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.

Jungle Book Exhibit (Part 1)

  

The Making of the Masterpiece

The Jungle Book Exhibit - Part 1

June 22, 2022

Well, I am excited to share a recent trip I took to participate in the Walt Disney Family Museum's special exhibit entitled, "The Making of a Masterpiece, The Jungle Book."  This amazing exhibit is now on display at the Diane Disney Miller exhibit hall of the Walt Disney Family Museum complex at the Presidio in San Francisco, CA.  Curated by Disney Legend, Andreas Deja, the special exhibit showcases an exquisite collection of animation art created during the production process of Disney's 1967 film, the Jungle Book.  This is a must see for any Disney animation art movie fan!

After a fun trip visiting family in the lower48, I extended my trip out of Alaska to attend the opening events for the Jungle Book exhibit.  The day before the official opening, the Museum held two member's only events:  A Discussion Panel and Evening Reception.  The festivities included special guests, Andreas Deja, guest curator, Bruce Reitherman, voice of Mowgli, another Disney Legend, Norman Floyd, retired Disney artist who worked on the Jungle Book and Darlene Carr, voice of the village girl.  The guest discussion panel was held in the museum's theater and was well attended.  

Main Entrance to the Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco, CA.  

Above: Original release Jungle Book one sheet.

Pictured from left to right:  Darlene Carr, Floyd Norman, Bruce Reitherman and Andreas Deja

Above two photos courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum

Andreas Deja lead the discussion with all of the guest participants and field questions at the end from the audience.  Highlights included Andreas sharing his story and love of the Jungle and the surprising fact that  Jungle Book is the highest grossing film of all time in Germany, where Andreas grew up.  Additionally both Darlene and Bruce share stories of how they came about to work on the film and became the voice artists.  Additionally, Andreas shared a special videotaped message from Clint Howard the voice of the Goliath the baby elephant.  During the Q&A session I was able to ask the question on how they created the wonderful opening waterfall shot after the credits are completed.  Bruce and Andreas both shared that they took live footage of some waterfalls perhaps from South America and combined it with animation backgrounds to create the effect.  This same scene is repeated in later in film as well. 

 

                                                First scene, after opening credits, from the Jungle Book, 1967.

Additionally, it was fun to hear how the legendary Floyd Norman had joined the studio during that time and was assigned to work in the story department after Bill Peet left the Jungle Book project and the company.   A fun moment during the evening was when the panel led the audience to sing "Happy Birthday" to Floyd Norman as it was his 87th that day.  There were a lot of questions from the audience and someone even inquired as to where Andreas got all of his artwork.  He responded mostly through auctions of animation over time.  

After the panel concluded members were invited to a reception in the awards lobby of the museum to share in some light desserts and meet the guest panelists. I was able to meet all of the panelists and enjoy some great conversation with them about animation and the making of the Jungle Book.  I spent a fair amount of time listening and talking with Floyd Norman about his experience in helping with the overall story line.  He was brought on board when Walt really wanted the movie to portray a more fun and light-hearted adventure.  He shared his thoughts on working with the story and discussed segments such at the "Trust in Me" sequence he worked.  I really enjoyed meeting Mr. Norman and at the time did not realize what an influential animation artist he was.  Darlene Carr soon joined the conversation and she shared more of her thoughts on the film.  It was interesting to hear her experience as a voice artist, being a teenager in the 60's and the impression she had of meeting Walt Disney.  Later, I met with Andreas and introduced myself to him.  We had spoken many times on the phone and it was nice to actually meet him in person for the first time.  I even offered him an invitation to view my collection if/when he ever came up to Alaska.  He was interested in coming up north as he had never been to Alaska.  I hope he takes me up on the offer!   At the conclusion of the evening, the museum held a special raffle for an animation drawing that Andreas offered to give to a lucky ticket holder.  Overall a wonderful evening event held by the museum and the staff at the event went out of their way to ensure that everyone had a good time.  Thank you to all of the event staff who helped me!

                        Andreas on the far right, other museum guest (middle), Bruce Reitherman and Sean Monico.                                                        Above photos courtesy of Walt Disney Family Museum.

