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From Vance Gerry to Milt Kahl

October 23, 2019, 12:14 am
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Story artist Vance Gerry boarded Medusa's introduction sequence from The Rescuers.
You can see that Vance was still kind of hanging on to her classic depiction, in which her hair mass is actually a bunch of snakes.
Milt Kahl who animated the villainess didn't go quite as far and drew her hair more conventionally.
This of course makes  complete sense since we are not dealing with Greek mythology here but instead with New York during the 1970s.

But Milt kept Vance's overall idea for the character's staging.
He mentioned in an interview that Medusa treats the phone's hand set as if it were Snoops. She is mad at him for not being able to control Penny. So she shakes the hand set, pokes it with her finger etc.
That thing represents Snoops to her. A fun way to approach this scene from an acting and animation point of view.






A few terrific thumbnail sketches for this section of the film.



A felt pen sketch that shows Medusa's unusual and entertaining body proportions.


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Roger Rabbit Problem Solving

October 26, 2019, 11:38 pm
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This was my first scene that involved a character's eye to pop out a la Tex Avery.
I remember paying attention to the technical aspects for the scene. Roger's eye pops and then there needed to be a stagger, a subtle back and fort, back and forth, animated on 1s (like the rest of the movie).  I thought the pencil test looked pretty good until Dick Williams pointed out that during the stagger the eye still has to follow Bob Hoskins' movements.
I adjusted the animation, but there still seemed to be something awkward with the way Roger was placed into the live action scene. A lot was going on with the pillow and the blanket. They seemed to have a life of their own.
I tried a couple more times to make Roger fit into the bed, but it didn't look perfect.
Guess what, ILM placed a shadow over the screen's lower right corner to take the edge off this combination issue. It sure helped a great deal.







In the following scene Roger exits the bed before jumping back on it. It turned out that Bob Hoskins' eye line was too high before the rabbit arrived in his upward position. The solution was to stretch out Roger's arm, so Hoskins looked at the hand, and a few frames later the head.
There were times when we all had to be creative in order to make the animation/live action combo believable.
Great times!!



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Big Cat Staging

November 5, 2019, 12:59 am
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This story sketch showing how Shere Khan extends his claws in front of Mowgli is by Vance Gerry.
Its gets a little tricky when a four legged big cat needs to act human like with its front paws.
The pose tends to look unnatural and even off balance when the acting is shown as a full body shot.
Milt Kahl knew this. So whenever Shere Khan rubbed his paw against his chest or clapped in applause, he chose a medium close up in his animation. 
The animal character becomes human for a few moments, and it looks more believable in this type of fielding. 
This is a general rule and there are exceptions. Earlier when Shere Khan first approaches Kaa, he pulls the snake's tail down to the sound of a door bell. It's a funny gag, and the tiger is shown in a full body long shot.







I became aware of this staging issue when animating certain scenes with Scar.
Here he is talking to Simba about a "Father/Son......Thing".
I animated his left paw rotating as if Scar is looking for a certain word: "Thing".
On that word he flicks his paw, to show a sense of banality and slight disgust.
I love working this kind of stuff out.
This scene wouldn't have looked right if we had chosen to show his full body.



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Gold!

November 8, 2019, 11:49 pm
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Today by accident I came across a lecture given by animator Chuck Harvey at California State University in 2017. Chuck talked about his own work at Disney and other studios.
I was beyond thrilled when he showed and discussed several Milt Kahl thumbnails for Madame Medusa. Copies of this kind of exploratory sketches for certain sequences for The Rescuers by Milt are all over the place, I posted some myself.
Yet I had never before seen thumbnails for the Holy Grail, the make up removal section.
A frame grabbed these images from the video, no HD here, but it is still a thrill to be able to study them. 






Chuck was already an accomplished animator when I started at Disney. He had worked on The Small One, Pete's Dragon and The Rescuers.

You can find his lecture here:


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Black Cauldron Witches

November 13, 2019, 11:33 pm
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There were many different design versions drawn for the Witches of Morva in The Black Cauldron.
Artists like Milt Kahl, Mel Shaw and Tim Burton all came up with character models that represented their individual artistic style. 
Milt"s witches reminded me of Madam Medusa and Madam Mim, two characters he had previously animated. Tim of course drew the trio in his wonderful outrageously avant-garde style.

By the time I come onboard, I took bits and pieces from these earlier approaches and came up with this look. I believe this what they ended up looking like in the film.

I drew a few scenes with the Witches, but Dale Baer was the one who showed real polish in his animation.








Heritage auctions is currently offering these sheets from the film's producer's estate.


