Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:01[Music]
- 0:06somewhere in this village and we're
- 0:09going to find them now get going the
- 0:11only one Dalmatians is the most modern
- 0:13Disney animated movie ever made the one
- 0:16that has the most guts that says this is
- 0:19Art but it's entertainment at the same
- 0:21time the 101 Dalmatians was a huge
- 0:23influence on me I liked the look of it I
- 0:25like the story I like the characters
- 0:26there was something just very kind of
- 0:28fresh and novel what's he going to do
- 0:31dad
- 0:32[Music]
- 0:34one thing that sets the movie apart from
- 0:38a lot of movies in the Disney Canon is
- 0:40it's a contemporary Story made to play
- 0:43in that time period the cool thing about
- 0:45it is that it's contemporary to this day
- 0:48it's contemporary in a classical way 101
- 0:52Dalmatians was the first Disney animated
- 0:55that was more than
- 0:58a mystery there was suspense and was
- 1:01worried about whether these characters
- 1:02were going to come through awesome
- 1:05spotted I use if it's the last thing I
- 1:08do also we had the new technology the
- 1:10Xerox process was going to replace the
- 1:13old ink and paint so that was exciting
- 1:15so you see in 101 Dalmatians very mature
- 1:18animators doing probably some of the
- 1:19best work of their lives and yet you see
- 1:21Walt Disney I'm almost mourning the fact
- 1:23that he has to let go of this beautiful
- 1:24romantic style that he loved in favor of
- 1:27a simpler style that's representative of
- 1:28mid 20th century art it's not your usual
- 1:32children book illustration come to life
- 1:34it's Picasso coming into Disney still
- 1:37our hearts are touched and I'm very very
- 1:40lucky
- 1:43or something
- 1:44[Music]
- 1:52foreign
- 1:54[Music]
- 2:00Smith published her story the 101
- 2:02Dalmatians in 1956. the story was
- 2:05inspired by the fact that she herself
- 2:07had Dalmatian dogs the first of which
- 2:09was called Pongo and a friend of hers
- 2:12quite casually and not maliciously as
- 2:14Cruella Deville might have said that um
- 2:16yes those dogs would make rather a good
- 2:18coat and the story immediately caught
- 2:20and Walt Disney's imagination this was a
- 2:22time of great growth at the studio and
- 2:24Walt Disney was so involved in other
- 2:27things he had television the theme parks
- 2:29that animation got a little less of of
- 2:32Walt's time and so he put into effect
- 2:34this idea of taking a very strong story
- 2:37guy Bill Pete and basically having him
- 2:40leading this feature film now Bill Peak
- 2:43came to Disney in 1937 jobs were scarce
- 2:46and he heard that Disney was looking for
- 2:48artists so he came and he started
- 2:49working as an in-betweener which meant
- 2:52you were way down the line you assist
- 2:54with the final drawings of the
- 2:55characters it was the grunt work it was
- 2:57the Bottom Rung of the ladder really
- 2:59frustrated him to no end but Bill was
- 3:01really driven and knew he wanted to be a
- 3:03story person and when he got his chances
- 3:05like on Dumbo some amazing scenes in
- 3:08dumbo when the little elephants getting
- 3:10a bath and his mother is bathing him it
- 3:12was beautifully drawn no dialogue
- 3:14beautifully laid out by Bill Pete and
- 3:17then later you know his work is seen in
- 3:19pretty much every Disney movie and he
- 3:21became this very senior story person a
- 3:24lot of people don't even know what story
- 3:25men are because of the work that they do
- 3:28is never seen on the screen but before
- 3:30any animation is done it's all
- 3:32storyboarded it's kind of like a comic
- 3:34strip which tell the story sequentially
- 3:36from Cut to cut we did movies like um
- 3:39Lion King or Beauty and the Beast or
- 3:41Aladdin we had 15 people on the story
- 3:44crew Bill Pete did it by himself I had a
- 3:48chance to go to the archives and look at
- 3:51his story sketches and compare them one
- 3:54after the other and you follow these
- 3:57sketches and you go well I'll be this is
- 3:59impossible they didn't change a theme
- 4:00this is exactly the way Bill Pete had
- 4:04envisioned it he missed him oh Thunder's
- 4:07pretending
