Prod. 2266 - Lend A Paw

Though not stricktly a Christmas film, it is very much in the spirit of Christmas, and thus I thought it fitting for this day. It also caters to those of you who like the later shorts, so everybody wins.

This 1942 Oscar winner, a remake of UM10, Mickey's Pal Pluto, was directed by Gerry Geronimi, and released 10/3/1941. This draft predates that by more than eight months, 1/18/1941 - in other words, it was animated before the strike and released after it.

We find animation by George Nicholas, Ken Muse, Nick Nichols, Bill Sturm, Eric Gurney, Norm Tate, Chick Otterstrom, Morey Reden and Emory Hawkins. Layouts by Bruce Bushman.

Prod. 2256 - A Gentleman's Gentleman

This draft of 12/12/1940 brings back memories - from back when I was in high school in 1976. I sent a bunch of awful drawings to the Disney studios, and got a nice letter back: "keep drawing and then you may get good enough to enter Cal Arts or our training program," written by Don Duckwall. And now here he is as assistant director.
He passed away March 1986, one month shy of his 70th birthday.

We also see layouts by Bruce Bushman (4/20/1911-2/15/1972), who also did layouts on Pinocchio and the Nutcracker Suite in Fantasia, but who is better known as designer for WED Enterprises - his Dumbo ride art is on note cards on eBay even this moment. As animators, we meet Ken Muse doing all the Mickey Mouse (with dimensional ears) business, as well as Plutos by Basil Davidovich, Volus Jones, Norm Tate, Nicholas S. "Nick" DeTolly, Eric Gurney, George "Nick" Nicholas, Emory Hawkins and Charles F. "Chick" Otterstrom.

The draft also names the effects animators. Again, drafts were working documents to trace the responsible artists, in case of questions and what have you. On a film like this with many effects, the info was obviously useful to record.

Picked up by director Gerry Geronimi on 6/24/1940, released 3/28/1941...So what happened after Don Duckwall's response? Well, I never got to apply again. Even before I finished high school, I hooked up with Børge Ring (who lived 10 minutes away from me) and after working with him for four years, most notably on the short Anna & Bella,
I moved to Denmark in 1984, and co-founded A. Film in 1988...

A BIG thank you to Bill and Sue Kroyer for a wonderful, if wet, party tonight! Don't know what was better: the company or the meat balls!

Prod. 2231 - Bill Posters

A quick posting on this day of the TAG Christmas Party.
Directed by Gerry Geronimy, released 5/17/1940.
This draft nr. 4 is from 10/19/1939...

Prod. RM3 - The Clock Cleaners

Another timeless classic, this one directed by Mr. Benjamin Luther Sharpsteen (11/04/1895-12/20/1980). The date on the draft is the release date, 10/15/1937.

The Mickey/Donald/Goofy films around this time (on this blog see RM1 Lonesome Ghosts and RM5 Hawaiian Holiday) were cast pretty much similarly, and had many of the same animators, including Woolie Reitherman, Frenchy de Trémaudan (with at last an acting scene! A BIG one!) and Al Eugster. This episode also features Chuck Couch and Bill Roberts.

The auction catalog of the Horvath estate in the 70s had an interesting letter by Ferdinand Horvath called 'Surprise in Gags' in which he talked about the gags of Goofy up on the ladder. He thought it more interesting to have Goofy step over the hole in the ladder to then fall through a rung that seemed good. Seeing that Goofy was not conscience, it might have been hard to pull off...

Prod. 2431 - R'Coon Dawg

By special request. Directed by Charles Nichols, layout by Lance Nolley, backgrounds Art Riley. Story by Ralph Wright (before or after Cookham and Dave Hand?) and Al Bertino. With animation by the director himself, and Norm Ferguson, Marvin Woodward and Fred Moore, with effects by Jack Boyd. Music by Paul Smith, whom we can hear a lot more from soon, when the True-Life Adventures DVD set is released, Dec. 5th.

This draft 2/1/1950, released 8/10/1951 (A year and a half later!!!) The copyright synopsis was written 7/18/1950, and the credit listing for same is of 9/20/1950. (And sporting a SCG 'bug' and a IATSE 'bug'. I am currently reading Tom Sito's very interesting 'Drawing the Line' on the animation unions, where these two unions are described. Obligatory reading!)

Prod. RM5 - Hawaiian Holiday

We have read a lot about certain scenes, now here is all of it.
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen. The header of the draft does not give other information: the date on the draft is the release date, 9/24/1937. Alberto shows that a Robert Dranko worked on layouts.

A classical bit of character casting to few animators. Woolie Reitherman animates Goofy, Al Eugster does the bit with Donald and Pluto and the starfish, and Shamus Culhane takes care of Pluto and the crab. 50 feet of Pluto by George - I suspect that is Nick George. Frenchy de Tremaudan is gratiously allowed a few long shots and two small intoductions. Small wonder he became a monk...

Prod. RS6 - Mother Goose Goes Hollywood

Here is another draft - I photographed it quickly before I left for Denmark, therefor the loss of image quality. But hey, it's there...

Directed by Wilfred 'Jaxon' Jackson, caricature designs by T. Hee, music by Ed Plumb, released 12/23/1938. This draft 7/15/1938.

Lots of Izzie Klein, Grim Natwick, Bob Stokes and Ward Kimball, with a few scenes by Jack Campbell and (probably Don) Patterson...One can only hope that it will be on the December Treasures DVD...