A Lady & the Tramp Masterpiece

It is worth spending time studying these clean up drawings from the famous Frank Thomas scene.

Inspired by story sketches from Joe Rinaldi, Frank outdid himself, if that's even possible.

His emotional acting and timing are beyond belief. There is no live action reference that would give you a kick start. It's all in the imagination and craft of the animator to pull off this scene in which two dogs fall in love over a spaghetti dinner. 

I think it's one of the most perfect scenes ever animated at Disney. I remember Frank talking about the part where Tramp nudges the last meatball over to Lady. He needed to compromise dog anatomy in order to pull this off. "No real dog can get into a position like this" he said. He was talking about Tramp's staging, and how he would have to use a completely different pose to be anatomically correct. But that went out the window in favor of getting the right feeling across.

(This part of the scene is not represented here.)

I know that Iwao Takamoto supervised Lady's clean up drawings. I don't know who did Tramp, but I wouldn't be surprised if Iwao did him as well in this scene. 

Animation acting and drawing on the highest level! To all animation students:

Study the dimensional volumes of the characters. Eyes, eye lids, eye lashes, the configuration of Tramp's muzzle and its squash and stretch.

Notice how Lady's and Tramp's attention throughout is with off screen Tony and Joe, who are playing romantic music and singing "Bella Notte".

And how cool that animation can be this extraordinary!!

Here is the link to a previous post on this scene:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/03/why-this-scene-looks-so-amazing.html

One Year Anniversary

I can't believe I have been blogging for a whole year. It doesn't seem that long.

Actually the blog format is perfect for what I wanted to communicate with you. A post is instant and interactive. I have enjoyed reading your comments, and it's always interesting to see which post gets more responses than others.

For this anniversary I wanted to show you something special. I have screened and elaborated on these two animated clips before during various presentations.
The two close up scenes (in pencil test) were animated by two of the greatest animators.
What they have in common is a similar situation. Tramp reacts to Lady, as she finds out that Tramp has a past with other "ladies".


Frank Thomas animated the first section, just before the famous spaghetti dinner. 
"Settle down with This One?" Lady asks. Tramp is caught off guard by Tony's remark, he explains this is a misunderstanding because of the cook's bad English.
There is embarrassment, a clearing of his throat and a sigh of relief, when he feels Lady sort of buys his explanation.
So much stuff going on in that one Tramp close up. Frank Thomas is AMAZING! 





Milt Kahl animated the next sequence.
Lady found out at the pound about Tramp's past with all these other girls.  Tramp realizes she knows the truth. His reaction also shows embarrassment, he is faking a smile, but deep inside he knows he is in trouble. This is very complex character acting, rich and insightful.
So yes, Milt Kahl is AMAZING, too. But you knew that already.

Lady & the Tramp Art

An animation colleague of mine said this about the film Lady & the Tramp: "Oh, it's just a soup opera with dogs. Boy gets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl in the end."
Be that as it may, I think the movie's story is compelling and in support of rich characters. I remember listening to a Walt Disney interview, in which he said this about the film: "Lady & the Tramp turned out well. We felt it, we felt the personalities."
Milt Kahl was equally fond of the film: "L & T is a good movie, I did a lot (of animation) in that. Of course the best thing in it is Eric Larson's dog, the one with the Veronica Lake hairdo...I forget her name now."
Publicity illustrations like the one above are a hit and miss, when it comes to Disney advertising art. Fully rendered, painterly versions of the characters can look cheesy when in the hands if the wrong artist. But this one is on model, and the dogs' fur is skillfully rendered. It looks charming.

Frank Thomas roughed out this composition of Lady and Jock, as they react to Tramp's presence. Their emotions couldn't be more different: Jock is annoyed with the intruder, while Lady is still reflecting on the way she was treated by Mrs Darling.
On the surface this is a very sketchy drawing, but it is very clear nonetheless. Frank's feelings on paper.

This cel represents an early version of Lady's facial appearance. Her eyes are surrounded by a lightly painted area, which was dropped for the final version. (I do recall seeing this scene as a stand out in a screening of the film way back.)

The corrected version as seen in most prints of the film.

Milt Kahl took "realistic" squash and stretch to a whole new level when he animated dialogue scenes with Trusty. His huge muzzle gave Milt the opportunity to exaggerate follow through motion as well.
You can tell, he had a ball animating this character.

