The 75th Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 1933, there was a letter written that stated that as far as animation is concerned, it should be limited to short subjects with funny animal characters because animating humans properly was beyond understanding. A year later Walt Disney accepted the challenge and began work on the first ever full length animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." No one thought it should be done, even Walt's brother Roy and wife Lilian did not think that anyone would sit and watch a full length animated film. But Walt soldiered on insisting he could do it for $250,000. As time passed that number sky rocketed to $1,488,422.74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937. The news media called it  "Disney's Folly" while it was in production. Walt fought to get it made, mortgaging his house in the process to help finance the film. Walt hired a total of 750 artists to work on the film. Over 2 million sketches were made and the final film featured a whopping 250,000 pictures. The animators most of which had a background in newspaper cartooning were given grueling anatomy courses to be able to animate the human form and live models and dancers were brought in to be studied. All of this resulted in the creation of whats been called the greatest animated film of all time by the American Film Institute.
The film premiered on December 21st, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Hollywood to a wildly receptive audience, many of whom that had dubbed the film "Disney's Folly", and received a standing ovation from the audience comprised of the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Temple, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, and Jack Benny to name just a few. The film became the highest grossing film ever but became displaced by Gone With the Wind in 1940. Walt received an honorary Oscar featuring a full sized statuette and seven tiny ones presented to him by Shirley Temple. So today we honor possibly the greatest achievement in the history of animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Happy 75th Anniversary.

Model Sheet Monday: Piglet

Here's a beautiful model sheet of Piglet from 2011's Winnie the Pooh film.

 

Model Sheet Monday: Charlie Dog

One of my favorite Looney Tunes characters is the little used Chuck Jones creation Charlie Dog. Here's a look at the many faces and outfits of this hilarious puppy.

Model Sheet Monday: Baby Dino

Remember The Flintstone Kids? I sure do, so today I bring you Dino from the aforementioned Flinstone Kids cica 1986.

Model Sheet Monday: Gossamer

As we get ever closer to Halloween, Model Sheet Monday brings you the Looney Tunes resident big hairy monster Gossamer.

 

Model Sheet Monday: Beetlejuice

Back in the 1989 Tim Burton's Beetlejuice made the leap to the animated world in a very memorable series which first ran on ABC and finished its run on FOX in 1991.

Model Sheet Monday: Scooby Doo

We continue Halloween month with a character synonymous with spooky monsters, Scooby Doo!!!

Model Sheet Monday: Hillbilly Bears

I love classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons and if you remember the early 1970's series The Hillbilly Bears, then you'll remember this little lady Miss Floral Rug.

Model Sheet Monday: Brittany in the 80's



In the past we've shown you a model sheet of Alvin from the Chipmunk Adventure now we bring you a look at his female counterpart Brittany.

Model Sheet Monday: Huey from Quack Pack

In 1994, Disney added the Donald Duck series Quack Pack to its Disney Afternoon programming block. It only ran for one season and has quietly been forgotten. The series centered around Donald working as camera man for traveling reporter Daisy Duck with his 3, now teenage, nephews in tow. The nephews were redesigned and each given distinctly different personalities. Here's a look at Huey.

Happy Birthday Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In 1927, Walt Disney and, his friend and collaborator, Ub Iwerks, after the bankruptcy of his Laugh-o-Gram Studio and move to Hollywood, embarked on a new adventure with Universal Studios.  Universal was hungry to get into the animation business so Disney's distributor Charles Mintz suggested that he and Ub create something that they could sell to the studio. Hungry to get back in the game, Walt signed a contract with Universal and soon Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born.
After a failed attempt with the cartoon "Poor Papa", the duo created the cartoon "Trolley Troubles". Released on Sept 5th, 1927, the short was a huge hit and shot the character to stardom. Oswald became one of the first characters to show real personality using physical comedy to solve situations. It's said that his courageous and adventurous side was based on Douglas Fairbanks. In the spring of 1928, with Oswald proving to be a big money maker for Universal, Walt traveled to New York to negotiate with his producer Charles Mintz for a higher paycheck. Instead of more money, Mintz instead offered Walt a 20% pay cut due to an economic downturn. Walt wasn't going to have it and quit, making that famous return trip to Hollywood that would result in a creation that would make Disney a household name around the world. Mintz, now armed with the creative force of most of Disney's staff, continued to produce Oswald cartoons including the first sound cartoon in the series. Walt had created 26 shorts and Mintz followed with 26 more before Walter Lantz (eventual creator of Woody Woodpecker) took over in 1929. Lantz consulted with Disney before he started and soldiered on with his blessing creating a total of 142 Oswald shorts before the rabbit made his final appearance alongside Woody Woodpecker in 1951's The Woody Woodpecker Polka. Over the years, Oswald would have several different looks and his voice would be provided by several different voice actors, most notably Pinto Colvig (Goofy)  and Mickey Rooney.
In February 2006, Disney CEO Bob Iger initiated a trade with NBC Universal in which the rights to Oswald were acquired in exchange for sending sportscaster Al Michaels from ABC Sports (owned by Disney) to NBC Sports. The deal included all of Walt's original 26 shorts but left the rest in control of Universal. Since reaquiring the rights, Disney has done a small relaunch of the character with merchandise and most noticeably the Epic Mickey video game franchise. Epic Mickey 2 also gives Oswald a voice for the first time in a Disney production with the vocal talents of Frank Welker. So today, we say Happy Birthday to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, may there be many more.

