Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney &repeated posts 17 Aug 2011 06:38 am
Dumbo’s Bath – recap
Continuing the celebration of Bill Tytla’s magnificent artrwork, I’m reposting this piece on Dumbo’s bath.
- Thanks to a loan from John Canemaker, I can continue posting some of the brilliant storyboard work of Bill Peet. The guy was a masterful artist. Every panel gives so much inspiration and information to the animators, directors and artists who’ll follow up on his work.
This is the sequence from Dumbo wherein baby Dumbo plays around the feet of his mother. Brilliantly animated by Bill Tytla, this sequence is one of the greatest ever animated. No rotoscoping, no MoCap. Just brilliant artists collaborating with perfect timing, perfect structure, perfect everything. Tytla said he watched his young son at home to learn how to animate Dumbo. Bill Peet told Mike Barrier that he was a big fan of circuses, so he was delighted to be working on this piece. Both used their excitement and enthusiasm to bring something brilliant to the screen, and it stands as a masterpiece of the medium.
Of this sequence and Tytla’s animation, Mike Barrier says in Hollywood Cartoons, “What might otherwise be mere cuteness acquires poignance because it is always shaded by a parent’s knowledge of pain and risk. If Dumbo “acted” more, he would almost certainly be a less successful character—’cuter,’ probably, in the cookie-cutter manner of so many other animated characters, but far more superficial.”
I had to take the one very long photstat and reconfigure it in photoshop so that you could enlarge these frames to see them well. I tried to keep the feel of these drawings pinned to that board in tact.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
Bill Peet at his desk on Dumbo.
Here are frame grabs from the very same sequence of the film showing how closely the cuts were followed. Even in stills the sequence is stunning.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
.This film is a gem.
The dvd also has one of my favorite commentary tracks throughout.
John Canemaker, by himself, talking about the film. It’s great!
From Hans Perk’s A Film LA:
Seq. 06.0 “Menagerie – Mrs. Jumbo Goes Berserk”
Directed by Wilfred Jackson, assistant director Jacques [Roberts?], layout Terrell Stapp.
Dumbo being washed by Mrs. Jumbo, animated by Bill Tytla, with effects by Art Palmer, Cornett Wood and Sandy Strother.
on 17 Aug 2011 at 7:42 am 1.Nancy Beiman said …
Gorgeous. This is what Disney animation does best. And this is why Bill Tytla is my candidate for the greatest animation actor from that studio….but he sure had some great help on it from those exquisite Bill Peet storyboards.
on 17 Aug 2011 at 7:51 am 2.Sandro Cleuzo said …
Thanks for posting this, Michael. It is really a gem, one of the best Disney animated films and these storyboards by Bill Peet are just amazing, what drawings!
on 17 Aug 2011 at 9:41 am 3.Jonah Sidhom said …
This is great, thanks for posting! I love that image of Bill Peet at his desk.
on 17 Aug 2011 at 12:00 pm 4.Val Irwin said …
Thank you. What a thrill to read your blog!
Bill Peet was my uncle and I have never seen these photos of him. Few people understand what goes into art that flashes by the eye in a matter of seconds.
My dad, George C. Peed, Bill’s older brother, was also a Disney artist. The photo of Bill working at his drawing board reminds me of my father, as well as Bill.
I remember how my dad and Bill would affectionately hover over their work and become one with the drafting table. Their body language was not unlike that of Dumbo’s mother as she lovingly arched over Dumbo.
on 17 Aug 2011 at 1:09 pm 5.Doug Vitarelli said …
like you said, one of the greatest animated sequences ever.
on 17 Aug 2011 at 1:49 pm 6.Tom Sito said …
Nice post. Remember back on Raggedy Ann, George Bakes took a bunch of us with Dick Williams to a run-down Manhattan luncheonette that he said was a favorite of Bill Tytlas’? Dick dropped to his knees and we all chanted Tytlaaaaa, Tytlaaaaaaa!
Got some strange looks from the patrons inside.