Prod. 2061 - Melody Time (V) - 2056 - Pecos Bill

Directed by Gerry Geronimi, assistant director Ted Sebern, layout by Lance Nolley & John Hench. This FINAL draft is from 12/12/47.

One of the most "classical" segments of the film, it was animated by Marvin Woodward, John Sibley, Ken O'Brien, Ward Kimball, Cliff Nordberg and Milt Kahl with one scene by John Lounsbery. Effects by Josh Meador, Ed Aardal and George Rowley.

Kimball and Kahl are the obvious stars of this segment, and they handle most of Pecos and Sue, with some action scenes by Sibley and Nordberg. Some late scene adjustments seem to have been made around the end, combining some scenes and removing others. I find that some of the multiplane shots in this segment are among the nicest ones altogether, because they are subtle and simple, yet atmospheric.

Though this is the closing segment of the film, it is in the middle of the draft because in here the segments are ordered by their production number. I have added a "real running order" to my first posting for this film.

I finally took some time to see the film again last night, and I enjoyed it a lot - wish I had watched it earlier.

The DVD is, of course, the No Smoking version. Thus, scene 54 was not in my DVD. I did notice another shot, a CU just before Pecos tries to rescue Sue (Sc. 131?) where it seems a bit with Bill fixing a cigarette was removed. Is this in my imagination? Or is this again due to destructive PC-ness?

Honestly: I have been a heavy smoker once, myself, and I quit some 15 years ago, the best thing I ever did. But NEVER in my youth would I even think of beginning to smoke after seeing a cartoon character do so. If you want to protect children, there is a slew of other things you could do, like, say, get guns of the streets, have proper health care for the poorest etc. etc., but I really do not want to get into a political discussion here...! Suffice to say I think an updated "grown-up" version is needed of this and all the other censored Disney films. How about a box set with all disclaimers? You can include Song of the South! At least then we can enjoy the films as Walt Disney made them, which is the only way I would WANT to see them!

Prod. 2061 - Melody Time (IV) - 2055 - Once Upon a Wintertime

Directed by Ham Luske, assistant director Ted Sebern, layout by Al Zinnen, Don Griffith & Ken O'Connor. This FINAL draft is from 2/24/48.

Animation by Eric Larson, Rudy Larriva, Hal King, Judge Whitaker, John Lounsbery, Harvey Toombs and Don Lusk, with ice and waterfall by George Rowley.

This is one of the most Mary Blair-like of any Disney feature sequence. It is interesting to see how the animation is spread among the animators: except for Larriva doing the horses & sleigh in the beginning, most animators handle the human characters as well as the animals.

As much as I like Mary Blair's work, I am in two minds about the styling in this segment, storytelling-wise. Would we have gotten more emotionally involved with the characters had they been handled more classically, or more naturalistically?
On the other hand one can make a case for the more cartoony handling of the characters, which serves as a distancing device to make this segment "just a sweet bit of fun." Every time I think about it, I am inclined to go in the opposite direction from last time I thought about it...

Prod. 2061 - Melody Time (III) - 2054 - Trees

Directed by Ham Luske, assistant director Ted Sebern, layout by Ken O'Connor. This FINAL draft is from 5/5/48.

Animated by Don Lusk and Les Clark, with effects by Josh Meador, Ed Aardal and George Rowley, this sequence is like a Silly Symphony, or an overflow sequence from Fantasia...

Prod. 2061 - Melody Time (II) - 2052 - Little Toot

Directed by Gerry Geronimi, assistant director Lou Debney, layout by Hugh Hennesy. This CORRECTED FINAL draft is from 2/20/47.

Animation by Bob Cannon, Rudy Larriva, George Rowley, Ollie Johnston, Jack Parr (whom we saw win at bowling), Dan MacManus, Brad Case (whose son Dale worked for Ray Patin commercial studios in the late 50s), Cliff Nordberg, Ray Patin, Eric Larson and Don Lusk.

Bob Cannon and Rudy Larriva have had illustrious careers outside of Disney: this is Cannon's only film for Disney. He has credits on Doggone Tired, Little Rural Riding Hood and Moonbird, and he directed Gerald McBoing-Boing. Rudy Larriva, who passed away only this February, also animated on Song of the South. His credits include animation on McBoing-Boing and The Unicorn in the Garden, as well as animation and direction on a slew of Magoo.

The draft mentions McManus, not MacManus, and thus one thinks that it was John McManus, not Dan MacManus who worked on these scenes. Here I refer to Alberto Becattini who does not credit John McManus on this film. Alberto also does not mention Brad Case on this film.

Other things of note: I count 14 multiplane shots, and more importantly, this is the FIRST "corrected final" draft we have encountered. What was wrong with the old final one? Again there are lots of notes from a 1964 inventory in the BG Morgue.

[How did I forget to mention this?
Hardie Gramatky, the author of the children's book this segment is based on, worked as animator at Disney in the Mickey Mouse unit from 1930 to 1936. He was born 4/12/1907, and died, 72 years old, on 5/1/1979, in Fairfield, CT.]

Prod. 2061 - Melody Time (I) - Titles & Inserts

With Tuesday's image being number 01, here we go:Directed by Wilfred Jackson, assistant director Mike Holoboff, layout by Tom Codrick. This FINAL draft is from 5/6/48.

