Alice Art

Sometimes I think there isn't enough love for Alice in Wonderland. People question the film's narrative, and I get that, but I do like the fact that this movie is different. One zany sequence follows another, and the in the end you feel like you've been on this nutty but fun ride.
Alice is the only realistic character in the film (aside from her sister), a concept Marc Davis agreed with. "You can have all the crazy stuff in the world, but if the heroine isn't handled in a believable way, the whole film falls apart."

A couple of beautiful animation drawings by Ollie Johnston, who always makes it look so easy.

Eric Larson animated the opening scenes with Alice and her cat Dinah, such as this one.

These few cels showcase the extraordinary craftsmanship of the ink & paint department.
Amazing colors choices for the characters.

One of the old background painters once noted that a background by itself without any characters should look like a deserted stage set. The image will look complete once combined with the character cels. The BG below proves that point very clearly. Terrific painting!

Images Heritage Auctions and Howard Lowery.

Bambi Art & Artists

Some years ago I had the chance to ask a few key artists from the Bambi crew to sign my copy of Frank & Ollie's book. Quite the title page!
The inscription on top of the page was written by Frank Thomas. Donnie Dunagan is the voice of Bambi, and Peter Behn did Thumper. Then there is Mel Shaw as well as Tyrus Wong.

I am not sure who created this amazing artwork for the romantic sequence in the film (I bring You a Song).  All I know is that such a sentimental treatment can go down the drain really fast and become kitsch. I am sure that there are people who think that's exactly what it is...but to me these visuals look stunning.

The Moviola II

These pics were taken by Hans Bacher after we had moved out of Disney's original animation studio into a "temporary" facility in Glendale. John Lounsbery's Moviola moved with me into my new office.
We were not on the Disney lot anymore, but I sure wanted to be surrounded by Disney visuals. So I made up these framed collages on the wall from movie stills.
In the top right corner you see a partial model sheet made up of Vance Gerry's character sketches for Oliver.

Below a sheet of expression studies for an early version of Creeper.

A photo stat showing Milt Kahl's version of Taran and Eilonwy.

In doing some research on Cauldron online I was sorry to came across the news that Susan Sheridan, who voiced Eilonwy, passed away last year.

More of my early development designs for the film here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/11/early-black-cauldron.html

The Moviola

This film viewing contraption, called the Moviola, was in use at Disney for many decades, all the way into the 1980s. In the photo you see Ollie Johnston examining a 35 mm filmstrip, most likely a pencil test from one of his scenes for Bambi. By his side is Marian Darlington, who whistled imitations of every bird in the forest for the film.
The piece of film was viewed on a loop, allowing for a thorough inspection and search for mistakes.
Fast forward a few decades.

After about one year sketching character designs for The Black Cauldron, I moved into a different office in order to start animation. Clean up artist Rebecca had moved out of this office, but before I settled in, she had somewhat of a warning for me. She pointed out that the Moviola in this room used to belong to animator John Lounsbery (who had passed away a few years prior).
How cool, I said, that's fantastic.
But...according to Rebecca who had spent many late nights trying to help finish clean up on The Fox & the Hound, the Moviola's foot peddle occasionally went down by itself setting the machine in motion. She was dead serious.
I was really looking forward to encountering the ghost of Lounsbery, but despite some of my own late hours in the office, that never happened.

More Bongo

More pages from the 1947 edition of Bongo, beautifully illustrated by background painter Edgar Starr, who poured his heart and soul into these paintings.

Edgar Starr

Edgar Starr was one of Disney's background painters during the Golden Age of Animation. Among his credits are films like Pinocchio, Fantasia (see his develpoment piece above), Song of the South as well as Bongo from the feature Fun & Fancy Free.
Like most Disney background painters Starr was a prolific plain air artist on his own time. The following two paintings were created during his many trips to Mexico.
Edgar Starr was born in 1908 and died in 1971.

Starr's qualities as a painter are evident in these beautiful book illustrations from a 1947 edition of Bongo.

Happy Birthday, Mary Costa!

Please,  join me in wishing legendary opera star and voice of Sleeping Beauty, Mary Costa a Happy Birthday. Feel free to leave any congratulatory comments here, and I will get them to Mary's attention. Here is an open letter from Mary:

After my recent post on Sleeping Beauty I received the loveliest personal note from Mary, which I will treasure. Here is that post from January:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/01/mary-costa.html

Why this Scene Looks so Amazing

The dog characters in Lady & the Tramp were drawn extremely carefully. The design style called for dimensional realism like the film Bambi, years earlier. This is one of the most iconic scenes in Disney animation, and one of the most beloved. Many of you know that Frank Thomas animated this masterpiece. Two dogs falling in love while eating spaghetti with meatballs. It turned out to be one of those Thomas scenes that shows a kind of life that becomes detached from the animator. These characters live on their own, it seems no artist conceived any of this.

It is interesting to find out that the scene's overall brilliance was the result of teamwork. No question, this is Frank Thomas at his best, but he did get some drawing help from a couple of artists.
Iwao Takamoto had been Milt Kahl's assistant for a number of years, and he was able to absorb some of his boss' master draughtsmanship. On Lady & the Tramp he was put in charge of Lady, making sure that differing drawing styles by a number of animators would be unified in clean up,  Iwao was not an animator, but he knew animation principles, and became a perfectionist when it came to bringing a character "on model". He paid insane attention to eyes, eye lids, eye lashes, and the raised volume around eye brows. Iwao's contribution to Lady's appealing look is immeasurable.

He made these drawings over some of Frank's keys as a guide for final clean up. I talked about sculpted drawings before, that's what these are.

Milt Kahl drew a few keys over Frank's roughs such as this one below.  Ultimate appeal.

One of Frank's animation roughs for the iconic scene.

Walt Disney very much encouraged this type of team work in order to get superior results.

More about Iwao Takamoto and his work on the following feature Sleeping Beauty 
in this post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/01/iwao-takamoto.html

Lost in Translation

Story sketch artist James Bodrero came up with terrific designs for Fantasia's Pastoral sequence.
Particularly the male centaurs with their robust anatomy fit right into the greek mythological settings. Bodrero combined a Clydesdale horse with the upper body of a Greek warrior. These sketches are loose, and parts of the designs are unresolved, therefor not quite ready for animation. But the overall direction in terms of intriguing designs feels right.

By the time final animation models were needed, these centaurs had undergone an unfortunate transformation. Bodrero's solid draughtsmanship is nowhere to be seen. Instead, heavy simplification helped turn these guys into California beach boys (I am quoting from a film critic's observation after the film's release).
The movie's other fantasy creatures, the winged horses, work very well. But the centaurs never reached the design and animation standard they deserved.