Animation Artifacts &Disney &Frame Grabs 18 Nov 2010 08:37 am
Operation Wonderland
- On the DVD of Alice in Wonderland, there’s an extra little short that supposedly gives you a tour of the studio and a lesson in how animated films are made. (Do you think we’ll ever see one about Dreamworks or Pixar? I’d like to get a video tour of either studio.)
Since I’ve been focussing on Alice’s Milt Kahl scenes, I thought it’d be interesting, as an accompaniment, to post some frame grabs from this theatrical short that was done to promote Alice.
1(Click any image to enlarge.)
2
Of course, the film has to start with Walt
riding a toy train around the studio.
3
Two storyboard guys sitting in the middle of the studio.
4
Storyboard: the walrus grabs a clam.
5
Ward Kimball in a funny jacket.
6-7
The actor posing as the Walrus for the camera.
8
Walt in a funny pose.
9-10
The Walrus & Carpenter sequence.
12
Walt and Winston Hibler. Hibler eventually narrated
most of the Disneyland shows and True-Life adventures.
14
Flowers from storyboard to final film.
15
Walt gives a demo of the animation camera and
seems to be wrinkling the cels as he does this.
16
Walt operating an animation camera. Ludicrous.
17
Walt and Kathryn Beaumont (who’s
supposed to be doing schoolwork.)
18
Kathryn Beaumont and Ed Wynn.
19
Les Clark.
20
John Lounsbery on the right. The other animator looks to be
Fred Moore. Older and heavier than we’ve seen him in the past.
21
Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter.
22
More of wacky Ward Kimball pretending to draw.
23
Kathryn Beaumont and Jerry Colonna.
25
Jerry Colonna leads us into pencil test of the scene.
27
This scene was animated by Ward kimball & Cliff Nordberg.
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
46
John Lounsbery is on the left.
I’m not sure who the other two are.
47
The cards in action in the film.
49
One of the highlights of the film is this dancer doing
march steps for the cards – to be studied.
50
The multiplane camera in operation.
51
The cameraman at the top always looks a bit devilish.
52
No “how animation is made” film would be complete
without the sound effects guys making a racket.
53
Walt and Wilfred Jackson.
54
Walt going over some artwork with
John Hench (L) and Claude Coats (center)
Thanks to Hans Bacher and Gunnar Andreassen for identifying them.
55
Before riding his toy train into the sunset, Walt sits
in front of his real toy, the multiplane camera.
If anyone can identify any of those I couldn’t, or if you think I’ve mistakenly identified anyone, please leave a comment.
There’s an art gallery of images, many of which are by Mary Blair (and I’ve already posted her pictures a while back.) I’ll finish this post with some more of the images on the dvd.
1Mary Blair in B&W.
2
More of the same.
3
4
Thiis looks like it comes from HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN.
5
Lots of David Hall designs, here.
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
More Mary Blair.
14
To see more Mary Blair designs for Alice go here.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 10:48 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
I would say that the animator in image 20 with John Lounsbery is Fred Moore. That might be the latest photo of him that I’ve seen.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 10:57 am 2.Michael said …
That’s pretty much what I thought. He looks a bit bloated but has the same youthful look that Moore had when he was younger.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 11:47 am 3.Ken said …
Mary Blair aside, here’s an example of a Disney films final look exceeding the inspirational artwork. I’ve always found David Hall’s work, though proficient, difficult to stomach.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 1:17 pm 4.Eric Noble said …
Very interesting. It’s fascinating how much of this was staged for the camera. Walt was very good at doing that, supposedly giving us a look into his magic kingdom. Anyway, this is wonderful Michael. Thank you for posting this.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 1:34 pm 5.Paul Penna said …
Everybody looks bit bloated in these screen grabs because they’re horizontally stretched. If you squeeze them into a 4×3 aspect ratio, everybody looks normal. Has to do with how pixels are handled on 16X9 enhanced DVDs.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 3:34 pm 6.Gunnar Andreassen said …
No. 54: Those two guys must be John Hench and Claude Coats.
on 18 Nov 2010 at 8:27 pm 7.Charles Brubaker said …
Wow, I never realized that multi-plane cameras are huge. To the point that you need a ladder.
on 19 Nov 2010 at 11:34 am 8.Tim Rauch said …
Wonderful post, also really enjoying those Milt Kahl “Alice” sequences.
on 19 Nov 2010 at 1:08 pm 9.Steven Hartley said …
I guess that posting Alice in Wonderland is the right time now that I’ve already started mosaics.
I’m guessing the man standing in picture 46 is Cliff Nordberg, I don’t know who the man on the right is? Les Clark? Don Lusk?
on 19 Nov 2010 at 7:36 pm 10.Martin Juneau said …
Wow! It’s very brillant! Lots of hard works came to realised those classic films. Those actors who play the cartoon character in action is something who stays if i’m wrong even with the CGI/3D-ish.
on 20 Nov 2010 at 4:07 am 11.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Nice post! Alice is one of my favorite Disney films. Disney is supposed to have said that he blew it, because he failed to get warmth into the character, but he was being too hard on himself. A warm Alice would have changed the whole surreal tone of the Carroll story.
on 01 Dec 2010 at 1:30 pm 12.Sam said …
You can watch a tour by Pixar in Finding Nemo or Monsters Inc. DVD.
on 12 Jun 2012 at 9:11 pm 13.Eric Zimmer said …
The man on the right’s not Les Clark & Cliff Nordberg had darker hair than the man standing up & he worked mostly with Ward Kimball–NOT John Lounsbery! Since these 3 are studying a live-action model for the cards, I assume they’re character animator Judge Whitaker & effects animator George Rowley since they animated most of the cards!
on 18 Apr 2019 at 12:01 am 14.Mark Love said …
Photo #55 of the Multiplane: The man on top operating the camera is Card Walker (later Disney Chairman and CEO!). The gentleman on the right is Bob Broughton.