Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 06 Sep 2010 08:16 am
Recap – Thomas’ Little Tailor -4
- Hans Perk reminded me that yesterday was the birthday of the late Frank Thomas. To celebrate: Rather than post my usual Mary Blair piece (which I’ll post tomorrow), I thought I’d recap this last part of Thomas’ Brave Little Tailor scene. You can link to earlier parts if you like. The scene is a masterpiece and possibly my favorite Thomas scene of all time.
- So, finally, we’ve reached the end of this magnificent Frank Thomas scene from The Brave Little Tailor. The other three parts can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.
Many thanks to friend, Lou Scarborough for the loan of the xerox copies so I could post the scene.
We start with the last drawing from Part 3.
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The following QT movie represents all 246 drawings of the scene.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
on 06 Sep 2010 at 10:20 am 1.The Gee said …
The eyes.
Has there ever been much written about the fact that early Mickey’s eyes have no whites/pupils?
It doesn’t really affect the acting, especially in this clip/sequence. Obviously the acting is extremely expressive and carries the performance so I’m wondering if critics, historians or animators ever expressed much concern with his eyes. Or, was it always the character’s ears that proved to be the most difficult part of the design when it came to animating it?
I know, lots of questions. If there are answers, cool. If not, no sweat.
Thanks for adding to this study.
on 06 Sep 2010 at 10:43 am 2.Michael said …
There’s a Facebook Page called Mickey Mouse’s Eyes are Huge. Nothing there, though.
The 1939 cartoon Society Dog Show was the last Mickey cartoon where the older design dot eyes were used. Mickey’s Surprise Party was the face with whites in the eyes.
Anthropologist, Stephen Jay Gould discusses Mickey Mouse (and his eyes) in depth in this paper.
on 06 Sep 2010 at 5:28 pm 3.Joel Brinkerhoff said …
I had the pleasure of discussing Mickey’s eyes with Ward Kimball and he said the black areas around the black ‘eyes’ should be thought of as the whites of the eye, (even though they became flesh color), and the black ellipses as pupils. Fred Moore later added eyes with whites proportionate to the black pupil design making the older design even more confusing.
on 06 Sep 2010 at 5:40 pm 4.Joel Brinkerhoff said …
Gosh, I didn’t explain myself very clearly. I meant the black areas around the eyes should be thought of as DEFINING the shape of the whites of the eyes. That’s not much better but try and imagine a line running up from Mickey’s snout, between his eyes and connecting the black triangle in the middle of his forehead. Then two more lines from either side of his black cheek points connecting the center imaginary line and those define the whites, even though it’s all flesh color. I give up, where’s a pencil?
on 06 Sep 2010 at 7:34 pm 5.The Gee said …
I get where you are coming from, Joel.
Back when I was one of those whatchamacallems….um…kids…?
When I first tried drawing Mickey, I took the arches to be his eyes but that they were joined together, like the eyes of some cartoon characters which followed him.
I will read the supplied links. Thanks.
But, before I do, another stupid question. The arches–his brows–do move expressively but does the volume of the character’s head change much via squash and stretch?
I ask only because I haven’t studied him that closely and no extremes come to mind.
on 06 Sep 2010 at 7:45 pm 6.The Gee said …
OK. scratch the question. I’m presuming the answer to be “No” simply based on the strict rules of his head shape.
And, I want to say Felix The Cat comes close to being one of those with conjoined peepers. (which sounds like an affliction most dire, doesn’t it?)
on 06 Oct 2010 at 8:08 am 7.jack davis said …
thanks for posting this…that s great…i think the synch is not good….you probably need to push the sound…