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Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians — Transcript

by Sterling Dudley · 5,350 words · 811 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:01[Music]
  2. 0:06somewhere in this village and we're
  3. 0:09going to find them now get going the
  4. 0:11only one Dalmatians is the most modern
  5. 0:13Disney animated movie ever made the one
  6. 0:16that has the most guts that says this is
  7. 0:19Art but it's entertainment at the same
  8. 0:21time the 101 Dalmatians was a huge
  9. 0:23influence on me I liked the look of it I
  10. 0:25like the story I like the characters
  11. 0:26there was something just very kind of
  12. 0:28fresh and novel what's he going to do
  13. 0:31dad
  14. 0:32[Music]
  15. 0:34one thing that sets the movie apart from
  16. 0:38a lot of movies in the Disney Canon is
  17. 0:40it's a contemporary Story made to play
  18. 0:43in that time period the cool thing about
  19. 0:45it is that it's contemporary to this day
  20. 0:48it's contemporary in a classical way 101
  21. 0:52Dalmatians was the first Disney animated
  22. 0:55that was more than
  23. 0:58a mystery there was suspense and was
  24. 1:01worried about whether these characters
  25. 1:02were going to come through awesome
  26. 1:05spotted I use if it's the last thing I
  27. 1:08do also we had the new technology the
  28. 1:10Xerox process was going to replace the
  29. 1:13old ink and paint so that was exciting
  30. 1:15so you see in 101 Dalmatians very mature
  31. 1:18animators doing probably some of the
  32. 1:19best work of their lives and yet you see
  33. 1:21Walt Disney I'm almost mourning the fact
  34. 1:23that he has to let go of this beautiful
  35. 1:24romantic style that he loved in favor of
  36. 1:27a simpler style that's representative of
  37. 1:28mid 20th century art it's not your usual
  38. 1:32children book illustration come to life
  39. 1:34it's Picasso coming into Disney still
  40. 1:37our hearts are touched and I'm very very
  41. 1:40lucky
  42. 1:43or something
  43. 1:44[Music]
  44. 1:52foreign
  45. 1:54[Music]
  46. 2:00Smith published her story the 101
  47. 2:02Dalmatians in 1956. the story was
  48. 2:05inspired by the fact that she herself
  49. 2:07had Dalmatian dogs the first of which
  50. 2:09was called Pongo and a friend of hers
  51. 2:12quite casually and not maliciously as
  52. 2:14Cruella Deville might have said that um
  53. 2:16yes those dogs would make rather a good
  54. 2:18coat and the story immediately caught
  55. 2:20and Walt Disney's imagination this was a
  56. 2:22time of great growth at the studio and
  57. 2:24Walt Disney was so involved in other
  58. 2:27things he had television the theme parks
  59. 2:29that animation got a little less of of
  60. 2:32Walt's time and so he put into effect
  61. 2:34this idea of taking a very strong story
  62. 2:37guy Bill Pete and basically having him
  63. 2:40leading this feature film now Bill Peak
  64. 2:43came to Disney in 1937 jobs were scarce
  65. 2:46and he heard that Disney was looking for
  66. 2:48artists so he came and he started
  67. 2:49working as an in-betweener which meant
  68. 2:52you were way down the line you assist
  69. 2:54with the final drawings of the
  70. 2:55characters it was the grunt work it was
  71. 2:57the Bottom Rung of the ladder really
  72. 2:59frustrated him to no end but Bill was
  73. 3:01really driven and knew he wanted to be a
  74. 3:03story person and when he got his chances
  75. 3:05like on Dumbo some amazing scenes in
  76. 3:08dumbo when the little elephants getting
  77. 3:10a bath and his mother is bathing him it
  78. 3:12was beautifully drawn no dialogue
  79. 3:14beautifully laid out by Bill Pete and
  80. 3:17then later you know his work is seen in
  81. 3:19pretty much every Disney movie and he
  82. 3:21became this very senior story person a
  83. 3:24lot of people don't even know what story
  84. 3:25men are because of the work that they do
  85. 3:28is never seen on the screen but before
  86. 3:30any animation is done it's all
  87. 3:32storyboarded it's kind of like a comic
  88. 3:34strip which tell the story sequentially
  89. 3:36from Cut to cut we did movies like um
  90. 3:39Lion King or Beauty and the Beast or
  91. 3:41Aladdin we had 15 people on the story
  92. 3:44crew Bill Pete did it by himself I had a
  93. 3:48chance to go to the archives and look at
  94. 3:51his story sketches and compare them one
  95. 3:54after the other and you follow these
  96. 3:57sketches and you go well I'll be this is
  97. 3:59impossible they didn't change a theme
  98. 4:00this is exactly the way Bill Pete had
  99. 4:04envisioned it he missed him oh Thunder's
