A. Film L.A. test

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick. This FINAL draft dated 1/18/49. The final page of the Ichabod draft shows animation by Ken O'Brien and Hugh Fraser, with effects by Eustace Lycett, Ed(win) Aardal and George Rowley. This concludes the film - but we haven't even started it! So - next up: Toad!

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick. This FINAL draft dated 1/18/49. Animation by Frank Thomas, Ward Kimball, Woolie Reitherman and John Sibley. Effects by Ed Aardal (clouds, ghosts, owls, shadows, crow) and George Rowley (pumpkin splatter). Frank animates the scared Ichabod, carefully and slowly riding his horse while whistling dryly (something he often demonstrated on stage while talking about character development), while the others take care of the action scenes. Some of Sib's scenes need to be studied frame-by-frame to be believed!

Directehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick. This FINAL draft dated 2/7/49. Today's posting is ceremonial at best: I have already shown you this sequence five years ago ! I post it here, however, to keep the series going in the same format, in case someone cares... Animation by Milt Kahl (Brom Bones), Harvey Toombs, John Sibley, Hal King, Hal Ambro (all doing Ichabod and "incidentals"), Ken O'Brien (Katrina) and Ollie Johnston doing a 15 foot comedy scene with Ichabod. Effects by George Rowley.

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Ted Sebern, layout by Tom Codrick and Don Griffith. This FINAL draft dated 2/7/49. A slew of "Old Men" animated this one. Credited are: Ollie Johnston--alone and with Ken O'Brien and Hal Ambro--, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Woolie Reitherman (alone and together) as well as John Sibley and Hal King, and effects animator George Rowley. Milt animates Brom and "the fat girl," while each of the others animate most other characters. Of course, Sib and Woolie handle some nice action stuff.

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Al Zinnen. This FINAL draft dated 5/17/49. Animation by Jack Boyd (two effects scenes), John Lounsbery (most of this sequence: Ichabod - and Katrina in one scene) and Hugh Fraser (another bit of Ichabod riding off on a horse). Of course, Lounsbery's scene 3 of Ichabod primping is iconic!

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Thor Putnam and Al Zinnen. This FINAL draft dated 7/16/48. Animation by Frank Thomas, Hal Ambro, Ollie Johnston and Hugh Fraser. It seems Frank and Ollie share the directing animator role in this sequence where they both animate Ichabod, Katrina and Brom Bones and incidentals in 17 and 30 scenes respectively. In his five scenes, Hal Ambro also animates all, while Hugh Fraser does the three scenes with the double Ichabods.

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Charles Philippi. Animation by Fred Moore (Katrina & boys, but also Ichabod at times), Hal King (Brom Bones and horse) and John Sibley (Ichabod, but also Brom and Katrina on horse). This FINAL draft dated 5/16/49. Even though the assignment of animators is generally rather clear cut, scenes 42 and 44 have Fred Moore animating not only the fair Katrina van Tassel, but also Ichabod. He animates Ichabod with clear poses that show his personality and general lankiness. As one of the key moments in the film, I seem to have seen images from these scenes rather often. On the other hand, John Sibley animates scene 45, with Brom and Katrina riding off - an action scene he would be better at pulling off than the others.

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Al Zinnen. Animation by Harvey Toombs and effects animator Jack Boyd (gold coins). This FINAL draft dated 5/16/49. A little self-contained sequence where Ichabod dreams of his ambitions. We get an insight into what drives his passions...

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Lance Nolley & Thor Putnam. Animation by Fred Moore (19 scenes of Katrina and boys), Marvin Woodward (1 scene of Ichabod) and Les Clark (2 scenes of Ichabod). This FINAL draft dated 10/5/48. Here is part of the song's demo that few have heard before you! Katrina Song: original production acetate (part) 1947. What can I say: a pretty girl by Freddy Moore!

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Lance Nolley and Thor Putnam. Animation by Ed Aardal ("incidentals"), Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Harvey Toombs (Ichabod & girls) and Hal King (Brom Bones & boys). This FINAL draft dated 10/4/48. I would think it fair to guess that Ollie was the Supervising Animator for this sequence. Again a lot of reworking: scenes 3 to 21 out of the picture?

Directed by Jack Kinney, layout by Al Zinnen, animation by Eric Larson, Hugh Fraser, Jack Boyd (efx) and Harvey Toombs. These FINAL drafts dated 10/4/48 and 10/13/48. It is interesting to note the scene numbers - and see how much they have rearranged stuff here...

Great news: Sanek has started the Ichabod mosaic !

This first sequence, numbered "2," was directed by Jack Kinney and laid out by Charles Philippi and Thor Putnam. Kinney directed the first half of this picture, Gerry Geronimi directed the remainder. Note that James Algar is also credited as director on the final "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad." This was, however, because he directed a few sequences of Toad. This FINAL draft is dated 9/28/48. The film premiered 10/5/49. Animation by John Lounsbery (Ichabod and villagers), Hal King and Milt Kahl (Brom Bones) with two animal scenes by Volus Jones. I would say it is fair to suggest that Milt Kahl was the lead on Brom Bones here, with Hal King animating around him. I say "suggest," because the drafts are, as always, not necessarily correct - thus, my "standard disclaimer" applies: "Animation drafts were never meant to be historical documents. They were meant as go-to documents, showing the responsible artist for a certain scene, who mig...