Frank Thomas' Squirrels

Let's stay with "Sword in the Stone" for a moment.Juan Alfonso asked to see some squirrel sketches from this film, so here they are.Frank Thomas was very fond of the squirrel sequence, and after he had passed away this section from the film was shown at his memorial.It is a bitter sweat moment in the movie, when the girl squirrel falls in love with somebody who turns out to be a human. After she flirts with Wart as a squirrel, her disappointment...

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The Sword in the Stone Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates this holiday.I have always liked this photo of Walt Disney presenting "The Sword in the Stone" at Christmas time.It would be interesting to find out if this was only a photo shoot or maybe a filmed introduction to the movie.In any case, this gives me the opportunity to show you a few more beautiful sketches by Milt Kahl for the film. As you might know "The Sword in the Stone" was one of Milt's favorite...

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Tigger Pencil Test

I am absolutely thrilled to be nominated for an Annie Award for my work on Tigger in the feature film "Winnie the Pooh".It was intimidating and challenging at the same time to do this character, who was originally created by "you know who".Last weekend I had the pleasure to spend time with Milt Kahl's daughter Sybil, and I had to tell her: Can you believe I got a nomination with your dad's character?!Here is one of two pencil tests I did to apply for Tigger. The scene is a little too busy with excitementI, but he is talking about firecrackers....

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"Gosh, Pluto..."

I got this beautiful Fred Moore drawing at a recent auction, and I love it.It's from the short "Society Dog Show" 1939. Mickey and Pluto are pretty cartoonycharacters, but in this sketch their sad attitudes feel so honest and real.Can anybody come up with a more uplifting caption for it than: "Gosh Pluto, whatever happened to pencil animation?"Let me kn...

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What's My Crime?

Remember the great TV parody sequence in "101 Dalmatians" called "What's My Crime?" ?Even if you have never seen the American TV show "What's My Line", which the animated version is based on, the humor and satire are so strong and enjoyable to watch, way past the 1960ies.Here are are a few character design sketches by Milt Kahl, no doubt based on story drawings by Bill Peet. They show one of the questioners Miss Birdwell and the Quizmaster himself. I...

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Early Mama Odie

When designing a new character, it is entirely possible to get off to a false start.And that's no big deal, as long as you haven't fallen in love with your first attempt.I almost did this with Mama Odie, before we started production on "Princess & the Frog".The directors Ron Clements and John Musker had given me some ideas about her character and her role in the film. And they were great :Mama Odie is 197 years old, she is blind and has a seeing...

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Penny and Rufus

Ollie Johnston did a lot of work on "The Rescuers".The mice Bernard and Bianca were developed by him and Frank Thomas. Most key personality scenes of characters like Orville, the albatross, as well as Rufus the cat and Penny were animated by Ollie.Part of the reason for this big amount of footage was that he didn't over analyze.Ollie had a gut idea about who his characters were and how they felt in each scene. And he really did kind of fall...

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