Disney &Frame Grabs 08 Aug 2008 07:56 am
More of The Robber Kitten
- Having posted, yesterday, John Canemaker‘s copy of the book version of The Robber Kitten, a 1935 Disney Silly Symphony, I thought it’d be entertaining to go back to the film to take a look. Here are frame grabs from the film. It’s not the greatest of the Silly Symphonies, but it certainly came at the height of that series and is filled with enormous charm, technique and excellent animation. The staff was doing films like this better than ever before. It’s a solid little movie. (Too bad the copy on dvd is made from a print with a yellow haze running down the right side of the print.)
You can see this film on line here.
The book Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies by Russell Merritt and J.B.Kaufman givews the credits:
Directed by David Hand
Script by Bill Cottrell
Music by Frank Churchill
Voices: Billy Bletcher (Dirty Bill) & Clarence Nash (horse whinny, Tarzan yell)
Animation:
Bob Wickersham (Ambrose, from opening through sneaking downstairs)
Marvin Woodward (Ambrose’s mother; Ambrose running back home)
Hardie Gramatky (Ambrose steals cookies and runs away from home; Ambrose flees from Dirty Bill)
Ham Luske (Ambrose and Dirty Bill before flashback)
Bill Roberts (Ambrose’s story: Ambrose, stagecoach, horses; Ambrose and Dirty Bill after flashback)
(Click any image to enlarge.)
This sequence seems, to me, to be quite ground breaking.
Two characters have an extended conversation without interruption –
up to the point where Ambrose tells his fabricated story.
There’s plenty of business for the two of them, and their characters
are well defined through their dialogue, as well as the performances.
I suspect that Bill Cottrell had a lot to do with it.
He was more an writer than an artist, and his script was probably just that -
a script.
I have to presume he wrote this conversation between brigand and boy (kitten).
Here are a couple of production drawings I found for sale on line:
on 08 Aug 2008 at 12:12 pm 1.Larry Levine said …
I prefer the illustrations over the actual film grabs, they are much more alive & expressive–though the animation drawings are a lot of fun.
on 08 Aug 2008 at 1:04 pm 2.pspector said …
Total eye candy. The blue of the feather in his hat, and elsewhere, also seems to just set-off everything. Thanks for posting it.
on 03 Nov 2012 at 6:22 pm 3.alanmuller said …
Say Michael, I have to tell you what I’ve fell in love with a drawing of the character of Ambrose he’s a cute little splendid kitten who dressed like one of the three muskateers – any chance scanning a rare 1935 comic book version of the Robber Kitten story it was considered by fans much better than the actual cartoon, the animation drawing model sheets and of course Dell Comics’ second issue of Walt Disney’s Christmas Parade from 1951, your animation blog is excellent, thank you!
on 12 Mar 2013 at 2:50 pm 4.Alan Muller said …
Dear Michael, If you haven’t read both the 1935 and 1950 comic book versions of Ambrose the Robber Kitten by any chance, scan them both right away if you’re reading this and good luck, I’m counting on you.
on 13 Mar 2013 at 12:21 am 5.Michael said …
Alan (not John),
Check out this blog post of the past. It wasn’t a comic book that was illustrated in 1935 but a children’s book from the series that Whitman published. But perhaps you already knew that.
Michael
on 23 Mar 2013 at 8:01 pm 6.Alan Muller said …
Yes Michael,
I had already knew that what you were saying – but what I meaning to tell you there is a rare comic book remake of the Ambrose the Robber Kitten story taken from Walt Disney’S Christmas Parade #2 (Dell Giant, 1950) it’s so different from the 1935 Whitman illustrated children’s book, in case you want to check it out on the internet, that’s all.
Alan.
on 24 Mar 2013 at 3:37 am 7.Michael said …
I’ll see if I can find out anything. Thanks.