Ed Aardal

Ed Aardal lived from 1910 to 1988. He worked for Disney for twenty years starting in 1935. He originally did effects animation, but was soon sent over to the character animation department.
Perhaps because of his effects background Ed was assigned to complex scenes like this one from Lady and the Tramp.
It is amazing to realize that in the final film you barely see a dark silhouette of the dog catcher's wagon, taking Tramp to the dog pound. Yet in animation every detail was analyzed as if this was a daytime scene.
Ed Aardal is one of those unsung heroes who we need to shed light on for his important body of work in animation. I believe this was his last film for Disney before moving on to other studios like Hanna Barbara. An animation legend!
For a 1984 interview with Ed go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uag5Pl03luE

Naughty

I just love this cel from the Silly Symphony Three Little Wolves from 1936. There is little doubt that Fred Moore animated this scene, in which two little wolves pester one of the pigs.
The whole situation is child-like without being childish. The staging of the scene is so beautiful, two bullies messing with one of the pigs.
I have a big smile on my face  looking at this image, because Naughty meets Innocence in a very entertaining manner. You just want to smack these two brats and have them leave the pig alone.
Sincere animation in contrast to Warner Brothers characters at that time, who often acted in a cynical and sarcastic way. (I love Warner's animation as well, because it differentiated itself from Disney's wholesomeness.)
But there is something special about this cel, because the business of the scene is truly based on real situations.
I wished that entertaining, graphic animation like this still existed.

Frazetta Drawings

I guess most of you know of Frank Frazetta's work. His draughtsmanship (as well as painting) is extraordinary. He became known as the world's best illustrator for the fantasy/science fiction genre.
Copied by many, but no other artist has came close to this level of expertise.
The depiction of his women and men are sexually charged figures within various storytelling themes.
Bodybuilders and pin up girls. His animals and monsters are strong and muscular as well.
Frazetta goes for maximum dramatic effect in his composition to dazzle the viewers.
There is a sense of ease in his line work. I particularly like his loose drawings. Marvelous doodles that continue to inspire today's animators and illustrators.
I would call him a modern Heinrich Kley.

Alice and the Queen

A great Frank Thomas drawing of the Queen of Hearts which was recently offered at auction, and is now available on Ebay. Classic Disney villains are often portrayed in a subtle manner, like the Queen in Snow White, Cinderella's Stepmother or Maleficent.

But this bad lady is cartoony, and Frank loved working on scenes with her. He liked playing off the contrast between dainty expressions followed by over the top emotional outbursts. Actress Verna Felton gave him plenty explosive voice recordings that helped define her personality.

It's amazing to realize that she also voiced the kind Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, the movie preceding Alice. Which speaks for Verna Felton's acting range.

Below a magazine article from Silver Screen, May 1951. One of many to promote the release of Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Anatomy and Structure

Animator Bill Justice drew this scene with the character of John from Peter Pan.

Without thorough knowledge of the human body via life drawing this type of animation would fall apart. Spine, shoulders, rip cage, hip bones etc. are things that you need to know about. 

You need to know how they connect, and of course how they look in motion. Tracing live action reference is simply not an option. Your knowledge of human anatomy is key.

Bill Justice did his homework. He might be known as the animator who brought Chip and Dale to life, but he was also capable of handling complex realism.

I don't know who drew these pose of Pluto, but I really like them. Here you find anatomical structure as well, just applied in a much looser manner. Pluto is a very cartoony dog, but dog anatomy is evident nevertheless. There are definitive elbows, knees, shoulders and hips. 

This earlier style of Disney drawing allowed for greater flexibility and cheats. 

Disney's animators always knew how to handle a character based on the degree of realism. They went far out with Pluto and Donald Duck, but were holding back effectively on characters like Bambi or Lady and the Tramp.

John drawings/Howard Lowery

Fabulous Fantasia

A collection of amazing model sheets are being offered at Heritage Auctions. Created by Disney's character model department they show a versatility of styles and artistic approaches, depending on the individual artist who drew them. The Bacchus sheet consists of sketches by Ward Kimball. He did not enjoy this assignment, he phoned it in, as you might say today. Ward had his eyes on the Dance of the Hours sequence, but didn't end up working on it.
Zeus, Vulcan, Apollo and his horses are portrayed in an exaggerated 1940s art deco style with intriguing anatomy.
And the two Pegasus sheets just kill me. The volume in line drawing, the perspective, unbelievable!
Stylized realism, yet animatable.
Stuff for the ages.

Ollie's Birthday

Ollie Johnston's birthday is on Halloween. Next week would be his 106th. He was the longest living member of the Nine Old Men.
I love this photo of him (by Mark Kirkland), because this is just how I remember him. When reminiscing about his career at Disney, he said:"I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time."
Ollie was kind to everybody, he loved talking to young artists who shared his passion. He was full of stories and anecdotes from decades he spent animating at Disney.
He would tell things like what a ball he had working on the film Robin Hood. "I was probably one of the few artists who enjoyed animating on that movie because they gave me Prince John and Sir Hiss."
Milt Kahl didn't care for Robin Hood, and Frank Thomas is known to list his assignments as his least favorites.
Ollie's work continues to inspire, I still can't figure out how he animated Baloo and Mowgli during the Bare Necessities number. The rhythm, the choreography and the sheer joy in the animation still blows my mind.
Here are just a few reminders of his genius.

