You can't win them all. Recently Heritage Auctions offered this fine group of rough animation drawings of the character Angus McBadger from the 1949 film The Wind in the Willows. The auction item's description said that Bill Tytla drew these sketches and that they originate from the artist's estate.
The thing is...these are Milt Kahl drawings. This particular film was in and out of production during the early 1940s, and that's when Milt drew them. There is a short window of time between the start of animation on April of 1941 and the beginning of the Disney strike on May 29, 1941. It was then when Tytla left the studio. He must have saved these roughs by the "junior animator", presumably because he liked the vitality in Milt's sketches.
Anyway I did not end up with these terrific drawings, I was outbid. But if the current owner would like to publish them here on this blog, please, leave a comment.
I knew these were Milt's drawings and I wanted to try to get it but I went for another incredible item and lost these!
ReplyDeleteHow do you know for sure they are Milts? I think artists can sometimes start imitating each others work when they work together, maybe they are Bills with Milt influencing him?
ReplyDeleteAndreas, pls get in touch with me. Thx. m.
ReplyDeleteI never realized how much McBadger looked like Doc from Snow White.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else been having trouble logging in to comment on blogspot?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was just listening to the audio version of the "Disney Revolt" book, and hearing about how Tytla, Babbit, and Fred Moore were impacted when Milt, Frank & Ollie, etc. started overtaking them. I'm sure as they were collaborating, they all would have ended up owning some of each others' drawings