Prod. 2266 - Lend A Paw

Though not stricktly a Christmas film, it is very much in the spirit of Christmas, and thus I thought it fitting for this day. It also caters to those of you who like the later shorts, so everybody wins.

This 1942 Oscar winner, a remake of UM10, Mickey's Pal Pluto, was directed by Gerry Geronimi, and released 10/3/1941. This draft predates that by more than eight months, 1/18/1941 - in other words, it was animated before the strike and released after it.

We find animation by George Nicholas, Ken Muse, Nick Nichols, Bill Sturm, Eric Gurney, Norm Tate, Chick Otterstrom, Morey Reden and Emory Hawkins. Layouts by Bruce Bushman.

Prod. UM8 - Mickey's Xmas Picture

...otherwise known as Mickey's Good Deed. Because Michael Sporn mentioned it favorably in his blog, I thought it was a good time to have a look at the draft. I really like these Black and White Mickeys, too - this one animated by Johnny Cannon, Ben Sharpsteen,
Les Clark, Frenchy de Trémaudan, Tom Palmer, Hardie Gramatky, Dick Lundy, Gerry Geronimi, and the last scene by Norm Ferguson.
Ben Sharpsteen is credited for an awful lot of scenes here - so I suspect he was supervising junior animators, who went uncredited.

Also directed by Burt Gillett, it was released 12/17/1932.
Music by Bert Lewis.Merry Christmas to all !!!

Prod. CM4 - The Fire Fighters

This draft is the earliest complete one I have with animator indications. (If anyone has page 1 of Touchdown Mickey...)
It was animated in the months after Ub Iwerks left the studio, one of the first films for Columbia. Ben Sharpsteen, Norm Ferguson and Dave Hand had not been with the studio for many months when they animated their scenes...

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 6/20/1930.
Available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."

Prod. CM21 - Mickey's Orphans

Directed by Burt Gillett, this draft of 12/5/1931, the release date is four days later. Animation by Dave Hand, Joe D'Igalo, Jack King, Norm Ferguson, Gerry Geronimi, Tom Palmer, Hardie Gramatky, Ben Sharpsteen, Johnny Cannon and Dick Lundy.

This film is simple, yet charming and a bit odd. Why would Mickey even give saws and hammers to the orphans?
Available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."

A thing I wondered about: in Neil Gabler's book on page 169 he writes of the first Leica Reels, and the note says: "Ben Sharpsteen, Answers to Questions submitted by Dave Smith, Sept. 1964." Is this Dave Smith the archivist, already then? I should have read it earlier, as I was sitting next to him at the Disney Legends ceremony...
[Update: it was obviously a typo: a later note says Sept. 1974]

A Moment of Reflection, Please...

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of Walt Disney, on December 15th, 1966, 9:35 am PST. Whatever has been written or said about him throughout the years, it is undeniable that he has done more for our medium animation than any other person, alive or dead...

Disney's Lost Chords

In February, a new deluxe hardcovered dust-jacketed book on the deleted songs from the Disney library will be available from the hand of artist and historian Russell Schroeder, who self-publishes it, called "Disney's Lost Chords", for a mere $75.

Printed in only 1000 numbered copies, its 312 pages will feature Vocal/Piano arrangements of 77 songs, as well as 225 illustrations from the Disney Archives and the ARL.

Russell previewed the songs and the book at the EMP Disney Records event last month, and I heard it was a big hit, so if you want to secure a copy, it might be wise to pre-order!

< Order Form

< Contents

[NOTE! The shipping turned out to be more than on the original order form. I have uploaded a revised order form.]]

[UPDATE: go to www.disneyslostchords.com instead!]

Prod. UM24 - Gulliver Mickey

Another request, this time directed by Burt Gillett of Three Little Pigs fame, just before he left for Van Beuren.

The format of these draft sheets is a bit different, but the info is the same. The 'date completed' column holds background info.
Animated by Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Cy Young, Dick Lundy, Art Babbitt, Bill Roberts, Norm Ferguson, Ham Luske, Jack Hannah and Ben Sharpsteen, here just written as B/, at times followed by the names of his trainees: Joe [Grant?] and Ugo D'Orsi. Joe Grant is credited by Alberto for Story on this film.

This final draft of 3/21/1934. Released 5/19/1934.
To be found on Treasures DVD - MM in Black and White.

Prod. 2256 - A Gentleman's Gentleman

This draft of 12/12/1940 brings back memories - from back when I was in high school in 1976. I sent a bunch of awful drawings to the Disney studios, and got a nice letter back: "keep drawing and then you may get good enough to enter Cal Arts or our training program," written by Don Duckwall. And now here he is as assistant director.
He passed away March 1986, one month shy of his 70th birthday.

