Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Prod. 2082 (Sleeping Beauty) - Seq. 19.0 Fight

Directed by Woolie Reitherman, laid out by Basil Davidovich.

Woolie was at first considered an action director, which becomes very obvious here. We also see more of his time-saving reuses, which became his hallmark, quite infamously at times. And where the previous sequence was brimming with star animators and "Old Men," this one seems to use what then was considered the second string, though of course still very accomplished artists. It is quite impossible to pinpoint exactly who did what, as some of the artists did a bit of every character, it seems!

Animation by Ambi Paliwoda and Dale Barnhart (Maleficent), Ken Hultgren and Dick Lucas (prince & horse), Bill Keil (prince, horse, fairies, dragon), George Goepper (prince, horse, fairies, Maleficent reuse), Ted Berman (prince), Eric Cleworth (dragon). Effects by Dan MacManus and thorns by Al Stetter.

This sequence has a slew of famous images - it has so much we all grew up on, as it was shown so often in Christmas shows and the like. At least now we can read that the famous scene of Maleficent growing into a dragon is by effects animator Dan MacManus. It is interesting to see that a sequence as ubiquitous as this was not considered "worthy" of even one scene here or there by Milt, Marc, Frank or Ollie. Yet it works - it does the job - and we know it so well.

This FINAL draft of 11/5/58...
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[Oh! I see I already posted this 7/6/06!]

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3 Comments:

Anonymous the clownninja says...

wow this is awesome stuff. I was totally surprised that these sequences at the end weren't milt and marc. I just watched this a few days ago, and only stumbled on your posts today. It was really nice to be able to study the shots those two did do with the other Old men in the sequence previous, gorgeous animation. I have a question though, if a shot says Davis and Bailey did it, Davis would have done Maleficent and Baily would have done the raven right? Was the split always based on characters? Thanks for publishing this, being able to go through these beautiful scenes and pick out the strengths and individuality of the animators adds to them immensely.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 11:29:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Hans Perk says...

Hi Clownninja, thanks for your comment. Yes, in most cases having two names means a split between two characters, but it can also be a split between characters and effects. In that case it is important to know if the animator was a character animator or an effects animator, and this CAN be tricky, as we simply do not know all animators. Also, read the disclaimer at the bottom of my first Sleeping Beauty draft post...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 11:39:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous David Nethery says...

"And where the previous sequence was brimming with star animators and "Old Men," this one seems to use what then was considered the second string, though of course still very accomplished artists."


And yet for all the lack of "star" animators this sequence still turned out to be the best, most memorable part of the movie. The hair still stands up on the back of my neck when I watch the Maleficent-to-dragon transformation , and the fatal sword through the heart of the dragon "that evil die and good endure" . Epic stuff ! And the amazing fire effects animation. It's a great sequence.

Friday, July 18, 2008 at 9:53:00 AM PDT  

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