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Preston Blair Life Drawings

November 19, 2019, 12:35 am
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Preston Blair was an extraordinary animator who worked for Disney, MGM and Hanna-Barbera. 
His work on Mickey in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, his hippo/alligator dance in The Dance of theHours and Red Hot Riding Hood for Tex Avery is legendary.
As are his books on cartooning and animation. Here is a selection of his life drawings currently being offered at Heritage Auctions.











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Dumbo Story Sketches

November 25, 2019, 9:49 pm
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These charming story sketches are by Bill Peet. (Not 100% sure about the last one.)
Peet's work was an animator's dream come true. He worked out story continuity, character relationships, where the camera was placed, and of course dynamic poses with tons of appeal.
Word has it that he felt the need to re-draw Bill Tytla's animation which he considered to be off model  in some scenes. 
This might be an animation history myth, but you can see in his wonderful drawings that he had a knack for drawing Dumbo as well as the other elephants. Such a great feel for the type of staging that reveals personality. 
When I met Peet late in his life, I knew I was having conversations with an animation giant.












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Lounsbery Cels

November 27, 2019, 9:56 pm
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Most Disney animation history buffs agree, John Lounsbery doesn't get enough love.
He died in February of 1976 as the first of the Nine Old Men. (Les Clark was the second).
Louns was a mild mannered, soft spoken animator who nevertheless inspired new generations of animators. 
Glen Keane was blown away when he saw Lounsbery drawings for the first time. Dale Baer had the pleasure of being tutored by him during the Disney animation training program. And I am still studying his work trying to figure out why his characters in Dance of the Hours, Dumbo and Jungle Book -to name just a few titles- come off the screen in such a believable and entertaining way.
His use of squash and stretch when animating loose skin is astounding. Examples:
Tony& Joe, the dog Bull and Colonel Hathi. 
So many great performances  like Willie, the Giant, the Mad Hatter (yes, a lot of the the key scenes are his along with the Cheshire Cat), the mice in Cinderella and on and on.

Lounsbery was one of the greatest...ever.












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Progress

November 29, 2019, 11:10 pm
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So happy and proud to report that progress on MUSHKA has been substantial. 
We are locking several more sequences in final color, it is a joy watching it all come together. At this pace we should finish around summer/fall of next year. 
This has been, and still is, an amazing ride. There were times when I thought: What's wrong with a short film that is seven minutes long? 
But telling a story is funny, in a way that it tells you how long it needs to be. MUSHKA can't be told in seven or ten minutes. It is a half hour film. That's the length necessary to cover everything, the development and relationships of the characters as well as the overall storyline. 

In the photo you can see how we add "character effects". This is a process that happens after character opaquing and coloring. Minor highlights and shadows are being added, but also deeper color areas on a tiger. His back, parts of his face etc. 

So far so good!!




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Klaus

December 5, 2019, 11:25 pm
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Treat yourself to a viewing of the animated film Klaus on Netflix.
Sergio Pablos and his crew managed to come up with a brand new style for hand drawn animation.
Believable motion combined with inventive lighting. The result is magical.
Kudos to the entire Klaus team as well as Netflix!




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Frank Thomas on Lady & The Tramp

December 9, 2019, 12:34 am
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This is Frank Thomas, probably in 1954. Behind the scenes photos of Disney animators are relatively rare, so I treasure every one I can find. 
Frank animated scenes with Lady, Tramp, Jock and Trusty. The character of Tramp was designed by Milt Kahl, who also animated the character's opening scenes in the film (Tramp sleeping in a barrel, he wakes up and takes a "shower".)
Frank did wonderful scenes with him as he happens to pass by the Darling home and overhears a conversation between Lady, Jock and Trusty regarding a human baby.





Here Frank is animating, what might be his first scene with Tramp, who spots Lady being lectured by Jock and Trusty.




This is that scene, a close up of Tramp looking toward the three dogs,




In the upper right corner of the publicity photo you can see design doodles as well as a size comparison sheet drawn by Milt.
Walt Disney repeatedly assigned Frank and Milt together on the same character. Needless to say the results were always of an insane high standard.



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MUSHKA Holiday Dinner

December 18, 2019, 2:03 am
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What an incredible evening! 
Last Sunday I hosted a holiday dinner party for our main MUSHKA crew.
Animators, background painters, song writers and so on. 
And Doris, our dog, who sneaked into the set up. With apologies to folks, who contribute to the project off and on. I only had 14 seats at the dinner table. We will have the big blow out with everybody next year, when the film is done and in the can.
Of course we had an updated screening of MUSHKA,  I am sooo thrilled to report that the Shermans were very happy with  the way it is coming along. Believe me, they would have told me if they saw any problems.
I am over the moon. A crazy dream come true. From JUNGLE BOOK to MUSHKA.
Full circle for me.

