Geppetto

That's animator Art Babbitt animating a close up scene with toymaker Geppetto from the Disney classic Pinocchio. 

I had the chance to meet Art when he was still working for Dick Williams on The Thief and the Cobbler. He didn't mind talking about his Disney years and his strained relationship with Walt.

I remember him saying that after he left Disney he never again animated a character with so much warmth like Geppetto. He felt it was one of the best things he ever did.

I would agree, the level of depth Babbitt was able to inject into the character's acting is astounding.

Geppetto just loves this wooden puppet that came to life, and when he looses Pinocchio, his whole world seems to fall apart. But he still has enough hope and searches on to find his "son".

A real high in character animation.

Below is storyboard like panel which also shows frames from the animators' pencil tests.

Whenever the character drawing is transparent and you see the layout shining through, you are looking at rough animation. 

These Geppetto scenes were animated by Art.

During early design stages Fred Moore helped out with beautiful drawings like these.

More rough exploratory sketches by Fred and probably Art as well.

After clean up artists did their magic you end up with refined drawings like these. 

The feeling of real volume is unbelievable. There is a thickness in the vest, the shirt and the apron.

And look at the subtle squash on the two fingers holding the string. Just beautiful!

For much more on Art Babbitt's animated life go to Jake Friedman's outstanding blog:

http://babbittblog.com

Insightful Comments

In this clip from the 1977 UK TV show Ken Anderson, Ward Kimball, Marc Davis and Frank Thomas remember Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse and what it was like working at the studio in the old days.

I find these reflections fascinating, Frank Thomas might be exaggerating a little when he talks about relationships among the artists. Sure, there were egos, likes and dislikes, but in general these guys respected each other for their unique talents and contributions to the films.
I know this because they told me so, including cranky Milt.

Pongo and Puppies

When the whole Dalmatian family watches the Thunderbolt TV Show, we get the chance to see the puppies interacting for the first time. They behave like real kids, being caught up in the excitement of the show while commenting frequently. What a clever and beautiful sequence!

The puppies' personalities come through in the animation, and they are drawn with ultimate appeal.

Just a few years ago I came across a bunch of old xeroxed model drawings from this sequence.

They are the work of Milt Kahl, who didn't animate a single scene for this section of the film.

My guess is that Milt was asked to have a hand in many of the key poses, because of the fact that right here the audience gets to know the puppies' personalities.

I am not sure if Milt came up with these terrific drawings based on Bill Peet's story board sketches, or if he went over other animators' rough drawings.

In any case, the key animators for this sequence were Eric Larson and Hal King, who wisely used Milt's input, because they knew it would make their scenes look much better.

The copies are very light and needed a little doctoring, but great drawings always shine through even in third generation xeroxes.

Thunderbolt and Dirty Dawson

I found these two rough model sheets by Tom Oreb online, and they present a nice comparison to Milt Kahl's final character designs. 

Oreb begins with ideas for very graphic representations of character types. Milt maintains the modern graphic quality and adds form and dimension. The end result works beautifully for full animation, and the animators can now turn and draw the design from any angle.

I believe that Milt contributed final models for just about all of the characters in 101 Dalmatians, except for Cruella. She was in the very capable hands of Marc Davis, no refinement necessary there by another artist .

Just love this sketch, a big hole for a mouth with a bunch of lines around it.

A drawing of the Kanine Krunchies guy, who reacts so memorably, when Pongo turns off the TV.

Experimental Yzma

As I mentioned in a previous post about the character of Yzma I had something to to with her early development, when the movie was called "Kingdom in the Sun".

The one and only Eartha Kitt had been chosen as her voice, but at that time I didn't have any recordings yet.

So I picked a line from one of Eartha's last movies, Boomerang, in which she played opposite Eddie Murphy.

I tried to find a piece of dialogue that would epitomize Eartha Kitt's sultry image and …just have fun with it.

Actually I thought I had lost this footage, but recently a tape with the scene resurfaced.

The character design was still in progress, but I needed too move Yzma around, just to see what I had at that point.

So here is the lost experimental scene, Yzma is responding to the Inka figure Pacha, who just let her know that she is "over the hill".

After the Tango...

…these two characters show different states of mind.

Madame Bonfamille is a little exhausted and relieved that the frolic has come to an end, while Georges Hautecourt keeps on boogieing.

The dance was his idea anyway, and you can see Madame's initial reaction on the xeroxed cel above. 

Xeroxed scenes, especially when drawn this rough, only work for me when draughtsmanship and animation are outstanding. That's certainly the case here, because the artist is Milt Kahl.

Milt portrays Madame with elegance and French charm while the decrepit lawyer is still very much young at heart. 

Their degree of caricature might vary, but there is a unity in the character design that makes them work together. And of course the contrast in their personalities allows for interesting character animation.

Sure, here and there Milt might have overused a head nod or shake in his acting, but on the whole this is a remarkable sequence within the opening of The Aristocats. 

The idea to have these two seniors break into dance while they reminisce about old times is wonderful to watch.

Below are copies of key drawings from the scene that shows the tango coming to an end.

The characters were drawn on different levels, I combined them here to show the full composition. There is a lot of goodness to study here: 

The definition and overlap of clothing in the lawyer's jacket as well as Madame's dress and boa. 

Hautecourt's knee wobble after each foot contact, and some daring facial perspectives. 

All this was done without any live action reference.

Bre Melvin created this pose test:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/9f793b05fac5061b497e557e848c6e80/tumblr_mj27iyhUZM1qdbhwwo2_500.gif

Just for Fun

Another watercolor study of Lilo and Stitch I did last year.

It always fascinates me how subtle as well as bold you can be when applying watercolors.

Brings back fun memories from a film that has the chance to become a classic.