Images back!

A complete change in hosting server infrastructure had put all my images in limbo. They're back! Now under my own control...
[But the server might be slow to reply, so if you get a time-out, please try again!]

There was a question whether I have drafts from the time of the Disney Renaissance. The answer is, I have a few sequences here and there, but no complete films. From at least Oliver and Co., the drafts were made on some kind of computer, which makes them look less attractive in my opinion. However, I would love to be able to give the newer animators their due credits.

Images fixed!

For those of you who attempted to view my blog the past 8 days and got a "Certificate invalid!" message, that is now fixed.
Yes, I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but it isn't because I don't want to, I just haven't had the time! More to come, I promise!

Børge Ring would have been 101 today...

I think often of my old mentor Børge Ring, whom we lost on December 27, 2018. It would have been his 101st birthday today.



Here is an image that shows what he looked like in July 1944:

It was part of something I had prepared for Jamie Kezlarian Bolio, who wanted so to make a documentary about Børge and had begun lining up a lot of material and interviews with several of the "players" - including me.
In 2017, I had the pleasure of showing Jamie around many of Børge's haunts in Copenhagen. Here we are in "Kastellet."

Sadly we lost Jamie on August 29th last year...



See also last year's posting.

Walt was honored for Three Little Pigs... And so were Pinto Colvig and Frank Churchill!

This article in the Hollywood Citizen News of Saturday 09/23/1933 pretty much speaks for itself:

What I was not aware of was that this party at the Writers' Club, on Tuesday 09/26/1933 was also where that very famous photo of Walt and Will Rogers was taken (by Associated Press):

Well, now we know!


Here we have the L.A. Illustrated Daily News of two days later, 09/28/1933, taken by Acme Photo, at a slightly different angle(!):


In the Los Angeles Times of Sunday 10/15/1933 we find another image of Colvig and Churchill, as well as a bunch of images from a costume party organized by Mr and Mrs. Donald Ogden Stewart around the same time. Interesting to see Sid Grauman in drag as a lady who was actually at the other party, Groucho Marx as Rex the Wonder Horse and Fred Astaire with a moustache.
It's pretty clear which photos are from which party...


A propos Frank Churchill, note the article in the Hollywood Citizen News on 09/30/1933, four days after the party:

Remembering Børge Ring on his 100th...

Today would have been my old mentor Børge Ring's 100th birthday.
I miss him often, also with relation to this blog, as he was one of the most ardent readers of it, especially the early Mickey drafts. Børge's career really took off in Denmark, after having been professional jazz musician for nearly a decade, when he co-founded the studio Ring, Frank and Rønde in 1948. In 1952 he invited the director of Disney's Snow White and Bambi, Dave Hand to come to Denmark.Here are the two at that time. Acting here for the camera as if Hand just had driven to the store to fetch two beers. Hand had come from Rank's closed Cookham studio in England and stayed for a couple of months, in which time he fired up under Børge's resolve to become the best animator he could be. They hoped to get Nordisk Film to finance the second Danish feature film "Klods Hans" (English: "Blockhead Hans") based on the H.C. Andersen story, but Nordisk got cold feet and Hand returned to the US. Not long after, Børge and his friend and collegue Bjørn Frank Jensen left Denmark for Marten Toonder Studios in Holland...
(Thank you to Bjørn's daughter for the above photo!)



I owe Børge most of what I know about animation, timing, direction and storytelling. Much of my interest in Disney history came from or at least was ignited by him during the four years I worked with him. For one thing, I saw my first Disney drafts at his house...
I last last visited him in April 2017, where this photo was taken of Børge, his wife Joanika and myself. (Thank you to Stacia Martin!)

Prod. CM23 - The Grocery Boy

Happy 92nd Birthday, Mr. Mouse! The last of your film drafts I posted was CM-17, here is the next one I have, CM-23, [The] Grocery Boy.Animated by Dave Hand, Tom Palmer, Rudy Zamora, Ben Sharpsteen, Les Clark, Jack King, Albert Hurter, Johnny Cannon, Gerry Geronimi, Dick Lundy and Gilles Armand "Frenchy" de Trémaudan, plus Harry Reeves, "Hutch" and Johnny Cannon under the supervision of Ben Sharpsteen.


