Disney Owls

There have been so many owls over the years in Disney animation that I can't list them all in this post. Their personalities range from warm paternal to comedic types. Some of them took on the role of a teacher, educating other characters or the audience on a certain subject matter.

A lot of photographic research went into Bambi, to inspire styles for the environments but also the characters. The picture above is part of that research. Walt sent a couple of cameramen on a seven-month trip through the Katahdin county of Maine state, with instructions to photograph and film as many sceneries and animals as possible.

Beautiful realistic studies were made based on that material, and Joe Grant's department produced  wonderful preliminary model sheets. 

It looks like Friend Owl used to be a mom.

Great owl studies that are starting to show personality. The second sheet is a Marc Davis  story sketch. The animation of Friend Owl was done by Eric Larson and Preston Blair.

Wise Old Owl appeared in the 1949 animation/live action film So Dear to My Heart. 

The storyline might be a bit too corny for some of you, but let me tell you, the animated sequences are worth the purchase of the DVD (which is a beautiful transfer of the film).

Milt Kahl did some outstanding scenes with the owl character lecturing Danny, the black lamb.

Worth studying frame by frame!!

The "Accordion Owl" from Alice in Wonderland.

This is Professor Owl from Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, 1953. Milt Kahl didn't animate on the short, but he drew these design poses of the character. 

(Previously posted on 365 Days of Ward Kimball)  I actually prefer these proportions over the final version.

The owl in Sleeping Beauty was designed by Kahl based on rough sketches by Tom Oreb.

By now the owl's appearance is a variation of an older theme. Fantastic stylization though.

Archimedes was mostly animated by Ollie Johnston, Milt did a few scenes with a more graphic approach, as you can see in his model sheet.

John Lounsbery supervised the animation of Owl for the three Winnie the Pooh featurettes.

By now a very familiar design formula, but Lounsbery brought the character to life with unique character animation as the pseudo-intellectual type.

A model sheet by Dale Baer, who animated Owl for Winnie the Pooh's most recent feature. Dale trained under John Lounsbery in the 1970s, so he was perfectly cast on this character. Beautiful job, Dale!

Guess what! I animated one scene with Owl interacting with Tigger in the film. It was so much fun to do, but articulating wings as hands is not as easy as it might seem.

Don Towsley is Amazing!

He really is!!

Towsley was mostly a Donald Duck animator, but he also worked on some of the early Disney features such as Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo.

He created the most dynamic model sheets like the one above for Disney stars like Donald, Mickey and Goofy. His short film credits start with the 1934 Two-Gun Mickey and end with 1948 Drip Dippy Donald. Towsley went on to work for other studios in Hollywood as an animator and director.

The animation drawings I am showing here are from Donald's Cousin Gus. As I mentioned before in a previous post, Gus was brilliantly animated by Woolie Reitherman. Towsley's Donald is equally fantastic. To me these drawings show the real Donald at his peak as an animated character.

The poses are alive, they are drawn with an inventive touch, and no angle seems impossible.

As a matter of fact, those unusual perspectives add greatly to the characters range in terms of motion and acting. And that's why Donald looks so believable here. No formulas, no limitations, only  energetic, inspired personality animation.

Because of the fact that these drawings don't show any numbers makes me think that they could be tracings off Towsley's roughs by an assistant. This was not uncommon practice, tracing the animators' keys allowed the follow up artists to get to know a particular animation and drawing style.

Then again, I could be wrong and these really are Towsley's original roughs.

In any case I am totally in love with this type of approach to animation. What a freeing feeling for the animator to know that he could infuse his character with such spirited, dynamic life.

These last few drawings are from a different short.

Classic Squash & Stretch

Wether applied forcefully or subtly, I don't think anything comes alive without it.

Hollywood animation from the 1930s to the late 1940s normally shows a broad use of squash and stretch. As the years went on and animation styles, especially at Disney, integrated more realism, distortions of a character's head or body were handled more subtly and carefully. 

I don't know from what short film this elephant originates from, but this bold shape change works magnificently. Note that the bulk of the body moves forward, but the rear moves backward for counter balance.

The goal keeper from Bedknobs and Broomsticks inhales, with his trunk all squashed in, holding the soccer ball. The forward stretch position is either from another scene or it preceded the squash drawing.

Milt Kahl had something to do with these two sketches. Looks like he made corrections on someone's scene.

Bill Tytla was a master of distorting the forms of his powerful characters, like Stromboli.

When he animated the devil on Bald Mountain shortly afterwards, he did not go nearly as far though.

Because of the degree of realism in the devil's design he knew that in order to be convincing, squash and stretch needed to be incorporated much more subtly.

Fred Moore animated Lampwick as a donkey. In his horrified state he anticipates, then stretches forward in a loud call for help. Beautiful counter action on the arms and ears.

Very gutsy change of shape as Archimedes hops forward. The animation is on one's and very fluid. What you see is smooth motion, the drastic change is only felt. That's a Kahl scene of course.

Baloo moves around his sparring partner Mowgli in a series of hops. The graphic change is more subdued here and not by the book, but then again Frank Thomas always had his own unique way of using animation principles.

Medusa Thummbnail Sketches

Milt Kahl used a thin felt pen for his exploratory sketches during production of The Rescuers.

He produced a ton of these sheets searching for the most inventive poses, expressions and acting patterns. Even if the scene is only 16 frames long, like the one shown here, Milt tried several variations on the main idea of Medusa freaking out at the sight of two mice.

I love the energy in these drawings, and the lines of that felt pen seem to be dancing on the paper.

It's interesting to see that he used a through away rough animation sheet, probably because it was the closest within reach.

There is so much unconventional stuff going on with Medusa's design, including the way her very round shoulders contrast her straight lower arms.

These are the key drawings for this short scene.

More thumbnails that show Medusa's panic. She grabs the lower end of her dress…because she needs something to hang on to.

Snoops is having an uncomfortable encounter with the alligators.

There will be a post with more Snoops material coming soon. He is a terrific character.

More Wire Sculptures

I sold these three pieces at a charity auction last year. They actually date back quite a few years, the cow was the second piece I ever made.

The lion was a weekend project during the lion king production days, but he has nothing to do with Scar. 

I made the circus elephant a few years after that. Hopefully sometime in the future I'll find the time to bend some wire again and experiment a little.

For now it's all about making a little animated movie.