don't know if it was director Woolie Reitherman or Milt Kahl who voiced disapproval of these results, but things were about to change. For one thing, the length of Robin Hood's nose became a major issue of discussion. 
The choice to have British actor Tommy Steele voice the character was also questioned.

To be continued.

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More Robin Hood

October 28, 2012, 10:09 pm
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Those two excited gentlemen in the photo are Phil Harris who voiced Little John in the movie and Andy Devine who did Friar Tuck.
Only Robin Hood seems less interested in the storyboards, he is still hoping for story fixes.

Milt Kahl revisited all the design work that had been done on the title character, and he started animating production scenes such as the one below, in which Robin is putting on his gipsy outfit.
John Lounsbery, too, was busy with key personality scenes, and Milt kept a close eye to make sure the character would be consistant.







In June of 1971 Milt proposed these updated designs . I quite like this long nosed Robin with a stretched torso and short legs. The neck became a lot fuller, and the anatomy of a real fox is more pronounced.







There was another Robin revision in September of 1971.
Here the character might look more like a "leading man" type, but he also comes close to resembling a man in a fox suit. The fact that the exact date is written up on the model sheet shows some frustration over the ongoing design changes.




Milt finally settled on a shorter nosed Robin, with an appearance that resembles handsome heroes like Errol Flynn, Richard Todd or Kevin Costner.

Check out the appeal in this previously posted pencil test:



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Happy 100th Birthday, Ollie Johnston

October 31, 2012, 2:29 am
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When I think about Ollie, certain things come to mind:
Many great conversations, stimulating inspiration and my sincere admiration for him and his art.
Ollie's animation touched so many of us. 
Pinocchio, Bambi, Alice, Mr. Smee, the dogs from Lady & the Tramp, the Three Fairies in Sleeping Beauty, Pongo & Perdi, Archimedes, Baloo & Mowgli, Duchesse & the Kittens, Prince John & Sir Hiss, Penny & Rufus and many short films. 

For The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Ollie animated the hilarious sequence where Brom Bones and Ichabod fight for Katrina's affection. Absolute Genius. Fantastic timing. Watch it again on DVD!
Ollie Johnston, one of a kind !!







Happy Halloween, everybody !!!


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Maid Marian

November 2, 2012, 12:50 am
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Isn't this a beautiful drawing of Maid Marian by Milt Kahl?
Look at the care and the dedication in this sketch.

Milt came up with this appealing design for Robin Hood's love interest after studying Ken Anderson's  early concept work.
Below are some of Ken's sketches of the character, and as usual they provide a teriffic starting point for any future development.
The thing with Ken's concepts is that graphically hey can be taken in a hundred different directions when it comes to finalizing them for animation. It just depends on who and what artist follows Ken's work to put his own spin on to the designs.





Milt would always add sophisticated draughtsmanship and appeal. His stuff is rooted in realism, even when it comes to anthropomorphic, talking foxes.
Here is an interesting quote from John Grant's book Encyclopedia of Disney's Animated Characters:
"What is intriguing, however, is that the animators have succeeded in making a vixen have the screen presence of an attractive woman. In part this must be due to her voice, supplied by Monica Evans,  but this cannot be a total explanation. One must simply applaud the skill of the Disney animators."

Indeed! Milt had a way with designing appealing female animal characters such as Lady from Lady & the Tramp and Maid Marian.
Frank Thomas animated her beautifully during the archery tournament with sensitive, feminine acting.
Milt's sketches below were done for those Thomas scenes in order to maintain model consistency.









A cel from one of Milt's own scenes.


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Fred's Flair

November 4, 2012, 11:58 pm
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I found out that whenever your drawings become stiff and overworked looking, it's a very good idea to take a look at some of Fred Moore's work.
Did this man ever struggle? Sure doesn't look like it.
There is an absolute appeal in the way Fred drew, and you can feel the fun he had animating his characters.
You would call his style cartoony, but there is plenty of realistic believability.
Look at this cover illustration for the Three Caballeros Souvenir Album.
Solid weight distribution on Donald's and Panchito's right legs. Jose Carioca puts his weight on the little umbrella, which perfectly counter angles his body.
Jose's left hand resting on his hip shows just the right amount of foreshortening.

Marc Davis used to say "In those early days Fred Moore WAS Disney drawing."
He was the right guy at the right time in the right place!

The first few images show Fred's poses that were inked by another artist.






These are Fred's rough layouts for publicity illustrations.




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Milt Kahl talks Robin Hood

November 7, 2012, 1:34 am
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Here is a special treat for you!
Very little footage exists of Walt Disney's animators talking about their craft or even promoting their movies.
Before Robin Hood was released, Woolie Reitherman and Milt Kahl went on tour to talk about the new Disney Feature. This clip shows Milt  answering questions during a TV show in Dallas in 1973.
You've got to admire Milt's patience with the interviewer, who seems to know very little about animation, and who Milt Kahl really was.




On his blog Chris Sobieniak posted some great printed material featuring Milt's visit to Dallas.
Check it out:

http://sobieniak.blogspot.com/2012/11/disneys-robin-hood-golden-press-1973-pt_7.html
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Liu Jiyou 2

November 10, 2012, 8:20 pm
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Some more art by fabulous Chinese painter Liu Jiyou.
His style evolved over the years from realistically rendered illustrations to bold brush strokes later on in his life.  There isn't an animal he couldn't draw or paint extremely well, from insects to birds to big cats. Jiyou obviously spent a lot of time observing his objects at the zoo.
And in my book there is no time better spent for an artist than doing just that. 
It takes years to be able to portray specific animal characteristics on such a high artistic level. But it sure is a lot of fun being on that journey, knowing that the more you observe the better you will get.
If you haven't already, take a look at my first Liu Jiyou post a while back:


I believe this first bold image is based on a Chinese folktale. Spectacular, beautiful economy of lines particularly on the rabbit.











