Frank Thomas

Here is a gallery that spans a few decades in Frank Thomas' career.

As you can see, Frank had no limitation as an animator, he was great at everything.

Comedy, drama, evil, pathos, you name it. Even though he admitted to struggle 

 with his draughtsmanship, the final results and its emotional impact were very much admired by other animators who had an easier time with drawing and design.

Any of these drawings showcase an inner feeling for the character, animation from the inside out. 

Here are a few comments he made over the years about these characters:

Frank was proud of the the work he did with the dwarfs, mourning the death of Snow White, because for the first time audiences cried watching animation.

Pinocchio was like a little boy, but he had absolutely no life experiences yet,

he had just been "born". His animation required that the usual squach and stretch

be avoided in order to make him look like he is made out of wood.

Bambi was probably his favorite film.

Frank used some of Walt's own gestures when animating Mickey in "The Pointer".

Walt Kelly complemented Fred Moore on the opening animation of "The Flying Gouchito", when in fact this was Frank's work.

Toad was someone who "acted" in front of other characters.

He animated Ichabod Crane riding through the forest at the rate of about forty feet a week.

As far as the successful performance of Cinderella's stepmother, he gave credit to  actress Eleanor Audley, who voiced the character and provided live action reference. "One of the greatest voices we ever had".

After a long search Frank found inspiration for the Queen of Hearts while playing

the piano with the Firehouse Five plus Two on Catalina Island.

He watched a lady in the audience, who acted both, dainty and brash.

Captain Hook needed to be entertaining as well as frightening, but some of the action scenes with the crocodile went too far, he felt.

"Lady & the Tramp" had very rich character relationships.

Frank watched little old ladies in supermarkets as a study for the Three Fairies

in "Sleeping Beauty".

"101 Dalmatians" was storyman Bill Peet at his best.

"The Sword in the Stone" had great sequences, and he loved doing the squirrels,

but the relationship between Merlin and Wart lacked warmth.

Dick van Dyke's legs were constanty in the way of his penguin's choreography.

"Jungle Book" might have a very simple story, but these characters are some of our best.

When we started "The Rescuers" the time had come to add new, fresh talent to the crew.

Check out this great tribute by Ted Thomas to his father :

http://wdfmuseum.squarespace.com/posts/2011/6/17/disney-dads-ted-thomas-on-frank-thomas.html

Nero & Brutus

I want to show you a few images that demonstrate the development of Nero and Brutus from "The Rescuers".

Milt Kahl was responsible for their character design, and I think they look great.

To get started Milt drew realistic studies of alligators , probably from photographs.

The written note on the first sheet makes me laugh. Apparently Milt didn't know the answer to that question, I wonder if he ever found out.

The next step would be to add personality, as you can see in the beautiful

marker sketches. Wonderful heavy and bulgy animatable forms and shapes.

As usual Milt did a lot of exploring in forms of thumbnails and layout sketches.

The following two animation drawings show, that Milt treated them as a

real menace. Very scary expression on the second one.

Here's what's interesting : Frank Thomas animated the two characters playing the organ, as they try to get to the mice who are hiding in the pipes.

Milt very much disagreed with the way this sequence was handled. He thought

Nero and Brutus act too clowny, and that they loose their menace.

You can see the sequence here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpP8bNxVdyU&feature=related

Frank Thomas had a similar issue with Milt's Medusa, he thought that SHE looses

HER  menace when she freaks out in front of the mice.

Interesting arguement. 

If you ask me, I think ALL characters come off well.

The organ sequence is funny, but it also has scary parts with  the two crocs acting as villains.

And Medusa doesn't loose her edge either, I think it's interesting when a villainess

shows a weakness.

So I think I am sort of disagreeing with both animators...lightning is about to hit me!

What do YOU think ?

Frank, Ollie & Joe

Sometime in the mid nineties I had Frank and Ollie, their wives Jeanette and Marie, as well as Joe Grant over to my house for dinner.

I don't think I need to introduce Joe to you. Let me just say that Disney Animation

was lucky to have him return to the studio in 1989.

Joe had been at Disney before, way back, working in story and Vis Dev on films like Fantasia, Dumbo and a few others.