Model Sheet Monday: Babs Bunny

If you were a child in the early 90's you no doubt remember Steven Spielberg Presents: Tiny Toon Adventures. The show starred Babs and Buster Bunny. Buster was a tiny version of Bugs while Babs was her own creation...until a couple years later when Lola Bunny was created for Space Jam. So all though its not official, Babs seems to be the inspiration for her adult counterpart, unlike all the other characters in the show. So anyway, here's some Babs Bunny.

Model Sheet Monday: Andy Panda

Here's the often forgotten Andy Panda from the Walter Lanz short Playful Pelican. Andy became Universal Studios biggest animated star after Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ended his run in 1938 but quickly lost traction after Woody Woodpecker was introduced in 1940 (in one of Andy's Cartoons No less).

Model Sheet Monday:Bugs and Daffy Looney Makeover

In 2011, your favorite Looney Tunes got a bit of a makeover for Cartoon Network's The Looney Tunes Show. Here's a look at the initial season 1 models of the shows headliners.

Model Sheet Monday: Famous Studios Bluto

Popeye's iconic villain got a bit of a make over when Famous Studios took over the legendary series in 1941. Both Popeye and Bluto got outfitted in Navy uniforms for the WWII era shorts.

Artist Spotlight: Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke is responsible for one of my all time favorite comic stories,  DC: The New Frontier. His Animation art style explodes off every page he draws. After a failed go at comic books in his early career, Cooke went to Canada to work as a magazine art director before responding to an ad posted by Bruce Timm at Warner Bros. Animation. At WB, he worked as a storyboard artist on Batman: the Animated Series and Superman: the Animated Series before animating the title sequence for Batman Beyond. Soon after, Cooke returned to comics first with Batman: Ego for DC then doing a bit of freelance for Marvel. He worked as regular artist on Catwoman, giving her her modern costume, before becoming the regular artist on Will Eisner's The Spirit. His DC: The New Frontier was one of the first to be adapted as an animated movie in Warner Animations series of direct to DVD films. Renamed Justice League: The New Frontier, Cooke co-wrote the film and worked as art director. He is currently working on Before Watchmen: Minutemen for DC and  Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter for IDW.

Model Sheet Monday: Tygra 2011

In 2011, Cartoon Network brought us an updated version of the 80's classic Thundercats. Today I bring you the updated version of Tygra.

Model Sheet Monday: Alvin in the 80's

This weeks model sheet comes from the 1987 classic The Chipmunk Adventure and features none other than Alvin himself.

Model Sheet Monday: Goofy in the 1950's

As a new feature on Amazing Cosmic Powers, every Monday we'll be posting a different model sheet featuring some of your favorite characters. For those not in the know,  a model sheet, or character study, is used to help standardize the appearance, gestures, and poses of a character in Animation.

In the 1950's, Disney's iconic character Goofy went through some pretty major design changes. Often referred to as George Geef in that decade, Goofy was made into a family man. He was given a son named Junior and a wife, but you only saw her occasional hands and feet. His over-all facial structure was altered to include a widows peak hair-line, two separate eyes (as opposed to his classic un- separated eyes in the shape of an "m") with eye-brows, and his famous buck teeth had been pushed to the middle. A variation of this model was used for Goof Troop in the early nineties.

the Art of Home on the Range

Way back in 2004, Disney released what was going to be their last traditionally animated film for 5 years, Home on the Range. It did terribly in theaters and was not the way Walt's legacy of hand drawn animation was supposed to go out. However, in my opinion it's a clever and beautifully drawn film that everyone should give a chance. Now on the note of the beautifully drawn portion of that sentence I bring you some of the amazing artwork from the film. Enjoy!