Event Recap: Animating a Deer with J.B. Kaufman

It was a fulfilling day for those who spent the morning of Saturday, June 25 outside The Walt Disney Family Museum, learning to draw animals from live models, and returning in the afternoon for WDFM historian JB Kaufman’s lecture, The Anatomy of an Animal: Animating a Deer. When asked if they enjoyed the live study session, the assembled crowd voiced a resounding "Yeah!"

Kaufman remarked that it took many years for Bambi to materialize from paper to the screen. He believed that it began as early as 1933 when producer-director Sidney Franklin bought the film rights to Felix Salten’s book. Franklin ultimately realized that it could not be a live-action film, so he collaborated with Disney to create an animated feature film. Walt wanted Bambi to be more lifelike, character animation with realistic subtleties. Work on Bambi at the Disney Studio did not commence until 1938. During the four years it took to complete Bambi, the world had changed. Kaufman recapped what events took place such as the transfer of Disney's distribution rights from United Artists to RKO Radio Pictures, Multiplane camera technology, Walt Disney Productions' first public stock offering, a devastating strike, and the onset of World War II redirecting the focus of the Studio to the war effort. Sharon joined the Disney family, and Walt’s parents passed away. Although Bambi was considered a full-length animated film at 70 minutes, it was only six minutes longer than the economically-produced smash hit Dumbo (at 64 minutes).

It was a technical challenge to animate animals realistically. Walt wanted to ensure that the animators had everything they needed to create Bambi with realism and heightened subtlety. Live animals were brought in for the animators to study and sketch their movements, and master art instructor Rico LeBrun was hired to teach. Kaufman compared the fawns in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the deer in Bambi with an emphasis on how the legs performed and moved. Instead of stick-like legs, Bambi had well articulated joint movements from the hip to the hoof. Bambi’s movements were analogous to human movements, or the leaping stages of a frog, and these movements changed with age, just as a child matures from a toddler to an adult. Yet, with the lifelike movements, there was a fine balance with fantasy in creating the face and character of Bambi.

Legendary animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson expressed that Bambi was the culmination of the advanced development of Disney animation that had begun with Snow White. Kaufman, however, feels that Bambi stands alone as an unusual and distinctive delicacy of animation. We watched the example of a romantic sequence of doe and buck frolicking and rejoicing in the arrival of Spring (accompanied by the song, I Bring You a Song), which impressed us with the same sentiments. J.B. screened a bird flight sequence that was so successful that it has been repeated in several later films. When Bambi was released in 1942, trailers and posters promoted the movie as a great love story. Our senses were opened up to new dimensions and approaches, and I’ll be seeing Bambi again with a different set of ears and eyes.

Olga Woo • Volunteer at The Walt Disney Family Museum

Live-study sketch session at the Museum, June 25, 2011. Photo highlights courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Look Closer: Concept Art by Tyrus Wong

Each month, The Walt Disney Family Museum staff takes a closer look at an artifact or exhibit within our galleries. Throughout June, the Museum has celebrated Walt Disney’s brilliant and timeless 1942 animated feature, Bambi. In this posting, Museum Interpreter Mary Beth Culler offers an appreciation of the Bambi art of Tyrus Wong.

One of the many things the WDFM Interpreters try to convey to visitors and school groups touring the galleries is the importance of concept art to the early development of a Disney film. To illustrate this point, we often refer to the work done on Bambi by Chinese-American artist, Tyrus Wong. Concept art is a form of illustration whose main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, or mood for something that doesn't yet exist, and Wong accomplished this brilliantly with the sketches and landscape paintings he produced for the beloved 1942 film. 

Art from the collection of the Walt Disney Family Foundation. © Disney.By using soft-edged, ethereal watercolor shapes for the forest scenes rather than the highly detailed renderings that had traditionally been used, Wong introduced a new, more subtle style—a look and feel that appealed to Walt, who wanted to do something different with Bambi.  Wong’s creations evoked emotional responses that were in tune with the beautifully dark and mysterious mood presented in Felix Salten’s, Bambi, A Life in the Woods, and his work was described by fellow artists as a kind of visual poetry.

