Ken Anderson's Robin Hood

When Walt Disney Productions decided to produce an animated film based on the classic tale of Robin Hood, it was Ken Anderson who who got to get to work before anyone else.

During conversations with the animators Ken found out that some of the most fun they ever had was animating the anthropomorphic animals in Song of the South.

So he suggested that the story of Robin Hood be told with animal characters. Everybody loved the idea and after completing early design work Ken presented his research to some of Disney's top talents.

This photo was taken during a lively meeting which included, from left to right, director Woolie Reitherman, Milt Kahl, Ken, Dave Michener (a former assistant to Kahl, who had moved into story), Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and writer Larry Clemmons.

As you can see in the back Ken had done a ton of work. Once a character concept had been approved, it was up to Milt Kahl to finalize Ken's designs for animation. Usually Milt greatly finessed the look of the characters, but in my opinion there were exceptions.

Ken's version of Friar Tuck really looks like a badger. Something got lost in Milt's translation.

I remember that some people thought he was another bear.

Allan-a-Dale looks fantastic in Milt's final version.

Lady Kluck is a Kahl masterpiece.

Sir Hiss didn't improve from Ken's concept, Milt's version looks a little conventional.

Ollie Johnston though did a great job animating the snake.

Let me know if you'd like to see more of Robin Hood's design work. Robin, the fox himself went through quite a few changes.

Mama Odie Maquette

As supervising animators at Disney we got to keep our character's maquettes.

They were produced by very talented sculptors and were meant to help with drawing problems and to keep the character on model throughout the film. 

Sometimes though these mini sculptures arrived somewhat late in production, but even then It was always fun to see your character in three dimensions.

Over the years I accumulated quite a few of these, the only one that's missing is King Triton.

Ruben Procopio sculpted the cast of The Little Mermaid way back, and his beautiful sculpt of Triton just turned out to be very large. It was decided that at that size he would be too complicated to cast for reproduction.

Mama Odie along with all the characters from Princess & the Frog were sculpted by the gifted  Raffaello Vecchione. It was amazing to see how close Raffaello got to my drawings I gave him for reference. I did have some input after he showed me a rough sculpt, but he really is a master at interpreting animators' two dimensional drawings.

While on the topic of Mama Odie, this is a sheet I drew that shows different hand positions.  I do this for all my characters, since their hands need to be distinctive to fit the personality.

You often get away with only one joint for each finger, except in close ups when you need two.

Making Mama Odie talk with all her loose facial flesh was too much fun.

I did do some research before I started animation. Studying different films featuring American comedienne Moms Mabley and British character actress Margaret Rutherford was very useful and inspiring.

But in the end her face needed to work with Jennifer Lewis' wonderful vocal performance.

Si and Am

I came across this drawing by Milt Kahl a few years ago, and it is interesting for a variety of reasons.

Milt rarely did sketches of Disney characters for fans or friends. This one is dedicated to the 86 year old Mae Orman, who was a friend of the Kahl family.

The following note was written on the back of the framed piece.

Attached with tape was also this small unusual cut out photo from a magazine, picturing Milt and Walt Disney. I wonder where the picture was originally published, I've never seen it before.

As far as the Siamese Cats from "Lady and the Tramp", Milt didn't do any animation with them, but he set their final design based on story sketches by Joe Rinaldi.

The cats were animated beautifully by Bob Carlson, Bill Justice and John Sibley.

So how does Ward Kimball fit into all of this?

As I understand, Ward actually started out animating the sequence featuring the Siamese Cats. The result apparently was way too zany (think Three Caballeros) for the more conservative animation style of the film. So his work was cut, and the characters were re-assigned.

Ward left the production and started directing very successful short films and TV shows at Disney.

But wouldn't it be great if the original Kimball footage was found? It might not have fit in with the other characters in the film, but I bet it was hilarious.

In this picture Ward is still working away on those darn cats.

Just for Fun

                                                                Lilo & Stitch ©Disney

I don't think you are ever "done" with the characters you animated. 

When I finished my last scene with Mama Odie for The Princess & the Frog  I remember thinking, I am just warming up to her. An idea for a Mama Odie short film kept going through my head.

How much fun that would have been!

