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Milt helps Ollie
These are design sketches by Milt Kahl, showing construction and anatomy of Smee, a character that was animated and supervised by Ollie Johnston.These all come from Ollie's estate, they are drawings he...
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Lilo and Stitch
Fifteen years ago the film Lilo and Stitch had its US premiere.Thinking about this movie now makes me realize that it turned out to be one of my favorite projects I ever worked on. The story and the...
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Disney Legends
Cartoon Brew published this great photo a couple of years ago, it was taken on May 1, 1989, in Orlando. On that day the Disney/MGM studio park opened. I believe this backdrop is the entrance to the...
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Witch Hunt
Look how cinematically Disney's story artists thought when working out continuity for a dramatic sequence for their first feature Snow White. At the end of the movie the Witch realizes she is being...
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Busch, The Gourmet Paradise 1976
These are Wilhelm M. Busch illustrations for a book written by Hans W. Fischer. It is basically a guide on how to enjoy and live the good life (until the grim reaper shows up.)Again, phenomenal...
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1984
Good Lord.., I forgot who posted this pic originally, but here it is again on my blog.It is 1984, and a few selected junior Disney animators were invited to join Marc and Alice Davis at the Olympic...
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Cruella's Car
In order to save costs the 101 Dalmatians production team thought up an inventive way to animate Cruella De Vil's automobile. Instead of drawing the vehicle frame by frame the conventional way, a...
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Barrie versus Disney
An amusing article from a UK publication, which compares J. M. Barrie's original play of Peter Pan to the Disney animated film. The writer seems to defend the Disney version, but often can't decide...
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Three Pigs
These two Fred Moore drawings were recently auctioned off at Heritage Auctions. In them you can actually study four different stages of Fred's drawing approach.In the upper sketch the orange lines were...
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Ollie's Come Back
Ollie Johnston fell ill after finishing animation on 101 Dalmatians. It was one of those childhood diseases that can be life threatening when an adult catches it. I remember Ollie telling me how...
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Whose Pinocchio is this?
There have been a lot of drawings up for auction lately featuring drawings from an early Pinocchio scene. This is what the character looked like before Walt Disney voiced his displeasure over his...
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Stepsisters
Another example of how Milt Kahl had his hand in the designs of almost all Disney characters.Even the ones he didn't animate. Below are four drawings that Milt did over Ollie Johnston's key poses of...
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Eyvind Earle at the Walt Disney Family Museum
Don't miss this massive exhibition at the W. Disney Family Museum. The image above is the cover of the exhibit's catalogue. It is actually an art book featuring many of Earle's original works for...
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Sullivant influences Disney
Here are a couple of examples that show the graphic influence T.S. Sullivant had on the design of certain Disney animal characters. The first one is the brown cow from the 1950 short film The Brave...
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An Oprah Story
Look who I was hanging out with at the recent D23 Legends lunch!I actually had met Oprah before, way back in 1995. Disney had just purchased ABC, when management called me to let me know that Oprah...
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Animation takes Time
This is an early Comparative Size sketch by Frank Thomas for the Mr. Toad project. At that time this story was planed as a feature length film. Frank signed off on the final sheet below on June 17,...
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Many years ago...
Another blast from the past. Here I am still working in the original Disney Animation Studio in Burbank. And what I am holding is an early design for the Horned King from The Black Cauldron.Below is...
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Busch Lithographs
These are Wilhelm M. Busch lithographs which are currently being offered on Ebay. The first two images are observations during Busch's life drawing classes. Boy, what would I give to have been one of...
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Tex Avery Animals
I love these stylized animal designs from Tex Avery's 1954 short film The Farm of Tomorrow.I don't know who in Avery's unit came up with the designs, but they are terrific caricatures and graphically...
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A Weekend Treat
One of those tossed drawings that Milt Kahl actually used to sharpen his brown pencil on.And God knows who saved it from his trash bin a little while later. What an amazing sketch, full of life and...
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