What production?

Ken Peterson, whom we have seen previously on a draft, was in charge of a lot of paperwork in the 40's and 50's. In mid-1946 situated in room 1E-19, he issued casting schedules to the animators of the shorts. But which film is this?
Who has heard of Prod. No. 2357 - Share & Share Alike?
Its number is wedged in between 2356 Chip an' Dale (rel. 1947) and 2358 Pluto's Purchase (rel. 1948)... This memo is dated 5/13/1946.

< Click on it!

[Addition: From Charles Solomon's book "The Disney that Never Was" we can learn about this film: it was a Donald Duck short where Don and his nephews fight over an apple. It was all animated, but after an ARI it was found it would make one of the worst shorts ever if nothing was done to salvage it - and it was shelved.]

Prod. 2006 Seq.18 - Pepto-Bismol Trip

When Kimball was asked: "were you guys on drugs when doing this?", he answered "maybe Alca-Seltzer and Pepto-Bismol. We were just trained to think this way."
And Howard Swift and Hicks Lokey animated it.

This one draft page of 1/29/1941 covers the start of the Pink Elephant sequence in Dumbo. Seq. director Norm Ferguson, asst. dir. Larry Lansburgh, layout Ken O'Connor. My draft has only this page.

< Click on it!

(And have a look at our showreel intro below!)

Two Rare Birds

In Frank and Ollie's slide show, as illustration that "you see what you want to see", they used to show this image first out of focus, and said it was a picture of two rare birds in extraordinary surroundings. Then they had it put gradually in focus, until the audience could see the image clearly.
I shot it in Holland in August 1984.

< Click on it!

The How of Credits

These are the mid 1940's (after the 1941 strike). When the animation is done, a group called the Screen Credit Comittee, chosen for one year by their peers, choses three animators and an effects animator to receive screen credit on the particular short.
In 1945, the Character comittee exists of Eric Larson, John Lounsbery and Hal King, with Hugh Fraser, Marc Davis and Ollie Johnston as alternates. The Efx committee was Andy Engman, with George Rowley as alternate.
The "lucky" animators to receive screen credit were notified thus:

< Click on it!

Prod. RS9 - Ferdinand the Bull

Luske, Kahl and Kimball are the stars in this classic Silly Symphony, released 11/25/1938.

Directed by Dick Rickard, Asst. Dir. Ford Beebe.
Layout Ken Anderson and Thor Putnam. Animated by Bernard Garbutt, Ham Luske, Milt Kahl, Bob Stokes, Jack Bradbury, Stan Quackenbush, Jack Campbell, Ward Kimball and Don Lusk.
With the non-animation scenes attributed to Music Room 8.

This third draft dated 5/19/1938.This one cost me ten bucks per page. Page one has been around for some time on the web. Keep sending comments, I want to know what you think. Also about the A. Film Showreel 2006 intro, below!

A quick review of Annecy 2006

As always, it was a pleasure to be in Annecy, and this year was especially great, as I introduced the A. Film L.A. concept to many in the business. The weather was great all the time, and the food as well. Here are a few images from the trip! Click to enlarge.First, two images from my breakfast table, and a generic, idyllic Annecy setting. Below, the closing ceremony, Tim Burton was celebrated, and the Grand Prix went to the short film as shown.
The winner is on the right on the last image, with the jury.

The winner for best feature film was Renaissance, a feast of Motion Capture (now snootily called Performance Capture). Did they win because they were even able to capture the pupils in the eyes?
In any case, the jury put MoCap over Wallace & Gromit, and our own Asterix, and it certainly raised MY eyebrows.

It was great to see Cars, screened two hours before the official US release. That and the MOST wonderful screening in many years, 12 Silly Symphonies, reminded me why I ever became interested in animation: entertaining stories, great characters, wonderful, cheerful colors, clear compositions, and upbeat humor.
Oh, how I wish there was more of that...

Prod. UM37 - Mickey's Grand Opera

Well, that's it for a week... I will be at the animation festival in Annecy from Tuesday to Sunday.
Our feature film Asterix and the Vikings is in competition, as is one of our commercials. And the short film that our Estonian branch made is shown in the Panorama program. See our homepage for more precise info about our studio representation in this wonderful French town. It's my 16th time down there since 1979.

To make up for my being away, here is a Lundy & Clark fest, Mickey's Grand Opera. Directed by Wilfred Jackson. With a sign by Cy Young and three scenes by Paul Hopkins, the rest by Dick Lundy, Les Clark, Norm Ferguson and Gilles Armand “Frenchy” De Trémaudan.
Final draft of 9/28/1935. Now - we can ask ourselves, what did the good folks at the studio think about it, themselves? And interestingly enough - we can find out! Because here is the transcript of the Action Analysis Class led by Don Graham of 2/20/1936, five month after the draft, but nearly three weeks before the short's general release 3/7/1936!
We join Don Graham, probably from 7pm to 9pm on this Thursday, and a class of sixty (!), including Bill Shull, Nick Nichols¹, George Drake, Frank Thomas¹ and Jim Algar. (¹ I guess... Any other possibilities?)So take out your DVD "Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Living Color" (Vol.1 Disc 1) - and see for yourself!