- 4:08I think Bill Pete was a master
- 4:11Storyteller and he structured this story
- 4:13to make it a story that is so focused so
- 4:16controlled so centered on these two dogs
- 4:18and their quest to get their puppies
- 4:19back that you follow the story with an
- 4:22effortlessness and I think they
- 4:24tightened it in a way that really works
- 4:26somewhat so in fact that Dodie Smith
- 4:29wrote to Bill Pete and said that he had
- 4:31in fact improved on her book which is
- 4:33quite a compliment when you think about
- 4:35it and he was able to put flesh on the
- 4:37bones of what was in that children's
- 4:38book and create the characters that we
- 4:40know today and the way the characters
- 4:42interact and I have a very Bell Pete
- 4:45sort of touch kind of modern sense
- 4:47ability to it it's one of the things
- 4:49that makes that movie very unique is is
- 4:51how contemporary it was that was the
- 4:53first time where here's a married couple
- 4:55that clearly is physical toward each
- 4:58other and there's a flirtation going on
- 5:01when you know he's pulling her around
- 5:03and going Cruella Cruella Deville you
- 5:07know I love that
- 5:08these are characters we hadn't seen in a
- 5:10Disney film before Cruella Deville
- 5:12Smoked Cigarettes the dogs watch
- 5:14television it was something very of the
- 5:16moment and I think that was a great
- 5:17departure not only story-wise but
- 5:19stylistically for Walt I mean we were
- 5:21all very excited about it and mainly
- 5:22because it was so different you know it
- 5:25was so different from what had been done
- 5:27at Disney before it really broke new
- 5:29ground
- 5:30for Disney's animation Department
- 5:35101 Dalmatians was groundbreaking it's
- 5:38really the first Disney animated feature
- 5:41that isn't really a musical in any way
- 5:42it's interesting that uh that Dalmatians
- 5:45has so few songs in it it's a real break
- 5:48with what had just come at the Disney
- 5:50Studio and it's ironic because Roger's
- 5:53vocation is songwriter you'd think that
- 5:55would be an excuse to have a lot of
- 5:56great Disney songs it just shows you how
- 6:00Walt Disney was never any kind of a
- 6:02slave to any formula even if it worked
- 6:04well before the songs in 101 Dalmatians
- 6:07they were written by Mel Levin and love
- 6:09the song Cruella Deville is the most
- 6:11memorable song from the movie Melvin
- 6:14actually wrote a song prior to this one
- 6:16for Cruella
- 6:17now every night I almost go insane
- 6:22I hear those witches chanting in my
- 6:25brain
- 6:27cruel cruel
- 6:29level devil devil Cruel Cruel Cruel a
- 6:34devil devil devil but driving to work
- 6:37one day he melts foot you know a blues
- 6:40Tempo it would really fit that character
- 6:42so he came up with that Melody line so
- 6:45he replaced his prior song himself
- 6:48you come to realize you've seen her kind
- 6:52of eyes watching you from underneath a
- 6:56rock
- 6:57the last song was a Dalmatian Plantation
- 7:00was was exchanged because Bill Pete
- 7:03wanted a different version of it Bill
- 7:05Pete wanted to end the movie with a song
- 7:08that emphasized Rhymes and so he asked
- 7:11Mel to replace the song he had written
- 7:13who with all of our remuneration
- 7:17our station seems truly Sublime
- 7:20at my occupation I'll find inspiration
- 7:24with no obligation to time so Dalmatian
- 7:29Plantation number one was replaced by
- 7:30Dalmatian Plantation number two
- 7:33[Music]
- 7:39Mel wrote canine Crunchies as an
- 7:42absolute spoof of current commercials on
- 7:45television taking it as far as he could
- 7:48to its silliness
- 7:54but there are not so many songs in 101
- 7:57Dalmatians but there there is a lot of
- 8:00musical feeling in the film and George
- 8:02brunson's core is very much a soundscape
- 8:06to which the film plays he really
- 8:08deserves a great respect he tells the
- 8:11story with his music starting with the
- 8:13opening credits when it says 101
- 8:15Dalmatians his score goes
- 8:18foreign
- 8:22of course later in the movie when
- 8:23Cruella shows up and starts to notice
- 8:26that all the Labradors in the scene
- 8:28might be Dalmatians he writes this
