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Wendy and Peter's Shadow

July 11, 2014, 11:33 pm
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I’ve always loved this section from the film Peter Pan’s opening sequence. 
The backgrounds look very soft and dreamlike, and the character situation is just wonderful. Wendy explains to Peter that he can’t attach his lost shadow using soap, it needs sewing (who knew?). What great cartoon logic!

Peter Pan obviously doesn’t know the proper shadow attachment technique yet.



Kathryn Beaumont acted these scenes out for animator Les Clark. Quite the contraption as a stand in for Peter’s leg.



A nice animation key drawing by Les Clark.



Can you believe this background from the sequence? What amazing lighting. The beauty of these backdrops is that they look a little deserted without the character level, like a gorgeous painting that is missing something. This little masterpiece is on screen for only a few seconds.


A frame from the scene.



The craftsmanship and care that went into making these Disney movies never ceases to amaze me.

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Soccer/Football

July 13, 2014, 11:36 pm
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Obviously I need to have a post that celebrates the German team winning the World Cup. Yeeaaaahhhh…..
The soccer game in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks was unbelievably popular in Germany when the film was released there in 1972. It was shown on TV over and over again, and when Disney released the sequence on Super 8 film as home entertainment, it became by far the best selling Disney clip.

Here are a few of Milt Kahl’s gorgeous designs for a few members of the infamous “Island of Naboombu” soccer match.






An earlier leaner warthog design.






All I remember when I saw the match for the first time on the screen, it gave me one of those Disney “highs”. And Kimball’s direction had a lot to do with it.

Did I mention Germany won…?

Links to previous posts on Bedknobs and Broomsticks:


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TS Sullivant 11

July 16, 2014, 1:22 am
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Exactly one hundred years ago this Sullivant cartoon was publishes in Life magazine.
A whole century later he still stands alone as a master of caricature of not only animals, but people as well. 
The following illustrations show how inventive, unconventional and original he was when handling human types. If I was teaching a class on character design, I would have all of my students study these proportions, poses and expressions. This stuff is so way ahead of today’s animation designs. I don't mean that modern animated characters should look like Sullivant's work, it's just a level of excellence in general that I am missing in most productions.


Here is another selection of Mr Sullivant’s delicious drawings, to inspire and to remind everybody, who is interested, of a higher standard. 











My first post on Sullivant focused on his masterful animal designs:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/t-s-sullivant.html
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Lessons from Frank & Ollie

July 18, 2014, 2:40 am
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…about observation and personality. These clips are part of a program that helped promote their book The Illusion of Life. It aired in the early 1980s on the Disney channel. After reminiscing about their long careers at the studio, Frank and Ollie talk in front of students from Cal Arts a well as Rowland High School. Some of these kids went on to become big players in the animation industry. One young student is John Ramirez, who turned out to be the fastest inbetweener in the West, and I was lucky to have John help me meet my crazy deadlines for Lion King and Hercules.
Joe Ranft is in the audience as well.
It’s fun to watch Frank and Ollie in top form, as they communicate with a new generation of animation artists.



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Robin Hood Character Moments

July 20, 2014, 12:39 am
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Beautiful staging and drawing is evident in these animation drawings from the film Robin Hood.
Except for Prince John, who was brilliantly handled by Ollie Johnston, the images are from scenes by Milt Kahl. (Mother Church Mouse is a model sheet, drawn by Milt).
The animation doesn’t have the energy we see in the anthropomorphic animals from Song of the South, but these characters live in a different world, and the situations within the story call for more subtle acting. Milt recalled that even though Robin Hood is a fox, he is the equivalent of a hero type, so his actions and expressions needed to reflect that. 
Ollie had a great time animating Prince John and Sir Hiss, two characters with rich vocals that helped to establish them as entertaining, comic villains.
My favorite character design from the film is probably Lady Kluck, Maid Marian’s lady-in-waiting. I love the simplicity of her silhouette, her sharp beak and the way her wings articulate human gestures. 
This is an appealing cast that deserved to be placed in a better story. 
When Ward Kimball (who was not involved with the film) saw an early screening of Robin Hood, he complained to Frank and Ollie: ”How on earth can you tell this story without having Robin Hood save Maid Marian from the clutches of Prince John?”

