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King Richard

January 18, 2013, 6:09 pm
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How do you establish a character who only has one scene in an animated film?
Appropriately portrayed as a lion (Richard the Lionheart) King Richard appears for a brief moment at the end of the movie Robin Hood, having returned from the Crusade.
I look at this one scene, and I immediately get a sense of his personality.
King Richard is beloved, he is big and powerful, but also kind with a sense of humor.

Beautiful acting. As the King approaches the church entry, Friar Tuck kisses his robe respectfully.
"Ah, Friar Tuck, it appears that I now have an outlaw for an inlaw. Not bad!"
He uses his walking stick as a prop to point toward Robin Hood and Maid Marian before both characters share a hearty laugh. 

Here are copies of a few of Milt Kahl's roughs from this lovely scene.














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The Amazing Artistic Range of Marc Davis

January 20, 2013, 9:27 pm
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Marc Davis was the most prolific and versatile artist I have ever met.
He never saw himself as only an animator, he was an artist first. And to him that meant exploring art in many different ways. His Fine Art alone shows such variety that I often thought, how can one man  master all these styles and approaches? There wasn't a medium Marc didn't enjoy.
Painting in oil, watercolor, or gouache. He drew with pen and ink, charcoal and pastels. 
Realistic depictions or abstract experiments, his range was breathtaking. 
He subjects were animals, portraits of women, dancers, bullfight scenes and Greek Mythology among others.
I remember him telling the story that as an art student he dreamt of painting Sistine Chapels, but  during the Depression nobody was ordering any.
One day Marc found out that Walt Disney was looking for artists, so he stopped by the Hyperion Studio, and the rest is history.

Here is a very small sampling of Marc's Fine art.








Marc said that when he applied at Disney, Walt was impressed with his ability to draw animals.
We are impressed, too. 
Thoroughly observed these poses read very clearly and already showcase a certain charm.





Most of you know about Marc's enormous contributions to the art of character animation.
Early on when Walt Disney saw his design work for Bambi, he asked Milt Kahl and Frank Thomas to make an animator out of Marc, because he wanted to see his drawings on the screen.
I still wonder what kind of animation we would have seen from Marc, had he not moved over to Imagineering after finishing work on Cruella DeVil.







"I intended to bring more humor to Disneyland" Marc said. He was referring to his ideas and concepts for rides like The jungle Cruise, The Haunted Mansion and The Pirates of the Caribbean.
Look at the way Marc staged these pirates. The final audio animatronic situations HAD to read very clearly, because visitors only have a few seconds to observe what is in front of them.







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Jessica Rabbit

January 22, 2013, 8:20 pm
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Jessica's supervising animator was the incredibly gifted Russell Hall. 
Russell had been working for Richard Williams for quite some time, and it was decided early on that in order to ensure Jessica's consistency in the animation, one animator should focus just on her.
I remember it took Russell a little while to get a hold of the character, the issue being how realistic or cartoony the design and the animation should be.
In the end he created this Femme Fatale, who left male viewers all over the world sort of stunned and surprised, since they found themselves very much attracted to this animated character…in an obvious way.
Just look at these fantastic animation roughs above!

Here is a group photo with a few members of the Roger Rabbit animation team.
Russell is the one with a white shirt  on the right.



A Christmas card from Russell Hall's studio in London, sent after we had finished Roger Rabbit.
It shows a variety of characters from commercials he animated over the years. All of them great!



Check out this mid 80ies advert Russell animated for Listerine;


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Watch Frank Thomas Animate!

January 24, 2013, 9:58 pm
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Frank Thomas animated a few beautiful scenes during the Rescue Aid Society meeting at the beginning of The Rescuers.
Janitor Bernard retrieved a written note from a bottle, then Bianca and the Chairman try to decipher the washed out writing on the piece of paper.
I find the acting here very real, the way Bianca holds on to the Chairman's arm as she moves cautiously across the sheet. One could argue that the motion is more human than mouse-like, but that's a discussion for some other time.

The sketches above are staging ideas for the moment when the two leading mice meet for the first time.
Below are a few expressive key drawings of the Chairman.

