From Ken to Milt

Here is another design idea for Madame Medusa (and Penny) by Ken Anderson.

He definitely tried to incorporate the idea of the classic Medusa image with snakes growing out of her head. 

Milt Kahl eventually came up with his own design for the character. His Medusa resembles one of his earlier creations, when Madame Mim briefly turns into a beautiful woman. 

This Anderson sketch shows Medusa and Penny in an awkward embrace. Milt liked the situation and the way it was staged, and he made use of it in a scene toward the end of the film. “(Ah, ah, ah, Snoops, that is no way) to speak to our little Miss Penny.” 

The way Milt animated Medusa approaching Penny doesn't look like a person...more like a weather system. Amazing.

Milt liked showing soft skin when it gets in contact with something solid (in this case Medusa’s head). He once said, that he gets a kick out of seeing a nude in a Degas painting sitting on a hard surface like a wooden chair. It’s a chance to show contrast, the way flesh reacts to that surface.

Gaston's Chest Hair

That's talented French actor Alexis Loizon in the photo, who currently plays Gaston in Paris in the stage production of Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et La Bete). As you can see, Gaston still uses antlers in all of his decorating, and his chest hair is as predominant as ever.

When we were animating Gaston's song way back, one of his lines stuck out:
 "…and every last inch of me 's covered with hair! " I did not have the time to do that scene, so one of my animators in the Gaston unit gave it a shot.

The animation turned out to be fine, but when Gaston stretched his shirt to reveal his chest, the design of his chest hair looked a little odd to me. It seemed to have been combed from the center outward. I suggested we try a different look for the chest hair, and guess what…everybody had a different take on what the hair should look like. I encouraged my colleagues to submit a drawing that showed their idea of appropriate Gaston chest hair. After a while we had at least twenty different designs to look at. 

These are just some of them. 

Eventually I worked with an effects animator to create the final look, a mix of stubble and curls.

Probably the most unusual design issue I ever came across at Disney.

Dramatic Dragon

Eric Cleworth animated Sleeping Beauty's  breathtaking dragon in pursuit of Prince Phillip. Woolie Reitherman directed this sequence, and both artists were able to infuse high drama into the film's climactic finish. I have the feeling that Marc Davis had something to do with the dragon's final design, since it it based on Maleficent, the character he animated. It is interesting to see that early designs were influenced by the anatomy of a dinosaur. (This might have been Woolie's idea, who had animated a dinosaur fight in Fantasia). 

I am not sure if these are Cleworth's drawings, but they sure are powerful and show a great sense for design and animal body structure. 

The widescreen format was perfect for this type of a battle, you could actually show the entire dragon on the screen. And those sound effects are just incredible.

Best Snake Gag Ever

Frank and Ollie talk about this Ken Anderson sketch in their book The Illusion of Life.

It shows Sir Hiss sulking in his basket, after some verbal abuse from Prince John. 

Ollie Johnston saw the comic potential for his animation right away, and he ended up using Ken's drawing for the final pose of the scene. 

I remember laughing out loud in the theatre, when I watched this moment in the film Robin Hood. The idea that the snake would get into this casual, human pose was surprising and came out of nowhere. The situation is funny, because of Ken's concept, but also because of Ollie's animation.

As Sir Hiss lifts up parts of his body, they land on the basket's edge with real overlap and weight.

These are a few of Ollie's quick thumbnail sketches that show how he approached the scene.

Four main key drawings, combined with the layout.

Ollie had a cranky Assistant...

…while he was working on a few close up scenes featuring the centaurettes from Fantasia's Pastoral sequence. Further down are Ollie's original rough drawings that were handed out to an assistant to be in-betweened. (Unfortunately I don't have the animation of the two cherubs, who create this sort of hat from a piece of bark and flowers.)

The designs for the centaurettes were created by Fed Moore, who had been a mentor to Ollie when he first joined the studio. These animation drawings show a complete understanding of Freddie's way to draw girls' faces. Full cheeks, a round nose and eyes with long, almost straight lashes.

I am sure Ollie animated scenes like this one very quickly, he re-numbered  the drawings several times until the right timing was achieved. I should say he also re-numbered them very quickly, making them a little hard to read for anyone else down the production pipeline.

The last drawing includes a note to Ollie from a very upset assistant, who was either fearless…or naive.

Earliest Wire Sculptures

These wire sculpture go way back to 1985. I had a small exhibition in the library of the old animation building on the second floor. It was a bitter sweet event, because the staff was in the middle of being relocated to a new building in Glendale. Needless to say, most of us thought that this move would be the beginning of the end for Disney Animation, including our mentor Eric Larson. Luckily we were wrong, big time.

As for my sculptures, people seemed to like them, which encouraged me to do many more over the coming years. Eventually I'd like to get back into it, but this animated film with a tiger and a girl takes absolute precedence. Hmm…I think when the film is finished I'll do a couple of sculptures with the two main characters.

Just a few years later I had another exhibit at Disney with these pieces:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/wire-sculptures.html

Ollie & Frank on Pinocchio

Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas talk about animating Pinocchio in this clip from a 1988 UK TV show on the life of Walt Disney. They discuss acting issues as well as technical challenges.