Prod. US34 - Three Little Wolves

I thought it nice to end the year with a bang, albeit a little one. Originally prod. S32, the number of Three Little Wolves was changed to US34 to let Broken Toys have a Christmas release. If you find S32 here, it was what was on the bar sheet and the draft.

Directed by Dave Hand, assistant director Jack Cutting, story by Bill Cottrell, Joe Grant and Bob Kuwahara (Feb. 1934-May 1935 - Outline 4/10/1934). Music by Frank Churchill. Layout by Ferdinand Huszti Horvath, backgrounds by Mique Nelson and animation by Norm Ferguson, Fred Moore, Eric Larson and Bill Roberts.
It premiered in front of Chaplin's Modern Times at the Dallas Majestic, 4/18/1936, and can now be found on Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies (2001). It was the first Disney picture held over for a second program at Radio City Music Hall. (Thank you, Russell Merrit and J B Kaufman!)

Three Little Wolves is timed in a classical "start slow, speed up, fast climax, slower ending" pacing, as you can see by this timeline:

I really hope this stuff is studied, as I feel it is just as important to know how this works now, as it was when the films were made...

Check the timing on this annotated film:


Again, for good measure, the draft, from 1/13/1936.Well, I'm 45 today. To everyone a Happy New Year, from myself, and from everyone at A. Film in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Germany!

[Addition 03/31/2015: I removed it from YouTube because they find it infringes the song "R3tric-Black Is Night", sound recording administered by: Believe Music. Go figure. YouTube should fix their automatic recognizer instead of threatening strikes.]

Prod. UM8 - Mickey's Xmas Picture

...otherwise known as Mickey's Good Deed. Because Michael Sporn mentioned it favorably in his blog, I thought it was a good time to have a look at the draft. I really like these Black and White Mickeys, too - this one animated by Johnny Cannon, Ben Sharpsteen,
Les Clark, Frenchy de Trémaudan, Tom Palmer, Hardie Gramatky, Dick Lundy, Gerry Geronimi, and the last scene by Norm Ferguson.
Ben Sharpsteen is credited for an awful lot of scenes here - so I suspect he was supervising junior animators, who went uncredited.

Also directed by Burt Gillett, it was released 12/17/1932.
Music by Bert Lewis.Merry Christmas to all !!!

Prod. UM24 - Gulliver Mickey

Another request, this time directed by Burt Gillett of Three Little Pigs fame, just before he left for Van Beuren.

The format of these draft sheets is a bit different, but the info is the same. The 'date completed' column holds background info.
Animated by Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Cy Young, Dick Lundy, Art Babbitt, Bill Roberts, Norm Ferguson, Ham Luske, Jack Hannah and Ben Sharpsteen, here just written as B/, at times followed by the names of his trainees: Joe [Grant?] and Ugo D'Orsi. Joe Grant is credited by Alberto for Story on this film.

This final draft of 3/21/1934. Released 5/19/1934.
To be found on Treasures DVD - MM in Black and White.

Prod. UM47 - The Worm Turns (incomplete)

Sadly, not all drafts I have were copied right. Here is one that misses pages and half a page was lost in copying. Still, we can learn from this, as well. The three and a half pages that are left of this draft of 7/23/1936 show animation by Ham Luske, Chuck Couch, Bernie Wolf, Al Eugster and Woolie Reitherman.
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, released 1/2/1937.Available on WD Treasures DVD - MM in Living Color (Vol. 1)

Thanks to The Animation Guild for a great party at the Pickwick in Burbank! I was luckily in the beginning of the food line...

Prod. UM28 - Two Gun Mickey

Another request: Ben Sharpsteen's first directorial credit is for the film called Two-Gun Mickey, released 12/15/1934. This draft, this blog's number 30 short film draft, is from 11/1/1934, and has no dash in the title. The film is a lively picture with a true hero.

