Milt's Fisherman Bear

One of the greatest scenes in Disney's 1971 release Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Milt Kahl animated the introductory scenes of the Fisherman Bear. Here he pulls back excitedly to find out what this heavy catch out of the ocean might be. I think the dialogue goes something like this:

"This time I really got a whopper (a word I had to look up)!"

The following images are xeroxes from Milt's original animation roughs, before they got touched up -cleaned up- by an assistant. 

You can see how adventurous Milt gets with dialogue, super contrasting mouth configurations.

I love the way the end of the fishing rod rests on his soft belly. So much to admire here.

I will post the second half of the scene in a couple of days.

Just realizing that the bear's striped shirt had to be figured out by Milt's assistant.

This scene was supposed to appear in the Milt Kahl chapter of my Nine Old Men book, but we ran out of room.

Duck Pimples

You probably wonder who these two characters might be.

They are part of an ensemble cast from the Disney 1945 Donald Duck short Duck Pimples.

Here's what Wikipedia says about the film:

Donald Duck's imagination, enhanced by scary stories on the radio and in books, moves him into a seemingly real crime world, which ultimately turns out to be imaginary. Donald's dream is enhanced by the backgrounds that abruptly change each time a new character appears in it.

This is a very weird Donald short, and I love it. Fantastic fluid character animation. Milt Kahl animated Leslie J. Clark, a hot irons salesman. In these terrific rough animation drawings he pulls a whole bunch of hot irons out of his suitcase...and because there are hot, they are also hard to handle.

Really great animation, check out the film on Youtube or on one of the Donald Duck DVD compilations.

Freddie Moore also animated on this short, but for some reason didn't get any credit.

The 1945 theatrical poster.

Merlin and Mim

From Bill Peet's storyboard sketch to final film frame.
Frank Thomas animated this section from Sword in the Stone, where Mim in her bossy way explains the rules for the upcoming Wizards' Duel. Frank was able to improve the staging for this "nose grab moment" because of the characters' variation in height. Mim has to stand on her toes and reach upward to get to Merlin's face.
This makes for a clear, dynamic, triangular composition.
Old Disney rule: You gotta plus the stuff given to you!

Ollie Johnston on Jungle Book Characters

This is historical. Ollie Johnston talks about the character relationships between Mowgli,  Bagheera and Baloo. Ollie compares them to people we all know. 

I have used this clip as part of my presentation about my Nine Old Men book.

You can tell that Ollie and his fellow animators thought of their characters as being real with human personalities.

Words of wisdom!!

Early Black Cauldron Background

I remember a variety of visual BG development for The Black Cauldron. This beautiful Bg is by Ron Dias. It represent a throwback to old classic Disney, very romantic, and also well executed.
Gosh, you wonder what this movie could have been.
To me the film's problems lie within the insufficient story telling as well as often lackluster character animation
Fortunately better movies would follow, and eventually we were on a roll with animated films that resonated with modern audiences.

Yet, I do love this Dias BG.

Versions of Alice

I love Mary Blair's color sketches of Alice. Her chubby arms and legs feel very doll like. I wonder how likable and identifiable this stylized Alice might have been in animation.

David Hall's earlier development work on the character show a skinny and more realistic looking girl.
These stick like legs create a graphic contrast to the bulky blue dress.

Add Kathryn Beaumont's performance and Milt Kahl's draughtsmanship and you get the final, approved look for the title character in Alice in Wonderland. 

Aurora

Another beautiful animation drawing by the amazing Marc Davis. This is Princess Aurora, as she tells the Three Fairies about someone she met in the forest. Marc's knowledge of anatomy as well as graphic design floors me. This level of draughtsmanship is rare, even at Disney.
I love where Marc accents certain lines by drawing them darker and thicker. Like the underside of the hair resting on her left shoulder, or the line defining her left lower arm.
Frank Thomas said that Marc's animation always looked best in pencil test form. Final inked cels would eliminate these lovely inconsistencies.
What a great drawing to study for inspiration at the beginning of the week.

Snow White Screening

Tomorrow, Saturday Oct. 21, I will be hosting a screening of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The screening will begin at 1:30pm, at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre, which is on 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. This event is part of this weekend's Animation Is Film Festival.

Having known quite a few animators who worked on the film I will talk about their contributions and remembrances of this groundbreaking 80 year old animated movie.

Click here for tickets:
https://animationisfilm.com/film/snow-white-seven-dwarves/

See you tomorrow!

Image Heritage Auctions.

The Jungle Book at 50

Director Woolie Reitherman called The Jungle Book "that little movie". Its 1967 budget was a modest $4 Mill., ( just under $ 30 Mill. in today's dollars).
I saw the film way back in Germany during its first theatrical release, and all I can say is that it became a HUUUGE movie. Lines around the block for movie tickets, almost always sold out.
Over the years The Jungle Book was re-released several times, and as of today it is the most watched film (live action or animated) in movie theaters of all time in Germany.

If this film had failed at the box office, Walt Disney Productions would have most likely shut down its legendary animation department (This according to Frank and Ollie).
Luckily it was a huge hit worldwide, grossing over $ 205 Mill. ($ 1.5 Bill. in today's dollars).

And yet a lot could have gone wrong with this production. Walt Disney died before the film was finished. Top story artist Bill Peet left Disney over creative differences. The film's plot deviated greatly from Rudyard Kipling's original book. Mowgli's much simplified story was told with musical Jazz numbers in the Indian Jungle, a concept that sounds absurd.
But in the end everything fell into place. The very simple story line allowed the animators to fully develop their personalities through breakthrough animated acting. The main characters' relationships are extremely well worked out, and you really get to know them.

So here's to The Jungle Book at 50! A film that changed many people's lives including my own.

A look back at some of the artists involved in the film.
Walt Disney showing a Ken Anderson sketch of King Louie to singer and musician Louis Prima, who  voiced the character in the movie.

Sterling Holloway (the voice of Kaa, the snake) and Walt.

Director Woolie Reitherman working with his son Bruce on dialogue for Mowgli.

From left to right: Writer Larry Clemmons, Sterling Holloway, Woolie and Sebastian Cabot (Bagheera).

Background artists Al Dempster, Bill Layne and Art Riley

An experimental background, most likely painted by Walt Peregoy.

Songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman with Louis Prima.

Louis Prima (on the far left) and his band performing "I wanna be like you".

The world Premiere in Hollywood.

Sonny and Cher at the premiere.

The original first release movie poster. To be honest I was never crazy about this depiction of the characters in this composition.

Over the years I have posted endless times about this film. Here are links to some earlier posts:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/09/behind-scenes-of-jungle-book-and.html

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

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/02/jungle-book-recording-session-break.html