MUSHKA Score Release

Go to Animation Magazine for more exciting infos about our MUSHKA film score release:

https://www.animationmagazine.net/2023/11/mushka-original-score-debuts-friday-exclusive-track/

Listen to a sample of Fabrizio Mancinelli's magnificent score, played by the Synchron Stage Vienna Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVbWxEt0oI

Robin Hood at 50

Despite being criticized for its story treatment and its re-use of animation, Robin Hood's popularity seems to have grown over the years. The film inspired projects like Zootopia, Sing and many other movies that feature anthropomorphic animals. 

Milt Kahl's and Ollie Johnston's animation shine in this production. Well worth studying frame by frame. The overall animal universe was created by Ken Anderson.

I still find myself re-watching certain sequences and really enjoying them. Milt's scenes with Lady Kluck are on another level, and Prince John's opening sequence is excellent.

Early animation with by John Lounsbery.

Also a Lounsbery Scene.

This next three are by Milt.

Most images Heritage Auctions.

Sword in the Stone Storybook Art

These incredible storybook illustrations are by Al White, who contributed to many Golden Books for Disney as well as other companies. Just look at these gorgeous colors!

MUSHKA at Lightbox

 

After a whirlwind trip to Turin/Italy, London and New York, we had a terrific response to our MUSHKA presentation at Lightbox in Pasadena last weekend. It ended with a standing ovation...how about that?!

MUSHKA in San Jose

 

The San Jose International Short Film Festival will screen MUSHKA this Saturday 10/14 at 11 am. If you are in the area, get your tickets here:

https://sjsff.com/2023-screening-schedule-at-a-glance/

King Triton Maquette

 

Here is a pic from a few decades ago. After having returned from London and Roger Rabbit (you can see the framed movie poster behind me) I am at work on The Little Mermaid, animating King Triton. And look...there is an actual maquette of the character. Ruben Procopio sculpted all of the characters for this film. And in accurate size proportions with Ariel, Ursula and the others.

Since Triton turned out to be the largest sculpt by far, I was told that he would be too expensive to get cast and reproduced. Only this original sculpture  exists....somewhere. After we finished the movie I never saw the Triton maquette again. 

I do own maquettes for every character I animated at Disney...except for King Triton.

Disney's Cats & Dogs

Currently showing at the Walt Disney Family Museum is an exhibition about Disney's felines and canines. I had the opportunity to visit recently, and I want to recommend this show to all of you. Here are a few pics I took that include a variety of visuals on display.

The opening photos depict animation artists studying real animals before animating them. And that is one key reason why Disney Animation is so convincing. You believe that those characters have real bones and muscles.

That's Eric Larson on the left.

The incomparable Mary Blair.

Bill Peet's story sketches still rock. A master of drawing, staging and storytelling.

A pieceful iconic moment in the film. Here's how Milt Kahl interpreted this Peet story sketch:

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77ohJYJ2gu0/UMAikLoCr5I/AAAAAAAAEbU/OgdDBX_BA-A/s1600/PSB-5.jpg

A couple of Ken Anderson's designs for character and staging.

A Vance Gerry story sketch.

The first rough model sheet of Lucifer, made up of story sketches from the film. Perhaps Bill Peet.

Mary Blair again.

Joe Rinaldi, Bill Peet ?

A beautiful clean up drawing over a Norm Ferguson rough.

Russ Edmond's dog Max from The Little Mermaid. Gorgeous animation.

Here are specific infos about this exhibition:

https://www.waltdisney.org/cats-and-dogs

Jeremy Irons

 A belated Happy Birthday to actor Jeremy Irons, who turned 75 on the 19th of this month.

Whenever he does a talk show to promote a recent role for a film or a TV project, he is still introduced to the audience as the voice of Scar. He offered me such a gift with his tremendous dialogue recordings for the character. Some scenes seemed to animate themselves, because of his high caliber of acting. Irons' performance didn't just make Scar evil, there is also intelligence as well as humor. Scar loved to to be bad.

Quite a few years after The Lion King had its amazing movie theatre run, I met up with producer Don Hahn at an English pub in Burbank for lunch. We were just catching up with each other, as we talked about the state of animation, future projects etc. Suddenly Jeremy Irons walks into the pub, grabs an ashtray and sits down at an outside table. He hadn't noticed us. 

We finished our lunch and were eager to say Hello. It turned out that Jeremy was studying a script with an acting partner that day. They were both going to perform in an upcoming production of Camelot at the Hollywood Bowl. So we all chatted a bit, when Jeremy came up with an interesting statement: "I must not have done a good job with Scar." Don and I looked at each other. "Of course you did, you were brilliant." His response was that ever since he had voiced Scar, there had not been any other offers for him to do an animated character. (Not just from Disney, from any studio!) He was definitely disappointed. 

I can't remember if it was Don or myself who explained to him that his voice had become so recognizable to millions of people, that any new animated role he would play would sound like Scar. That had to be the reason. I recall having watched a (gruesome) National Geographic documentary about a large pride of lions that specialized in hunting elephants. It was narrated by Irons, and yes...it sounded exactly like Scar was telling you the story about this unusual pride. 

So maybe Scar will remain his only animated role, who knows?