Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 05 Oct 2009 08:29 am

Frank Thomas’ Jungle Book 1

John Canemaker has loaned me a scene of drawings by Frank Thomas from the Jungle Book. Actually, they’re not the actual drawings but s/s xeroxed copies.

75 drawings in all, I’m going to post this scene between Mowgli and Kaa, the snake, however, I’ll have to break it up into a couple of posts. Here’s the first part, and I’ll follow up next Monday with more. Eventually we’ll post them all and have a QT movie of the full scene.

I’m not a fan of this film, however, I can’t deny the animation is mostly excellent and sometimes brilliant. Needless to say, Frank Thomas delivered some beautiful work. This scene is a typical example of his work even though it’s not one that calls attention to itself.

In studying the scene you might pay attention to what is on one’s (1-12) as opposed to what is on two’s (13-27) and figure out why.

1 2
(Click any image to enlarge to full animation paper size.)

3 4

5 6

7 8

910

1112

1315

1719

2123

2527
More to follow next Monday.

Here’s the QT of all the drawings from this scene.

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

Mowgli & Kaa
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

5 Responses to “Frank Thomas’ Jungle Book 1”

  1. on 05 Oct 2009 at 10:54 am 1.Elliot Cowan said …

    I think you’ve mislabled Mowgli there…

  2. on 05 Oct 2009 at 12:48 pm 2.Oswald Iten said …

    Thanks! Although I can point out in a thousand ways why it is not a good film this is still my favorite Disney film, the one that got me interested in animation (and jazz music).

  3. on 05 Oct 2009 at 12:55 pm 3.aaron said …

    Franks stuff moves so well, everything is right where it should be. I imagine he animated the beginning on ones because of the quick steps backward and getting the more complex twisting anticipation to work right (there could have been a camera move as well, I’d have to look). The end is basically one pose with a breakdown cushion and the feet are planted so twos make sense there.

  4. on 05 Oct 2009 at 2:24 pm 4.Andy said …

    Thanks very much for sharing these, looking forward to more!

  5. on 09 Oct 2009 at 1:28 pm 5.Stephen Perry said …

    Normally one doesn’t see the first 6 frms but you sure see the left foot coming down before the right foot lifts off. A shame the Ilusion of Life didn’t go into that kind of thing more.
    I think he goes on two’s to get the feeling of weight in Kaa’s tail!

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