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Kimball Hooks

November 14, 2012, 9:57 pm
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Who knows why Ward Kimball is drawing and grimacing Captain Hook, a character animated by Frank Thomas and also Woolie Reitherman. 
But it would be very interesting to see what his own take on this villain might have been. In "Peter Pan" Kimball was of course responsible for the brilliant animation of the Indian Chief as well as The Lost Boys.

Most of you have seen Ward's caricatures of some of his fellow animators posing as Captain Hook (including himself).
These were published in Frank & Ollie's "Illusion of Life".
If you want to find out who Clarke Mallery was go to this cartoon brew post:


I came across Ward's rough sketches for Frank, Milt and Ollie, they were probably his first pass before he inked them later. Cranky Milt is a favorite along with Ollie holding a corkscrew.





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Sir Ector

November 17, 2012, 11:10 pm
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Frank and Ollie said in their book "Illusion of Life" that the humans in Sword and the Stone were animated without the benefit of live action reference, and the results are beautiful.
For the most part Sir Ector , Wart's foster-father, was animated by Milt Kahl. 
John Lounsbery and Eric Larson also did key scenes with the character.
In the scene pictured below, Ector has a few words of warning for young Wart, who claims  to have pulled the sword in the stone: "You're making a fool of us, boy! Now tell the truth!"
This could have been a very ordinary continuity scene, but Milt found ways to add subtle personality touches.
After the crowds laugh in disbelief of Wart's statement, Ector turns his head toward camera, gathers his thoughts for a brief moment before addressing the young boy, who is staged off screen right.
On "Tell the truth" Milt uses a strong head nod, which causes Ector's hat to follow through on the main action. The result is slightly comedic and helps to turn this into a personality scene. 
The way his moustache overlaps during dialogue is pretty nifty, too.








These are key drawings from an earlier close up scene in the film. They show a wide range of rich expressions for this boorish and pompous character.


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Team Disney

November 20, 2012, 11:38 pm
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Here is a heck of an assembly of top Disney talent.
The photo was taken during the early 1950ies on a soundstage at the studio. 
Walt Disney is getting his miniature train fired up with animation personal looking on.
Standing from left to right are Walt Disney, unknown, producer Harry Tytle, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Ham Luske, Eric Larson, Ollie Johnston and John Lounsbery.
Let me know when they invent time travel, because I'd love to be in on this gathering.

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Ichabod

November 22, 2012, 6:41 pm
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Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!
To post sketches from Disney's 1949 featurette "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" seems appropriate for today. Though the film's theme has more to do with Halloween, but turkey is being served in several scenes, so what the heck!
Above are Frank Thomas' design drawings for the main character and his horse. That scary ride home from the party is some of Frank's best work. He told me once that he animated the sequence faster than anything else before that. I forgot the actual footage now, but I believe it was around thirty feet a week.

A couple of animation roughs showing Ichabod escorting Katrina, who would be animated on a separate level. My guess is that these are by Ollie Johnston.



Design sketches of Katrina by Frank. He is trying to avoid any definition of her nose to achieve a soft, youthful appearance. The concept didn't hold up in the animation.
Fred Moore had something to do with her final look as well.




Great staging studies for key poses by Frank. Beautiful, clear compositions.





Ward Kimball's concept for Brom Bones. He looks much cartoonier here, before Milt Kahl turned him into a more handsome dude. 
By the way, when I did Gaston, the same kind of alteration was asked for.





A Frank Thomas sketch incorporating Kimball's Brom Bones.
(On second thought, this could be a Kimball drawing).




A Milt Kahl's rough of Tilda.




For a brief moment Brom Bones gets to dance with Katrina in this Kahl sketch.




Here Milt is helping Frank and Ollie to resolve drawing issues in their scenes.






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Brom Bones

November 25, 2012, 1:24 am
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Singer/Actor Bing Crosby visits Milt Kahl, and he brought his four sons along, Dennis, Phillip, Gary and Lindsay.
Crosby narrated the Disney film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which made up half of the 1949 feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. 
Milt animated the introduction of the town's bully Brom Bones as well as his big song number at the Van Tassel party. 
He is a rich character, full of confidence and full of himself. Milts animation shows just the right amount of dash and bounce. Although the style of the film is pretty cartoony Brom Bones' physique required careful and somewhat realistic draughtsmanship in terms of anatomy.
Milt was just perfect for this kind of an assignment. No live action reference here, that's why the animation feels so wonderfully loose.

This was great inspiration for myself, when I started work on Gaston in Beauty & The Beast.
Although I did end up using some live action reference, I tried to avoid rotoscoped looking animation.
Brom Bones and Gaston have a few things in common such as an overbearing personality, and they are both after one girl. Then again Brom ends up with Katrina while Gaston fell to his death…or did he?


A Vis. Dev. character line up of Brom Bones and his buddies.




Milt explores staging ideas, showing Brom Bones frustrated during a scene at the party.




These are copies of Milt's key drawings, the clean up was done right over his roughs.
During this song Brom is intimidating and scaring Ichabod Crane.
Beautifully timed to the rythm of the music with a daring perspective shot at the end.
Dial. : "He swears to the longest day he's dead!"















Blog reader Henry created this pencil test:
http://penciltests.tumblr.com/post/36504343760/from-the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-part-of-the
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