Andreas Deja, Floyd Norman with Sean Monico 

 Also, I wanted to mention that on the dessert table, I discovered the museum had some special cookies made for the event that were works of art themselves.  Inspired by the production backgrounds in the exhibit, Barbara Felix from felixthecook.com created these special sugar cookies.  They looked amazing and were delicious.  If you need something special, check out her website!  Thank you Barbara!

Original production background setup, courtesy of Andreas Deja. 

Next up I will share more about the exhibit itself and hopefully a short movie as well!  I hope you enjoyed this story.  Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment!  Enjoy!

Let's remember......It All Started with a Mouse...

Steamboat Willie

Released:  November 18, 1928

Hello Animation Art Fans....I have been itching to get back into writing short stories again about my journey into the art of animation.  Many things have transpired over the last several years since my last blog post, but my affection for sharing knowledge and discovery with animation art has not changed!  So what better way to get back into it than with where Walt started it all....Mickey Mouse.

On my first trip to New York City in 1995, with a little budget compared to others in the animation art world, I felt like a big dealer. This trip would prove to be successful even though I was still learning the animation auction scene.  I met a wonderful animation colleague, Debbie Weiss, who inspired me to get started and encouraged me to explore my interest. She was living in New York City and had recently started the Wonderful World of Animation out of similar passion for animation art. It was during this first meeting that I started to gain an understanding for the importance and value of vintage animation art. It was also during this trip that Debbie introduced me to Jeff Lotman, a well known collector, who would later publish three great reference books on animation art.  Debbie purchased this drawing of Mickey from Steamboat Willie at the Sotheby’s auction where we met, which in turn, she sold to me later that year. It was this drawing that really opened my eyes to the seriousness of vintage art and how important in pop culture animation had become.

 

         Original Production Drawing, graphite on 12 field animation paper

         Acquired:  September 11, 1995

         Artist:  Ub Iwerks

As I began to understand animation art more fully, I recognized the rarity and cultural significance that this early short film had on the future of animation. Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie was the introduction of Mickey Mouse and the first animated short to feature sound. Ub Iwerks, an influential artist who had helped Disney in his early years, almost single handedly drew the first three Mickey Mouse shorts. He was a prolific draftsman and was known to sketch up to hundreds of drawings a day when working on these early productions. His ferocity for drawing was so intense that you can literally see it on the paper.  Impressions for the previous and subsequent drawings in this sequence can be literally seen on this drawing if you look closely in person in the right light. Discovering these unique details is what makes owning animation art so incredible and it brings you closer to the art, the artist and to the production & imagination process.

Drawings from this sequence of Steamboat Willie have come up for auction from time to time and they have done well in price appreciation over the years.  Many years ago you could pick up Steamboat Willie drawings easily for a few hundred dollars, but today...they are trending around $2500+ and some have even gone for over $10,000 at auction recently.  Because I love to collect drawings in sequence, I was fortunate enough to pick up another drawing a few years later.  I framed the drawing in a double-sided glass enclosure which was the perfect way to showcase the piece. These are amazing pieces of pop culture.  Enjoy! 

Original Production Drawing, graphite on 12 field animation paper

           Acquired:  November 1998

           Artist:  Ub Iwerks

Discover More at Auctions

Hercules

Released:  June 27, 1997

Worldwide Box Office:  $252,700,000

One of my favorite films from Disney's contemporary time period in the 90's was Hercules.  I have always been a bit of a fan of Greek mythology anyway from watching some of the Sinbad movies from mid-20th century and of course there was the Clash of the Titans released in 1981.  So when Disney decided to do their first feature film with mythological characters I was excited to see what they had in store.  

As I had mentioned in previous posts Disney would typically sell selected production pieces from their films during this time at Sotheby's.  Hercules was no exception and I was lucky enough to attend the auction and walk away with a piece that I liked.  On June 20, 1998, the sale offered the fewest number of lots for sale for a Disney animation auction (total of 125). This film enjoyed similar success as experienced with Hunchback and the auction prices again reflected this. 

As I perused the pre-auction viewings at their York Avenue showroom, what was particularly interesting with the lots offered from Hercules was the field size for most of the backgrounds and corresponding cels.  The majority of the pieces offered were larger than the typical 12 and 16 field sizes.  Many in fact were 25 field with many being pan sized backgrounds.   The cover piece in particular was huge. I can only imagine what the animator had to go through creating such large drawings!   I have often wondered if the field of size was in relation to the production designer, Gerald Scarfe?   Mr Scarfe is known for his very fanciful and linear illustrations that frequently appeared in the New Yorker magazine.

