Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Marc & Milt

Marc Davis and Milt Kahl were the best of friends.
Milt often raved about Marc's incredible draughtsmanship and his artistry in general ("He makes me look sick"), while Marc admitted that his favorite animator was Milt Kahl.
But the two got along on a personal level as well.
Together with their wives Alice and Phyllis, they socialized, went to ball games,
and they all shared an interest in fine art.
Marc once said of his friend: "Milt is the kind of guy who , if I would go up to him and say, Milt I need $20.000, would not ask me why or what for, I know he would just give it to me."

The two often animated characters that interacted in the same sequences.
Milt did the Fairy Godmother to Marc's Cinderella, he did Peter Pan to Marc's
Tinker Bell, and Roger and Anita to Marc's Cruella de Vil.

It must have been in 1975, when Milt gave Marc this amazing oversized drawing,
which celebrates their friendship. It shows a caricature of the both of them in a 
sort of Picasso-esque drawing style. 
It's a very unique piece, and Marc treasured it.
I want to thank Alice Davis for letting me post the drawing. (She is also kind enough to let me show you some of Marc's gorgeous animal sketches in a later post).

Following are scans of animation rough keys  with Aurora and Prince Phillip ,
(I'll let you guess, who animated who).
Can you believe how tight these are drawn ? When you enlarge them you can see wonderful subtleties in their faces, hands etc.
They were animated on two different levels, I combined them here on to one.

Enjoy the pose test as well. There is an animated camera move toward the end of the scene, that's why they seem to pop over toward screen left.


































45 comments:

  1. Ha, that's great! Even Milt's gag drawings were brilliant. The high quality scans are very much appreciated. As a bonus, it's really easy to read the timing charts - Thanks!

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  2. Thanks for your wonderful blog. It's amazing to read and learn such intimate details about the Nine Old Men. I've always admired Marc Davis' work and own an original Briar Rose drawing. The draftsmanship is amazing and the design of the character so balanced and harmonious. I always wished I had the chance to have it signed and once just missed Mr. Davis at the fifth avenue Disney store (he had visited unexpectantly and I missed his visit by about 15 minutes.)

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  3. Is it me or are the timing charts drawn out just as neatly as the characters?!

    Beautiful stuff again Andreas, thanks a lot for sharing them :D

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  4. Wow this is called true friendship, i don't have words to say but i would like to say that every man should have atleast 1 friend like these in his life...
    konferens bohuslän

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  5. Andreas,

    Thanks for this!
    We all appreciate it.

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  6. It's hard to imagine two different people animating a scene like this. Who would have come started it, and did one animator block out both characters (in the big schema)? It's amazingly interesting to me. Thanks for sharing it.

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  7. Stunning @_@

    Thanks for posting all this amazing animation history. All these stories and animated sequences are pure inspirational gold and a great way to understand a little bit more about these amazing people we haven't had the honour to meet.

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  8. they had such a great friendship, and it shows in their artwork. there's something so wonderfully crisp about all of them...
    fantastic job, as usual. thanks!

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  9. Andreas, Thank you for this amazing blog!

    The scans inspired me a lot! I love "Sleeping Beauty"!

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  10. Fantastic drawings.thank you so much,Andreas!
    Interesting to see how they "toned down" the prince in the final film.
    I think he has a lot more character in these rough drawings.
    Aurora on the other hand did not change much in the final film.
    Like Michael Sporn , I would be very interested to know how they worked, who did what first.

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  11. The dialogue behind the Milt and Marc drawing is hilarious - not to mention the handwriting is superb (I expect no less from Milt anyway)!

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  13. When I first saw the drawing of them I thought they were kissing in it lol



    The frames from Sleeping Beauty are wonderfully drawn but, to be honest, as a female, I've never liked that part. How Philip snuck up on her and when she tried to get away wouldn't let her go. I know he wasn't out to hurt her, but still...

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  14. Point well taken, Kayla. This was the 1950ies, and hopefully we've come a long way.

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  15. One word: UNEQUELED.

    If that's a word.

