Lilo is late for Hula Class...

…but she just had to take a quick photo of a sun burnt tourist at the beach. The following key drawings show her turning around and then heading off to school.Even though her design looks stylized and cartoony, it was very important to me that she behaved and moved like a real girl. So a run like this one needed to have proper weight, overlapping action in her hair etc.. I had a lot of fun with this little scene, and I'm glad we didn't use any...

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Prince Phillip and Samson

As I mentioned before, Milt Kahl really didn't enjoy animating Prince Phillip.A handsome dude with a limited range for acting just didn't appeal to him. Of course he still gave it all he'd got to put a descent performance on the screen.The following drawings are from the scene where Phillip gets on his horse, confident that he found the love of his life, even if his father King Hubert objects.These are original rough drawings mixed in with copies...

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Drawing challenges

Part of the breathtaking quality of Classic Disney Animation is the fact that many animators didn't shy away from incorporating beautiful, but tough to draw angles of their characters into the scenes.This takes enormous drawing expertise and good judgment in terms of when these potentially awkward looking views of the character are called for. Milt Kahl was accused by some of  searching for tough angles in order to show off his draughtsmanship....

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How Does a Dalmatian Gulp?

That's the question Frank Thomas asked himself when he analyzed certain expressions for a scene with Pongo. The following drawings are pre-animation exploratory sketches. As usual Frank researched every aspect of the scene in detail.The acting called for something that dogs don't do, a gulp. Pongo is gathering some courage here, he has spotted Perdita in the park. Now he is determined to meet her and also have Roger meet Anita.Putting such a...

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Fergy's Honest John

Honest John (or J. Worthington Foulfellow) is one of my all time favorite animated characters.Rich personality -the used car salesman type-, great design and outstanding acting.Norm Ferguson supervised the animation on him, he had some help from a young John Lounsbery.Fergy, as he was called around the studio, was an intuitive animator. Walt Disney liked the loose quality in his animation and in his drawings, and he encouraged other animators to...

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Girls Talk too Much

At least Peter Pan thinks so when he meets Wendy in the opening sequence of the movie. Wendy herself is pretty excited to see Peter Pan, and so she chatters away.Milt Kahl was the supervising animator of the title character. I am pretty sure that this particular scene was done without any live action reference, it just looks like Milt pulled it out of his head.There is a beautiful balance of realism and cartoony expressions, something not easy to...

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