- 8:31incredibly suspenseful cue that Echoes
- 8:34the water drops coming off of the roof
- 8:36[Music]
- 8:44the first time Disney actually did a
- 8:46feature that was not set in the world of
- 8:49of classic or fairy tale so it's a
- 8:52contemporary score because it's a
- 8:54contemporary film it wasn't the
- 8:56traditional orchestral score it was a
- 8:59more Jazzy thing it was really clicking
- 9:02into the current sensibilities in many
- 9:05different ways which is quite different
- 9:07for a Disney film
- 9:09all right
- 9:18well for years Disney films had been
- 9:21Inked and painted by hand Sleeping
- 9:23Beauty
- 9:24was the end of an era in many ways and
- 9:27it was the last
- 9:28hand Inked hand-painted film now Disney
- 9:31Animation as most people know the the
- 9:34animators drawing pencil and then it
- 9:36went to the inking and painting
- 9:39department which meant you took an
- 9:40animator's drawing put cells over the
- 9:42top of the drawing clear plastic sheets
- 9:44and hand traced it with multiple colors
- 9:46so Aurora and Sleeping Beauty would have
- 9:48this beautiful yellow line around her
- 9:50care and she'd have this fleshy line
- 9:52around her face and her lips would even
- 9:54be a separate ink color it was so
- 9:56difficult and then you you would watch
- 9:58these girls and they couldn't put their
- 10:01hand down on it because they would smear
- 10:02the ink and they would do these
- 10:05wonderful sweeps and cover it follow the
- 10:07line just so it was marvelous to watch
- 10:10them work they were really Exquisite at
- 10:13what they did
- 10:14and then it would be turned over and
- 10:16painted and that becomes the cell that
- 10:18you see on screen it's very laborious
- 10:20very time consuming and expensive
- 10:23following Sleeping Beauty the studio was
- 10:26in a real difficult situation Sleeping
- 10:28Beauty hadn't made very much money it
- 10:30had cost a fortune and Disney was
- 10:32desperately trying to cut back here's
- 10:34the studio that was built by animation
- 10:36and was maybe getting priced out of the
- 10:39animation business people were always
- 10:41saying to Walt forget about the
- 10:43animation you know you're in television
- 10:45now you're making live action movies
- 10:46you've got a theme park but Walt Disney
- 10:49had to make animated films because
- 10:51that's what he did but how to do it
- 10:53cheaper up iWorks was Walt's perhaps
- 10:56oldest friend he had been Walt's first
- 10:59business partner back in 1922 in Kansas
- 11:02City when Walt started laughograms and
- 11:06uh was the man who animated Mickey Mouse
- 11:09in plain crazy and gal nacho and
- 11:12Steamboat Willie
- 11:17he was also a mechanical genius the
- 11:21fireworks invented a lot of things which
- 11:23were of vast importance for the studio
- 11:26like the multiplane camera which gave
- 11:29depth to the films like the sodium
- 11:32screen process to be able to marry
- 11:35together the elements in live action and
- 11:37animation elements like you see for
- 11:39instance in Mary Poppins well my dad of
- 11:41I Works got to thinking about
- 11:44could we save some money and one of the
- 11:46things occurred to him is that the Xerox
- 11:49process which they were coming out with
- 11:52these little copiers on the market that
- 11:55maybe he could transfer an image onto a
- 11:58cell as opposed to a piece of paper so
- 12:00he went out and did some experimenting
- 12:03and it seemed to work fine so the Xerox
- 12:05process pretty simple operates like your
- 12:07average office copier except in those
- 12:09days the Xerox machine they used took up
- 12:11three rooms you have a lens and
- 12:14electrostatically charged plate and the
- 12:16lens would take a picture of the drawing
- 12:17and transfer it to that plate the plate
- 12:20would get dipped in toner and then the
- 12:21toner would be transferred to a clear
- 12:23cell we started using it sneakily in uh
- 12:27Sleeping Beauty and it was in the dragon
- 12:30sequence
- 12:33no sort of Truth
- 12:36flower that evil dye and good endure I
- 12:39wanted to do a test case to see how
- 12:41Xerox would work and how it would look
- 12:43on the screen so they tried it out on a