The video clip is from a 1977 UK TV show. I knocked down the color, which was overly saturated.
A big Thanks to Hans Perk, who got me a copy of the show.
A little window into a time when Frank was working on one of his last animation assignments.






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Granny Squirrel

January 26, 2013, 11:50 pm
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As most of you know Frank Thomas animated the squirrel sequence in The Sword in the Stone.
Bill Peet's storyboards provided rich situations for Wart as well as Merlin, who go through great lengths to fend off female admirers. 
At first Merlin advises Wart on how to deal with the love struck girl squirrel, then he finds himself in the same predicament with Granny.
Contrasting attitudes, fantastic acting business and of course masterful animation made this one of Disney Animation's most entertaining sequences.
Even the ever so critical Milt Kahl was impressed. "Wasn't that a rich thing Frank did?" he confessed enthusiastically to me, when we were talking about Sword in the Stone.

I want to briefly stress the importance of animation business here. This sequence has tons of it.
If there are any secrets about Disney Animation, this is one of them.
When you have personalities interacting like this, the animation benefits so much when a character doesn't succeed the first time around in his or her intended action. Simple example:
Merlin pushes Granny Squirrel away, but her weight causes her to bounce right back. So Merlin pushes her again, trying a little harder or just doing it differently. 
Another one: 
Merlin explaines to Wart how to prepare before jumping safely from one branch to another. Then he fails and almost falls down. 
FAILING in character animation is a good thing, because it gives the acting a human touch.

An example not from the movie: a character jumps over an obstacle. He doesn't land firmly on his feet like a gymnast, he might fall and then get up. Or at least after the big jump he needs to take a few small steps to regain balance. Stuff like that adds life!
If all your animated actions always suceed, you might be serving the storyboard but not the character.
Remember Chuck Jones' One Froggy Evening? When the frog lands after a leap, one leg slips down, because it missed the right contact to the ground.

Below are some of Frank's beautiful design sketches for Granny.



A rare workbook sheet. Frank plans out scene continuity and acting business.



This is an animation rough from that very section. Merlin thinks he can avoid this uncomfortable situation by just walking away. Fat chance!



The search for animatable facial forms and shapes.


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Wilhelm M. Busch 1960

January 29, 2013, 1:02 am
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These glorious Busch illustrations from 1960 were published in the German book "Ein Mensch", humorous verses by Eugen Roth.
I picked out just a few, the ones that show rich attitudes. They remind me of great animation key drawings, when you can tell what the character is thinking and how he is feeling.

Just look at the first one. How could you depict a simple situation like this one any better?
A restaurant guest is being served a meal. The waiter's pose says: Here you are, mein Herr!
Perfect pose! The guest looks like he might have been waiting for a little while, he is so looking forward to this meal. Human behavior beautifully observed in real life.

Another favorite is the scene in the shoe store. The way the customer straightens out, then looks down on to this new pair of shoes. The sales person's attitude is typical and priceless.
This stuff is graphic gold!














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Milt Kahl Talks Casting on Peter Pan

January 30, 2013, 9:25 pm
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This rare TV footage was filmed when Milt had already finished Madame Medusa for The Rescuers.
It was his last assignment at Disney, he left the studio soon after.
At that time he felt that the "post Walt" animated features weren't nearly as good as when his boss was around. Milt was very critical of the story as well as the craftsmanship that had gone into Rescuers.
Within this frame of mind he talks about animator casting on Peter Pan, many years earlier.

This is vintage Milt Kahl, listen to not only what he says, but how he says it.
You'll agree that Milt was a pretty entertaining character himself…and perhaps that's an understatement!


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Mathurin Méheut

February 2, 2013, 11:43 pm
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Mathurin Méheut (1882-1958) was a French painter, who became known for his drawings and paintings depicting everyday life in Brittany.
Those are lovingly observed, and they communicate a feeling of being "of the moment" to the viewer.






Méheut also loved drawing animals. I found a book with some of his animal studies a few years ago, and was very impressed with his skills as a draughtsman.
As you cash see in the following pages, his approach is very academic here, and he doesn't always get it right. The facial proportions of some of the tiger illustrations seem a bit odd to me, but the overall effect is that through Méheut's robust and solid sketches you somehow come closer to understanding the animal's anatomy.












