Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A Visit to Woolie's Office...



…during the production of The Jungle Book.
I believe the person on the left is an employee, and the man on the right a visiting guest.
It's fun to look around and see what kind of stuff Woolie surrounded himself with that day. There are a few pieces that relate to the development of the film's villain Shere Khan.
Near the lower right corner of the photo is a model sheet of the wolf from the 1946 short Peter and the Wolf. John Lounsbery animated that character way back , and perhaps some of these poses and expressions served as an inspiration for Shere Khan. 
On the desk near Woolie's right hand lies a story sketch of the tiger by Vance Gerry, who boarded important sequences for the film.
Woolie is holding a great drawing of Shere Khan by Milt Kahl. It is worth taking a closer look at this sketch, it shows the tiger as he appears in his first scene of the film (except that the image was flopped in the final version, the character is walking toward screen left.)



Behind the group you can see some of Ken Anderson's concept drawings of Shere Khan on the wall. Above those hangs a small color sketch featuring Mowgli and Bagheeera in the jungle.



I wished there were many more behind the scenes photos that give us an insight into the daily life of the artists who produced these Disney classic films that have become American Folklore. 

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Is that note on his desk written by Walt Disney?

    "Show Woolie"

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    1. It looks like that, doesn't it? Woolie sure placed the note in a predominant spot.

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  3. Hi Andreas, do you know the correct aspect ratio, which are intended by the creators of "The Jungle Book"? There is a debate in Germany, because many people (myself included) love the 1.37:1 version, where you can see so much more of the drawings and animations. (the new Blu-ray release is in 1.75:1) Many thanks in advance!

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  4. There's also a copy of 'The Art of Animation' by Bob Thomas near the wolf model sheet. And yes, that note on the lamp really appears to have Walt's handwriting

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  5. I remember Woolie's office during the making of "The Jungle Book" back in 1966, and I'd venture to say that Woolie is seated at someone else's desk for this photograph. Woolie's desk was much larger and the window would have been at his back. The layout department was right next to Woolie's office. I'm willing to bet Woolie chose this area because he thought it would make a better photograph.

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  6. I wonder why they had flipped over the image of Shere Khan in the film. Maybe because of the last story meeting with Walt before he passed away?

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