Soccer/Football

Obviously I need to have a post that celebrates the German team winning the World Cup. Yeeaaaahhhh…..

The soccer game in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks was unbelievably popular in Germany when the film was released there in 1972. It was shown on TV over and over again, and when Disney released the sequence on Super 8 film as home entertainment, it became by far the best selling Disney clip.

Here are a few of Milt Kahl’s gorgeous designs for a few members of the infamous “Island of Naboombu” soccer match.

An earlier leaner warthog design.

All I remember when I saw the match for the first time on the screen, it gave me one of those Disney “highs”. And Kimball’s direction had a lot to do with it.

Did I mention Germany won…?

Links to previous posts on Bedknobs and Broomsticks:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/07/bedknobs-broomsticks.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/07/king-lion.html

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Wendy and Peter's Shadow

I’ve always loved this section from the film Peter Pan’s opening sequence. 

The backgrounds look very soft and dreamlike, and the character situation is just wonderful. Wendy explains to Peter that he can’t attach his lost shadow using soap, it needs sewing (who knew?). What great cartoon logic!

Peter Pan obviously doesn’t know the proper shadow attachment technique yet.

Kathryn Beaumont acted these scenes out for animator Les Clark. Quite the contraption as a stand in for Peter’s leg.

A nice animation key drawing by Les Clark.

Can you believe this background from the sequence? What amazing lighting. The beauty of these backdrops is that they look a little deserted without the character level, like a gorgeous painting that is missing something. This little masterpiece is on screen for only a few seconds.

A frame from the scene.

The craftsmanship and care that went into making these Disney movies never ceases to amaze me.

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Bambi and Thumper on Ice

As I mentioned in a recent post, each of Disney’s Nine Old Men had not only high standards, but also strong opinions about when it came to looking at a colleague’s work.

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t work closely together in an effort to get the absolute best result on the screen. Milt Kahl often discussed acting possibilities with Frank Thomas, and Frank got help from Milt when it came to improving a drawing.

While working on Bambi, Frank was looking forward to animating the sequence with Bambi having trouble moving on ice, while Thumper performed like a professional skater. Then word got around that Walt Disney was thinking about cutting this section from the film. To prove the entertainment possibilities in the sequence Frank quickly drew a series of sketches and had them put on to film.  The result convinced Walt that these character rich situations needed to be part of the movie.

Frank's beautiful sketch above is a publicity illustration, based on his exploratory story work. 

Years ago, when I came across the drawings below, I knew right away that Milt had also contributed to the sequence by helping Frank with staging certain poses and situations.

That kind of teamwork is one of the reasons why the studio was able to elevate animation to unimaginable heights.

So far I have not seen any of Frank’s own story sketches for the ice skating sequence yet. But you never know when and where these gems might surface.

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About Special Effects and Old Men

Do you ever get the feeling that a certain commercial project by somebody was actually made for you? 

There are a couple of items that fall into this category, and I’d like to bring them to your attention. Two significant milestones in documenting Disney Animation history.

John Canemaker just came out with a book that deals with the techniques and behind the scenes of Disney’s Golden Age. The title is “The Lost Notebook-Herman Schultheiss and the Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic”.

Amazon writes:

“Discover the secrets behind Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi-all through the lens of early animation’s most enigmatic and fascinating character, Herman Schultheis.”

This is a coffee table book full of never before seen photos, artwork and technical charts that take your breath away. You find out about live action reference for “Dance of the Hours”, how the oversized snowflakes at the end of the “Nutcracker” made it to the screen, and so much more. Schultheis’ own life story, which took him from Germany to Burbank and beyond reads like a script for a Hollywood film. All I can say is: Must have!

Here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Notebook-Schultheis-Secrets-Disneys/dp/1616286326/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404799349&sr=1-1&keywords=canemaker+john

Next up is a terrific documentary by Frank Thomas’ son Ted, called “Growing up with Nine Old Men”.

