Drawings from Peter Pan

A selection of rough animation drawings from Disney's classic film Peter Pan. These Milt Kahl poses  explain once again why Walt Disney needed to have Milt do the title character. The solid draughtsmanship alone with great attention to animatable anatomy made this animator casting obvious. Since there were several animators handling Pan, the original pencil tests revealed him in all kinds of different looks, from cartoony to too muscular. After Milt hit the roof, he then re-drew some of those key drawings so that clean up would have an easier time keeping the character on model.

Hal King animated this beautiful scene with John and Michael.

Woolie Reitherman handled most action scenes with Captain Hook. Frank Thomas of course focused on the main acting sequences,

Norm Ferguson did some great work on Nana, a curious mix of pet and house maid.

I don't know who came up with these early charming design concepts for some of the The Lost Boys.

Ward Kimball drew the final designs for these lively characters, but I don't believe he did any animation on them.

The Indian Chief was Kimball's main contribution to the film. What fantastic animation! So inventive (as usual). I remember thinking about this character frequently when animating dialogue scenes with Jafar. It's so much fun to come up with weird mouth shapes, as long as they work with the dialogue reading and the character's personality.

Drawings Howard Lowery, Van Eaton Galleries and Heritage Auctions.

Lady Kluck

One of my favorite Milt Kahl characters, and I am not alone in this regard. Eric Larson kept a framed montage of Lady Kluck rough drawings on one of his office walls.
The 1970s at Disney might not go down in history as great storytelling years, but the level of character design as well as acting remained very, very high. Lady Kluck's main shape is basically a triangle. Narrow at the head and wide at her feet. Milt animated her as your fun loving aunt. She speaks her mind, while maintaining a cheerful attitude toward life.
The badminton sequence with Maid Marion is priceless. There is some fun dialogue as Lady Kluck is anticipating Maid Marion's next move: "As your Lady in Waiting....I'm waiting!"
I think I mentioned before how much I admire the way Milt articulates her wings as hands. The fingers remain feather thin as she is holding her badminton racket or her dress. And she moves with utterly believable weight. Another Kahl masterpiece!

Wendy & Michael Redrawn

Milt Kahl's superb draughtsmanship was again needed when it came to putting a John Lounsbery scene on model. Wendy has just caught her brother Michael as he came flying down.
Louns didn't particularly care for animating pretty realistic girls like Alice or Wendy, and I think that's evident in his rough animation drawing below. For that matter Milt didn't enjoy those character types either, it's just that he was able to do them masterfully anyway.
While doing this beautiful drawing for Lounsbery, Milt was probably cussing and swearing as he often did. "Nobody can draw his x!# around here...." The teddy bear needed to be there for scene continuity.

A frame from the final scene.

Her is the rough Michael model sheet comprised of Kahl drawings only.

Cinderella Mix

A few pieces of art from the sixty-six year old Cinderella, a film whose success saved the Disney Studio.
The artwork above was done for a record album.You'd think that salmon pink as a base color might not look good, but it sure does here. The more obvious choice would have been a night blue.

A beautiful clean up drawing from an Eric Larson scene. Even if you had life action reference as a guide for the animation, this type of realism is VERY HARD to draw!!

A great Mary Blair piece. Two basic colors, blue and white with pink and yellow accents.

Even as black & white prints, still stunning.

I am not sure if this is her work as well, it might be by John Hench.

A cel from the Sweet Nightingale song sequence. A great example of reducing the complex human body to very simple, animatable forms.

Again, a very simple background, yet so effective. 

Actress Helene Stanley acts out a scene in which she is entering an imaginary coach that will take her to the ball. I don't know the name of the actress who plays the Fairy Godmother.
The following film still is from the same scene.

Some images Heritage Auctions.

Mushka in Animation Magazine

Just  returned from an East Coast Disney Cruise, where I shared the stage with the one and only Stacia Martin. We gave drawing presentations on the theme of "Good & Evil". For the most part I drew shady characters, while Stacia drew heroines and heroes. The wonderful Tim O'Day hosted the program. Lots of Fun!!
Here is an article from Animation Magazine's April edition on my film Mushka. James Gartler interviewed me for this piece.
There are exciting news about the project which I will share with you soon.

Jungle Cubs

Even at a young age, Baloo couldn't stand Shere Khan.

The blog will be updated again on Sunday. Have a great week everybody!

Making a Movie...

Drawings ©Andreas Deja

Kimball pokes Fun at Davis and Kahl

I really need to ask Alice Davis (the owner of this gag drawing), about the meaning of this Ward Kimball illustration, featuring Marc Davis with an abstract dog and Milt Kahl with many realistic dogs. I will post her comment as soon as I find out. In the meantime you can come up with your own captions!

Ken Anderson's Robin Hood II

Ken Andeson has a huge fan base (and deservedly so). My 2012 blog post featuring some of his character designs for Robin Hood is BY FAR the most visited during my 5+ years of blogging.
Here is the link to that popular post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/10/ken-andersons-robin-hood.html

Here is another photo of Ken in front of some of his many concept sketches for the film.
To the upper right of his head you see a sheet with head studies of the rooster Allan-a-Dale. Those are by Milt Kahl.
Ken also storyboarded several sequences for Robin Hood. Below is Sequence 1. It's astounding to realize how close the animators stayed with Ken's poses and staging. This section of the film was animated by John Lounsbery (Wolves and Sheriff, also Robin and Little John walking toward camera, then falling into the water), Ollie Johnston (most of L. John) and Milt Kahl (Robin and some of L. John). Milt decided to have Robin Hood stand up during his opening dialogue scenes, instead of sitting down.

I posted a B&W version of this model sheet before, here is the color version.

And this is what you get when combining the talents of Ken Anderson and Milt Kahl. Even miscellaneous characters turn out looking fantastic.

Sleeping Beauty/Behind the Scenes

Another time travel post to the 1950s to explore what's going on at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. A cameraman with the help of an assistant is photographing painted cels of Fauna and Merryweather, two of the Three Fairies from Disney's wide screen spectacle Sleeping Beauty. I wonder what these guys might be thinking: What phenomenal art...I hope I didn't leave any fingerprints on the cels...or, what's for lunch?

A fun story sketch by Bill Peet, who boarded the "Boy meets Girl" sequence for director Eric Larson.
I don't think Peet enjoyed working on such story material. He preferred exploring contrasting, character rich situations.

A dynamic story sketch featuring the entrance of Maleficent. The character's design is still at an early stage, based on Marc Davis' preliminary research.

Frank Thomas is discussing a scene with Ollie Johnston. Ollie is in the middle of animating the Three Fairies' reaction to Maleficent's sudden appearance at the castle.

You can see Ollie's animation drawings up close in this previous post:

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Early designs concepts for the Fairies looked like this. You have to start with something!

Marc Davis and John Lounsbery teamed up for scenes involving Aurora in the forest interacting with the animals. This is still a younger looking princess. The animation was kept, but re-drawn to represent a more mature looking woman.

Maleficent as a dragon climbs up a rock to fight Prince Phillip. Great drawing, possibly by animator Eric Cleworth.

A few Eyvind Earle's concept sketches, so powerful and cinematic!

Earle alienated some of the animators who felt that his production backgrounds were way too detailed, and took away from the animation. Most of us just love them for being different and so extravagant. As I mentioned before, in the end your eye will always go to what is moving on the screen...the characters.
When Earle saw the finished film after his departure from the studio he was "displeased" to find out that several of his background paintings had been airbrushed over, in order to soften the look.
Not an easy thing to realize for an artist with such integrity.

Some images Heritage Auctions.