Icons of Animation Auction (III)

More fun stuff from Saturday's auction!

Number 529 is a very special item.
529. WALT DISNEY SCRIPT AND THREE PAUL BUNYAN DRAWINGS. (Walt Disney Studios, 1958) Very unusual collection of three concept drawings for Paul Bunyan along with the transcript of the story meeting with Walt Disney at which these were drawn. Walt would call together his key story men when working out a production, and during this meeting they would discuss the story and work out some design. The extremely rare transcript gives us a look into the great deal of influence and input that Walt Disney had in his productions.
A unique collection. $2,000 – $3,000 [Did not sell.]

I have the good fortune to have been allowed to present a few pages to you, so here are the first five (of eleven) of the transcript of 11/5/46 (and not 1958):It is always wonderful to read story notes: you get a good sense of how the films were put together, and especially how HUGE a driving force Walt Disney himself was at these meetings. He pushes for personality and pathos, but also for getting the story structure right, while the others in the meeting are just trying to keep up! A fun fact about this item: I happen to know this set just ends with "'j" and WE, blog readers, know who that is! Secretary Jane (presumably) Sinclair.

There are, as stated above, also three sheets of drawings included. Here is a close-up of part of one of them.Not quite what he ended up looking like, huh?
This early version was obviously to be directed by Jack Kinney, probably using the same crew as Mr. Toad. But it ended up, twelve years later, directed by Les Clark and designed by Tom Oreb and Eyvind Earle, with story by Lance Nolley (we met him before as layout arist) and Ted Berman, very much a different film.