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Seq. 03.0 (Main Titles) is directed by the Special Effects department, layout by John Hench. This page also notes that there are two other sections to Seq. 3, one between Toad and Ichabod, and one at the end of Ichabod. They are the glue that pulls these two films together as one.
Seq.19.0 (Opening) Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Al Zinnen, and of special note is the fact that the secretary, "'jane" (there was a Jane Sinclair in the room next to Kinney back in 1946) acts as assistant director, as well. [See Joe's comment!]
Animation by Clair Weeks, Henry Tanous, John Sibley (one action scene) and Harvey Toombs. Not what you could call a star-studded array of animators, especially Weeks and Tanous had by this time still not too much experience animating, but it must be said that they kick off the film nicely. Obviously, this would not be the first bit animated, so they would have a supervising animator to go to. Tanous and Weeks knew each other at least from across the hall.
As usual, I begin my postings with my "standard disclaimer:"
"Animation drafts were never meant to be historical documents. They were meant as go-to documents, showing the responsible artist for a certain scene, who might be able to help in case there would be any need for this further on in the production line. Therefore we often see e.g. that animators who left have been replaced by others, often their assistants, in later versions of a draft. Also for this reason it is most often the actual animator, not the supervising animator, who is mentioned. The drafts may also be directly inaccurate - showing early assignments where the animator actually changed when the scene was finally handed out. Keeping all this in mind, though, the drafts can give us some sort of hands-on insight into the inner workings of the production of some of the most "magical" (in itself an over-used word) motion pictures of all time." This draft originated (as most of my feature drafts) in the Background Morgue, originally situated in the basement under the Ink & Paint building on the Burbank lot.
New sequence? That's my boy!!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell, let's say that the assistant animators start off the film (Weeks and Tanous) and they did a fine job, I don't think we've seen Tanous animate an entire scene alone - haven't we (all his scenes in "Sleeping Beauty" were controlled by Frank Thomas).
Jack Kinney's march of the assistant animators! A very odd combination indeed!
ReplyDeleteJudging by the date, Kinney did his work on this after finishing most of his Ichabod sequences.
If it was indeed Jane Sinclair, she was the wife of Ralph Hulett during the early 1940s until about 1946. In the early 1950s she would marry Jack Kinney. They were together until his passing in 1992. She passed away in 2005.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe!
ReplyDeleteIt's very unusual to see this animators here!
ReplyDeleteI think that MainTittles sequence was directed by John Hench. If we checked the first sequence of "Cinderella" draft, we can see that John Hench directed and laid out it.
Or...maybe it's sounds silly for you, but can it be directed by...Ub Iwerks, who was the head of speical effects department/process lab for years?
Tanous gets one or two scenes to himself at the start of 101 Dalmatians (which he wasn't given on-screen credit for).
ReplyDelete