Disney on TV

I didn't grow up in the US, where millions of kids grew up with Walt Disney's regular TV shows.
Walt was still alive when I was a young kid in Germany, and I remember vividly watching him on very rare occasions during German Disney TV programs. Of course Walt spoke German fluently, thanks to his dubbing voice, actor Friedrich Schoenfelder.
Naturally I was particularly fascinated when the show's content was about animation. The world's master magician telling the audience about past achievement or what he was planing to do next.
Nirwana!

Here is a magazine article featuring Walt's history with Mickey as shown on TV.

The ultimate program for me was when Disney artists were introduced as they worked on various animated feature films. Here is Milt Kahl animating the introductory scene of Tramp From Lady & the Tramp.

In this TV episode Disney animators study human movement in preparation for Sleeping Beauty.
The model is Helene Stanley, the animators are Marc Davis, John Lounsbery and Milt Kahl.

Ollie Johnston is getting ready for his close up in a mock office, put together on one of the Disney sound stages. The filmed segment starts out with Ollie animating Merryweather and leads to the topic of model trains, a hobby he shared with Walt. See framed photo on top of his desk.

Joe Rinaldi Story Sketches

I brought this up before, Joe Rinaldi's story work on Disney features is often mistaken for for Bill Peet's. Both artists show top draughtsmanship, excellent staging and great story continuity.
Here are a few sketches by Rinaldi for Cinderella and one for Peter Pan.
As an animator your work is half done when so much is already worked out by the story artist. Personality-rich poses, character relationships and acting. Story artists like Rinaldi really are unsung heroes, because they provided the ground work, the storytelling and character development.
In many cases the animators used these poses within their animated performances.

For Joe Rinaldi's work on Lady & the Tramp, go here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/04/joe-rinaldi.html

Lady & Tramp Mix

Actors Barbara Luddy and Larry Roberts pose in front of storyboards drawn by Joe Rinaldi. They voiced the title characters in Disney's 1955 CinemaScope film Lady and the Tramp. 
Roberts was famous during the 1950s for his TV roles and his performances as a stand-up comic.
Luddy would later provide voices for Disney, including Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty, Kanga in the Winnie the Pooh films and the Church Mouse in Robin Hood.

Singer Peggy Lee had a major influence on the film. She wrote songs and was the voice of Darling, both Siamese Cats and of course the showgirl dog Peg.

Peggy Lee visits the ink & paint department.

A still from a TV program in which Lee explains how she recorded both voices for Si and Am.
That's song co-writer Sonny Burke next to her.

A couple of story sketches from the romance sequence.

A magazine ad featuring Tramp promoting dog food.

Raymond Sheppard

A while ago, when I was looking for artists who might inspire me as far as depicting tigers, I came across Raymond Sheppard. His work is solid, accurate, "no nonsense". Beautiful old fashioned animal drawing in the best sense of the word.

Wikipedia says:
Raymond Sheppard (1913–1958) was a British artist and illustrator of books for children and adults. He wrote books on drawing techniques, but is best known for his illustrations of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and the works of Jim Corbett.

Here is a sampling of his work.

Much more on Raymond Sheppard on this terrific blog:

http://raymondsheppard.blogspot.com

Drawn Water

It is beyond me how Disney effects animators controlled all that massive line work from drawing to drawing when it came to animating water. Imagine looking at two of these drawings from Pinocchio on your animation disc, and then trying to create an in-between.
Yet they did it with stunning results. Scenes like these might look realistic to you, but in reality there are no graphic lines in the ocean. These moving drawings are imaginatively designed and timed to give you the illusion of water.

Beautiful art deco ripples appear as the crane takes a drink. From Fantasia's removed sequence
Clair de Lune. This short appeared years later in Make Mine Music with different music.

Bambi has incredible effects animation throughout, including water.

When I started at Disney way back, a friend asked me: Will we ever see water again like in Fantasia?
These effects artists were experimenting feverishly.

The Disney xerox films shared similar design ideas for water. Simple, economical, but still beautiful.

I believe the water's transparency was achieved through double exposure, I don't think they used transparent paint at that time.

We had some great looking water for Lilo & Stitch. The roundness of the character design is reflected in the wave patterns. And that's how it should be, special effects need to be specific to the overall design of the film.
Did I mention that this film was a ton of fun to work on?

Drawings, Heritage Auctions.

Aristocats Mix

A few images from behind the scenes of Disney's 1970 animated film The Aristocats.
Here story artist Vance Gerry is presenting his storyboard of the "boy meets girl" sequence to director Woolie Reitherman and animator Frank Thomas. Frank animated the beginning of this section, Ollie Johnston did the second half, and Milt Kahl drew a few scenes in the middle.
You can see the sequence in pencil test form here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/08/aristocats.html


A sketch of Madame Bonfamille and her cats from a deleted song sequence. I believe Vance Gerry drew this one.

A vis dev piece by Ken Anderson. He created an enormous amount of character as well as environment visuals for the film.

Milt Kahl ended up animating Mme Bonfamille. In this scene she discovers that her cats have disappeared. It's a nice scene, beautifully drawn, but...lightening is going to strike me...her hands are a bit too large.

A couple of press photos showing the characters of Napoleon and Lafayette, along with their voice actors Pat Buttram and George Lindsey.
Frank Thomas and Eric Cleworth animated these guys. I love the feeling of loose skin on these dogs.

The Bonfamille household used to have a butler and a maid, but she didn't make the cut.
Drawings by Ken Anderson.

Another story sketch by Vance Gerry, followed by the final film frame. Ollie Johnston animated this sequence, and as soon as I locate his staging/thumbnail sketches in my inventory I will post them.