"Nani....Look!"

 

Ever since I saw this little scene in story sketches, I was hoping to animate it when the time came. It was so unexpected (or was it?) that after Lilo placed Stich's claw on the vinyl record, she opened his mouth and Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Mind" came out of it. 

This moment always got a big laugh during story screenings. One of the funniest things I had ever seen. 

It was so much fun to draw both characters. The scene was also easy to animate, not a whole lot was moving. Staging and timing had pretty much been worked out in the story sketches by Chris Sanders. 

To this day I get a kick out of watching people's reaction to this little comedic gem. There is usually disbelief at first, followed by laughter.

Here are a few first pass roughs that my assistant at the time had kept for a while.

Here is a Youtube link to the sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKH3hPvBrE

Sketches of Wart

I think I said this before, but Eric Larson found Wart very difficult to draw. "Boy...that kid was so skinny", I remember him saying. But then again any character design by Milt Kahl was hard to follow in those days because Milt had developed his own personal drawing style. For the most part Walt Disney approved Milt's character designs for a new film, but occasionally there were design details that the boss didn't like. And he called for changes such as Wart's profile, his nose in particular. Milt told me way back that Walt did not find this early version appealing enough. On Jungle Book it was the character design of King Louie that went through subtle changes. Walt asked for larger eyes and some hair on top of his head. "You are thinking too much in terms of a real orangutan" he told animators Frank Thomas and Milt, who had just presented their ruff animation of the King Louie sequence. (In the same memo Walt praised both of them for the great character animation).

One thing that really cracked me up is when Milt told me that Walt asked him to stop drawing the characters in the Hanna-Barbera style. "He was playing with me, you know."

 

Scar lives on...

Who knew? You never know what you come across when browsing the internet. I had no idea about this.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/the-lion-kings-scar-gets-his-own-disney-villains-comic-from-dynamite/

Sword in the Stone Publicity

These are four "mini stand up posters" that were displayed in windows of movie theaters when The Sword in the Stone premiered in 1963. Beautiful compositions for this unusual format, as well as terrific character depictions and gorgeous color. This is some of the best advertisement art for any Disney movie. It is interesting to see Bill Peet's story credit here.

I believe the artist might have been Al White, who also illustrated a Golden Book featuring the film's story. Years ago I had the opportunity to see the original book illustration/paintings over at Disney Publishing. Let me tell you, they took my breath away. Absolutely stunning!

Early Pongo

These rough animation drawings show the early design of Pongo with a larger muzzle. 

See previous post on this topic here:

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

Ollie Johnston animated this section from the opening sequence of 101 Dalmatians. After spotting Anita and Perdita from a window sill, Pongo is in a hurry to leave the house. In this close up scene he realizes that it's not time yet for his daily walk with his pet Roger Radcliffe. What to do?

This is one of the first scenes Ollie animated on this film. Milt Kahl had designed the character with a rather large muzzle, and Ollie followed Milt's early sketches of Pongo. The scene would later be redrawn with the final approved character design.

Final frame 

Lounsbery's Robin Hood

These rough animation drawings of Robin Hood show how John Lounsbery handled the character early on in production. To me he looks more like a comic sidekick than the hero type Milt Kahl turned him into afterwards. Lounsbery's rough lines are fluid and less designy.

These drawings are currently available at Wonderful World of Animation:

https://www.animationartgallery.com/category-s/18715.htm

Wilhelm M. Busch, Circus Letters S, T, U

Buzzie

In this Milt Kahl scene Buzzie is starting to loose his patience with the other vultures while discussing plans for what to do next. "Oh blimey, the same notes again!" 

Milt Kahl's challenge here was to find interesting ways to portray boredom. When you are bored you don't move very much at all. But these four buzzards have just enough interaction to pull off a very entertaining sequence. 

As they sit still, one of them would burst out an idea for what to do, which almost freaks out the other ones. For a few frames they turn into "feathery fluff balls" before settling into their normal appearance.

I love all that stuff.

 

The exhibit WALT DISNEY'S THE JUNGLE BOOK, Making a Masterpiece at the Walt Disney Family Museum is closed during February. It will reopen next month and run through March 4.

In the meantime have a sneak peak on Youtube, posted by a visitor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a20gFJcBXo

Patrick Mate

 

Patrick Mate is an extraordinary artist, who works in the animation industry. He has worked for a variety of studios and is mostly known for his outstanding skills as a storyboard artist and character designer. The image above is his recent tribute to The Jungle Book. 

Patrick is also a master caricaturist. He painted these portraits of British character actress extraordinaire Margaret Rutherford, who played Miss Marple in four MGM movies during the early 1960s. I absolutely adore those films, my favorite being "Murder at the Gallop" from 1963. Amazon Prime offers pristine HD versions of all four movies.

 

What a great caricature of the one and only Greta Thunberg, as she tries to get her important message across with the help of a friend.

For much more on Patrick's outstanding work, go to his blog:

http://patrickmate.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas

 

The exhibition "Walt Disney's The Jungle Book, Making a Masterpiece" is still open at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco until January 8. Treat yourself!

The exhibit's catalogue/book is just one click away.

Skywalker

 

What can I tell you? We just spent the most amazing week at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. This was all about final sound for MUSHKA. And boy...what an experience. These artists take your film to an entire new level. Through sound they plus your storytelling and add environmental atmosphere. I am in awe, these guys are magicians. 

And of course you get the Skywalker tour through the expansive property. It is still sinking in...but we are DONE with MUSHKA. And I enjoy finding out that the Skywalker crew loved working on our film.

French Magazine

If you live in France you can pick up this magazine, which celebrates the "Renaissance" of Disney Animation. My friend Matthieu Saghezchi interviewed me for this edition, he also created three stunning illustrations for the interior.

Check it out!

Hibernating

 

At the beginning of the 2013 documentary "Growing up With Nine Old Men" film maker Ted Thomas pulls this sketch out of a cabinet. He doesn't give an explanation for the image or who the artist might be. Looking back at the drawing now, I am 89.573 % sure that Milt Kahl drew this during production of Bambi. You remember the scene from the film with Thumper's line about hibernating.

Bambi is a caricature of animator Frank Thomas, Thumper is Milt, and Flower is drawn as Marc Davis, who drew most scenes with that character. 

Perhaps Frank and Milt had caught Marc taking long naps after lunch.

By the way, the entire documentary has been uploaded in HD on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NY0tu69G8k&t=670s