Friday, July 29, 2011

The Cast of "Jungle Book"

Here they are, the characters from "Jungle Book".
I can't tell you how much this movie means to me. This was my first Disney animated film, I was about 11 years old when I saw it, and my life changed forever.
That's what I wanted to learn and do, Disney Animation.
No way I was not going to pursue this, despite the fact that everybody thought I was nuts. My parents sort of tolerated this "passion", didn't understand it though.
School friends enjoyed my early drawing skills, but me wanting to go to America to draw cartoons for Disney.......sure you will!
"Jungle Book" was and is huge in Europe, more so than in the US.
Audiences appreciated the humor coming from the characters within a very simple story line. Also, even though there are plenty of emotional moments in the film,
sentimentality shows up in more subtle ways than in other Disney films. 
In Europe all these characters are now iconic and part of American/European folklore.
And wouldn't it be nice, if Disneyland Paris had an exclusive "Jungle Book" ride,
.....long overdue.

All these drawings are by Milt Kahl. As so often he gave the final look to all the characters, based on sketches by Bill Peet and Ken Anderson. 
Some are scans from originals, others from copies. The drawings with Baloo
were done for scenes by Frank and Ollie.

When you think of it, this movie had so much going against it. Walt died before it was finished, story genius Bill Peet quit early on, and so did Walt Peregoy, who had much to do with color and design on previous films like "101 Dalmatians" and "Sword in the Stone". Yet somehow to many this became a very special film.
As Milt told me later : " At least the dam thing has a nice flow to it!" 






















27 comments:

  1. My absolute favorite Disney animated film, ever. I was very young when I first saw it in theaters, and what can you say? Everything about it just works. Plus the top notch animation of characters like Baloo, Mowgli, Bagheera, and of course, Shere Khan. If Walt had lived to see the final product, he would've been proud.

    Thanks for sharing these wonderful drawings, Andreas!

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  2. I looooove the 6th image with the Mogli Sketches.... there's so much life to them....
    The rest ain't half bad either! :D
    Thanks for the post!
    L

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  3. Thanks for sharing Andreas! every post is amazing expirience!!! ^___^

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  4. Wunderschön!
    Danke für das Veröffentlichen. Shir Khans Mimik ist traumhaft!

    DB war mein absoluter Lieblingsfilm als ich noch ein kleines Kind war...
    Meine Oma hat mir mal erzählt, wenn sie bei uns zu Besuch war, saß ich fast jeden Morgen im Wohnzimmer und habe die VHS rauf und runter geschaut....und wenn ich bei ihr zu Besuch war, war es auch nicht viel anders :D

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  5. so much inspiration here, absolutely amazing. Im working on my own shot now with kid and I watch Mowgli constantly to understand how he moves.
    I can feel how hard it was/is. Thank you for this beautiful stuff.

    Luke

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  6. The man was a genius. Great movie. My first Disney movie was Dumbo. The scene where timothy takes Dumbo to visit his mother, and then their goodbye...wow. Bill Tytla I think was the animator on that scene?

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  7. you are the greatest kind man on Earth Andreasssssss......wowowowow....so many stuff once again...

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  8. Fantastic! Thank you for sharing. So lovely. Indeed what I remember about my first impression of the film also was "the flow" so smoooooth!

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  9. Thank you for sharing. I always wondered why the "Jungle Cruise" at Disneyland wasn't filled with Jungle Book characters but then I found out it was done before the movie.
    That little girl is precious and done perfect with her little nose twitch in the movie=)

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  10. Thanks Andreas. I saw this film just a few days ago. Everything has so much detail.

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  11. Awesome seeing these masters at the height of their powers. Incredible draughtsmanship!

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  12. Ah! A very special film indeed. I've been waiting for this post, and it's even better than I hoped. Thank you!
    Jungle Book's cast is my favorite - so appealing and cohesive. I definitely attribute a lot of that to Milt Kahl's final design pass. The characters are already so full of life and personality in the model sheets.

