Snowflakes in summer?

Fantasia

Released:  November 13, 1940

Worldwide Box Office:  $83,300,000

Over the years of collecting I have also tried to find great books on the subject.   This has served me well and helped me to learn and understand this genre from people who have worked directly with the various films and to see art that I would never get to view up close.  Additionally, I love to learn about the production techniques and processes that create the visual magic.

After reading Andreas Deja's blog a number of weeks ago, I learned about a new book he shared on Herman Schultheis. The book titled, The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis and the Secrets of Walt Disney's Movie Magic is based upon some notebooks rediscovered in his own home at the time of his wife's passing a few years back. I have yet to read through but the notebook is a fascinating collection of his notes on how he worked and influenced animation process in the 30's & 40's. I would highly recommend it and I am only through the first chapter.

One of the biggest thrills for me is getting to see up close artwork from other collector's and studio files. This book so far has proved to meet my expectations and then some. As I managed to read through the first chapter and as I turned to page 69, I was greeted with a wonderful surprise. One of the pieces in my collection was unknowingly included in the book and lavishly displayed!  So up on the blog this week is the beautiful concept cel setup of the Snowflake Fairies from the Nutcracker sequence.

                              Original Production Background Setup, watercolor on paper

                                gouache on celluloid

                              Acquired:  December 14, 2011

                              Background Artist:  J. Gordon Legg

                              Sequence 5, Scene 43

Comprised of two cel levels and a watercolor background, this piece was conceived to help the animators and studio staff visualize just how the scene should appear on camera.  The piece is composited with a cel level of the fairies on an overlay and the 2nd level being just the snowflakes with sparkling effects.   The image below shows the setup without the Fairies.

The background was done on heavyweight paper and and is marked 43 which I believe indicates the scene number in the overall sequence.  It appears to be renumbered/moved from a later scene.  As you would expect for a piece from Fantasia, the overall piece has the 5 hole punch paper strip adhered to the piece to allow for the proper line-up of the cel levels to the background.  When I actually received and cataloged the piece upon receipt I was surprised to learn that the background was painted by J. Gordon Legg.  Unfortunately, I am not aware who the cel artists were.  But the hand-inking on the cels levels includes lots of sparkle effects and airbrushing along with the all of the intricate hand-line work.

As I love to collect art from Fantasia, I have been on the lookout for a piece from this sequence for well over 25 years and it wasn't until 2011 that I actually had seen a setup.  I thought none survived.  This piece is simply beautiful and really shows the extent to which the studio went to create fantastic and somewhat artfully realistic images from nature for this sequence.  

What do you think?