James Bodrero

                                                                                          ©LIFE

James Bodrero (in the center of the photo) could draw horses.

And Walt Disney knew this, that's why he asked Bodrero to storyboard large sections of the Pastoral sequence in Fantasia. All that interaction with Bacchus and the Centaurs is his work.

Not much later Bodrero was chosen to join Walt and El Groupo on a trip through several South American States to study and sketch local culture and folklore.

Not much sketching going on in the photo above, but he seems to be enjoying a dance lesson which is being filmed by Walt Disney himself.

A stunning character design sketch depicting a couple of centaurettes and a faun.

This casual situation reminds me of the work of Heinrich Kley.

These drawings made during the South American trip leave me somewhat speechless.

They seem effortless, and yet everything from anatomy to the characters' outfits is so well observed and put on paper with sheer joy. Some of my favorite Disney drawings  ever! These horses….oh boy!!

Animator Frank Thomas becomes a subject in this Bodrero sketch.

Bodrero left Disney in the mid fourties, he enjoyed traveling and particularly fell in love with Spain.

Him and his wife had residences in San Francisco as well as Andalusia on the Costa de Sol. 

In 1965 he published a book titled "Long Ride to Granada", a sort of travel log through the South of Spain. Here are a few beautiful illustrations from the book.

James Bodrero in his later years.
He passed away in San Francisco in 1980 at the age of 79.

Robin Hood & Little John in Drag

Milt Kahl sure likes a good challenge.

When Robin Hood and Little John are running to catch up with Prince John's coach, they also put on gipsy clothes at the same time to disguise themselves. The characters are having fun doing this, so the acting needs to reflect their attitude, combined with a run that keeps changing pace.

Milt tried to get as much comedy out of this situation as possible, especially in Little John's animation.

This kind of work requires an enormous amount of concentration and planning. 

Of course the end result looks flawless, natural and very entertaining. These scenes are great for frame by frame study. There is so much going on here, but everything reads clearly. The character weight, the clothes' overlapping action, the overall staging, just beautifully analyzed.

These are a couple of Milt's thumbnail pages, he is trying to figure out how Little John might put his hat away and replace it with a wig.

A model sheet made up of key drawings from a couple of scenes. I marked one drawing NG, it is out of order and belongs elsewhere in the scene.

Four original roughs that Milt discarded (followed by a few copies). This is what his first pass looked like.

As you can see the character remains in the center of the pages, running in place. 

Robin stops for a moment to take time to pull down his dress.

These drawings reflect a slightly older design version. Before the scene was sent over to be xeroxed, his neck was widened according to the final model's look.

The film Robin Hood might not be one of your favorites, but still…it is full of animation gems that are worth taking a closer look at.

First Mama Odie Test

A while back I posted a Mama Odie experimental scene, but this one was the very first animation I did with her.  When I was doing  the rough pose test I still saw the character with chubby arms and hands. Madame Mim was on my mind, so I stayed away from skinny limbs. 

But I was asked to make the adjustment, as you can see in the tighter inbetweened version. And I saw right away that those proportions worked better.

For final production the scene was restaged, and I re-animated it accordingly, but the ending stayed intact. Of course eventually I added more neck mass, which was too much fun to incorporate into her dialogue with all that squash and stretch.

Jennifer Lewis gave me one of the juiciest voices I ever worked with.

Nanny

That is character actor Don Barkley, who provided live action reference for the character Nanny in Disney's 101 Dalmatians. He also acted out scenes with the Badun Jasper and the TV character Dirty Dawson. A performer with great range!

Nanny from Disney's 101 Dalmatians was primarily animated by Ollie Johnston, but there were a few other artists who had a hand in designing her appearance.

Based on Bill Peet's  story sketches character stylist Tom Oreb came up with these wonderful designs. The animators pretty much kept the qualities in these drawings, except for her slightly elongated upper lip, which distinguishes her from the the Fairies in Sleeping Beauty. I would have preferred to see Oreb's mouth configuration in the animation. 

Milt Kahl pushed the proportions further and added realistic eyes.

The shapes in his sketches are definitely inspired by Oreb, but Milt always had his own sense for graphic perfection.

Ollie Johnston softened the design's angularity a little to the point where he would feel comfortable animating Nanny. Ollie created a great walk for her.

Frank Thomas explored a range of proportions.

Here he is helping Ollie with motion analysis and staging.

Nanny is a very sympathetic character, protecting those puppies means everything to her. She could have been handled as a much more comic type, but her loyalty to the Radcliffs and her affection for the dogs make for a warm, motherly personality.

On a different note, this is post #300 !!

Farm Animals

I believe these colorful story sketches for the film Mary Poppins are the work of Don DaGradi.

They sure foreshadow the movie's rich Technicolor look.

According to songwriter extraordinaire Richard Sherman, DaGradi was able to visualize just about anything in only a few seconds. That spontaneity made it all the way up to the screen.

The movie's storyline is very uncluttered, accessible and pretty darn magical.

For me the animated sequences are of course the highlight of the film. They were animated by Disney's top animators. Frank and Ollie did the penguin waiters, Milt Kahl animated the fox hunt, and John Lounsbery focused on the horse race, and earlier on the visit to the farm. All of it great stuff! 

Milt came up with the final designs for the farm animals, and every one of them is a gem.

Those sheep with their heavy wool make for great characters, and the lamb's anatomy is delicate and charming.

The work horse is a heavier version of the Captain from 101 Dalmatians, and the cow's design elements also remind us of that film. 

But it's the pigs who jump off the page. There have been a number of various pig designs in Disney animated films over the years, but these are hilarious. Basically a sausage shape for the body, the legs are tiny, and the eyes are a just couple of dots. 

By the way, these model sheets were printed and distributed exactly FIFTY years ago!

The reason these drawings still look so fresh today is because the quality of their designs remains unmatched. Call me old fashioned….