A. Film L.A. test

Happy 90th Birthday, Mickey Mouse! Let's celebrate with another animation draft, the one "next in line" in my files. (Next was CM-16, Blue Rhythm, which I posted in 2007 .) Directed by Burt Gillett, released 9/25/1931. Animated by Les Clark, Jack King, Norm Ferguson, Hardy Gramatky, Dave Hand, Dick Lundy, Charles Byrne, Ben Sharpsteen, Tom Palmer, Johnny Cannon and Jack Cutting. Music by Bert Lewis. I love Fergy's under-water slow-motion scenes, though there is little under-water feeling left in the later scenes that seem to incorporate animation from The Moose Hunt. I am not normally Dick Lundy's greatest fan, but I very much enjoy the little dance the fish do around the can of bait. Fun to see scene 16 as "Hands' [sic] old drawings" in the draft. I'm not to sure about the moral of this story, but hey - it's 1931! The Hebrew-looking "No Fishing" sign raises a lot of questions that probably better stay unanswered... In July/August ...

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 7/7/1931. Animated by Jack King, Johnny Cannon, Norm Ferguson, Dave Hand, Harry Reeves, Ben Sharpsteen, Tom Palmer, Frenchy de Trémaudan, Dick Lundy, Hardy Gramatky, Rudy Zamora, Charles Byrne(s), Les Clark, Marvin Woodward and Jack Cutting. (15 animators on 39 scenes...) The person transcribing the draft must have missed scene 33 - maybe by Frenchy (Minnie), Hardy (Pluto) and Hand (cat)? A very happy musical endeavor. But it seems that the PC-Police has struck against the Ben Sharpsteen's last scene in later copies. After the screen has gone black from soot, all characters are black-face; Minnie yells "Mickey!," Mickey yells "Minnie!," Pluto comes out of the top of the stove and yells, Al Jolson-like but in a gravelly voice "Mammie!" and the cat comes out of the stove pipe and ends saying "Yippie!" and smacks Pluto on the head with the lid of the stove... There is a YouTube version of the entire short inclu...

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 6/13/1931. Animation by Johnny Cannon, Rudy Zamora, Jack Cutting, Harry Reeves, Norm Ferguson, Frenchy de Trémaudan, Dave Hand, Dick Lundy, George Lane, Tom Palmer, Chuck Couch, Jack King, Hardy Gramatky, Les Clark, Frank Tipper, Bill Mason and Charles Byrne(s). At this time, Burt Gillett's musician was Bert Lewis. Since Tom McKimson was Fergy's assistant, I surmise that "Tom" and "Palmer" here are the same person. Lane is here misspelled as Lano. Bill Mason, who seems to have been born in England and died in 1937, is identified by Alberto Becattini , though he doesn't seem to appear in studio records otherwise. Alberto has this info on him: "Animator: DISNEY c31-33 (Silly Symphony 31-32 [The Cat’s Out 31, The Spider and the Fly 31, Babes in the Woods 32]); SCHLESINGER/WARNER BROS. 33 (Buddy 33 [Buddy’s Day Out]); LANTZ 35-37 (Oswald the Rabbit 36-37, Meany Miny and Moe 36-37)" This is a fun film , and it beco...

Directed by Burt Gillett, music by Bert Lewis, released 5/8/1931. In other words, I am two days late for its 87th anniversary... Animated by Jack King, Dave Hand, Norm Ferguson, Les Clark, Dick Lundy, Tom Palmer and Ben Sharpsteen: the usual suspects. Yes, this IS the film with Tom Palmer's "Dead dog scene" ending with Pluto saying "Kiss Me!" Since this film was released May 8th, it was likely animated late March-early April 1931. Here is an image of some of the animators in their new building (the L-shaped one) while the film was just released, in May 1931. L-to-R: Dave Hand, Dick Lundy, Norm Ferguson and Les Clark. Both Hand and Lundy have their May 1931 calendars prominently placed - thanks, guys! Les Clark has three photos pinned up - two of the building of the building they are in, and one of one of the small Fauchon & Marco advertisement cars parked in front of the billboard across the street... Added note: we have seen a BG from this film before !

Over the coming weeks I intend to post a few more very early Mickey Mouse drafts, especially for my old mentor and friend Børge Ring. Here is an early draft for this Robinson Crusoe-type Mickey Mouse film directed by my favorite director, Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson, released through Columbia on 4/6/1931. We find as animators: Jaxon himself, Charlie Byrne, Rudy Zamora, Cecil Surrey ("Sizzle"), Johnny Cannon, Gilles Armand "Frenchy" de Trémaudan, Jack Cutting, Les Clark, Dave Hand and Dick Lundy - with Norm Ferguson sharing two scenes with Jack Cutting. On page 18 in Ross Care's must-have book about Jaxon, one can read how he (Jaxon) asked Walt to "handle" a whole film by himself, with which he meant "animate a whole film." Walt, however, thought he wanted to direct a film, and gave him the assignment of pulling together several previously discarded musical Mickey scenes, having him put them to music by a new composer Walt wanted to try...

The final and longest sequence of the draft... Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Hal King (supervising animator), Ted Berman, Harry Holt, Ward Kimball (supervising animator), George Goepper, Al Bertino, Harvey Toombs, Phil Duncan, Fred Moore and Ken O'Brien. Effects by Jack Boyd. Jane was a little too quick for scene 19... "...or is this a dream - too good to be true..." and here we leave Bongo and Fun & Fancy Free. Of course I hope you enjoyed this draft. Again, I need to impress upon you my "standard disclaimer:" "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 might be able to help in case there would be any need for this further on in the production line. Therefore we often see e.g. that animators who left have b...

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Milt Kahl (supervising animator), Hal Ambro and Hugh Fraser. Effects by Jack Boyd. Slapstick by Milt Kahl to "Say It with a Slap" by Eliot Daniels. I bet Milt enjoyed the relative freedom and fun that the realistic characters didn't often allow for!

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/11/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by George Goepper, Hal King, Ward Kimball (supervising animator), Harry Holt (clearly misspelled as Hold in sc. 26) and Al Bertino (before he became a story artist and Imagineering legend). Effects by Jack Boyd.

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/10/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Les Clark (supervising animator), Ward Kimball, Art Babbitt, Al Coe, Tom Massey, Ted Bonnicksen and George Goepper. Effects by Sandy Strothers. A fantasy of cupid bears, pink clouds and hearts, set to music by Eliot Daniel and lyrics by Buddy Kaye.

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/10/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Ward Kimball, Judge Whitaker, Fred Moore, Ken O'Brien and Hal Ambro. Effects by Jack Boyd. From a sad little number by Kimball (waking up) and Whitaker (uni-cycling) we get to the heart of the sequence, meeting Lulubelle, animated by Moore, interspersed with more action-oriented scenes by O'Brien and Ambro.

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/9/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Marc Davis (supervising animator), Henry Tanous and Judge Whitaker. Effects by Jack Boyd and Blaine Gibson. In the dark, the lazy countryside shows its scary side...

Directed by Jack Kinney assisted by Ted Sebern. Layout by Don DaGradi. This FINAL draft dated 4/9/1947 by Eva Jane "'jane" Sinclair. Animation by Marc Davis, Fred Moore, Phil Duncan, Ken O'Brien, Blaine Gibson and Hal Ambro. Effects by Jack Boyd. A bunch of very cute Fred Moore scenes of Bongo trying to heed the call of the wild and climb a tree, and a cute and languid song, "Lazy Countryside," with music and lyrics by Bobby Worth.