Frank's Baloo & Mowgli

For the film The Jungle Book Ollie Johnston animated the introduction of Baloo and his first encounter with Mowgli, the man cub. Frank Thomas took both characters over, starting with the scene above.

Mowgli has just ran away from Bagheera, and all he wants right now is to be left alone.

But Baloo is too interested in getting to know this unusual jungle creature. He wants to have some fun and challenges Mowgli to a boxing match. After a while he let’s the kid hit him in the jaw and pretends to be on the loosing end of this game. 

This sequence is beautifully written and brilliantly animated by Frank. Since there is a lot of motion involved (broad as well as subtle) with both characters as they circle each other in this mock fight, Frank ended up doing ALL of the rough drawings himself. There are no in-betweens. 

This is actually not that unusual, since Frank usually contributed most or all of the drawings for any of his scenes. Other animators would often use a moving hold for calm moments, which involved only two key drawings with lots of in-betweens provided by the assistant. But Frank seems to always have something going on, even in the most subtle acting patterns. Something is always moving, things don’t come to a stop. 

As a result of producing so many drawings for a given scene, Frank could not focus on gorgeously designed poses or expressions. So his drawings by themselves might not look too intimidating to an animation student or professional, but watching them in motion is a whole other potato. The characters come to life in such a believable way, they breath, they move with weight, and they have real thoughts.
In other words, they have a soul.

Here are a few moments from Frank’s scenes, in which Baloo tries to cheer up Mowgli and win his affection. 

To watch some of these scenes in motion, go here:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/04/jungle-book-pencil-animation.html

Nessie

Working on short films has always been a fun but brief experience, and “The Ballad of Nessie” from 2011 was no exception. (For some reason it feels like only yesterday that we made the film.)

Each animator gets just a few scenes to animate, and the project is done. Nessie (under six minutes long) was animated by Ruben Aquino, Dale Baer, Randy Haycock, Mark Henn and myself.

Stevie Wermers-Skelton came up with film’s concept, and Kevin Deters joined her to co-direct.

We enjoyed working on simple, cartoony material again that was inspired by some of the Disney shorts from the 1950s. 

The color image above is a still from one of my scenes. 

A few of my exploratory sketches based on Stevie’s design.

This is a pre-production test scene I did which shows Nessie during a sad moment, all alone with her only friend MacQuack, a rubber duck.

Milt's Tigger

Way back on the original Winnie The Pooh shorts, Tigger was the last character to be translated from a book illustration into an animation design. His transformation was more substantial than any of the other personalities. Luckily it was Milt Kahl who was in charge of Tigger’s final appearance in the Disney films. 

Illustrator Ernest H. Shepard’s original concept looked like this.

A cel from one of Milt’s scenes.

Milt just went to town with this assignment. Pooh and most of the other characters behave in subtle ways, and their acting is underplayed. Tigger adds a much needed contrast with Paul Winchell’s voice and Milt’s energetic, boisterous performances.

Here are a few of his original, first-pass roughs, which were tossed out because a pose or an expression needed to be altered. They are from a variety of scenes.

Shepard drew this charming sketch in which Tigger is contemplating about helping himself to some of Pooh’s honey.

Milt’s Tigger bursts into the scene and grabs a honey pot with a lot of gusto.

Just looking at these drawings in sequence makes me insanely happy!

Rien Poortvliet

In the US Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet is probably best known for his lavishly illustrated books on Gnomes.

But his real passion was to create paintings of everyday life on a farm, and sceneries depicting a hunter’s experiences. He loved the Dutch countryside, which he portrayed endless times in beautiful oil and watercolors.

Poortvliet was self-taught, he never attended any art classes. His goal was through observation to improve as an artist every day. As a young man he found jobs in the advertising world, but by the late 1960s he was able to make a living as an independent illustrator.

In 1992 his oversized book on the story of Noah’s Ark was published in the States. Here are a few studies of animals and landscapes from that edition.

© Abrams/Poortvliet

Rien Poortvliet died in Holland in 1995 at the age of only 63.

On the whole I would have to say that his work is occasionally a little too photorealistic for my taste, but I do admire his incredible technique and his love for painting and storytelling.

Here is a link to an informative interview, conducted in 1994 in his studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbqBPiI7nEo

References for this post: Wikipedia