Auction (V) - A Little Milt Moment

MiltRescuers(Item #683)
[Did not sell.]
Milt Kahl, the "Michelangelo of animation," seems to have been proudest of his creation of Madame Medusa for the 1977 feature film The Rescuers.

The upcoming auction has above sheet up for grabs. It is Milt's thumbnail staging of a sequence where Medusa tells her henchman Snoops (a caricature of animation historian John Culhane) that he is too soft. Most drawings are of Snoops, and they show Milt's way of sorting out possible drawing problems - they show Milt's way of working in a quite interesting way.

E.g. see the Snoops in the bottom center: you see his mouth through his hand that is in front of his face. First Milt would have drawn the complete face; then he put the hand in front, carefully covering his mouth completely. I say this, because I know plenty of people who would have thought to not draw the mouth as "it won't show anyway."

Milt's control of shapes is, of course as phenomenal as it is legendary. Look at the simplicity of the shapes of Snoops' hands and fingers on the last drawing!

Check out the incomparable Michael Barrier's interview with Milt Kahl!

Comments

  1. Steven HartleyApril 21, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    Milt Kahl certainly gives a good performance on his Medusa when we saw his scenes on the draft you posted last summer.

    It's a shame he left because he didn't like the Disney Studios after Walt's death.

    ReplyDelete
  2. spokeshaveApril 29, 2011 at 4:28 AM

    there could be another reason, that Milt changed his mind and drew Snoop's with the hand still on the nose for that key then decided that he wanted his hand out by that key, so adding the mouth to remind himself and it would be the open mouth?

    ReplyDelete

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