So this explains why Davis is credited on that one scene from the previous sequence: because it includes the same weasel guard from this sequence.
In general the weasels seem to be consistently handled by Hugh Fraser or Marc Davis, and if the other characters appear in the same sequence, one of those two will animate the other characters as well. This will probably change in the next sequence though, which is likely to be cast the same way as most action climaxes: with seemingly no rules.
Working with Børge was fun, hard, boring, exciting, unusual, normal, and most of all educational. Over a year before leaving high school, in March 1978 I found out he lived in my neighborhood from a tv program about him and his wife Joanika. So I found him in the phone book (remember those?) and called him up. While studying art history, for a year I was his "pupil" doing animation tests, dropping by and having him correct them. Then, fed up with my art history professors, I moved my animation desk with my Neilson-Hordell disc into his Blaricum attic! (I am pointing at it in this photo taken last year:) Here, for almost four years, from March 1980 to November 1983 I smelled of his Douwe Egberts Red Amphora pipe tobacco and every day incl. weekends, Christmas and New Year from 10 to 6 we worked to the sound of BBC World Service if there were no jazz songs he had to listen to over and over again for an upcoming gig. I started doing simple non-production tests from his animation...
Directed by Wilfred "JAXON" Jackson, laid out by Maclaren Stewart. Assistant director Mike Holoboff, secretary Toby (Tobelmann). This FINAL draft dated 11/3/52. Animation by Marvin Woodward (Lost Boys, John, Michael), Eric Larson (Peter), Harvey Toombs (Wendy), Don Lusk (Tink), Norm Ferguson (Nana), Jack Campbell (Father), Art Stevens, Milt Kahl (Father, Mother, Wendy), Marc Davis (Mother), Hal King (John), George Rowley (anchor chain, pixie dust, sail, ship), Josh Meador (cloud-ship). And that concludes the draft for Peter Pan, the fourteenth complete feature film draft on this blog! (Ok, you smart-alecks, we still need to see the last page of the Pink Elephant sequence...) As always, I feel the need to stress that these documents were kept to keep track of the responsible person, and as such it may not reflect precisely the specific directing animators who worked on the sequences. If e.g. an inker or checker needed to find out who animated the scene because of some question...
The inside cover of my Fun and Fancy Free draft has this index: How time flies, especially when you are busy! In less than a month, my old mentor Børge Ring will be 97. A few years ago he wrote an intro for me for the upcoming draft of Prod. 2057, Fun and Fancy Free, which comprises of Prod. 2043, Mickey and the Beanstalk and Prod. 2048, Bongo, though not in that order in the film. In his intro, Børge specifically addresses the first part of the film, Bongo. I translated his text to English as close to his original as I could, incl. punctuation, and I hope it passes muster. Here goes: BONGO A bricked-in circus artist. "Fun and Fancy Free" is generally considered a substandard Disney movie. "A rather thrown-together construction." Right. Try, just for fun, to imagine removing all of the construction except for BONGO. What do you have left?????????????????.................. You have a treasure chest filled with some of Walt's very best animation committed by some ...
Haha, I KNEW it! All Davis!
ReplyDeleteSo this explains why Davis is credited on that one scene from the previous sequence: because it includes the same weasel guard from this sequence.
ReplyDeleteIn general the weasels seem to be consistently handled by Hugh Fraser or Marc Davis, and if the other characters appear in the same sequence, one of those two will animate the other characters as well. This will probably change in the next sequence though, which is likely to be cast the same way as most action climaxes: with seemingly no rules.