I treasured this oversized German edition of The Jungle Book. After having seen the film at age 11 (my first Disney movie), it is no overstatement to say that my life changed forever.
This was for me, this was what I was going to do, become a Disney animator...and everyone around me called me nuts. I didn't even blame them. The idea of leaving Germany, moving to the US and working for Walt Disney Productions seemed pretty outrageous...and probably unachievable. And yet, I thought it wouldn't hurt giving it my best effort to try and see what might happen.
The reason I liked this book was because it included actual film stills. There were other Dschungelbuch publication with newly painted illustrations. I did not like any of those, it had to be the real thing. Only original artwork gave me a window into the film, artwork I studied endlessly and enthusiastically. Whenever a magazine published stills from the film, I would cut them out and add them to what became a scrapbook.
Years later after I had started working at Disney I asked many artists who had worked on the movie to sign my book. Those were surreal moments! Everyone looked for a page to sign that included some of their art. Dave Michener cleaned up the publicity drawing below from a rough by Milt Kahl.
Bruce Reitherman and Richard Sherman. I told Bruce that the German voice of Mowgli was pretty good, he gave me a funny look as if this would take away from his own vocal efforts. And the idea of working sometime with Richard on a project of my own...geeez.
Dale Oliver did a lot of clean up work for Frank and Ollie scenes with Baloo and Mowgli.
Vance Gerry storyboarded this sequence.
I believe Ollie did more animation than anybody else on the film.
The incredible Don Griffith created the layout for this famous multiplane scene.
Sylvia Roemer drew layouts for the King Louie sequence.
Frank Thomas of course focused on complex emotional scenes like these.
Eric animated a few scenes with the vultures, but not what is published here.
Al Wilson was an unassuming story artist...with strong convictions. He would return to Disney years later to work on The Black Cauldron.
The wonderful Darleen Carr, who recently attended the opening for The Jungle Book exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Wow Andreas. That's a gorgeous souvenir! I too hated imitations. It's got to be real Disney or nothing.
ReplyDeleteThat is a one-of-a-kind treasure, Andreas!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, when you watch The Jungle Book now, what is your preferred version? The Limited Issue DVD in 4:3 ratio, one of the Blu-rays, Streaming (or VHS haha)?
Ihre inspirative Leidenschaft ist ein Feuer, an dem ich mich gerne wärme! 😍
ReplyDeleteDanke! 😚
So ein schoenes Kompliment hatte ich seit ewigen Zeiten nicht.
DeleteWow that is so awesome, thanks for sharing!! How wonderful and very fateful 😉!!
ReplyDeleteAnd much like how The Jungle Book was what inspired you to work in Disney animation, it's pretty safe to say that their animated features of the 90s Renaissance era have been what inspired a lot of us growing up.
ReplyDeleteFor me it would have to be Aladdin, one of the projects you worked on of course as the animator for Jafar, where Disney really showed me the fun and limitless appeal of traditional hand-drawn animation. Unfortunately their abandonment from making those kind of animated films in the years since then kind of soured any notion I would have had of wanting to work for them.