Don't mess with Medusa

Medusa is threatening Snoops and Penny in this scene toward the end of the film The Rescuers, (obviously) animated by Milt Kahl.

Geraldine Page's line is: "(If either of you try to) follow me, you get blasted!"

She is such a great character for studying dialogue. Her design is pretty much a caricature of an "over the hill" type, but her lip movements  and mouth shapes are drawn fairly realistically. Teeth, gum and lips are carefully designed, unlike some characters in films I worked on, where inter locked teeth were often drawn with a non-descriptive zig-zag line.

Her squinty eyes make her look extremely mad (# 55 would be my favorite expression), and I love the way Medusa leans into camera. Her head shake on "blasted" is very appropriate here. ( Milt had a tendency to overuse head shakes and nods starting in the early 1960s, but more on that later.)

You can tell that Milt had a grand time bringing this character to life.

3 x Ward Kimball

A great snapshot of Walt stopping by Ward's office around the time of The Three Caballeros.

Kimball seems to be saying: "Just to let you know, Walt, I'm going to go a little crazy with this sequence."

Ward is about to sign his sketch of Luzifer, which was part of several collages I had put together to decorate the second floor of the animation building in the late 1990s.

Kimball's archive at home. Boxes and files full of clippings from magazines and other sources.

I am not surprised that he collected T. S. Sullivant images. 

If I am not mistaken, one box is labelled Nice Ward Kimball Fan Mail. 

This photo was taken during my last visit to see Ward in 2002.
More on that visit here:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-last-time-i-saw-kimball.html

More Busch Circus Sketches

Each time I turn to works by Wilhelm M. Busch I get inspired. He takes "on the spot drawing" to another level. Raw, intuitive, masterful sketches. 

Beautifully observed moments put down on paper in seconds. An artist who never made an ordinary drawing, he saw something unique in almost everything.

Milt Kahl's Robin Hood

Milt did this appealing drawing of Robin for a certain Leonard at a time when he had just about finished animating on the movie. I just love the fact that Milt drew anthropomorphic characters like these with a total respect for anatomy, human and animal wise.

Another piece I picked up at auction years ago.

The following sketches demonstrate how Milt's drawing style not only influenced the look of the film's character designs, but also other animators' work.

Ollie Johnston animated this scene with Little John, who is about to scratch his back with an arrow. Milt didn't change Ollie's pose, he just tried to make the drawing look more solid by establishing a few straight lines which define positive planes on the bear's body.

These drawings of Otto were done for animator John Lounsbery. It's kind of a complex staging issue. A dog walking like a human with a crutch, wearing an apron, one leg in a cast while holding a sac with coins.  

Milt keyed this Frank Thomas scene with Skippy, who hesitantly comes forward from behind a tree as he tries to retrieve his arrow. I remember discussing the first drawing with Frank. I mentioned that I thought this is a great pose to start the forward motion from. Frank agreed.

There are two versions of this pose, I like them both.

The Sheriff of Nottingham is taking Friar Tuck into custody. I don't know who animated the scene, but this beautiful staging sketch surely helped to clearly communicate the emotional state of both characters.

Heinrich Kley Color Sketch

This is a stunning watercolor study by German artist Heinrich Kley (1863 - 1945).

Many of you are familiar with his lively, satirical black and white pen and ink drawings of anthropomorphic animals and people. But Kley also did a ton of color work in his lifetime.

This scene depicts a moment from some kind of Wagner like opera backstage.

The central figure is a woman on a white horse, then there are guards, musicians and even a tiger in the lower left corner. 

To me this is an impressionistic masterpiece. The use of light is so bold and unusual, and I love the blend of warm and cool tones. This piece is not signed, but dated February 1905.
It measures 10.5 x 6". I purchased it years ago in Munich from Kley's estate.

Feast your eyes!

John Lounsbery animates Gideon and Honest John

I had long thought that animator Norm Ferguson was responsible for animating this scene which features the fox and the cat from Pinocchio. But the film's draft states clearly that this is the work of John Lounsbery. 

Gideon is trying desperately to free Honest John from the awkward predicament he had put the fox in. The scene description in the draft goes like this:

EXT. CU - CAT biting fingernails - timidly reaches up -  lifts lid of hat - Fox yells: "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"  Cat scared, closes lid of hat - pats it - then gets brilliant idea.

That's pretty much the way Lounsbery animated the scene, except for patting the hat's lid after closing it. Gideon is a mute character, but his acting and body language can be very broad. He reminds me of a vaudeville performer. 

Here are a few of Lounsbery's terrific animation roughs for Seq. 3, Sc. 45.2.  

A maquette of Gideon from Joe Grant's model department.

A couple of revised model sheets, probably drawn by an artist from the model department.

Norm Ferguson was a sequence director on Pinocchio. He was already a senior animator, and part of his job was to pass on his knowledge to kids like Lounsbery, Milt Kahl, Frank & Ollie and all the others who much later would be part of the Nine Old Men's Club. Walt Disney loved the loose quality in his animation and encouraged everybody to try the "Fergy" method, because in his scenes the characters truly came to life. Ferguson not only animated scenes with Gideon and the fox, but also laid out poses and acting business for other animators.