A Little Milestone

© Andreas Deja

This is one of the last animation drawings of Mushka as a cub. In the film he appears in three sequences, which are just about finished in animation. It's  been a blast but from now on I'll continue animating him as a grown tiger. Quite a few dramatic as well as emotional scenes coming up.

The most recent issue of Animation Magazine features a nice article about the production of Mushka.

Helene Stanley/ Cinderella

Actress Helene Stanley acted out all of Cinderella's scenes for the animators. Here she takes an imaginary shower at the beginning of the film.
This requires the same acting talent as scenes that would be a live action/animation combination such as Mary Poppins and Roger Rabbit.
Here Stanley throws her robe backward over a divider. Birds catch it during the final scene. Then she imagines a cold water splash coming from a wet sponge, also carried by birds.

You can compare final frames to live action photostats, which have been drawn over by a layout artist, who added birds, props as well as ideas for environment.

This gag didn't make it into the movie. A little bird who was standing by, got drenched during the splash. He shakes off the water and is visibly displeased. Cinderella reacts sympathetically to the little guy.

It is obvious why Disney had Stanley act out other animated parts such as Sleeping Beauty and Anita in 101 Dalmatians. She completely understands what animators are looking for. Clear poses and movement that reveals the character's thinking and personality. It would be easy to over- or underact those scenes.

Jungle Book Mix

More Jungle Book.
As I said before, the film had so much going against it, it could have been a disaster. To quote Woolie Reitherman: "Walt checked out half way through the picture."
Story genius Bill Peet quit the studio even sooner, how are you going to pick up the pieces and create a film worthy of Disney. Well, they did.
It's no secret that had this film not been a box office hit, Disney animation might have been finished right then and there. Executives were eager to stop animated feature production, too expensive. They were counting on revenues from future re-releases of the classic films, and focus on future live action movies instead.
It took a few decades to finish the job. Classic Pencil animation was finally halted in favor of CG and live action films.

I love this Ken Anderson sketch of Mowgli, acting like a wolf cub by scratching his head with his foot. This moment should have been in the movie, the kid was raised by wolves...show it!
Missed opportunity.

One of Ken Anderson's many inspirational doodles, showing Mowgli in relation to a vast, wild  jungle.

A couple of Ollie Johnston's sketches, as he explores Baloo's pleasure of scratching.

A couple of rough layouts. Outside of the wolves' den, and high in the trees, a path for Bagheera to travel on.

Frank Thomas almost animated 1/4 of Jungle Book. Like all animators on this movie, he surely FELT the characters' personality.

It seems you can't come up with a bad character composition, when a snake is involved. Another Frank Thomas sequence.

The Sherman brothers working with Louis Prima, the voice of King Louie. What a great sequence this turned out to be.

Colonel Hathi

I had the chance to watch the new live action/cg version of The Jungle Book last night.

Really liked it. Great script, and the jungle they created for the film is pretty spectacular. For the most part the animal motion looks pretty good. The one thing I could have brought to the film is an improvement in all the dialogue scenes. The animators seemed to have been a little timid in defining mouth shapes that reflect the actor's voice reading within the realistic mouth configuration of each animal.

That being said, I recommend the movie highly, it's epic.

As a reminder if the 1967 animated version, I want to post keys from a scene by one of Disney's unsung heroes, Eric Cleworth. His work on The Jungle Book as well as other films is every bit as good as that of the supervising animators. Here Colonel Hathi brags in front of the herd about his past military glory: "It was then I received the Victoria Cross for bravery above and beyond the call of duty!"

Cleworth mimicked the walk of a human drill sergeant, pompous and very pleased with himself.

What can I tell you...I LOVE this scene. The way Hathi slowly puts one foot in front of the other, before clicking his heels together at the end. Putting his bamboo stick behind his ear adds a nice acting touch.

Everything is applied here, the massive weight of an elephant, perspective and character attitude.

The end result looks entertaining and utterly believable. Brilliant!!

To revisit the film's great cast of animal characters, go here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/cast-of-jungle-book.html

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.