The Animated Animator

Way back on Beauty & the Beast I was told that some of Gaston's  gestures and expressions look like me (of all the characters!!).

The truth is that an animator can't help but inject some of his or her own physical characteristics into the character. Sometimes this is intentional (when studying yourself in the mirror), other times it is not.

Disney story man Vance Gerry told me once that he thinks that all of Milt Kahl's characters have Milt's eyes. Ever so slightly cross-eyed, they look like they are up to no good. I think Vance has a point.

The following frame grabs show Frank Thomas as he explains animation principles during a TV show from the 1980ies. What an expressive face, Frank could have been a great live actor.

I couldn't help myself and searched for (Thomas') animation drawings that somewhat reflect Frank's grimaces.

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Simplicissimus

I know, it sounds like one of those magic words from Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

Simplicissimus was a satirical German weekly magazine, that ran from 1896 until 1967, with a hiatus from 1944-1954. 

Many famous graphic artists contributed stunning illustrations with themes that commented on social/political issues of the times. You might have heard of Heinrich Kley, George Grosz and Kaethe Kollwitz, but other contributors were artists like the incredible Karl Arnold, Olaf Gulbransson and Edward Thoeny.

I just love looking at this kind of art. Whenever I am designing characters, and I catch myself falling back on to old formulas, I look at pages from Simplicissimus. The types of people represented in the illustrations are so rich in character, the designs are super inventive…no formulas here!

And do you know who else referred to these artists and admired them ? Our friend Joe Grant  from Disney. He collected the magazines when they were issued way back. I had many conversations with Joe about these graphic gems, we both found them very inspiring.

I am not including any text or commentary, just look at the quality of drawing, caricature and staging.

There are plenty of formulaic animated characters populating the screens today. I'd love to see inspired alternatives, wether they are based on a source like this one or any other graphic style, it's time to break the mold. An exciting prospect!

 Bruno Paul 1906

Olaf Gulbransson 1909

 Rudolf Wilke 1908

 Olaf Gulbransson 1908

 G. Hertting 1910

 Karl Arnold 1911

 Olaf Gulbransson 1905

 Blix 1907

 Olaf Gulbransson 1916

 Olaf Gulbransson 1916

 Karl Arnold 1924

 E. Thoeny 1920

 Karl Arnold 1921

 Karl Arnold 1922

 Olaf Gulbransson 1923

 Karl Arnold 1927

 Herbert Marxem 1929

 Karl Arnold 1930

Karl Arnold 1930

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Life imitates Art

This is Milt Kahl as he reenacts a scene he animated, when Medusa affectionately embraces her alligators Nero and Brutus. It was filmed for a Disney Channel TV show from 1981 called "The Illusion of Life". The program promoted classic Disney Animation, Frank and Ollie's book with the same title and the release of The Fox and the Hound.

You can find it on YouTube, and if you watch very carefully, you will spot me in one short scene drawing Princess Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron, the upcoming epic from the studio.

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King Lion

He is referred to as King Leonidas at the Disney Parks and Consumer Products, but in the movie Bedknobs & Broomsticks he is simply King Lion. (Not to be confused with the animated film I worked on).

These are a couple of model sheets Milt Kahl created for the character. In those days he did his design work with a felt pen, then added either grey tones or some color using Magic Markers.

These are beautiful drawings, though I would have liked to see a new design for a Disney lion, instead the reuse of Shere Khan's facial features.

But I love the way he moves, so much weight in his walk, like the scene when he comes on screen for the first time.

This scene can be seen toward the end of the Soccer Game. The Soccer ball is loosing air and flies out of control. It "gooses" the King, and this is his reaction.

The first two images are copies of actual animation keys, followed by original rough drawings which Milt discarded. He changed the landing slightly for the final version. But this is great raw stuff, from Milt's brain right on to paper, his first pass.

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Bedknobs & Broomsticks

I love the animation sequences in Bedknobs, but I haven't been able to warm up to the film as a whole. The more I am wondering why, the more I realize that the problem is in the writing. 

The live characters don't seem to like each other, all the way through the picture. Even the children always argue with one another. There are no appealing character relationships in the film.

The animation, directed by Ward Kimball, is fantastic. The soccer game is great entertainment, partly because the animals use their physical attributes to play the game. The elephant goal keeper uses his trunk to shoot the ball back into the field, the gorilla hangs from the goal's frame, the cheetah runs so fast, his feet catch on fire, etc. Every animal acts according to its specific species. Pure Disney!

Milt Kahl designed the whole cast and animated most of the scenes with the characters you see above. Ok…the bear looks a bit like Baloo and the Lion resembles Shere Khan, but the acting is fresh and unique. 

At one point during production Milt must have raised a fuss about inconsistencies in the drawings of various animators. This prompted Ward Kimball to send this memo to the animation staff.

The tone of it just cracks me up. (I believe the stone-rubbed portrait of Walt still hangs in the old Animation building.)

That's Kimball with producer Bill Walsh, next to Milt's enlarged character drawings. These were used during live action rehearsals as a guide for the actors.

Here are copies of a few key drawings from a Kahl scene, the King is beating up the befuddled  Secretary Bird, who just noticed that the King's medallion is missing.  Look at the beautiful follow through and weight of the Lion's heavy sleeve.  

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Dick Jones

Who is Dick Jones? He is none other than the voice of Pinocchio.

I had a fun dinner the other week with some friends including Dick Jones and his lovely wife Betty.

And wouldn't you know, I just happened to have some model sheets with me.

Dick was already a child actor before he voiced that iconic character for Disney. 

He was in recording sessions doing Pinocchio off and on for about a year and a half, from age 10 until 11 1/2.

I asked him what it was like to see the whole film way back for the first time, all finished.

His answer surprised me. Dick didn't attend the premier screening, but he felt like he had seen the  entire film, in pieces while he was working on it. It wasn't until a few years ago that he watched the complete movie, when it came out on Blu- Ray and the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood had a screening of the restored  film. He thinks this is the best animated movie Walt ever made, and many people would agree with him. (It's just fun to see how Dick says this, with an honest sense of pride.)

His long acting career included many roles in Westerns, on the big screen as well as on TV. 

That's him in the photo below recording Pinocchio next to Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket.

What a great performance, so fitting for the character. Full of enthusiasm, innocent, naive and very charming.

The animation roughs are by Milt Kahl from the naughty cigar smoking sequence.

After having re designed Pinocchio early on (I'll get to that in a future post) this became a sort of break through assignment for Milt, from then on he was one of the supervising animators.

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