Animating Lilo was very special to me, too , so recently I imagined this little situation which is not in the movie. I used color pencil and watercolor.

Action-Reaction

I don't think I could have found a better drawing than this one to illustrate the point of action and reaction. And this is a one that Milt Kahl trashed, because in his mind something needed to be changed, which called for redrawing the poses.

Toward the end of The Rescuers Medusa is kicking Snoops in order to keep him away from the diamond. This is magnificently staged. From Medusa's shoulder all the way down to her right foot, one continuous line !! Her hands are holding the diamond up high in the opposite direction of Snoops. The idea being, you can't have this, it's mine!

Snoops reaction is very simple to read as well. Head, arms and legs, they all face forward to support the backward kick. What a drawing, sophisticated simplicity!

A little later in the film, Penny gets a hold of her teddy bear with the diamond in it. Medusa and Snoops are trying to stop each other from catching up with Penny.

Here Snoops has just grabbed Medusa's legs, as he is hitting the floor, his legs still up in the air.

Medusa's upper body reacts in a big upward stretch before falling down flat. 

All this action follows typical animation rules of overlap, weight and squash and stretch.

But it is just presented in a such a brilliant way.

It's fun to study the key drawings of the entire scene below.

I love the way Snoop's water balloon belly reacts when Medusa steps on it.

Four Mouseketeers

This is the year when some of Animation's Royalty turn one hundred years old.

Chuck Jones, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who will be 100 this Halloween.

Marc Davis will hit this mark next year, and Ward Kimball in 2014.

For this Disney Magazine photo shoot these four got together in December of 1997 at the local Tam O'Shanter restaurant. What a rowdy bunch!! 

I wonder if they ever had the chance to meet up again after that day.

The Tam opened in 1922, and it was one of Walt Disney's favorite restaurants.

And I can see why. It has the authentic charm of a Scottish Highland's Inn. And the food is very good, too.

During a recent visit there a waitress pointed out to me what used to be Walt's reserved table.

Who says LA has no history?

©Disney

Animated Energy

These animation roughs by Milt Kahl are from The Martins and the Coys section in the feature "Make Mine Music'" from 1946.

I find the exuberance and vitality in these dance poses infectious, when I look at them.

The characters are Grace Martin and Henry Coy, and they are in the middle of their spirited wedding barn-dance.

(You won't find this section on the edited DVD, released years ago.)

The animation is not based on live action here, the characters' cartoony design didn't require it.

And yet there is an elegance and clarity even at this first pass rough stage. 

The sheets are not numbered, which indicates that they haven't been timed out. The final animation probably differs a little from these exploratory sketches.

Pure joy !

In a different scene wedding guests join in the folk dance.

Look at how the two main characters make eye contact in the second sketch!

The hilarious square-dance caller as a rough and as a clean up drawing.

I love the fact that at times his head almost disappears in his oversized collar.

You can see on this cel that during these fast dance moves the inking wasn't always spot on. Watched in motion though everything looks terrific !

The King and The Royal Lackey

One more post about characters from Cinderella.

As I mentioned before, Milt Kahl designed and supervised the animation of the King.

I didn't know until recently that this character as well as the Duke were voiced by the same actor, Luis Van Rooten. 

That's amazing to me since they both sound so differently, and in terms of acting one is mostly aggressive, the other one reactive. Just as amazing as Jim Cummings, who has been voicing Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for a while.

Here are a few original drawings that show Milt's animation process. At first his rough pass, loose unfinished sketches in color pencil. The emotion and acting is explored at this stage.

It's interesting to me that the character's pupils are not drawn in yet, this is somewhat typical for Milt's first pass. Eye direction is something very important even in this early stage of the process, I myself would need to indicate pupils here.

But when Milt ties his drawings down in pencil, like the third image, pupils are very clearly and unmistakably placed in the eyes.

More examples of Milt's tied down animation roughs.

The Lackey's final design was set by Kahl as well. This first sheet though was drawn by a story artist (?), it shows a certain comedic type in rough form, but more refinement is necessary for animation. Milt of course used those ideas and in trying to plus the entertainment he emphasized the Lackey's overhanging upper lip and  his oversized coat.

Ollie Johnston made the character his own and animated him beautifully, as he is trying his best to fit the glass slipper on the ugly stepsisters.