Goons

Sleeping Beauty’s Goons have their roots in paintings by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). When I was a kid there was nothing scarier than to look at his pictures depicting visions of hell. Bosch filled his canvas with evil creatures whose anatomy was comprised of various animal and human parts.

Bill Peet and several other Disney artists studied these gruesome figures and used some visual elements in designing Maleficent’s scary, but not so smart henchmen, the Goons.

Peet had a great time researching and boarding sequences that included the Goons. Eventually these Disney versions of Bosch’s monsters were given a comical treatment. They are still repulsive, but not scary enough to give children nightmares.

John Lounsbery animated most of the important scenes involving the Goons, including their pig like leader.

Milt Kahl did this one drawing for John’s scene above, as he tries to strengthen expression and design.

A couple of story sketches for sequence 7.1, scene 14.

The Goon leader reacts to being put on the spot by Maleficent, who wants to know if the gang has looked for Aurora in the town, the forests and the mountains.

Milt Kahl animated this terrific scene as the Goon boss fumbles for an answer:

“Yeah, we searched mountains…and…uh, uh, uh, uh,…forests…and…uh, uh, uh, and houses…du…lemme see…uh, uh…and all the cradles.” 

Beautifully stylized, geometric shapes.

Milt Kahl's Great Granddaughter has Talent

Her name is Zoe, and it sure looks like she inherited some of her great grandfather’s artistic ability.

I met Zoe in April of 2009 when she and her family visited Disney Animation (a day before the Milt Kahl Academy event). At the end of the tour I gave her an oversized stuffed toy of Disney’s Bolt. She loved it.

Later I received a thank you note and this lovely drawing, Zoe was 4 1/2 at the time. 

For a little while we exchanged drawings through the mail, and when I sent her a copy of my animal sketchbook, Zoe created her own and mailed it to me.

What charming drawings, I love the way she paired animals on one page. Beautiful colors, too.

About a week ago Zoe emailed me these more recent drawings, that clearly show her artistic progress at 9 1/2 years old. Her love for animals comes through in these well observed sketches. 

It’s interesting that Zoe also chose a Diet Coke can as a drawing object. It reminds me of art school assignments. Beautifully done. 

I think we can all agree that Zoe has a big future as an artist!

And I know that her Great Grandpa would be very proud.

Young Kimball

Here is Ward, practically as a kid at about twenty-five, animating rich acting scenes with one of his iconic characters Jiminy Cricket. It is astonishing to realize just how young the Disney crew was when the studio produced its early classic films. 

Just look at one of his rough animation drawings. It's solid, full of life, has a ton of flair and that Disney charm. According to Kimball and the other animators it was Walt Disney, who was able to get his artists to this unimaginable level of excellence, and had them do things they didn't know they were capable of doing. Walt's exuberant passion for the animated medium rubbed off on everybody.

Terrific story sketches like this one served as a springboard for great character animation.

Ferdinand

Disney’s short film Ferdinand The Bull from 1938 is one of of a few gems produced at the studio at the hight of its golden age of animation. It is based on the book by Munro Leaf which was published just a couple of years prior to the film’s release. 

A few interesting facts about the production:

Milt Kahl voiced one line of young Ferdinand, when he was a little bull talking to his mother, who was voiced by Walt Disney. Milt animated both characters.

Walt recognized himself being caricatured as the film’e matador, but animator Ward Kimball denied this. 

Ken Anderson used vibrant colors for the film’s backgrounds in an attempt to interpret Spain’s strong sun light with reflecting light bouncing back on to the landscape. Walt was out of town, he had not seen or approved this new colorful art direction. Ken was warned by staffers that Walt would not like these backgrounds at all, since he usually just asked for pale washes behind his film’s characters.

It turns out Walt was  very enthusiastic about Ken’s visuals, silencing critics instantly.

The photo above shows a beautiful maquette from Joe Grant’s model department.

A couple of cels that were recently offered at http://auction.howardlowery.com/Home.taf

What stunning colors.

These model sheets demonstrate how artists tried to gain control over the bull’s anatomy.

An article from Look Magazine tells the film’s story.