Nevertheless, as a much less critical kid I enjoyed watching this film a lot when it first was released in 1973.









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Busch Bullfight Illustrations

July 22, 2014, 9:12 pm
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In 1932 Ernest Hemingway wrote the non fiction book “Death in the Afternoon”, which details the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting.
In 1965 Wilhelm M. Busch illustrated the German version, titled “Der Unbesiegte”.
These are small, but powerful brush and pen sketches that capture the intense emotion of the bullfight.

His portrayal of Spanish bystanders is equally interesting, and I love how Busch places his illustrations in the vertical space of each book page.











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Disney Tigers

July 24, 2014, 8:40 pm
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Post #500:
Here is a look back at Tiger characters that were part of Disney films during Walt’s life.
As I mentioned before, tigers are not particularly popular characters to do in animation, because of the costly and time-consuming procedure of having to add all those stripes, 24 frames per second.
Nonetheless Disney didn’t shy away from this challenge whenever a story called for a tiger. 

Tillie Tiger was the female lead in the 1936 Silly Symphony Elmar Elephant. 
After being bullied by a bunch of animal kids, Elmar emerges as a hero when he helps save Tillie’s life during a fire. 
Ham Luske animated most of her scenes, a few of them were done by his assistant Ward Kimball. Beautiful innocent stuff!





The film Dumbo featured brief scenes of a tiger family, as they travel with the circus. I love their designs, cartoony, but based on the real animal.



The 1945 short Tiger Trouble introduced a hilarious tiger, who enjoys pestering his hunter Goofy.
Animation by Milt Kahl, Eric Larson and John Sibley.




In 1960 the studio tested the new xerox process on the short film Goliath II, in which a tiny elephant tries to avoid being eaten by a tiger.
Bill Peet storyboarded the project and also illustrated the story as a terrific childrens’ book.

John Lounsbery animated most of the footage with this tiger. 





For a brief moment Madame Mim turns herself into a tiger in order to defeat Merlin as a mouse.
I’ve always loved this design by Milt Kahl, animated by J. Lounsbery.

As you can see in this storyboard by Bill Peet, the early version of the character didn’t show any resemblance to Madame Mim yet. But what fantastic visual ideas for Merlin and Mim as they morph from one animal type into another.




A Disney character that needs no introduction



I mentioned before in a previous post that in preparation for Shere Khan Milt Kahl researched tiger movement and anatomy by studying footage from the 1964 Disney live action film A Tiger Walks.



This frame from the title sequence shows clearly what influence these scenes had on Milt’s animation of Shere Khan. The tiger’s front weight is clearly on his left leg, as the other leg swings through.
I’ve always admired how Shere Khan’s shoulders move up and down during a walk to show the shift of weight.




I am not exactly sure when Mushka, the tiger will reach the screen, but we’re working on it, and the project is surely coming along, in terms of story, music and styling.

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Frank & Ollie's Last Assignments

July 26, 2014, 11:20 pm
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By the time I stated at Disney in August of 1980, Frank and Ollie had already finished work on their last film The Fox and the Hound. The rest of the studio was still wrapping up sequences, correcting rough animated scenes and trying to meet deadlines for clean up animation. 
But Frank and Ollie were still around at the studio, upstairs in the animation building, working enthusiastically on their first book The Illusion of Life.
For the film Frank had animated the section in which Tod and Copper meet in the woods for the first time as cubs. Ollie had focused on the sequence with grown up Tod getting to know Vixey.
Both animators worked together as they always had, talking over the acting for particular scenes and exchanging drawings. (They also layed out continuity sequences for young artists to animate). 
Overall they thought that the type of personalities and situation in the film didn’t challenge them like previous animal assignments. It seemed to them they had done similar work on earlier movies with fresher results. Frank and Ollie were ready to let young people take the medium and develop it into new directions. 
But as you can see in these final drawings, they both still had that sincere, emotional touch with character.








