Monday, July 14, 2008

Prod. 2082 (Sleeping Beauty) - Seq. 18.0 Maleficent's Castle. Meeting of Maleficent and Prince. Escape from Castle.

Directed by Gerry Geronimi, laid out by Tom Codrick and Ernie Nordli.

Animation by Fred Kopietz, Les Clark, Frank Thomas, George Nicholas, Ollie Johnston, Bob Youngquist, Don Lusk (Fairies), John Sibley, John Lounsbery (Goons), Marc Davis (Maleficent), Milt Kahl (Prince), Jerry Hathcock (Raven, Goons, Prince, Fairies), Ken Hultgren (Prince on Horse), Jack Bailey, Cliff Nordberg, John Kennedy, Blaine Gibson (Raven). Effects by Dan MacManus.
And lots of "Music Room, Scene Planning..."

This sequence shows, like no other, the division between Acting and Action specialized animators. Or at least it shows how animators are cast that way. We find six of the "Nine Old Men", and such long-time Disney staples as Youngquist, Lusk and Nordberg, each of them deserving an article like the great one on Sibley by Pete Docter.

We also find Fred Kopietz, born in 1909, who started with Ub Iwerks in 1930, worked for Walter Lantz on Oswald and Andy Panda from 1933 to 1940, and for most of his life was assistant at Disney, with a few animation credits to his name, including on Jack King Donald shorts in the early 40s. Demoted to assistant again during the round of firings after Sleeping Beauty, he actually tendered his resignation in 1960, seemingly feeling that he was worth more than he was credited for. It seems he convinced the powers that be to at least raise his wage as Assistant Class I. He retired from Disney in 1971 and passed away in Sedona, AZ in 1992.

It certainly is very hard to make great pictures without good artists like Kopietz to assist the star animators, and they also deserve our attention. (I am thinking back on some great assistants I have had in "my days," like Søren Larsen and Jens Leganger...)

This FINAL draft of 7/2/58...
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Mike Sporn posted storyboards and screen grabs from this sequence!

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Michael Sporn says...

It's amazing how many different people animated on the relatively short sequence. I'm sure enormous coordination was necessary.

When I was young, I'd found a book by Ken Hultgren on animal anatomy. I've since had an interest in the scenes he'd animated. It would seem that he was used only for animal animation. Of course, that's all action all the time.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 9:43:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Hans Perk says...

Very true.

I also really liked Ken Hultgren's The Art of Animal Drawing (McGraw-Hill 1950) - I often borrowed Børge Ring's copy. I was delighted to see the Dover paperback reprint in 1993 (ISBN: 0486274268).

For those of you who do not know it, you can Look Inside (tm) on Amazon...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 9:55:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Michael J. Ruocco says...

Holy crap! My old art teacher had that book in his classroom... I knew that name sounded familiar!

I'm gonna pick myself up a copy ASAP. I remember it being a really great book.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 9:59:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Jag says...

Great, one of the best blog i browsed today :)

Jag
Blog

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 4:47:00 AM PDT  

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