Ostrich Studies for Fantasia

These are sketchbook pages from Disney artist and animal drawing teacher Bernard Garbutt. Beautiful, loose drawings from life. They give us an insight into the depth of research that was done in order to get a thorough understanding of ostriches' anatomy and motion. All this effort paid of when it came too animating these birds for Fantasia's Dance of the Hours.
This is what I've always loved about Disney's approach to animation. You learn as much as you possibly can about your subject, and then go to town with that knowledge in your animation.

These drawings go back as far as 1932, even though Fantasia wasn't released until 1940.

More on Bernard Garbutt here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/bernard-garbutt.html

Milt Kahl in The National Enquirer

This article was published at the end of 1973 to help promote Disney's Robin Hood. (The footnote after the article is by Richard Williams.)
While it includes some good good information about Milt's research before he actually animates, most of the quotes just don't sound like him. I doubt that Milt went to the LA zoo regularly, he much preferred studying live action film of animal motion at the studio on his moviola. "The film required about 35.000 individual drawings"...?? Where does that ridiculously low number come from?
This reminds me of the utterly uninformed TV hostess from Dallas, who tried to interview Milt around the same time:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/11/milt-kahl-talks-robin-hood.html

As great as it is to find a newspaper article on any Disney animator, take this one with a grain of salt.


Milt's beautiful size comparison sheet, featuring some of the main characters. What a great variety of shapes and volumes.

These couple of drawings show how Milt went over John Lounsbery's poses for the Sheriff of Nottingham.

A model sheet made up of rough key drawings from Milt's animation of Little John.
The range of expressions, the appeal...speechless!

Roger Rabbit Scenes V

I think this was the most labor intensive scene I ever animated (represented here by the first two film frames). It was toward the end of animation production, when I as asked to do the front row of characters racing through the hole in the ACME Factory's wall toward camera, and stopping in front of the melted villain, Judge Doom. The group of characters included Disney personalities, but other studios as well. Like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Roadrunner, and Betty Boop.
This wasn't a very long scene, just with a lot of characters. And everyone was supposed to move in character. That meant studying VHS tapes of classic short films from Warners and Fleischer.
I had a blast animating this great variety of cartoon icons, but I do remember being asked frequently by the production manager: "Andreas, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FINISH THAT SCENE?!"

We cut a little closer for comments by these animation a-list characters. To this day animator Nik Ranieri gives me grief for not drawing Bugs on model.

We cut even closer for Pinocchio's line of dialogue. I forgot I also drew Droopy and Speedy Gonzales  here. Maybe not 100% on model, but great fun to do.

Great Disney Duos

As many of you now, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were lifelong friends and collaborators. They often worked on characters that had a lot of interaction like Captain Hook and Smee, or The Three Fairis in Sleeping Beauty.

Marc Davis and Milt Kahl animated personalities with a definite relationships like Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip or Anita Radcliff and Cruella De Vil. Marc and Milt remained friends throughout their lives.

Cartoon Brew just posted this incredible photo of Art Babbit and Bill Tytla, taken in 1967 in Montreal. Way back in 1941 when Babbit went on that infamous Disney animators strike, his friend Bill followed out of loyalty.

Richard and Robert Sherman dominated Disney music during the 1960s, in animated as well as lives action films. They also wrote for Disney TV shows and Disneyland.

And without the collaboration of these two young whippersnappers (which sometimes wasn't easy), animation of the highest level wouldn't have happened. Without the genius of Roy Disney the company would have folded many times over. How do you keep a studio afloat after major flops like Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi?

"Don't tell me you're going in there..."

Dave Michener assisted Milt Kahl on this unusual scene. Wart has run away from Kay and is now hiding behind a tree in the forest. Kay seems surprised and shouts: "Oh, ha ha, oh don't tell me you're going in there? Oh, ha ha, why it's swarming with wolves."
Michener was amazed that Milt would be so bold and have Kay point right into camera. He told me: "I couldn't believe it, I had never seen anything like this."
Actually Milt used a similar gesture on Brom Bones during a song sequence years earlier:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/11/brom-bones.html

Still, this isn't an easy way to stage a pose with such crazy foreshortening. But then again, Milt challenged himself constantly in his draughtsmanship.

The Sword in the Stone 1963

Why not one more post on Disney's The Sword in the Stone ? A film disliked by some, but loved by many. By the time I enrolled into art school way back, I had seen all of Disney's classic animated films in theatrical reruns except for The Sword in the Stone. One day I was invited to a private screening of this movie at someone's home. He had secured a pristine 35mm print and was going to show it in his living room. I loved the film then and I still do. As Milt Kahl put it, the story falls short here and there, but the movie more than makes up for those weaknesses with rich characters and sequences.
This is color model artist Mary Tebb, wearing an outfit worthy of Technicolor.

A sketch by Bill Peet. Merlin relaxes in a studio chair, originally designed by Kem Weber.

A couple of beautiful styling sketches by the underrated Vance Gerry.

A frame from the Madame Mim sequence. A stunning scene animated by you know who. Just look at that crazy pose!

A cel set up featuring Merlin, Wart and the wolf (animated by John Lounsbery). The highlights on Merlin's beard were added later, as set ups like this one were offered for sale.

A quick reminder about my Nine Old Men book signing on Thursday, 7/28 at Barnes & Noble (at the Grove) at 7 pm:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/07/book-signing-at-barnes-noble-grove.html

Mim as a Crocodile

These are some of the best Milt Kahl drawings you will ever see. Character designs of Madame Mim as a crocodile. Milt did a thorough exploration of this creature, even though the croc is on the screen for only six short scenes.
Milt is fully embracing Picasso here. Look at those hands! Right out of Guernica. The old cuddly Disney style is gone, the new styling borrows from 1950s and 60s fine art. So cool, and so much fun to look at!

Here is a re-post of a color model cel, picturing the first image above.
Milt didn't animate anything on the Wizards' Duel, and he wasn't too happy with the way his designs were handled in the final footage. That's because they didn't look EXACTLY like these sketches.

Again, a big thanks to Rick Farmiloe for providing these incredible images.