Category ArchiveDisney
Animation &Disney &Frame Grabs 29 Jan 2009 08:58 am
Sw in St – Squirrels 3
- Back to the break down of the squirrel sequence from Disney’s Sword In The Stone. This is the third of five segments – it’s longer than I remembered.
Going through the material like this, one becomes accutely aware of how many scenes Frank Thomas handled. Quite a lot of footage. (Only one scene here belongs to John Lounsbery.) I think he may have wanted to own such a sequence, and he went for it. It’s also interesting to see how many long pans are among his scenes. In the old days, the animators generally had enormous help from scene planners on the mechanics of the pans and trucks. I’d be curious to know how much Frank took on himself. Obviously, he had a character having to delicately touch many of the curving and moving branches. This is something he’d have to work out. I tried, in a rough way, to reassemble those pan backgrounds.
Thanks to Hans Perk for posting the drafts to this film enabling me to ID the scenes.
Seq. 006 sc. 49: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 49.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 50: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 51: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 52: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 53: Animator: Frank Thomas (first half of pan)
Seq. 006 sc. 53: Animator: Frank Thomas (last half of pan)
Seq. 006 sc. 54: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 54.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 54.1 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 55: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 56: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 56.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 57: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 58: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 59: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 59.1: Animator: John Lounsbery
Seq. 006 sc. 60: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 61: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 62: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 63: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 64: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 64 (cont): Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 65: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 66: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 67: Animator: Frank Thomas
Two more posts to finish the sequence.
Animation Artifacts &Disney &Layout & Design 26 Jan 2009 09:01 am
Fantasia Flowers
- Here’s a floral fantasy worth viewing.
What follows are three variations of Background art done early on for Fantasia.
This is a pastel layout, possibly done by Al Zinnen, the Art Director of the sequence.
It looks almost identical to the final.
Here is a stunning final work of art. This background is by Sam Armstrong who headed the department on the sequence. It is, at least partially, pastel – still soft and glowing some 68 years later. I love how the addition on the lower right (see the B&W layout above) beautifully finishes the composition.
Here, you can see the back of the background – OK’d by SA, who did it.
F-MB 903 (Fantasia – Master Background 903)
Finally, see Disney with Stokowski in a publicity shot holding Armstrong’s background.
Apparently, the pegholes have been cut off since 1940.
This comment from Alexander Rannie was interesting enough that I thought I should add it to this post:
- Dear Michael,
During a recent trip to the Disney Photo Library I ran across a publicity photo of Stokowski seated at the piano in Walt’s office with Walt standing just behind him. There was some music propped up on the music stand of the piano and my curiosity got the better of me.
So, loupe in hand, I peered intently to see if I could determine what music from Fantasia had been set before the great maestro so that he could bring the classics to life on Walt’s piano.
Well, imagine my surprise at seeing a production number that didn’t match that of Fantasia. And the music wasn’t for piano, but for Woodwind I. And one of the pages was upside-down to boot!
And then there was that familiar melody, the notes of which I could just make out.
Paula Sigman Lowery was seated across from me and, knowing she’s not only a historian but a musician, I said, “Do you recognize this theme: La, la, la-la-la-la, La?”
“Isn’t that Pluto’s theme?”, she said.
Of course it was.
So the music that the great Stokowski is playing from is actually a Woodwind I part from Bone Trouble. And this music gets around: it’s the same music in the photo of Walt and Stoki that you posted with the Sam Armstrong background and can even be found lurking in a publicity photo of Norm Ferguson and Deems Taylor looking at material from “Dance of the Hours.”
I love Hollywood.
Best regards,
-Alex
Animation &Disney &Frame Grabs 23 Jan 2009 09:14 am
Sw in St – Squirrels 2
- I continue here with the squirrel sequence from Disney’s Sword In The Stone. My doing thi s breakdown is precipitated bt Hans Perk‘s posting of the film’s drafts. I’ve loved the sequence since I first saw it in 1963; breaking it down forces me into a proper study of it.
However, I didn’t realize how long it was, and the break down will have to be broken up into a couple more posts.
Here, then, is where Frank Thomas takes over.
Seq. 006 sc. 24: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 25: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 26: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 27: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 28: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 29: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 30: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 31: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 32: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 33: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 34: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 34.1: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 34.2: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 34.3: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 35: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 36: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 37: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 38: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 39: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 40: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 41: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 42: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 43: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 44: Animator: Frank Thomas | Seq. 006 sc. 45: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 46: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 48: Animator: Frank Thomas
Seq. 006 sc. 49: Animator: Frank Thomas
To be continued.