Here is my piece, lot 64 on the exhibition wall at Sotheby's offset location during the pre-auction viewing.  My piece measures 19 1/2 by 25 inches....quite a sizable key master and the framed piece is even larger.

What was a lot of fun as well was to see the maquettes.  They were beautifully painted and were very large in scale.  I particularly love Pegasus and Zeus.  As some of you may know I love to collect these as well.  More to share in this space in another post.

With my more limited budget at the time, I was very happy to pickup a multi-layered production background as I had an idea for how I wanted to frame and ultimately display the piece.  I was successful with lot 64 that included both Herc and Phil.  It is comprised of a character cel, 3 underlay cel levels and a single temple on the painted on crescent board (back-most top middle above Herc).

  

                             Original Key Master Setup, gouache on celluloid and board

                             Acquired:  June 20 19, 1998
                             Sequence 11, Scene 44, 45 & 46

                             Artist:  Various

What I particularly like about this piece is that it had the different layers that added depth and dimension  as well of course featuring a funny scene with the main characters.  The piece is also feature in the "Art of Hercules" book and can be see on page 168.   This piece depicts a key place in the film and I also like to have backgrounds that can speak for themselves without the character cel.  There is a lot to view in this very detailed background of what looks like a "New York" version of the city of Thebes.  One of the other fun features of this background is that it appears in the film in three separate scenes (as noted above).  It is a fun piece and has more film time than most backgrounds.

                             Original production background, gouache on board

                             Acquired:  June 20 19, 1998
                             Sequence 11, Scene 44, 45 & 46

                             Artist:  Unknown

Part of your world.....

Little Mermaid

Released:  November 17, 1989

Worldwide Box Office:  $211,300,000

Well, recently I just got back from vacation in Hawaii and was inspired to share this next piece of animation art for two key reasons.  I love the ocean and it made me think of the Little Mermaid, one of my favorite disney films.....and Howard Lowery.   

A few years back I was lucky to win at auction from Howard this wonderful rough drawing of Ariel from the "Part of Your World" sequence where she sings "has everything....!"  Ariel in this piece is large, expressive and beautifully drawing by Glenn Keane.  I just love how expressive her eyes are.  One of the best drawings that I have seen of her in all of my years collecting.

                             Original Production Drawing, graphite on 16 field animation paper

                             Acquired:  February 19, 2012

                             Artist:  Glenn Keane

As many of you may already know, Howard Lowery used to operate the Howard Lowery Gallery in Burbank, California for many years was instrumental in helping to establish the modern collecting market for animation art.  His gallery is sadly no longer around but he does still dabble in selling animation on his website with weekly auctions.  Just recently he listed a piece from the Little Mermaid of a rough production drawing of Ariel by Glenn Keane from her "Part of your World" sequence.  What was remarkable to me was the interest (11 unique bidders) and the selling price.  The recent drawing sold for over $1500!

                                              Original Production Drawing, graphite on 16 field animation paper

                                              Artist:  Glenn Keane

Over the last several years, I have noticed a trend with art from the Little Mermaid rising higher in value and more in demand.  I guess with Howard's recent sale we are continuing to see strength in the contemporary films as the generation around the time of Little Mermaid is coming into the market.  What do you think? 


 

Farewell Genie....now you are truly free!

Aladdin

Released:  November 25, 1992

Worldwide Video Sales:  $504,050,000

As a tribute to one my favorite contemporary animated films of all-time, I thought it was only fitting to share a piece from my collection that would honor Robin Williams.  When I learned last week that Robin Williams had passed away it was quite a shock and unfortunately the world has truly lost someone very inspiring.  It is really hard to believe that someone who gave so much of himself to make others feels wonderful and smile through humor found it difficult to do the same for himself.  He was truly an artist that deserves our respect and honor.  He will be missed.

                      Original Production Maquette, cast resin with primer paint, No. 10

                      Acquired:  February 23, 2006

                      Sculptor:  Kent Melton

                      Reproduction Artist:  Doug Hild

My nephew earlier in this week shared this video that featured a nice section on one I believe was one of his best roles.  A nice look into his unique spirit. 

The Genie is truly free....may he rest in peace and smile from up above for all to remember and see.