Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Report of the Milt Kahl Tribute

Having just returned from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills where the tribute event Milt Kahl: "The Animation Michelangelo" took place, I would like to show the program for those less fortunate who were not able to attend. First the cover: since it was in negative, next to it is an inverted version.
Program CoverProgram Cover Inverted

The program was a wonderful mix of panel discussion, film clips of Milt's work, clips of interviews with Milt including of the master while drawing, a five minute video message from Richard Williams and my favorite section: nearly an hour of Andreas Deja showing a very large stack of (copies of) drawings and discussing their virtues. Especially the (never before seen) drawings that Milt did for other animators to help them with drawing problems or start them out with a scene were amazing, and showed the level of simplicity that Milt had reached through many years of observation and hard work. Andreas Deja's exuberant enthusiasm was a large part of what made this wonderful 3¼ hour event an evening to remember!
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In the lobby during the reception before the show, and afterwards as well, there was the opportunity to study some of the the many original works of art created by Milt, on loan from the Animation Research Library, my favorite being the model sheet of the squirrel from Sleeping Beauty, from which I have a Disney photostat - this was the original pencil version! As with so much of Milt's art, it looks deceptively simple. I guess one could say that Milt drew as Fred Astaire danced: after a lot of hard work, it looks effortless and beautiful - graceful, simple and timeless.

The audience in this sold-out event was a veritable who-is-who of animation, with not only many Disney alumni, but folks from across all studios paying homage to Milt Kahl, the Animation Michelangelo.

[For those of you studying animation, remember to check out the many Action Analysis Classes, animator drafts and other documents you can find on this blog! Find out how they timed the short films at Disney, and download my free animation timing metronome!]

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Brecht Debaene says...

Thanks! this is really cool.

I was wondering if you know where I could find a list that has all the scenes that Milt ever worked on? It would be handy to know which scenes to study extra carefully ;)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 9:30:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Matt says...

Wow, wish I could have been there. I've always had a tremendous amount of respect towards Milt Kahl's animation. I know Andreas was supposed to be working on a book about Milt, did he mention that at this event?

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:58:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Hans Perk says...

Brett: I know that the Archives prepared a list of FILMS that Milt worked on, and characters in them. There is to my knowledge no list if scenes - it would be VERY long. Check out the feature drafts on this blog to see which scenes Milt animated in these!

Hi Matt! Andreas did show clips and drawings from Alice, but did NOT speak of his book at the event.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 1:12:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Jason Fittipaldi says...

Hans, thanks so much for sharing this! The program scans were a real treat.
Reading about Milt and his work always amps me up! :)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 10:11:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Chris Palmer says...

Thanks for posting this, Hans. A really nice treat for everyone.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 2:17:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Tony says...

Loved it!

Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 6:03:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Tinker Bell says...

Thank you so much. That was wonderful!

Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 11:40:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Ryan Davies says...

Thanks so much for posting this! I was so disappointed that I couldn't go, and I'm very grateful for at least getting this glimpse!

Friday, May 8, 2009 at 4:36:00 PM PDT  

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