  100. 4:07pretending
  101. 4:08I think Bill Pete was a master
  102. 4:11Storyteller and he structured this story
  103. 4:13to make it a story that is so focused so
  104. 4:16controlled so centered on these two dogs
  105. 4:18and their quest to get their puppies
  106. 4:19back that you follow the story with an
  107. 4:22effortlessness and I think they
  108. 4:24tightened it in a way that really works
  109. 4:26somewhat so in fact that Dodie Smith
  110. 4:29wrote to Bill Pete and said that he had
  111. 4:31in fact improved on her book which is
  112. 4:33quite a compliment when you think about
  113. 4:35it and he was able to put flesh on the
  114. 4:37bones of what was in that children's
  115. 4:38book and create the characters that we
  116. 4:40know today and the way the characters
  117. 4:42interact and I have a very Bell Pete
  118. 4:45sort of touch kind of modern sense
  119. 4:47ability to it it's one of the things
  120. 4:49that makes that movie very unique is is
  121. 4:51how contemporary it was that was the
  122. 4:53first time where here's a married couple
  123. 4:55that clearly is physical toward each
  124. 4:58other and there's a flirtation going on
  125. 5:01when you know he's pulling her around
  126. 5:03and going Cruella Cruella Deville you
  127. 5:07know I love that
  128. 5:08these are characters we hadn't seen in a
  129. 5:10Disney film before Cruella Deville
  130. 5:12Smoked Cigarettes the dogs watch
  131. 5:14television it was something very of the
  132. 5:16moment and I think that was a great
  133. 5:17departure not only story-wise but
  134. 5:19stylistically for Walt I mean we were
  135. 5:21all very excited about it and mainly
  136. 5:22because it was so different you know it
  137. 5:25was so different from what had been done
  138. 5:27at Disney before it really broke new
  139. 5:29ground
  140. 5:30for Disney's animation Department
  141. 5:35101 Dalmatians was groundbreaking it's
  142. 5:38really the first Disney animated feature
  143. 5:41that isn't really a musical in any way
  144. 5:42it's interesting that uh that Dalmatians
  145. 5:45has so few songs in it it's a real break
  146. 5:48with what had just come at the Disney
  147. 5:50Studio and it's ironic because Roger's
  148. 5:53vocation is songwriter you'd think that
  149. 5:55would be an excuse to have a lot of
  150. 5:56great Disney songs it just shows you how
  151. 6:00Walt Disney was never any kind of a
  152. 6:02slave to any formula even if it worked
  153. 6:04well before the songs in 101 Dalmatians
  154. 6:07they were written by Mel Levin and love
  155. 6:09the song Cruella Deville is the most
  156. 6:11memorable song from the movie Melvin
  157. 6:14actually wrote a song prior to this one
  158. 6:16for Cruella
  159. 6:17now every night I almost go insane
  160. 6:22I hear those witches chanting in my
  161. 6:25brain
  162. 6:27cruel cruel
  163. 6:29level devil devil Cruel Cruel Cruel a
  164. 6:34devil devil devil but driving to work
  165. 6:37one day he melts foot you know a blues
  166. 6:40Tempo it would really fit that character
  167. 6:42so he came up with that Melody line so
  168. 6:45he replaced his prior song himself
  169. 6:48you come to realize you've seen her kind
  170. 6:52of eyes watching you from underneath a
  171. 6:56rock
  172. 6:57the last song was a Dalmatian Plantation
  173. 7:00was was exchanged because Bill Pete
  174. 7:03wanted a different version of it Bill
  175. 7:05Pete wanted to end the movie with a song
  176. 7:08that emphasized Rhymes and so he asked
  177. 7:11Mel to replace the song he had written
  178. 7:13who with all of our remuneration
  179. 7:17our station seems truly Sublime
  180. 7:20at my occupation I'll find inspiration
  181. 7:24with no obligation to time so Dalmatian
  182. 7:29Plantation number one was replaced by
  183. 7:30Dalmatian Plantation number two
  184. 7:33[Music]
  185. 7:39Mel wrote canine Crunchies as an
  186. 7:42absolute spoof of current commercials on
  187. 7:45television taking it as far as he could
  188. 7:48to its silliness
  189. 7:54but there are not so many songs in 101
  190. 7:57Dalmatians but there there is a lot of
  191. 8:00musical feeling in the film and George
  192. 8:02brunson's core is very much a soundscape
  193. 8:06to which the film plays he really
  194. 8:08deserves a great respect he tells the
  195. 8:11story with his music starting with the
  196. 8:13opening credits when it says 101
  197. 8:15Dalmatians his score goes
  198. 8:18foreign
  199. 8:22of course later in the movie when
  200. 8:23Cruella shows up and starts to notice
  201. 8:26that all the Labradors in the scene
  202. 8:28might be Dalmatians he writes this
