"Duck Tales" - Mike Royer Commerical Art

More from "Duck Tales".....

What appears on the screen may be only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to animation artwork. There is a huge amount of material of original art that is developed for commercial, licensed use.  Here are some pieces drawn by the creative Mike Royer....

Citrus World Concept Art

"Launchpad" Art

Here's some background on Mike from his web site (MikeRoyer.com):

Drawn to Southern California, spring 1965, by the lure of a career in Comic Art, Mike spent his first 14 years in comic books, comic strips, and TV animation. Beginning as RUSS Manning's assistant on MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER and TARZAN comic books (at the end of their working relationship Mike lettered and inked the last 6 months of Russ's TARZAN syndicated Sunday strip and the first 4 months of the daily and Sunday syndicated STAR WARS, late 1970s) and then inking and pencilling for Western Publishing (Gold Key). Mike inked such West Coast talents as Sparky Moore, Mike Arens, Paul Norris, and Doug Wildley.

His drawing asignments were on TARZAN, SPACE GHOST, coloring books, puzzles, etc. for Western and doing layout on network animation series like SPIDERMAN. At Gold Key he wrote/adapted and drew SPEED BUGGY, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KIDS, TARZAN, MAGNUS, and designed and executed covers for Hanna-Barbera TV ADVENTURE HEROES, etc. Mike contributed to James Warren's CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPERELLA magazines and began drawing the comic panel CRUSIN' record album covers (over 2 dozen to date), many of which he's scripted.

For East coast firms, Mike inked artists Don Heck, Steve Ditko, Ramona Fraden and others, but during this period he is best known to comic fans for his decade as letterer/inker for legendary Jack Kirby at National and then Marvel.

From late Spring 1979, Mike spent the next 14 years on staff with the Walt Disney Company in the creative department of their Consumer Product/Licensing division, addressing the areas of book publishing, comic books and strips, and all forms of themepark and licensed merchandise as a character artist/product designer, performing as idea man, concept and final line artist, and sometime inker.

At Disney, Mike designed and art directed the DICK TRACY and 3-D ROCKETEER comic book Music Company read-alongs. He created the "new look" that launched the massive WINNIE THE POOH licensing program in late 1993. Featured in a 43 minute video "How To Draw Pooh" sent to over 40 licensees, Mike takes no small amount of pride in the fact that POOH soon (and still) outsold Mickey Mouse worldwide.

June 1993 Mike left his staff position to spend the next 7 years full time free lancing for The Disney Store's creative group, becoming their "Main POOH Man" and creating 3-D products utilizing Disney characters.

Since Spring 2000 Mike has functioned as an Art service doing pencil work on a wide variety of projects, including creating character Orthographic Turns and environment "floor plans" for computer game animators, DIGIMON products, on screen icons for FOX FAMILY CHANNEL and FOX KIDS NETWORK, READER RABBIT work books, RESCUE HEROES toy packaging, etc.

Spring 2001 found Mike and Laurie, his lovely wife and concept collaborater, returning to his birth state, Oregon, settling in Medford, and in the process returned to his career roots. And in the last few years he's found time to ink such luminaries as Steve Rude and Eric Larsen, to name a couple. Mike continues to create Disney character art for limited edition collector pin sets and does "recreations". He strongly believes that his passion, attention to detail and accuracy, and his commitment to integrity will keep him at the board for a long time to come.

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Duck Tales” (circa 1989).  On thin tracing paper. Suggestions for a variety of items that could be sold to kids in the Duck Tales theme. For Citrus World. Gyro, Scrooge, Webby, Launchpad, Doofus. Done by Mike Royer. [Item: 17-3/4"W x 14"H]  SeqID 0036

From “Duck Tales” (circa 1989).  An excellent watercolor of Launchpad running in his flight suit. Signed by Mike Royer. [Image: 8-9/16"W x 10-3/8"H]  SeqID 0035

"Dudley Do-Right" (circa 1990's) [Series] - Jay Ward Signed Publicity Cel

Sometimes it's nice to have a piece from a show you watched while growing up in front of the TV. The segment in "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" (Rocky and His Friends [1959-1961 and The Bullwinkle Show [1961-1964]).  The reason we all remember the show was that it was rerun from 1964 through 1973 and then went into syndication.  Much like original Star Trek, the show had a larger-than-life impact that extended well beyond its production period.

This Jay Ward signed piece was a great reminder of Ward's over-the-top character development. Ward was a character in his own right and introduced a number of off-beat characters. Here's a brief bio from Wikipedia:

J Troplong "Jay" Ward (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989) was an American creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken. His company, Jay Ward Productions, also designed the trademark characters for Cap'n Crunch, Quisp and Quake breakfast cereals and made commercials for those products, among others. Ward produced the non-animated series Fractured Flickers that featured comedy redubbing of silent films.

