Fred Moore, 103

It is still Sunday evening on the west coast, so I can still say that today Fred Moore would be 103 years old. For a moment I imagined how great it would be to be able to visit him, shake his hand, wish him a happy birthday, and thank him for his incredibly groundbreaking, unparalleled work.

Utopia? Guess what, Bambi’s production designer Tyrus Wong is going to be 104 next month, and I happened to “run into him” yesterday, shook his hand and thanked him for his incredibly groundbreaking, unparalleled work. (I will follow up with birthday wishes on October 25).

Back to Fred, to quote Marc Davis: ”Fred Moore WAS Disney drawing.”

And Ollie Johnston said: ”He couldn’t make a drawing that didn’t have everything in the right place. More beautiful stuff came out of his pencil…it flowed like liquid.”

The charming self portrait above is testament to Ollie’s words.

This vintage photo was taken during the production of the Mickey 1938 short The Brave Little Taylor.

Ollie was doing his first animation ever, on miscellaneous village people, and Fred was mentoring. One of the drawings on the wall in the back is Fred’s sketch of the King from the same short.

Call it spooky, but here is a scan of that drawing, with pinhole and all.

A bit of Fred’s continuity animation with the little sister from Make Mine Music’s “All the Cats Join In”.

A lovely illustration for a greeting card of some sorts.

Happy Birthday, Fred Moore!

To see more Moore art, go to my post celebrating his 100th birthday:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/happy-birthday-fred-moore.html

Peet's and Kahl's Brer Fox

It’s hard to imagine that story artist Bill Peet’s first character sketches of Brer Fox looked already this refined and so full of personality. He immediately came up with unconventional, appealing designs that worked perfectly for the film and were almost ready for animation. 

There is a sort of hillbilly look about the fox, with his big hat covering his ears completely.

Characters like him as well as the rabbit and the bear have this juicy graphic bite, you just want to pick up the pencil and animate them.

A few of Peet's final story sketches, can you tell he had a ball working on this film?

Milt Kahl refined Peet’s design to animation perfection. These were some of Milt’s favorite characters he ever worked on. The same can be said for Peet. 

The energy within the Song of the South characters is unique and inspiring. A top team of animators brought them to life: Kahl, Larson, Johnston, Les Clark, M. Davis and Lounsbery.

More Maleficent

This is a powerful scene, Maleficent is in full control. Her curse has come true, Aurora touched the spindle and lies dead on the floor. The Three Fairies are too late.

“You poor, simple fools..thinking you could defeat ME (the mistress of all evil).”

It is one of my favorite Maleficent moments, and Marc Davis gave the character a majestic but evil appearance. These are the drawings of a master at the top of his form. Her expressions are demonic, yet beautifully designed. And boy…do I love her oversized, expressive, claw-like hands.

I will be talking much more about Maleficent and all of Marc Davis’ characters as well as his Disneyland designs and Fine Art at the Walt Disney Family Museum on Saturday, September 13.

Bob Kurtz, animation artist and producer extraordinaire, who was a student of Marc at Chouinard Art Institute, will co-host this talk on the art of Marc Davis with me. 

It is an afternoon, I am very much looking forward to.

Daan Jippes on Aladdin

Here are  a few more drawings by Daan Jippes. 

They are early character designs for the Genie, the Thief, Aladdin and Abu. As usual Daan’s work is inventive, alive and very animatable. His influences are European comic greats like Franquin and Uderzo, and of course Disney’s Freddie Moore. But his art certainly has its own identity. What I love most about Daan’s stuff is that he keeps surprising you with unusual, unconventional poses, expressions and staging.

Daan Jippes on Prince & the Pauper

Famous Dutch Comic artist Daan Jippes worked at Disney Animation for a few years on movies like Beauty & the Beast and Aladdin. He also did storyboards and character designs for the 1990 Mickey Mouse featurette The Prince and the Pauper.

These are his story sketches for sequence 2, which shows Mickey being schooled by Horace Horsecollar. Not interested in the lesson at all, he prefers to tease his valet Donald Duck.

Dale Baer animated most, if not all of these scenes.

I don’t know any other artist who draws classic Disney character in a more lively and appealing way.

Every pose is pushed, drawn from interesting angles, full of personality. Daan’s work has the kind of rhythm and flair you see in vintage Disney comics as well as short films. His boards were always a great springboard for the animators.

Look at these tremendous, dynamic poses he drew for a little continuity sketch with detective Mickey.

Chuck Jones

Like most of you I am a HUGE fan of Chuck Jones. Over the years I’ve  had the pleasure of meeting him on a number of occasions. On New Year’s day of 1990 Chuck invited a small group of Disney animators to pay him a visit at his home in Corona del Mar, California. 

It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon with an animation genius. Chuck had been impressed by the film “The Little Mermaid” which had just been released. As he complimented us on our work, we couldn’t even begin to find words that described how much his work on the Looney Tunes meant to us.

We were in such awe, I don’t think anybody thought of taking a photo with him. Bummer…

It is such a joy to study Chuck’s drawings. I can see a little influence by Fred Moore and Searle, but mostly Chuck Jones drew from his own life experiences. He comes up with the most amazing character designs, and the way he developed Bugs, Daffy, Porky Pig and all the others -graphically and personality wise- is simply incredible. 

It is difficult to pick any favorites among his many outstanding films, but these three would be amongst them:

“Bewitched Bunny”, because the way Hansel and Gretel are portrayed with limited German vocabulary makes me laugh hysterically. (“Ja, ja, is gut…und yummy!”)

“A Bear for Punishment”, because Ken Harris’ animation of that bear family is hilarious and unmatched.

“What’s Opera, Doc?”, because…well, because!

Here are some of my favorite drawings, published in his 1989 book “Chuck Amuck”. 

© Chuck Jones Enterprises, Warner Brothers