Liu Jiyou

Liu Jiyou (Chi-yu) is one of my favorite animal artists.

Quite a few years ago, then Disney visual development artist Chen-Yi Chang came back from China and brought me a booklet with Jiyou's artwork. It is breathtaking.

Later I got my hands on a couple more sizable publications, that included some information in English about his life.

He was born in China in a little village that was surrounded by nature in 1918.  His father was an established painter of animals. So he grew up with art all around him, and as they say " like father like son".

Eventually Jiyou developed his own distinctive style, combining western drawing and painting with Chinese calligraphic brush strokes.

I love the looseness in his work, based on accurate observation, and he always finds a pose that reveals the animal's characteristics. His compositions are very unique and interesting, a real master of his craft.

Jiyou died in 1983.

Mowgli

As many of you know Woolie Reitherman's son Bruce is the voice of Mowgli in the 

"Jungle Book".  He also acted out certain scenes as live action reference for the animators. 

I have had the chance to be involved in a few Disney events with Bruce, including

a panel discussion at the El Capitan theater to promote the latest DVD release of "Jungle Book". The two of us then joined songwriter Richard Sherman for its audio commentary. 

That was a morning at the studio I won't forget. How did I get here...to share memories and observations with these two celebrated gentlemen?

I remember pinching myself, but it was a blast to hear their recollections about their involvement in the classic Disney film.

Mowgli was animated by quite a few animators, and I noticed that each artist drew him just a little bit differently. Milt Kahl set the final design, but the majority of his scenes were animated by Frank and Ollie. 

Any variation in drawing styles are way too subtle to get noticed by the general public.

Here is a beautiful scene by Frank Thomas,  toward the end of the film.

Baloo is supposed to take the mancub to the village, but Mowgli thinks it's playing time. The animation is so convincing, there is real weight and honest emotion.

Frank did this scene without the help of live action reference.

The first part of the pencil test is missing inbetweens, but then it picks up and becomes pure magic.

To be honest with you, I didn't even know I had Frank's thumbnail sketches for this scene, they were hidden amongst the animation roughs.

I love all of Mowgli's little hops and steps, it looks like the essence of a real kid.

Frank blows me away!

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!"