Post your Animation cel collection!
- Thread starter batfan10
- Start date
animator
Sr Member
I rarely add to my collection, but this is a recent grail purchase for me. I saw The Rescuers in the theater when it was released and was entranced. I asked my dad if we could stay and watch it again. This is the first movie I ever viewed twice. I enjoyed all the characters, but Medusa was astounding to me! The way she moved, looked and acted was at a level I had never seen before. Medusa removing her makeup as she spoke to Penny was the most horrible and evil action I had ever seen, even now. Telling a child in such a nonchalant manner that no parent would want to adopt them broke me.
It turns out that scene is studied by animators for its brilliance. The work of animator Milt Kahl. This cel is just as Medusa is reaching for the first eyelash. The image seems more alive and in motion than any cel I have seen in person before. Maybe that is just my reaction based on memory of the scene, but I hope you like it too.
This is how it appeared in the film. I don't have the foreground cel, but I kind of prefer just the reflection alone.
It turns out that scene is studied by animators for its brilliance. The work of animator Milt Kahl. This cel is just as Medusa is reaching for the first eyelash. The image seems more alive and in motion than any cel I have seen in person before. Maybe that is just my reaction based on memory of the scene, but I hope you like it too.
This is how it appeared in the film. I don't have the foreground cel, but I kind of prefer just the reflection alone.
You are NOT kidding... especially since it was common practice to clean and re-use cells back in the day. I think it was former Disney Animator Barry Temple (or it could have been Jeff Varab) who told me that he remembers Disney tossing out animation cells (from The Jungle Book perhaps? Can't recall) into the dumpster behind the studio. He was able to dumpster dive...
How did you meet these guys?
The fact that the Snow White is a production DRAWING (what was traced to make the cel) makes it all the more rare. THOSE they tend to keep in their "morgue".
It’s kind of hard to see, as I couldn’t get a great front photo due to reflection on the glass, but I recently had a few of my favorite drawings framed in one large piece.
It now hangs in my art studio.
It now hangs in my art studio.
animator
Sr Member
Wow! That is beautiful! Those are all amazing, and what a fantastic Pinocchio!
I know these were the beginning of the "dark ages" for Disney animation, the period of the 60's through the 70's where their films got smaller and "rougher," but I absolutely loved the art style of this time period the most from their history. When they had the ability to xerox pencil drawings onto cels, initially as a means to save money and cut production schedules down, the line work becomes rough and sketchy; it adds so much texture and energy to the drawings. While I have varying opinions on the movies this was used for themselves, I absolutely love the kinetic energy the artwork had at this time.
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Have you seen that "100" short they just put out on D+? The newly-animated classic characters are actually inked in their appropriate styles. So the xeroxed sketchiness was recreated where needed. Thought that was a nice touch.
I don't have Disney Plus, but I'll check it out when and if I can. Thanks for the heads up!
I think it's a production background, which is a nice bonus. Looks like it might be stuck to the cel, though, will have to be careful. If it isn't, I wouldn't mind repositioning it a bit so he's more in the empty area. I've only just started rewatching Superman TAS for the first time since it originally aired, so it could be some time before I find this in the show.
My brother worked with them ~ 2005 in Orlando and I stopped by to visit. This was just after Disney shut down the Disney/MGM Studios animation department and lots of people lost their jobs. But Jeff hadn't been with Disney in forever; I think he worked at Don Bluth studios in either the late 1970s or early 1980s?
I remember that Jeff was drawing a picture of a donkey, and I commented how it reminded me of "The Small One" Disney short (about the donkey that carried pregnant Mary to Bethlehem). He said something like: "Well, I worked on that film."
Jeff gave me a customized Mickey Mouse pic dressed as a surgeon.
Upon further review, it's two cels, the bank of computers (arcade machines?) being on the lower layer. So it was an animated background element. So I should leave them aligned as dictated by the peg holes.
(Hmm.... assuming the lower layer belongs with the cel in the first place. Maybe I shouldn't frame it until I come across the shot in the show. If it's a BG from another scene, I'll feel free to realign them.)
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