More Character Panels

Here are two more character panels.

It's fun to see the range in design that developed over the years at Disney.

It's hard to pic a favorite, though I feel I could give a lecture on the drawing of Mowgli. All lines direct the viewer's eye toward the open hand, about to grab that twig. And the proportions are perfect.

The same goes for Brave Little Taylor Mickey. You just can't beat the appeal in this Fred Moore drawing. And look at the perspective, the hands are not "twinning", they both gesture outward, but are drawn differently from each other.

I like the simplicity in the Kahl drawing of Duchess. Milt knew everything that goes on anatomically inside that cat's body. But through his economy of lines he is able to give us the essence of that pose. I always am fascinated by how much Milt leaves out in a drawing.

The Snow White poster design gives you an idea of how Fred Moore would have handled the title character, a little more cartoony.

Look at the Medusa pose. That's one insane character you can't take your eyes off. That hair is like fire, her mouth shape stretched to the limit,  the hands

are masterfully drawn (as usual). Complex drawing, simple flow through the body.

Maleficent and her raven would be Marc Davis'  first crack at an idea for staging that scene. Your eye ends up looking at her finger touching the bird. Nothing else distracts from that. All lines support that thought.

And check out the warmth between Gepetto and Pinocchio. The feeling of:

-Something awful just happened, but I love you anyway- is so strong in that sketch. That's a Milt, too.
I will have a pencil test of that scene later.

The Queen of Hearts, Stromboli...study them all and form an opinion, one way or another.

I think your own work will benefit from it.

  

The Cast of "Jungle Book"

Here they are, the characters from "Jungle Book".

I can't tell you how much this movie means to me. This was my first Disney animated film, I was about 11 years old when I saw it, and my life changed forever.

That's what I wanted to learn and do, Disney Animation.

No way I was not going to pursue this, despite the fact that everybody thought I was nuts. My parents sort of tolerated this "passion", didn't understand it though.

School friends enjoyed my early drawing skills, but me wanting to go to America to draw cartoons for Disney.......sure you will!

"Jungle Book" was and is huge in Europe, more so than in the US.

Audiences appreciated the humor coming from the characters within a very simple story line. Also, even though there are plenty of emotional moments in the film,

sentimentality shows up in more subtle ways than in other Disney films. 

In Europe all these characters are now iconic and part of American/European folklore.

And wouldn't it be nice, if Disneyland Paris had an exclusive "Jungle Book" ride,

.....long overdue.

All these drawings are by Milt Kahl. As so often he gave the final look to all the characters, based on sketches by Bill Peet and Ken Anderson. 

Some are scans from originals, others from copies. The drawings with Baloo

were done for scenes by Frank and Ollie.

When you think of it, this movie had so much going against it. Walt died before it was finished, story genius Bill Peet quit early on, and so did Walt Peregoy, who had much to do with color and design on previous films like "101 Dalmatians" and "Sword in the Stone". Yet somehow to many this became a very special film.

As Milt told me later : " At least the dam thing has a nice flow to it!" 

Mama Odie Test Scene

This is a scene I did a while ago, before we really got going with animation for

"The Princess & the Frog".  It was based on story work  that was current at the time, but was later changed and improved.

It's always good to do a few test scenes in order to get to know your character.

Usually it takes me 5-6 scenes before I feel comfortable with what I am doing.

I am showing you here the first pass pose test followed be the tied down inbetweened version.

There are also scans of the main key drawings.

Looking at the scene now, if it were production, I would probably punch up the timing here and there. 

Mama Odie was a blast to animate. With a character concept like this one, and the voice recordings of Jennifer Lewis....how much better does an assignment get?

Though originally I thought that her eye glasses would present a problem.

How do you show emotional change without eyes? It turned out that her eyebrow wrinkles would work well enough to show the mood she is in.

And "loose flesh" was the name of the game. The more her fatty neck reacted to her overall motions, the better. I probably could have pushed that in production scenes even more.

Anyway, in this scene Mama Odie talks to the off staged frogs, showing her enthusiasm for candy. At the end she interrupts herself when she smells the

burnt gumbo.