- 12:44short called Goliath too
- 12:48[Applause]
- 12:49[Music]
- 12:52Xerox didn't cut the quality of the
- 12:55animation they didn't do limited
- 12:57animation it's still a fully animated
- 12:59film the acting is still there it's
- 13:01still subtle yeah it worked fine so it
- 13:04gave it gave everybody confidence that
- 13:06hey we could do this wigs or ox
- 13:10I think it must have been
- 13:13awful at the time to be a an anchor at
- 13:18the Disney Studios when during summer
- 13:19because you were out of a job all of a
- 13:21sudden and I think it was the best
- 13:22incompete department that ever existed
- 13:25on this Earth
- 13:26and I cried when they closed it down
- 13:30I think we did lose something because
- 13:32the Xerox line lacked the subtlety of
- 13:35the ink line which was incredible but on
- 13:38the other hand it was the gaining of the
- 13:41quality of the animators drawings
- 13:44especially in the way it was done in
- 13:47this film you dare go up there you you
- 13:50make long legs so I guess one could
- 13:53debate those points back and forth you
- 13:55know was Xerox a step forward or a step
- 13:58backwards over the next 50 years the
- 14:01Xerox process didn't go away it became a
- 14:03very not only cost effective way to make
- 14:05animated films but also became more
- 14:07sophisticated you could begin to use
- 14:08color Xerox lines later and eventually
- 14:11it was you know supplanted with the
- 14:13computer which could use complete color
- 14:16lines which got back to the look of the
- 14:17original Inked movies so again
- 14:18Dalmatians becomes a real Crossroads of
- 14:21Technology meets art in a very very
- 14:23clever way
- 14:28the Xerox where it worked well with the
- 14:31Dalmatians because they were black and
- 14:33white you just need a very easy outline
- 14:36of them you know there's correlation
- 14:38between the characters themselves being
- 14:41Dalmatians that are are black and white
- 14:43and then the very strong black lines of
- 14:46the Xerox process that was used to
- 14:48transfer the animators drawings onto
- 14:51cells
- 14:53the animators loved the process because
- 14:55rather than passing through the hands of
- 14:57other people to interpret their line
- 14:59drawings they were finally seeing what
- 15:02was on their drawing board put up on the
- 15:04screen well we were delighted protest it
- 15:09was a delight really for the animator at
- 15:11least we felt one time because it's the
- 15:14first time we ever saw our drawings
- 15:15directly onto the screen
- 15:18there was apparently an inner office
- 15:21memo that went around at Disney saying
- 15:23please make your drawings neat don't
- 15:25show your construction your roughs
- 15:27underneath there because whatever those
- 15:29drawings are going to go right onto the
- 15:31screen so the assistants had to go
- 15:33through and clean up the drawings and of
- 15:36course this must have been really
- 15:37nerve-wracking if you were working for
- 15:39someone really great you know Frank
- 15:40Thomas or Milt call who had done these
- 15:42amazing drawings and then you have to go
- 15:44with your own pencil
- 15:46and mess with it
- 15:49Mill call became militant about the
- 15:52people following them up reducing the
- 15:54rough lines Milt uh made them kind of
- 15:58stay away from that so in some milk call
- 16:00scenes you actually start to see
- 16:01glimpses of construction lines I've
- 16:04heard stories of milk call exploding
- 16:06because somebody changed his drawings
- 16:08and as time went on Milt was able to
- 16:10hold on more and more to his exact
- 16:13drawing several of the nine old men
- 16:15worked on 101 Dalmatians Wolfgang
- 16:17ryderman who later was to direct The
- 16:20Sword in the Stone and then the Jungle
- 16:22Book directed The Twilight bark one of
- 16:24the most magical scenes in the film
- 16:25humans have tried everything now it's up
- 16:27to us dogs the Twilight bark a sun
- 16:31Village
- 16:33one of the first dogs that picks up on
- 16:37the Twilight bark alert is this little
- 16:40Scottish terrier and it's jock from Lady
- 16:42and the and the first moment you
- 16:44see him it's the original cleaned up