  203. 8:31incredibly suspenseful cue that Echoes
  204. 8:34the water drops coming off of the roof
  205. 8:36[Music]
  206. 8:44the first time Disney actually did a
  207. 8:46feature that was not set in the world of
  208. 8:49of classic or fairy tale so it's a
  209. 8:52contemporary score because it's a
  210. 8:54contemporary film it wasn't the
  211. 8:56traditional orchestral score it was a
  212. 8:59more Jazzy thing it was really clicking
  213. 9:02into the current sensibilities in many
  214. 9:05different ways which is quite different
  215. 9:07for a Disney film
  216. 9:09all right
  217. 9:18well for years Disney films had been
  218. 9:21Inked and painted by hand Sleeping
  219. 9:23Beauty
  220. 9:24was the end of an era in many ways and
  221. 9:27it was the last
  222. 9:28hand Inked hand-painted film now Disney
  223. 9:31Animation as most people know the the
  224. 9:34animators drawing pencil and then it
  225. 9:36went to the inking and painting
  226. 9:39department which meant you took an
  227. 9:40animator's drawing put cells over the
  228. 9:42top of the drawing clear plastic sheets
  229. 9:44and hand traced it with multiple colors
  230. 9:46so Aurora and Sleeping Beauty would have
  231. 9:48this beautiful yellow line around her
  232. 9:50care and she'd have this fleshy line
  233. 9:52around her face and her lips would even
  234. 9:54be a separate ink color it was so
  235. 9:56difficult and then you you would watch
  236. 9:58these girls and they couldn't put their
  237. 10:01hand down on it because they would smear
  238. 10:02the ink and they would do these
  239. 10:05wonderful sweeps and cover it follow the
  240. 10:07line just so it was marvelous to watch
  241. 10:10them work they were really Exquisite at
  242. 10:13what they did
  243. 10:14and then it would be turned over and
  244. 10:16painted and that becomes the cell that
  245. 10:18you see on screen it's very laborious
  246. 10:20very time consuming and expensive
  247. 10:23following Sleeping Beauty the studio was
  248. 10:26in a real difficult situation Sleeping
  249. 10:28Beauty hadn't made very much money it
  250. 10:30had cost a fortune and Disney was
  251. 10:32desperately trying to cut back here's
  252. 10:34the studio that was built by animation
  253. 10:36and was maybe getting priced out of the
  254. 10:39animation business people were always
  255. 10:41saying to Walt forget about the
  256. 10:43animation you know you're in television
  257. 10:45now you're making live action movies
  258. 10:46you've got a theme park but Walt Disney
  259. 10:49had to make animated films because
  260. 10:51that's what he did but how to do it
  261. 10:53cheaper up iWorks was Walt's perhaps
  262. 10:56oldest friend he had been Walt's first
  263. 10:59business partner back in 1922 in Kansas
  264. 11:02City when Walt started laughograms and
  265. 11:06uh was the man who animated Mickey Mouse
  266. 11:09in plain crazy and gal nacho and
  267. 11:12Steamboat Willie
  268. 11:17he was also a mechanical genius the
  269. 11:21fireworks invented a lot of things which
  270. 11:23were of vast importance for the studio
  271. 11:26like the multiplane camera which gave
  272. 11:29depth to the films like the sodium
  273. 11:32screen process to be able to marry
  274. 11:35together the elements in live action and
  275. 11:37animation elements like you see for
  276. 11:39instance in Mary Poppins well my dad of
  277. 11:41I Works got to thinking about
  278. 11:44could we save some money and one of the
  279. 11:46things occurred to him is that the Xerox
  280. 11:49process which they were coming out with
  281. 11:52these little copiers on the market that
  282. 11:55maybe he could transfer an image onto a
  283. 11:58cell as opposed to a piece of paper so
  284. 12:00he went out and did some experimenting
  285. 12:03and it seemed to work fine so the Xerox
  286. 12:05process pretty simple operates like your
  287. 12:07average office copier except in those
  288. 12:09days the Xerox machine they used took up
  289. 12:11three rooms you have a lens and
  290. 12:14electrostatically charged plate and the
  291. 12:16lens would take a picture of the drawing
  292. 12:17and transfer it to that plate the plate
  293. 12:20would get dipped in toner and then the
  294. 12:21toner would be transferred to a clear
  295. 12:23cell we started using it sneakily in uh
  296. 12:27Sleeping Beauty and it was in the dragon
  297. 12:30sequence
  298. 12:33no sort of Truth
  299. 12:36flower that evil dye and good endure I
  300. 12:39wanted to do a test case to see how
  301. 12:41Xerox would work and how it would look
  302. 12:43on the screen so they tried it out on a
