John Lasseter and Dumbo

The UCLA Film&Television Archive held a special event Monday in a series entitled "The movie that inspired me." John Lasseter was on hand to show a newly struck print of Dumbo made especially for this screening. It was a beautiful print to see up on the big screen. I had grown up only seeing VHS or DVD versions, so seeing the resolution of projected film was a unique experience. Afterwards, John talked about the film and why it was truly his favorite film of all time. Although he mostly talked about the "Baby Mine," "Roustabouts," and final climax of the film, he did mention the Casey Jr. sequences.

"I was always inspired by Dumbo with that perfect, beautiful combination of the cartoony world but everything is done so exquisitely. That scene with Casey Jr. making it over the hill, 'I think I can,' and then those last shots of him going across with the reflection, there's something so beautiful about these little moments. Ken O'Conner, one of the great layout artists at Disney and an instructor of mine at CalArts, brought in layouts on a number of the scenes he had worked on. You dont realize the sophistication of the staging of a lot of things in this film. Its so appealing. The film making aspect of this film is very, very special. Its not just a cartoon. There's really some dramatic staging in this film that sets up the storytelling so beautifully."

"Its so satisfying at the end when they get that really cool private rail car, I always loved that. Even the subtlety of that, Ward Kimball worked that scene and he was such a train nut, he even got the bounce of all the train cars except their car is just perfectly still. Its the little touches like that you just know that he made it."

Courvoisier cels

I thought I'd post some examples of animation cels that survive to this day.   Most often they are referred to as Courvoisier cels, after gallery owner Guthrie Courvoisier.  He convinced Walt to sell the otherwise destroyed cels as artwork rather than a byproduct of the animation process.  Most of these early cels are nitrate and painted with water based pigments, before acrylic cels and paints were introduced, and are therefore very fragile and deteriorate easily.

The scene from the film

a Courvoisier cel in excellent condition

One in not so good condition.  This particular example may have been varnished as a method of paint preservation.  Over time the varnish has clouded and the cel has split just below the engine.  Its so sad to see cels deteriorate in this fashion.

How long is that train?

The off model colors make me think that this was actually created for the poster or other promo art. However it does give a good depiction of how many cars poor Casey had to struggle with to get up that hill.

Dropped scene

This amazing convoluted background painting was from an unused scene for Dumbo.  Even though I can easily imagine Casey puffing in and out of those tunnels, just how exactly it would have been done remains a mystery.  Its almost as if I'm looking at model train layout just begging to be played with.  

Dumbo Storyboards

This is somewhat a continuation of the previous post. More artwork and storyboards from the hill climbing sequence.

I think I can!

I thought I could!

These scenic shots are some of the most cinematic in the whole film.
One of the last images in the movie. I suppose once you've made it big as a flying elephant you can buy your mother a garishly-painted airstream-shaped private car. So odd...

Dumbo story art

One of my favorite images.  I love how the door to the engine shed has the little cut-out for the smoke stack.  
This shot shows some actual interaction between Casey Jr. and Dumbo and Timothy, something that never made it into the final film.
Like all of the backgrounds in Dumbo, this color study looks to be watercolor.

The mood in both of this images is great.  Casey looks pretty worn out.

Character designs

These are model sheets most likely created for Dumbo. Drawn by Ward Kimball, they were passed out to the animators as reference for the characters they were animating. Whats interesting is the number of characters that were created for the film that were not used. The switch character is back from The Reluctant Dragon, as well as several Semiphore characters. Ward even created an Engineer character that bears striking resemblance to himself. Eventhough these characters never made it into the final film, some did make it into a Casey Jr children's book, which I will post as soon as its scanned.

Dumbo

On October 23rd, 1941, just four months after Reluctant Dragon, Dumbo flew onto the big screen. This time Casey stars as the locomotive pulling the circus train. The melody of his music remains the same from The Reluctant Dragon, but this time lyrics have been added. Perhaps the line "Casey Junior's back" refers to the fact that audiences had just seen him in the studio's prior theatrical release; however, it could simply refer to the fact that the circus has come to town once again.