Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Retta Scott has been fascinating to me from the earliest days in my interest in animation. I believe it was on a “Disneyland” when I first heard her name. Back then the research readily available to me was not great. Bob Thomas’ book The Art of Animation listed her as an animator on Bambi. It doesn’t even give her credit for Fantasia, despite her principal work on the Pastoral sequence. Nor does it mention her work on Dumbo, The Wind In the Willows or The Ruluctant Dragon.

She was layed off at Disney’s when they hit a slump in 1941 but came back to do a number of Little Golden Books for Disney. The most famous of her books was her version of Cinderella, one which was so successful that it remains in print today as a Little Golden Book. She was an animator on Plague Dogs.

When asked why females weren’t animators at the studio, the Nine Old Men who traveled the circuit, back in the 1970′s, often mentioned her. They usually also said that she was one of the most forceful artists at the studio, but her timing always needed some help (meaning from a man.)

Ms. Scott was known predominantly for her animation in Bambi. Specifically, she’s credited with the sequence where the hunter’s dogs chase Faline to the cliff wall and Bambi is forced to fight them off. The scene is beautifully staged and, indeed, is forceful in its violent, yet smooth, movement.

Ms. Scott died in 1990.

Continuing with prior posts featuring some of the sketch work from this film, I feature some of the original work from this sequence. Many of these drawings are storyboard pieces and are not actually the work of Ms. Scott. However, they certainly inspired what she would animate.

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_________These, above, are two frame grabs from the sequence.

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The dogs corner and chase Faline up a rock wall where she tries to stave off the violence of the attacking dogs. She remains there until Bambi comes to save her, fighting off the dogs.

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_____Though most of the drawings above aren’t the work of Retta Scott, this one is.

- Dumbo is certainly one of my favorite Disney features if not THE favorite. Naturally, the “Baby Mine” sequence is a highlight. The sequence is so tender and fine-tuned to appear straightforward and simple. This, of course, is the heart of excellence. It seems simple and doesn’t call attention to itself.

This is a storyboard composed of LO drawings from the opening of that sequence. They appear to be BG layouts with drawings of the characters cut out and pasted in place.

It’s not really a storyboard, and I’ve always wondered what purpose such boards served to the Disney machine back in the Golden Age.

Below is the board as it stands in the photograph.

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Here is the same photographed board, split up so that I can post it in larger size. I’ve also interspersed frame grabs from the actual sequence for comparison.

Robert Cowan, a major collector of animation art and materials, has sent some images from Bambi, which come from his collection, to add to the theme of the art I’ve been posting.

The first is a cel setup from the “twitterpated” sequence. It’s a beauty of Thumper after he first finds love. Take a look at that stunning background, the beautiful, multicolored crowquill inking around the characters, and the refined airbrushing of the artwork. It’s a stunning cel. To think there were thousands just like it. There’s nothing comparable today.

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The following storyboard drawing shows Bambi when he first sees Faline’s reflection in the water. “Twitterpated!”

This storyboard drawing shows Bambi, the young doe, being led to the meadow, for the first time, by his mother. A great drawing.

Here’s another beautiful concept painting from Bambi.

To be honest, I think these images are better than some that are printed in the Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston book, Bambi: The Story and the Film. It’s obviously an enormous and important collection Mr. Cowan has gathered, and I thank him for sharing these images.

Mr. Cowan has recently released the book, Working for Disney: 1936-1937 – The Ingeborg Willy Scrapbook, which looks interesting in itself.

- As I stated recently, we’re currently preparing for the release of four more of our films on DVD this coming June. Each of two disks will hold two films. Included among the extras will be lots of stills including sequences worth of the storyboards.

For The Marzipan Pig we’ve including a copy of a section of the animatic. This we’ll offer with the actual film superimposed over the stills so you can make a comparison as the film runs. I like this format; you can really take in the animation and layout of the piece when both are on the split screen.

I thought I’d post here some of the storyboards and the animatic for that section. Of course, this is in a low res version; more can be discovered in the dvd version.

Tissa David did the storyboard and animated the entire film by herself. This film is a beauty, if I do say so myself. It’s a truly adult film, though it was sold as a family film. It deals with love in all its forms, albeit, obviously, through metaphor. It was adapted from a brilliant children’s book by Russell Hoban, one of my favorite authors.

Quentin Blake illustrated the original book, and we didn’t purchase the illustrations. Hoban told us that it wasn’t how he’d imagined the pig to look, so he drew it for us. He was once an art director in an ad agency, so he can draw. This is the pig we used.