Nineteen animators are credited: Leonard Sebring, Archie Robin, George "Ol' Flop-Ears" Drake, Nick [George], Jack Kinney, Woolie Reitherman, Don Towsley, Ugo D'Orsy, Louie Schmidt, Paul Allen, pioneer Earl Hurd, Cy Young, Art Babbitt, Ed Love, Ed Smith, Frank Oreb, Fred Moore, Roy Williams and Eric Larson. On IMDb we can read that Ollie Johnston assisted on this. Les Clark is there also credited for animation, but he sure ain't on the draft!

It is available on Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in B&W."Say, has anyone tried out the Beatronome yet?

M46 with Click Track

Here is another short with click track based on a bar sheet I have. Prod. UM46 is known as Mickey's Elephant. Released Oct. 10th, 1936, it was directed by Dave Hand, with Jack Cutting keeping the bar sheets as assistant director.
Animation mainly by Dick Huemer (Bobo and Mickey), Frank Thomas (Pluto) and Norm Ferguson (Pluto and Devil), with Johnny Cannon (Mickey), and single scenes by Leonard [Sebring] and Nick - either Charles Nichols or Nick George (anyone?).

Very interesting is the way the beat changes as the animators do. One can put a lot of effort in explaining that, but it is probably just because they were basically different sequences, and as such just cast to different animators. Click this:


The film opens on a 12 beat (2-12), then, as Bobo the elephant is playing, it is 8 beat (3-8, waltz tempo). Pluto arrives jauntily:
12 beat (2-12). Then, the bit with pluto and the devil: a slower, more thoughtful 14 beat (2-14), and here the music isn't onmi-present as in the beginning. Then 10 beat (2-10) and we end in chaos on an
8 beat (2-8). There is one place where a measure was shortened to four frames by cutting a foot in the 2-10's bit.

Obviously, the director (Hand), helped by the musician (Malotte) decided the tempo with a metronome, to be most fitting to the action and mood on screen. A beat was chosen that could be sustained for a good number of bars, but, as we also saw on The Pointer, in the end it is possible to cut a few frames out if needed, as long as the musician can incorporate that decision - or there is no music. It seems that a 12 beat was generally chosen as a 'generic' not-too-fast, not-too-slow beat. An 8 beat is readily used as a waltz-type faux-24 beat, a subdivided slower 16 beat, or a quick 2-8's as chaos unfolds.

Have a look:


Here is the draft, for good measure (pun intended):
It would be interesting to hear from other directors who tried this method of timing - and to hear from musicians what they think about it. I remember the musicians I worked with - they at first thought it strange, but they quickly embraced the way of working as very natural... By all means feel free to comment!

Prod. UM32 - Band Concert

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color (and available on the Treasures DVD MM in Living Color Vol.1), animation on this short, directed by Wilfred Jackson, was begun 9/17/1934. This draft 12/7/1934, release 2/23/1935.
Layout by Hugh Hennessy and Terrell Stapp, with music score and adaptation by Leigh Harline.
Returned from Oakland. The exhibition was interesting, with the original World's Fair Lincoln AA figure as an amazing highlight. And it was amazing to finally see Herb Ryman's original sketch for the Disneyland investors - it is HUGE! Still, it in itself wasn't worth the trip. But I am very glad I did it! And now I'm in Glendale...

Prod. UM7 - Building a Building

My all-time favorite film! The relation between Mickey and Minnie is heart-felt and sweet, especially in Dick Lundy's interchange "Box lunch - buy a box-lunch" "Haven't got any money!" "That's allright - try one!" The animators are basically the "standard group" that can be seen on the photo below. At this time, the idea of character casting was still new. It has become apparent for me that previously, scenes were dealt out based on availability of the artists, which possibly still was true in part here - my guess is Les Clark got the last scene because he was done with the first scene with the cart when the others were nearly done with all the other scenes - who knows. Ben Sharpsteen has a lot of scenes - but he may also here have had many assistants/junior animators under him...
This film was, as we have seen previously, used as an example of what was done right. Warmth, charm and humor. And it can be seen on the first Mickey Mouse in Black and White Treasures DVD...

Directed by Dave Hand, released Jan 7th, 1933 (same date as written on the draft).By all means feel free to comment! And have you seen the intro to our showreel yet?