Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Tony and Joe



Tony, the proprietor and Joe, the chef of the Italian restaurant in the Disney classic Lady and the Tramp are among the best human characters ever done at the studio. John Lounsbery was responsible for their charming and very expressive animation. He took full ownership of this fun couple of eccentric Italians, all of their footage is Lounsbery's.
Animating dialogue that has a foreign accent is always a treat for any animator, and Lounsbery took full advantage of the possibilities that this assignment presented. Tony and Joe not only sound Italian, they act Italian as well. Big, broad gestures that define the Italian spirit. Their faces show a marvelous range of squash and stretch, and you feel the elasticity of skin in motion.

Lounsbery got a little help from a couple of actors who provided live action reference.
Tony on the left is played by Disney veteran Don Barcley, the actor who does Joe is unknown to me. The final animation though hardly shows any traces of such reference, Lounsbery made these two characters his own.
As you can see, Pluto had to sit in for Lady and the Tramp.




A couple of lively rough drawings from Lounsbery's desk.




Look at these expressive hands. We know that Milt Kahl was a master of articulating hands in animation, but so was Lounsbery.




A great story sketch by Joe Rinaldi, full of character and mood.



This final cel and background art shows a very skillfully painted and lit scene.
The calendar on the wall by the Geronomie Noodle Co. could be an in house reference to co-director Clyde Geronimi.


13 comments:

  1. Amazing drawings. Master´s drawings definitely! Thank you for these :)

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  2. Wonderful, Mr. Lounsbery was a tremendously talented animator. Did he also design the characters? Thank you for the posts!

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  3. Great post Mr. Deja! I have always been a fan of John Lounsbery since I first heard of the Nine Old Men, but he seems to always be upstaged by the greats like Milt Kahl This post is proof that he truly was a talented master at Disney animation (Those hands alone!). Thanks for sharing with us about this amazing animator! Love your blog and thanks again for posting!

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  4. Wow! That's amazing to see how well John Lounsbery did their hands. I've heard drawing hands are one of the hardest things to do in animation.

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  5. I would definitely have though those were Milt Kahl's hands!!!! Just gorgeous!

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  6. Hi Andreas. I´m Pedro, from Brazil. Could you send me an email, please? I wanto to talk to you about Disney in Brazil. cherem@mercado.ag

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  7. Incredible! One of my favorite scenes from Disney, ever. John was underrated. Thanks so much for sharing this, Andreas!

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  8. I'm curius about a thing on the "Bella Notte" sequence, the park segment in particular. When Randy Thornton released the original soundtrack of the movie he was capable of isolating the musical track with the orchestra from the choir and creating a stereophonic recording of the song. Still, when the DVD (and blu-ray) was released the instrumental track seemed to be absent, the choir sings "a cappella", as a matter of fact the foreign versions (like the Italian 1955 one) have the orchestral base. Do you think we'll have the chance to get "Bella Notte" in its full form (like Walt Disney and Peggy Lee wanted it)...

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  9. Joe and Tony and their eccentric hand-twirling really don't get enough attention. :D

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  10. Hey Andres do you have anything on the Great Mouse Detective?

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  11. So much weight and volume in these drawings!

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  12. What inspiring posts. Of all the drawing techniques of the Nine Old Men, the style of John Lounsbery is probably my personal favorite. How he animated people and animals was superb.

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