Some Milt Kahl goodness from Bambi. Dick Williams told me once that he was astonished how the Disney animators were able to draw these deer with such dignity and grace.
A beautiful development sketch for The Rite of Spring. Artists worked in all kinds of mediums when exploring this prehistoric world.
This sensitive drawing was made for the 1938 short film Farmyard Symphony.
A clean up drawing of Donald Duck from a 1930s short. All of Donald's temperament is captured here.
Great caricature studies of one of the greatest animators ever, Fred Moore. That young man set a new standard for Disney personality animation.
Actress Helen Stanley acts out a scene for the character of Cinderella. Live action reference can be tricky and lead to stiff results on the screen. But Eric Larson and Marc Davis knew very well how to apply the reference while maintaining fluid animation.
What amazing colors for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. The Disney color model department was out of this world.
A large cel of Trusty from Lady and the Tramp. Again, beautiful colors and impeccable inking. Just a joy to look at.
A quintessential scene from The Jungle Book. This is a touch up drawing, meaning that the clean up artist worked over a rough animation drawing by Ollie Johnston, on the same sheet of paper. Look at how thin and delicate the lines are. Unfortunately the current streaming version lost this particular quality. The film's original format was close to 4:3, but when you zoom into the image to create 16:9, you loose the top and bottom of the screen as well as the thin line quality.
Great fluidity, weight and dimension. Animation probably by Fred Spencer.
A beautiful story sketch by Joe Rinaldi. Terrific attitudes and staging. People still mistake his work for Bill Peet's.
Be sure to plan and visit the exhibition of Walt Disney's The Jungle Book, Making a Masterpiece. It opens next month at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
I think certain copies in Europe have the original format for Jungle Book.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the older films exactly how they were when they were first released. The look of physical cels and artwork is so nice, and it gets lost a bit when they try to remove film grain, boost the colours and crop it for widescreen.
ReplyDelete(not to mention some of the actual detail in the artwork that gets blasted off in more extreme 'restorations' like Cinderella and the Sword in the Stone Blurays)
Delete" Unfortunately the current streaming version lost this particular quality. The film's original format was close to 4:3, but when you zoom into the image to create 16:9, you loose the top and bottom of the screen as well as the thin line quality."
ReplyDeleteIt's a scandal and an outrage that they do that to these classic films. Who gives a damn if it's reformatted to 16:9 aspect ratio ? That's just crazy. Present the film as it was originally presented. The watchword should be to preserve the original films. I'm ok with minor clean up like digitally removing dust particles or scratches on the old negatives, but unfortunately that can easily slip into hamfisted "restoration" (defacement) by ignorant people who don't have the artistic eye for it.