Wartime Short Films

Many of you know that the Disney Studios produced a number of propaganda animated shorts during WWII.

In "The Winged Scourge" the Seven Dwarfs demonstrate how to fight the spread of mosquito born malaria.

The sketches above by Milt Kahl show a rough layout for Dopey and Happy. 

The kid on the same sheet is from "Education For Death", him and his classmates are being brainwashed in Nazi philosophy.

Years ago Charles Solomon and myself conducted a few interviews with some of Walt's animators, and Frank Thomas recalled this episode in regards to this short film:

"The worst one of all was "Education For Death"…oh, lordy! 

Now Kimball got the good part of that, he got the Goerring and Hitler and Brunhilde, he had the fun stuff to work on, while Milt and I got these awful scenes of real kids, and drew them like real kids and make them look convincing. And they're talking German, and on our readings it had all German. Try to animate it, embarrassing.

Milt and I were going upstairs for some reason, and we were standing at the elevator. Milt said "We ought to kick Walt right in the ass for doing this type of thing", and all of a sudden the doors opened, and there was Walt. So I couldn't resist, so I said, "Here he is, go ahead!" 

Here are a few rough Milt Kahl drawings for another wartime short called "Reason and Emotion". It is an extremely clever and effective film that sends a warning of when emotional and reasonable impulses go unbalanced.

Dalmatian Art

The more I think about it, the stronger I feel that "101 Dalmatians" is the most modern of all Disney animated features.  Artistically this is the peak, right here. A film which embraces modernism and a gutsy graphic style never attempted before or since. 

It is almost surreal to remember that this movie is over 50 years old! So why hasn't Disney Animation advanced even further in the decades following Dalmatians? I think part of the reason is the fact that Walt Disney himself did not care for this "artsy" look. He probably thought the film looked rough and too unpolished.

To me the beauty of it is that it makes a statement which challenges the audience:

Look, this is a sketch, but it is alive and real at the same time.

And of course audiences completely bought into this concept and embraced the movie.

Come to think of it, Disney experienced another breakthrough not so long ago:

Mike Gabriel's short film "Lorenzo", which took pencil animation to the next level.

More on that in an upcoming post.

Above and below, concept art by Ken Anderson, inspired by Ronald Searle.

The anatomically correct Pongo caught me by surprise.

Story sketches by the one and only Bill Peet.

Avant-garde Vis Dev by the one and only Walt Peregoy.

Final frames from the film reveal the sheer joy of experimentation for an animated film.

Archery Tournament Characters

These wonderful character studies for the movie Robin Hood were drawn by Milt Kahl.

Ken Anderson again provided rough sketches first, and Milt refined the designs.

To me these are among the best looking characters for any Disney film from the Xerox era.

The draughtsmanship and charm in these knock me out.

Every one of these personalities has star qualities, something I call magnetism. You can't take your eyes off them. And the way Milt is able to draw wings, pigs' feet or dogs' paws functioning as human hands is astonishing. 

In the words of Ken Anderson: 

"Every one of Milt's drawings is a triumph of brain power".

Jungle Book Pencil Animation

The clip starts right when Baloo sees Mowgli for the first time. He notices the kid sitting on the ground and reacts to something he's never seen before in the Jungle.

This animation assignment represents a strong creative comeback for animator Ollie Johnston, who recovered from an illness in the early 1960ies. There is no doubt whatsoever who this bear is, after only a few scenes Ollie nails the character.  Spectacular body language and brilliantly timed acting.

Frank Thomas takes over when Mowgli turns away from Baloo: "Leave me alone!"

This encourages the bear even more to cheer up the kid and to make him feel better. 

It's time he learned to fight like a bear and roar like a bear. The beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Frank's Baloo feels a little heavier than Ollie's, but the difference is only slight, and audiences would never notice. The acting is so consistently great from one animator to the other that it feels like one mind is behind this sequence.

Milt Kahl gave Frank and Ollie a hand with a few refined drawings that added appeal and helped to solidify the design of both characters.

Long live hand drawn character animation, an art form led by American artists for 100 years. We'll see where this medium will go from here and where it will be cherished and renewed. 

Louie Schmitt

When Cartoon Brew featured an article last year on "The Cute Greeting Cards Of Louie Schmitt And Stan Spohn" I had no idea that Amid Amidi was talking about THE Louie Schmitt. The one who drew this model sheet of the field mouse for the film Bambi.

Here is the link to Cartoon Brew's article:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/the-cute-greeting-card-artwork-of-louie-schmitt-and-stan-spohn-64338.html

These drawings just kill me. Schmitt is not following any early cartoon formulas, this stuff is based on real life by a super sensitive artist. Each and every pose is interesting and crazy appealing.

Best mouse studies I've ever seen.

And look at the these beautiful Mole sketches.

I believe this opossum is his work as well, but I am not 100% sure.

According to Frank and Ollie's book on Bambi this is Louie Schmitt in the front.
(Behind him are Ollie Johnston and Milt Kahl.)

Now I need to find out what scenes he actually animated in Bambi. After leaving Disney Schmitt ended up working for Tex Avery on some classic shorts, including the hilarious Bad Luck Blackie from 1949.

The Dodo

This character from "Alice in Wonderland" is beautifully designed, sometimes gorgeously animated, but with a completely underdeveloped personality.

There is way too little screen footage of him to get any real sense of who he is and why he would be important to the story.

The Dodo is a very handsome design though, and it's fun to trace back his visual development. 

This rough model sheet, probably drawn by Joe Rinaldi, is somewhat based on John Tenniel's  illustrations for the original book by Lewis Carroll.

Milt Kahl left the wonderfully contrasting design intact, as you can see in this clean up model sheet.

It is made up of tied down animation keys from a couple of his scenes.

Two of Milt's rough animation drawings of the Dodo. It's the character's unique proportions that make him stand out. A huge lower body with a relatively small chest. 

The Dodo advises the White Rabbit what to do with the oversized Alice, who is filling up a whole house: "Pull it out of the chimney!"

White Rabbit: "Yes, yes…go on, go on!"

Dodo: "Who me? Don't be ridiculous! What we need is a …."

Here are a few key drawings from that scene.

Beautifully drawn and acted, the character shows believable weight in the animation. The strong squash and stretch adds a sense of flamboyancy.

It is interesting to compare the way Milt is treating the hands compared to later bird characters.

These are very human like, while Allan-a-Dale and Lady Kluck from "Robin Hood" maintain wings, capable of articulating human gestures.