It is included in the bonus material for the BluRay of Peter Pan (North America), and The Jungle Book (Europe and other terriories). During the 45 minutes film you find out what it was like to grow up having a top Disney animator as your dad. Ted’s previous feature film documentaries include “Frank and Ollie” and “Walt and El Groupo”. This film is very personal, we follow Ted’s journey to meet up with other children of the Nine Old Men, some he knew from childhood, others he had never met.

You’ll find out from Milt Kahl’s daughter Sybil, what her dad’s daily routine was after work. 

Who knew that John Lounsbery raised his kids in the country, and that he liked getting his hands dirty pouring cement and taking care of livestock? And wait to find out what life was like in the Kimball home. You get to know these giants of animation from a private angle. 

The film led me to invite the Nine Old Men’s kids to my last Christmas Party. And wouldn’t you know…most of them showed up. What an evening.

This is Miri Weible, the daughter of Les Clark.

Check out the film’s trailer:

http://video.disney.com/watch/9-old-men-short-4d4f113086aeace2cba91393

An interview with Ted Thomas about his film:

http://www.mousesteps.com/movie-reviews-and-news-mainmenu-126/959-ted-thomas-interview-about-qgrowing-up-with-nine-old-menq-bonus-film-on-peter-pan-diamond-edition

To purchase the film as a part of the Peter Pan BluRay, go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Two-Disc-Diamond-Blu-ray-Packaging/dp/B00A0MJA1I/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404801947&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+pan+blu

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Anita and Perdita in Regents Park

Ken Anderson came up with this beautiful oversized concept sketch showing the female lead characters from the Disney film 101 Dalmatians. It looks like Ken was trying to do anything to get away from the traditional Disney Animation look. His visual experiments greatly influenced the style of the film, which ushered in a new era for the studio and the industry as a whole. One can only hope that feature animation one day will experience another exciting and bold period, when audiences are being presented something fresh and unexpected.

Disney’s award winning short film Lorenzo from 2004 began to show promising, new horizons and possibilities for the medium, but for the time being it is stashed away in a drawer somewhere.

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Ink and Paint

Disney’s ink and paint artists were in a class by themselves. The control the inkers had over super thin, colored lines, put down on clear acetate sheets, was breathtaking. And they were wearing gloves while doing this, any fingerprint on a cel would show up on the screen. Just like animators, they had weekly quotas, cels had to be traced off the clean up drawings in a timely manner. 

The required accuracy to maintain all subtleties from the drawings on to cels was incredibly demanding. 

Just imagine having to trace Wendy’s face. You are ever so slightly off with her facial features, and the character ends up looking like ET. 

Walt Disney did complain when final scenes of Snow White didn’t show that perfect consistency, her eyes, nose and mouth seem to float a little from time to time. After all, this was the first realistic character ever done at the studio, and reaching a level of perfection took a learning curve.

By the time Disney produced Sleeping Beauty the inking had gotten so tight and flawless, there isn’t one bad cel of Aurora in the film. 

Here are just a few examples of the art of Disney’s Ink & Paint department.

This cel from the 1934 Silly Symphony Funny Little Bunnies shows its age. Some of the paint has come off, but look at the amount of work involved in this one image. There is a ton of line mileage on that easter basket, and an endless assortment of colors. 12 - 24 cels per second, its mind boggling.

Donald’s Cousin Gus from 1939. The ink line is mostly dark grey except for the indication of the darker underbelly. What a beautiful color scheme.

Dark grey for the Dwarfs as well, but black for the eyes and again different colors for the shadowy areas.

Multiple color ink lines on Geppetto and his blanket. And the top of his hair gets a dry brush highlight.

Check out the effect his glasses have on his face, slightly darker colors.

If you really want to find out how all the shading was done on Monstro, the whale, you need to look up John Canemaker’s new fabulous book, “The Lost Notebook-Herman Schultheiss and the Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic”. 

Milt Kahl recalled an issue the inkers had on Bambi. It seemed impossible to keep the width of the deers’ legs consistent. Each cel had a certain thickness, and if you put down ink lines as you moved your head from side to side, the placement of the lines would vary, and those legs ended up looking a little thicker or thinner from one cel to the other. To avoid this from happening, the inkers actually in-betweened subtle leg motion on cels, without referring to the paper drawings.

