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?
Today the first Ichabod scene is by Les Clark, yesterday it was Larson. I'm starting to notice a pattern here! Harvey Toombs gets all the shots of Ichabod eating, too.
Ollie Johnston does a good job here, I knew it was either him or Frank working on it. Why would Les Clark be working on a small scene if he's probably not going to be on the rest of this short? This is another sequence where it features "Ollie's girls", and his animation here is very on-model.
Hal King is rather off-model with Broms here, compared to Milt Kahl.
Oh, and a small correction: Ed Aardal is not animating effects, but townspeople and animals. It would still count as "character animation", even if they are only incidental "extras". :)
Mickey Cuts Up was directed by Burt Gillett and released 11/30/1931. It is found on Disney Treasures DVD: Mickey Mouse in Black & White Volume 1 disc 1. You may still find it here on YouTube. Have a look, if you need a clearer understanding of the following documents! Gillett left some documents pertaining Mickey Cuts Up behind, and I would like here to show a few of these that I recently lucked into. It is interesting to speculate in which order these were written - they seem to all be in Gillett's own handwriting and would probably date to late August or early September 1931. First we have two pages, numbered 1 & 2, with ideas linked to names, Otto and Webb, which to me seems to mean that the ideas were originally thought out by either Otto Englander or Webb Smith. There are interesting ideas that did not make the film - they are crossed out: "mower bumps up and down on hedge - trick cuts." Some were not crossed out and made it in the film: "Cuts down tre...
This just in from Børge Ring. It is not a Disney item, but fun, nonetheless: William Littlejohn animated Lucy and Snoopy for Melendez on the PEANUTS series and recounted: "At one time Charles Schultz (the author of the comic strip) complained: "You guys make a mistake when you animate Charlie Brown. You change the placement of his nose when his head turns from profile to front view!" "No Charlie...the change is YOURS!" "Ah...come on fellers, I know my own characters!" They invited him down to the studio, set him up in the attic at a lightbox and said: "Draw a Charlie Brown in profile and one where he looks into the camera. Then draw three stages in between the two where his head turns." At 7 o'clock that evening, when everybody was having beers and playing pool, a tired Schulz came down the stairs, jacket slung over the shoulder. He stopped briefly to say: "OK, you guys. You win..."
Between Sequence 3 and 3.1 we find Seq. 4.2, "Marionette Show." This being a musical number, the sequence director is Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson, assisted by Lou Debney. Layout by Terrell E. Stapp (1893-1979) and Thor Putnam (starting with a multiplane shot). Pinoke masterfully animated by Frank Thomas and later Ollie Johnston, Jiminy Cricket by Bernie Wolf, Don Towsley and Ward Kimball, Stromboli by Bill Tytla, Dutch Puppet by Jack Campbell, French puppets by Art Babbitt (the "singer") and Eric Larson (the "dancers"), Russian "Bomb Throwers" by Woolie Reithermann. As today's special treat, here is the entire Sequence. Frank's animation in this sequence is some of my all-time favorite, as it is an amazing acting job, a complete analysis of this little shy boy, who happens to be a puppet, being "pushed in the pooblic's eye." Jiminy Cricket is in a supporting role, cause "What does an actor want with a conscience, ...
Today the first Ichabod scene is by Les Clark, yesterday it was Larson. I'm starting to notice a pattern here! Harvey Toombs gets all the shots of Ichabod eating, too.
ReplyDeleteI wondered, why they put two layout artists on this small sequence...
ReplyDeleteThe narration is different in the last couple of scenes.
ReplyDeleteOllie would have been supervising animator for the scenes with Ichabod and the women; Milt Kahl would have supervised the Brom Bones scenes.
ReplyDeleteOllie Johnston does a good job here, I knew it was either him or Frank working on it. Why would Les Clark be working on a small scene if he's probably not going to be on the rest of this short? This is another sequence where it features "Ollie's girls", and his animation here is very on-model.
ReplyDeleteHal King is rather off-model with Broms here, compared to Milt Kahl.
Oh, and a small correction: Ed Aardal is not animating effects, but townspeople and animals. It would still count as "character animation", even if they are only incidental "extras". :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, John V.! I haven't had the time to revisit the film yet, even though I am posting these pages, so at times my recollection fails - sorry!
ReplyDeleteThanks, EVERYONE, for commenting! Keep it coming!