These are Frank's drawings:





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Mr. Snoops

July 28, 2014, 10:32 pm
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This post on Madame Medusa’s partner in crime Mr. Snoops is long overdue. 
Brilliantly drawn and animatedly by Milt Kahl, his part in the movie The Rescuers is relatively small. This is due to the fact that actor Joe Flynn, who voiced the character, died in 1974 during production of the film. Director Woolie Reitherman decided to build Snoop’s role around the already recorded dialogue, instead of using a sound-alike actor for further development. 
Snoop’s design is based on animation historian and teacher John Culhane. Milt had given a talk at his class in New York and was inspired by John’s appearance. 


Joe Flynn



John Culhane (from a magazine article in “American Film”)


Snoops is one of many Kahl masterpieces. He is a chubby man, dressed in a baggy suit, wearing oversized glasses and 1970s platform shoes. Milt took great care and delight in defining the character’s bulgy anatomy. His arms are relatively short in contrast to his big pear shaped body. 
As in all of Milt’s characters, Snoop’s chubby hands are beautifully defined. They are worth studying frame by frame, because…they are just plain fun to watch in slow motion. There is as much personality in these hands as there is in Snoop’s expressions.
Here are a few of Milt’s roughs.









Snoops pretends not to be intimidated by the aligators Nero and Brutus…but he is.
This leads to some funny walks as he is trying to avoid them. 

A couple of Milt’s thumbnail sheets.



I have more material on Snoops for another post.

To see a previous post on Nero & Brutus go here:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/nero-brutus.html

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Ronald Searle 1952

July 30, 2014, 3:27 pm
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This Searle illustration, probably done for a magazine, is fascinating to me. You have to go back as far as the early 1950s to find a tattoo artist depicted like a university professor.
Searle creates an incredibly detailed backdrop for his two subjects, but your eye still stays on the two men, who are drawn with less line work. This type of realistic and thoroughly observed work informs you about Searle’s solid drawing knowledge, which served as a basis for his much more caricatured book illustrations. A true master, who continues to influence many artists to this day. 

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The Wolf

August 1, 2014, 11:31 pm
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The film Make Mine Music, which includes the short “Peter & the Wolf”, wasn’t released until 1946, but this model sheet dates all the way back to February of 1941.
I love these drawings (a lot)! Who would ever think of caricaturing a wolf like this? With a very long snout and overly articulated anatomy. This artist could draw and had a flair for cartooning. Look at the exaggerated perspective, so eerie, just fantastic! I would guess that Disney story artist/ designer James Bodrero came up with these concept sketches, but I am not sure.
The rough layout poses below maintain the scary, creepy quailties from the model sheet.









The final cel-painted version comes close to the earlier concept, but looses some of its power due to the clean lines defining the character.


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Sculpted Drawings

August 3, 2014, 9:25 pm
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Milt Kahl and some of his colleagues had a way of drawing and animating characters that seem to inhabit real space. Individual parts of the body connect organically, and there is a flow from one form into another. A full understanding of the character’s anatomy as well as perspective is the key to achieving this type of dimensionality. 
Rough drawings, like the one above, often indicate how the animator solved drawing problems. They also show where time was spent and effort put into carving out correct, believable and interesting poses. In this sketch Milt was concerned with Bambi’s head in a down position, and how it connects to the body. Fascinating brain work.

Lady’s head is a pretty complex arrangement of basic and very subtle volumes. Her eyebrows sit on dimensional and flexible muscle parts, and her eyelids and lashes overlap the eyeballs. Every line is put down to give a three dimensional appearance.





This 3/4 back view could look awkward or boring, but by figuring out the correct angle with all its subtleties it comes off as a beautiful drawing. 



Volumes in motion. What great rhythm from one form into another.



A potentially complicated pose reads very easily instead. The arrangement of Bambi’s mother’s front legs could present an elaborate anatomical study, but Milt found the simplest solution to make it look natural and elegant.



This doodle sheet shows great understanding of deer like, balanced poses.



It looks like Bambi just  caught his balance in this awkward, but beautifully designed figure.
You can almost see the wobbly steps that would have preceded this pose.



Any twist in the overall body or head turn is helped by the indication of the center line, from tail to nose. 




After animating in this rounded, sculpted style for a couple of decades, Milt and several others in the animation staff were ready for a change. Films like Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians had the animators focus on line and shape to achieve a much more graphic representation of their characters.