    I had finally settled on King Louis as my favorite, but looking through these I'm all torn again.

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  13. It seems to me that often the most troubled projects end up with the best end results. I believe Ratatouille and Toy Story 2 were quite a mess to begin with, but ended up being two of Pixar's finest films.

    I love the Baloo picture JB-13. I like the fist going back into his thigh.

    Have you ever thought of animating a version of Milt Andreas? I'm sure some funny things could come out of that!

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  14. I love this film! Thanks for sharing these wonderful images!

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  15. Beautiful Milt drawings, this is my favorite Disney film too, and when I dropped architecture to pursue animation people also thought I was nuts...btw reply back to haroldo@hgn.com.br so I can forward you some stuff.

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  16. Positively gorgeous drawings... Milt had such a way with drawing animals using a combination of personality, caricature and knowledge of the real creature. I think my favorite out of these are the wolf drawings, they look so naturalistic but at the same time so... animatable! Then again, it's hard to put one over the others, each of these designs is perfect. There really ought to be a book made full of Milt's unpublished sketches, character designs and whatnot.

    Thanks a bunch , Andreas. :) I've always been inspired by your work as well as that of Disney's veterans, and it's a blessing to be able to see so much unpublished animation art on one website, as well as to read your thoughts on all of it. This blog is a daily inspiration to me as an animation student; keep it up!

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  17. Baloo has always been my favorite of all Disney-Movies. And (only for Germany?) it seemed, that the bear had more roles to play, in 'Robin Hood' and 'bedknobs and broomsticks'. Little John has with Phil Harris the same voice than Baloo, in Germany ist was both times the great Edgar Ott. Could it be, that die producers said, 'let's play the bear another person', like other studios take e.g. Tom Hanks for several roles?

    Great Drawings! what a pitty, Disneyland Paris has no attraction for this timeless classics, even no Aristocats-Ride.
    I called my little youtube-clip disneycelride, it is fast and has sharp turns
    :-)


    http://www.youtube.com/user/jupdihui?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/wG5hu6bGlUI

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  18. Mr. Dee-jazz? I always had a question...
    if animators have references to make a specific scene.... How did the animator made the part when Kaa gets tangled, and then looks like an accordion and starts to move forward but each part of his body moves in different direction...??????
    And... who did it?!!
    Thanks by the way for this post! loved it!

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  19. This was the first film I ever saw in a theater. A great memory. Sat through it twice with my parents. I think I was about six at the time.

    Thanks for posting these excellent Milt Kahl drawings.

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  20. Thank you so much for posting this but I got to say the drawing of the girl is definitely done by Ollie Johnston. In the Disney Archives Book it is said to be done by Ollie and it looks nothing like a Kahl drawing to me at all. Also did Milt do any final animation of the elephants?- Grayson
    P.S. Dear all animation fans, Would you maybe mind checking out my blog the 50 Most Influential Disney Animators at this link? http://50mostinfluentialdisneyanimators.wordpress.com/

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  21. Grayson,
    the Disney Archives Book made a mistake. Ollie animated the girl, Milt designed her. And that drawing with it's mixture of graphic perfection and charm is pure Kahl.
    Milt didn't do any animation on the elephants, they were done by Lounsbery and Eric Cleworth. Done absolutely beautifully!

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  22. I know its safe to say we are all glad you did follow through with your dream. The first time I realized animation was an actual career was when I watched the old Walt Disney presents late at night when I was around the same age.

    Amazing how someone who has been gone for a long time can still have such a huge impact on people's lives.

    Great drawings, thanks for posting!!!

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  23. I'm smiling ... My favorite animated film !

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  24. Thank you so much for your wonderful blog Andreas!!!
    Just found it and will be back as much as I can:)
    - Phil Pignotti

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  25. Hi Andreas
    Your blog is so wonderful, thankyou for all your inspiration!!
    Ainsley

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