Animation &Disney 22 Jan 2009 08:52 am
Sw in St – Squirrels
Oscar Nominations
The following films have been nominated for Best Animated Short Subject
La Maison de Petits Cubes by Kunio Kato
Lavatory – Lovestory by Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi by Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand
Presto by Pixar/Doug Sweetland
This Way Up by Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes
The Best Animated Feature nominations are:
Bolt, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E
The nominations for Short Subject (both Live and Animated) are an interesting choice. I much prefer Glago’s Guest to Presto (my idea of a really bad film), but my favorite (House of Small Cubes) is nominated. I won’t complain. I expected Skhizen to be among the choices, but it’s probably too intelligent.
On to a more interesting, though not topical subject:
-When you speak to most animators they’ll probably tell you that the key sequence in The Sword In The Stone is the squirrel sequence. Hans Perk has been posting the drafts to this film, and since he’s now putting up the squirrel sequence, I thought it worth contributing a “mosaic” (not as good as Mark Mayerson would have done) for the sequence.
It’s longish, so it’ll take a few days to put it together. Here’s the first part:
Seq. 006 sc. 1: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 2: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 3: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 3.1: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 4: Animator: Hal King | Seq. 006 sc. 5: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 6: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 7: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 9: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 10: Animator: Hal King | Seq. 006 sc. 11: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 11.1: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 12: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 13: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 22: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 23: Animator: Hal King
Seq. 006 sc. 24: Animator: Frank Thomas
More tomorrow.
Disney &Frame Grabs 14 Jan 2009 08:43 am
Sw in St – Sq.002 cont.
- Continuing with the follow-up to Hans Perk‘s generous posting of the draft to Sword In The Stone, we have Merlin’s song in the sequence wherein Merlin meets Wart, and we get to know them both.
Sq. 002 Sc 125 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 126 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 127 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 128 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 129 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 130 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 131 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 132 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 133 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 134 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Dan Macmanus
Sq. 002 Sc 135-6 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 137 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 138 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 139 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 140 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 141 – Animator: Frank Thomas / Dan Macmanus
Sq. 002 Sc 142 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 143 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 143.1 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 144 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 146 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 147 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 148 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 149 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 150 – Animator: Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 151 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 152 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 154.1 – Animator: Frank Thomas | Sq. 002 Sc 155 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 156 – Animator: Frank Thomas/Art Stevens | Sq. 002 Sc 157 – Animator: Frank Thomas
Sq. 002 Sc 158 – Animator: Art Stevens
Sq. 002 Sc 300 – Animator: John Lounsbery
The sequence continues, according to the drafts, but this is where my mosaic attempt and interest ends for now.
Disney &Frame Grabs 13 Jan 2009 09:18 am
Sw in St – sq.002
- I mentioned, several days ago, that Hans Perk is currently posting the drafts for Sword In The Stone on his blog, A Film LA. I also mentioned that I liked the opening sequence wherein Merlin and Wart meet. Without trying to do a mosaic for an entire film (as Mark Mayerson has done – I don’t have the fortitude), I have put together these frame grabs for that sequence and the song that follows. It gives me the opportunity and forces me to look at it a little closer.
Sq. 1.1 Sc 23 – Animator: Hal King
Sq. 1.1 Sc 24 – Animator: Hal King
Sq. 002 Sc 29 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 30 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 31 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 32 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 33 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 34 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 35 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 36-37 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 38 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 39 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 40 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 41 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 42 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 43 – Animator: Ollie Johnston
Sq. 002 Sc 44 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 45 – Animator : Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 45.1 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 45.2 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 46 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 47 – Animator: Eric Cleworth
Sq. 002 Sc 48 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 49 – Animator: Eric Cleworth
Sq. 002 Sc 50 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 50.1 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 50.2 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 50.3 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 50.3 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 50.4 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 50.5 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 50.6 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 51 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 52 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 52.1 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 53 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 101 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 102 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 103 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 104 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 105 – Animator: Les Clark | Sq. 002 Sc 105.1 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 105.2 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 106 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 107 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 108 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 109 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 110 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 111 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 112 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 113 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 113.1 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 113.2 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 114 – Animator: Les Clark
Sq. 002 Sc 115 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 116 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 117 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 119 – Animator: Milt Kahl | Sq. 002 Sc 122 – Animator: Milt Kahl
Sq. 002 Sc 123 – Animator: John Lounsbery | Sq. 002 Sc 124 – Animator: Milt Kahl
I’ll continue with the song sequence (Higitus Figitus) tomorrow.