  303. 12:44short called Goliath too
  304. 12:48[Applause]
  305. 12:49[Music]
  306. 12:52Xerox didn't cut the quality of the
  307. 12:55animation they didn't do limited
  308. 12:57animation it's still a fully animated
  309. 12:59film the acting is still there it's
  310. 13:01still subtle yeah it worked fine so it
  311. 13:04gave it gave everybody confidence that
  312. 13:06hey we could do this wigs or ox
  313. 13:10I think it must have been
  314. 13:13awful at the time to be a an anchor at
  315. 13:18the Disney Studios when during summer
  316. 13:19because you were out of a job all of a
  317. 13:21sudden and I think it was the best
  318. 13:22incompete department that ever existed
  319. 13:25on this Earth
  320. 13:26and I cried when they closed it down
  321. 13:30I think we did lose something because
  322. 13:32the Xerox line lacked the subtlety of
  323. 13:35the ink line which was incredible but on
  324. 13:38the other hand it was the gaining of the
  325. 13:41quality of the animators drawings
  326. 13:44especially in the way it was done in
  327. 13:47this film you dare go up there you you
  328. 13:50make long legs so I guess one could
  329. 13:53debate those points back and forth you
  330. 13:55know was Xerox a step forward or a step
  331. 13:58backwards over the next 50 years the
  332. 14:01Xerox process didn't go away it became a
  333. 14:03very not only cost effective way to make
  334. 14:05animated films but also became more
  335. 14:07sophisticated you could begin to use
  336. 14:08color Xerox lines later and eventually
  337. 14:11it was you know supplanted with the
  338. 14:13computer which could use complete color
  339. 14:16lines which got back to the look of the
  340. 14:17original Inked movies so again
  341. 14:18Dalmatians becomes a real Crossroads of
  342. 14:21Technology meets art in a very very
  343. 14:23clever way
  344. 14:28the Xerox where it worked well with the
  345. 14:31Dalmatians because they were black and
  346. 14:33white you just need a very easy outline
  347. 14:36of them you know there's correlation
  348. 14:38between the characters themselves being
  349. 14:41Dalmatians that are are black and white
  350. 14:43and then the very strong black lines of
  351. 14:46the Xerox process that was used to
  352. 14:48transfer the animators drawings onto
  353. 14:51cells
  354. 14:53the animators loved the process because
  355. 14:55rather than passing through the hands of
  356. 14:57other people to interpret their line
  357. 14:59drawings they were finally seeing what
  358. 15:02was on their drawing board put up on the
  359. 15:04screen well we were delighted protest it
  360. 15:09was a delight really for the animator at
  361. 15:11least we felt one time because it's the
  362. 15:14first time we ever saw our drawings
  363. 15:15directly onto the screen
  364. 15:18there was apparently an inner office
  365. 15:21memo that went around at Disney saying
  366. 15:23please make your drawings neat don't
  367. 15:25show your construction your roughs
  368. 15:27underneath there because whatever those
  369. 15:29drawings are going to go right onto the
  370. 15:31screen so the assistants had to go
  371. 15:33through and clean up the drawings and of
  372. 15:36course this must have been really
  373. 15:37nerve-wracking if you were working for
  374. 15:39someone really great you know Frank
  375. 15:40Thomas or Milt call who had done these
  376. 15:42amazing drawings and then you have to go
  377. 15:44with your own pencil
  378. 15:46and mess with it
  379. 15:49Mill call became militant about the
  380. 15:52people following them up reducing the
  381. 15:54rough lines Milt uh made them kind of
  382. 15:58stay away from that so in some milk call
  383. 16:00scenes you actually start to see
  384. 16:01glimpses of construction lines I've
  385. 16:04heard stories of milk call exploding
  386. 16:06because somebody changed his drawings
  387. 16:08and as time went on Milt was able to
  388. 16:10hold on more and more to his exact
  389. 16:13drawing several of the nine old men
  390. 16:15worked on 101 Dalmatians Wolfgang
  391. 16:17ryderman who later was to direct The
  392. 16:20Sword in the Stone and then the Jungle
  393. 16:22Book directed The Twilight bark one of
  394. 16:24the most magical scenes in the film
  395. 16:25humans have tried everything now it's up
  396. 16:27to us dogs the Twilight bark a sun
  397. 16:31Village
  398. 16:33one of the first dogs that picks up on
  399. 16:37the Twilight bark alert is this little
  400. 16:40Scottish terrier and it's jock from Lady
  401. 16:42and the and the first moment you
  402. 16:44see him it's the original cleaned up
