As I’m writing this, the fourth pass on the authoring of the Blu-ray master for The Puppetoon Movie 2 is burning on the computer next to me. With any luck the fourth pass is the final one! This Arnold Leibovit production is one of the most beautiful sets I’ve worked on – the team should be proud. It’s already after 10 on Wednesday here, but if it was earlier I was hoping to show some things from that project. It’s a must for animation fans, and I think Pal would be very happy with the collection. I’ll work on getting some things together for next week.
Cleaning up the Puppetoon “Hatfull of Dreams”
As for the company. Thunderbean is growing. It’s been running largely without me these weeks as we transition to just a little bigger of a company and as I’ve had my whole head into school and finishing the Puppetoons. It’s hard to not be involved in all aspects, but clearly I’m unable to, and that’s fine. As I’m watching the scans come in from projects, I’m smiling and handing things off to freelancers to help clean up. I can see what this small company can be, and especially looking forward to future licensing opportunities that are in the mix- some of them just waiting for me to have enough time. I can’t wait to start tackling even more with help from the team.
The logistics of dubbing discs and sending things is growing especially – and now needs to involve other small companies to help us dub and finish things. I know we’ll only be able to do the little tiny’special’ projects for just a little longer as it expands, so I’m going to try and squeeze in a few to help get all these gears moving a little faster as well as get as many films scanned as possible. Here’s the latest of these little Blu-ray ‘special’ sets, ‘Lots of Bad Guys’.
Details HERE.
Now, onto today’s animation:
I really love pencil tests, as I’m sure a lot of you do. I’d be pretty happy if whole work reels were released officially rather than the fuzzy VHS dupes a lot of us have of a lot of films. Seeing tests from favorite films has always been a treat, and once in a while you’d get lucky enough to see a whole sequence.
There’s a handful of websites and Facebook groups that have great things up, but I thought I’d highlight one that you might not have seen before. It’s a nice little compilation of Frank and Ollie scenes, from the Art of Animation Facebook group.
Over the years you’d hear about a test here or there that was making the rounds in 16mm prints – and sometimes even find a print for sale. I was first selling Snappy Video VHS tapes at Film and Memorabilia shows, and one particular show had several dealers selling some really rare things. I bought a reel that had the ’Soup Scene’ from Snow White, and another from Lady and the Tramp. Both these tests are from 16mm prints of Disneyland TV shows. I scanned the later recently in HD, and it’s a wonderful little sequence with beautiful animation and beautiful cleanup. While Uncle Walt (in narration) calls these John Sibley’s ‘First rough animation drawings’, it’s a completed pencil test reel of cleaned up animation. Here’s the reel, with a basic, pre-sweetened music track.
Siamese Cat Pencil Test from Steve Stanchfield on Vimeo.
Have a good week everyone!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Steve:
Before I make a purchase for “Bad Guys” please tell me the contents of the special set.
Also how close are Flip and Rainbow Parade to being finished and complete?
Any answer would be appreciated.
Is the Lots of Bad Guys basically the Thunderbean Equivalent of the Worst Cartoons Ever Made DVD from Rembrandt Films ????
The late, great Dr. Rusty Castleton!
I remember seeing this on the Disney Channel when they used to show select episodes of the Disneyland show. It was always intriguing when they showed glimpses of the animation process, even if they did fudge the facts a bit to make it clearer for the audience.
Thanks for posting John Sibley’s Siamese Cat PT, Steve. Of course the Siamese Cat PT I would most love to see is Ward Kimball’s original version that had to be reanimated because it was “too cartoony”. There are a few scenes which still have a bit of a Kimball touch, like the scene where the cats stick their heads through the top of the wardrobe quickly in time to the music. Also the scene where one of the cats hides in the fish bowl as Lady nearly puts the fish into it’s mouth, has the Kimball exaggeration. The scene where the cats cock their right ears up as they sing “..a baby cry..”, also looks like it might have been pulled back from the Kimball original. A great Kimball cat that may have been the ancestor of the Siamese cats is in the short “Pluto’s Kid Brother” (1946). The character is a red alley cat and the sequence is from 1:48 to 2:45 in the cartoon. Look at the funny expressions and balance between wild action and subtle, contained poses for comedy contrast. The cat’s confidant walk where the front legs are out of step with the back legs is pure comedy in motion. I’d bet the farm that that’s the approach Ward used for his version of the Siamese Cat sequence.
Wow! Thanks a lot for this lost “Lady and the Tramp” sequence. It seems to be an excerpt from “Cavalcade of Songs”. A version of this show aired on Disney Channel in the nineties and is available in various “Lady and the Tramp” DVD/BluRays. It comes from the “Wonderful World of Color” rerun (as the title card reveals) and does not include this pencil test. Is it possible that the original 1954 version of the show contained the pencil test and that this was replaced with footage from the finished movie when the show was rerun in 1962?
How about uncensored 2? I’m still waiting over a year. I wonder if you even realize I pre paid the Flip set almost 5 years ago. What’s going on with Thunderbean’s pre order policy? Seems a bit dishonest.
Lovely to see this pencil test. It’s great the way it looks surreal – probably true of a lot of pencil tests – because the characters become effectively transparent:
They weave over the backgrounds (with those backgrounds visible through them) like ectoplasmic manifestations!
Hi Ricky,
We’re working on finishing a bunch of things (8 of them are getting shipped this next week) . Many have taken much longer than we hoped (Flip being in progress easily the longest). We’re working on finishing both of those sets and many others. If you would like a refund, please submit a help ticket at thunderbeanshop.com. Thanks for the support on the sets and sorry it’s taking forever on several.
Are there any known copy of the pencil test of the Siamese cats that ward Kimball animated?