H.K.

9 06 2009

several years ago I was asked to do some logo-designs for HONG KONG DISNEYLAND. a condition was, I had to use the typical disneyland castle design somehow. since the MULAN-days I had become familiar with chinese brushes and had even looked into their caligraphy. so I tried the castle in a ‘chinese brush look’. later I added some typical blossoms. the lettering, a combination of the famous disney ‘D’ and the H.K. – hong kong letters was fun too. unfortunately the client choose a different, less fancy version.

hongkong dis

© disney enterprises, inc / WDI





# 2 3 6

8 06 2009

nature comp AA

some statistics inbetween – this is post # 236 and the blog is about 9 months old. I found some very old artwork from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN, as well as BALTO. will prepare it for some of the next posts.
there will be of course new recreated BG’s, and more historic documentation. the digital transfer of the color-slides takes a while, but more soon.





midnight 7

7 06 2009

harbour mood

© bilderfabrik





up in the sky

6 06 2009

3supermanGGG

2sup082

1electric earthquake AAA

between sept. 1941 and july 1943 the FLEISCHER-studio in florida produced 17 SUPERMAN shorts. these are some recreated pan backgrounds from the series.

© FLEISCHER/paramount





wonderland

5 06 2009

alice 018 AA

alice comp bb

alice comp BBBa

recreated backgrounds from disney’s 1951 ALICE IN WONDERLAND

© disney enterprises, inc





claude coats

4 06 2009

the following recreated backgrounds from disney’s 1945 released PLUTO short WATCH DOG are painted by CLAUDE COATS. he was born 1913 in san francisco, raised in L.A. and studied after a start in architecture fine arts at the university of southern california. through his membership in the watercolor society he was discovered by disney, where he started to work in background in 1935. claude painted BG’s for many of the disney shorts and silly symphonies, including THE OLD MILL and FERDINAND THE BULL. you can see his masterfully painted backgrounds as well in most of disney’s feature films, starting with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, PINOCCHIO, DUMBO and FANTASIA all the way to THE RESCUERS in 1977, where he is credited as color stylist. additional he worked at WDI as a show-designer for the disneyland attractions. claude coats retired 1989 after 54 years in animation and imagineering. he passed away 1992.

watch dog 042

watch dog050

watch dog051

1watch dog044

watch dog066

© disney enterprises, inc





midnight 6

3 06 2009

6midn.509 DD

© bilderfabrik





bearfight

2 06 2009

some more from universal/amblimation dec.1995 released BALTO. an outlined bear in one color would have looked too cartoony, too much detail in the fur too expensive to animate, too realistic and it would have flickered. this is what I came up with as a solution, just animated highlights in two different colors. the last one is a color continuity sheet with changing light during the sunset. all felt pen and gouache on top of SIMON WELLS xeroxed storyboard drawings.

balto bearfight05

balto bear119

balto col.continuity18

© UNIVERSAL/AMBLIN





june mood

1 06 2009

BG test 77711





hunters

31 05 2009

disney’s DONALD DUCK short THE FOX HUNT was released july 1938. the following recreated extremely long pan is from the opening scene and is 40 seconds long! this is very unusual, it is difficult to plan for layout- and animation-artists. in this case the pan shows the hunters on horses riding out for the fox hunt, the camera leaves them behind and reveals donald with several dogs who is supposed to search for the fox.

fox hunt opening

© disney enterprises, inc





moments 4

30 05 2009

moments 4





more trouble

29 05 2009

here is another recreated long pan-background from disney’s 1945 goofy short TIGER TROUBLE. again painted by master BG-painter CLAUDE COATS this is in my opinion one of the most beautiful BG’s in shorts that I have seen in a while. coats worked that same year on two more shorts – DOG WATCH and CALIFORNY ER BUST. soon I will post some more BG’s from DOG WATCH.

tiger trouble 2

© disney enterprises, inc





portraits

28 05 2009

LA PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC was produced a silent film in france in 1928, directed by CARL THEODOR DREYER. even for today standards the film is a masterpiece, in acting – especially the main role played by RENEE JEANNE FALCONETTI, as well as for the visuals. the camera concentrates mainly on the actor’s facial features. dreyer shot a lot of the film in close-up and did not allow his actors to wear makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions. this choice was made possible through use of the newly developed PANCHROMATIC FILM. for years the original versiion of the film was believed to be lost after a fire destroyed the master negative. only in 1981 another complete print of dreyer’s version was found. this version is now available on DVD. I highly recommend this film, as you can see in these few screen captures, there are ‘real’ characters portrayed in this film. it is a piece of art.

jeanne d'arc comp

you can order the DVD here





the atom, a friend?

27 05 2009

with all the news about the threat of nuclear bombs, especially the news about north-korea, as well as news about some more wanna-be nuclear powers in other parts of the world, I am not sure if I should stay with the original title of disney’s film OUR FRIEND THE ATOM. it was released jan. 1957, produced in cooperation with the U.S. navy and General Dynamics ( builders of the nuclear submarine USS nautilus ). the narrator of the mixed live action/animation/documentary show, first on the air in disney’s DISNEYLAND tv-show, was german professor HEINZ HABER, a pretty popular science presenter in germany. the show uses clips from disney’s 20.000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, the famous fisherman and the genie in the bottle fable and some very well done historic development pieces to come up with the conclusion ‘here lies our chance to make the atomic genie our friend’. I always liked the 60 min long show, directed by HAM LUSKE, the character design is very unique, as well as the very stylized backgrounds. following are some screen captures, judge yourself

1our friend the atom vid

© disney enterprises, inc





midnight 5

26 05 2009

midnight 409 H

© bilderfabrik





july 1945

25 05 2009

about two months after the end of the second world war in europe this disney short was released – CANINE CASANOVA. I don’t care that much about the story and the animation of pluto and the other dog characters, but the backgrounds look very nice, unusually stylized for a disney short. layout by KARL KARPE, BG’s by AL DEMPSTER. following are some recreated backgrounds.

canine casanova1945.001

canine015

canine017

canine027

© disney enterprises, inc





moments noir

23 05 2009

moments noirA





wood 4

23 05 2009

wood BG test 3

© bilderfabrik





bibbidi bobbidi boo

22 05 2009

cind080 comp Kyyu

cind092pan a

these recreated backgrounds are from disney’s CINDERELLA, released march 1950. it was the first full length animated feature film after the second world war, after BAMBI in 1942. disney chose another grimm’s fairy tale hoping it would continue the success of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. it was a good choice, the film became the most successfull film of the year.

© disney enterprises, inc





moments 3

21 05 2009

inter.comp Nr.3

the number of visitors just passed 200.000 – unbelieveable! thank you all for coming over. maybe you leave me a few more comments, would be nice to know who you all are…








The Hidden History of Oz

Discover the Secrets of an Enchanted World

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The Hidden History of Oz

Discover the Secrets of an Enchanted World

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is the best place for your personal blog or business site.