  403. 16:46drawing which was then Inked and painted
  404. 16:48then he transitions into a little bit
  405. 16:51more of the rougher looser styling
  406. 16:54and we pass along and we see a pet shop
  407. 16:58and in the pet shop are bull and Peg
  408. 17:01from Lady and trip and just before the
  409. 17:04scene leaves lady comes in with a
  410. 17:06picture so it's really fun to look for
  411. 17:09woolly was famous for reusing footage he
  412. 17:12would reuse anything in fact everybody
  413. 17:14was aghast when he wound up using Snow
  414. 17:17White and the Seven Dwarfs in the dance
  415. 17:19sequence in Robin Hood and it was like
  416. 17:22oh my God you wouldn't it's not done
  417. 17:24extensively in this but but Willie was
  418. 17:26very proud of his knowledge of old
  419. 17:28Disney animation and how it might apply
  420. 17:31within the context of a new production
  421. 17:43the other animators that worked on 101
  422. 17:46Dalmatians were some very famous people
  423. 17:48Frank Thomas and Ali Johnson worked on
  424. 17:52the dogs Frank did an amazing scene
  425. 17:54where the little puppy is stillborned
  426. 18:04incredible subtle animation
  427. 18:07look Bongo
  428. 18:11there's a scene which uh Ollie Johnson
  429. 18:13often talked about which was where
  430. 18:15pedita hides from Cruella Deville under
  431. 18:18a stove in the kitchen and the whole
  432. 18:20scene is conducted with padita in the
  433. 18:22corner she can scarcely moves it's
  434. 18:24wonderful animation so it was very
  435. 18:26restrictive as far as action you
  436. 18:29couldn't move her head much or anything
  437. 18:31but in the end I think that was the best
  438. 18:33way to handle the sequence
  439. 18:35[Music]
  440. 18:36[Applause]
  441. 18:37[Music]
  442. 18:39what moves we did put on them I think
  443. 18:42paid off and particularly the little one
  444. 18:44at the end where he gives her that
  445. 18:46little kiss
  446. 18:49we've always felt that touching was very
  447. 18:52important in animation and taking these
  448. 18:55little pencil drawings and having them
  449. 18:57touch has a big impact on the audience
  450. 18:59if it's done right and we've called it
  451. 19:02Anita and Roger actually Anita had
  452. 19:06actually been done by somebody else and
  453. 19:08it was in the picture for a while and
  454. 19:10Walt looked at it and said we got to
  455. 19:12redesign her and who did they give it to
  456. 19:15melt of course
  457. 19:18Milt just got a design and he just sat
  458. 19:20there and he just did it and it was
  459. 19:22perfect I like to think that Anita was
  460. 19:25really based on me if you see pictures
  461. 19:28of me posing you will see Anita you know
  462. 19:32as you did a line and the natural way
  463. 19:34that you projected they really watched
  464. 19:37you do that and you could see it in the
  465. 19:39a character
  466. 19:40you're a magnificent darling I mean I
  467. 19:43know I keep on saying it's tea time
  468. 19:45Roger but it's that one line but when I
  469. 19:48do it I see the inclination of my head
  470. 19:50Roger dear tea time I see the way I do
  471. 19:54it in the movie straighter attractive
  472. 19:57heroine milk got that job a lot because
  473. 19:59they had to be drawn really really well
  474. 20:01but you could never exaggerate too much
  475. 20:03they had to be handled very straight
  476. 20:05I'll take mine
  477. 20:08you can do anything you want with
  478. 20:10animals
  479. 20:12because we're doing animals doing things
  480. 20:15that animals don't do for instance and
  481. 20:17facial expressions and dialogue
  482. 20:19everything and people aren't used to
  483. 20:20watching animals doing this so they're
  484. 20:23not critical but they're used to
  485. 20:25watching people that move around and
  486. 20:26talk and ever you know do everything and
  487. 20:29and become very very critical of them
  488. 20:31you know
  489. 20:33this was another scene that really
  490. 20:35grabbed my attention as a kid is another
  491. 20:37milk Coliseum it's just this full Arc
  492. 20:40that he does with the hands it's like a
  493. 20:42ballet almost you know fumbling with
  494. 20:45this pipe
  495. 20:47Danny Boy and then you have Corolla
  496. 20:49DeVille
  497. 20:50what a great character and everything
  498. 20:53about her just fires on all cylinders
  499. 20:55Mark Davis is genius
  500. 20:58at drawing Cruella Deville police
  501. 21:01[Music]
  502. 21:13well what she was doing wasn't very nice
  503. 21:16she herself was an entertaining
  504. 21:18character Anita is such a wit this also
