The Evolution of Jafar

I was thrilled when I got the assignment to supervise the animation of Jafar, the villain in the film Aladdin. I had just finished work on Gaston, who had to be handled with a certain amount of realism.I remember thinking: Not with Jafar!Here was a chance to design and animate a character who belonged in a graphically stylized world.Animator Eric Goldberg had already done some incredible test animation of the Genie, which helped to set the style...

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Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily is a unique character in the Disney film Peter Pan.Just like Tinker Bell she doesn't have any dialogue in the movie, but her emotions and attitudes are always clear. She is one courageous young lady. By resisting Captain Hook and not telling him about Peter Pan's hiding-place, she risks her life.Milt Kahl came up with the final design for the character. He did the drawing above for Ken O'Brien, the animator responsible for most of Tiger...

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Brom Bones

Singer/Actor Bing Crosby visits Milt Kahl, and he brought his four sons along, Dennis, Phillip, Gary and Lindsay.Crosby narrated the Disney film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which made up half of the 1949 feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Milt animated the introduction of the town's bully Brom Bones as well as his big song number at the Van Tassel party. He is a rich character, full of confidence and full of himself....

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Ichabod

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!To post sketches from Disney's 1949 featurette "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" seems appropriate for today. Though the film's theme has more to do with Halloween, but turkey is being served in several scenes, so what the heck!Above are Frank Thomas' design drawings for the main character and his horse. That scary ride home from the party is some of Frank's best work. He told me once that he animated the sequence...

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