The clip starts right when Baloo sees Mowgli for the first time. He notices the kid sitting on the ground and reacts to something he's never seen before in the Jungle.
This animation assignment represents a strong creative comeback for animator Ollie Johnston, who recovered from an illness in the early 1960ies. There is no doubt whatsoever who this bear is, after only a few scenes Ollie nails the character. Spectacular body language and brilliantly timed acting.
Frank Thomas takes over when Mowgli turns away from Baloo: "Leave me alone!"
This encourages the bear even more to cheer up the kid and to make him feel better.
It's time he learned to fight like a bear and roar like a bear. The beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Frank's Baloo feels a little heavier than Ollie's, but the difference is only slight, and audiences would never notice. The acting is so consistently great from one animator to the other that it feels like one mind is behind this sequence.
Milt Kahl gave Frank and Ollie a hand with a few refined drawings that added appeal and helped to solidify the design of both characters.
Long live hand drawn character animation, an art form led by American artists for 100 years. We'll see where this medium will go from here and where it will be cherished and renewed.
I am afraid that was it for hollywood traditional animation, and it will not come back through any of the big studios there. nobody with a vision like walt disney in the old days is around toady, who pushed traditional animation constantly a step further. he had his dreams, and he wanted to show the audience something they had not seen before. even if he had been involved in CG he would have developed it further with every single film. look who is leading the studios today, do you see any visionaries? they just execute what the masses want to consume. it makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteWatching these tests is heartbreaking. Will recent events spur traditional animation on even further or will it slowly fade away into a niche curiosity? I realise that many other studios have been flying the "traditional animation" flag a lot more than Disney in recent years, but I worry that it's an ominous sign of things to come.
ReplyDeleteI know I want to see traditional animation now more than ever.
Keep up your fantastic posts Andreas!
I'm sure that 2D could survive /in disney, or not in disney/ if he found his 'shelf in bookshop' like European comics in bookstores.
ReplyDeletebut 2D was chasing top list on U.S. Box Office.
Teodor
Just beautiful. Thanks, Andreas, for sharing this. I think blogs like yours are essential to keep the torch lit for classical animation in this country; all the wisdom gained (especially in the 30's - 60's) could so easily disappear otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
ReplyDeleteThe 2D animation is so beautiful!!!!
With all due respect, can we all agree to drop that term unless the art style is intentionally stylized to look "2D". This dimensional, beautifully drawn animation is certainly not "2D". These characters occupy space with a great feeling of weight and volume.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Dave.
DeleteToward the end of his life Frank Thomas referred to it as Pencil Animation. Sounds good to me!
What it should be called.
DeleteAnother beautiful masterpiece by Frank and Ollie - thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe in a future of Pencil Animation, even if it's not going to be quick and easy to bring it back. Scenes like this one, or for example Smee shaving Hook shown several posts earlier, are the examples of a masterful acting. Trying to do the same with CG is a big struggle. The good example is how Glen Keane worked in Tangled - he draw poses on paper and forced CG animators to make equally good ones with 3D models. It was barely possible, but would be much easier just stick to the drawings actually. If the acting and story is taking whole spectator's attention, nobody even notices fancy shaders and lighting and textures. Even this raw pencil test of Baloo contains more life, with just a few lines.
Sadly, CG animation has two big advantages. It's cheap. And it sells. They are quite powerful reasons for managers, who aim only to make better profits.
Tadeusz,
DeleteCg is much more expensive than pencil animation.
Much, much more!
Ok, so it's probably not that simple. Mainstream CG features have big budgets, but much money goes to technology, instead of artists :( When the technology become obsolete, the film will lose much of its appeal.
DeleteCutting costs in CG means probably less surface scattering, soft shadows and other things 90% people won't even notice. Golden Age productions like Pinocchio or Fantasia spent enourmous budget on unbelievable complex ink and paint, and the results look amazing even today, because it was an art, and the art never becomes obsolete.
CG is possible on very low budget, and can be done by people who can't draw, just know animation principles. Pencil animation requires more people, and more skill. When cutting costs, the result might look like limited tv animation, because animating the whole figure is costly. Maybe my mistake was because I had low-end budgets in mind, and big productions have different rules.
I definitely look forward for Mushka, because the graphical style you've chosen is amazing, but very work-intensive. It may be a bit costly, but is so much worth to do it!
Please have a little more optimism, everyone! My thinking may be naive, but something as beautiful as traditional pencil animation will take a lot more to make it disappear from people's hearts, especially those who grew up marveling at it. :D
ReplyDeleteThank heavens animators still use pencils for short films. They might not make much money, but at least they are keeping the skills alive. I wish you success with yours Andreas.