  505. 21:22happens to be the last animation that I
  506. 21:25ever did on a Disney film Mark Davis of
  507. 21:28course was known for not only designing
  508. 21:31Cruella Deville but also single-handedly
  509. 21:34animated her throughout the film
  510. 21:37[Music]
  511. 21:39to everybody
  512. 21:43it's such a great combination of real
  513. 21:47knowledge in terms of human motion
  514. 21:50emotion animal Anatomy Locomotion these
  515. 21:54guys are really at the top of their game
  516. 21:55you know this crew this milk Carl Frank
  517. 21:58Ollie it's just so well crafted that the
  518. 22:02animators just kind of go crazy over it
  519. 22:03everything you see that faces the
  520. 22:06characters the way they were drawn it is
  521. 22:09so incredibly beautiful
  522. 22:12it's it's art it's truly art
  523. 22:16foreign
  524. 22:18[Music]
  525. 22:20[Applause]
  526. 22:23[Music]
  527. 22:32Works had this interesting idea that
  528. 22:35okay so I'm using a Xerox camera to
  529. 22:37translate pencil lines drawn on paper
  530. 22:39into Line work on cells why can't I have
  531. 22:42that camera look at a line that's drawn
  532. 22:45on the edge of a model so what they did
  533. 22:47was actually built a car out of
  534. 22:49cardboard and put black lines along all
  535. 22:52the edges and to make the wheels
  536. 22:54articulate they would take a long piece
  537. 22:56of cloth and tape little pieces of
  538. 22:59wooden doweling underneath it and then
  539. 23:01put the car on top of the cloth
  540. 23:03suspended from a kite string and then
  541. 23:05pull this long piece of fabric with all
  542. 23:07these pieces of wooden doweling
  543. 23:09underneath the wheels and they would
  544. 23:10shoot a take of that because they put
  545. 23:12the springs in there the thing would
  546. 23:14would have a this little
  547. 23:16rumbling and so forth those film clips
  548. 23:19then we're transferred directly to a
  549. 23:21Xerox plate they were painted and what
  550. 23:23you see on the screen in Cruella's car
  551. 23:25is that model zipping around and it's
  552. 23:27pretty darn cool
  553. 23:31[Music]
  554. 23:32idiots you know think of the digital
  555. 23:35Paradigm today the way we can you know
  556. 23:37study movement and study uh
  557. 23:39three-dimensional objects well we were
  558. 23:41doing that in a very crude way with
  559. 23:43these model cars but it worked you know
  560. 23:46and it worked very well you know I went
  561. 23:48back on it now and for the time it was a
  562. 23:50really neat idea there's a scene when
  563. 23:51Corel actually goes off the bridge into
  564. 23:53the Ravine towards the end of the movie
  565. 23:54and her car is struggling to get up to
  566. 23:57the side of the Hill
  567. 23:58it was done kind of the same way they
  568. 24:00had the model of the car and they
  569. 24:02covered this uh kind of model Hillside
  570. 24:05with sand shot it all in slow motion and
  571. 24:07the snow in this case the sand and the
  572. 24:10scene would start to slip back down the
  573. 24:12bank and that's what you see in the film
  574. 24:15so that process of shooting the live
  575. 24:17models with that black outline was
  576. 24:19something that was simply forged during
  577. 24:20those days of 101 Dalmatians it's a
  578. 24:22really clever idea it was an idea to
  579. 24:24save money in part but it's an
  580. 24:26incredible effect when you look at it
  581. 24:27those vehicles are so cool even to this
  582. 24:29day
  583. 24:31[Music]
  584. 24:36we also had a unit actually that did
  585. 24:38just the spots
  586. 24:42said uh only Disney would animate a
  587. 24:45movie called 101 Dalmatians with like
  588. 24:48six million spots he said at Warner
  589. 24:49Brothers we couldn't even do a movie
  590. 24:51with a dog named spot that had one spot
  591. 24:54so uh it was it was a pretty crazy idea
  592. 24:56to do out in one Dalmatian yeah you have
  593. 24:59all these statistics that the puppies
  594. 25:00had 32 spots and Bongo had 76 and pretty
  595. 25:04Dad I think 69 or something like that it
  596. 25:07adds a lot of work to do this so a crew
  597. 25:10had to go and actually draw all that and
  598. 25:14it was
  599. 25:15completely insane
  600. 25:18101 Dalmatians starts right off from the
  601. 25:21very beginning
  602. 25:23and plays with the idea of the spot
  603. 25:27let's face it if you're gonna stylize a
  604. 25:30dog what dog's more stylized than a
  605. 25:33Dalmatian
  606. 25:35I mean it's practically a 60s Magazine
  607. 25:38illustrator's version of a doll
  608. 25:40the open credits were very elaborate at
  609. 25:43those spots
