A production cel featuring a very early rendition of Snow White went up for sale this past month at the Massachusetts-based RR Auction. Created circa 1935, she is shown in a long pink dress with a blue bow in her hair--quite possibly the earliest example of a Snow White production cel ever.
Cel images via RR Auctions.
For nearly 80 years, the piece belonged to the family of Grim Natwick. Grim was one of the two main animators of Snow White, the other being Hamilton Luske. Before coming to Disney to work on the film, Natwick was employed by Fleischer Studios where he was the original animator of Betty Boop. The similarities are quite evident.
The full animation cel is complete with peg holes and a cel number at the bottom right; it's not to be mistaken for a
color model. Image measures 5" x 2.25", with overall dimensions of 12.25" x 9.75".
Strong disagreements occurred between the two animators and in their vision of how Snow White should be portrayed. Of course the final decision was Walt Disney's, who...
...changed this design of the princess because he felt it was too ‘cartoony’—too risqué and reminiscent of Betty Boop—to be used for final production in a more serious film. Bobby Livingston, Exec VP at RR Auction.
Comparison shots via the Mirror.
The auction bidding ran from August 14-21, 2014. The cel sold for $4,239.73. Special thanks to The Disney Freak for the notice on this one.
Gag drawing by Disney art director Hugh Hennesy. Animator Joe Magro goes nose to nose with the Old Hag. Mixed media.
Who was Joe Magro? The good folks over at Cartoon Brew give us the answer...
Italian-American
artist Joe Magro was hired at Disney in 1936 during the studio’s
expansion to produce Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Originally from
Rochester, New York, Magro was attending Mechanics Institute (now
Rochester Institute of Technology) when his teacher Fritz Trautmann
suggested that he apply to the Disney studio.
Magro
left Disney in 1937 and returned to the East Coast. He apparently stayed
long enough at the studio to make friends with the other artists. We
know that because when Magro left, his Disney colleagues presented him
with a “good luck” book filled with gag drawings. The drawings from that
book are currently being auctioned by Heritage Auctions and include
pieces by Fred Moore, Ward Kimball, Bill Tytla, Grim Natwick and Marc
Davis, among others.
Since Joe was at the Studio during the height of the Snow White
production, the majority of drawings within the “good luck” book included some kind of reference to the film. All the pieces were created on 12-field 5-peghole
sheets of animation paper (12" x 10").
Gag drawing by Marc Davis. Snow White thinks Joe is "chicken". Mixed media.
Gag drawing by Vladimir "Bill" Tytla. Note Mickey Mouse on the blackboard and
Dopey as one of the students. Graphite and colored pencil.
Gag drawing by animator Dave Rose. Original layout drawing of the
poison apple antidote has been collaged with another piece of art. Graphite
and colored pencil.
Gag drawing by Grim Natwick. The fairest on the beach meets animator Joe Magro. Rendered in colored
pencil.
Gag drawing by Fred Moore. Snow's red bow in hair. Tongue-in-cheek caption reads: "But -- what could you possibly do with me
in New York?" Mixed media.
Gag drawing by animator, Jack Larsen. Joe Magro in the lap of luxury. Colored pencil.
Gag drawing by Marc Davis and Charles "Nick" Nichols. Another humorously cheeky piece. Mixed media.
Gag drawing by Charles "Nick" Nichols. Grumpy says goodbye. Graphite and colored pencil.
The rest of the (non-Snow White) drawings can be seen at Cartoon Brew. Learn more about Heritage's Animation Art Signature Auction in the previous archive entry.
Marc Davis (March 30, 1913 - January 12, 2000) was the very last of the "nine old men" to join the Disney studio, December 2, 1935. As with all new recruits, he started out as an in-betweener, but his first assignment was to attend two-weeks of intensive life-drawing classes under Don Graham.
Marc Davis
By late spring of 1936, Marc was made assistant to Grim Natwick, the original animator of Betty Boop. Although Davis' background experience was more in line with drawing animals, he would soon be helping to create the star of Walt Disney's first feature.
