52 years ago, today.

For years, my favorite record was "Walt Disney en zijn muziek."
I studied it intensely, and that includes the photo of the founder of the feast, though the record was issued after his passing, with the proceeds of the sales being donated to Cal Arts.
The photo was made for Eastman Kodak, taken on February 23rd, 1966. 52 years ago to the day...

← Click to see full image!

Happy Birthday, Børge!

Today, February 17th -- as it is now in Holland and Denmark --
my old mentor and friend Børge Ring celebrates his 97th birthday!

Last time I visited was in April 2017, when I showed him my CG recreation of Walt Disney's Hyperion Ave. studio in 1929 and 1939. Børge is listening and watching intensely as I explain:

← Click to see full image!

I hope to soon be able to visit again!
Tillykke med fødselsdagen, ex-B-96!

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XXII) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 08.0 - Fight & Finale

The final and longest sequence of the draft...Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Hal King (supervising animator), Ted Berman, Harry Holt, Ward Kimball (supervising animator), George Goepper, Al Bertino, Harvey Toombs, Phil Duncan, Fred Moore and Ken O'Brien. Effects by Jack Boyd. Jane was a little too quick for scene 19...

"...or is this a dream - too good to be true..." and here we leave Bongo and Fun & Fancy Free. Of course I hope you enjoyed this draft. Again, I need to impress upon you my "standard disclaimer:"

"Animation drafts were never meant to be historical documents. They were meant as go-to documents, showing the responsible artist for a certain scene, who might be able to help in case there would be any need for this further on in the production line. Therefore we often see e.g. that animators who left have been replaced by others, often their assistants, in later versions of a draft. Also for this reason it is most often the actual animator, not the supervising animator, who is mentioned [except here in most of Bongo, of course]. The drafts may also be directly inaccurate - showing early assignments where the animator actually changed when the scene was finally handed out. Keeping all this in mind, though, the drafts can give us some sort of hands-on insight into the inner workings of the production of some of the most iconic motion pictures of all time."

So what's next? And when? To be honest, I don't know yet! I'll let it be a surprise... It'll be for me!

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XXI) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 07.0 - Say It With A Slap

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Milt Kahl (supervising animator), Hal Ambro and Hugh Fraser. Effects by Jack Boyd.

Slapstick by Milt Kahl to "Say It with a Slap" by Eliot Daniels. I bet Milt enjoyed the relative freedom and fun that the realistic characters didn't often allow for!

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XX) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 06.0 - Lumpjaw Entrance

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by George Goepper, Hal King, Ward Kimball (supervising animator), Harry Holt (clearly misspelled as Hold in sc. 26) and Al Bertino (before he became a story artist and Imagineering legend). Effects by Jack Boyd.

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XIX) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 05.0 - Too Good To Be True (Fantasy)

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/10/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Les Clark (supervising animator), Ward Kimball, Art Babbitt, Al Coe, Tom Massey, Ted Bonnicksen and George Goepper. Effects by Sandy Strothers.

A fantasy of cupid bears, pink clouds and hearts, set to music by Eliot Daniel and lyrics by Buddy Kaye.

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XVIII) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 04.0 - Bongo Meets Lulubelle

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/10/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Ward Kimball, Judge Whitaker, Fred Moore, Ken O'Brien and Hal Ambro. Effects by Jack Boyd.

From a sad little number by Kimball (waking up) and Whitaker (uni-cycling) we get to the heart of the sequence, meeting Lulubelle, animated by Moore, interspersed with more action-oriented scenes by O'Brien and Ambro.

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XVII) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 03.0 - Night

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/9/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Marc Davis (supervising animator), Henry Tanous and Judge Whitaker. Effects by Jack Boyd and Blaine Gibson.

In the dark, the lazy countryside shows its scary side...

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XVI) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 02.0 - Lazy Countryside

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/9/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Marc Davis, Fred Moore, Phil Duncan, Ken O'Brien, Blaine Gibson and Hal Ambro. Effects by Jack Boyd.