Joe Grant came up with this intriguing sketch, depicting Lady and the film's evil cats Si and Am.

These cats presented a real design/animation problem. Ward Kimball started animation, but the footage turned out too zany for the film's style. Milt Kahl reset the felines' design, and animators like John Sibley, Bill Justice and Bob Carlson took care of the final animation.

A clean up model sheet of Peg (whose name escaped Milt), comprised of drawings by then clean up artist Burny Mattinson.

Animator  Ed Aardal had his hands full animating this action scene toward the end of he film. Realistic horses freaking out, beautifully executed.

A color study for the romantic sequence by Eyvind Earle.

And a gorgeous background from the opening sequence, I believe painted by Claude Coats.
Movies like Lady & the Tamp seem to age beautifully, there is a degree of love and dedication missing from today's animated output.

Previous posts you might like about Lady & the Tramp:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-year-anniversary.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/tramp.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/10/tony-and-joe.html

Some Images Heritage Auctions, Howard Lowery

Frank Thomas on Lady & The Tramp

This is Frank Thomas, probably in 1954. Behind the scenes photos of Disney animators are relatively rare, so I treasure every one I can find. 

Frank animated scenes with Lady, Tramp, Jock and Trusty. The character of Tramp was designed by Milt Kahl, who also animated the character's opening scenes in the film (Tramp sleeping in a barrel, he wakes up and takes a "shower".)

Frank did wonderful scenes with him as he happens to pass by the Darling home and overhears a conversation between Lady, Jock and Trusty regarding a human baby.

Here Frank is animating, what might be his first scene with Tramp, who spots Lady being lectured by Jock and Trusty.

This is that scene, a close up of Tramp looking toward the three dogs,

In the upper right corner of the publicity photo you can see design doodles as well as a size comparison sheet drawn by Milt.
Walt Disney repeatedly assigned Frank and Milt together on the same character. Needless to say the results were always of an insane high standard.

Tramp

Walt Disney often paired Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl for the animation of a single character. 

Pinocchio, Bambi (with Ollie), Cinderella's Duke, Tramp, Merlin and Mim as well as King Louie, to give you a few examples.

The talents of these two Super Animators complemented each other extremely well. 

Milt of course would do the final design, and as you know his animation would be 

flawlessly staged and timed, and show inventive acting.

Frank internalized the character, which resulted in very nuances performances.

They often showed their scenes to each other for input. Frank would come up with an idea to plus the acting, and Milt would draw over Frank's keys to solidify his drawings and add charm.

The first sheet below shows some of Milt's early design doodles, based on poses from story sketches. It's interesting to see that a black color area around one eye was considered for a rowdier look.

The next image is a layout/staging drawing for one of Milt's scenes.
Tramp is greeting a puppy through the window of a pet shop. Look how these two characters relate in the way they are posed.

The two key drawings following are by Frank for his legendary Spaghetti sequence.

I call this glorious character animation. See the tied down pencil test here:

http://vimeo.com/4215426

The single Tramp close up is by Milt, done for Frank for the same sequence.

It gives the scene that polished charm.

The last drawing was also done by Milt for a Frank scene.

Team work at it's best!

At the end of the post you'll find a tied down Milt pencil test of Tramp, as he first appears in the movie.

Milt's Design Doodles for the Beaver

I have had numerous posts on the film Lady and the Tramp, featuring one of its funniest characters,  the Beaver. Here is one more, since I just came across some beautiful design sketches by Milt Kahl.
As mentioned before the Beaver was animated by Milt as well as Eric Larson. And even though Eric's draughtsmanship was nowhere near of Milt's, their scenes blend together perfectly.
It is amazing to me and refreshing at the same time to see how expressive a character can be with relatively small eyes. Sullivant did and Milt too, in stark contrast to many of today's animation designs that feature gigantic alien eyes.
Milt based his design on Joe Rinaldi's story sketches, and the end result is so charming. The beaver sequence was the first footage from the film I saw as a kid, on German television. It holds a special place in my heart.

Here are links to previous Lady & Tramp posts, featuring the beaver:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2015/02/eric-larson-on-lady-tramp.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/07/eric-larson-animator-mentor.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/lady-and-tramp.html