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Best Snake Gag Ever
Frank and Ollie talk about this Ken Anderson sketch in their book The Illusion of Life.It shows Sir Hiss sulking in his basket, after some verbal abuse from Prince John. Ollie Johnston saw the comic...
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Dramatic Dragon
Eric Cleworth animated Sleeping Beauty's breathtaking dragon in pursuit of Prince Phillip. Woolie Reitherman directed this sequence, and both artists were able to infuse high drama into the film's...
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Gaston's Chest Hair
That's talented French actor Alexis Loizon in the photo, who currently plays Gaston in Paris in the stage production of Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et La Bete). As you can see, Gaston still uses...
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From Ken to Milt
Here is another design idea for Madame Medusa (and Penny) by Ken Anderson.He definitely tried to incorporate the idea of the classic Medusa image with snakes growing out of her head. Milt Kahl...
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Three Nudes and a Hippo
In this watercolor by Heinrich Kley a troubadour tries to move a hippo, who carries two baroque ladies resting on his back. Who knows if there is any special meaning to this situation or wether it...
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King Stefan & King Hubert
These two father figures from the film Sleeping Beauty were animated by Milt Kahl, John Lounsbery and other animators, but it was Milt who was responsible for the final character design.This new...
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Edgar
The butler in the film The Aristocats doesn’t fall into the category of “Disney’s most evil Villains”, but that doesn’t mean that his character can’t entertain and delight as a milder, more gentle...
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Edgar II
Just to add to my last post, this photo shows Milt actually animating that scene with Edgar, the butler, from The Aristocrats (He is working on key drawing #33). Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day...
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Wilhelm M. Busch 1963
More Busch book illustrations. These are from the German 1963 edition of “Viechereien eines Poeten” (Too difficult to translate.)For the book Busch illustrated short verses about animals. I love the...
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Outtakes
Back in 2003 I played around with animal designs that were influenced by TS Sullivant. Some of these drawings made it into my published animal sketchbook “A Different Stripe”.Here are a few outtakes...
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Ken's and Milt's Shere Khan
Storyman Bill Peet had done just a few sketches of the villain from The Jungle Book before he departed from the studio. Ken Anderson picked up the pieces and tried to go beyond a typical, evil Disney...
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Ollie's Reason and Emotion
Ollie Johnston animated the two female parts in the 1943 propaganda film Reason and Emotion. (Milt Kahl did the sequence featuring the male parts).For those of you who have not seen this short, there...
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Orville
Most of the personality scenes with the albatross Orville from the film The Rescuers were animated by Ollie Johnston. This is an interesting character, he is pilot and airplane all in one. Jim Jordan’s...
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A Cool Guy...
…named Milt Kahl would be 105 years old today. This photo was taken during one of my earlier visits to Marin County, where he spent the rest of his years after leaving Disney Studios.I remember asking...
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The Gang
Disney’s top animators got together sometime in 1973 for a photo shoot to promote their latest animated feature Robin Hood. Looks like Woolie just cracked a joke, for some reason only Milt Kahl and Les...
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Happy Birthday, Alice!
The wonderful Alice Davis celebrates her birthday today. The photo shows her at last year’s birthday dinner. I have known Alice and her late husband Marc Davis for many years. Marc enjoyed the company...
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Marc Your Calendar
No, I did not misspell…Marc Davis is the subject of an exhibition at the wonderful Walt Disney Family Museum from April 30 to November 3, 2014. And I feel honored to be given the opportunity to help...
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Marc Davis 101 Years Old
…as of yesterday. 101, how about that?What better occasion than to post a few expressive animation drawings of his farewell character Cruella De Vil from the groundbreaking film 101 Dalmatians....
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Remembering Aladdin
In my opinion Aladdin was one of the best features my generation of animators came up with. The photo brings back a lot of fun memories. From left to right:Dave Pruiksma (Sultan), Glen Keane (Aladdin),...
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Bernard Garbutt Animal Sketches
Here are a few pages from Garbutt’s animal sketchbook, around 1940. I love his approach to drawing, he goes right for the essence of the animal. It doesn’t matter wether he is observing a mammal, a...
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