Disney &Frame Grabs 12 Jan 2009 09:09 am
Witch
- It’s not always easy to kill a witch. This sequence from Snow White couldn’t be designed better. It’s short, it’s tense, it’s a tight sequence that handily does its job. The witch is killed in record time. Today, the sequence would be dragged out for half the length of the film.
Some of these drawings are great.
1(Click any image to enlarge.)
2 
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
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Disney &Peet &Story & Storyboards 07 Jan 2009 08:51 am
Recap: Tar Baby board – 1
- Back in Oct 2007, I posted Bill Peet‘s excellent storyboard for the Tar Baby sequence from Song of the South.
Given yesterday’s post of color sketches and storyboard drawings from this film, and given that the original posting of these boards was done relatively small, I thought it time to put them up again, but I’ve taken the time to break them down and post them in a slightly larger form, making them a bit more legible.
As with other recent boards loaned me by John Canemaker, I first display them in the original size of the stats as they came to me.
1
(Click to enlarge images so you can read them.)
2
3
4
Here is my breakdown of the boards:
1a
1b
2a
2b
3a
3b
4a
4b
5a
5b
21a
21b
22a
22b
23a
23b
24a
24b
25a
25b
31a
31b
32a
32b
33a
33b
34a
34b
35a
35b
41a
41b
42a
I just love the drawings from this section.
42b
43a
There are another two pages of the storyboard
which I’ll break down and post tomorrow.
Animation Artifacts &Books &Disney &Story & Storyboards 06 Jan 2009 08:54 am
Song of the South
John Canemaker‘s beautiful book, Treasures of Disney Animation Art, is chock-a-block full of stunning artwork and examples of preproduction work for the Disney features. Every one of them worth studying.
Song of the South is represented by a large selection of art direction sketches and storyboard artwork. All of it beautiful. I’m lifiting these images to showcase some of the great work for this feature. It deserves more attention from the Disney archives, but since they just about disown the film, I’m thankful for these images selected by John.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
John leaves the artwork as uncredited but they remind me of Art Riley or
Al Dempster‘s style. They could be images from a Little Golden Book, and
Dempster & Bill Justice did books associated with that film.
I suppose they’re actually the work of a number of different people.
And here’s the board segment:
Gorgeous art by Bill Peet.
Commentary &Disney &Frame Grabs 05 Jan 2009 09:02 am
Snow White amusements
- There’s a lot of material, much of it very amusing, on the Snow White dvd. On disc 1 of the two disc set, there’s a documentary about the hostory and making of the film. In it the images make a lot of sense as they detail the history of the first Hollywood feature-length cartoon, but some of those images are just too precious for me to allow them to slip by without my singling them out and giving my two cents.
_____(Click any image to enlarge.) ________Here are frame grabs from this documentary.
.
Walt is presented as a bumpkin in the early days.
I suppose he was directing if not filming this material,
so that’s the image he sought to create as well.
This has got to be one of the wackiest pictures in their archives.
The popularity of Mickey Mouse in the early 30′s.
Snow White brings a change to the studio,
which you can well understand.
Though there’s still the problem about what to do with Mickey.
Disney was supposedly inspired by a silent filmed version
of Snow White he saw in his younger days.
One wonders if there was also an eerie creepiness to the performance
that Walt gave to all of his animators one night as he acted out the film.
I’m curious about the pose of Snow White with her head back
and her hands behind the head.
Here, Walt tries to get his animators to bite into an invisible apple -
the future of animation – as they thoughtfully smoke their pipes.
The bed building and the soup eating scenes weren’t the only ones that were
excised from the finished film. It seems the prince, initially had a larger role.
The path into the castle was a bit more difficult. First you had to
get past the moat with the help of your horse. Here the prince looks
a bit like Robert Benchley.
“Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou, Romeo?”
Getting caught. Obviously, the Queen and Snow White didn’t live in that
castle by themselves. There were henchmen we didn’t know about.
This almost looks like an early version of the seven dwarfs
carried the prince to prison.
They had big rats in that prison. Scary.
This is an obvious precursor of Malificent going to visit Prince Phillip some
20 years later in Sleeping Beauty. Both wicked Queens got more attractive.
Lots of stars showed up to the grand premiere.
These actors in costume were there, too.
In all seriousness, the film was a masterpiece. I’m still studying it some
70 years later. Walt had reason to be proud and happy. He also had enough
money to move onto other challenging films, and he took the challenge as
opposed to making Snow White 2 or 3 (as they probably would do today.)
