Crazy with the Heat

Crazy with the Heat is a Goofy/Donald short from 1947. Ed Aardel was the lead animator on the film. I remember seeing it as a kid in a theatre as part of a Disney shorts package program.

These terrific rough drawings from the short were recently offered on Ebay. I did not get them, but I think I should have. Because when examined closely, I believe at least some of them are by Milt Kahl. This is exactly how Milt drew during the 1940s, and as we all know during his career he helped many animators to improve staging and drawing for their scenes.

I think these are fantastic "doodles". What do you think? Could these be Milt's?

Here is the Wikipedia link to Crazy with the Heat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_with_the_Heat

Oscar Winners

A few days ago I had the pleasure of spending time with recent Oscar winners Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani. Their animated short film "In the Shadow of the Cypress" is stunning and profound. I was able to arrange a tour for the couple of Walt Disney's office and the Archives. Hossein and Shirin, you are amazing, and I am happy to call you my friends.

 

Fred Moore's Granddaughter

Quite a few years ago I got a call from Ollie Johnston, and he asked me if I could swing by his home and bring a few Fred Moore drawings with me. (I had purchased those from Ollie a while back.)

This was for a special occasion:  Fred Moore's granddaughter would visit the next day to film an interview with Frank and Ollie about her grandfather Fred Moore. And Ollie wanted her to see some of Fred's sketches to show how great of an artist he was. 

She arrived with a student friend of hers from Santa Barbara, where both studied fashion design at the local university. And this is what she was wearing that day. A printed T-shirt with one of Fred's girl drawings. She said that she owned this sketch and a few others. But on the whole her family did not have much of Fred's art.

It turned out to be a fun afternoon, listening to Frank and Ollie as they told stories about how much Fred meant to them. I would love to see that video recording today, if it still exists. 

 

"There will be a King!"

 

These pics were taken at Disney's ARL, Animation Research Library.

The color drawing of Scar is the very first drawing I did of the character as I was trying to design him.

I remember the directors asking me to add some "cheek hair" to his face...and that was it. The graphic appearance of Scar was set. 

This is a key animation rough from the Be Prepared sequence. Scar is yelling at the Hyenas:"There will be a king!" I remember animating this scene vividly. 

Scar moves forward, then upward during the dialog. I thought this is a chance to move his mane in a dramatic way. Lots of secondary action on all of that hair.

And since the staging is basically an upshot, I wanted to show Scar in that up perspective for his second main pose. I had studied drawing dramatic head angles from Milt Kahl's animation of Bagheera and Shere Khan. 

When a scene calls for this kind of an angle, boy, it can be so rewarding. It might be tricky to get the drawing just right, but it is so worth trying.

This scene was a lot of fun to animate.

Woolie

Last week Saturday was a special afternoon at the Walt Disney Family Museum. All three of Woolie Reitherman's sons, Bruce, Richard and Robert presented an amazing keynote about their dad. 

His upbringing, art school, early Disney, his time as a pilot during WWII, his comeback to Disney animation, his astounding career as an animator as well as a director and producer.

They also talked about working with their dad as voice talents for films like The Sword in the Stone, Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book. And, what Woolie was like as a father.

Honestly, I wished you all could have been there, this was a truly historical event. The life of Woolie Reitherman was EPIC! 

OK, so I have done things with my life...but after this presentation I couldn't help but ask myself: Shouldn't you have done more??? Are you living up to your potential? 

I remember attending an Academy event during the early 1980s, when Woolie Reitherman talked about his career and his boss Walt Disney, and how he carried on after his passing.

Newsflash: I am helping Bruce Reitherman with a terrific project about Woolie. Details to come later.

Here are a few highlights showcasing Woolie's career as an extraordinary animator and director.

Directing at Disney

That's not only the title of a great new book by Pete Docter and Don Peri, it is also the latest special exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. 

Get your copy of the book at Amazon, the exhibition will run until March 16... so hurry!

During my visit to the Museum last weekend I took these fun pics.

Director Clyde Geronimi discusses the storyboard for Casey at the Bat with Ollie Johnston. 1946

Milt Kahl and actor Bobby Driscoll plan a live action scene with director Wilfred Jackson for Peter Pan.

Geronimi again with singer songwriter and voice talent Peggy Lee during production of Lady & the Tramp.

Here is the link for more infos about the exhibition:

https://www.waltdisney.org/directing

Walt Disney's Collection of Heinrich Kley Art

I don't know exactly when, but at one time during Walt's travels to Europe, he purchased complete sketchbooks as well as individual illustrations by German artist Heinrich Kley. I am also not sure wether Kley's widow Emily sold Walt the artwork or if he bought the pieces at art galleries. 

But the fact is that today this unique, never published Kley inventory belongs to the Disney family.

During my recent visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco I was thrilled to discover that visitors can now browse through a couple of oversized printed sketchbooks from the collection. There is a small Kley set up near the Museum's reception area. 

Here are a few gorgeous sample pages.