Méheut also taught art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, and I believe that's where he met and had a big influence on one of his students, Frédéric Back, who is known for his stunning animated films like Crac!, The Man Who Planted Trees and The Mighty River. 
More on the amazing Mr. Back in the next post.

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Frédéric Back

February 5, 2013, 11:55 pm
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© Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal

Frédéric Back is one of the greatest artists of our time.
His drawings, paintings and his animated films are so full of humanity, it is quite humbling to look at this great man's life work. I had the chance to meet him at the opening of the the exhibition "Once upon a Time, Walt Disney" in 2007 in Montreal.
There have been many celebrations and tributes to his films including one at the Academy in LA, and more recently a major retrospective and exhibition opened in Japan.
Back has been nominated for an Academy Award numerous times, he won twice for his films Crac! in 1982 and The Man Who Planted Trees in 1987.
He said once: "There can be more to animation than entertainment." Personally I find his films not only entertaining, but they enlighten and touch audiences in a profound way with themes that center around the preservation of the natural world. 
I highly recommend the 4 DVDs, The Man Who Planted Trees Deluxe Edition, which features many of his films. You can find it occasionally on Amazon or Ebay. 
Below are a few of Frédéric Back's magnificent animation illustrations published in the book version of The Man Who Planted Trees. 
If Marc Chagall had been an animator, this is what his films might have looked like.









© Frédéric Back/Les Enterprises Radio-Canada/Gallimard-Lacombe     

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The Other Genie

February 7, 2013, 11:57 pm
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Most of you are familiar with the Genie from the movie Aladdin, superbly animated  by Eric Goldberg.
You might not know that there is another Genie, who came before, also superbly animated, this time  by John Lounsbery. In 1957 Walt Disney introduced an educational TV show called "Our Friend The Atom", which described the benefits of nuclear power - with a cautious but optimistic look toward the future.
The show is mostly live action, but it did feature a few animated segments. 
The discovery of atomic energy is compared to a fable, in which a fisherman finds a bottle. He opens it, and a giant Genie appears. 

Cliff Nordberg animated the fisherman, and as mentioned Lounsbery did the scenes with the Genie, this time portrayed in purple.
Below are a few key drawings (clean up over the roughs) from a scene where the Genie threatens the fisherman: "Know that presently thou will have to die!" 
At least that's what I think he says, it is a bit hard to understand from the DVD.

The drawing style of the animation is 50ies graphic, but Lounsbery is able to get a nice sense of scale and dimension in this up shot.














A couple of pages from the book Our Friend the Atom, which was published around the time of the TV show.


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Milt Kahl's Black Cauldron

February 9, 2013, 10:28 pm
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These are the last drawings Milt Kahl ever did for Disney.
He had already left the studio and moved to Marin County in Northern California.
The film The Fox and the Hound was being produced without any input from Kahl, but the management team that would head up the next animated project The Black Cauldron felt, it couldn't hurt to ask the old virtuoso to help out with a few character designs.
So they sent him the Lloyd Alexander books and told him that the movie would be based on story elements from these fantasy novels. Milt liked the material and went to work.

There is one problem with this scenario:
The studio neglected to also send along any rough design sketches that would stimulate Milt's imagination. When designing characters Milt had always relied on 
Vis Dev sketches from artists like Bill Peet, Ken Anderson, Tom Oreb and others.
Milt himself admitted that he sees himself more of a refiner when it comes to setting the look of Disney characters for a new film.
So by not having any fresh visual material in front of him, Milt couldn't help but recycle some of his own design elements from earlier movies. 

All of these are BEAUTIFUL drawings, but ...Taran looks like a mix of Peter Pan and Mowgli, Princess Eilonwy resembles Alice and Tigerlilly, and Fflewddur Fflam could be the brother of Roger from 101Dalmatians (Gurgi is a more interesting invention).
The costume designs lack spark as well. All of this would look so much more inspired, had the studio supplied Milt with inspirational sketches from Disney artists like Mel Shaw, Vance Gerry or Peet Young, who all worked on Cauldron. 







