Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Intro

It's been too long, folks! Therefor here a new treat, the complete draft to Prod. 2110, The Hundred and One Dalmatians (or, as it ended up being known as One Hundred and One Dalmatians).

It was a pleasure to be interviewed for the feature on disc 2 of the new Dalmatians DVDs. As could be expected, they only used a few small clips from the hour long interview, conducted by my good friend, the marvelous editor Les Perkins, who directed the shots but was not involved with the editing this time. I am proud to be on the disc at all, so enough said. I was a bit annoyed by there not being any credits on this disc for the people who put it together. And did they HAVE to use that awful puppy animation in the menus? Oh, and just so you know, all spots counted together make 6,469,952 spots...

The Dalmatians had their domestic premiere 1/25/61. In Denmark it premiered 12/26/61, five days before I was born. At a cost of $4mln, it was $2mln cheaper than Sleeping Beauty, and this made possible the continued existence of the animation department at the Disney Studios. And yet, according to IMDb, it was the highest grossing movie of 1961 in the USA.

This post shows the three documents inside the draft folder: two separate lists of sequences and one Cast of Characters. And then, from tomorrow, we'll see who did what for ourselves!These are pages 001 through 003. Note that the last page is #226!

By the way, IMDb lists an aspect ratio of 1:1.75, and if this is true, it is very close to 16:9 - then WHY did they issue the DVD in 4:3?
Well, on the trivia page of IMDb, I read: "This film was shot in Standard Academy (1.33:1), although it was designed to be matted to a ratio of 1.75 for widescreen-equipped theatres. When re-released in the mid-1990s, the entire 1.33 frame was matted within a 1.85 (flat) viewing area, so that the entire animated frame could be seen, since most modern theatres no long have the equipment to run films in Academy ratio."
So... if we were not SUPPOSED to see the top and bottom, should it not be matted to widescreen? This is open for debate...

PS. I'm back Stateside for a while...

A Few Dalmatian Statistics...

More drafts shortly - here first some data!
Animation on the approx. 6,500 feet of Prod. 2110, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, started with the Music Room pickup of Gerry Geronimi's Seq.001, The Opening, on 3/7/58. Animation on this 685 ft. sequence started 4/22/58, it was scheduled ready for Touch-Up 6/26/59 and ready for Xerox 8/28/59, which means that Reitherman's 345 ft. Seq.005 (Puppies Stolen) and Luske's 367 ft. Seq.004 (Puppies Watch TV) were in Xerox before it, though animation on them started 10/15/58 and 11/28/58 and were ready for Xerox 6/19/59 and 7/17/59 respectively..

Geronimi's Seq.003 (Puppies Arrive) was actually the second sequence started on, 4.5 months after Seq.001, on 7/25/58 and was ready for Xerox 9/25/59, so it took 14 months from hand-out to OK-for-Xerox. After this, the sequences ready for Xerox were - in this order - .008 Puppies Discovered (approx. 9 months in animation and touch-up), .006 Dogs Make Decision (8 months), .013 Escape From Hell Hall (7 months), .002 Introduction of Cruella (5 months) and .012 Cruella at Hell Hall (7.5).

The last scenes of the film were scheduled to be out of animation and ready for Touch-Up 3/11/60, ready for Xerox on 6/17/60, Final Daily OK 8/12/60, Negative Cut 8/26/60 and Answer Print struck 9/23/60.

Note that most of the above data was scheduled and prepared 5/22/59, and just how much "looking into the future" that encompassed - or how much was added later on to the same sheet - is not known. What we do know is that the film premiered as One Hundred and One Dalmatians 1/25/61...

Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Seq.012 Cruella at Hell Hall

Directed by Gerry Geronimi and Ham Luske (assisted by Ed Hansen, who showed my family and myself around the second floor of the animation building 8/14/1978), laid out by Don Griffith. Animation by Eric Larson, Julius Svendsen, Cliff Nordberg, John Sibley, Art Stevens, Marc Davis, Eric Cleworth, Les Clark and Hal King, with effects by Jack Boyd.

Note the mention of Live Action - these were the model shots as referred to in the Making Of on disc 2 of the new Dalmatians DVD set. We used this technique on our 1986 feature film Valhalla. Nowadays, of course, one would use a computer.
Note also that some scenes were subdivided by the person checking for BGs in 1964. Probably because this is not a final draft.

This 2nd draft of 11/27/59...

Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Seq.017 The Happy Ending

Directed by Ham Luske, laid out by MacLaren Stewart and Don Griffith.

From an animation standpoint, the draft for this last sequence is a bit of a let-down, as several scenes, mainly involving dogs, had not yet been assigned--or at least not yet noted on this draft. And yet this was the one that was used for reference, in this case in the BG Morgue (which could explain it). We find Milt Kahl for most of the assigned scenes, and Cliff Nordberg animating Nanny Cook.
If someone has a final draft of this sequence, I'd gladly post it...

This THIRD draft of 4/7/60...Thus ends the draft of One Hundred and One Dalmatians. I remember seeing it in the mid 70s in a cinema in Amsterdam where it for many, many years was the only film they ran. It may not have many "Magical Moments," but it is a very entertaining 79 minute escape, with wonderful animation, not only by Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, but by a slew of lesser-known but very accomplished artists who deserve recognition for their wonderful work.

The film, having saved animation at the Disney Studios by having been made for "only" approx. 4 million dollars, has through the years grossed 224 million worldwide, which in itself is a statement on its longevity and entertainment value. One if the reasons for its longevity, I believe is that it is in itself timeless, as it was set in the past - released in 1961, it was set in 1952. As we can read on IMDb: "When the Baduns are talking on the phone to Cruella, they are holding a newspaper. The only headline on the front page (apart from the dognapping) is CARLSEN SPEAKS, and a picture of a capsized ship. This helps us to date the story, since the Carlsen in question is Kurt Carlsen, captain of the freighter Flying Enterprise, which sank after a prolonged struggle in the Atlantic. This was the media event of the year in 1952."

Remember to check out Mark Mayerson's mosaics and John Canemaker's stats of Bill Peet's storyboard on Mike Sporn's blog!

One Hundred and Thirteen Dalmatians (Part I)

Here is the first of two postings pertaining Bill Peet's undated script for Prod. 1786 - the preproduction number for One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It follows the final film quite closely, but once in a while you might find a little surprise...As to the image quality, this copy of the script was produced on some kind of heat-sensitive paper, and throughout its lifetime it seems to have gotten too warm. Since it is all I have, I'll have to make do with it, and so will you...

Please note that the title of this posting will be made clear in the second installment!

Today, remember to check out Mark Mayerson's analysis of seq.002 and Mike Sporn's walk cycle break-down!