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  16. Michael and Wil,
    the forthcoming character is usually animated first,
    the reacting one secondly.
    In this scene the position for the hands contacting was most likely taken from live action.
    I am almost certain that the prince was animated first,
    In a few drawings he is actually looking past her and not in the eyes. Milt didn't have the exact placements for Aurora's head yet.

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  17. Beautiful things, Andreas, absolutely beautiful.........what a collection......Dad would be proud!

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  18. Everybody, say Hi to Milt's daughter Sybil and her partner Peter !!

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  19. I can't get over that caricature drawing - it is just so charming! All of the complaints and mentions of a "pain in the ass" or "a pain in the a-ooh hoo ha" are hilarious, but that little note in the corner is just so nice. I'm not surprised that Marc treasured it!

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  20. Wow, those guys were geniuses! Every drawing is beautiful. Thank you for sharing all of these great stories with us Andreas.

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  21. This is really nice. The animation keys are of cause amazing - And the caricature is just lovely. It's nice to know that Milt and Marc admired each others work like that. Thanks again for sharing this stuff.

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  22. Hi Andreas,
    Can you point out which scenes in "The Black Cauldron" were animated by Milt Kahl?

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  23. I would like to see more about their work on Sleeping Beauty and to know more about the process work.

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  24. I'm just curious.. what's the attraction in animation that imitates real human movement? Sure the drawings themselves are beautiful, but emotionally I get nothing from this style of animation "movement". But thats just me. Great site Andrea! I'm a huge traditional "cartoony" animation fan :)

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  25. I love these drawings!! Thank you for posting all of these great pieces.

    Do you know how long would it take them to draw one of these rough drawings?

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  26. HI!!!
    to Milt's daughter Sybil and her partner Peter and for Andreas
    Teodor

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  27. Hi Sketchees,
    What's the attraction? Well, I personally still find this type of stylised and interpreted realism "attractive".
    Even though based on live action, the movement is simplified and made much more elegant than the live action take.
    I enjoy looking at a realistic Vermeer painting, but I also like an abstract Picasso. I appreciate Cinderella as much as a Tex Avery short. They are all great in their own way.
    But I do understand your point of view.

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  28. if references are useful in drawing or painting. why not in animation?
    or
    if painter can use references why animator can't?
    Teodor

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  29. Sleeping Beauty...it's difficult for me to find other characters so beautiful, so well done, so alive! Perhaps if Snow White or Fantasia would not come first, "Sleeping" for me would be Walt's masterpiece, Thanks Andreas for sharing this beauty!

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  30. Thanks for posting this stuff! it's a weekly inspiration.

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  31. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd daydream about seeing one day - but never with this detail. Thank you for sharing.

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  33. Simply beautiful.!
    I feel like I travelled through time and I'm interacting with these two geniuses!!!!
    Thank you again Andrea, for your dedication in this blog, for sharing these treasures!!!

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  34. Is it just me - or does Prince Philip remind me of Peter Pan. Even though Kahl animated those two characters.

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  35. Thanks for many useful advices I heard on some of your interviews!
    Can you upload some of your drawings?

    internet marketing

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  36. I agree too that I hate rotoscoped animation, cant stand it. I think Bluth's later films like Titian A.E. and Anastasia were way referenced. These old guys like Milt and Marc are masters and I'll take anything posted by them. Any life drawings or studies by them would be great to see. I do like the approach to animation by Keane,Henn, and Andreas, its seems all the work they did so much was alive and inspired from there imagination, as well as studying. Oh by the way hi Sybil, your father was amazing and many believe one of the best animators ever.

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  37. I remember watching this cool stuff in sweatbox sessions over fifty years ago. It's still great.

    I had the opportunity to chat with actress, Mary Costa a couple years ago. I'm still amazed how much stuff we both remembered.

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  38. Thank you Andreas for sharing this with us!

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  39. This is wonderful stuff. Drawings I would probably never have seen if you hadn't posted them. Both Marc Davis and especially Milt Kahl are so incredible, really incredible animators.
    Such a cute drawing by Milt Kahl of him and Marc.

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