One More Jungle Book Post

Milt Kahl animated this Bagheera scene early on during production. There is still some experimentation going on here with facial features. The jaw line going to the ear is something Milt simplified later. 

I find the asymmetrical shapes of the panther's muzzle, nose and eyes just beautiful. 

Every expression is inventive and has the essence of a big cat.

Incidentally, it is in THIS scene, when Bagheera asks Mowgl to get up the tree: "Go on, up you go!", not in the previously posted long shot with both of them.

Years ago Milt's assistant Dave Michener let me xerox the copies of Milt's rough animation he had kept. And it is a real treat to see these drawings before an assistant cleaned them up.

(#16 and #19 are examples of tied down versions.)

A few rough animation drawings from the tree climbing scene.

I don't think anybody else can draw and animate a panther with so few lines, and make the situation come off as believable and entertaining.

Baloo and Bagheera, Hungover

Well, sort of.

Baloo in particular partied a little too hard with King Louie and the monkeys. 

Ken Anderson came up with this beautiful sketch, which shows where Bagheera, Baloo and Mowgli are settling down after the rough encounter with the King of the Swingers.

That sketch was the inspiration for the stunning production background.

Ken also imagined what an "after party face" might look like on Baloo. 

Milt Kahl then did his version based on Ken's, exaggerating  the black eye and the swollen cheek.

Bagheera is being told, he doesn't look like a basket of fruit either.

And here, one of my favorite Kahl drawings!!

He did this one and the other sketches for Ollie Johnston, who ended up animating the whole sequence.

Bagheera is pointing out that Mowgli doesn't belong in the jungle, he is a human after all.

This is Baloo's response to Bagheera's line: "You wouldn't marry a panther, would you?"

What a hilarious reaction !!! It is the essence of "I don't know!" Baloo goes on: "No panther ever asked me." Amazing economy of lines. The drawing should hang in a museum.

This is a great bit of character dialogue, and I find this sketch absolutely hysterical. Milt's Baloo looks more stylized than Ollie's, nevertheless this pose made it intact into Ollie's final animation.

Jungle Wolves

There were four artists who were involved in creating the wolves for The Jungle Book.

Story artist Bill Peet, who had boarded much of the film, before Walt Disney called for a much lighter tone for the whole project.

Peet's wolves looked somewhat like coyotes, and there might be a reason for that. 

I know he must have encountered coyotes quite often, living in the Hollywood Hills. And they are STILL around here. I live near his old neighborhood, and I see them regularly. (They are fearless, and they want your pet for dinner).

Ken Anderson's rough designs of the wolves show more fur,  and distinctive personalities are starting to emerge.

Milt Kahl looked at Peet's and Anderson's work, combined design elements and drew them with delicate realism. These drawings show research for Rama, the father, Akela, the leader of the pack and the wolf mother. 

Hal King did the final animation of these characters. 

"Up You Go!"

These are three stages in the making of a little scene from Jungle Book.

The story sketch is by Bill Peet, Bagheera is asking Mowgli to get up this tree to spend the night.

Milt Kahl animated both characters, and you can see how Peet's pose of the panther was an inspiration to Milt. The final animation shows Mowgli entering the scene in profile instead of from the foreground. Also, Mowgli's attention is still with Bagheera. 

It takes a few more scenes before he lifts his head, in a close up, to examine the enormous tree in disbelief.

Next time you watch the film, look at the animation frame by frame. Mowgli's walk as well as Bagheera's leap into the scene are beautiful, full of weight.

I don't know who painted the background, but I think that the whole night time sequence looks stunning.

"I wanna stay in the Jungle"

Here are a few rough key drawings from a Milt Kahl scene with Mowgli from The Jungle Book. The man cub is not very pleased with Bagheera, who wants to take the boy to the man village.

I just love Milt's proportions in Mowgli's design. Complex but simplified anatomy.

Look at his neck line going into his jaw on the first drawing. Normally you would expect a break there to show the jaw line going toward the ear. But this looks so much simpler and leads your eye to his face, and also to his open hand. 

That profile so appealing with the over hanging upper lip.

The acting is great, too. A little anticipation before he fully sits down, then letting one leg dangling.

As usual, beautiful stuff from Mr Kahl.

Blog reader Breana Melvin created a pencil test with these drawings. It looks great. Check it out:

http://animationtidbits.tumblr.com/post/29638095521/jungle-book-milt-khal

Woolie Reitherman directing his son Bruce, who provided most of the dialogue for Mowgli.

The Witches of Morva

A striking concept sketch of the three witches for "The Black Cauldron" by Tim Burton.

The idea of three characters moving as one is fascinating, it is perfect for animation and adds a surreal quality to these crazy ladies.

Unfortunately the final designs in the film don't utilize Tim's vision, and Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch ended up looking like average witches.

I can't help imagining what I would do today with Tim's concept in animation. 

I think I would go to town and have a ton of fun.

Ollie stages Prince John and Sir Hiss

These lovely sketches by Ollie Johnston show scene continuity and staging for the introduction of Prince John and Sir Hiss in the film "Robin Hood". They are based on original storyboards, which were done by artists like Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry and Dave Michener among others.

But before Don Griffith and his layout team would start working on the the background scenery, Ollie took a last look at the story sketches, intending to improve and refine the continuity and bring out  the characters' personality. 

My generation of animators got involved in this stage of production as a group. 

We had long meetings in which storyboards were scrutinized. Present were the directors, key layout and story people and the supervising animators. Everybody was encouraged to come up with ideas that would plus what we saw in the storyboards. After all changes and improvements were made, so called "Work Books" were printed out as a final guide to the animators, layout and background artists.

If you compare Ollie's sketches to the final film, you'll find out that he pretty much stuck with what he had planned out in his "Work Book" pages.