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Runaway Brain at 30
Later on in the year the short film Runaway Brain is turning 30. It premiered on August 11, 1995. A few things come to mind when I reflect on the film's production:At the time the French animation crew...
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Fred Moore's Cuban Caballero
 These absolutely stunning design drawings by Fred Moore depict a Cuban bird character that never made it to the big screen. He would have been the fourth caballero for one of Disney's South American...
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Two Key Drawings of Maleficent
 Maleficent locks the door to the dungeon cel in which she holds Prince Philip prisoner. Here are the two main rough key drawings by Marc Davis that define this particular piece of action. You can see...
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Marc Davis Character Drawings for Fans
Like many animators Marc Davis would occasionally draw character sketches for fans, even after his career in animation was in the distant past. Sometimes these sketches showed a different drawing style...
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Walt Disney's Collection of Heinrich Kley Art
I don't know exactly when, but at one time during Walt's travels to Europe, he purchased complete sketchbooks as well as individual illustrations by German artist Heinrich Kley. I am also not sure...
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Directing at Disney
That's not only the title of a great new book by Pete Docter and Don Peri, it is also the latest special exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Get your copy of the book at...
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Woolie
Last week Saturday was a special afternoon at the Walt Disney Family Museum. All three of Woolie Reitherman's sons, Bruce, Richard and Robert presented an amazing keynote about their dad. His...
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"There will be a King!"
 These pics were taken at Disney's ARL, Animation Research Library.The color drawing of Scar is the very first drawing I did of the character as I was trying to design him.I remember the directors...
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Fred Moore's Granddaughter
Quite a few years ago I got a call from Ollie Johnston, and he asked me if I could swing by his home and bring a few Fred Moore drawings with me. (I had purchased those from Ollie a while back.)This...
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Oscar Winners
A few days ago I had the pleasure of spending time with recent Oscar winners Hossein Molayemi andShirin Sohani. Their animated short film "In the Shadow of the Cypress" is stunning and profound. I was...
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Crazy with the Heat
Crazy with the Heat is a Goofy/Donald short from 1947. Ed Aardel was the lead animator on the film. I remember seeing it as a kid in a theatre as part of a Disney shorts package program.These terrific...
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Three Caballeros and a Lady
I keep discovering new, unpublished Fred Moore drawings from the South American movies all the time. Fred was in high demand when it came to promote these films. This one is a real gem.Donald, Panchito...
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Mickey Sorcerer by Fred Moore
A beautiful Fred Moore sketch of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice is currently being offered on Ebay. I don't think Fred animated any scenes for this stunning short film, but he was animation...
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Dame Edna Everage
Some of you might be familiar with Barry Humphries' bigger than life creation of Dame Edna Everage.I first became aware of this character in 1987 when I was working in London on Who Framed...
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Milt Kahl, 116
Today is Milt Kah's birthday number 116. He was eight years younger than Walt Disney. I don't have much to add to what I have been saying in previous posts. Milt was the right guy at the right time in...
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Painting Milt Kahl Cels II
A few posts back I wrote about the challenges some cel inkers and painters might have had when dealing with Milt Kahl scenes.It was in fact Cherie Miller who gave me this bit of information. In this...
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African Cats Revisited
The Disney Nature film African Cats premiered in theatres in 2011. Way back I posted some artwork I had created based on scenes from the film. The sketches were used as part of the film's...
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Frank Thomas' Lady
A beautiful character layout sketch of Lady is being offered currently at Heritage Auctions. Frank Thomas drew this lovely pose of Lady as he was planing the scene. The size of the character, the...
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Ollie Johnston's Ichabod
I recently found this low res photo online of Ollie Johnston as he is animating a scene with Johnny Appleseed. Behind him, pinned on a board are a couple of sheets showing sketches of Ichabod Crane and...
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Beauty and the Beast Reunion 2016
I just came across this group photo from a few years ago at the Academy. We had a great panel that night with artists and voice talents to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film. I guess Beauty and...
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Props
 Disney Feature Animation posted this amazing drawing a while back. It reminded me what Milt Kahl told a young animator (not me) : "Don't underestimate the importance and the potential of props for...
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Marc Davis, Jungle Cruise
Some of you might not be aware that in 2019 Disney published a two book edition called: Marc Davis In His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks. By Pete Docter and Christopher Merrit.Each...
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Two Ladies by Iwao Takamoto
When the film Sleeping Beauty followed Lady and the Tramp in 1959, audiences were in for a surprise. All of a sudden the styling, for both backgrouds and characters, had become flat and graphic....
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The Magic of Xerox
I was thrilled last week to be given the opportunity to revisit Disney's original Xerox "machine" in the old Ink & Paint Department on the Disney Studio Lot. This thing STILL WORKS, after all these...
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Geraldine Page inspires Medusa
At Disney each time animators started exploring a new character assignment, it became very useful to do some research on the character's voice actor. Before animating Scar I looked at photos and...
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