Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (V) - Prod. 2043 - Seq. 07.0 - Beanero
Of course, the title is a pun on the fact that it is a "Bean Bolero..."
Directed by Bill Roberts assisted by Mike Holoboff.
Layout by Al Zinnen.
This FINAL draft dated 11/8/1946 by "Toby" Tobelmann.
Basically an effects sequence, the animation is by Josh Meador, Ed Aardal, John Reed, Dan MacManus, Art Palmer, Les Clark (Mickey), Frank McSavage and G. Miller.
George Howell Miller (1895-1969) is one of those "workers" that we hardly ever hear of. In 1940 he was classified as Assistant Animator. He started with Walt in the early 30s, had a stint with Harman/Ising and returned in 1938. But his start was in Kansas City at the Film Ad in the early 1920s, and I believe he may even be pictured in the famous Feb/Mar 1921 Film Ad photo with Walt (two places to the right of A.V Cauger himself)! That is the reason he is shown on this photo of the Film Ad reunion in Hollywood in 1944, reprinted in Funnyworld:
There is no explanation for why he was often referred to as George W. Miller...
Addition: a Twitter user, ibcf has uploaded a video clip of this sequence with the animator assignments overlaid! Very interesting!
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Layout by Al Zinnen.
This FINAL draft dated 11/8/1946 by "Toby" Tobelmann.
Basically an effects sequence, the animation is by Josh Meador, Ed Aardal, John Reed, Dan MacManus, Art Palmer, Les Clark (Mickey), Frank McSavage and G. Miller.
George Howell Miller (1895-1969) is one of those "workers" that we hardly ever hear of. In 1940 he was classified as Assistant Animator. He started with Walt in the early 30s, had a stint with Harman/Ising and returned in 1938. But his start was in Kansas City at the Film Ad in the early 1920s, and I believe he may even be pictured in the famous Feb/Mar 1921 Film Ad photo with Walt (two places to the right of A.V Cauger himself)! That is the reason he is shown on this photo of the Film Ad reunion in Hollywood in 1944, reprinted in Funnyworld:
 | Find George Miller under the red arrow! (Yes, there were missing a few names below the photo. Mike corrected them in a later issue.) |
Addition: a Twitter user, ibcf has uploaded a video clip of this sequence with the animator assignments overlaid! Very interesting!
Labels: Draft, Fun and Fancy Free
posted by Hans Perk at 11:00 AM
7 Comments:
Here's a sequence that dates itself fairly well. With the inclusion of effects man Art Palmer, we can deduct that parts of this may have been animated in or around 1943, when his last know works at Disney, Donald's Tire Trouble and Lake Titicaca from Saludos Amigos, were perpetrated. We also have animator Frank McSavage, famous for his comic book work, who was credited on some of Jack King's shorts in 1947 and 1948. I suppose its entirely possible that parts of this were done in 1946 and later combined with effects work from earlier in the 1940s, but there is little information on the document to confirm this. Its also entirely possible in the late 1940s Frank might've been assigned exclusively to King's Duck pictures, like Don Towsley and Paul Allen, and this was a small bit part for him from the earlier period when he was more involved with the Goofy camp. We've seen Les Clark animate for Billy Bob on Pinocchio and Dumbo, and his Mickey shorts, so I suspect he did his work early on.
This sequence is a Tour de force from Bill Roberts, who is known to have been thoughtful about the development and presentation of antics in his sequences. There are lots of specific and detailed ways the characters are lifted and scooped by the growing flora. The musical synchronization is a nice touch as well. It all indicates that allot of though went into its preparation. This sequence is a perfect vehicle for Billy Bob to show us that aspect of his voice as a film maker.
I've always wondered whether this sequence was animated during 1941. By far, it's the most lavish piece of visual imagery throughout the entire film. Not only does the mention of certain names like Art Palmer arouse my suspicion - but also the fact it's shot almost entirely on Multiplane. In the scenes featuring Mickey Mouse, he very closely resembles the 1940/41 model, compared to the rest of the film.
A small note: Frank McSavage started at the Disney studio on March 7th, 1938. Arthur W. Palmer started on April 20th, 1936.
So, Hans, how long is the segment of Bongo is going to be there? I saw Bongo the Circus Bear and I love it. Do you?
Question; do they still make animator drafts for the recent animated features, like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid etc.? That could be interesting to see which animator animated which scenes, like Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, James Baxter, Mark Henn and all the others.
Christian, those "recent" features, and I agree they were recent, were still made before half our studio was born. I am pretty sure that at least for some, maybe for all of those films a draft was made, albeit electronically. I believe that The Great Mouse Detective likely still was typed. I did not manage to get that one; it was snapped up by a Sherlock Holmes collector with no interest in animation, or in having any manners, for that matter. In any case, the newest pages I have are from Oliver & Co, and those were produced electronically. Not on a form like the pages we know and love, but with each scene getting just the amount of space that is warranted by the available information. But except for those pages for Oliver, my drafts "only" cover pretty much every animated Disney feature film up to and including The Fox and the Hound. Let's not forget WHY the drafts were made: as a go-to document that quickly could tell you 1) what the number of a certain scene was, 2) who was the responsible artist in case of questions or changes and 3) what BG info might be had. For 1) and 2) alone, it would be impractical NOT to make something at least resembling a draft. Then, I ask myself, why are we not preparing drafts for our current and recent CG productions? Well, our turn-over time is shorter, thus we remember more clearly who did what in that shorter time, and then, when the film is behind us, we forget everything. That and the fact that our budgets are way lower. Sad, really...
Possibly my favourite sequence in the film. Do you know if there is information missing from the draft, or if the characters were animated by FX animators (except for two shots of Mickey by Les Clark which don't seem to require a character animator any more than the other scenes)?
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