Bill Peet was a very interesting artist. He had the most fun when working on projects he was in charge of as far as story develpment. During his long career at Disney there were three such projects. Song of the South (the animated sequences), 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. Peet storyboarded these films single handedly.
Whenever he worked with a sizable story crew on movies like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan, he felt that in the end there were "too many cooks in the kitchen", which led to painful compromises.
The animal characters in Song of the South are incredibly well developed with their contrasting personalities. The story sketches gave the layout department wonderful sets, and the animators were able to use just about every pose Peet came up with.
Look at the vitality in these sketches, appeal, acting and storytelling, it's all there.
I understand that Bill Peet never watched the final versions of the films he worked on in fear of being disappointed. I hope that's not true.
Go to Michael Sporn's blog for scans of complete Peet storyboards:
In this early sheet Milt Kahl explores proportions and expressions for Brer Rabbit, based on Peet's sketches. Have you ever seen anything more appealing?
Great pictures. Don´t know how is it example in Usa, but here´s in Finland you can´t find Song Of South in regular shops. All other Disney classics are there on DVD/Blu-Ray. Maybe have to order from Amazon, if just find that with right area code.
ReplyDeleteOh.. there´s a book "Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories"
So, that´s the reason, it´s sad, when there must be awesome animation to watch, never see that though.
You can watch a low quality version on Youtube. I don't normally support watching films not posted by their companies on websites, but Disney hasn't released this one in years. The user posts on the internet are the only ways that many of us are able to see Song of the South now, outside of our faded VHS tapes.
DeleteThanks, yes i´ve noticed that, have to watch that. :)
DeleteI still have my Japanese LaserDisc!
DeleteWow! Those boards are great! No wonder everyone loved working on Song of the South, including Mr. Peet. I wonder what everyone was like working on its brother, "So Dear to my Heart" because the lamb and owl characters are no Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox or Brer Bear...
ReplyDeleteFantastic drawings, it's interesting to see how much stuff from the story sketches made it in to the final animation. Even the very first drawings of Br'er Fox are pretty close to the final design
ReplyDeleteBill Peet is an amazing artist- I remembered reading a few of his storybooks when I was a kid and made a point to seek them out at my local library as an adult- they are so beautifully done. His drawings are strong and dynamic, but very simple too, with a mid century cleanliness to them. Oh and every witch in his stories looks like Madam Mim!
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered if Disney or anyone else had ever thought to mine his bibliography for ideas for animated films.
Many studios approached Bill Peet, proposing animated films based on his childrens' books.
DeleteBut Bill just wouldn't have it.
Yeah...because of his last, ill-fated meeting with Walt on "The Jungle Book". Oh, sadness.
DeleteThank you for sharing this! Brer Rabbit is one of my favorite characters to draw and though I've collected quite a few model sheets and pieces of concept art, I've never seen that bottom picture. Very inspiring! (he is also pretty hard to draw right, in all his 'generic' perfection)
ReplyDelete*Sigh* How I wish I could buy Song of the South on DVD.
ReplyDelete