A. Film L.A. test

Directed by Eric Larson, laid out by MacLaren Stewart. Starting with Scene No. 97, animation by Marc Davis (Maleficent, King & Queen), Hal Ambro, John Lonsbery (King & Queen), Ollie Johnston, Blaine Gibson (Fairies) and Jack Bailey (soldiers) with effects by Dan MacManus and Jack Boyd. This FINAL draft dated 10/24/1958...

"Opening - to - Entrance of Maleficent" was not the first sequence in animation. The date on this FINAL draft is July 15th, 1958. In the Ink and Paint schedule it had seven sequences on either side of it. Most of the earliest sequences, about half the film, were directed by Eric Larson, but as we can learn from John Canemaker's Nine Old Men book, he was removed as head director of the film (Walt felt he had spent way too much), and the later sequences were directed by Woolie Reitherman and the official director Gerry Geronimi. This opening sequence, though, was directed by Les Clark, and laid out by Homer Jonas, Victor Haboush and Jack Huber. Animation by George Nicholas, Bob Youngquist, Jack Bailey, Fred Kopietz (Misc. Characters), Hal King, Blaine Gibson, Hal Ambro, Jack Boyd, Don Lusk (Fairies) Bob Carlson and John Sibley (King & Queen). This sequence sets the tone of the film, and has had a lot of iterations, including a different song! When I saw the movie in a c...

Time for a new feature film. Since Sleeping Beauty is up for the big beautiful BluRay experience - with music that will sound like originally recorded in Germany (I can hardly wait!) - it is the obvious choice. Therefor, throughout the next couple of weeks I will bring you the draft of Prod. 2082 - Sleeping Beauty. Here are the cover and notes in the inside of my copy. It was originally kept in the Background Morgue - the storage of old BGs that was located in the basement of the Ink & Paint building on the Burbank lot. This has, of course, been transferred to the ARL, the Animation Research Library. For internal use, these drafts are said to have been digitalized, and the old ones discarded. Like this one... Very interesting to me is the list of photostat numbers for the storyboards. When the board was OK'ed, it was photographed. From the negative numbers we can make some conclusions as to when the sequences were ready for full production. The first number are month and year o...

While back in Denmark for a bit, and while preparing the next wave of drafts, here is a store front not far from my apartment, in the part of town called Kødbyen, "The Meat City." "Kød en gros ApS" means "Meat wholesale Ltd." This is a wholesale butcher's shop. Poor Ferdinand... << Click on it!!! Thanks for checking in - and for your comments! I do read everything, so by all means keep sending them! And note: the next feature draft will be right here shortly!

Didier Ghez's great posting of a meeting transcript on a future Fantasia reminded me of an image that a friend gave me recently of Walt at his desk (left). Based on the negative number, it was possibly taken in January 1942. I had a close look at the shelves behind him - and in Photoshop, straightened an area that looked readable (right) - and to my surprise, I could now read "Future Fantasias..."

Before Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston visited Holland back in 1984, they sent me their filmographies as prepared by the Walt Disney Archives. Now, 24 years later, I came across them, as I was sorting old papers here in Denmark...

Today it is exactly 80 years ago that Walt Disney's Snow White wrap party was held at Lake Norconian, in Norco, just north-west of where the 91 and the 15 freeways meet. As we could read on Mike Barrier's pages a few days ago, the work-week was reduced to 5 days, 40 hours, and a two week vacation was announced for August 1938. Here then is the program for the June 4th 1938 festivities. Only listed are the official ones. The unofficial activities are what made this bash so infamous... Mike Barrier has previously (in 2006) published a version that was missing the middle pages. Be sure to check the September 6th and 14th postings for much more information! Above scans of Chet Vandagriff's copy (I believe he was family of one of Lillian Disney's sisters) are the complete set. This is said to have been the first time Mickey was drawn (by Ward Kimball) with pupils in his eyes... Courtesy of Mike Van Eaton , here is the extra info given to the participants. It includes a co...

For reference, here is a little list of some of the Disney production numbers for features and a few featurettes and specials: 2001 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 2002 Bambi 2003 Pinocchio 2004 Fantasia 2005 The Reluctant Dragon 2006 Dumbo 2007 Victory Through Air Power 2015 Saludos Amigos - 2712 Lake Titicaca - 2714 Pedro - 2711 El Gaucho Goofy - 2717 Aquarela Do Brasil 2016 The Three Caballeros - 2713 The Flying Gauchito - 2718 The Cold Blooded Penguin - 2721 Bahia - 2725 Solamente una Vez, Pinata, Las Posadas 2025 Make Mine Music - 2024 Peter and the Wolf - 2026 Two Silhouettes - 2027 The Martins and the Coys - 2028 All the Cats Join In - 2030 After You've Gone - 2041 Casey at the Bat - 2045 Whale at the Met - 2046 Johnny Fedora & Alice Blue Bonnet - 2047 Without You - 2050 Blue Bayou 2029 Song of the South 2057 Fun and Fancy Free - 2043 Mickey & the Beanstalk - 2048 Bongo 2061 Melody Time - 2052 Little Toot - 2054 Melody Time (Trees) - 2055 Once Upon a Wint...