- 16:46drawing which was then Inked and painted
- 16:48then he transitions into a little bit
- 16:51more of the rougher looser styling
- 16:54and we pass along and we see a pet shop
- 16:58and in the pet shop are bull and Peg
- 17:01from Lady and trip and just before the
- 17:04scene leaves lady comes in with a
- 17:06picture so it's really fun to look for
- 17:09woolly was famous for reusing footage he
- 17:12would reuse anything in fact everybody
- 17:14was aghast when he wound up using Snow
- 17:17White and the Seven Dwarfs in the dance
- 17:19sequence in Robin Hood and it was like
- 17:22oh my God you wouldn't it's not done
- 17:24extensively in this but but Willie was
- 17:26very proud of his knowledge of old
- 17:28Disney animation and how it might apply
- 17:31within the context of a new production
- 17:43the other animators that worked on 101
- 17:46Dalmatians were some very famous people
- 17:48Frank Thomas and Ali Johnson worked on
- 17:52the dogs Frank did an amazing scene
- 17:54where the little puppy is stillborned
- 18:04incredible subtle animation
- 18:07look Bongo
- 18:11there's a scene which uh Ollie Johnson
- 18:13often talked about which was where
- 18:15pedita hides from Cruella Deville under
- 18:18a stove in the kitchen and the whole
- 18:20scene is conducted with padita in the
- 18:22corner she can scarcely moves it's
- 18:24wonderful animation so it was very
- 18:26restrictive as far as action you
- 18:29couldn't move her head much or anything
- 18:31but in the end I think that was the best
- 18:33way to handle the sequence
- 18:35[Music]
- 18:36[Applause]
- 18:37[Music]
- 18:39what moves we did put on them I think
- 18:42paid off and particularly the little one
- 18:44at the end where he gives her that
- 18:46little kiss
- 18:49we've always felt that touching was very
- 18:52important in animation and taking these
- 18:55little pencil drawings and having them
- 18:57touch has a big impact on the audience
- 18:59if it's done right and we've called it
- 19:02Anita and Roger actually Anita had
- 19:06actually been done by somebody else and
- 19:08it was in the picture for a while and
- 19:10Walt looked at it and said we got to
- 19:12redesign her and who did they give it to
- 19:15melt of course
- 19:18Milt just got a design and he just sat
- 19:20there and he just did it and it was
- 19:22perfect I like to think that Anita was
- 19:25really based on me if you see pictures
- 19:28of me posing you will see Anita you know
- 19:32as you did a line and the natural way
- 19:34that you projected they really watched
- 19:37you do that and you could see it in the
- 19:39a character
- 19:40you're a magnificent darling I mean I
- 19:43know I keep on saying it's tea time
- 19:45Roger but it's that one line but when I
- 19:48do it I see the inclination of my head
- 19:50Roger dear tea time I see the way I do
- 19:54it in the movie straighter attractive
- 19:57heroine milk got that job a lot because
- 19:59they had to be drawn really really well
- 20:01but you could never exaggerate too much
- 20:03they had to be handled very straight
- 20:05I'll take mine
- 20:08you can do anything you want with
- 20:10animals
- 20:12because we're doing animals doing things
- 20:15that animals don't do for instance and
- 20:17facial expressions and dialogue
- 20:19everything and people aren't used to
- 20:20watching animals doing this so they're
- 20:23not critical but they're used to
- 20:25watching people that move around and
- 20:26talk and ever you know do everything and
- 20:29and become very very critical of them
- 20:31you know
- 20:33this was another scene that really
- 20:35grabbed my attention as a kid is another
- 20:37milk Coliseum it's just this full Arc
- 20:40that he does with the hands it's like a
- 20:42ballet almost you know fumbling with
- 20:45this pipe
- 20:47Danny Boy and then you have Corolla
- 20:49DeVille
- 20:50what a great character and everything
- 20:53about her just fires on all cylinders
- 20:55Mark Davis is genius
- 20:58at drawing Cruella Deville police
- 21:01[Music]
- 21:13well what she was doing wasn't very nice
- 21:16she herself was an entertaining
- 21:18character Anita is such a wit this also
