This is an unusual Disney short film from 1952. It brings to life the most rigid objects imaginable, buildings. I love the story and art direction, I’m not so sure how much fun it would be to animate a country house and city skyscrapers, call it a challenge.
Les Clark, Marc Davis and Clair Weeks (who was also Marc’s Clean Up assistant) met that challenge, and by treating windows as eyes and the front door as nose and mouth they found a way to humanize architecture.
Mary Blair did a lot of beautiful color sketches, and the final art direction pretty much maintains Mary’s vision.
The story about urban sprawl is based on the 1942 book with the same title, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton.
It's interesting to compare the Blair sketch to the final background art.
Here is the youtube link to the film:
I had the Little Golden Book of this growing up
ReplyDeletecharacter designs are awesome
ReplyDeletethey were faithful to the original style
Boards for Up?
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI wish all of the art Mary did for this short was available to view as a whole. A Google search reveals tantalizing pieces here and there - it's some of her best work, IMO! Disney Press should release this in book form like they did for Cinderella, Pan and Alice. I know the original by VLB is a classic, but the quality of these pieces would warrant the update.
ReplyDelete