New Busch Originals

I am thrilled to add these two relatively small original drawings to my modest Wilhelm M Busch collection. Two centaurs, ball pen, and a circus backstage scene, pencil and color pencil.

Pure draughtmanship, a feast for the eyes.

John Lounsbery's Robin Hood

I have written before about John Lounsbery's involvement in the character of Robin Hood. He started him off by animating a few scenes, before Milt Kahl took over Robin. 

Early designs by Ken Anderson showed Robin with a thin neck and long nose. Then Milt added a bigger neck for a spiffier appearance.

The first three drawings are Lounsbery's. They are available at:

https://www.animationartgallery.com/category-s/18702.htm

This is Milt's version of Robin from a scene in the film's opening sequence.

The Horned King

I have written plenty about The Black Cauldron over the years. This was my first project at Disney when I started there in August of 1980. The studio was finishing The Fox and the Hound, and I was asked to help design characters for the next feature film. At first it was just Tim Burton and myself, then Phil Nibbelink joined the the design unit. 

After a while management decided that Tim's style would not work for this film, and that a more conventional look was in order.

I came  up with the final design for The Horned King (as well as Creeper, his little henchman.)

But I did not animate any scenes with those characters. The problem was with the concept. The Horned King was just bad, that's it. In order to make your villain interesting though an only evil personality isn't enough. There need to be eccentricities, sarcasm, a weird sense of humor...or even intelligence. 

Later on for future projects we would craft more rounded villains that became interesting because their personalities were richer and unique. 

Ursula is the ultimate camp, Gaston is ridiculously vain and Scar really enjoys being cruel.

Actually this applies to any character in an animated film. In order to connect with an audience the main personalities have to be complex and multifaceted..like real people.

 

Henn/Deja Sequences

Congratulations to Mark Henn for receiving the Disney Legend Award!

I worked with Mark on the same sequences from time to time. Here are a few of my favorites.

King Triton argues with his daughter Ariel.  I said this before, I was practically animating my own father when he gave my teenage sister Christa a hard time for returning back home late after an evening out. James Baxter also drew a few scenes here toward the end.

Jasmine confronts Jafar to find out what is going to happen with Aladdin. By this time Mark had relocated to the Disney/Orlando studio while I was working on Jafar in Burbak. It might sound strange but we never felt the need to discuss things over the phone. Everything was laid out so clearly in the story sketches, it was obvious who would do his animation first and who would follow. 

Scar sets up Simba on a rock just before the wildebeest stampede. With such great voices to work with, it was almost easy to come up with interesting performances. Again, Mark animating Simba in Orlando, I animated Scar in Burbank. 

Jessica Rabbit Roughs

Russel Hall animated  most key scenes with Jessica. His take on the character is unique as you can see in these two spectacular rough drawings. Her sensual qualities could have been portrayed in a cliche, overly cartoony way. But Russel developed a brand new animation style, based on realism and American pin up. He was the perfect animator for this character. 

If you know Russel's work, you find that he was equally capable of handling broad exaggerated designs as well. 

Early Hercules

As mentioned in my previous Hercules post, I recently re-discovered early character designs which I thought had been lost. These marker drawings are less stylized than the final version, and Herc has longer hair. My thought here was that these curls would add follow through movement, and this sort of thing always loosens up your animation. But...he ended up with a haircut, because in all of those ancient Hercules statues the hair is pretty short.

After such a long time it's kind of funny to see how I started the character off. 

 

Olympic Chanteuse

These days the world is talking about the return of Celine Dion. 

Ever since her song for Beauty & the Beast (with Peabo Bryson) I have been a fan of hers. 

In 2011 I had the great pleasure of meeting this superstar before her show in Las Vegas. Her musical program at that time included songs for movies, and I thought she might enjoy a sketch which puts her into the world of Titanic as well as Beauty and the Beast. I am happy to say Celine was thrilled.

In the end she suggested that we re-enact the staging in the drawing I brought. 

Her performance last week in Paris from the Eiffel Tower was one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen.

 

Elsie Henderson

 

Elsie Henderson was an English painter and sculptor who lived from 1880 - 1967. She was terrific depicting animals, particularly big cats. 

Since July 29 is World Tiger Day, here are a few sketches that showcase her excellent observation of these magnificent animals.

Long Lost Model Sheets

I just re-discovered these model sheets. The drawings and notes (with typos) were meant for my animation crew, animators as well as clean up artists. These sheets date back to July of 1996. 

The hand positions were inspired by Milt Kahl. I just stylized the fingers a little.

Such a long time ago, but as they say...it seems like yesterday.

 

It's just so satisfying to see that our film Hercules seems to have grown in popularity over the years. There is a terrific stage show in Hamburg/Germany right now (soon to be in London as well), and more and more students tell me how much they enjoy watching the movie today.