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Rien Poortvliet

August 5, 2014, 9:39 pm
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In the US Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet is probably best known for his lavishly illustrated books on Gnomes.
But his real passion was to create paintings of everyday life on a farm, and sceneries depicting a hunter’s experiences. He loved the Dutch countryside, which he portrayed endless times in beautiful oil and watercolors.
Poortvliet was self-taught, he never attended any art classes. His goal was through observation to improve as an artist every day. As a young man he found jobs in the advertising world, but by the late 1960s he was able to make a living as an independent illustrator.
In 1992 his oversized book on the story of Noah’s Ark was published in the States. Here are a few studies of animals and landscapes from that edition.












© Abrams/Poortvliet

Rien Poortvliet died in Holland in 1995 at the age of only 63.
On the whole I would have to say that his work is occasionally a little too photorealistic for my taste, but I do admire his incredible technique and his love for painting and storytelling.

Here is a link to an informative interview, conducted in 1994 in his studio:


References for this post: Wikipedia

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Milt's Tigger

August 7, 2014, 10:58 pm
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Way back on the original Winnie The Pooh shorts, Tigger was the last character to be translated from a book illustration into an animation design. His transformation was more substantial than any of the other personalities. Luckily it was Milt Kahl who was in charge for Tigger’s final appearance in the Disney films. 
Illustrator Ernest H. Shepard’s original concept looked like this.



A cel from one of Milt’s scenes.



Milt just went to town with this assignment. Pooh and most of the other characters behave in subtle ways, and their acting is underplayed. Tigger adds a much needed contrast with Paul Winchell’s voice and Milt’s energetic, boisterous performances.
Here are a few of his original, first-pass roughs, which were tossed out because a pose or an expression needed to be altered. They are from a variety of scenes.












Shepard drew this charming sketch in which Tigger is contemplating about helping himself to some of Pooh’s honey.



Milt’s Tigger bursts into the scene and grabs a honey pot with a lot of gusto.
Just looking at these drawings in sequence makes me insanely happy!












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Nessie

August 10, 2014, 7:25 pm
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Working on short films has always been a fun but brief experience, and “The Ballad of Nessie” from 2011 was no exception. (For some reason it feels like only yesterday that we made the film.)
Each animator gets just a few scenes to animate, and the project is done. Nessie (under six minutes long) was animated by Ruben Aquino, Dale Baer, Randy Haycock, Mark Henn and myself.
Stevie Wermers-Skelton came up with film’s concept, and Kevin Deters joined her to co-direct.
We enjoyed working on simple, cartoony material again that was inspired by some of the Disney shorts from the 1950s. 
The color image above is a still from one of my scenes. 

A few of my exploratory sketches based on Stevie’s design.






This is a pre-production test scene I did which shows Nessie during a sad moment, all alone with her only friend MacQuack, a rubber duck.


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Frank's Baloo & Mowgli

August 12, 2014, 10:17 pm
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For the film The Jungle Book Ollie Johnston animated the introduction of Baloo and his first encounter with Mowgli, the man cub. Frank Thomas took both characters over, starting with the scene above.
Mowgli has just ran away from Bagheera, and all he wants right now is to be left alone.
But Baloo is too interested in getting to know this unusual jungle creature. He wants to have some fun and challenges Mowgli to a boxing match. After a while he let’s the kid hit him in the jaw and pretends to be on the loosing end of this game. 
This sequence is beautifully written and brilliantly animated by Frank. Since there is a lot of motion involved (broad as well as subtle) with both characters as they circle each other in this mock fight, Frank ended up doing ALL of the rough drawings himself. There are no in-betweens. 
This is actually not that unusual, since Frank usually contributed most or all of the drawings for any of his scenes. Other animators would often use a moving hold for calm moments, which involved only two key drawings with lots of in-betweens provided by the assistant. But Frank seems to always have something going on, even in the most subtle acting patterns. Something is always moving, things don’t come to a stop. 
As a result of producing so many drawings for a given scene, Frank could not focus on gorgeously designed poses or expressions. So his drawings by themselves might not look too intimidating to an animation student or professional, but watching them in motion is a whole other potato. The characters come to life in such a believable way, they breath, they move with weight, and they have real thoughts.
In other words, they have a soul.

