Sunday, November 2, 2014

Happy Birthday, Ollie Johnston!

Photo by Mark Kirkland

This Halloween would have been Ollie's 102 birthday.
Even a few years before he died at age 95 he would say: "Gee, I never thought that I would get THAT old."
A young Ollie animated this scene of Brer Rabbit from Song of the South. Brer Baer shakes the rabbit's hand forcefully thinking they have come to a working agreement. Suddenly Brer Rabbit realizes that Brer Fox is approaching fast, and he knows he needs to get out of here.
Two seconds of animated gold! This scene hasn't been pencil-tested since the movie's production. Just imagine being Walt Disney, watching the rough animation and giving comments.
I just love Ollie's work, it's so intuitive and natural. He rocks my world.














15 comments:

  1. I love the broad characters in this film. They really squash and stretch. I wish they could have implemented more of these qualities in the animal characters of Robin Hood.

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  4. The animation in this movie is stellar. It's amazing how Ollie got that specific attitude when he's shaking hands with the Bear, and he's trying to be polite while he's panicking trying to get away. Amazing!
    I wonder why he turned the paper portrait?

    By the way, did Ollie ever see your animation of Lilo? It seems like your approach to animating that character was pretty close to Ollie's sensibilities. He must have loved it.

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  5. I wonder this film should get a proper US release on home video. Why can't they?

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  6. Sehr geehrter Herr Deja

    Mein Name ist André Fischer, ich bin 21 Jahre alt und lebe in der Schweiz. Zurzeit bin ich im letzten Jahr meiner Lehre zum Coiffeur EFZ. Dieses letzte Jahr bringt auch eine Vertiefungsarbeit mit sich. Da ich ein sehr grosser „Walt Disney“- Fan bin und auch oft selbst Motive aus dessen Filmen nachzeichne, oder auch selbst welche erfinde, habe ich mich entschieden, in meiner Vertiefungsarbeit über die „Walt Disney“- Filme zu schreiben. Für meine Arbeit würde ich sehr gerne ein Interview mit einem Zeichner von „Walt Disney“ machen, um den ganzen Aufbau einer Disney- Film- Produktion und alles, was dazu gehört, aus einer professionellen Perspektive kennenlernen zu können. Dabei dachte ich an Sie, Herr Deja. Ich bewundere Ihre Arbeit und es wäre mir eine Ehre, wenn Sie sich dazu bereit erklären würden, mit mir ein kurzes Interview durchzuführen. Gerne würde ich Ihnen 10-15 Fragen per eMail zukommen lassen, die Sie mir dann beantworten würden. Das wäre grossartig und würde mir sehr viel bedeuten!

    Mit freundlichen Grüssen,
    Ihr Fan, André Fischer

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    1. If you were hopefully interested, you could write me here or on:
      fischerandre@gmx.ch

      I would be more than happy and It would mean a lot to me.

      All the best,
      Your fan André

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  7. Hi, why are the peg holes on the side?

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  8. Andreas,

    I saw this when looking at Ollie's roughs and other scenes from Frank and espicially on Milt's, what does BAL mean when looking at the timing charts???

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    1. The animator would only do a partial drawing, and ask the assistant to draw the BALANCE (as in the rest) of the drawing.

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    2. Thank you for clearing that up Andreas.

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  9. Happy Birthday Ollie! The One and Only!
    Excites me to see the ArtWorks
    Thank you Andreas (:

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