ReplyDeleteThe Princess and the Frog tells me that there is an appetite out there for drawn animation - I haven't heard anyone say a bad word about it. It just seems that it wasn't given as much support as the CG films out there. And as for Winnie the Pooh, I'm sure I was the only person in the UK who knew about its cinema release! Everyone at the time looked at me with blank expressions when I mentioned it. It's hardly a surprise that drawn animation is seen to not be as money-spinning as CG when CG is given a bigger helping hand.
Yeah.
DeleteIt seems that the only way there's drawn animation on the big screen is in film festivals.
Gorgeous stuff, those drawings are certainly not "2D"!
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty optimistic about the future of the medium. The people who love it still do it, and it's irreplaceable.
The only real threat I can think of is that it's hard to find good drawing teachers.
My animation career has pretty much only just started, I've been working in TV animation for six years now - and luckily they were mostly good projects. Part of me thinks TV animation hasn't even scratched the surface of its story-telling potential yet. Live-action TV serials have seen a Silver or maybe even Golden Age during recent years, I think TV animation could have the same if it wasn't forced into the 11-minute children's comedy format all the time. A start has been made with The Last Airbender, a continuous epic with a narrative beginning, end and high production values (for a TV series).
ReplyDeleteAnd yet - when I was a teenager during the 90s and the big Renaissance features made me choose the job I chose, I wanted one day to be part of a big, sweeping, polished, hand-drawn production like those.
As I said, my animation career has only just started. I may end up doing CG eventually but as far as pencil (or 'traditional') animation is concerned, well, I haven't given up hope yet of one day participating in something worthwhile for the silver screen.
No matter how much technology they use to animate, will NEVER achieve the fluidity and performance they could with traditional art.
ReplyDeleteHave you had the chance to see Ernest et Celestine? I believe it's 2D computer animation rather than pencil - but regardless it's energetic, imaginative and wonderful to watch. (Not to mention a big crowd-pleaser - I don't remember the last movie I saw that got so many laughs.) I only have good things to say about it and left feeling optimistic about hand-drawn animation to come.
ReplyDeleteWould recommend it to anybody! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtJ5Ttjcn_w
(and of course, that pencil test is incredible!)
"Ernest et Celestine" is hand drawn animation using Wacom tablets , drawn directly into an animation app. So in that sense it's not traditional pencil on paper , but it is animation where the characters are drawn frame-by-frame by hand, so it is the essentially the same as "pencil animation". There is a Behind the scenes/making-of video about the studio, Les Armateurs, here : http://cinema.jeuxactu.com/video-conference-de-presse-ernest-et-celestine-9797.htm
DeleteI have the seen the film (at a special screening last year) and it is charming. I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it is officially released in the U.S. by GKids. http://www.gkids.tv/ernest/
I look forward to seeing the film.
DeleteThat is one awesome post. Hand drawn animation will live one - it may change and evolve, but it will always be there, I believe. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the posts here. It's really depressing that traditional animation is practically nonexistent in Hollywood features these days. In order to get my dose, I watch lots of independently produced productions and foreign animated films.
ReplyDeleteRight.
DeleteTraditional animation is like an orphan who's abandoned by it's parents and got adopted by a couple from far away.
Amazing!!!!!!! Thank you Andreas for keep posting some great stuff all the time and making us inspired!!!.....( Where is this art form going on now.....!!!!!)we have still some new golden age animator!!!.....they should spread this amazing knowledge among us.)
ReplyDelete:) thanks.
ReplyDeletethe way that one feels animation makes him a true animator.i see a lot of guys doing animation but i dont think they are animators.im not a great animator(yet) but i always had a great intuition and unfortunatly no mentor,so i used to watch you guys on extra dvds and i really felt part of that.today we have to work with some softwares like adobe illustrator,photoshop,after effects to survive,and its really fun.but when i draw its diferent,and thinking to give it life.its pure love.well,i like to draw digitaly on TVPaint,i consider the best program to animate frame by frame.Toon Boom is good for cut outs but it should be better,focusing on the essential things like on blockings,roughing over the elements while you move the puppet.although we can do this by our own way.yeah...3D got much more attention than 2D on computer but i feel the things like Toon Boom,Wacom tablets have been paying more attention listening to the guys who likes to draw and animate for a living.at least i hope.bye!
Ah, Jungle Book...one of my favourites!
ReplyDeleteIs it just me,or does it look like Baloo says "oh baby" in the animation but the sound track says "oh boy"...
ReplyDeleteamazing animation...animated video production
ReplyDeleteThis stuff is priceless. The staging, the poses, the expressions. Perfect!
ReplyDeleteI need this article to complete my assignment in the college, and it has same topic with your article. Thanks, great share.
ReplyDeletebra tape