On Alberto Becattini's site we find that "Hutch" was:

HUTCHINSON, Andrew Charles (“HUTCH”)

- Animator/Director/Producer/Story: LEE-BRADFORD c23-25 (Red Head Comedies 23/25)

- Animator: TED ESHBAUGH c30-31/32-43 (The Wizard of Oz 31, Goofy Goat Antics 31 [for VAN BEUREN], Cap’n Cub 45); DOUGLAS LEIGH 40s (Animated Advertising Displays)

- Assistant Animator: DISNEY 31 (Silly Symphony 31 [The Fox Hunt, The Ugly Duckling], Mickey Mouse 31-32 [The Duck Hunt 32, The Mad Dog 32])


Premiered on 2/11/1932 and can be found on the Treasures DVD Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2, disk 2, in the From the Vault section because of Al Hurter's sc. 47.


Congratulations also to Miss Minnie Mouse on her birthday!


It has been a while since I last posted anything here, even after having finally relocated myself in SoCal a year and a day ago! I have to do this more often again! I admit, since my old mentor Børge Ring passed away I lost some incentive for posting Mickey drafts. Is anyone else still interested in them?

Credit where it's due...

A reader of this blog, Gregory Smith, made me aware of animator's character listings on Wikipedia, specifically "the articles "Les Clark", "Marc Davis", "Ollie Johnston", "Milt Kahl", "Ward Kimball", "Eric Larson", "John Lounsbery", "Wolfgang Reitherman" and "Frank Thomas (animator)"," as he wrote:

"I tried to correct some of the articles for the Nine Old Men animators by adding in characters not listed in the articles that they animated (such as Lounsbery doing one scene of Brom Bones) and also correcting some of the year dates (such as on the Lounsbery article it claims that "The Three Caballeros" (1944) and "So Dear to My Heart" (1948) came out in 1945 and 1949 respectfully when those are just the U.S. release date ("The Three Caballeros") and general release date ("So Dear to My Heart"). I think people need to know what characters they animated, even ones that no one really mentions like Frank Thomas doing a few scenes of the King of Hearts (such as when the Queen uses him as a shield to protect herself from the giant Alice) and the Cheshire Cat (trial scene) in "Alice in Wonderland" (1951) and a few scenes of Mr. Smee (such as when Hook tells him to get his case of hooks) in "Peter Pan" (1953) and Ollie Johnston doing a few scenes of Captain Hook (when Smee is shaving him and later accidently hits him with his hammer) in "Peter Pan". I tried to fix some of the information on the "John Lounsbery" article, but they reverted it."

Gregory made me aware that his additions to the character lists are based on the drafts on this blog. It seems that Wikipedia corrections and additions may not be easily made. Does anyone have experience with this?

Prod. 0136 - The Fox and the Hound (XXIII) - Seq. 013 Happy Ending

Directed by Ted Berman, assisted by Terry Noss. Layout by Don Griffith and Mike Peraza.
This FINAL draft dated 5/4/1981 by secretary Charlene Rogers.

Animation by Jerry Rees, Darrell van Citters, Cliff Nordberg, John Musker, Randy Cartwright and Chris Buck.

Well, folks, this marks the end of the The Fox and the Hound draft. I hope you enjoyed it, and I will go digging for something "new..."

As always, my "Standard Disclaimer" is also in order here: animation drafts were never meant as historical documents but as a go-to list of assignments that showed the production office and follow-up functions like checking and I&P who the animator responsible for a scene is so that any questions with regards to the scene can be asked to this person. It is also kept as a means to calculate footage throughout the film so that credits may be established, though on this film we have seen that that is not always the case. Eventually only the scene folder itself will reflect who did the work.

Prod. 0136 - The Fox and the Hound (XXII) - Seq. 09.2 Bear fight, friends United (2/2)

Directed by Rick Rich, assisted by Mark Hester. Layout by Dan Hansen.
This FINAL draft dated 5/4/1981 by secretary Charlene Rogers.

Animated by Glen Keane, Mike Cedeno, Chris Buck, Phil Young, Randy Cartwright, John Musker and Hendel Butoy.

Prod. 0136 - The Fox and the Hound (XXI) - Seq. 09.2 Bear fight, friends United (1/2)

Directed by Rick Rich, assisted by Mark Hester. Layout by Dan Hansen.
This FINAL draft dated 5/4/1981 by secretary Charlene Rogers.

Animation by Ron Husband, Mike Cedeno, John Musker, Glen Keane, Chuck Harvey and Chris Buck.

This sequence is where Glen Keane truly got noticed...

Prod. 0136 - The Fox and the Hound (XX) - Seq. 09.1 Burrow and Fight

Directed by Ted Berman, assisted by Mark Hester. Layout by Glenn Vilppu.
This FINAL draft dated 5/4/1981 by secretary L. Davis.

Animation by Glen Keane, Cliff Nordberg, Chris Buck, Phil Nibbelink, Jeff Varab and Dave Block.