Road Rage

Another great Madame Medusa scene by the one and only Milt Kahl.
Here she is on her way to the airport to take the next flight to Devil's Bayou. Medusa has to take matters into her own hands, since Snoops has difficulties in dealing with Penny, the orphan girl.

I wonder what came first in producing this scene. The effects animator's car turning, or Milt's Medusa animation. My guess is that Milt roughed out the main shapes and volumes for the car, before an effects artist would clean it up.
I love how Medusa is leaning into the curve. Every drawing a gem!

Milt used to drive a car like this one. It was a reproduction of a Panther Roadster, and he showed it off during his episode of the Disney channel series, Disney Family Album.
See fuzzy frame grab below!

More on Cleworth's Dragon

I posted about animator Eric Cleworth before regarding his work on the dragon fight sequence from Sleeping Beauty. It is a powerful piece of animation. Woolie Reitherman directed this section of the film, and if he hadn't directed at the time, he would have animated it himself. Known for his chase and action animation, Woolie was ideal to get involved in the film's dramatic climax.
But it was Cleworth who brought Maleficent to life as a horrific monster, while maintaining some elegance of the villain's human form, animated by Marc Davis.
I love everything about the rough sketch above. The flow within the pose as the dragon threatens and approaches Prince Philip. The search for stylized yet solid anatomy is breathtaking. A master drawing full of energy and guts.
There had been numerous design versions of the dragon before, this one comes close to the final design.
Eric Cleworth, underrated Disney artist.

Her is a link to a previous post on the same subject:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/02/dramatic-dragon.html

Madame Mim as an Elephant

Here are a few color frame grabs from a scene, animated by John Lounsbery. During the wizard's duel Madame Mim has turned herself into an elephant as she attempts to crush Merlin. At the moment she notices Merlin as a mouse, she freaks out and runs away.
Lounsbery choses an interesting and not an easy way to get this elephant to move screen right.
Mim rears up, sort of human like, as she tries to get away from the mouse. Then comes this complex turn, with all four legs scrambling. Milt Kahl gave Louns the first drawing for model reference, who took it from there. This is pretty cartoony motion, but Mim moves with believable weight and anatomy.

Kley in Color

Some extraordinary Heinrich Kley pieces were offered and sold recently at Kunkel Fine Art.
Drawing treasures from about a century ago. What joy to study these master drawings.

Here is the link to the website:

http://www.kunkelfineart.de/gal/index.php/en/gallery/1/35/248

Bambi Academy Tribute

Great evening last night at the Academy.

Host Leonard Maltin led the panel, and it showed how much knowledge and appreciation he has for the film. While Disney art director Paul Felix and myself represented a newer generation, Donnie Dunagan and Peter Behn were the real stars of the evening. They recalled how they were selected as the voices of Bambi and Thumper. Behn remember how frightened he was watching the forest fire during the film's premiere screening. Dunagan at age 5 fired his manager, who thought the audition at Disney for a baby deer wouldn't be worthwhile. 

It really was a historical evening. Disney provided a 2 1/2 min. pencil test from the film which left the audience in awe.

There was also a tribute to Tyrus Wong, whose fingerprints are all over this movie.

The two kids who made movie history: Donnie Dunagan and Peter Behn.

George Darling

Many of you know that the father in the film Peter Pan was largely animated by John Lounsbery.
Milt Kahl animated the character in the final sequence of the movie. He kept the animation subtle and believable. See image above.
But this really is a Lounsbery character. He established Mr Darling during the film's opening sequence. Here are copies of a few rough Louns drawings where the father stumbles over the dog Nana. "And that's my last word on the matter!" (about Wendy getting her own room).
Lounsbery didn't draw hands as well as Milt, but who cares? His strong use of squash and stretch is legendary. I am telling you, if you flip the first drawing with the lastone, lightbulbs will go off. The shift of volumes is just beautiful. Lounsbery went broad on this character in order to avoid another straight, live action based personality. It was a good choice!