Hoban had hated what was done with his book, The Mouse and His Child, so demanded that all the spoken dialogue in the film be found among his words. We wrote a script; Maxine Fisher went to London to work with him in revising it. Finally, when it came to recording Tim Curry, I threw out the script and had him read the book. It was a good decision, and it made for a great performance from a great actor.

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- Given the article that appeared in yesterday’s NYTimes re Disney’s nature films, including and highlighting Bambi, I have to say that it’s the naturalistic sections of that film that I most love. Of course, it’s not because of the “nature” part but because of the poetic approach that was designed and overseen by Tyrus Wong.

- On Monday, I posted some color sketches from Disney’s Bambi by Ty Wong, and I’d like to continue with some attractive sketches that appear in the Bambi Sketchbook and/or Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston’s Bambi: The Story and the Film.

These sketches are very informative. How wide the gulf between storyboard and animator. I find Bambi a somewhat schizophric film. It has the absolute finest Disney has to offer, and it also has some of the most obvious and cloying work. I find most of the owl sequences fall into the latter category.

The owl is quite nice at the film’s start, but once we get to the “twitterpatin’” sequence things turn dreadfully cute and, for me, it’s a real let down. Preston Blair’s animation is good of a sort, but I think it belongs in another film. I can’t say I’ve ever spoken about this, so I don’t know if anyone else feels the same or is now convinced that I’m an idiot.

Here are some owl design sketches; they are beautiful. It’s a shame the underlying beauty of these drawings didn’t make it to the screen, just the surfaces.

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And here’s the board for the owl’s “twitterpatin’” sequence. It leads out of and into two of the great sequences of this film – the death of Bambi’s mother, and the battle of the stags.

- With this post, I’m completing the remainder of the storyboard material loaned to me by John Canemaker. This takes us through the birth of the puppies and the reemergence of Cruella De Ville in her attempt to buy them. The introductions are done, and the story is about to turn to action.

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Here’s a breakdown of the board, posted slightly larger and mor legible. This final board also featured (albeit in B&W) some cel setups from the film. They’re posted larger, as well.

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I’ve broken it down by line of drawings and split that into two.

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______________________________________To continue with the next board tomorrow.

- Continuing with the yesterday’s post of the storyboard from 101 Dalmatians, we pick up with Cruella de Ville meeting Pongo in the film’s opening.

The storyboard sections were loaned to me by John Canemaker. Like past boards, they’re quite long, oversized photographs which would enlarge too small and illegible even if I worked at the max size. However, by my splitting each row in half, I can post them to be large enough for reading. This means I have to deconstruct the boards and put them together again. Below is the board for this sequence, and you can get an idea of its size.

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Here is the sequence reconstructed. It’s one of my favorites in this film, and I very much like the entire film. I do like seeing the song in storyboard form.

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The real companions to this board are on two other sites:
___Hans Perk is posting the studio Drafts for this film on his site, and
___Mark Mayerson is posting Mosaics and comments on his site.

- The four artists pictured above were shot during a boisterous story meeting. Or more probably it’s a posed photo. It’s interesting that they pose a picture where the irrascible Bill Peet seems to be taking on the designer and directors of the film.

Left to right, that’s Woolie Reitherman, Bill Peet, Ken Andersen and Ham Luske.

This is the first of the storyboards loaned to me by John Canemaker. It’s the second sequence in 101 Dalmatians. The sequence starts with the wedding of Roger and Anita, Pongo and Perdita and takes us through the introduction of Cruella de Ville to pregnant Perdita worrying about the fate of her pups in the kitchen.

This board takes us more than half way through the sequence. The second board, which I’ll post tomorrow or Wednesday (it takes a while to scan and post these), takes us through the end of the sequence.

Hans Perk is posting the complete production drafts of this film, and Mark Mayerson has started creating a mosaic from the drafts Hans is posting. The information they’re both offering is invaluable.

As with past boards, I’ve split them up so that I can post the largest possible image. Otherwise they’d be the size of the full board, above.
Here we go:

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to be continued.

I’m currently preparing two dvd’s for release this coming June. They’re some of my favorite titles. One will feature The Marzipan Pig and Jazztime Tale. The second will feature Abel’s Island and The Story of the Dancing Frog.

Among these extras will be animatics for both dvds as well as storyboards to view. I’m currently working on Abel’s Island, and since I’ve been scanning that storyboard, I thought it worthwhile to post a bit of it.

The story:
Abel, a mouse, has just been washed onto an island far from his new wife. A gentleman, he doesn’t know how to survive, and he just wants to escape across the river to get home. This is where we pick him up as he slowly, very slowly learns to come to grips with living alone on an island.

The board was done by Bridget Thorne and me. We seem to have done about every other drawing together. I don’t remember working on it at all. It was done in 1987.

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