The photo shows them engaged in a conversation before dinner.

Joe had told me about a phone call he had received from Frank Thomas soon after his return to Disney. Frank asked : "Joe, after all these years, why the heck are you back at Disney ?"  Joe simply replied: "Why aren't you ?".

Joe had a wonderful, dry sense of humor, and all who knew him really miss him.

And we miss Frank and Ollie as much. Those were great times, when you could call these guys and ask :" Hey, are you up for dinner  on Friday ?"  "Sure !"

The rough drawing of Captain Hook and Smee is by Frank.

You can see how involved it is, Frank searching for the right composition that would bring out both of their personalities.

Ollie's Three Fairies on the other hand show a light touch. After thinking about a scene a lot, Ollie then trusted his instincts  for the animation.

Lounsbery & Johnston

I know you guys like to watch and study classic pencil tests as much as I do.

So here are a couple more:

The first one is the tied down version of the Mr Darling scene I talked about

yesterday. I wished I had a rough animation version of it, but this is still very cool.

The second test will be a surprise to you. A scene by Ollie Johnston of a typical

Fred Moore girl. Done obviously in the early forties, maybe for a propaganda film,

a moral booster for the troops ?

I think it is adorable.

John Lounsbery

I would love to have met Lounsbery, but by the time I started at Disney, he had already passed away in early 1976. Co directing "The Rescuers" had been his last assignment at Disney.

Everybody who knew him has only the nicest things to say about him.

Animator Dale Baer learned under Lounsbery during the training program in the seventies, and he still raves about how kind,  patient and giving he was.

Dale recently had the chance to animate one of his tutor's classic characters in the upcoming (in the States) "Winnie the Pooh". 

His animation of Owl is very much inspired by Louns (as he is often referred to 

at the studio).

In the late eighties I got to meet his wife Florence, and one of the things I asked her was, if she kept any original artwork from her husband. The answer she gave me almost made me cry. She said: "Oh, we had a lot of his animation and sketches at the house, but we had that big fire, and it's all gone".

I don't even remember what she said as to when that happened,  it just stopped me in my tracks.

As you know John Lounsbery was a fantastic animator, and a great draftsman, too, as you can see in the attached drawings.

In "Pinocchio" he did some of the early scenes with Honest John and Gideon.

His animation of Dumbo is so darn cute, like the sequence where he gets drunk,

just preceding the Pink Elephants.

In "Fantasia" John did the main alligator for Dance of the Hours. That has to be 

some of the funniest stuff ever animated.

Below is a photo showing him at work on "Sword in the Stone", looks like he is looking for that one lost drawing.

I love the staging in these roughs of Willie the Giant.

He looks scary and funny at the same time.

The first drawing of Mr Darling from "Peter Pan" is from one of the all time great 

acting scenes in Disney animation. Here he is arguing with his wife, he also pretends to be scared at the very thought of Peter Pan.

Check this scene out frame by frame, you'll learn a lot.

The drawings of Bull, the English bulldog, from "Lady & Tramp" shows how comfortable Lounsbery is with animal anatomy.

Frank and Ollie said that John was able to follow Milt Kahl's drawings and designs

better than anybody.

Again, great staging in the next image of the policeman and the professor arguing.

Then comes what I consider probably his greatest work, the two Italian cooks,

Tony and Joe. These guys just about stele the film, he nailed them.

Over the top gestures, crisp timing and inventive drawing.

Look at that  profile of Joe with his chef's hat. When are you ever going to get funnier shapes and forms.

Beautiful, expressive mouth shapes as Joe sings and plays the accordion.

(Had to look up the spelling of that word, the writing is different in German)

Next is Samson from "Sleeping Beauty", some cool roughs showing him coming to a stop.

Same movie, an expressive drawing of one of the goons and a great image of the 

owl as a prince.

The drawings of the Colonel from "101 Dalmatians" show John's first animation pass for that scene.

The wolf in "Sword in the Stone" was designed by Milt Kahl, but beautifully animated by Louns.

At the end of this Lounsbery Gallery is a design/doodle sheet for "The Aristocats"