- 21:22happens to be the last animation that I
- 21:25ever did on a Disney film Mark Davis of
- 21:28course was known for not only designing
- 21:31Cruella Deville but also single-handedly
- 21:34animated her throughout the film
- 21:37[Music]
- 21:39to everybody
- 21:43it's such a great combination of real
- 21:47knowledge in terms of human motion
- 21:50emotion animal Anatomy Locomotion these
- 21:54guys are really at the top of their game
- 21:55you know this crew this milk Carl Frank
- 21:58Ollie it's just so well crafted that the
- 22:02animators just kind of go crazy over it
- 22:03everything you see that faces the
- 22:06characters the way they were drawn it is
- 22:09so incredibly beautiful
- 22:12it's it's art it's truly art
- 22:16foreign
- 22:18[Music]
- 22:20[Applause]
- 22:23[Music]
- 22:32Works had this interesting idea that
- 22:35okay so I'm using a Xerox camera to
- 22:37translate pencil lines drawn on paper
- 22:39into Line work on cells why can't I have
- 22:42that camera look at a line that's drawn
- 22:45on the edge of a model so what they did
- 22:47was actually built a car out of
- 22:49cardboard and put black lines along all
- 22:52the edges and to make the wheels
- 22:54articulate they would take a long piece
- 22:56of cloth and tape little pieces of
- 22:59wooden doweling underneath it and then
- 23:01put the car on top of the cloth
- 23:03suspended from a kite string and then
- 23:05pull this long piece of fabric with all
- 23:07these pieces of wooden doweling
- 23:09underneath the wheels and they would
- 23:10shoot a take of that because they put
- 23:12the springs in there the thing would
- 23:14would have a this little
- 23:16rumbling and so forth those film clips
- 23:19then we're transferred directly to a
- 23:21Xerox plate they were painted and what
- 23:23you see on the screen in Cruella's car
- 23:25is that model zipping around and it's
- 23:27pretty darn cool
- 23:31[Music]
- 23:32idiots you know think of the digital
- 23:35Paradigm today the way we can you know
- 23:37study movement and study uh
- 23:39three-dimensional objects well we were
- 23:41doing that in a very crude way with
- 23:43these model cars but it worked you know
- 23:46and it worked very well you know I went
- 23:48back on it now and for the time it was a
- 23:50really neat idea there's a scene when
- 23:51Corel actually goes off the bridge into
- 23:53the Ravine towards the end of the movie
- 23:54and her car is struggling to get up to
- 23:57the side of the Hill
- 23:58it was done kind of the same way they
- 24:00had the model of the car and they
- 24:02covered this uh kind of model Hillside
- 24:05with sand shot it all in slow motion and
- 24:07the snow in this case the sand and the
- 24:10scene would start to slip back down the
- 24:12bank and that's what you see in the film
- 24:15so that process of shooting the live
- 24:17models with that black outline was
- 24:19something that was simply forged during
- 24:20those days of 101 Dalmatians it's a
- 24:22really clever idea it was an idea to
- 24:24save money in part but it's an
- 24:26incredible effect when you look at it
- 24:27those vehicles are so cool even to this
- 24:29day
- 24:31[Music]
- 24:36we also had a unit actually that did
- 24:38just the spots
- 24:42said uh only Disney would animate a
- 24:45movie called 101 Dalmatians with like
- 24:48six million spots he said at Warner
- 24:49Brothers we couldn't even do a movie
- 24:51with a dog named spot that had one spot
- 24:54so uh it was it was a pretty crazy idea
- 24:56to do out in one Dalmatian yeah you have
- 24:59all these statistics that the puppies
- 25:00had 32 spots and Bongo had 76 and pretty
- 25:04Dad I think 69 or something like that it
- 25:07adds a lot of work to do this so a crew
- 25:10had to go and actually draw all that and
- 25:14it was
- 25:15completely insane
- 25:18101 Dalmatians starts right off from the
- 25:21very beginning
- 25:23and plays with the idea of the spot
- 25:27let's face it if you're gonna stylize a
- 25:30dog what dog's more stylized than a
- 25:33Dalmatian
- 25:35I mean it's practically a 60s Magazine
- 25:38illustrator's version of a doll
- 25:40the open credits were very elaborate at
- 25:43those spots
