Sunday, March 9, 2014

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 had just won an Oscar, and a photographer was sent to animators’ offices to take pictures of various artists posing next to the statue and the film’s poster. 
What’s more interesting though is what you see in Milt’s bookshelf: Two editions of Edward Muybridge photographic studies on animal and human locomotion. Those books are still available today and provide terrific study of how living beings move. I recall Milt commenting on these ancient photo collections from the era of the dawn of photography. In particular the animal edition had been useful to Milt whenever he was faced with animating somewhat realistic horses, deer or tigers. 
Check out Wikipedia’s page on Muybridge:


Here are a bunch of Milt’s extraordinary Edgar rough animation drawings from different scenes. He did not care much for the movie as a whole, nevertheless when it came to doing his part, he gave it all he’d got. Superb drawing, staging and acting!






9 comments:

  1. Echt tolle Zeichnungen! Danke für den Post!

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  2. Great pics! Is that just me, but there could see some likeness between Milt´s and Edgar´s face :)

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  3. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Milt liked to wear wrinkles and expression in his characters, as in The Jungle Book by example. Edgar he must have been right at ease.

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  4. Thanks Andreas!

    The scene with Edgar reacting to Madame Bonfamille's decision to put him behind the cats, his expression with the hands, his acting and his mouth shapes with the big "CATS", is probably one of my favorite scenes in animation history. It's also my favorite Milt Kahl scene.

    If I would ask you something: If "Aristocats" is a rip-off of the UPA film "Gay Purr-ee", what would you choose out of these two and why?

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    1. I have only seen clips from Gay Purr-ee, so I can't compare the two films. But as always I like Disney's character development and acting.

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    2. Of course you do. For me, I'm going with Gay Purr-ee because even though the animation and character development is limited, because its UPA, the art direction, the songs and Judy Garland's voice is fantastic. I want to do a film set in Chicago but had a tone that was much more like "Aristocats" or "Gay Purr-ee".

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    3. Sorry I asked. I was just wondering.

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  5. So many wonderful expressions!

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  6. Wow! Excellent drawings, particularly that sketch on the right on the 2nd page of Edgar's. Masterful.

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