A bunch of very cute Fred Moore scenes of Bongo trying to heed the call of the wild and climb a tree, and a cute and languid song, "Lazy Countryside," with music and lyrics by Bobby Worth.

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XV) - Prod. 2048 - Bongo - Seq. 01.0 - Circus

At last, here is Bongo. May I suggest you read my old mentor Børge Ring's notes on this half of the movie if you haven't already?Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern.
Layout by Don DaGradi.
This FINAL draft dated 4/9/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair.

Animation by Blaine Gibson, Marc Davis, Al Coe, Ted Bonnicksen, Art Babbitt, Tom Massey, Henry Tanous - supervised by Les Clark. Effects by Jack Boyd.

I don't recall other film drafts with indication of supervising animators. How great that would have been...

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XIV) - Prod. 2043 - Seq. 50.0 - Combination Live Action & Cartoon Scenes

Directed by Bill Roberts & Ham Luske assisted by Mike Holoboff and Jack Atwood. Layout by Al Zinnen & Ken Anderson.
This FINAL draft dated 11/15/1946 by "Toby" Tobelmann & Ruth Wright.

In other words, Roberts with Holoboff and Zinnen, all whom we have seen in the past weeks, are paired with Luske with Atwood and Anderson for these combined scenes.

Animation by John Lounsbery with one scene by Marvin Woodward and an effects scene by Josh Meador and George Rowley. Several scenes by the Process Lab.

Chunks of these scenes are strewn around through the second half of the combined film film. Interestingly, it shows when the live action was shot (May & August 1946). Then, after this, the second part of the film, we get to the first part: Bongo!

Amazing Weekend!

This was quite the weekend! Not only did Coco win all 11 Annies it was nominated for, and The Breadwinner won as best independent feature - a warm congrats to all winners! - but on the local front, a lot happened, as well!

Saturday morning saw the premiere of our latest animated feature film Hodja fra Pjort in Imperial Bio here in Copenhagen, which Wikipedia describes as having "the largest single screen in Northern Europe with 1002 seats, which is also the biggest screen in the world to feature Dolby Atmos." It is also the first cinema where Atmos was installed. That was very exciting (but boy, was it cold outside)!

Then, Yesterday, at the Danish Film Academy's 2018 Robert Awards (the Danish "Oscars"), our film The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear won in these two categories: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Children's/Youth Film! As editor (among other functions) of both movies, it was a time to be pretty darn proud! This images shows our trio of directors (L to R: Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Næsby Fick and Jørgen Lerdam) doing the thank-yous, while those of us who attended were behind them. I am right behind Philip and his curls!

(Beacuse of this, Fun and Fancy Free continues - tomorrow!)

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XIII) - Prod. 2043 - Seq. 18.0 - Ending (Chase down Beanstalk)

Directed by Bill Roberts assisted by Mike Holoboff.
Layout by Al Zinnen.
This FINAL draft dated 11/15/1946 by "Toby" Tobelmann.

Animated by Woolie Reitherman, Jack Campbell, John Lounsbery, Hugh Fraser, Bob Carlson and John Sibley. Effects by George Rowley.

Woolie cast as animator of exciting action, a roll we have seen him in so often. This then is the ending of Mickey and the Beanstalk, and we cut to live action.

Prod. 2057 - Fun and Fancy Free (XII) - Prod. 2043 - Seq. 16.0 - Key Stealing

Directed by Bill Roberts assisted by Mike Holoboff.
Layout by Al Zinnen.
This FINAL draft dated 11/15/1946 by "Toby" Tobelmann.

Animation by John Sibley, Ken Muse, Hugh Fraser, Les Clark, Bob Carlson, Bernie Wolf, Jack Campbell, Marvin Woodward, Woolie Reitherman and Harry Holt. Effects by Dan McManus.