Milt's Mr. Toad Drawings

Milt Kahl animated key scenes with characters like MacBadger, Rat and Mole for the Mr. Toad section of the 1949 film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The scene above is one of those scenes. Even this one frame reveals Kahl's extraordinary strength for clear staging, superior drawing and an overall feeling for contrasting personalities. 

To my knowledge Milt didn't do any scenes with Toad, that character was primarily handled by Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball. But as usual Milt was on hand when it came to improving  the draughtsmanship of scenes done by his colleagues.

Here are three beautiful sketches that he made for his fellow animators.

A few rough animation drawings of Rat from Milt's own animation. He never spoke highly about his work on short films, but as you can see, he always gave his best on the post war "package films".  It's just that he preferred the fuller character development of Disney feature films. For the upcoming movie Cinderella Milt animated the King and Duke as well as the Fairy Godmother.

More Pongo and Perdita Poses

These are sections from a model sheet made up of Milt Kahl pre-animation poses of Pongo and Perdita. For some reason this model sheet was never printed and circulated around the studio. Perhaps because subtle changes were still made for final designs. The amount of spots was greatly reduced for obvious reasons. 

These dogs are every bit as realistic as Lady and the Tramp. Its just that the relationship between lines and shapes was enforced for a strong graphic look.

A few of these poses appeared as rough sketches in earlier posts:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2015/01/pongo.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/01/pongo-muzzle-issue.html

I love the way Pongo's soft neck skin reacts to the pull of the collar in the last drawing.

Wilhelm M. Busch, The Wine Guide

A few beautiful Busch spot illustrations from a small German book, titled "Die Weinfibel".
The year of publication is unknown to me, there was info in the book.
As always I love staging and composition in Busch's drawings. Such great clarity. He is an artist who can draw anything, any situation really well. He leaves out a lot of stuff and only puts down what is necessary to get a point and mood across.

Hercules and Scar

There are times when an animator has to think like a computer.
I remember feeling apprehensive when I started work on the scene above. Hercules is posing for a vase painter, "wearing" Scar's skin. As the camera moves screen right, a CG generated podium turns in perspective. That meant that Hercules needed to be animated holding still like a statue, but turn in perspective at the same time.
Having worked on Roger Rabbit actually gave me plenty of experience with this kind of a scene. However on that film the animation was usually very lively and energetic. But in this scene the one pose just had to match the rotation of the podium. I asked clean up to be extra careful with the in-betweens to avoid any unwanted graphic wiggles. Last time I saw the film it looked alright.

A thumbnail sheet for this scene as well as one that follows shortly thereafter, when Herc in frustration throws away the mock sword and the shield...and eventually Scar's skin.

By the way this Scar gag wasn't my idea. Somebody in story came up with it. I thought it was kind of cute though when they asked me if I was ok with the gag. I had absolutely no problem with it.

More Old Art School Stuff

During my last semester at at school in Germany I already knew that Disney was producing a film titled The Fox and the Hound. It inspired me to try and keyframe a fox jumping in a circle. My analysis was far from perfect, but it still turned out to be a useful exercise.

At that time my life drawing teacher encouraged me to draw with an ink pen instead of pencil or charcoal. Scary at first (you can't erase), I eventually really enjoyed using a thin felt pen.

These cows were sketched near my home on a farm (ballpoint pen). As far as animal drawing I needed to teach myself, the school didn't offer any such classes. Still, fond memories of learning, and hoping to work for Disney one day.

Merry Christmas

Remembering a time when a holiday TV program with the Old Maestro (as Floyd Norman calls him) 

made my Christmas season. When a show like this one ran on our TV, my whole family needed to be absolutely quiet...they weren't actually, which frustrated the heck out of me. 

A few pages from vintage Disney Christmas cards.

And a Happy New Year to everybody!

From All of Us to All of You

From All of Us to All of You is an animated television Christmas special, produced by Walt Disney Productions and first presented on December 19, 1958 on ABC as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology series. Hosted by Jiminy Cricket along with Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell, the special combines newly produced animation with clips from vintage animated Disney shorts and feature films, presented to the viewer as "Christmas cards" from the various characters starring in each one.
(From Wikipedia)

This painting is from that program, it announces a clip from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
To watch a few clips from Disney animated films was incredibly special, looong before everyone could buy the complete films on video or disc.

The Genius of Heinrich Kley

I don't know exactly what year this article was published in the German newspaper "Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung". But since the text reveals that Kley had just died, the early 1940s would be a safe bet.

As I said before, Kley's work ages beautifully. Master draughtsmanship defining cartoony situations.

The first page shows you what Kley actually looked like, what a sad expression for an artist who's work makes you smile.

Occasionally Kley would copy one of his drawings and add color, either for a client for a friend.

The drawing below is one of those copies.

A huge oil painting depicting part of the German steel factory Krupp as it is being invaded by a group of demons. Kley's skills as a painter are as strong as his graphic work.

Drawings like this one inspired a generation of Disney animators...actually at least two generations, mine included.

Kathy

I love this "Technicolor photo" of Kathryn Beaumont Levine as she poses in an Alice costume, around 1950/51. The kitten is of course a stand in for Dinah.
And look at all of the Mary Blair art behind them.

I wished the next photo would be in color as well. Taken early on in production of Alice in Wonderland.

One of many scenes Kathy acted out for the animators. All of Alice's key animators, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis and Ollie Johnston thought that Kathy was just perfect for the role.

A few years ago Kathy reenacted a pose from a Disneyland poster.

A while ago I posted this extensive collection of photos and drawings regarding Alice:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/03/kathryn-beaumont.html

Lisa Davis

Lisa Davis has become a good friend of mine ever since my clean up lead Kathy Bailey introduced me to her many years ago. Lisa is full of stories about her time as a Hollywood actress, and the people she worked with.
She got to know Zsa Zsa Gabor during filming of the 1958 camp classic film Queen of Outer Space (See photo below).
Lisa became known for doing a very good impersonation of Gabor, Hungarian accent and all.
The casting folks at Disney found out about this and asked her to come to the studio to try out for the part of Cruella De Vil. At that time Cruella was thought of as a campy Zsa Zsa Gabor type.
Lisa didn't feel comfortable though in that role and asked to read Anita's lines instead.
The rest is history.

Lisa at Disney around 1959.

During early scenes in the film Marc Davis animated Anita. She resembles Aurora from Sleeping Beauty a little, who Marc animated before production on 101 Dalmatians began.

In the end it was Milt Kahl who redesigned Anita and animated most of her scenes, along with Roger's.
More on this topic here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2015/06/anita.html

And because it's the season, here is the inside of Disney's 1960 Christmas card, promoting 101 Dalmatians.