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Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Prod. 2006 - Dumbo (XIV)

56575859
Seq. 14 "Fireman Save My Child"
Directed by Bill Roberts and John/Jack Elliotte, assistant director Earl Bench, layout Ernie Nordli.
This 1st draft dated 2/11/41.

Dumbo by Les Clark, clowns by Grant Simmons and [Don? Ray?] Patterson. Les Clark again shows himself a versatile artist, while the others have the relatively thankless job of animating non-characters wearing rigid masks, thus having to rely solely on the very broad body language of the clowns.

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Zartok-35 says...

And Billy Bob comes onto the film! He's the last person I suspected to work THIS sequence.

I suspect John Elliotte is credited here for the same reasons Paul Satterfiled is credited with Bill on 'The Rite of Spring'.

I think it's safe to say that if Don Patterson animated here, they'd annotate his name like they did on the Casey junior scenes.

Shot 24 is just fantastic.

And lastly, Where's Mike Holoboff??

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 11:51:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous John V. says...

A few more obvservations...

As is often the case, a few changes were made after the draft. In the film, scene 19 ("throwing water in Dumbo's face") is placed between 16 and 17, with 18 and 21 cut altogether.

Also, I don't know if this is just missing information on the draft, but it's interesting how some scenes with clowns and Dumbo are credited only to Simmons or Patterson (not Clark), and scene 31, with the clown whacking Dumbo to get him out of the window, is only credited to Clark.

Oh, and John Elliotte? Never saw that one...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 3:49:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Hans Perk says...

John Wesley Elliotte (b. 6-Feb-1901 d. 20-Jun-1986) is one of the many called Jack... We've seen him on this blog on The Little Whirlwind, Symphony Hour and, of course, Pinocchio, as well as a voice in Don Graham's Action Analysis Classes in 1937.

As to information missing on the draft, I would like to comment: it is always interesting to me which number draft we are looking at. This particular posting is a first draft, and somehow these tend to be more...simplistic than later drafts. Also remember that it was the go-to document - it might have been considered enough that one animator is credited to make sure that it is possible to track back the scenes history. Who knows... Again - these documents were not meant for historical purposes or even for use past the release date.

Thanks again for your comments, guys!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 4:47:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Mark Mayerson says...

Just a note to say that I've started the Dumbo mosaic over at my blog, mayersononanimation.blogspot.com.

Hans, of course, is thanked and credited.

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:21:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Hans Perk says...

Thanks, Mark! Your hard work is much appreciated!

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:36:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous John V. says...

Hans: Yes, it is a bit more simplistic... I also noticed that there are no effects animators credited, despite the fact that there's so much fire everywhere.

Oh, and I did recognise John Elliotte's name. I was just surprised to see him as an uncredited sequence (co-)director.

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 8:38:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Steven Hartley says...

Yipee, Bill Roberts finally directs a sequence for the film, and its interetsing that animator John Elliotte (animating Jiminy in Pinocchio) is credited for directing a sequence in the film.

I knew it would have been Ray Patterson and Les Clark in this sequence, and also hearing that Grant Simmons works in this sequence as well.

Thanks, keep it up! =-)

P.S. Mark, thanks so much for starting your mosaics!

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 9:41:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Steven Hartley says...

About the sequence, well All the facts in this draft that Ray Patterson, Grant Simmons and Les Clark animated this sequences, and the effects animation isn't named, I sort of think that Dan MacManus did the fire effects because, I always recognise the fire effects usually credited to Dan MacManus, just my guess, and water effects (God only knows)

Friday, May 7, 2010 at 2:53:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Andrew Leal says...

First comment on these excellent Dumbo drafts, so a much deserved and delayed thank you to Hans (and in recent weeks I had been belatedly catching up on other drafts, from Dalmatians to the shorts; at last I know who animated certain Horace Horsecollar scenes!)

The Patterson in question is definitely Ray and not Don. Since both Pattersons receive screen credit, confusion is understandable, but an interview with Ray Patterson in "Animation Blast" clears up the issue beyond doubt (though the pairing with Simmons alone made it pretty likely).

Ray Patterson and Simmons frequently partnered, both within and beyond Disney (and of course the two went on to form a partnership, subcontracting in essence Walter Lantz shorts like "Dig That Dog!" and, in the TV era, doing various Marvel shows and others as Grantray Lawrence.) In my own feature film credits file (transcribed from the screen credits, IDs when known from assorted interviews or "art of" books or documentaries; since those are often vague and less scene/sequence specific, these drafts are naturaly a joy to delve into), I also have them down as working together on the dancing elephants in Fantasia's "Dance of the Hours" and on later non-Disney efforts like Gay Purr-ee and Hey There, It's Yogi Bear.

Monday, May 17, 2010 at 4:42:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Steven Hartley says...

I saw in a Daily Motion video:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6o7dr_dumbo-ray-patterson-scene_shortfilms

and they said that Ray Patterson did the sequence along with Les Clark animating Dumbo. They were close, and it was only that Grant Simmons shared his portion of the clowns along with Ray. (That video was posted before the draft was posted, but they were close)

Ray Patterson went on to animate the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and Grant Simmons did some other work in MGM Studios, produced by Fred Quimby, who was head of the MGM Cartoon Studio from 1937-1955.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 9:06:00 AM PDT  

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