We also see layouts by Bruce Bushman (4/20/1911-2/15/1972), who also did layouts on Pinocchio and the Nutcracker Suite in Fantasia, but who is better known as designer for WED Enterprises - his Dumbo ride art is on note cards on eBay even this moment. As animators, we meet Ken Muse doing all the Mickey Mouse (with dimensional ears) business, as well as Plutos by Basil Davidovich, Volus Jones, Norm Tate, Nicholas S. "Nick" DeTolly, Eric Gurney, George "Nick" Nicholas, Emory Hawkins and Charles F. "Chick" Otterstrom.

The draft also names the effects animators. Again, drafts were working documents to trace the responsible artists, in case of questions and what have you. On a film like this with many effects, the info was obviously useful to record.

Picked up by director Gerry Geronimi on 6/24/1940, released 3/28/1941...So what happened after Don Duckwall's response? Well, I never got to apply again. Even before I finished high school, I hooked up with Børge Ring (who lived 10 minutes away from me) and after working with him for four years, most notably on the short Anna & Bella,
I moved to Denmark in 1984, and co-founded A. Film in 1988...

A BIG thank you to Bill and Sue Kroyer for a wonderful, if wet, party tonight! Don't know what was better: the company or the meat balls!

Beatronome Update

Here is a little update to my metronome program (see below). What's new: I added a row of buttons with the standard beats as described by Albert Hay Malotte in his lecture notes. (Again in .zip format) PC ONLY!

[Added: It updates the program found here and the manual is here.]

Prod. UM47 - The Worm Turns (incomplete)

Sadly, not all drafts I have were copied right. Here is one that misses pages and half a page was lost in copying. Still, we can learn from this, as well. The three and a half pages that are left of this draft of 7/23/1936 show animation by Ham Luske, Chuck Couch, Bernie Wolf, Al Eugster and Woolie Reitherman.
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, released 1/2/1937.Available on WD Treasures DVD - MM in Living Color (Vol. 1)

Thanks to The Animation Guild for a great party at the Pickwick in Burbank! I was luckily in the beginning of the food line...

Prod. 2231 - Bill Posters

A quick posting on this day of the TAG Christmas Party.
Directed by Gerry Geronimy, released 5/17/1940.
This draft nr. 4 is from 10/19/1939...

Prod. UM28 - Two Gun Mickey

Another request: Ben Sharpsteen's first directorial credit is for the film called Two-Gun Mickey, released 12/15/1934. This draft, this blog's number 30 short film draft, is from 11/1/1934, and has no dash in the title. The film is a lively picture with a true hero.

Nineteen animators are credited: Leonard Sebring, Archie Robin, George "Ol' Flop-Ears" Drake, Nick [George], Jack Kinney, Woolie Reitherman, Don Towsley, Ugo D'Orsy, Louie Schmidt, Paul Allen, pioneer Earl Hurd, Cy Young, Art Babbitt, Ed Love, Ed Smith, Frank Oreb, Fred Moore, Roy Williams and Eric Larson. On IMDb we can read that Ollie Johnston assisted on this. Les Clark is there also credited for animation, but he sure ain't on the draft!

It is available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."Say, has anyone tried out the Beatronome yet?

Users Manual for Bar Sheet DIY

First - DIY is Do It Yourself - this for those who aren't used to coloquializms. The excercize is really relatively simple. Before we begin, I suggest that it may be good to re-read Albert Hay Malotte's lecture notes at this point. It also may make more sense to hardened readers of this blog than it did on May 25th when I posted it.

Ok, here we go. On your favorite DVD player in view and earshot from your PC (with should have a working, non-muted PC speaker, I haste to add again), insert the short film you'd like to analyze. This can be a Disney short, but really most of the films of the 30s and 40s seem to have been timed to a beat throughout - Looney Tunes, Harman-Ising etc.

To get the feel of things, start like this: When the film plays, use my Beatronome program to tap out the beats of the music of a certain sequence. You should tap the number of times indicated in the little box right of the tap button, plus one. The beat will then show up below the button. You'll find it will normally be 'whole' beats: 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24. Tap several times to give you an average, and type the closest whole beat in the metronome bit. This may be more accurate in the long run than just transferring the tapped beat to the metronome. Rewind the sequence on the DVD, and press Play on the metronome when you hear the rhythm. Write down which tempo this sequence was in.

It gets more tricky when there are bits without music, of course. As you see in Mickey's Elephant, the music often just continues. Try to let the metronome run - and see if the action hits the beats. See if you can spot where the tempo changes, and continue doing this over again for the next part of the film. In the end you have a listing of which sequences are in which beat (I for one would like to see this!) If you are really persistent, you can now count how many beats there are in each tempo, and you can write this out on a simple bar sheet as the one I supplied yesterday. Now - what are you waiting for?

Oh - 'why would we even try', you may ask. Well, through this excercize, you can reveal the sense of stucture and backbone that were underlying the films of the time. And as such, learn more about what made these films great entertainment. So much has been published about the drawings, but this beat thing, this is all about direction. As Norm Ferguson said: 'timing is the essence of the thing'. It need not be a forgotten art anymore...

(Note for MAC users: you CAN use an ordinary metronome, most certainly. To convert between frames per beat and beats per minute, you can use the converter here on the right, if your math fails you.)