Cinetopia

Just got back from Cinetopia Film Festival, which took place in Ann Arbor. I was invited to introduce a couple of films along with the one and only Leonard Maltin.
The first film was: Tyrus Wong, Brushstrokes in Hollywood. This is a new documentary about the life and art of Tyrus Wong, who as many of you know, had a lot to do with the styling of Disney's Bambi.

You can find out more about this terrific film here:
http://tyruswongthemovie.com

The second film was Bambi, on the big screen. For many people in the audience probably for the first time.

I also gave my presentation on Disney's Nine Old Men, followed by a book signing. Leonard, who has authored many important books over the years about animated as well as live action films,  signed copies as well. We had a great time!

Here are more publicity illustrations from Bambi, plus a couple of dynamic story sketches.
Let me tell you, Walt Disney's classic animated films age beautifully. The audience was in awe watching Bambi.

On a much sadder, angry note, the past weekend was overshadowed by the horrific news out of Orlando. Today I am finding myself at a loss for words. Prayers to the families and loved ones of the victims. 

Celebration

Monday night at the Hollywood Bowl! The Little Mermaid in Concert! What an incredible evening.

Before the performance began, some members of the film's creative staff were asked to enter the stage for a bow, and I was thrilled to have been included. Then there was a pre-show with Susan Egan, Darren Criss and many others. 

The complete movie was shown on gigantic screens, only interrupted when a song was about to start.

The songs were interpreted by various artists such as Rebel Wilson, who performed Ursula. 

Much has been written about this event, which covered shows on three nights. Here is just one link:

https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/blog/the-original-ariel-and-90s-nostalgia-make-for-a-grand-final-night-of-the-little-mermaid-at-the-hollywood-bowl-060716

An entirely different reason that calls for celebration is the fact that this blog started exactly FIVE years ago on the 11th of this month. Over 5 mill. page views! And the recent surge in viewers tells me that there still is a lot of love for the art and culture of pencil animation.

Here is a beautiful celebratory drawing by Heinrich Kley depicting Bacchus on his long suffering donkey. 

The blog will be updated again on Monday. In the meantime you might want to visit some of my favorite posts:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/john-lounsbery.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-they-felt-about-each-others-work.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/03/kathryn-beaumont.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/10/ken-andersons-robin-hood.html

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/07/disney-tigers.html

Roger Rabbit Scenes IV

I had a lot of fun with these two scenes. The first one shows the Weasel leader Smart Ass threatening Bob Hoskins. Originally his dialogue was: "Cut the bullish...!" And I did animate the character saying it. Soon thereafter when Roy Disney stopped by the London studio to check on some dailies (rushes), he almost had a fit when my scene came up. He said that even though this movie will be released under the Touchstone banner, no animated character needs to have this kind of language.
So...the line was re-dubbed to: "Cut the bull shtick!"
I didn't need to change the scene's lip sync, the two words were similar enough. The original animation worked with the new reading as well.

The next scene turned out to be one of my favorite assignments. Roger, who has been hiding from the Weasels in the sink's water, comes up, wringing his ears dry before saying something like: "Jeepers Eddie, you saved my life. How can I ever repay 'ya.." He then plants a super cartoony kiss on Hoskins. As I worked myself straight ahead through the scene, I felt that the kiss needed to go beyond lip contact. Roger's mouth is practically smothering Hoskin's whole face.
One added challenge was Roger's right hand, which always needed to be positioned according to the live action handcuffs.
Really loved animating this broad piece of animation.

This is an example of what a live acton photo stat looked like. We had to cover the wire holding the pistol with the animated character's arm. All this was done before CG and Photoshop. But we found ways to make it work. The whole team worked so hard on this film to create an almost perfect illusion. It was an amazing experience.

Arabian Dance

A gorgeous development sketch for the Arabian Dance section, which is a part of The Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia. Don Lusk (who will celebrate his 103rd birthday later this year) animated this elegant fish ballet. Interestingly he was never happy with the final color footage of his animation.
I had the chance to talk to him in 2014, and he was still venting about the dry-brush paint application on the cels with his fish characters looking just awful. He was in shock when he saw his animation in full color for the first time. What he had hoped for was a transparent look for the fish tails, which could have been achieved by double expose. The fish 100%, and the tails only 50%.
The dry-brush technique makes the tails jitter, particularly during slow movements.
I told him that I actually don't mind the way the sequence looks at all, but Don wouldn't have it.
Should have been double exposure, and that's it!

A model sheet made up of stunning key poses by Don Lusk. The resemblance to Cleo from Pinocchio is not coincidental. Prior to Fantasia Don helped Eric Larson to bring that character to life.

for my previous post on Don Lusk go here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/10/don-lusk.html


John Canemaker wrote a terrific analysis of the Arabian Dance on Cartoon Brew:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/john-canemaker-unlocks-the-secrets-of-fantasias-sweatbox-notes-109312.html

What's Ollie drawing...

I had been wondering for a little while what scene Ollie is animating in this vintage photo.
As it turns out, it is a scene featured in the Ollie Johnston chapter of my Nine Old Men book.
Does anybody recognize the other two gentlemen?

An absolutely gorgeous layout sketch for another one of Ollie's scenes.

Movie Life magazine published these scrapbook type pages in their issue from September, 1942.

Perdita

Most of the animated scenes featuring Perdita from 101Dalmatians show her as a caring mother to her pups. Frank Thomas animated this gem early on in the film, when Perdita is still single. It reveals a rich personality moment, absolutely beautifully executed by an animator who knew how to crawl into his character's mind.

Roger Radcliff and Pongo have just passed by before settling down nearby under a tree. Perdita leans slightly forward to get a better look at Pongo, who glances at her at the same time. Feeling embarrassed for being "caught" she struggles to quickly get into a pose that reflects composure and disinterest. 

Sometimes I really don't know how Frank does it. He comes up with a series of sketches that have the essence of a particular emotion. Very subtle use of squash and stretch as Perdita's head nervously moves upward into the final pose, which is held for three eye blinks. 

My favorite Perdita scene and one of Frank's best.

The scene's gif looks a little wild without the connecting scenes, and the eye blinks at the end are missing. But you can see how not only the head, but different parts of her body are involved as well.

Sheep Dog

A while ago I posted Milt Kahl's designs for the archery tournament characters in the film Robin Hood. One of them was this image of a sheep dog archer.
Recently I came across these sketches of the same character by John Lounsbery. It's interesting to see his take on the sheep dog concept. He definitely refers back to the Colonel dog from 101 Dalmatians, a character he animated years earlier.

Just a Phrase...

A few years ago I ran into Oscar Grillo at CTN Expo in Burbank. Oscar is an an extraordinary, award winning  animation artist from Argentina, who made London his home a long time ago.
Five minutes into our conversation we started to debate the current state of the animation industry.
When I mentioned how disappointed I felt about the overall change from pencil animation to CG animation Oscar looked at me and said:
"THE INVENTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE MADE THE HORSE LOOK NOBLE!"

The statement blew me away, and I've been feeling great ever since.