Maid Marian

Isn't this a beautiful drawing of Maid Marian by Milt Kahl?

Look at the care and the dedication in this sketch.

Milt came up with this appealing design for Robin Hood's love interest after studying Ken Anderson's  early concept work.

Below are some of Ken's sketches of the character, and as usual they provide a teriffic starting point for any future development.

The thing with Ken's concepts is that graphically hey can be taken in a hundred different directions when it comes to finalizing them for animation. It just depends on who and what artist follows Ken's work to put his own spin on to the designs.

Milt would always add sophisticated draughtsmanship and appeal. His stuff is rooted in realism, even when it comes to anthropomorphic, talking foxes.

Here is an interesting quote from John Grant's book Encyclopedia of Disney's Animated Characters:

"What is intriguing, however, is that the animators have succeeded in making a vixen have the screen presence of an attractive woman. In part this must be due to her voice, supplied by Monica Evans,  but this cannot be a total explanation. One must simply applaud the skill of the Disney animators."

Indeed! Milt had a way with designing appealing female animal characters such as Lady from Lady & the Tramp and Maid Marian.

Frank Thomas animated her beautifully during the archery tournament with sensitive, feminine acting.

Milt's sketches below were done for those Thomas scenes in order to maintain model consistency.

A cel from one of Milt's own scenes.

Happy 100th Birthday, Ollie Johnston

When I think about Ollie, certain things come to mind:

Many great conversations, stimulating inspiration and my sincere admiration for him and his art.

Ollie's animation touched so many of us. 

Pinocchio, Bambi, Alice, Mr. Smee, the dogs from Lady & the Tramp, the Three Fairies in Sleeping Beauty, Pongo & Perdi, Archimedes, Baloo & Mowgli, Duchesse & the Kittens, Prince John & Sir Hiss, Penny & Rufus and many short films. 

For The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Ollie animated the hilarious sequence where Brom Bones and Ichabod fight for Katrina's affection. Absolute Genius. Fantastic timing. Watch it again on DVD!

Ollie Johnston, one of a kind !!

Happy Halloween, everybody !!!

More Robin Hood

Those two excited gentlemen in the photo are Phil Harris who voiced Little John in the movie and Andy Devine who did Friar Tuck.

Only Robin Hood seems less interested in the storyboards, he is still hoping for story fixes.

Milt Kahl revisited all the design work that had been done on the title character, and he started animating production scenes such as the one below, in which Robin is putting on his gipsy outfit.

John Lounsbery, too, was busy with key personality scenes, and Milt kept a close eye to make sure the character would be consistant.

In June of 1971 Milt proposed these updated designs . I quite like this long nosed Robin with a stretched torso and short legs. The neck became a lot fuller, and the anatomy of a real fox is more pronounced.

There was another Robin revision in September of 1971.

Here the character might look more like a "leading man" type, but he also comes close to resembling a man in a fox suit. The fact that the exact date is written up on the model sheet shows some frustration over the ongoing design changes.

Milt finally settled on a shorter nosed Robin, with an appearance that resembles handsome heroes like Errol Flynn, Richard Todd or Kevin Costner.

Check out the appeal in this previously posted pencil test:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/robin-hood-double-bounces.html

Early Robin Hood

What a beautiful character line up for a Disney animated feature!

This is how Ken Anderson envisioned the cast for Robin Hood. Nice contrasting shapes and silhouettes  make for a visually pleasing set up.

Although the one character who doesn't seem to represent his animal type clearly would be the Sheriff of Nottingham as a wolf. More on him in a future post.

Robin Hood himself is of course a caricatured fox, drawn here with a thin neck and with proportions that make him appear much younger than the final version.

These sketches by Ken of the title character represent a spunky mischievous type.

They date back to August of 1970. The movie's release was November of 1973.

Milt Kahl tried to preserve the "spunk" from Ken's drawings and explored animatable shapes, forms and expressions.

  

   

At that time John Lounsbery was cast as the animator for Robin Hood. Here are some of his exploratory sketches, based on Ken's and Milt's work.

I don't know if it was director Woolie Reitherman or Milt Kahl who voiced disapproval of these results, but things were about to change. For one thing, the length of Robin Hood's nose became a major issue of discussion. 

The choice to have British actor Tommy Steele voice the character was also questioned.

To be continued.

Crocodile Announcer

I don't have any of Ken Anderson's sketches depicting this character from Robin Hood, but there is no doubt that Milt Kahl's final design is based on Ken's.

The crocodile's role in the film is very limited, he announces the archery tournament and is a little involved in the fight that follows. Most scenes were animated by Art Stevens. 

The character's voice is provided by Candy Candido, a Disney veteran, who had lent his talents to the Indian Chief in Peter Pan.

Milt is so great with alligators and crocodiles. I think his Nero and Brutus from The Rescuers are amazing, and he even had his hand in designing the crocodile in Peter Pan.