Young Kimball

Last Saturday I attended an outdoor screening of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in the heart of Hollywood, it was organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

I was asked to introduce the film to an excited family audience.

When I raised the question who had never seen this movie before, I saw quite a few hands going up from little children and a few from teenage boys, 

who -no doubt- accompanied their girlfriends to the screening.

What a great way to watch Snow White for the first time, on the big screen.

As the movie played along, and the seven dwarfs appeared on the screen, for some reason I thought of Ward Kimball, whose terrific Soup Eating Sequence had been cut from the film. It was eventually shown on a Disney TV show, but in cleaned up form.

When you study Ward's rough drawings though, you see the real genius behind the pencil.

There is an exuberance here, in the drawings and the animation. Which shows how much he got involved with the material. The squash and stretch is pretty extreme, but it really adds to the scene's appeal.

In the following rough keys Happy takes a sip of soup and then reacts rather strongly.

This is ONE beautiful scene, done by a very young animator.

A few years later Ward is working on Casey Jr. for Dumbo. He also drew a model sheet of the train engineer, a caricature of himself.  That character didn't make it into the final film either….

But that's part of the animation process, not everything you draw will end up on the screen.

And I am speaking from experience  ; )

Milt visits Marc in the Hospital

This sketch by Milt Kahl is another testament to the the unique friendship he had with Marc Davis.

Judging from the drawing style (and the lack of hair on both men's heads), I would think the visit occurred during the late 60ies.

It's so funny to see that Milt was able to mock his own speaking pattern, meaning he often wouldn't finish a sentence, his brain was already on the next thought.

What a great drawing!

Just a few years earlier Marc and Milt posed in front of a Bill Peet storyboard for the "Boy meets Girl" sequence in Sleeping Beauty. In the upper right corner you can see Bill's sketch for the "No Carrots" scene. On a recent post I showed Milt's animated interpretation of that situation.

Milt Kahl Sketches during WWII

Let me start this post by quoting from the Walt Disney Treasures/ On the Front Lines DVD set:

On December 8, 1941, the Disney Studio was taken over by the Military as part of the war effort. Making the most of the talent that hadn't shipped out yet, Walt Disney spent the next four years creating and producing training, propaganda and educational films for the Armed Forces.

The following sketches by Milt Kahl were obviously done during that time.

They show caricatures of servicemen and perhaps studio personal.  These sheets also look like character designs for possible propaganda shorts. And yet to my knowledge these characters were never animated. A few of the images remind me of Brom Bones, but that character wouldn't appear on screen until 1949 in "Ichabod and Mr. Toad", and certainly not in military uniform.

This is fascinating stuff, all sheets have pin holes, so they were part of a presentation.

There is so much appeal in these drawings, but then again it was Milt who redefined appeal for Disney. The full figure sketches just floor me, what beautiful rhythm going through the poses.

If anybody has any doubt whether or not these are Milt's, just read the note on the third page regarding Ollie Johnston, upper left corner.

This is the work of someone who confessed that he didn't particularly care to draw, but  didn't mind.

Oh, common Milt…..

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From Storysketch to Rough Animation

It's always interesting to see how Walt Disney's animators handled the transition from storyboard to  animation.

The story sketch is supposed to inspire the animator to give life to a particular scene.

I have seen story drawings that were very well worked out as far as staging, personality and the character being on model. In this case the animator has a relatively easy time to get started, because the material had already been given a lot of thought.

Other times the story sketch is only a loose suggestion, and real brain work is required by the animator in order to plus the scene's situation.

I am not sure who drew this story sketch, showing Maleficent just before she sends the raven off to find Aurora. It is a nice drawing, the two characters are facing each other in profile.

Marc Davis however improved the staging quite a bit by choosing a 3/4 camera angle. Now there is depth, and Maleficent and the bird seem to relate to each other within real space. Drawing wise this would be a challenge, because the film's character styling is very graphic and flat.

Not too many animators could work with these shapes and move their characters in three dimensions.

As you can see Marc was an expert at this.