The Gwythaints are distant relatives of the vaultures from Jungle Book.



The Horned King should have been a menace like Fantasia's Chernabog.





The Witches of Morva are variations of Medusa and Madam Mim, gorgeously drawn though.





In the end our animation team did change some of these character concepts, except for Taran and Eilonwy. We were asked to basically use Milt's models, but we sure weren't ready to take on that kind of realism. 
It's fun though to think that Milt's career and mine overlapped just a little bit. And by the end of production of The Black Cauldron I felt like I had learned how to walk, and it was time to move on to new projects with a tiny bit of experience under my belt.

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Words of Wisdom from the Masters

February 11, 2013, 8:13 pm
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Another clip from the 1977 UK TV show on Walt Disney.
Three of the Nine Old Men talk about various topics. 
Ward Kimball reflects on Walt's personality, Milt Kahl defends the character styling of Bambi, and Frank Thomas elaborates on squash and stretch.



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Kittens

February 13, 2013, 11:36 pm
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To many Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse might not be considered classic Disney characters, but when The Aristocats premiered way back, the film was enthusiastically received, particularly in Europe.
I understand that by now Marie has become quite the star in Japan.
Ken Anderson did tons of exploratory drawings of the kittens. These color sketches give you an idea about his process, and how he tried to differentiate the three from each other through proportions, attitudes and coloring.



The following five sheets show Milt Kahl's first attempts to adapt Ken's designs for animation.
I remember senior clean up artist Chuck Williams telling me how surprised he and others were, when the final designs were approved. "Oh, is THAT what they are going to look like?" was his reaction. Obviously Chuck had expected something different.
I find these preliminary drawings by Milt very charming. They were drawn on small note pad paper sheets, 6" x 8 1/4" with a super sharp pencil, probably during a story meeting.
The fluffyness of Marie's fur was later streamlined to avoid complicated line mileage.







In these drawings you see Milt helping Ollie Johnston with design and drawing issues.
Ollie animated key personality scenes with the kittens in sequences like the singing lesson and Berlioz painting Edgar's portrait.
I really enjoy the believable child like behavior in Ollie's animation, and I love Marie's diva attitudes.




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Pinocchio Story Sketches

February 16, 2013, 4:27 pm
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I would really like to know who the Disney story artist was who is responsible for the beautiful sketch above and the storyboard below. The style with its rendered characters looks familiar, I believe it is someone, who only worked on Disney's Golden Age features before leaving the studio.
I can't get over the expressive poses, appealing and beautifully staged. 



Animators like Norm Ferguson were smart enough to take advantage of this great material and applied the dynamic acting in these poses to their animation.
A few lively Ferguson roughs, the last two are extremes for a planned piece of action.
By drawing so loosely the animator is free to focus on the character's emotion and the overall entertainment. 




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Jungle Book Recording Session Break

February 18, 2013, 9:42 pm
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There aren't many people I recognize in this casual setting. In the back is Milt Kahl, arms raised, in the center smiles Ollie Johnston, arms crossed, and I believe Ken Anderson sits on the right with his head half obscured by someone else. (Perhaps Floyd Norman can identify the rest.)
The boards show Anderson's designs for King Louie and Baloo, dressed in drag disguise. 
So the voice artists being recorded that day might have been Louis Prima and Phil Harris, who performed the Sherman brothers' song "I wanna be like you!", one of the highlights of the film.
It looks to me the location could be Sound Stage A or B on the Disney lot.
In later years I was present for many recording sessions there, which involved my characters.
Seems like we had better catering than what I see in the photo. Beside coffee there was never a shortage of fresh fruit, bagels, coockies and sandwiches.
And that was necessary, because those recording sessions could last for many hours.
For final dialogue directors and animators prefer to choose from a number of takes, to pick out the one that sounds just perfect.

Looking at this photo is like time travel, a moment during early production from a film that would change my life.

A closer look at some of Ken Anderson's character designs for this hilarious sequence.








