Please note: if an earlier link doesn't work, it may have changed following an update! Check the Category Labels in the side-bar on the right! There you can find animator drafts for sixteen complete Disney features and eighty-six shorts, as well as Action Analysis Classes and many other vintage animation documents!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 10.0 - Croquet Game (I)
Directed by one of my favorites, Wilfred Jackson assisted by Mike (Holoboff) with layouts by the prolific MacLaren Stewart. Animation by Hal Ambro, Milt Kahl (Alice), Frank Thomas, Eric Larson (Queen), Ollie Johnston (King), Marvin Woodward (Rabbit), Hal King (Hedgehog ball) and Judge Whitaker (cards). This draft of 2/15/51 starts with scene number 302...
Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 09.5 - Painting the Roses Red
This Revised Draft of 5/11/51, two and a half months before the opening, shows that a lot of editing was done after animation was finished, and it is therefor interesting to see that in the place of the assistant director we find editor Lloyd Richardson, whom we see credited on IMDb as working for Disney at least since So Dear to My Heart in 1948. He also edited Disneyland U.S.A., that wonderful documentary that is available in a gorgeous restoration on the great new (and already getting scarce) Disneyland Treasures DVD.
Directed by Ham Luske (who also directed Disneyland U.S.A.) with layout by Charlie Philippi and Ken O'Conner. Animated by Hal Ambro, Harvey Toombs, Ollie Johnston, Don Lusk (Alice), Hal King, Phil Duncan, Hugh Fraser, Judge Whitaker, George Rowley (Cards), Woolie Reitherman (Rabbit), Eric Larson and again Harvey Toombs (Queen) - and Ollie is the King, but we knew this...
If in the US, have a look at another film that premieres today, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. Because in front of that you'll find Goofy: How to Hook Up Your Home Video! Then look carefully (and very quickly) in the bottom center of the last credit page at the end...
Into the Tulgey Wood with six of the Nine Old Men... Gerry Geronimi directs, assisted by Ted Sebern, layouts by Tom Codrick and Don Griffith. Animation by Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Les Clark, Don Lusk, Milt Kahl and a bit of Hal Ambro (Alice), Hal King, John Lounsbery, Cliff Nordberg and Frank Thomas (creatures) with Lounsbery doing the Cheshire Cat. This second draft of March 1951...
Premiere Day! See below!
Thank you, Mike Barrier, for the kind words. We aim to please...
Our latest feature film, Jungo Goes Bananas (I did not name it!) has its Danish premiere on Friday, exactly 70 years after Snow White.
Of course there is no comparison, especially as our film was produced for Denmark, a country with 5 million inhabitants, about the same as the San Fernando Valley, and though I do not remember the exact amount, the budget was probably around a third of a Disney Direct-to-DVD.1 Our latest effort was made in CG since the financiers did not want to invest in a hand-drawn film, the first two Jungo films (and the TV series) being hand drawn. But I must say - the film is actually fun. Especially the scientist's song in the end as he is cracking up - cracked me up! Just imagine what we can do with a REAL budget!
Here is the trailer, in Danish...
In Danish, the title is Jungledyret Hugo: Fræk, Flabet og Fri - which means Hugo the Jungle Animal: Impudent, - well, another kind of impudent - and Free. Really, it sounds better in Danish. I hope this film gets a better treatment than the horribly Miramaxed versions of our previous films, available in the US as Go Hugo Go, with completely new soundtracks etc. The original films can be seen on YouTube, I just noticed...
(1 Danish newspapers have generally given the film a thumbs-up (Politiken, Berlingske, EkstraBladet) and quote the cost as 25 mln Danish Kroner, which is 4.8 mln US$ - less than a quarter of a Disney Direct-to-DVD, which tend to be around 20 mln US$!)
Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 08.0 - Mad Tea Party (II)
The party continues... Woolie also animates the hatter and the White Rabbit. George Rowley handles effects of wheels and springs as the Hatter prods the watch with his fork...
Three cheers for my parents, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary today! I hope that their party isn't a mad one - I very much wish I could have been there...
Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern and with layouts by Tom Codrick, the Mad Tea Party is one of the signature sequences of Alice in Wonderland. Animation by Don Lusk, Les Clark and Marc Davis (Alice), Ward Kimball (Hatter/Hare), Cliff Nordberg (ditto and Dormouse), Woolie Reitherman (Hare), John Lounsbery (Hatter) and Marvin Woodward (Teapots and Dormouse). This Final draft is dated 11/7/1950...
My postings may be erratic, but I am certainly not gone!
Alice meets the Cheschire Cat in this sequence directed by Gerry Geronimi, assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Charlie Philippi. Animation by Don Lusk and Marc Davis (Alice), John Lounsbery and Ward Kimball (Cheshire Cat).
Kimball is only credited for the last cat scene, and how much he contributed to the cat in the rest of the sequence, who knows... As supervising animator he may have ultimately been responsible for all scenes, but then again there are an awful lot of scenes attributed to Lounsbery. This reveals a basic flaw in the drafts for historic purposes: as I wrote before, they were never meant to be historic documents, just guides to the animator responsible for the drawings in the scene. The directing or supervising animator are normally not indicated...
"Bird in the tree" is the actual name for Seq. 07.1. Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick (and Marie Dasnoit is secretary again). Animation by Ollie Johnston, Don Lusk and Marc Davis (Alice) and Hal King (Bird)...
Stateside again - remember to look at our updated commercial reel!
"Who do YOU think is THE WORLD'S BEST ANIMATOR? --barring yourself, of course..."
This question was posed to a small number of animation greats from The Golden Age of Hollywood Cartoons. Each of them gave a different answer. Babbitt mentioned Bill Tytla, "He was the greatest." Ray Patterson chose Norm Ferguson and so forth, all of them had a different favourite. But there was one who answered: "I don't THINK who is the World's best animator. I KNOW who is." "How can you be so sure?" "My mother told me."
Interested in animation since 1975, worked in Holland with Danish animator Børge Ring for four years (incl. on the Oscar-winning 'Anna & Bella'), then moved to Denmark in 1984. In SoCal since 2019.
Co-founder in 1988 of A. Film, Europe's foremost animation studio, in business for over 30 years. We are the studio behind 'The Flight before Christmas', 'Help! I'm a Fish', 'Asterix and the Vikings', 'Checkered Ninja' and many more...
Director of "Miffy the Movie (2013). Currently the President and CEO of A. Film L.A., Inc. in Los Angeles, mainly editing for A. Film, Denmark.
Though we are very involved in new techniques, I share a deep passion for Great Classical Animation with everyone at the studio; Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's "Illusion of Life" is our bible.