Regis Loisel

While staying in Montreal for my seminar last week I visited my friend Regis Loisel.

Regis is a superstar in the comic strip world, or Bande Dessinee as they call it in his native France.

We first met in Paris in the early 90ies while I was working at the French Disney Studio, animating on the Mickey short "Runaway Brain" or  "Mickey perd la Tete".

Regis at that time was drawing a series of comic strip volumes based on the story of "Peter Pan".  That strip is already a classic.

He has won many awards for his work, and his fan base is huge.

Regis ended up working for Disney on a couple of projects, "Mulan" and later "Atlantis".

Hans Bacher has been posting some of that work on his blog, take a look:

http://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/?s=loisel

You should also google/images him and find out what an amazing range he shows in his work.

While he adores Classic Disney, his own art shows occasionally violence and sex.

And yet his drawings are always beautiful and sincere.

Regis is a super guy to know personally, and he is a top notch talent in the world of comics.

Here are just a few examples from "Peter Pan" and "La Quete de l'Oiseau du Temps".

One Year Anniversary

I can't believe I have been blogging for a whole year. It doesn't seem that long.

Actually the blog format is perfect for what I wanted to communicate with you. A post is instant and interactive. I have enjoyed reading your comments, and it's always interesting to see which post gets more responses than others.

For this anniversary I wanted to show you something special. I have screened and elaborated on these two animated clips before during various presentations.
The two close up scenes (in pencil test) were animated by two of the greatest animators.
What they have in common is a similar situation. Tramp reacts to Lady, as she finds out that Tramp has a past with other "ladies".


Frank Thomas animated the first section, just before the famous spaghetti dinner. 
"Settle down with This One?" Lady asks. Tramp is caught off guard by Tony's remark, he explains this is a misunderstanding because of the cook's bad English.
There is embarrassment, a clearing of his throat and a sigh of relief, when he feels Lady sort of buys his explanation.
So much stuff going on in that one Tramp close up. Frank Thomas is AMAZING! 





Milt Kahl animated the next sequence.
Lady found out at the pound about Tramp's past with all these other girls.  Tramp realizes she knows the truth. His reaction also shows embarrassment, he is faking a smile, but deep inside he knows he is in trouble. This is very complex character acting, rich and insightful.
So yes, Milt Kahl is AMAZING, too. But you knew that already.

Beauty Moment

There is so much you can admire in this one key drawing by Marc Davis and John Lounsbery (who did the animals in this sequence). We don't even see Aurora's face, but the movement and design of her hair and skirt is exquisite. There is an elegance that to date is unmatched.

The artists' passion and love for the animated medium is so evident in this drawing, even if the audience would see it for only a 24th of a second.

The Wizard's Duel

The Wizard's duel sequence is a part of "The Sword in the Stone", the movie that edged out Chanticleer in the early 1960ies.

This brilliant sequence is the brainchild of story man Bill Peet, who boarded the entire film by himself. Peet started out by doodling character situations and dialogue ideas on note paper sheets.

After polishing the continuity with endless beautiful story sketches, it was up to Milt Kahl to take a look at  Bill's boards as an inspiration for final animation designs.

As so often the combined talents of these two extraordinary men produced some very inspired situations and great looking characters.

The image above is one of my favorite Kahl drawings. You see Peet's influence in the staging, but Picasso is sneaking in, too. Look at the croc's hands, fantastic!

These early sketches show Bill Peet's brain at work. He is a master of personality development.

Check out the written list of animals Merlin and Mim could turn into to best oppose each other.

Below are some of his story sketches. As you can imagine, the animators couldn't wait to work on such a sequence that was ideal for the medium.

The following color model sketches by Milt Kahl are stunning.

There are a few animal designs that didn't make the final cut, my favorite is the Mim stork. That's a character  I would love to animate. 

As usual Milt's draughtsmanship takes the material to another level. Ironically he did not animate on the sequence. When asked what he thought about the final result in the film, he just commented: "As so often, when work leaves my desk, gravity gets a hold of it."

I respectfully disagree. The sequence remains one of the highlights of the film.