Grim Natwick
Natwick had a team which consisted of three assistants, Davis being the principle of these, and three in-betweeners. Their sole purpose during production? Animate the Snow White character. Supervising animator Hamilton Luske also had a Snow White team, and it was not uncommon for conflicts to arise between the two heads. In a nutshell, Natwick saw the princess as being older, more mature, Luske as more childlike.
According to Michael Barrier...
As Davis became aware of the hostility between Luske and Natwick, he gradually took it upon himself to make the necessary changes in Natwick's drawings. Those changes went beyond the character's proportions to what Davis called a "kind of feeling of the character"; Natwick, he said, wanted the girl to have "a vitality," more than simple cuteness, and it was this vitality that Davis had to tame. Hollywood Cartoons, p.198
Production Drawing via Collectors Paradise Galleries
Animator and assistant worked well together. Grim would say about the help that Marc provided during Snow White, it "was like having two right arms."
"During the three and one-half years that Marc and I worked together at Disney's," wrote Natwick in 1979, "twenty months or nearly six hundred days were spent drawing Snow White herself in scene after scene for the picture that carries her name in the title." Source: John Canemaker's Nine Old Men p.274
Snow White with broom. Rendered and initialed by Davis in graphite and red pencil on a 12 field sheet of animation paper (12" x 10"). Includes Disney studio stamps. Sold in May 2007 for $597.50 (USD). Heritage Auctions...
Snow White with bird. Drawing on animation paper (9.5 x12"), lead pencil with colored pencil accents. Marc Davis initialed bottom right-hand corner. Sold in June 2008 for $747.50. Hake's Americana and Collectibles...
Snow White collage, each head has been trimmed from an original animation production sketch and mounted to another piece of paper. All drawn by Davis. Image area 7.25" x 9.5". Sold in February 2011 for $1314.50. Heritage Auctions...
Marc had fond memories of those early days at the Disney Studio when the push to learn was immense...
At one time, Walt rented a studio up in North Hollywood and every Wednesday night we would see a selection of films--anything from Chaplin to unusual subjects. Anything that might produce growth, that might be stimulating--the cutting of the scenes, the staging, how a group of scenes was put together...
Everybody here was studying constantly. we had models at the Studio and we'd go over and draw every night. We weren't making much, because the Studio didn't have much, but it was a perfect time of many things coming together into one orbit. Walt was the lodestone. Nine Old Men p.273
As Natwick's assistant, Marc had to attend the "sweatbox" projection room meetings with the directors and Walt. But "the boss" hardly knew who he was. It wasn't until Davis started doing story sketches for Bambi that Walt "got excited" about his drawings.
Davis would go on to animate key characters in many of the classic features from the 1940s and 50s including both Maleficent and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty.
Video posted by TheBunnyHD
His contributions to the Disney empire, however, weren't restricted to just the animated motion picture. His visionary work as an Imagineer is the stuff of Disneyland legend.
Marc pictured below in 1987 at a Snow White 50th anniversary celebration...
Marc Davis and Grim Natwick photo via John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, 2001.
One of the many original Grim Natwick sketch designs created for possible use as Snow White poster art. His influence can be seen in the 1937 Gustaf Tenggren 40x60.
Images shot at the Grim Natwick/Betty Boop Festival in his home town of Wisconsin Rapids, August 2010.
Sketch is now part of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.
I attended the first annual Grim Natwick/Betty Boop Festival yesterday in Wisconsin Rapids. Natwick, the main animator of both the original Fleischer Studios' Betty Boop character and then of Disney's Snow White, was born and raised in this small central Wisconsin municipality. In honor of their most famous resident as well as Betty's 80th birthday (August 9th), the entire town threw a party. Here's what I saw...
Image (right) via Betty Boop Festival website.
A youthful Grim Natwick.
Natwick info pamphlets; Ms. Boop cardboard standups.
Natwick character design from the very first BB cartoon Dizzy Dishes (1930). Patterned after singer Helen Kane.
At the heart of the fest was the Grim Natwick artwork collection on loan from the non-profit ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives. Also "on loan" from the Archives was its director Stephen Worth who gave talks and tours throughout the weekend.
