Disney &Mary Blair &Story & Storyboards 03 Feb 2009 08:23 am
Babies in Color
- Yesterday I posted a reconstructed board for the sequence eliminated from Fantasia. Baby Ballet was to be set to Chopin’s Berceuse.
Sylvia Moberly-Holland was the principal designer of this piece and Mary Blair worked with her in many of the pastel images on the board. Here are some of those same images in color. I’ve lifted them from the Fantasia “Legacy” dvd and offer them to complete the post. Not all of these color images made it to the board I posted.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
It turns out that it is a small world after all.
on 03 Feb 2009 at 9:45 am 1.Fabián Fucci said …
Sooner or later, it is bound to be made, as it happened with other productions at the studio that were frozen for later. I look forward so much to this one!
on 03 Feb 2009 at 8:26 pm 2.hans bacher said …
…looks like a horrorfilm!
on 03 Feb 2009 at 9:33 pm 3.Versh said …
Contrary to the first comment, I hope this never gets made– it’s too saccharine and maudlin, there isn’t an animator alive that would be proud to be associated with it. Sure it works as illustration, and maybe it’ll be a cute short animation if it were less than 30 seconds– but set to Chopin’s Berceuse,(it’s nearly 5 minute lullaby) is just too much for any audience to enjoy.
Here’s a fitting analogy:
I enjoy a slice of pie now and then, only not the entire cake drenched in a milkshake and buried under a pile of glazed donuts all at once.
on 04 Feb 2009 at 4:44 am 4.slowtiger said …
Yes, it’s much too sweet – but the sheer virtuosity these drawings were executed with is awsome! I can see Degas in there and Dali, and although nothing seems to be more apart from a ballet dancer than these babies, they assume all the familiar poses not only correctly but with a sense of parody.
I think this sequence can’t be made today: because the heap of animation talent you’d need to make it just isn’t there any more.
on 04 Feb 2009 at 8:51 am 5.Michael said …
Aha! You get down to the truth, Slowtiger. The talent isn’t there to animate these well or make them work. Maybe one could get Robert Zemickis to direct it with motion capture.
In reality, this material is mawkish and would never have made a good film.
on 04 Feb 2009 at 11:55 am 6.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
True, it would never have made a good film, but the drawings are great. Thanks for putting this up!
on 05 Feb 2009 at 4:41 pm 7.Jenny Lerew said …
Beautiful technique.
And those “diaper creatures” peeping over the edge in one panel! Holy cow. That’s something else again.
I’m sure Mary Blair thought of the concept much as we do–but hey, one does one’s best with what you’re given.
on 28 Oct 2011 at 4:57 am 8.Valerie said …
So, whose work is this? Mary Blair’s or Sylvia Moberly-Holland? I am a little confused.
on 28 Oct 2011 at 6:29 am 9.Michael said …
Mary Blair did all of these story sketches. Sylvia Moberly-Holland supervised the piece.