More Jungle Book production art can be found in Pierre Lambert's wonderful coffee table book,
Le Livre de la Jungle:
http://www.amazon.com/Le-Livre-Jungle-Pierre-Lambert/dp/2732439231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361253078&sr=8-1&keywords=lambert+le+livre+de+la+jungle
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Fritz Hug 2

February 20, 2013, 10:38 pm
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It has been a long time since I posted any wildlife art from the great Swiss painter Fritz Hug.
Here is the link to my first post on him:


These charming spot illustrations were published in the 1966 book "Tiere, meine taeglichen Gefaehrten" (Animals, my daily Companions).
The technique is brush and ink, and I see a combination of confidence and carefully observed subtleties. There isn't an animal he couldn't draw or paint with great believability.
The angularity in his work helps to bring out the specific anatomy of the animal. And those ink splashes are a trademark of his.
I purchased an oversized print showing a tiger recently, would love to own an original sketch sometime.












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Hook and Smee

February 22, 2013, 10:52 pm
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What a terrific photostat!
The actors are Hans Conried as Hook and Don Barcley as Mr Smee.
This is an absolutely crazy scene. Smee believes that he cut off Hook's head while giving him a shave. Then, when he finds the head under the chair, he tries to pick it up while informing Hook's body toward screen right about his luck. 
Character animation doesn't get any better than this! This stuff is right up there with Chaplin and Marcel Marceau. A nutty situation performed in a completely believable way. You don't even sense any live action reference, because the broad animation totally stands on its own. 
Here's to Frank and Ollie!!
They went back and forth animating this scene. Frank started out by staging Hook. He threw in a few poses for Smee, but Ollie did his own acting for that character.








These clean up keys are scans from "The Illusion of Life". 
I just love the fact that while Smee tries to pull out Hook's head, his attention is toward screen right, because that's where he last saw Hook's body.
One of my favorite animated scenes, Animation Gold!!!
Drawings from right to left:





More on the second half of the scene in the next post.

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Hook and Smee II

February 25, 2013, 6:56 pm
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Here are a few more of Frank Thomas' rough character layouts for the second half of the scene. The sketch above establishes the size relationship between Hook and Smee.




Hook anticipates a reach toward the bewildered Smee.




He then extends his arm to get a hold of Smee.




Hook reacts to the crows nest announcement that Peter Pan is approaching. 
His attention now lees with Smee, instead he is processing what he just heard.





He then drops Smee , turns toward the crows nest  to give an order.

All this is so carefully staged and timed out in the animation, that you are never in doubt about what the characters are thinking.

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Just for Fun

February 27, 2013, 11:58 pm
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Another watercolor study of Lilo and Stitch I did last year.
It always fascinates me how subtle as well as bold you can be when applying watercolors.
Brings back fun memories from a film that has the chance to become a classic.

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After the Tango...

March 1, 2013, 9:41 pm
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…these two characters show different states of mind.
Madame Bonfamille is a little exhausted and relieved that the frolic has come to an end, while Georges Hautecourt keeps on boogieing.
The dance was his idea anyway, and you can see Madame's initial reaction on the xeroxed cel above. 
Xeroxed scenes, especially when drawn this rough, only work for me when draughtsmanship and animation are outstanding. That's certainly the case here, because the artist is Milt Kahl.
Milt portrays Madame with elegance and French charm while the decrepit lawyer is still very much young at heart. 
Their degree of caricature might vary, but there is a unity in the character design that makes them work together. And of course the contrast in their personalities allows for interesting character animation.
Sure, here and there Milt might have overused a head nod or shake in his acting, but on the whole this is a remarkable sequence within the opening of The Aristocats. 
The idea to have these two seniors break into dance while they reminisce about old times is wonderful to watch.

Below are copies of key drawings from the scene that shows the tango coming to an end.
The characters were drawn on different levels, I combined them here to show the full composition. There is a lot of goodness to study here: 
The definition and overlap of clothing in the lawyer's jacket as well as Madame's dress and boa. 
Hautecourt's knee wobble after each foot contact, and some daring facial perspectives. 
All this was done without any live action reference.















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