Less critical inking was required for cartoony characters like Minnie Mouse, here on a cel from the short The Nifty Nineties, 1941.

Alice’s cat Dinah is painted in warm orange/brown colors. For contrast her turquoise eyes sure pop.

Yellow reflections in her pupils, making the eyes look wet.

The White Rabbit is being late as usual, running around with 24 frames per second. This of course means that the watch with all its details needed to be accurately inked that many times as well.

The Walrus is about to enjoy the Oysters. Some of the inking has come off, nothing a good restorer couldn’t fix. 

A nice cel of John from Peter Pan. Notice how his eyelids show a subtle thickness, something that can get lost in the process of redrawing and tracing. Definitely from a Kahl scene.

Just gorgeous colors on this cel of Tiger Lily. Lots of detail on her dress, that pattern around her shoulders would be very tricky to keep consistant.

What a smart choice to have Lady’s fur break up on her body’s underside and the back of her legs. If the fur would break up everywhere she’d look like an uncombed poodle.

There is that nice thickness again on her eyelids. Adds so much dimension. The center of her neckless has two inked colors, giving it some depth.

Tony is painted in night colors. The dark areas around his eyes are defined by neutral ink lines.

I was once complementing Eric Larson on the effective use of light on Peg’s body. He told me that he had nothing to do with that, an effects assistant was responsible for it. But look at how much more inking that involved.

A cel from an Ollie Johnston scene, featuring Mickey announcing the Mickey Mouse Club. 

In an effort to make the character read best on a TV screen, all exterior ink lines were thicker than the interior ones.

An amazing cel of Maleficent confronting Prince Phillip. Every ink line is rock solid, bringing out the stylized character design. To show the candle’s glow, the faces had to be painted in a lighter color.

I couldn’t ink like this if my life depended on it.

Walt Disney visits the ink and paint department during a TV program, where the topic was color.

The three ladies are probably actresses, but I am not sure. The still camera aimed a little low, revealing a taped cue mark on the floor.

I remember visiting the ink and paint building myself way back. There were plenty of painters working on the films of the early 1980s, but only a few inkers. The Xerox process had replaced most of the inking. Only occasional inking was required for things like lips and eyelashes on human characters.
The Little Mermaid turned out to be the last Disney feature to be painted on cels, after that digital ink and paint took over.

A few years ago Vanity Fair published a great article on Disney’s Ink and Paint artists:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/03/disney-animation-girls-201003?currentPage=1

All artwork ©Disney/Heritage Auctions

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A Better Ending for the Dragon Fight?

In December of 1956 these story sketches were photographed before being printed as photostats.

They show a highly dramatic version of the climactic fight between Prince Phillip and the Dragon for the film Sleeping Beauty. In some ways I find this sequence here more exciting than what ended up in the movie. The strong contrast of black and white brings out powerful silhouettes that add visual thrills to the continuity. Look at how the Dragon pursues the Prince by smashing through giant rock formations.

But what I like best is this very different ending to the fight. Prince Phillip actually delivers the final blow by himself, without the help of three Fairies. 

He falls of the cliff, then lands on the Dragon’s tail. He is lifted up high toward the monstrous head…this seems to be it for him. But hanging upside down he gathers his last bit of strength and throws his sword toward the Dragon’s heart.

I think this makes him a stronger character. He doesn’t need the help of the Fairies’ magic.

And if you wanted to keep the idea of magic, the sword could glow brightly before being thrown, (as perhaps indicated in that one sketch).

Great stagigg and editing, interesting to see what might have been.

I love the “Merry Christmas” note at the end, looks like the board got finished just before the holiday break.

Does anybody know the name of the story artist?

For fun, here are a few live action photostats with actor Ed Kemmer, fighting through thin air and imaginary thorns. The last pic also shows the sequence’ s director Woolie Reitherman on the set. 

Here is a link to another post on Prince Phillip, in case you missed it:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/10/prince-phillip.html

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