Note: please keep leaving comments - I may not be able to moderate them before I return, but I would like to know what you think. Oh - and have a look at the intro of our showreel, below!

Another appeal for plans...

Again, anyone, feel free to let me know if you have anything like floor plans for the animation building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. The image linked below is from frame grabs from a program about the studio on the Treasures DVD "Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio" (deinterlaced, sharpened and perspective adjusted) - but it shows only a little part of two of the floors of the studio. So - anyone?

< Click on it!

[NOTE! I noticed that my assumptions of which wing is which were wrong! On the picture, where I noted D-wing, it IS actually C-wing! So the wing letters are mirrored on the axes of the building! More info is always welcome, as are the actual plans! (added 10/20/2006)]
[After a walk through the halls today, I revised my drawing - the wing letters are now correct on the drawing! (added 03/07/2007)]

Ollie Johnston again

Here is another of the drawings Ollie gave me in 1984.
Pennie is still in the Devil's Eye cave.

< Click on it!

Note how Ollie indicates shapes, then highlights parts of the outlines - the straights opposite the curves. The appealing simplicity reveals a draftsmanship that many younger artists hope to achieve in their lifetime - so let's all hope they will be able to, as hand-drawn animation makes its come-back...

Tomorrow will be the last post in a while, with Annecy coming. I promise I'll make it interesting - animation history as craft activity! Say - anyone coming to Annecy? See our site for more A. Film info on Annecy - and the three films we have down there..

Working with Ken Anderson on Trolls

Before we started A. Film, we worked for nearly a year on preproduction of Henning Kure's "Troll Story™", in 1987. It was a very exciting period, as we worked closely together with Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston - who wrote in Flintridge, and faxed us nearly every other day, and came to Denmark twice for lengthy meetings. They had help from Ken Anderson, who told them he loved working on our project. Ken did a stack of drawings, partly his own ideas, partly inspired by Frank and Ollie.
After all these years, the film has still not seen full production, but the experiences we gained are in all our films. Anyway, since it still is in the works (sort of), I can't show a lot of this. but here is at least one of the many great sketches Ken did...

< Click on it!

Today's A. Film News

What? A. Film News on a blog called A. Film L.A.?
Yes! Today, the day that our Asterix and the Vikings opens in Denmark, we celebrate that the picture side of our next feature, The Ugly Duckling and Me is done. It's officially in post-production. See images from the film on the A. Film web page.

It's exciting to see that this page has had visitors from 25 countries. Keep the comments coming!

Action Analysis Class - Jan. 30th, 1936

Five weeks passed after Walt sent his famous memo to Don Graham on Dec. 23, 1935. After a Jan. 6th class on orphan characters, followed by two classes on drapery, it's time to look critically at Ben Sharpsteen's Prod. UM39 - Orphan's Picnic, slated for a Feb. 15, 1936 release. See for yourself - the film is on Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in Living Color", Vol.1, Disc 1.

We are in a meeting led by Don Graham, with Lee Moorehouse, Ugo D'Orsi, Jim Algar, Tony Rivera, Al Eugster, Bill Shull, Bernie Wolf, Frank (Thomas?), Archie Robin, Ward Kimball, Don Towsley and Murray Griffen.70 years ago, they tried to figure out what worked and what didn't, and their films got better and better. Again, a lesson for everyone in the business these days.

Prod. RM2 - Lonesome Ghosts

"We scared them all away. Guess we're too good!"
Here is another one of those films without which our universe would not have existed...
Originally called Ghost Exterminators, directed by Burt Gillett, animated by Izzie Klein, Ed Love, Milt Kahl, Marvin Woodward, Rex Cox, Bob Wickersham, Gerry Geronimi, Dick Huemer and Don Williams. Albert Hay Malotte (see below) wrote the music.
Final draft dated 12/1/1937, released 23 days later, 12/24/1937. Say! That's 3 days after the Snow White gala premiere!
See it on your "Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Living Color" DVD (Vol.1 Disc 2)...

Interesting to see that Rex Cox finally did sc.21. as it is on Izzie Klein's list of scenes. Klein picked it up 2/9/1937 and cut into the reel 3/31/1937, but it never went into clean-up - instead it is marked OUT. Klein picked up his first scenes, sc.25 & 26, on 11/10/1936, he finished rough animation on both on 11/30, changes done on both from 2/6/1937 to 3/10/1937, and after clean-up and in-b-t [sic] they were the last to be delivered for inkers, 6/30/1937.Again - sorry for the image quality. News: See the great mosaic based on these on Mark Mayerson's blog!

Say, did you have a look at the intro to our showreel, below? We will be in Annecy - meet us there!