January 11, 2005

Further Beauty-full Thoughts

If you read my last post, you'll know I've been thinking a lot about Sleeping Beauty. So much so that I asked the guys where they stand on the movie and whether or not Earle's work had any influence on later Disney films. Here's what Jerry had to offer:

"I love Sleeping Beauty. It's one of my all-time favorite animated movies, one of the Disney studio's best! You haven't lived till you see it in 70mm on a huge screen (as I did at the Cinerama Dome - it's whole a different experience). I see no evidence of Earle having left any lasting influence at the Disney studio through 1992. Some recent shorts and features (by the new generation) look to have his influence ("Mulan," "John Henry," maybe a little Home on the Range")."

And Amid sent me this great quote that really hints at the tension in the studio that must have been a bit more blatant once Earle was onboard with the project:

For Eyvind's perspective, here is a quote from his book, HORIZON BOUND ON A BICYCLE: "Never before had Walt given one person the freedom and authority to take over the designing of an entire animated feature. The old time animators who were revered as gods at the Disney Studios, were in the habit of telling the directors of each sequence what colors they wanted their characters to be, and working directly with the ink and paint department."

"Whereas, I saw the job as designing a complete stage setting, where every detail from A to Z was considered and harmonized to make a total picture that could only be done by letting one single artist create the color schemes in the first place. I simply could not give an inch on the question of color schemes. Everyone had admitted that I was a good colorist, and it would be like letting another artist put the finishing touches on one of my paintings in any old color he felt like. I tried to reason with the animators and explain how hard I was trying to make an overall color scheme that would work as a whole."

Posted by at January 11, 2005 12:35 AM