Hal Ambro

I never met Hal Ambro, but I sure know his work, and I ilke it a lot.He started to work for Disney in 1946. Even though he never reached the status of supervising animator there, his animation can often be found in sequences that were lead by such animators like Ollie Johnston (the opening section of Johnny Appleseed) and Milt Kahl (Ambro animated almost half of the footage of The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella).I am quoting John Canemaker from his...

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Animation Master Class in Montreal

I will be in Montreal for a couple days of classes on June 2 and 3.  It will be fun to share my "animated experiences" and cover all aspects of character animation, technical as well as artistic.Thanks to Samantha Youssef for inviting me.If you are interested in attending, here is the official link:http://www.studiotechniquemontreal.com/even...

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The Other Milt

That would be animator Milt Neil, who worked at Disney Studios as a character animator from 1935 to 1944. You can see his work in features like Snow White, Fantasia and Dumbo. Milt also did terrific animation on Donald Duck. During the war the studio produced quite a few short films with Donald including "Der Fuehrer's Face". I really like his animation in this short, acting as well as drawing are fantastic. Very gutsy and confident.Milt...

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TS Sullivant 4

For your viewing pleasure, a short story illustrated by Sullivant. The humor is charming, but beware, there is a cruel ending. As usual, every pose of the animals is a gem. Look at the pushed smile of the elephant, the tiger dancing and the giraffe standing on her head. Cartoony poses with real anatomy.A feast for the eyes...

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My First Scene on "Roger Rabbit"

I had just flown over to London to join the crew who produced the animation for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". A taxi took me from Heathrow right to the studio in Camden, the north of London.I left my luggage in the lobby, and was shown around the new studio set up.By the time I got to say Hello to Dick Williams, there was little time for small talk.He had a scene for me to get started on, right then and there. So forget about your jet lag and dive in.Most...

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King Louie

There's no way this is going to be a brief post, I have too much good material of this character to share with you. The "King Louie" sequence in Jungle Book is one of my favorites.I love the opening Multiplane truck toward the Ancient Ruins accompanied by atmospheric jungle rythms. The first handful of scenes with King Louie were animated by Eric Cleworth, who in my opinion did stronger work on the elephants.Milt Kahl's comes in when Louie picks...

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