The Walt Disney Family Museum

There is no place like the Walt Disney Family Museum anywhere.

It opened its doors almost four years ago in San Francisco, and from the moment you walk inside, you know that you are in for a special experience. Amazingly designed showrooms are filled with animation art, objects, documents and interactive screens that help to tell the story of Walt Disney.

During my first visit I was literally overwhelmed by the magnitude, the beauty, but also by its integrity. 

This is a labor of love only the Disney family could have championed.

I had the privilege to play a part in several presentations at the museum, just last Saturday art director Carol Police and myself gave a demonstration on the visual development for the classic film "Bambi".

It really is difficult to justly describe the vibe and the magic of this place. You just have to go, see it for yourself and get inspired. Become a member and receive their lovely WDFM magazine.

To find out more, here is the link to the museum's home page:

http://www.waltdisney.org

The following images are from the internet, the copyright is with their respective owners.

Tom Hanks stopped by the museum to get a better idea of who Walt Disney was, the man he would play in the upcoming movie "Saving Mr. Banks".

Here he is chatting with Walt's daughter Diane Disney Miller.

Oscar, Corrina & Co

I just returned from a trip to San Francisco. The fabulous Walt Disney Family Museum invited me to co present the visual development of the classic film "Bambi". It was a lot of fun.

I want to give you some information about this beautiful museum in my next post.

In the meantime, here are a few character designs I did just a few years ago at Disney for a project that was eventually shelved. 

The story was set in London, and house pets were the main characters. I don't recall all that much about the story, but a neighborhood pet went missing, and so a large cat named Oscar and a cockatoo named Corrina went on a mission to solve the mystery. On their quest they would encounter a variety of animals, some of which would offer some help to those two, others not so much.

I enjoyed exploring these animal types.

UPDATE: Check out Hans Bacher's fantastic color environment studies for this film:

http://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/down-the-drain/

Lady & the Tramp Doll Houses

Well, not quite.

These three dimensional models were built to help Disney layout artists visualize the perspective for specific interior scenes. Look how detailed they were put together, with furniture, props , even wallpaper design. It makes total sense to offer this kind of visual reference to the layout department.

I just wonder why there were no models like these made for films like Snow White, Pinocchio or Peter Pan.

Even the movies that followed Lady & the Tramp didn't have this kind of reference. As far as I know 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone were all laid out without the benefit of miniature sets.

Final frames from the film show the result of all the research that went into creating believable environments.

Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera

That's character actor Sebastian Cabot in the photo, standing in front of story sketches by Vance Gerry.

Cabot voiced the black panther Bagheera in The Jungle Book. And beautifully so!

Bagheera is one of my favorite animated characters, for three reasons:

-I love his ernest personality, which strongly contrasts Baloo, who just wants to have a good time.

-The way Milt Kahl designed him with an ultimate economy of lines. Pure feline elegance!

-Most of his personality scenes were animated by Milt ( Bagheera pushing Mowgli up a tree) and Ollie Johnston (the night time conversation between the panther and Baloo about how to get Mowgli back to the man village).

Bagheera is like your dad, always sensible and concerned, while Baloo is like your crazy uncle. It is obvious why Mowgli wants to hang out with the bear. 

Bill Peet scribbled these terrific early character concepts, before eventually leaving not only the project, but the studio.

Story artist Vance Gerry continued working on sequences that involved Bagheera.

Here are a couple of his story sketches.

Milt Kahl researches design possibilities that would work with Sebastian Cabot's voice recordings.

At one point Bagheera apparently had colored pupils, and his upper jawline was defined. The final design doesn't show that jaw/ cheek line. As I said, simplified to perfection.

A few key drawings, done by Milt for Ollie Johnston scenes.

After Baloo got Mowgli into trouble, he screams for help. This rough Kahl scene represents Bagheera's initial reaction: "Well, it happened!"

Simple, full of personality, gorgeously drawn and animated!

Barbara Firth

I love Barbara Firth's illustrated children's' books. They capture the innocence of childhood without ever being childish. Beautiful sensitive watercolors with strong and appealing character poses.

It's curious to find out that she did not begin her career as a book illustrator until 1980. Before that she had worked for many years in the fashion industry,

Sadly Firth passed away last March at the age of eighty-four. Here is a quote from The Guardian's obituary:

Barbara Firth, who has died aged 84, achieved success relatively late in life with her rich, warm and evocative illustrations for books such as Martin Waddell's Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? Her realisation of Waddell's touching story of Big Bear helping Little Bear overcome his fear of the dark by bringing him bigger and bigger lanterns, before taking him outside to show him how the moon – the biggest lantern of them all – is always there, touched a chord with parents and children. Firth created an engaging, rumpled and shambling Big Bear and an enchantingly bright-eyed and eager Little Bear. Their cave is a haven of cosiness and Firth's illustrations are full of depth and surprise, as well as charm.

Firth never had any formal art training. Her lively work almost suggests that she might have had some kind of animation experience. Here is a small sampling from a variety of her books.

All illustrations © Barbara Firth