Somebody asked me a while ago:
"What's up with Milt Kahl's drawing style? He only uses straight lines in his animation."
That of course isn't true. Milt used straight as well as curved lines when defining a character pose or an expression. He was just very definite when balancing the two. Either very straight or very curved.
It gives the drawing a graphic simplicity and readability.
King Louie's arms are boiled down anatomy, straight lines. By contrast his belly is a round ball.
This design philosophy started on Sleeping Beauty. It's what Amid Amidi calls CARTOON MODERN.
Limited TV animation beginning in the early 1960s applied these drawing principles wholeheartedly.
The Flintstones, Yogi Bear etc. They established a basic graphic, held character pose, and added limited animation for dialogue or body parts.
When it comes to Disney full animation though, you would have to be a genius to make such a sophisticated, graphic statement with EACH of your key drawings.
Milt Kahl could do it, and so could Marc Davis. Kimball to a point.
But all of this doesn't really matter that much, because what audiences respond to is PERSONALITY.
And Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Lounsbery and many others had that going on in spades!