Five of the original pieces produced by Tyrus Wong during the preproduction phase of Bambi are on display in the Museum's Gallery 5, and were the focus of our June Look Closer presentations. These impressionistic studies of nature demonstrate how Wong championed a different approach to establishing a movie’s signature look. The brush strokes are airy and minimalistic, showing restraint and lack of detail. Rather than completely flesh out the image of falling leaves or a single deer in the woods, for example, they provide visual suggestions of what is to be portrayed. When asked to comment on previous concept art versus what he created for Bambi, Wong said, “Too much detail!  I tried to keep the thing very, very simple and create the atmosphere, the feeling of the forest.”

In addition to the five Wong pieces, the display case devoted to Bambi contains other examples of concept art created for the film by various Disney Studio artists.  What’s immediately evident is that these unnamed artists adopted the Wong style for their sketches, mimicking the simple yet powerful way of illustrating animals and landscapes. According to legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Tyrus Wong not only inspired the other visual artists working on Bambi, he also set a standard that is still challenging artists today.

Like other sketches and paintings in the Museum’s collection, these treasured pieces of concept art are housed in sealed cases, which provide a controlled environment of temperature and relative humidity. And those that were done in graphite and/or watercolor—mediums particularly susceptible to deterioration—are periodically removed from display and given a “rest” by the Collections Department. 

Mary Beth Culler

Museum Interpreter

Our June screenings of Walt Disney's Bambi end Thursday, with shows at 1:00pm and 4:00pm (except Tuesday) in the state-of-the-art digital theatre at The Walt Disney Family Museum. Tickets are available at the Reception and Member Service Desk at the Museum, or online at www.waltdisney.org.

The Art of Tyrus Wong: Recap

From the Collection of the Walt Disney Family Foundation. ©DisneyThis month, The Walt Disney Family Museum celebrates Walt Disney’s brilliant and timeless 1942 animated feature, Bambi. In this column, Anel Muller and Harvey Newman recap our special event of Saturday, June 11, which focused on the art of Bambi and how it forever shaped animation—and continues to influence many of our favorite films. 

On June 11, 2011, The Walt Disney Family Museum had the great privilege of hosting not only Charles Solomon, noted author and animation historian; Paul Felix, art director at Walt Disney Animation Studios; and Ralph Eggleston, animator, storyboard artist, and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios, but also the incredibly humble and astounding inspirational artist, Tyrus Wong. The lecture unveiled how Tyrus Wong’s vision for Bambi departed from the traditional storybook feel of previous films like Snow White and Pinocchio and how his legacy continues to influence animation artists today.

Tyrus Wong was born in Taishan, Guangdong, China on October 25, 1910. After immigrating to the United States in 1920 with is father, he went on to attend the Otis Art Institute. Tyrus came to the Disney Studio in 1938. He got his start in animation doing the work of an inbetweener, which required him to clean up the rough animation drawings that were done by the lead animator, as well draw the missing images between key poses. Charles Solomon noted that Tyrus had once remarked that his eyes felt like "ping-pong balls on strings" while doing this work. But his work as an inbetweener would be short-lived. As the Studio started to work on Bambi, he saw this as his opportunity to leave the doldrums of inbetweening work. He started creating concept paintings that illustrated his vision for the film. He presented his work to Tom Codrick, and that ultimately led to Tyrus being assigned as a visual designer for Bambi. 

(From L to R): Paul Felix, Tyrus Wong and Ralph Eggleston. Photo by Joseph Driste, courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum.Tyrus's art subtly influenced the viewer’s emotions throughout Bambi. The speakers at the lecture referred to his backgrounds as a "caricature of nature." His moody and minimal depictions of the landscape were influenced by his childhood in China, where he would practice calligraphy with his father. When he was out of ink, he would use water on newspaper to improve his brushwork. The classical style of Sung Dynasty landscapes is a direct correlation to Tyrus's depictions of the landscape. For Tyrus and other artists influenced by the Sung Dynasty landscapes, nature is more important than humans, which is why nature is another character in Bambi. He was a master of detail placement and knew how to give the viewer just enough information to subconsciously react to the scene, allowing the backgrounds to enhance the characters and the constant emotional shifts throughout the film. Ralph Eggleston described Bambi as a narrative version of Fantasia.

