My Past is Catching Up with Me...

Ha! The feature film Valhalla had its premiere in 1986. It was the reason for my move from Holland to Denmark. Now I find that at this address, one can buy cells from this production, signed by the director, Peter Madsen. Funny, though - I animated the scene with the kid and the sword, my A. Film business partner Karsten Kiilerich animated the scenes with Thor "..when NOT to use it!"

Compare the poster that is for sale to the one on the page that I linked to first. Peter redid the poster completely in bright colors, as the distributor didn't think they could sell the film with the more subdued one. There is a world of difference: we all still love the original one!

Not much artwork still exists from this production, and not only because it was Xeroxed using a Canon NP10 cold copier, so the lines chip of the cells. Actually, most artwork was sent to the garbage dump when the owner of the rights, Danish distributor Metronome (then owned by musician and music producer Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, a.k.a. Bent Fabric of "Alley Cat" fame), merged with Swedish Sandrew around 1997. This is the only fact that was censored out of my short (13 minute 21 second) "Making Of" documentary which made it onto disc 2 of the Valhalla Special Edition DVD of 2003...

Prod. CM22 - The Duck Hunt

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 01/28/1932.
Animated by Johnny Cannon, Dave Hand - with Andrew Hutchinson and Gerry "Jerry" Geronimi, Norm Ferguson, Jack King, Ben Sharpsteen - with Chuck Couch and Harry Reeves, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Rudi Zamora and Dick Lundy. 8,791 drawings...

Went and saw the Kay Nielsen exhibit here just north of Copenhagen, on its last day. WOW! A truly amazingly gifted artist. And lots of art to look at! The good folks at the museum were justly humbled by the fact that there was no catalog. The only comfort they offered was the fact that there will be a book by Colin White about Nielsen, which was supposed to be issued during the exhibit. It will be available in English from London and Chicago, the Danish page says, and I just checked, it is planned to come out around - maybe just after - Christmas. The Danish publisher will distribute it in the US also. [Nov. 2009: date now shows as February 2010.]
This was the Disney room, with ten lovely items on loan from the ARL and a private collector, from Fantasia (with a clip running on video), Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty (image taken with my cell).

Prod. CM19 - The Beach Party

Directed by Burt Gillett, released 11/04/1931.
Animators: Dick Lundy, Dave Hand, Norm Ferguson, Tom Palmer, Jack King, Gerri Geronimi, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Ben Sharpsteen. Hand and Sharpsteen seem to have coached a number of junior animators and assistants: Sizzle (?), Tat (?) Frank Kelling, Chuck Couch, Joe D'Igalo, Andrew Hutchinson, Hardie Gramatky, Jack Cutting, Marvin Woodward, Charles Byrne(s) and Harry Reeves. These were exiting times: the films got better for so did the people making them! But the core was this small group of a few key men...
Good thing Frank Kelling didn't live in Denmark - in Danish, a Kelling is an old hag... Say, does anyone know more about Sizzle and Tat?

[Update from comments posted and sent to me: Sizzle was Cecil Surrey as found in previous postings, and Tat was Daniel Tattenham, a one-time animation studio head, see here.]

Prod. CM16 - Blue Rhythm

Directed by Burt Gillett and released 08/18/1931.
A plethora of animators, most only doing a single scene:
Joe d'Igalo, Les Clark, Tom Palmer, Frenchy de Tremaudan, Dick Lundy, Jack Cutting, Frank Tipper, Norm Ferguson, Cecil Surr(e)y, Charles Byrne(s), Johnny Cannon, Hardy Gramatky, Jack King, Ed Benedict, Rudy Zamora and Harry Reeves. A great little film that is on the Disney Treasures DVD "Mickey Mouse in Black and White".
I have never been so busy, folks! Therefor I have a very VERY erratic posting schedule! Remember to check Didier's blog for Silly Symphonies drafts, which are copies of documents in the Disney Archives. And remember to get J B Kaufmann and Russell Merritt's book Silly Symphonies! They have used all known drafts and put this info (condensed) in their very interesting book!