How Does a Dalmatian Gulp?

That's the question Frank Thomas asked himself when he analyzed certain expressions for a scene with Pongo. 

The following drawings are pre-animation exploratory sketches. As usual Frank researched every aspect of the scene in detail.

The acting called for something that dogs don't do, a gulp. Pongo is gathering some courage here, he has spotted Perdita in the park. Now he is determined to meet her and also have Roger meet Anita.

Putting such a subtle human gesture on to a dog's face is not an easy task. 

But this is the kind of acting Frank excels at, and the end result is completely believable as well as entertaining. 

Fergy's Honest John

Honest John (or J. Worthington Foulfellow) is one of my all time favorite animated characters.

Rich personality -the used car salesman type-, great design and outstanding acting.

Norm Ferguson supervised the animation on him, he had some help from a young John Lounsbery.

Fergy, as he was called around the studio, was an intuitive animator. Walt Disney liked the loose quality in his animation and in his drawings, and he encouraged other animators to take this approach. He was also a very fast animator. And because Fergy was not thinking about doing "pretty drawings" the poses he came up with for the fox are dynamic, inventive and so right in character. There is a theatrical Vaudeville quality to them, which is why the animation reads so clearly on the screen.

To me it looks like Fergy intergraded strong straight lines into his work even before Milt Kahl used them as a means of simplifying and strengthening a drawing.

The first sketch is pre-production, followed by rough animation keys and a couple of model sheets.

Fergy died way too young in 1957 at the age of 55.

Girls Talk too Much

At least Peter Pan thinks so when he meets Wendy in the opening sequence of the movie. Wendy herself is pretty excited to see Peter Pan, and so she chatters away.

Milt Kahl was the supervising animator of the title character. I am pretty sure that this particular scene was done without any live action reference, it just looks like Milt pulled it out of his head.

There is a beautiful balance of realism and cartoony expressions, something not easy to do!

The clean up drawings were done over the original roughs on the same sheet of paper.  Since Milt was the authority on how to draw his characters, why change anything?

The following pencil sequence has animation from a variety of animators.

Peter: Kahl, Harvey Toombs, Eric Larson

Wendy: Hal Ambro, Ken O'Brian, Eric Larson, Harvey Toombs, Kahl

Tinker Bell: Marc Davis, Les Clark

Even though many animators worked on these few characters, there really aren't  any off model scenes. Kudos to the 1950ies Disney clean up crew.

Just pencil lines on paper, no color, creating the kind of magic that…..makes you feel happy!

The Animated Animator

Way back on Beauty & the Beast I was told that some of Gaston's  gestures and expressions look like me (of all the characters!!).

The truth is that an animator can't help but inject some of his or her own physical characteristics into the character. Sometimes this is intentional (when studying yourself in the mirror), other times it is not.

Disney story man Vance Gerry told me once that he thinks that all of Milt Kahl's characters have Milt's eyes. Ever so slightly cross-eyed, they look like they are up to no good. I think Vance has a point.

The following frame grabs show Frank Thomas as he explains animation principles during a TV show from the 1980ies. What an expressive face, Frank could have been a great live actor.

I couldn't help myself and searched for (Thomas') animation drawings that somewhat reflect Frank's grimaces.

Simplicissimus

I know, it sounds like one of those magic words from Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

Simplicissimus was a satirical German weekly magazine, that ran from 1896 until 1967, with a hiatus from 1944-1954. 

Many famous graphic artists contributed stunning illustrations with themes that commented on social/political issues of the times. You might have heard of Heinrich Kley, George Grosz and Kaethe Kollwitz, but other contributors were artists like the incredible Karl Arnold, Olaf Gulbransson and Edward Thoeny.

I just love looking at this kind of art. Whenever I am designing characters, and I catch myself falling back on to old formulas, I look at pages from Simplicissimus. The types of people represented in the illustrations are so rich in character, the designs are super inventive…no formulas here!

And do you know who else referred to these artists and admired them ? Our friend Joe Grant  from Disney. He collected the magazines when they were issued way back. I had many conversations with Joe about these graphic gems, we both found them very inspiring.

I am not including any text or commentary, just look at the quality of drawing, caricature and staging.

There are plenty of formulaic animated characters populating the screens today. I'd love to see inspired alternatives, wether they are based on a source like this one or any other graphic style, it's time to break the mold. An exciting prospect!

 Bruno Paul 1906

Olaf Gulbransson 1909

 Rudolf Wilke 1908

 Olaf Gulbransson 1908

 G. Hertting 1910

 Karl Arnold 1911

 Olaf Gulbransson 1905

 Blix 1907

 Olaf Gulbransson 1916

 Olaf Gulbransson 1916

 Karl Arnold 1924

 E. Thoeny 1920

 Karl Arnold 1921

 Karl Arnold 1922

 Olaf Gulbransson 1923

 Karl Arnold 1927

 Herbert Marxem 1929

 Karl Arnold 1930

Karl Arnold 1930

Life imitates Art

This is Milt Kahl as he reenacts a scene he animated, when Medusa affectionately embraces her alligators Nero and Brutus. It was filmed for a Disney Channel TV show from 1981 called "The Illusion of Life". The program promoted classic Disney Animation, Frank and Ollie's book with the same title and the release of The Fox and the Hound.

You can find it on YouTube, and if you watch very carefully, you will spot me in one short scene drawing Princess Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron, the upcoming epic from the studio.