Animation Artifacts &Richard Williams &Story & Storyboards &Tissa David 16 May 2008 08:18 am

Recap Friday: Corny, Andy & Pirates

- I have quite a bit of artwork from the film, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, the 1976 feature film by Dick Williams. Hence, it’s always an easy decision to post some of it. Unfortunately, every animation drawing is so large, it takes a lot of time to scan and put it together.

Here are two pieces that were I first posted in October 2006 with a healthy focus on one indomitable artist:


____________(Click any image to enlarge.)

I think in many ways, the unsung hero of Raggedy Ann was Corny Cole. He was there from day one working with Dick Williams and Tissa David – once the one minute pilot had secured the job for Dick. Corny was brought in as the key designer, and Gerry Potterton came on as Dick’s Associate Director.

I was hired soon thereafter, even though I had no idea what I’d be doing. For the first couple of weeks, while they were recording, I just moved furniture and read the script and whiled away the time by drawing Johnny Gruelle‘s characters.

I helped Dick and Gerry add spot coloring to the storyboard as the animatic was being shot. We spent a long Saturday coloring like mad with colored pencils. We worked on the last section of the animatic to be shot. I’d say 90% of the board was done by Corny. Dick and Gerry added spot drawings as needed, while we built the animatic.

Corny then did lots and lots and lots of drawings to give to animators.
Some of those drawings are posted herein for a scene at the beginning of the “taffy pit” sequence. These drawings were also used in the animatic.

After Corny finished feeding the animators, he started animating, himself. He took on a sequence that filled the screen with a pirate ship full of dolls floating around some rough waters. The large sheets of paper were filled with Corny’s black bic pen lines. Doug Compton eventually worked with Corny to finish this overworked sequence.

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- John Celestri sent me a clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer re the kidnapping of Ann & Andy. Hence, I am prompted to post the following layouts and storyboard drawings by Corny Cole.

This first Layout marks the introduction of Raggedy Andy. He’s under the box. This drawing gives you a good idea of the detail Corny put into every drawing.

The following images come from the first shots of the Pirate Captain. He espys the new doll, Babette, and falls madly in love.

The first four stills are 8.5×14 copies of the storyboard; the remainder come from the director’s workbook. They’re all sequential.


I think the parrot, which was added in pencil, is the work of Asst. Director, Cosmo Anzilotti. The bird just shows up later, so Cosmo probably tried to give him some business.

It’s here that the Pirate goes into his song (everybody sings in this film) and concocts his plot to kidnap the French doll.

4 Responses to “Recap Friday: Corny, Andy & Pirates”

  1. on 16 May 2008 at 11:18 am 1.S. Scott said …

    I did not know a one minute pilot was made to get this job. Was it fully animated in color? Did it survive over the years?

  2. on 16 May 2008 at 12:11 pm 2.Michael said …

    The one minute pilot was a pencil test that was shot in 16mm. Bobbs-Merrill, who owned Raggedy Ann books, produced the film. Broadway producers, Lester Osterman and Richard Horner were producing their first film for them.
    Tissa David developed a piece for Dick Williams and animated it. The piece was part of a competition they did against Shamus Culhane directing a piece for Joe Oriolo. Needless, to say Dick won the day with his pitch and Tissa’s animation.
    Somewhere in my studio I have that original 16mm pilot.

  3. on 16 May 2008 at 5:32 pm 3.Mark Mayerson said …

    Have you ever seen the Culhane version? Does anybody have a copy of that?

  4. on 17 May 2008 at 3:22 am 4.Marc Deckter said …

    Thanks a million for posting this beautiful Corny Cole artwork, Michael!

    What a treat it must have been working on this film. It would be awesome if you could post that 16mm pilot one day.

    I’ve been a regular at Corny’s sunday drawing workshops at CalArts, and in my most recent post of my drawings I also included a couple YouTube clips & screengrabs of title sequences & cartoons Corny told me worked on:

    MR.TERRIFIC, WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL, and THE ANT AND THE AARDVARK

    -Marc

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