Here are a couple of sheets showing design and personality explorations by Marc Davis for Brer Fox and Brer Bear.
Marc is defining the overall structure of these anthropomorphic animals. At the same time he is thinking about shapes that are character specific and entertaining.
My favorite is the doodle of the fox's head on the upper left. The way the hat sits on the head, and you only see the nose and some cheek hair. Yet it's already a personality. Brilliant stuff!
The final two images are copies of Marc's animation roughs for the fox.
Wow! I love that scene of anticipation of Brier Fox when he and Brier Bear is listening to the Rabbit's countdown to punching the trap. When he says "2 and half!" and Foxes reaction. I think it was an antic that smacks the bear from below. The dynamic and personality between all of them is incredible.
ReplyDeleteCould I ask who were the other animators on the show Andreas?
Herman,
Deletethe Directing Animators were:
Milt Kahl, Eric Larson, Ollie Johnston, Les Clark, Marc Davis
and John Lounsbery.
What great designs! There is so much personality and character in these sketches and drawings.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing:)
Disney will never release this film in blu-ray or dvd?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I understand.
DeleteFantastic! I hope we can see more of Song of the South in the future.
ReplyDeletePERSONALITY! Yes! It's quite amazing how much you can get from just a few (awesome-ly drawn) doodles :D
ReplyDeleteGreat sketches!
ReplyDeleteOff-subject (but, I hope, of interest) referring to an earlier post about the artist J H Dowd: I had forgotten that on page 41 of my book (with Richard Holliss) The Disney Studio Story, there is a cartoon by Dowd, from the British humour magazine, Punch, showing Walt Disney and Robert Benchley in illustrating a review of The Reluctant Dragon.
Brian, thanks for pointing that out.
DeleteI have always loved that drawing in your book.
Song of the South features perhaps some of the funniest animation to come out of Disney Productions. The Tar Baby scene is pure comedy gold.
ReplyDelete"I'm gonna knock his head clean off!"
ReplyDeleteOne of the funniest and best character pieces ever. And there couldn't be a better choice for voices (especially Bear).
I see it was Nick Stewart. As Disney re-used voices in back then was it not considered to have him come back to the studios for any other projects?
Did you know of any more info/stories about his involvement/participation in the studio/ this production?
...such a shame we'll never have access to a better quality copy. Surprisingly, I was just watching two of the episodes on Youtube last night!
Thanks for the great blog Andreas. Invaluable resource.
James, sorry, I don't have any info on Nick Stewart.
DeleteGreat characters. Great film! (Yes, all of it!)
ReplyDeleteAt least these characters can still be seen at Disneyland. Every time I've been at Tokyo Disneyland and gone on the Splash Mountain ride I see these guys in their spotlit settings and think... man, they need to release this movie again!
Great sketches!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful sketches! Isn't Davis was responsible for Br'er Rabbit's personality too? I think so, because his design, especially in his eyes, was similar to Flower for me...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, these designs was based quite on Bill Peet's storyboards.
My favorite movie, together with the Three Caballeros. I love drawing these characters. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'll never hunderstand the actual reason Disney doesn't want it to be released. The movie was released in VHS in Italy nearly 20 years ago. Why not to tell children things are changed since 1946 and enjoy wonderful songs and an amazing animation in high definition. There's a lot of personality in Brer Fox's hat. Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet changed the way to draw a hat I suppose... Brer Bear is a remarkable character as well, is it right to assume Humphrey the Bear was inspired by him?
ReplyDelete