Walt Disney's recycled animation scenes

That was cool. I was expecting to be about backgrounds, but when it was about movement, and used with different characters, I wonder how they archive the sketches, whether it indicates the same animator did the same work

I was expecting this to be scooby-doo type backgrounds. Thinking about it, I guess there had to be some other way than completely drawing everything from scratch, but I just never considered it before.

That is interesting. I have admiration for good animators however they get to the finished product. When I left art college in 1980 I had a job interview with animators Halas & Batchelor, who set me the task of getting Asterix The Gaul from one stance to another in 10 frames. I just couldn't do it, it was beyond me.

craigb

jamesg1213
That is interesting. I have admiration for good animators however they get to the finished product. When I left art college in 1980 I had a job interview with animators Halas & Batchelor, who set me the task of getting Asterix The Gaul from one stance to another in 10 frames. I just couldn't do it, it was beyond me.

Quitter! 
 
(You know you could have done it in just two frames, but it's the eight in the middle that make it magic!  )

I probably was a quitter when I was 20. I'd nail it now. If I had my glasses on.

dmbaer
Fascinating.  I assume this came from inside Disney animation itself - what kind of obsessive soul would otherwise have spotted this reuse?

It's probably the case that the reuse is common knowledge in the animation world. I should think that Disney cartoons have been studied inside and out over the years by people with a passion for animation, and of course similarity between scenes will be picked up on by enthusiasts. 

Hi,
 
Chuck Jones talks about "backgrounds" in his cartoons on the second book ... both of which are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all goons around here. The first book (Chuck Amuck) is more of a history and complete catalogue of things. The second book, is where the art of the cartoon comes out in his discussions and how he creates his characters.
 
And his one theme?
 
You got it ... the stock copy and character. Even if it made the cartoonist more work to get it right. He does not take swipes at Disney (dismissed him in the early days along with several others -- Disney did that routinely to a lot of animators!), but it was clear that each and every character was not going to do the same thing, or basically copy what the other did. He/She would have to do it in "their character", which meant the foreground was important and not a copy. 
 
The backgrounds, is another story, since he even states that they put things in every single one of them, so that if they look the same, it means you are not looking. There were always silly things, like a smoking chimney, that was not there the first time, and in one other example, the chimney had fallen and someone was screaming outside the building, and it's so small in the background and goes so fast, you can not possibly see it, unless you look at all the frames!
 
The only cartoon of Disney I ever liked, was "Fantasia", and sadly because it took 10 years (WW2 didn't help) for it to get some attention, it ended up being a frustrating experiment for Disney, that they did not recover from, but it gave WB a reason to do with music, what Disney could not. Love it and love it and have fun with it!
 
And if you want a very weird and crazy afternoon, grab one of Carl Stallings CD's and put it on, and see if you can make a cartoon in your head ... because every one of those pieces you have heard before, and SEEN more than once.
 
For more on this, grab the book on CARTOON MUSIC, for an insane education in music creation, all the way to Snoopy and pals and the two crazy nerds.
 
BTW, try to find "Allegro Non Troppo" .. it is a Fantasia send up done to classical music by an Italian that has done some very funny and weird films, involving cartoon bits and such. It is an excellent piece as well, and ... this time ... not exactly for the kiddies on a piece or two, but the cartooning is out of this world. And that version of "Bolero" will always be in your head!

kennywtelejazz
 
 
Parts of it reminded me of what I have seen in video instructional tutorials  where film score composers have templates demonstrating how they compose music in the box using their  DAW  of choice ..
...

Adding music to a frame/film is not the issue ... the timing is the problem, since an action goes for so many seconds, and you can not get the guitar and sound to match the "mood" properly and have to change it, since you can't re-film it 80% of the time. The only ones that ever re-film'd anything to match the music, was Francis Ford Coppola, who is known to be insane when it comes to music, and you can see it in the AN film. All the pieces fit ... incredibly well.
 
In my own film, which was a Super 8 piece, it was difficult. 24 frames, and the piece of music was from Kevin Ayers (Once I awakened - from Dr. Dream album), and my starting point was not before or after ... but this specific frame in the film, and the music point had to be right here, and then I timed the rest of it forwards by slightly slowing down the music (Turntable had a control that could lower it up to a couple of percent), or speeding it up a bit.
 
The usual Hollywood thing, is to just add the music over it and it supposedly sounds more romantic or whatever. In general, you can see this really well in a Scorcese film, and he makes the point of always setting up the scene's acting and movement, so it will not interfere with the music. He learned a lot of this as one of the cameramen in the film Woodstock, and then watching what Michael Wadleigh did with it. Scorcese is not very good about his music choices, but he does use it well, even though it is not the style I would use. I tend to let the music "dictate" the scene and the players work on the music, not on my direction or other ideas, and this is similar to what Werner Herzog has done.
 
Stanley Kubrick, even though he is well known for the music he used, is actually a joke, by comparison, and not very serious ... it's mostly an "effect" to shock you and surprise you, which was his strength anyway.

t;dr!