Remembering Alice!

 

Alice in Wonderland  

Released this week in 1951

A couple of interesting things to note for this week, Walt Disney released "Alice in Wonderland on July 26, 1951 in London.  The subsequent release in the US occurred just days later on July 28, 1951 in New York city with the rest of US seeing the film even later in September.  Unfortunately, the film did not do well initially at the box office due to a number of reasons, ranging from perceived complicated plot lines, poor adaptation of the book to film and the general public sentiment at the time.  As result of this, Disney later released the film on Television more widely in the US.  I did not previously know this about the film.  Alice in Wonderland was never fully re-released in theaters in the US until well after Walt's passing in 1974.  It did very well and was subsequently released again in theaters in 1981.

I have always liked the film and in particular the whimsical characters from the various stories and subplots.  I think they lent themselves really well to animation and I love the way Disney made the stories less complicated and more fun in my opinion.  I was ultimately inspired by Disney's film to acquire an original book released at the time of Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodson) and to read the original story in the same format as a child would have around 1872.  I had never read the books prior to this and enjoyed the experience.  More on that at another time.

Much later into my animation art collecting, I decided it would be fun to collect cels of some of the whimsical characters.   The very first of which I acquired was a cel of the dog-e-pillar and cat-e-pillar.  I love this simple cel setup as it displays a moment from the "Golden Afternoon" sequence.  You can read a bit more about this cel on previous posting I made in June of 2013. 

Also, If you haven't already discovered, there is wonderful book I just received this summer that showcases artwork from Alice in Wonderland.  Published out of France by Huginn & Muninn in collaboration with Disney and authored by Pierre Lambert, "Alice au Pays des Merveilles" is wonderful coffee-table book beautifully displaying artwork created during the production process for the film.  While not as lavishly printed as Pierre Lambert's earlier books on Sleeping Beauty or Jungle Book, it is still an edition worthy of every animation library.  With over 200 pages from cover to cover, this hardbound edition showcases everything from production drawings, key master setups to concept artwork.  I highly recommend acquiring this book.

 

 

After spending a few hours revelling in the pages of this beautiful book, I was very happy to discover the production background that matches my dog-e-pillar & cat-e-pillar cel setup on page 113.  What a nice surprise! 

Jungle Book Exhibit (Part 2)

The Making of a Masterpiece

The Jungle Book Exhibit - Part 2

June 23, 2022

On the second day of the trip to the Walt Disney Family Museum, it was a beautiful sunny day in the bay area.  I spent the morning exploring the main galleries to reacquaint myself of the animation art displays and to notice anything new since the last time I was there.  I also wanted to take another look at the interactive exhibit on the Herman Schultheis “Lost Notebook.”  I have always enjoyed looking at the displays of maquettes and of course the multi-plane camera on display.

Entrance to the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio.

The "lost notebook" compiled by Herman Schultheis.

One of the animation display cases featuring artwork from Dumbo.

One of three multi-plane cameras in the world.

Next up for the rest of the afternoon, a short walk from the main gallery is the Diane Disney Miller Exhibition Hall.  This is where the exhibition of the “The Jungle Book, Making A Masterpiece” is on display.   Overall, the exhibit was beautifully displayed and organized by sequence to the story outline of the film.  The structured displays creatively incorporated "larger than life" backdrops of relevant scenes from the film to go along with the animation art on display.  I loved the way the displays were designed to pull you into the movie and the setting.  Additionally, a subtle "jungle" sound could be heard playing in the background over speakers throughout the gallery.  Several interactive displays were made available where one could either read a version of the film script, dance with Baloo and watch videos featuring artists who worked on the film.  I particularly like watching the video of Milt Kahl talking about animating Bagheera and also flipping through the story & sequence outline of the film on the interactive display.   Needless to say, I ended up taking over 500 pictures of the exhibit that day and below is sampling of some of my favorites. 

Entrance to the Diane Disney Miller Gallery.

Lobby of the Diane Disney Miller Gallery showcasing the exhibit.

Original one sheet movie poster from the film's release.

Original production concept layout drawing.

A large collection of original layout drawings in the first display gallery.

I really love this original layout drawing from early in the film.

A collection of beautiful concept art by Walt Peregoy.

Vertical pan concept by Walt Peregoy.

One of my favorite pieces of concept art by Al Dempster.

Nice pencil model/practice sheet of Mowgli headshots.

Nice collection of key master setups with Mowgli and Kaa.

Another one of my favorite concept pieces by Al Dempster.

A nice production rough compared against the production cel of Mowgli.

Original rough drawing by Frank Thomas.

Some more production drawings of Mowgli and Baloo by Frank Thomas.

Beautiful key master setup that inspired the event cookies.

One of the animation key master setups that I was hoping to see was a piece that was previously in my collection.  I was not disappointed!  I remember back in my early days of collecting that Jeff Lotman, a noted early collector of animation, had acquired a beautiful pan background from the Temple Ruins with Mowgli and King Louie.  I had always loved that piece with its beautiful background detail of King Louie’s throne.  He later sold this through Sotheby’s and I was lucky enough to trace the piece after that sale to purchase it from another collector in Pennsylvania.  Several years later I became acquainted with Andreas to whom I sold the piece.  It is always interesting to learn the provenance of art and where and how it is found.  The fun things I enjoy about collecting animation artwork are the stories behind each piece you discover.  What journey did the art take to end up in your personal collection?  It was fun to be reunited with the piece during the exhibition.  Now it is on display for others to enjoy!

Here I am with the key master setup in my home gallery back in the day.

Here I am with the key master in the exhibit!  

My how the art looks great and the collector has aged!

One of my ultimate favorite pieces from Jungle Book!

So, after completing the tour of the first floor it was up a level to see the rest of the exhibit.  In this section you could visually look over the balcony and view almost the entirety of the first floor.  Highlights upstairs revealed a series of beautiful key master setups of Shere Khan and the Village Girl.  The wonderful display techniques by the museum really allowed one to get up close and see the fine details on hand-inked cels and more.  I have never seen so many Shere Khan key master setups in one place before.  They were simply beautiful.

A recreation of Mowgli's throne one the 2nd floor lobby!  Beautiful!

Having one of "two" bananas in the temple throne!

A view from the second floor lobby balcony.

Impressive collection of Shere Khan concept art and key masters setups.

Two of my favorite key master setups from the Shere Khan section, notice the overlays on the piece to the left.

Overall, the exhibition was very beautifully created and organized.  I highly recommend visiting the exhibit if you can make it to the museum.  What a wonderful treat for the senses for any animation art enthusiast!  If you wish to see any additional photos, I am happy to share.  Just drop me a comment and let me know as I took photos of every piece!

Giant production background recreated high up on the gallery wall.