Tyrus's ability to "perfect the skill of imperfection" has even influenced the digital animation world. Today, most animation is done on a computer and Eggleston spoke of Tyrus's ability to blur and distort the environment in ways that had been overlooked in the beginning of the digital age. He aspired to the talent of Tyrus. During the making of Finding Nemo, he covered his office walls with reproductions of Tyrus's art as inspiration and study for his work. The method, which Tyrus used with the fog and glimmers of light in the forest of Bambi to manipulate the colors and mood, influenced Eggleston stylistic decisions when animating the water in Finding Nemo.

From the Collection of the Walt Disney Family Foundation. ©DisneyPaul Felix also spoke of the Tyrus's influence when he was working on Lilo and Stitch. With Lilo and Stitch, the Disney Studio abandoned the traditional shape-driven look and feel of the films, and returned to the tone set by Wong in Bambi. Once again, the look of the film was softer, subtler, and more heavily focused on abstract shapes and fields of color to help evoke the emotions of the scene. Felix, like Wong, looked at the scenery as a way to enhance emotions and visually persuade the emotion of the story. He spoke to the fact that sharp, crisp backgrounds can distract the viewer and end up competing with the intended focus of the film.

Other recent films, such as The Princess and the Frog and Tangled have used the shape language and compositional influences of Bambi in their designs as well. With the influence of Tyrus and his beautiful depiction of the landscape, animators and artists can use him as a source of inspiration to create and depict emotionally significant works of art.

The lecture concluded with a standing ovation for Tyrus. Although Bambi was the only animated feature on which Tyrus so significantly contributed as a designer, his immense influence in the visual communication of the animated art form continues to reverberate in the industry.

Walt Disney's Bambi is screening every day in June at 1:00pm and 4:00pm (except June 25 & 28) in the state-of-the-art digital theatre at The Walt Disney Family Museum. Tickets are available at the Reception and Member Service Desk at the Museum, or online at www.waltdisney.org.

Live Study Sketch Session on the Museum Front Lawn

© DisneyAs we celebrate Walt's timeless and beautiful feature film Bambi, author and historian J.B. Kaufman will be visiting the Museum on Saturday, June 25 at 3PM to discuss the visual styles and work that went into animating the film, which includes a discussion about the anatomy of an animal and how artists would study live animal models at the studio to get their movements and mannerisms just right.

Prior to this public program, the Museum will be hosting live animal models--think of it like a giant petting zoo on our front lawn--for visitors to study and sketch from 10AM-12PM. Artist Felicia Forte will act as a guest instructor for those who might need help bringing their sketches to life, or guests are welcome to just watch and observe Felicia's method of animating our petting zoo: "In sketching animals you have to patiently observe, watch for the patterns in movement that repeat as the animal goes about his business. Each time I look up from my sketchpad I attempt memorize a small line or rhythm of my busy subject. Sometimes the animal moves too quickly to record much, but that is part of the fun and challenge of trying to create order out of the unselfconscious energy of these lovely creatures. After many attempts you begin to recognize the big shapes and patterns of a given animal, making it easier to draw him more quickly and elegantly."

Hope to see you here!

Animating Animals: Live Models at the Museum

To create the realistic characters of Bambi, Walt Disney brought his artists living animals to study and draw direct from life. In that tradition, we're bringing in  live animal models—goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, pot belly pigs and more—to provide you with the unique opportunity to observe and sketch them, just as the Disney artists do. Don’t miss this special drawing session on Saturday, June 25, from 10AM–12PM (weather permitting), to join an artist on our front lawn, and bring the inspiration of live animal models to your own illustrations!

Afterwards, join us in the Theater at 3PM to hear from noted author and historian, J.B. Kaufman, about the groundbreaking visual style and evolution of the classic Disney film Bambi, where he will discuss the anatomy of an animal and how the film was animated! Tickets can be purchased online at waltdisney.org. Hope to see you here!

What: Live Study Sketch Session // The Anatomy of an Animal with J.B. Kaufman

When: 10am-12pm (Sketch Session) // 3pm (Discussion with J.B.)