Marc Davis 101 Years Old

…as of yesterday. 101, how about that?What better occasion than to post a few expressive animation drawings of his farewell character Cruella De Vil from the groundbreaking film 101 Dalmatians. Whenever there is a Top Ten of Disney’s best villains, Cruella is often Nr. One.These drawings remind us why. Marc went far out on this character, no holding back. She is grotesque and beautiful to watch at the same time. Cruella arguably represents the most...

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Marc Your Calendar

No, I did not misspell…Marc Davis is the subject of an exhibition at the wonderful Walt Disney Family Museum from April 30 to November 3, 2014. And I feel honored to be given the opportunity to help out putting this show together. Here is the Museum’s official announcement:http://www.waltdisney.org/marc-davisIt will be a very good time to visit the museum, since another incredible exhibition on the art of Mary Blair is being presented until...

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Happy Birthday, Alice!

The wonderful Alice Davis celebrates her birthday today. The photo shows her at last year’s birthday dinner. I have known Alice and her late husband Marc Davis for many years. Marc enjoyed the company of young artists and so does Alice. There is a reason why Alice has a lot of friends. Everyone loves her unique sense of humor as well as her positive outlook on life.A while ago I had the opportunity to drive Alice to Anaheim to attend an event at...

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The Gang

Disney’s top animators got together sometime in 1973 for a photo shoot to promote their latest animated feature Robin Hood. Looks like Woolie just cracked a joke, for some reason only Milt Kahl and Les Clark are not laughing.Most of the animators were involved in this production except a few. Marc Davis came over from Imagineering, his home since the early 1960s. Ward Kimball and Les Clark were involved in directing a variety of TV and theatrical...

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A Cool Guy...

…named Milt Kahl would be 105 years old today. This photo was taken during one of my earlier visits to Marin County, where he spent the rest of his years after leaving Disney Studios.I remember asking him if he was going down to LA to join a Snow White anniversary reunion organized by Disney, but he had no interest. Animation was in his past, now he enjoyed being remarried and seeing his children more often. He was a happy man, and I was happy and...

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Orville

Most of the personality scenes with the albatross Orville from the film The Rescuers were animated by Ollie Johnston. This is an interesting character, he is pilot and airplane all in one. Jim Jordan’s voice brought a confidence to the character despite his questionable flying maneuvers. For Orville’s take offs and landings Ollie used some live action footage as reference for his animation.The Disney 1952 documentary Water Birds included scenes...

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Ollie's Reason and Emotion

Ollie Johnston animated the two female parts in the 1943 propaganda film Reason and Emotion. (Milt Kahl did the sequence featuring the male parts).For those of you who have not seen this short, there are two opposing characters inside the human head. One of them is Reason, proper and dignified, the other Emotion, intuitive and fun loving.The film’s point is that only a good balance between the two guarantees a successful way to conduct one’s life.This...

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