These first five pages, the actual Prod. 2061, are quite interesting - and can be quite confusing! They are comprised of the opening titles, the interstitials and the end title. We find sweepingly animated brushes by George Rowley, Josh Meador, Jack Boyd and Ed Aardal,
a bee by Harvey Toombs, and masks by Ward Kimball!

From this breakdown it is clear that the scenes in the draft are not listed in the order of their appearance in the film:
Page 1, scene 1 & 1.1 - Little Toot intro
Page 1, scene 2 & 2.2 - Johnny Appleseed intro
Page 2, scene 3 & 3.1 - Bumble Boogie intro
Page 2, scene 4 - Once upon a Wintertime intro
Page 2, scene 5 - Trees intro
Page 3, scene 6 - Blame it on the Samba intro
Page 3, scene 7 & 7.1 - Pecos Bill intro
Page 3, scene 10 & the entire page 4 - Opening credits & intro
Page 5, scene 40 - End title

M.R. is, as we have seen before, "Music Room," indicating that there is no animation. The Music Room was originally (on Hyperion Avenue) the room with the piano. It was where the director timed out the storyboards - at times it included the composer and/or the layout man. All this goes to show the meaning of the indication in the "Artist" column, as well as the meaning of the draft itself.

I have said it often (search for "disclaimer") - and I'll say it again:
"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. 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 "magical" (in itself an over-used word) motion pictures of all time." The annotations on this copy were made in 1964 when the Background Morgue (where this copy is from) was keeping track of its inventory.

Note to Thad Komorowsky: great video! I hope that you still have your project files, though, for in a few days you will find that a few of your credits are incorrect. Of course you can already now add George Rowley to the title sequence. (May I suggest that you put the names away from the Dailymotion burn-in?)

Several times in the last few years I have suggested a similar treatment for a subtitle track on future Disney-DVDs, but every time the answer was that there was no budget for something for so limited an audience. Do I agree with that? Maybe if everybody wrote to Walt Disney Home Video? What do you think?

Time for Melodies...

After Thad Komorowski's posting of the "Blame it on the Samba" sequence of Melody Time, it seems fitting to show the complete draft of this film, Prod. 2061. Though I have scanned it, I still have to do some work on the images, but I can promise it will appear here soon!

Above image is the label with the contents that is stuck on the inside of the folder. This one also originated in the BG Morgue.

If you wonder where Prod. 2057 went, then have a look at my list of Feature Production Numbers and you find it is Fun and Fancy Free!

[For those of you who do not have the film handy, this is the order of the sequences in the final film (after the opening credits, of course):
- Once Upon a Wintertime
- Bumble Boogie
- The Legend of Johnny Appleseed
- Little Toot
- Trees
- Blame it on the Samba
- Pecos Bill
In the draft, the segments have obviously been ordered by production number, not by the order of appearance in the film.]

Studio Talks - Epilog

As you have seen in the past weeks, the folder called "Studio Talks - Series 1" that came to me via Disney animator Don Patterson (and intermediate sales people) has in-depth views of the layout processes of composition and staging, as well as the workings of sound recording of 1938 [or 1939].

In a comment, layout man and teacher at Sheridan College Scott Caple underlines the importance of this document, and this is why I have, for ease of use, made a PDF file which collects the images so they are more readily accessible. You can download it here (5.61 MB).

Also, because of Scott's enthusiasm, I have made high-res scans of copies I made of the plates in the documents (I took the actual document to California, but I am right now in Denmark), and I put them in a ZIP file here (23.23 MB).

It would be wonderful if these documents (as anything else I post) indeed are used to teach new generations of artists the lessons that were learned back in the 1930s when the Disney studio invested vast sums in the schooling of their crew. personally, I would be very happy to hear from you if you find my postings useful, and I want to again point you at the labels on the right and especially the ones that say "AAC" and "Barsheets," as these are some of my own favorites. Well, actually, all of them are!

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Please remember, if you happen to have a project, and you have it financed but you are looking for a production studio - or if your film needs help and you need to outsource just a few minutes - have a look at our showreels! They are viewable through the links on the bottom right of my studio homepage!

In the past 22 years we have worked with Fox, MGM, Columbia, Warner, Bluth, Amblimation, H&B and Walt Disney Feature Animation (among others), and all have recommended us warmly! Also, we are finishing our own tenth feature film, our fifth in CG, the first Danish feature film in 3-D Stereoscopic! If you would like to see the list of ALL 42 features we have worked on, have a look here, I especially updated it for you!

If you couldn't be bothered to have a look, I ask you nicely anyway. You have, at no cost, browsed things from my collection, so at least do me that favor and have a look. Then, spread the word. Thank you!

Studio Talks - Sound Recording (IV)

This concludes the lectures in the folder Studio Talks. Tomorrow: a final word about it. In the mean time, by all means feel free to comment!

[Added: In the Q&A you will find reference to "the new plant in Burbank," which leads me to believe that the actual date of this lecture was around mid 1939...]

Studio Talks - Sound Recording (III)

This part includes a graphic from a 1938 Radio Today which maps dB to frequency - quite interesting! Also, more on the every-day recording issues at the Disney studios...

Studio Talks - Sound Recording (II)

Not too much is know to animation enthusiasts about the recording of the sound during this period, and this lecture sheds some light on the process, and the every-day problems that the sound engineers encountered. I still wonder when Sam Slyfield started at Disney, as his official credits start two years after this lecture, and he was obviously already here in 1938 an important sound engineer.