Fromt row:
Ariel Goldberg, voice acting and dialogue coaching.
Fabrizio Mancinelli, composer axtraordinaire and Roger Viloria, post production and a lot more. Then Andreas Wessell-Therhorn, animator . Followed by animator  Courtney Di Paola. Ambrosio Garcia, character opaquing and painting. Me, Elisabeth and Richard Sherman.
Background painters Craig Elliott and Tooba Rezaiei. And background supervisor Natalie Franscioni-Karp.
Way in the back, Craig Peck, associate producer.

Many thanks to Kai Loebach catering for the wonderful food!!


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King Leonidas

December 19, 2019, 10:26 pm
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The Secretary Bird is nervously conveying to the King that the Royal Star medallion has been stolen by humans. The King reacts: "Ha, Ha, Ha,...don't be ridiculous. What do you think this is?" He grabs and presents his referee whistle. 
This is a great scene animated by Milt Kahl. Brilliant acting choices, gorgeous head angles and amazing overlapping action on the coat's sleeves. You really feel the weight of the fabric.
And of course those great lion paws that articulate human gestures. 
This stuff just doesn't get old!























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Happy Holidays!

December 26, 2019, 3:02 am
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Happy Holidays and wishes for a wonderful new year from our MUSHKA team to you all!


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Ollie in 2005

December 31, 2019, 12:13 am
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I received this holiday greeting card from the Johnston family in 2005. 
Ollie had just received the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony. Other recipients that year included actor Robert Duvall and singer Dolly Parton. 
Ollie said he looked at this award as a tribute to all the animators who had worked with Walt Disney.
He passed away in April of 2008 at the age of 95.




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More John Lounsbery Animation

January 12, 2020, 12:28 am
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The PETER PAN draft says:
Sequence 1.0, Scene 44.1
Father searching for cufflinks -- turning back covers on John's bed. 
Michael (o.s.) : "It got lost."
Father : "Good Heavens! My shirt front!"

This is a remarkable scene by John Lounsbery. Mr Darling is looking for his cufflinks, but instead finds his shirt front. 
I am sure there was life action reference footage available to Lounsbery, featuring Hans Conried, who voiced the father as well as Captain Hook.
But this goes way beyond live action. The broad motion reflects the father's frustrating emotional state. He can't believe he is finding something he wasn't even looking for.
John Lounsbery was a quiet, soft spoken man. Yet he was able to act out intense, volatile emotions as evident in this scene. 
Gorgeous staging and silhouette. 























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Phillip and Samson

January 26, 2020, 9:49 pm
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Another example of Milt Kahl's powers as a draughtsman, designer and animator.
Prince Phillip is taking off on his horse Samson after telling his frustrated father King Hubert that he is going to marry the girl he met earlier in the forest.
I love the under drawing in red which always conveys Milt's thinking process. Here he changed the position of Phillip's head a little. 
Flat graphic designs that nevertheless move dimensionally. Astonishing!

This earlier post includes a few more rough drawings as well as clean ups from this scene:



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Sir Giles

January 30, 2020, 10:59 pm
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Reluctant dragon slayer Sir Giles from the 1941 short film The Reluctant Dragon.
Beautifully voiced by Claud Allister, his personality reminds me of Merlin from Disney's The Sword in the Stone. Both characters are befuddled seniors who come to life through beautiful character animation.
I don't know who drew these lovely studies, but I like them a lot.








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Preston Blair's Mickey

February 6, 2020, 11:15 pm
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I love the scenes in the Sorcerer's Apprentice where Mickey Mouse wakes up from his dream, deep in water. He panics and tries to make it over to the fountain where he earlier had instructed a broom to do his chores.
Preston Blair uses a lot of fun distortions here, particularly on Mickey's hands in order to support fast gesturing. It was surprising to find out that a lot of the animation is on twos. This is unusual since this is normally done on ones, so the distortions don't really register to the viewer.
But then again...Bill Tytla did the same thing when animating broad scenes with Stromboli.

I remember distorting King Triton's hand by elongating his fingers as he lifts a hand to his forehead.
Clean up was later instructed to draw a normal looking hand instead of what I had in mind. A fellow animator even quipped: "This is not Roger Rabbit!"

It makes me laugh thinking about this decades later.






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Mowgli Design Sketches

February 11, 2020, 12:08 am
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These are obviously by Milt Kahl and predate animation on Jungle Book. It is pretty much the character you see in the film, but this early on Milt is still messing with Mowgli's overall proportions.
The size of the head to the body, the size of his hands etc. Details of his anatomy are already figured out. Legs, arms and the ever complicated way to draw accurate knees in any position.
Another feast for the eyes.

More on Mowgli here:
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