  610. 25:45it was a great opening for a pitcher
  611. 25:50you'll find all these puns about spies
  612. 25:54the spots will be a smoke coming out of
  613. 25:57a passing trawler spots will become
  614. 26:00musical notes because it involves a
  615. 26:03songwriter and you know what is music
  616. 26:05but spots on a page
  617. 26:09it's this very Whimsical title sequence
  618. 26:12that automatically shows you the
  619. 26:14animators are in a playful mood
  620. 26:16and that you're gonna have a visually
  621. 26:19delightful film I just think it's one of
  622. 26:22the greatest things ever done
  623. 26:25[Applause]
  624. 26:28foreign
  625. 26:29[Music]
  626. 26:34process was designed somewhat to save
  627. 26:37money but for whatever reason and I
  628. 26:39don't actually know if it was planned or
  629. 26:42not I think this whole Xerox process was
  630. 26:44perfect for this story and this movie it
  631. 26:47sprung partially out of necessity but it
  632. 26:49made the it forced them to make a lot of
  633. 26:51really good choices and I give the
  634. 26:54Lion's Share that credit to Ken Anderson
  635. 26:56for that Ken Anderson was a design
  636. 26:58genius going all the way back to the
  637. 27:01city Symphonies he had his big
  638. 27:03breakthrough on Ferdinand the Bull he
  639. 27:06just had certain ideas of how they
  640. 27:07should be painted and it was a little
  641. 27:09bit more involved than some of the
  642. 27:11earlier Silly Symphonies and the overall
  643. 27:13art director said what is going to hit
  644. 27:15this we never had the colorful
  645. 27:17backgrounds like this but won't love
  646. 27:20those backgrounds hen Anderson in 101
  647. 27:22Dalmatians brought a whole different
  648. 27:24look very angular and Abstract so it's
  649. 27:30very modern in its look it was the first
  650. 27:33use of
  651. 27:34of a Xerox line and any kind of a
  652. 27:38feature picture and I personally love
  653. 27:39the idea of seeing an animation drawing
  654. 27:41in Xerox so then I tried to make it one
  655. 27:44world by doing the same thing with the
  656. 27:45backgrounds what Ken was looking for was
  657. 27:48a design that would bring the
  658. 27:50backgrounds and the animation together
  659. 27:52I've seen some of the backgrounds in
  660. 27:54there these wonderful layouts which are
  661. 27:56fairly uh what would you say
  662. 27:59traditionally drawn and a guy named
  663. 28:01Ernie nordley went over the backgrounds
  664. 28:04and made a you know perfect symmetrical
  665. 28:06things a little bit asymmetrical and and
  666. 28:09fattened some things up and gave it a
  667. 28:11little more of a caricatured quality
  668. 28:13it's a subtle effect his drawings were
  669. 28:15then xeroxed and placed over the
  670. 28:18background painting to bring it all
  671. 28:20together and make it all feel like it
  672. 28:23had the same graphic quality of the
  673. 28:25foreground characters
  674. 28:27Anita darling how are you miserable
  675. 28:30darling as usual perfectly wretched in
  676. 28:33one of the early shots of 100 run
  677. 28:35Dalmatians when Pongo is sitting on the
  678. 28:37window seat it was a little magazine
  679. 28:39there people may not know today what it
  680. 28:41means it was called Lilliput then it
  681. 28:43featured the work of all kinds of
  682. 28:44graphic artists of the 1950s and 60s
  683. 28:46it's not by chance that Lily puts in
  684. 28:48that scene because that is the style of
  685. 28:51this film I say now there's a fancy
  686. 28:54breed
  687. 28:55and Ken Anderson worked really closely
  688. 28:57with a guy named Walt Paraguay who's a
  689. 28:59really
  690. 29:00um opinionated strong uh fantastic
  691. 29:03artists Walt's fine art paintings are
  692. 29:07highly collectible and desirable out in
  693. 29:09the Art Market right now while Paraguay
  694. 29:11would put these blotches of color on
  695. 29:14that would Loosely represent a doorway
  696. 29:17or Loosely represent a couch there's
  697. 29:20something very sophisticated about using
  698. 29:22the impression of a shape to be where
  699. 29:25your color is defined while it looks
  700. 29:28simpler it's actually very hard to do
  701. 29:30well and while paragoy had a real knack
  702. 29:35for that and I think Ken Anderson
  703. 29:37recognized that in Paraguay and let him
  704. 29:39go to town his personality was was so
  705. 29:42off the wall that he couldn't be be
  706. 29:45confined to painting very neat precise
  707. 29:50images and that's what came out in his
  708. 29:53work Ken Anderson said I was a guy that
  709. 29:56was going to do
  710. 29:57Style
