Test Screening

Looks like Walt Disney is getting ready for a screening in one of his sweatbox theaters on the Burbank studio lot. The photo was probably taken in the early to mid 1940s. 

And look at the audience, men and women in equal numbers. I wonder what film they are about to watch.

John Lounsbery Characters

There certainly isn't enough art by animator John Lounsbery shown on this blog.

This unassuming man never gave any filmed interviews, he never wrote a book, as a matter of fact, he just wasn't into self-promotion. Lounsbery just focused on his work (and raising a family outside of Los Angeles). His contributions to Disney Animation were enormous. His amazing performance of Ben Ali Gator in Fantasia's Dance of the Hours sequence made him a break out animator at the studio.

The photo shows him animating Willie the Giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk, around 1947. 

Here are just a few examples of characters who came to life through Lounsbery's touch.

A great key drawing of the policeman arguing with the professor in front of the zoo's entrance from the film Lady & the Tramp. Look at how Lounsbery feels that strong pull. Every line defining the professor helps to support that pull. Amazing!

Jasper from 101 Dalmatians threatens to kill the puppies. Beautiful definition of fabric in his jacket, and great feeling of stretched skin on his face.

A few key drawings of Sir Pelinore's dainty walk from The Sword in the Stone.

Frank and Ollie said that Louns could come closer to Milt Kahl's type of drawing than anybody else.

I think this sheet proves that point.

A couple of key drawings from The Aristocats, involving the mouse Roquefort, Scat Cat and Italian Cat. Great staging in both of them.

More on John Lounsbery in this earlier post:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/john-lounsbery.html

"You Old Goat…"

"…if I ever catch you in my kitchen again, I'll…!" yells the Scullery Maid to Merlin, the magician, who just left her kitchen in a complete mess. A short scene with a character, who only has a small part in the film The Sword in the Stone. But leave it up to Milt Kahl to make the most out of this moment. The maid approaches Merlin utterly upset with no fear at all she might become a suspect to the magician's powers. 

I love her walk and the way she she moves her shoulders back and forth throughout the scene. She is voiced by actress Martha Wentworth, who isn't even trying to sound differently from Madame Mim who she is also responsible for. 

The maid's fantastic design is another example of Milt's line of chinless wonders (The Lackey from Sleeping Beauty and Madame Medusa fall in this category as well).

The photo shows an assistant who is in-betweening the scene for Milt. Perhaps Floyd Norman is able to point out who the gentleman is.

To me 101 Dalmatians and Sword in the Stone represent a modern golden age of Disney character designs.

Vis Dev Giants

Here are just a few examples that show the caliber of talent Walt Disney employed to help style his animated movies.

Mary Blair, Eyvind Earle, Walt Peregoy and Ken Anderson all had a huge influence on the look of a number of films. The thing they all had in common was thinking outside of the box. After Snow White and Dumbo, these artists represented new visions for color, design and art direction.

Their gutsy visual experiments helped Disney animation to move on to new horizons.

Paul Jouve's Jungle Book

Paul Jouve illustrated several publications based on Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories. The images shown here are from Le Second Livre de la Jungle, 1919, and they were reproduced surprisingly small. About 4 x 2.5".

I love the striking compositions and powerful poses of the animals. These are engravings, by the way. Jouve, as you can see, was an expert when depicting big cats, so naturally he is currently on my radar, because there is a ton I can learn from this guy. 

Go here for a previous post on the great Paul Jouve: (Update: THIS is the correct link)

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/08/paul-jouve.html

Iwao Takamoto

Iwao Takamoto was an outstanding draughtsman and designer, who worked in the animation industry for decades. This photo shows him in 1945, when he just got hired by Disney Studios.

He eventually became Milt Kahl's clean up assistant, and keyed characters like Slue Foot Sue, Brom Bones, the King and Duke from Cinderella and Lady from Lady & the Tramp. During the production of Sleeping Beauty Iwao worked for Marc Davis on Aurora. Since Marc initially drew her a bit younger looking, it was up to Iwao to redraw those scenes, so they would be consistent with her final design.

In this scene Aurora is gently pushed out the door by the Three Fairies, who insist that she go into the forest to pick more berries (even though she picked berries only yesterday). I call these drawings super-designs, and Milt's influence is very evident. This is a man in search of graphic perfection.

The way angular lines work against long flowing lines is astonishing. And look at the control he had over that face with all of those subtleties.

 Aurora is holding a basket in her left hand, which would be added by an effects animator.

Iwao left Disney after Sleeping Beauty to join Hanna-Barbera, where he became one of their top designers. He passed away in 2007. His memoirs were published in 2009 and are available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Iwao-Takamoto-Life-Thousand-Characters/dp/160473194X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389256592&sr=1-1&keywords=iwao+takamoto

Are we all OK with the idea that this kind of integrity and commitment to drawn feature animation is a thing of the past? I am not.

Tinker Bell drawn by Milt Kahl

We all know that Tinker Bell is primarily the creation of Marc Davis. But several other artists explored her character's design as well, including story men like J.P.Miller and Joe Rinaldi.

Milt Kahl drew these poses based on earlier research, and the only differences to the final model I can detect have to do with her hair style and the length of her legs. They are drawn a little shorter in this version.

Marc's definitive model sheet of Tinker Bell shows perfect proportions in her figure as well as her face. By drawing the mouth so low she instantly looks younger and less realistic. The round cheeks add to her pixie appearance, and the lines defining her legs are elegant s-curves. 

A mute character, but so full of life.

Marc's clean up assistant on Tinker Bell was Claire Weeks. He was able to maintain the delicate accuracy found in Marc's rough animation drawings, as you can see in these clean ups.

Milt Kahl's assistant Stan Green told me once that he (Stan) considered Weeks' work too perfect, almost sterile. I don't know about Stan's statement, after all his boss wouldn't pass anything that wasn't perfection. Professional jealousy, I guess.

A beautiful cel set up with Think at the window sill.

More on Tinker Bell here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/tinker-bell.html

and here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/10/tinker-bell-gets-her-own-book.html