A previous post on Herc from 2013:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/06/hercules.html

MUSHKA Music Video

We made a music video featuring Richard Sherman's "Mushka's Lullaby". 

The wonderful Holly Sedillos is featured during her actual recording. The amazing Synchron Stage Orchestra Vienna is playing the music. 

Have a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuegQPcmT0

The song was arranged by the great Fabrizio Mancinelli, who also provided the film's score.

Negotiations regarding MUSHKA's distribution have only just begun.

About Scar

 

The Lion King turned 30 last month, and I have been speaking frequently to people who had questions about what it was like to work on the film. 

As some of you might know, I had already animated two Disney villains, Gaston and Jafar. By the time the Lion King came around, I thought there would be little or no chance for me to do the villain again. Certainly it was time for someone else to handle the bad guy.

But let me back up a little bit. We were still in the process of finishing the movie Aladdin when a group of us had an important conversation in the hallway of the studio. As much as we loved working on Disney animated films (and it was really an honor), things had gotten a little dicey for the whole animation team. 

I need to point out that at that time there was only ONE animation team, the one that had produced The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast as well as the almost finished Aladdin. For each of those films we had been given 12 months to finish the animation. That was a very tight schedule to say the least. In order to meet the weekly deadlines, a ton of overtime was needed. Dinners were catered to the studio. Many artists took their work home over weekends, I know I did. 

Don't get me wrong, it was loads of fun to work on these films, and we were elated to see their boxoffice results. But people were getting exhausted, and some relationships suffered because we spent so many hours at the studio and very little at home. 

It was time to have a talk with management to discuss these issues. We ended up having a company retreat on the Queen Mary, an old ocean liner turned onto a hotel, located in Long Beach.

Those talks were difficult and straining, but Disney management took notice. The result:

After Aladdin our one animation team would be split into two. Each small unit would be enlarged by hiring additional artists to the studio. And the time to animate a new feature would now be around 18 months. 

The first two animated titles that went into production almost simultaneously were Pocahontas and King of the Jungle (which would go through a name change...).

In order to present pre-production work for both projects to the animators, a wine and cheese party was held. I remember gorgeous vis dev Illustrations by Mike Gabriel telling the story of Pocahontas and her unusual love interest. In essence this was a Romeo and Juliet concept. Everyone understood it and loved it.

King of the Jungle was supposed to be about a lion cub growing up, as he learns about what it takes to become...king of the jungle. 

Mel shaw had produced a few atmospheric pastel sketches showing African wildlife, but there wasn't much of a story at this point.

Disney gave us a choice regarding which film we would like to be a part of. I still find this stunning after all these years. They could have seriously suggested which animator they saw fit for any of the two titles, but they didn't. We really had a choice.

As much as I loved the visuals for Pocahontas, it was clear to me that I had to be a part of the "lion project". Perhaps because of my love for the Jungle Book and my general passion for wildlife.

All the way hoping that a good story for the film might emerge. 

So I started looking at early storyboards to figure out which of the "non villain" characters I might lean toward. Simba, Mufasa, Rafiki etc. 

Then word got around the studio that actor Jeremy Irons had just read a few lines for Scar. I listened to these early recordings, and...my mind was blown. What a voice, what a concept, what a character!!

It might not have been my turn to animate another villain, but I just had to ask. 

I got lucky!

Shere Khan and Kaa II

I talked about this sequence from the Jungle Book before. Here Shere Khan interrogates Kaa, the python, about the man cub. The storyboards were drawn by Vance Gerry and Floyd Norman.

Again I am utterly impressed with Milt Kahl's staging of the two characters. He takes the main idea from the story sketch and draws them in a way that creates a strong visual connection between them. You can see in those rough lines of the tiger that weren't tied down (because those areas are off screen) how hard Milt worked to get the drawing, the shapes and the overall staging just right. Absolute perfection!

Here is the link to a previous post with more of tiger/snake staging masterpieces:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/06/shere-khan-and-kaa.html

Richard Sherman Interview

You all heard by now that Richard M Sherman passed away recently. He would have been 96 years old next week on June 12. 

Richard was amazing in so many ways. Everybody who met him has a Richard Sherman story. He was happy to meet anybody who wanted to meet him. You might have seen Richard in bonus material on some of Disney's home video discs. 

I just came across this fantastic interview with him on Youtube. It was conducted in 2011 by Scott Feinberg. Richard is very much at ease here at his home. He reflects on his songwriting career with his brother Robert, as well as working with Walt Disney, PL Travers and others. 

Great stories from someone who was a true genius, an entertainer and an optimist. He will be greatly missed.

So pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and enjoy the story of Richard Sherman.

Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptokNmWu6vk