- 25:45it was a great opening for a pitcher
- 25:50you'll find all these puns about spies
- 25:54the spots will be a smoke coming out of
- 25:57a passing trawler spots will become
- 26:00musical notes because it involves a
- 26:03songwriter and you know what is music
- 26:05but spots on a page
- 26:09it's this very Whimsical title sequence
- 26:12that automatically shows you the
- 26:14animators are in a playful mood
- 26:16and that you're gonna have a visually
- 26:19delightful film I just think it's one of
- 26:22the greatest things ever done
- 26:25[Applause]
- 26:28foreign
- 26:29[Music]
- 26:34process was designed somewhat to save
- 26:37money but for whatever reason and I
- 26:39don't actually know if it was planned or
- 26:42not I think this whole Xerox process was
- 26:44perfect for this story and this movie it
- 26:47sprung partially out of necessity but it
- 26:49made the it forced them to make a lot of
- 26:51really good choices and I give the
- 26:54Lion's Share that credit to Ken Anderson
- 26:56for that Ken Anderson was a design
- 26:58genius going all the way back to the
- 27:01city Symphonies he had his big
- 27:03breakthrough on Ferdinand the Bull he
- 27:06just had certain ideas of how they
- 27:07should be painted and it was a little
- 27:09bit more involved than some of the
- 27:11earlier Silly Symphonies and the overall
- 27:13art director said what is going to hit
- 27:15this we never had the colorful
- 27:17backgrounds like this but won't love
- 27:20those backgrounds hen Anderson in 101
- 27:22Dalmatians brought a whole different
- 27:24look very angular and Abstract so it's
- 27:30very modern in its look it was the first
- 27:33use of
- 27:34of a Xerox line and any kind of a
- 27:38feature picture and I personally love
- 27:39the idea of seeing an animation drawing
- 27:41in Xerox so then I tried to make it one
- 27:44world by doing the same thing with the
- 27:45backgrounds what Ken was looking for was
- 27:48a design that would bring the
- 27:50backgrounds and the animation together
- 27:52I've seen some of the backgrounds in
- 27:54there these wonderful layouts which are
- 27:56fairly uh what would you say
- 27:59traditionally drawn and a guy named
- 28:01Ernie nordley went over the backgrounds
- 28:04and made a you know perfect symmetrical
- 28:06things a little bit asymmetrical and and
- 28:09fattened some things up and gave it a
- 28:11little more of a caricatured quality
- 28:13it's a subtle effect his drawings were
- 28:15then xeroxed and placed over the
- 28:18background painting to bring it all
- 28:20together and make it all feel like it
- 28:23had the same graphic quality of the
- 28:25foreground characters
- 28:27Anita darling how are you miserable
- 28:30darling as usual perfectly wretched in
- 28:33one of the early shots of 100 run
- 28:35Dalmatians when Pongo is sitting on the
- 28:37window seat it was a little magazine
- 28:39there people may not know today what it
- 28:41means it was called Lilliput then it
- 28:43featured the work of all kinds of
- 28:44graphic artists of the 1950s and 60s
- 28:46it's not by chance that Lily puts in
- 28:48that scene because that is the style of
- 28:51this film I say now there's a fancy
- 28:54breed
- 28:55and Ken Anderson worked really closely
- 28:57with a guy named Walt Paraguay who's a
- 28:59really
- 29:00um opinionated strong uh fantastic
- 29:03artists Walt's fine art paintings are
- 29:07highly collectible and desirable out in
- 29:09the Art Market right now while Paraguay
- 29:11would put these blotches of color on
- 29:14that would Loosely represent a doorway
- 29:17or Loosely represent a couch there's
- 29:20something very sophisticated about using
- 29:22the impression of a shape to be where
- 29:25your color is defined while it looks
- 29:28simpler it's actually very hard to do
- 29:30well and while paragoy had a real knack
- 29:35for that and I think Ken Anderson
- 29:37recognized that in Paraguay and let him
- 29:39go to town his personality was was so
- 29:42off the wall that he couldn't be be
- 29:45confined to painting very neat precise
- 29:50images and that's what came out in his
- 29:53work Ken Anderson said I was a guy that
- 29:56was going to do
- 29:57Style