  711. 29:58and Ken knew me and nobody tells me what
  712. 30:03to do
  713. 30:05if I want to wipe out a line I'd wipe
  714. 30:06out a line nobody controlled what the
  715. 30:08finished product because the backgrounds
  716. 30:10were mine and I think what Ken Anderson
  717. 30:12Walt paragoy gave us with Dalmatians
  718. 30:15really fit that story and I think it's a
  719. 30:18great looking film and then we find out
  720. 30:20much to our surprise that Walt was not
  721. 30:22all that pleased with it
  722. 30:24and poor Ken Anderson uh boy he's he
  723. 30:27really suffered for that film because I
  724. 30:30think having Walt being displeased with
  725. 30:32your work there's probably the worst
  726. 30:34thing that could happen to any Disney
  727. 30:35artist well I'm a huge fan of Ken
  728. 30:37Anderson she's been kind of my hero from
  729. 30:39the beginning of the time that I started
  730. 30:41to work in animation it's almost tragic
  731. 30:44that Walt Disney actually did not like
  732. 30:47the look of the film
  733. 30:49you got cloth ears I said you're not
  734. 30:53coming
  735. 30:54it's ironic because we see it as a
  736. 30:56masterpiece of art Direction I think
  737. 30:58Walt was a romantic I know he really
  738. 31:00loved the style of the Peter Pan's and
  739. 31:02the Cinderellas and the Snow Whites and
  740. 31:04pinocchios and I think Walt probably
  741. 31:06mourned the fact that he was losing this
  742. 31:09Lush beautiful tapestry kind of look to
  743. 31:12his films and Walt Disney
  744. 31:15and never quite forgave Ken until the
  745. 31:18very end of his life Walt came into the
  746. 31:20studio and I was so grateful and glad to
  747. 31:22see him I said Gee it's good to see you
  748. 31:24well he said Candace you're good to be
  749. 31:25here
  750. 31:26and then he looked at me and they
  751. 31:28penetrating me with the eyes and I knew
  752. 31:30that he was forgiving me
  753. 31:33for this this thing I had done on
  754. 31:36Dalmatians
  755. 31:38he didn't say anything but I know I was
  756. 31:40forgiven that as far as he was concerned
  757. 31:43that it wasn't so bad after all
  758. 31:46so it meant a lot to me and then I found
  759. 31:48out of course two weeks later he was
  760. 31:50gone
  761. 31:52audiences loved Dalmatians and critics
  762. 31:55loved Dalmatians they found it
  763. 31:58unpretentious and it got among some of
  764. 32:00the best reviews of any Disney feature
  765. 32:02since Dumbo
  766. 32:09we look at it now we wouldn't want it
  767. 32:11any other way it's the way it should be
  768. 32:14[Music]
  769. 32:17on Dalmatians it was enormously
  770. 32:19successful so in that sense I think it
  771. 32:21really kind of helped the medium through
  772. 32:23a kind of a difficult period
  773. 32:27there were some just very fresh about it
  774. 32:29that got people excited again sometimes
  775. 32:31you can take the medium for granted
  776. 32:33especially with the excellent work that
  777. 32:36was done film after film after film and
  778. 32:38then sometimes something new comes along
  779. 32:40and kind of reinvigorates things and I
  780. 32:43think 101 Dalmatians did that I love
  781. 32:45Dalmatians firstly I think it's
  782. 32:47wonderful I thought it was a great
  783. 32:49picture I really did
  784. 32:52Dalmatians seemed to be the right film
  785. 32:54at the right time and it just pushed the
  786. 32:56studio forward in a New Direction and it
  787. 32:58was it was great being there and it was
  788. 33:00great working on that film and it was
  789. 33:02great watching all of this you know
  790. 33:04happen you know right before you it was
  791. 33:06it was uh it was a great time
  792. 33:08part of my life and I didn't realize the
  793. 33:12degree of the magic that I was involved
  794. 33:15in at the time I made the movie I'm very
  795. 33:18very lucky to have that I feel like it
  796. 33:20is a legacy that I was part of something
  797. 33:23so wonderful
  798. 33:25101 Dalmatians remains you know even
  799. 33:27though it's 40 years later it still it
  800. 33:29remains as contemporary As It Ever Was
  801. 33:30it's one of the most casual and
  802. 33:32lighthearted of all the Disney movies
  803. 33:34and I think that's one of the things
  804. 33:35that makes it
  805. 33:37so entertaining decade after decade and
  806. 33:39for decades to come I'm sure my
  807. 33:41grandchildren will be watching this
  808. 33:43movie and the lighting in it the way I
  809. 33:45did when I was two and it was brand new
  810. 33:47so it's nice to know that it goes on and
  811. 33:50on

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