Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Sir Ector Color Model Cel

 


A beautiful color model cel currently being offered by Heritage Auctions. Milt Kahl drew this pose of Sir Ector from the 1963 film The Sword in the Stone. What a beautiful spontaneous  sketch. 

In the film Richard Reitherman provided the voice of Wart, England's future king. His father Woolie Reitherman of course directed the movie. Richard stopped by my house last Sunday with one of his daughters Daniella. We watched the Woolie episode from The Disney Family Album series. Followed by a screening of MUSHKA. 

I am happy to say that both of them got teary eyed at the film's ending. Because that's the ultimate reaction to MUSHKA. 


Wednesday, August 23, 2023

MUSHKA at the Laemmle


Thursday, Aug. 24 will be your last chance to see the film at the Laemmle Royal theatre. 

Sound and picture are terrific at this location. Showtime is 3:15 pm. Allow a little extra time for parking.

I will be there tomorrow. I hope you can make it.

https://www.laemmle.com/film/mushka

 

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

MUSHKA on the Big Screen

 


If you are in the LA area, you are now able to see MUSHKA on the big Screen, starting this Friday, August 18. I hope you can make it!

Here is the link to book your tickets:

https://www.laemmle.com/film/mushka

Here again the link to the film's trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnTL5h3GC6g&t=1s


Sunday, August 13, 2023

MUSHKA at HollyShorts

 

 

Sorry for the late notice. For those who live in Los Angeles, MUSHKA will screen tomorrow, Monday as part of the HollyShorts Film Festival. At noon. Click here for tickets:

https://hollyshorts2023.eventive.org/schedule/64adede12bd7ad00402fd24c

 

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Josef Pallenberg


Josef Pallenberg was a German animal sculptor. I only discovered his beautiful work recently while browsing the internet. Great poses, strong knowledge of anatomy as well as motion. 

Pallenberg kept a "tame" lioness and a wolf at his home. He enjoyed taking them on a walk occasionally as he watched people freaking out.

I tried to get this book, pictured above, but it is out of print. Hopefully it will pop up on Ebay one of these days.

Here is the link to his Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Pallenberg




















Thursday, July 27, 2023

More of Garbutt's Amazing Sketches

Bernard Garbutt was a master when it comes to quick sketch life drawings. There is so much life in each sketchbook page. Top notch observation. Disney was lucky to have him teach animal drawing at the studio during the Golden Age of Animation.






















Tuesday, July 18, 2023

MUSHKA at San Diego Comic-Con

 



We look forward to presenting MUSHKA this Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con. After the screening there will be a panel discussion. 
To me this is a big honor, because of my own history with the Con. I started visiting in the early 1980s. It was always fun to meet comic strip artists, run into animation peers and occasionally purchase original artwork. (Those beautiful Milt Kahl wolves designs for The Jungle Book...San Diego Comic-Con, https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/08/jungle-wolves.html).

I hope to see you on Saturday!
 





Saturday, July 15, 2023

MUSHKA Industry Screening

 

Last Tuesday we invited the animation industry to attend a special screening of MUSHKA. 
The old Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard turned out to be the perfect venue because of its superior sound and picture quality. 
We showed the film in 4K with full blown surround sound. 



With Dave Bossert, my friend and colleague. We both started at Disney on the Black Cauldron.



Checking sound and picture quality just before the actual screening.



We had a full house, about 400 people. What an amazing feeling to share the film with industry colleagues.

Two standing ovations...I was literally flabbergasted. What a lovely reaction.


The guest of honor was of course Richard Sherman who loved connecting with old friends that night.



The musical dream team behind Mushka..Richard with composer Fabrizio Mancinelli.


Richard and Bruce Reitherman. These two go back to the original Jungle Book!


Richard with two amazing friends of mine: Leslie and Mike Iwerks.



The lovely and super talented Holly Sedillos, who sang Mushka's lullaby for the film. The song was written by Richard.



Two old friends who both worked on the Jungle Book. That's story man Floyd Norman.



One of the best nights of my life.


Thursday, July 6, 2023

Disney Villains


Variety recently rated Disney animated Villains. These kind of lists always vary according to who does the rating. But it does feel mighty nice to find Gaston, Jafar and Scar in this top 10. 
But....no Stromboli, Chernabog or Shere Khan?

Here are a couple of very rough animation drawings of Scar. My assistant John Ramirez posted them a while ago. I wonder what other kinds of roughs John keeps in his garage....  ;)




 The link to the Variety article:

https://variety.com/lists/best-disney-movie-villains-ranked/gaston/


Friday, June 30, 2023

Mushka - Official Animated Short Film Trailer


Here is an easy access to my film trailer MUSHKA. 
I am very happy to say that we recently won a Kids Choice Award at Palm Springs international short film festival. Reviews for the movie are starting to show up. This one tells me that MUSHKA has the potential to touch people in all the right ways:


Thursday, June 29, 2023

Clemens Pasch

I had never heard of this artist until I watched a Youtube video from the German TV show "Bares fuer Rares" (Cash for Rare Things). The US equivalent is "Antiques Roadshow".

Someone brought a Pasch sculpture into the TV studio for evaluation. The style is somewhat typical for the modernism of the 1950s-1960s. A realistic but simplified design with an almost two dimensional graphic approach. Pasch's work also includes humor in the way his human and animal sculpts are proportioned and staged.

I found this delightful work by him called Adam & Eve (The Apple) online.

Pasch lived from 1910 to 1985.






Friday, June 16, 2023

Lilo Pre-Animation Sheets

 


As I continue to organize my archive, I keep finding things that actually should be back with Disney. Like these sheets I drew before I started animation with Lilo. At that time I tried to analyze Chris Sanders' drawing style and make it work for animation. Of course the character evolved over time visually as I began animating production scenes. But this is how I started. 

I am kind of proud of my work on that film. And I will return these sheets to Disney.