Wilfred Jackson

 

When I came across some of these photos showing Disney director Wilfred Jackson as he is acting out those powerful scenes for the character of Chernabog, I was amazed.

Skinny Jackson, the live action model, helping animator Bill Tytla visualize the scariest and most powerful Disney character ever? 

That's what happened. Once Tytla studied these poses, he had enough inspiration -and talent as well-  to take it to the next level. The action Jackson provided was all there, but a lot of drama needed to be added as far as perspective, anatomy and....those enormous bat wings of course.

MacBadger Ruffs

 

You can't win them all. Recently Heritage Auctions offered this fine group of rough animation drawings of the character Angus McBadger from the 1949 film The Wind in the Willows. The auction item's description said that Bill Tytla drew these sketches and that they originate from the artist's estate.  

The thing is...these are Milt Kahl drawings. This particular film was in and out of production during the early 1940s, and that's when Milt drew them. There is a short window of time between the start of animation on April of 1941 and the beginning of the Disney strike on May 29, 1941. It was then when Tytla left the studio. He must have saved these roughs by the "junior animator", presumably because he liked the vitality in Milt's sketches.

Anyway I did not end up with these terrific drawings, I was outbid. But if the current owner would like to publish them here on this blog, please, leave a comment.

Pinocchio Ruffs

These are not properly scanned images, but I had them as photo files for a while. Remarkable rough animation drawings from a film many still consider to be the best animated Disney film ever.

First up Ollie Johnston, who animated the first scene of Pinocchio coming alive. Ollie must have felt some kind of pressure because of such an important moment in the movie. How would this marionette move and behave with human emotions?

Bill Tytla of course animated all personality scences with Stromboli. Here he freaks out over a fake coin. It's been said before, Tytla set new standards for personality animation. 

Fred Moore's character was Lampwick. I always think of a young Mickey Rooney when watching the acting and movement. Gorgeous drawings.

Milt Kahl animated most of Pinocchio's transformation scenes. But this one is by Ollie Johnston. Lampwick is horrified as he discovers his own transformation into a donkey. Here he is backing Pinoke against a wall, begging for help.

Pinocchio discovers his donkey tale. One of Milt's best scenes in the film. It's a juxtaposition: A cute animated character experiencing a horrific moment.

Milt's rough drawings of Pinocchio as a real boy. Not sure who asked for his hands to be drawn smaller in size...probably Walt. Milt admitted years later that he was tired at this point in production and didn't give his best. Still...beautiful acting and motion.

Tytla

Let's celebrate an Ukrainian-American artist who changed the face of animation forever. Volodymyr Peter "Bill" Tytla worked at several east coast animation studios before joining Disney in 1932. 

He became the first animator to deeply internalize his characters' emotions which resulted in a type of drawing and acting that had not been done before. (And many folks say had not been done since.)

Bill stayed at Disney for nine years during which he set the standard for character animation. His work leaves me with an enormous sense of awe. It will live forever.

Here are a few more of his character sketches I have collected over the years. 

My first post on Tytla from 2011: https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/bill-tytla.html

 

The Brave Little Tailor's Giant

 You really can't overstate the inventive animation Bill Tytla produced during his time at Disney.

Just take his work on the Giant from the 1938 short The Brave Little Tailer.  On the surface his design is pretty cartoony. Around this time Giant personality types similar to this one showed up in short films from other studios. But Tytla's animation shines because on top of basic animatable forms he applies real human anatomy. Each hand, leg or foot is a study in a classical sense. The way finger- and toenails are drawn in proper perspective shows that this man was a master artist who knew the human figure. 

And then there is this tremendous feeling of weight in the animation. WEIGHT !! One of the most important components in any kind of animation.

These clean up lines were drawn over Tytla's rough animation, on the same sheet of paper. That's why the drawings have such vitality as well as beautiful dimensional volumes. Groundbreaking work.

Are young animation students today still studying this kind of stuff? I sure hope so. 

 

 

Dumbo in Sketches Magazine

Another nice article in Sketches Magazine from 2001.

Interesting quotes by Disney greats Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston and even Tytla himself.

Great photo of the man who brought Dumbo to life.

Preston Blair's Mickey

 

I love the scenes in the Sorcerer's Apprentice where Mickey Mouse wakes up from his dream, deep in water. He panics and tries to make it over to the fountain where he earlier had instructed a broom to do his chores.

Preston Blair uses a lot of fun distortions here, particularly on Mickey's hands in order to support fast gesturing. It was surprising to find out that a lot of the animation is on twos. This is unusual since this is normally done on ones, so the distortions don't really register to the viewer.

But then again...Bill Tytla did the same thing when animating broad scenes with Stromboli.

I remember distorting King Triton's hand by elongating his fingers as he lifts a hand to his forehead.

Clean up was later instructed to draw a normal looking hand instead of what I had in mind. A fellow animator even quipped: "This is not Roger Rabbit!"

It makes me laugh thinking about this decades later.

Dumbo Story Sketches

These charming story sketches are by Bill Peet. (Not 100% sure about the last one.)

Peet's work was an animator's dream come true. He worked out story continuity, character relationships, where the camera was placed, and of course dynamic poses with tons of appeal.

Word has it that he felt the need to re-draw Bill Tytla's animation which he considered to be off model  in some scenes. 

This might be an animation history myth, but you can see in his wonderful drawings that he had a knack for drawing Dumbo as well as the other elephants. Such a great feel for the type of staging that reveals personality. 

When I met Peet late in his life, I knew I was having conversations with an animation giant.

More on Bill Peet's work on Dumbo here:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/08/bill-peets-dumbo.html

Willie the Giant

Mickey and the Beanstalk is a short film that really stands the test of time. It was released in 1947 as a part of the feature Fun and Fancy Free.

The film's "villain", Willie the giant, was principally animated by John Lounsbery with help from Hugh Fraser. Some time ago, before a number a Disney animation books were published, and before any access to animation drafts (which list animator's names along with their scenes), many people believed that Willie was a Ward Kimball creation. It was an educated guess, since the animation is fluid, broad at times and inventive (Willie's anti-climactic sneeze). All characteristics of vintage Kimball animation.

But it is Lounsbery who wound up borrowing from Bill Tytla's giant in The Brave Little Taylor, the classic short from 1938. Willie is a simplified version of Tytla's massive but intricately drawn villain.

Lounsbery's giant is lighter, fluffier with an emphasis on comedy. Willie's voice actor Billy Gilbert contributed a whole lot to the character's development. His dialogue readings are rich in personality,

a giant who is funny, not too smart but utterly likable in the end.

I love these story sketches, perhaps by J.P. Miller.

A few stills from Mickey and the Beanstalk, featuring Mickey and Willie.