Jay Ward Signed Publicity Cel

From Wikipedia:

Dudley Do-Right was the eponymous hero of a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show which parodied early 20th century melodrama and silent film (by using only a piano as a musical background) in the form of the Northern genre. Dudley Do-Right was a dim-witted Canadian Mountie who was always trying to catch his nemesis Snidely Whiplash, more often succeeding by pure luck than anything else. He romantically pursued Nell Fenwick, the daughter of Inspector Fenwick, the head of the Mountie station. However, a running gag throughout the series was Nell's interest in his horse (called Horse), to the point that she scarcely noticed Dudley's interest.


In 1969, Dudley Do-Right was featured in his own show, The Dudley Do-Right Show, which consisted primarily of existing episodes from the series, produced by Jay Ward Productions and Total Television. In latter years, Jay Ward Productions created animation cells intended for sale and not for use in animation.


The Dudley Do-Right Show was an animated television series assembled by P.A.T. Film Services, consisting of cartoons produced by Jay Ward Productions and Total Television, which aired Sunday mornings on ABC-TV from April 27, 1969 to September 6, 1970. Each half-hour show included two segments each of Dudley Do-Right Of The Mounties and The World Of Commander McBragg, along with one segment each of Tooter Turtle and The Hunter. Dudley Do-Right was a Jay Ward production, while the other segments were products of Total Television. Both companies used Gamma Productions, a Mexico-based animation studio.


The U.S. syndicated version of the show, called Dudley Do Right And Friends, differs from The Dudley Do-Right Show, featuring most of the same recurring cartoon segments, but a different episode selection. The syndicated package features Dudley Do-Right Of The Mounties, The World Of Commander McBragg, The King And Odie, and The Hunter. The latter two originally appeared as part of King Leonardo And His Short Subjects, a series that aired between October 15, 1960 and September 28, 1963 on NBC-TV. Twenty-six new segments of both series were produced for CBS-TV's Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales in 1963, and these later segments are included in the syndicated Dudley Do Right And Friends.


Actors (voice overs) included:


    * Bill Scott - Dudley Do-Right
    * June Foray - Nell Fenwick
    * Hans Conried - Snidely Whiplash
    * Paul Frees - Inspector Fenwick/Narrator
    * William Conrad did several (but not all) of the narrations.

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Dudley Do-Right: publicity cel” (circa 1990's).  Dudley Do-Right, Nell and Horse. Signed by creator Jay Ward.   [Image: 11-7/8"W x 9-3/16"H; Frame: 17-3/16"W x 14-3/4"H]  SeqID-0175 8/14/2005

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - Disney Autograph, Mickey Cel & Artifacts

More items in the Cowan Collection from "Fantasia"...

UPDATE: 6/3/2010...Through the wonder of communications, I just received an email from Irene Kanelstein with a few corrections. She noted that she did not receive a prize of $300, which way my mistake. The newspaper article stated that she received the cel which was valued at $300. In addition she notes that she sold the item because of the effects of Florida weather on the cel and not, as I had been told, to help raise funds for cancer treatment. It was a thrill to hear from her and the exchange further supports the great power of the internet!

This is my favorite group of items.  In 1941, Disney and the New York Federation of Music Clubs conducted a contest for the best essay entitled "What I Like Best In Fantasia."  The winner, 13 year-old Irene Kanelstein, was given a cel of Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice and a dedication by Walt Disney.  The two items were put together by Courvoisier Galleries.  When I received the artwork, I was surprised to discover on the back of the frame the original essay that Ms. Kanelstein submitted and a newspaper clipping from the June 13, 1941 "New York Times."  We felt that the additional material should be displayed and since the original frame was in poor condition, we had the whole group re-framed and placed side-by-side. Of note, Ms. Kanelstein was also given a $300 prize -- which, using the Consumer Price Index, was worth a little over $4,000 in 2008 dollars.  The cel is great, Walt's note to Ms. Kanelstein is nice and the additional material provides a fantastic back-story to the whole grouping...  The material was the property of Ms. Kenelstein until a few years ago when she sold it at auction to pay for cancer treatments.

Disney Autograph, Mickey Cel and Historical Papers (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Fantasia” (1940).  A gouache on celluloid depicts Mickey Mouse instructing a broom to fill up the buckets from THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE section of the film, applied to a production watercolor background, inscribed lower right “My Best Wishes to Irene Kenelstein - Winner Fantasia Essay Contest  Walt Disney.”  On the back is a .  The consignor won this as a prize for the best essay  on "What I Like Best in Fantasia," a competition put on by the New York Federation of Music Clubs.  Another frame includes the Courvoisier Galleries label stating "This original 'background' and 'cel' painting from the Walt Disney Studios was used in the filming of Fantasia, "the essay that she submitted when she was thirteen years old and a newspaper article from The New York Times, June 13, 1941 entitled "Wins Music Clubs' Prize, Irene Kanelstein, Recipient of the Fantasia Award".  SeqID 1146  8/1/2005

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - Nubian Centaurette Pencil & Pin

More postings of "Fantasia" items in the Cowan Collection...