- 29:58and Ken knew me and nobody tells me what
- 30:03to do
- 30:05if I want to wipe out a line I'd wipe
- 30:06out a line nobody controlled what the
- 30:08finished product because the backgrounds
- 30:10were mine and I think what Ken Anderson
- 30:12Walt paragoy gave us with Dalmatians
- 30:15really fit that story and I think it's a
- 30:18great looking film and then we find out
- 30:20much to our surprise that Walt was not
- 30:22all that pleased with it
- 30:24and poor Ken Anderson uh boy he's he
- 30:27really suffered for that film because I
- 30:30think having Walt being displeased with
- 30:32your work there's probably the worst
- 30:34thing that could happen to any Disney
- 30:35artist well I'm a huge fan of Ken
- 30:37Anderson she's been kind of my hero from
- 30:39the beginning of the time that I started
- 30:41to work in animation it's almost tragic
- 30:44that Walt Disney actually did not like
- 30:47the look of the film
- 30:49you got cloth ears I said you're not
- 30:53coming
- 30:54it's ironic because we see it as a
- 30:56masterpiece of art Direction I think
- 30:58Walt was a romantic I know he really
- 31:00loved the style of the Peter Pan's and
- 31:02the Cinderellas and the Snow Whites and
- 31:04pinocchios and I think Walt probably
- 31:06mourned the fact that he was losing this
- 31:09Lush beautiful tapestry kind of look to
- 31:12his films and Walt Disney
- 31:15and never quite forgave Ken until the
- 31:18very end of his life Walt came into the
- 31:20studio and I was so grateful and glad to
- 31:22see him I said Gee it's good to see you
- 31:24well he said Candace you're good to be
- 31:25here
- 31:26and then he looked at me and they
- 31:28penetrating me with the eyes and I knew
- 31:30that he was forgiving me
- 31:33for this this thing I had done on
- 31:36Dalmatians
- 31:38he didn't say anything but I know I was
- 31:40forgiven that as far as he was concerned
- 31:43that it wasn't so bad after all
- 31:46so it meant a lot to me and then I found
- 31:48out of course two weeks later he was
- 31:50gone
- 31:52audiences loved Dalmatians and critics
- 31:55loved Dalmatians they found it
- 31:58unpretentious and it got among some of
- 32:00the best reviews of any Disney feature
- 32:02since Dumbo
- 32:09we look at it now we wouldn't want it
- 32:11any other way it's the way it should be
- 32:14[Music]
- 32:17on Dalmatians it was enormously
- 32:19successful so in that sense I think it
- 32:21really kind of helped the medium through
- 32:23a kind of a difficult period
- 32:27there were some just very fresh about it
- 32:29that got people excited again sometimes
- 32:31you can take the medium for granted
- 32:33especially with the excellent work that
- 32:36was done film after film after film and
- 32:38then sometimes something new comes along
- 32:40and kind of reinvigorates things and I
- 32:43think 101 Dalmatians did that I love
- 32:45Dalmatians firstly I think it's
- 32:47wonderful I thought it was a great
- 32:49picture I really did
- 32:52Dalmatians seemed to be the right film
- 32:54at the right time and it just pushed the
- 32:56studio forward in a New Direction and it
- 32:58was it was great being there and it was
- 33:00great working on that film and it was
- 33:02great watching all of this you know
- 33:04happen you know right before you it was
- 33:06it was uh it was a great time
- 33:08part of my life and I didn't realize the
- 33:12degree of the magic that I was involved
- 33:15in at the time I made the movie I'm very
- 33:18very lucky to have that I feel like it
- 33:20is a legacy that I was part of something
- 33:23so wonderful
- 33:25101 Dalmatians remains you know even
- 33:27though it's 40 years later it still it
- 33:29remains as contemporary As It Ever Was
- 33:30it's one of the most casual and
- 33:32lighthearted of all the Disney movies
- 33:34and I think that's one of the things
- 33:35that makes it
- 33:37so entertaining decade after decade and
- 33:39for decades to come I'm sure my
- 33:41grandchildren will be watching this
- 33:43movie and the lighting in it the way I
- 33:45did when I was two and it was brand new
- 33:47so it's nice to know that it goes on and
- 33:50on
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