Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Seq.002 Introduction of Cruella

Directed by Ham Luske and laid out by Mac Stewart, Joe Hale and Al Zinnen. Animation by Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Blaine Gibson, Art Stevens and Marc Davis. Cruella's shadow by John Kennedy who seems to only have worked at Disney 57-58 (according to Alberto Becattini's page). [See comment from Floyd Norman: John Kennedy was at Disney through the 60s, as well.]

Lots of scenes seem to be removed between "Won't you have some tea, Cruella?" and "No, I've got to run, Darling." And several backgrounds were pulled for permanent exhibits (as noted by hand).

This 2nd draft of 8/1/59...
Everyone is always raving about Blaine Gibson the sculptor.
Did anyone care to interview him about his time as animator?
Anyone going to while it is still possible?

Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Seq.001 The Opening

Seq.001 is, not surprisingly, the opening. Directed by Gerry Geronimi, laid out by Don Griffith. We meet an incredible array of talent: Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis and Les Clark, but also Hal Ambro, Henry Tanous and Blaine Gibson. Note the first scenes with Anita by Marc. This is what he thought she should look like - before Milt took over...

This third draft dated 7/10/59...Note that there will be more pages per sequence, as they are spaced differently from the earlier drafts.
By the way, excuse the number 015a - I found as I uploaded the images that one page had been missing when I renumbered them. I do hope there will not be more of these surprises!

Prod. 2110 (101 Dalmatians) - Seq.000 Main Titles

The very first sequence actually goes unnumbered. I present it here by itself, as it deserves the separate attention. Directed by Ham Luske, and laid out by McLaren "Mac" Stewart, it features dogs animated by Les Clark and spots by effects animator Jack Boyd.
This "first" draft dated 7/26/60...There will be hand-written notes on the draft, most obviously in the BG column. This is because the draft originated in the BG Morgue, and in 1964 the productions were checked for backgrounds actually on site. The draft was used as check list.

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...