Jock and Alice/Howard Lowery

Prince & the Pauper

This is a cel from one of my scenes from Disney's 1990 featurette The Prince & the Pauper.

I remember working very hard to distinguish the TWO Mickeys. One is a prince, one is a pauper. 

Same look, different personalities and behavior. 

I tried to portray the Pauper with submissive acting, while the Prince is confident and in charge. He's the authority. 

This turned out to be a fun assignment, even though the film's overall story is somewhat scattered.

Thinking back, I just remember how much I enjoyed animating Mickey Mouse.

More of my Black Cauldron Designs

It's so interesting to see drawings you haven't looked at in decades. Heritage Auctions is again offering concept art from The Black Cauldron (from the film's producer's estate.) These are from another lifetime of mine.

Some were drawn in Germany, when I found out that Disney planned to produce this film. I read the books by Lloyd Alexander and got inspired. I do remember the sketches of Taran above, the witches as well as Taran with "big" Hen Wen were sketched out in my little cubby hole of a student place in Essen/Werden Germany. The others I did when I started at Disney in 1980.

This is an early version of Creeper, the Horned King's sidekick.

More designs for for the monster birds, called the Gwythaints.

And again the three witches. By the way I used the design of the witch on the right for my assignment in the Disney Animation training program. Eric Larson asked me wether I wanted to do some animation on a classic Disney character or on a character designed by my own. So I chose this witch, who is really a mix of Madame Medusa and Madame Mim.
What mattered is that the scenes I animated seemed good enough for employment on actual production.

The L. Alexander books described Hen Wen as a pig having oracular powers. To me this had to be an old pig...sort of a gypsy type,

The "cuter" version of Hen Wen trying to escape the claws of a giant Gwythaint.

More on Milt's Duchess

Milt Kahl rarely had his animation re-drawn, after all he was authority on the the Disney style. Most animators at the studio at one time or another asked Milt for "drawing help". Just one or two of his "draw-overs" would improve a whole scene in the way the character appeared on the screen.

I've said this before, Milt represented the drawing police at Disney for a few decades.

Here is a rare case where director Woolie Reitherman asked a clean up artist to alter Milt's animation drawings slightly during the production of The Aristocats. Duchess just met the alley cat Thomas O'Malley, who is trying to impress her by presenting himself as a man of the world during a song number. "Bravo, very good, you are a great talent" she responds. 

There are subtle changes that were made from Milt's original animation. Duchess' eyes got smaller and more cheek hair was added. 

I think she still looks attractive in the final version, but that "Milt Kahl graphic bite" got lost.

Even more on Milt's Duchess here:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/11/duchess.html

and here:

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/08/aristocats.html

Xerox Color Models

These are not actual production cels. You might notice that most characters aren't depicted in their
established film colors. Disney used to have many color versions for an upcoming character painted on cels before making a final decision on what the final appearance should look like.

During the 1960s and 70s the color model department worked with rough xeroxed cels from drawings that showed early animation. Perhaps the first scene an animator had finished. Ink & Paint wanted to get a head start before the bulk of animated scenes hit their department. The chosen drawings weren't even cleaned up yet. A good full figure rough drawing by Milt Kahl was good enough to experiment with in terms of color.

For final production all rough drawings went through a process called "touch up". An assistant would erase construction and other loose lines so the character was presented in cleaner manner.
Of course some of us geeks prefer the looseness seen in the animators' first pass. Just look at the dynamic pose of King Leonidas from Bedknobs and Broomsticks!

These pre-production pieces cels are being offered at an upcoming Heritage auction.

The Nine Old Men Exhibition

Caricatures by Mel Shaw

There is still time to catch the incredible exhibition on The Nine Old Men at the Walt Disney Family Museum. The show continues until January 7. As I mentioned before, this is a once in a lifetime event. The sheer scale of the exhibit is breathtaking. Nine extraordinary animation careers and lives under one roof.
Give yourself a holiday treat and head on over to San Francisco. If you are seriously interested in animation, this is a must.

The exhibition catalogue is now available at the Museum:

https://www.waltdisney.org/store/books

Mother Goose Goes Hollywood

Mother Goose Goes Hollywood is one of the last Disney Silly Symphonies. It was released in December of 1938.

Wikipedia says: "The film parodies several Mother Goose nursery rhymes using caricatures of popular film stars of the 1930s."

This 7 minute long short film remains controversial today because of its stereotypical depiction of African American entertainers.

Animation critic Charles Solomon noted in his book, Enchanted Drawings: History of Animation, the caricatures of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway don't poke fun at their race and are treated just as good or bad like the other caricatured celebrities spoofed in this cartoon.

I am just in love with the quality of the animation. It is fluid and rich in personality. Kind of a crazy thing, the animators satirizing acting styles of silver screen stars from that time. 

Imagine an animated short today poking fun at Merrill Streep, Tom Hanks and others. What a challenging and fun assignment this would be. 

Animators included Jack Campbell, Ward Kimball and Grim Natwick, to name a few.

In today's world animator Eric Goldberg would supervise a project like this one. 

As I said, incredible animation, go study it!!! And check out the colors on those three cels above. It doesn't get any better.

Here is a Photoplay magazine article from 1939.