Here are a few moments from Frank’s scenes, in which Baloo tries to cheer up Mowgli and win his affection. 









To watch some of these scenes in motion, go here:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/04/jungle-book-pencil-animation.html
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Kley's Pastoral Kiss

August 15, 2014, 12:35 am
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I always thought that most of Heinrich Kley’s nudes have an innocence about them, sort of like Freddie Moore girls. There might be a light sensual quality in some of his illustrations, but Kley stayed away from showing truly sexual content. 
This image is very different. 
The woman is drawn delicately with a pale skin tone. By contrast her lover -a centaur- is depicted with bold ink lines. This passionate embrace represents the only Kley sketch I would call erotic.
There are parts of the composition like the shapes of the trees that support symbolically the nature of the theme. 
When I saw this piece for the first time. I was startled to see how far Kley went in drawing this intimate, amorous moment of fantasy.

Compare this illustration to to Kley’s “Centaur Family Portrait” from an earlier post:


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Victory Through Air Power II

August 17, 2014, 3:54 pm
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I really didn’t think I would ever do another post on this unusual Disney feature from 1943, but I want to share these terrific design sketches by Marc Davis for the film. Marc is researching animatable versions of the eagle and the octopus, who face off during the film’s climax. It is a short but dramatic sequence, animated by Bill Tytla.
These studies show Marc’s unwavering belief that you need to know and understand an animal’s internal anatomy before you can animate it convincingly. The motion range of wings, neck and claws are thoroughly studied. Marc was a “no nonsense” artist, know your stuff from the inside out before you make it move. Wether cortoony or realistic, Marc always insisted on figuring out the character’s 
inner workings first. 






I remember Marc talking about drawing snakes. He mentioned that many artists draw them by using curved lines only, which results in weak looking images. “There are plenty opportunities to add straight lines to show strength and power”. 
The same can be said about these octopus studies. Whenever a tentacle stretches, it shows tension and stress. Magnificent drawings.




To revisit my first post on Marc’s story sketches for Victory Through Air Power, go here:



It’s time to -highly- recommend this new book on the art of Marc Davis. It gives you great insight into the creative mind of this multi-talented artist, whose career covered character animation, theme park attractions and fine art. Various chapters also describe Marc as a teacher, traveller and husband.
I was honored to write about his animal studies at the zoo.
(The drawings above are not included in the book.)
The book is already available in Disney parks, the Amazon link is here:



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Exploring the Possibilities

August 19, 2014, 8:23 pm
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Milt Kahl used those words when he tried to explain his process for starting a new scene.
Most of you know that Milt and many other Disney animators produced a number of thumbnail sketches in preparation for the actual animation. This research can center around finding certain expressions, an acting pattern or -like in this case- a simple pose.

In this scene Robin is stirring the soup while daydreaming about Maid Marian. 
The image above is a frame from that scene, but check out how much work Milt put into finding this one pose. He came up with a ton of variations, until he sold himself on one position that looked natural to him. 
I think that Milt actually struggled a little to get to a satisfying result. But remember what he said one time: “I actually don’t draw that well, I have to work like hell to make a drawing look good!” (At the same time he thought that he drew better than anybody else at the studio.)

It’s fascinating to see his mind in action, exploring the possibilities.







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Greek Mythology

August 21, 2014, 11:20 pm
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I just got back from a screening of Disney's Hercules, a film I had not seen since it came out in 1997.
And I have to admit, that I had forgotten how funny it was. Way back in 1997 the movie's satirical humor and its graphic styling might not have been everybody's cup of tea, but watching it today with an enthusiastic audience was a lot of fun.
I'll have more on Hercules in the near future, some material (my pencil tests) I thought was lost just resurfaced. So stay tooned.

In the meantime here are a few beautiful book illustrations depicting Greek Mythology. The artist is Wilhelm M. Busch, and the 1968 book is called "Olympische Liebesspiele" (Olympic Love Games).
I love everyone of these drawings, and if I could draw like this in my next life, that would be ok with me.











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