There were four artists who were involved in creating the wolves for The Jungle Book.
Story artist Bill Peet, who had boarded much of the film, before Walt Disney called for a much lighter tone for the whole project.
Peet's wolves looked somewhat like coyotes, and there might be a reason for that.
I know he must have encountered coyotes quite often, living in the Hollywood Hills. And they are STILL around here. I live near his old neighborhood, and I see them regularly. (They are fearless, and they want your pet for dinner).
Ken Anderson's rough designs of the wolves show more fur, and distinctive personalities are starting to emerge.
Milt Kahl looked at Peet's and Anderson's work, combined design elements and drew them with delicate realism. These drawings show research for Rama, the father, Akela, the leader of the pack and the wolf mother.
Hal King did the final animation of these characters.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
ReplyDeleteNo words.
Thank you so much for posting all these Jungle Book things.
Nice! You've got me wanting to watch 'Jungle Book' again.
ReplyDeleteI've always just watched and enjoyed the film as entertainment and never actually studied it from a more technical view. I really need to do that.
Very fascinating to see how Milt got to that "slanted" shape of the eyes, and how they look ,open and closed.Shere Kahn also has these type of eyes.Very different from the regular "cartooony" Disney eyes.I noticed that most of the other animators had difficulties to follow this rather complicated shape throughout the film, as you can see in the eyes of Rama in the screen capture, were they have a more regular shape.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Andreas!Thanks!
I can see how hard that might be to follow if you needed to make the eyes/lids a bit more natural than the usual cartoony way we're so use to seeing.
DeleteThe early designs look just like wolves. I find Anderson's ones particularly cute. But Milt's drawings aren't mere wolves anymore. Their face expressions are so rich, they seem so thoughtful, that I got an impression that they got human minds inside!
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the film on the big screen some 28 years ago, I recall thinking the wolves were my favorite characters in the film, yet their roles were so sadly short, only coming in at the beginning and quickly they move on to Bagheera taking Mowgli away. The wolves certainly played a more important role in the original story, yet we don't get more than a sense of them simply acting as surrogate parents for the interim.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. I've always had a warm, tender feeling towards the wolves in the Jungle Book, and these drawings help explain why. ';)
ReplyDeleteDear Andreas Deja,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your previous answer!
May I ask if Disney has it's own "in house" animation principles or rules that they teach only to their employees,
about the timing and spacing of the keys or in betweens and brake downs in order to creat that specific style and great quality in the animation.
I heard from Richard Williams that the 20th Century Fox had it's own animation principle.
But if we compare the 3d movies between Pixar's and Disney's.
pixar doesn't seem to follow disney's animation style.
Is it possible to reveal some of those rules or does Disney stricly prohibit any leak of those informations to the public.
thank you
There are no secrets or tricks to Disney animation, only a philosophy, and that is family entertainment.
DeleteThe techniques of Disney animation are available to everyone,
The Illusion of Life, The Animator's Survival Kit and other books.
I recommend The Illusion of Life, and also Preston Blair's animation instruction books. Those two especially boil the techniques down to just a few easy-to-remember principles: squash and stretch, appeal, follow-through, overlapping action, appeal, solid draftsmanship, and... Okay I forget what else. But they are principles I really miss about the old classic Disney 2D features. I hardly ever see squash and stretch in most of today's animation! And when I do see it, it's not done as well as the old master animators did it. I'm don't think I'm old fashioned, I just think the old masters had it down!
DeleteI have two small brown pottery fish with applied porcelain spots, both signed "Milt Kahl". They both sit on conical bases with an inscribed crosshatch pattern. Could they be the work of the subject of your posts? Thanks for your help.
ReplyDeleteImages are available on my Lost Artists blog:
http://lostartistsblog.blogspot.com/
Kevin
This is curious. The signature resembles Milt Kahl's, but aesthetically it doesn't look like his work at all.
DeleteThanks, Andreas. Maybe someone will have some information and contact me via my blog. If they do, I will add an update to your blog.
DeleteI wish we could have done more with the wolves. I thought they were great characters and needed a larger role in the film story. However, we were overruled by the boss who wanted to move on. Perhaps he was correct.
ReplyDeleteI suppose we'll never know Floyd, but glad to see you agreed with me!
DeleteGorgeous, just gorgeous! Would loved to have seen them being used more in the final movie, but these were a real treat.
ReplyDelete