Aristocats Stuff

I really like Ken Anderson's Vis Dev work for The Aristocats. Frank Thomas felt that Ken's work lost strength after his stroke in the early 1960s, but to me his art certainly never lost any charm. Just look at this sweat color gag sketch featuring Marie.

I don't know who the artist is behind this sketch, but I do love the atmosphere and staging.

 A couple of Anderson gag drawings showing that the kittens are spoiled and have the run of the house.

Development art by various artists for Duchesse, who was voiced by Eva Gabor.

Madame Bonfamille, animated by Milt Kahl, is a favorite of mine. She is a realistic, straight character,  brought to life by Milt Kahl with extraordinary nuanced performances and drawn absolutely beautifully. The character was voiced by British actress Hermione Baddeley, who had played a maid in Mary Poppins.

Before Ever After

If you -like me- ever wondered how on earth Walt Disney's artists reached such astronomical artistic heights, you will find some answers to that question in this new book.
The short and feature films during Disney's Golden Age didn't just happen because the staff was talented and could draw and paint well. At that time there was a serious program in place which involved drawing classes as well as lectures with topics such as acting, architecture, color theory, caricature and anatomy to name just a few.
The best authorities and teachers in these fields stopped by the studio to give an insightful talk or they  were put on staff and taught on an ongoing basis.
Luckily these lectures were transcribed back then, and thanks to Don Hahn and Tracey Miller-Zarneke, who spent a considerable amount of time searching for these treasured documents, we now can all relive and learn from Walt Disney's art training program.

This is a big book, 448 pages full of photos, sketches and reproductions of those vintage pages, which reveal words of wisdom by in-house artists like Bill Tytla, Don Graham, Ham Luske and many others.

Visiting artists include architect Frank Lloyd Wright, painter Jean Charlot and color expert Faber Birren.

I think I am going to tattoo that Walt Disney quote on my arm, it is so true!

One of the most important and and inspiring books on animation ever published:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484710819/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=1QC90QBHM6G035M7APS9&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2253014322&pf_rd_i=desktop

Technicolor Flowers

The Flower Ballet from Fantasia's Nutcracker sequence has always been one of my favorite pieces of animation. What an unusual mix of effects and character animation.
The storyboard pastel sketches are breathtaking as well. I wished I knew who drew them.

Images: Heritage and Bonhams Auctions

Villains

If you'd ask me what Disney villain is the scariest, most evil, terrifying...my answer would be The Devil on Bald Mountain from Fantasia. Not much character development here, but a glorious  animated nightmare. Animation, effects, art direction...like Milt Kahl said:"There has never been anything like that since."

When it comes to villains in live action films, I can think of a few that scare the popcorn out of me.
Here are a few in no particular order of frightening degree.
Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Hannibal Lecter so believably as a psychopath with cannibalistic habits, it's hard to look at the screen when he looking into the camera. This film frame alone...

Heath Ledger was so terrifying as the Joker in The Dark Knight, I went home after I saw the film and watches a sequence from The Aristocats (to calm down).

Jack Nicholson was made to play villains. He almost ended up voicing Hades for Disney's Hercules.
Talking about a gifted actor who has fun portraying evil.

Villains can be very good looking. It's a strange, but powerful concept.
Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List.

Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock's Psycho.

Kathy Bates as the ultimate obsessed fan Annie Wilkes. Great film, difficult to watch.

I saw Clockwork Orange only once, will never watch it again. An amazing movie...too intense for me.
Actor Malcolm McDowell as Alex.

Movie bully #1, Zack Ward as Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story. One of my favorite films.

Another one of my favorite films, Spielberg's Jaws. Amazing script, actors, and the fact that you saw the shark only a few times helped elevate this film to classic status.
(Btw, right now we are having more sharks, Great Whites and Hammerheads, off the Southern California coast than ever before..scary stuff).

To me this character just might be the scariest of all screen villains. Actor Helgi Skulasson played a murderous tribe leader in the 1987 Norwegian film Pathfinder. This man has the look of death in his eyes. I apologize for the low res image, this is the only one I could find on the internet.
I really like the movie. Simple powerful story, great casting and....him!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here is a link to a recent article about the villains I animated at Disney for Disney Insider:

http://blogs.disney.com/insider/2015/10/26/animator-andreas-deja-on-crafting-famous-disney-villains/

They Drew as they Pleased

You need to get this book!
Didier Ghez has compiled the most beautiful Visual Development artwork, representing the 1930s at Disney Studios. You will find gorgeous sketches, watercolors and pastels by artists like Albert Hurter, Ferdinand Hovarth, Gustaf Tenggren and Bianca Majolie. Their level of artistry and invention is mind boggling.
Today's animation industry can learn a lesson or two from the unconventional approach of these early Disney artists. These folks were feverishly experimenting, a quality I would like to see again in today's animated output.

Didier passionately chronicles the life and artistic style of Disney's early idea artists.
The illustrations are beautifully reproduced. Get the book!

http://www.amazon.com/They-Drew-Pleased-Hidden-Disneys/dp/1452137439/ref=zg_bsnr_tab_pd_mw_2


Here are a few of Hovarth's design concepts for various projects, not included in the book.

Drawings Disney/Heritage Auctions

Jungle Book Thumbnails

I really don't know who drew these small thumbnail sketches for The Jungle Book. They might have been done for the original, darker story treatment, based on Bill Peet's concepts. The rhino Rocky shows up in one of the images, a character Milt Kahl was about to start animation on, before Walt suggested to remove Rocky from the film.
It is interesting to see how certain situations were either restaged or entirely cut from the final version while others reflect scenes we know from the movie.
These original pages were offered at auction a while ago, I kept scans of some of the sketches.
Beautiful stuff!

Goofy

Some fun Goofy material.
The beautiful watercolor illustrations above were published in Good Housekeeping Magazine.
The quality of the art in this page as well as in many other ones, based on Disney short films of the time, is outstanding. The characters were in their prime, in areas like animation, comics and illustration.

The following clean up drawings from the 1936 short Moving Day show animator Art Babbit's insight into the personality of Goofy. In this scene he is interacting with a piano which shows considerable personality. It refuses to get moved into the new home, and Goofy tries hard to meet this challenge.
No dialogue here just good old vaudeville pantomime. I wouldn't call these drawings refined or sophisticated, but the overall poses are very strong, and they communicate Goofy's state of mind in very entertaining ways.

A cel followed by a couple of rough animation drawings from the 1937 short Clock Cleaners.
It's interesting to see how loosely the animators worked when dealing with comedic action scenes.

A few pages from the How to Draw Goofy booklet, which used to be sold at Disneyland.

I never realized that Goofy had become a fashion trend setter. Those slipped down pants are back in style today.

I've always loved seeing sequential poses in Disney publications. What makes the Goofy run unusual and specific has to do with pose # 2. The knee moves way up with the foot dragging, toes pointing backwards, before snapping in to a forward position. This is an "out of the ordinary drawing" which breaks up the regularity of a normal run.

I had the pleasure of animating scenes involving Goofy for The Prince and the Pauper, and more recently for How to Hook up your Home Theatre, a short I am very fond of. It was always fun to get assigned to classic Disney short characters and try to give them a little Encore in life.

Some images, Heritage Auctions:
http://www.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=793+794+791+792+1893+1577+2088+0&chkNotSold=0&Ntk=SI_Titles&Nty=1&Ntt=animation+art&ic=homepage-search-071713