Stephen Worth leading a discussion on the Natwick animation collection.
The story of Bimbo the dog and his new girlfriend as shared by Stephen Worth...
In 1930, Bimbo the dog was the star character at Fleischer Studios. Director Dave Fleischer asked Grim to design a girlfriend for Bimbo in the upcoming short Barnacle Bill. Natwick went to work and created the design sheet (below). When Fleischer returned, he saw that Grim had simply "retooled" the Helen Kane character from the previous short Dizzy Dishes. The director argued, 'Bimbo is a dog. Don't you think he ought to have a dog girlfriend?"
Natwick quickly drew a dog body on the sheet with the Helen Kane head and asked,
"Would you rather have this?" He circled the dog. "Or this..., " he pointed to the human form, "as Bimbo's girlfriend?"
Fleischer gave in and thus was born a character soon to become a bigger star than Bimbo would ever be.
Character design from BB cartoon Barnacle Bill (1930).
NOTE: Photo has been manipulated from color to grayscale for ease of viewing. The actual drawing paper shows yellowing from age.
"A dog or this?"
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Yes, it was the "Betty Boop" Festival, but I was interested to see drawings from Natwick's entire career, especially those from his Disney period. Below is a Snow White animation rough...
Natwick Snow White animation rough, close-ups.
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The festival also included screenings of Betty Boop shorts, other films by Grim Natwick, animated treasures from the ASIFA Hollywood archives, and special showings of Nina Paley's Betty Boop-ish Sita Sings the Blues. My wife Ti and I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Nina whose animation art was on display throughout the day.
Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues artwork.
And now, here's a rather racy Barnacle Bill with his new girlfriend...
Walt Disney will always be remembered for his countless innovations in filmmaking and entertainment. Yet, when he set out to create his first feature film, he was like an explorer heading into an uncharted wilderness. Back in 1934, no one knew if an audience would sit through a full-length cartoon. Cynics said it wouldn't succeed. Walt, of course, believed it was possible, and he did everything in his power to insure that his animators believed too.
One thing was to bring movement models into the studio to give the animators a frame of reference to achieve realistic human motion (i.e., walking, dancing). Marjorie Belcher (born September 2, 1919) was hired as a teenager for $10/day to play Snow White. See the October 2009 MovieWebinterview with Marge as she talks about how Walt chose her for the part from 200-300 other girls. She came into the studio two or three times a month for a period of about two years. The animators "showed me storyboards and then they let me go free."
The modeling-action sessions were filmed under the direction of Hamilton Luske and Grim Natwick. For certain scenes, rather than using the footage as reference for original drawings, the animators utilized the the technique of rotoscopy (see earlier Fleisher Studios post). The movements on film were traced directly to paper.
Many of the animators, like Art Babbitt, were against the idea. Yet, overwhelming factors such as the massive scope of the project and the approaching December 1937 deadline left them with few alternatives. In certain scenes of the finished film, the rotoscoping is definitely noticeable. The "stiffness" of it is frowned upon by many animators, then and now. However, I personally kind of like how it looks.
Video posted by LucaItaly84
From a Marge Champion MovieWeb interview...
They traced every line and the animators chose whatever they wanted from that. They didn't use every frame of it, but it was a guide to their actions. It was much more inclusive than I had ever been told.
Marge Belcher posing as Snow White.
Images copyright Disney.
Some of the animation from Marge's footage as Snow White was reworked for the Maid Marion scenes in Disney's 1973 Robin Hood as seen (along with other clips) in the video below.
Video posted by quatuorlindsay. All clips copyright Disney.
Marge later modeled for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and was working on Fantasia (the dancing hippo sequence) when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs finally premiered in 1937. She eventually went on to become one of the great dancer/choreographers in both movies and stage. Marge and her husband Gower Champion worked together as a highly successfully dancing team during the MGM musical years.
1949 Life Magazine cover. And in 2007 with Pixar's John Lasseter at the DCA Snow White's 70th anniversary celebration.