Note: Stephen made a comment that this version of the Centaurette is in the film.  And it's in my DVD as well.  Frankly, I don't know what I was thinking about when I typed of the info in my database that this character was deleted from the film.  You can see the strike-through corrections below.  Now, I'm assuming that there is no difference between the DVD version of Fantasia and what appeared on the screen -- I'm just don't have that expertise....  Thanks, again, Stephen!

In the last posting, I put up a Centaurette pencil that didn't make it into the film. According to my notes, this more elegant version was also deleted from the final film -- although the sequence & scene stamp would indicate that it had made it pretty far in the process.  Here is another Centaurette that did make it into the film -- a rather elegant version.

There are some initials in the lower right -- if anyone has an idea as to the meaning, please let me know...

 Then it seems that the character was brought back in "Aida" (at least that was my reaction when I saw the musical on Broadway).  A few years ago, I was at Disney World and stopped by a shop to pick up a few trading pins.  I was surprised to see the Nubian pin AND I was surprised to see that the pin was so similar to the pencil in the collection. I thought it was odd that there would be a trading pin of a character that was deleted and was so similar to the pencil.

Nubian Centaurette Pencil (click to enlarge)

Nubian Centaurette Trading Pin

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Fantasia” (1940), the Pastoral Symphony sequence.   The graphite and colored pencil on paper drawing depicts a Nubian Centaurette holding a fan from The Pastoral Symphony sequence, a scene that was later deleted from the final version of the film, annotated "A15"  "PROD 2004 SEQ 4.3 SCENE 25"  "?THE?"  Green in shadows. [Unframed 16-field]  Acquired 2000.  SeqID-0717 8/6/2005

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - 1940 Disney Studio Christmas Card

Additional postings of "Fantasia" items from the Cowan Collection...

I had posted this some time ago, but I'm regrouping it with the current focus on Fantasia items.  I didn't have much information about the card at the time of the first posting, but there were a number of great comments that helped add some additional detail to my files.

The person on the left is Leopold Stokowski and on the far right is Robert Benchly.  One comment (DisneyDave) suggested that the card may have been created by Hank Porter (an animator that was moved to the Publicity and Merchandise Art Department). [Note: I received a comment from David saying that the card was definitely done by Porter.]

Disney Studio Christmas Card (click to enlarge)

 

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

1940 Disney Studio Christmas Card, which celebrated “Fantasia.”  The card folds out four times it’s length.  Near Mint condition. The figure on the left is Leopold Stokowski and on the far right is Robert Benchly. The card may have been created by Hank Porter. Porter was an animator that was transferred to the Publicity and Merchandise Art Department.  [27.5W x 6H]   Acquired 2004.  SeqID-1149  5/12/2008

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - Maquettes

More posts of "Fantasia" items in the Cowan Collection...

I have always been impressed with the Maquettes.  While they were used to help the animators visualize the character from different angles, I have been amazed with how well the small figures also captured the essence of the character.

It took me 15 years to find a set and I feel lucky to have found these from "Fantasia."  Recently, photos of them appeared in Mandy Aloff's book "Hippo In A Tutu: Dance in Disney Animation.  I've put in several different types of images so you can get a better feel for the figures...

Maquettes (click to enlarge)

Ben Ali Gator

 

  

Elephancine Elephant

 

  

Hyacinth Hippo

 

  

Mille. Upanova

 

 

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Fantasia” (1940).  A complete set of Maquettes (French for "scale model") from the film and painted by Mary Blair.  Included are: (1) Ben Ali Gator, (2) Elephancine elephant, (3) Hyacinth Hippo and (4) Mlle. Upanova.  Mint condition.  Acquired 2004.  SeqID-1156 1 thru 4   Updated: 7/30/2005

6/2/2008: Image selected for use by Ms. Mandy Aloff for her book - Aloff, Mindy. Hippo In A Tutu: Dance in Disney Animation. Los Angeles, CA: Disney Editions, 2008.

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - Recording

Still sounds great!

These are Bozo The Clown recordings of Fantasia. A nice example of cross-marketing...




----- DATABASE NOTES -----

A Capitol Records' phonograph set 78-rpm "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" (circa 1940). Two records in the set. Part of the Bozo The Clown series. Cover is in good condition. Antiques Downtown Mall, 515 E. Houston St., 78205 512-224-8845. [Item: 10-1/8"W x 10-1/8"H] Acquired 1998. Update: 3/29/1998

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - "A Nazi Abuse": A 1940 New York Tribune Movie Review

As series of postings of "Fantasia" items in the Cowan Collection...

On November 25, 1940 Dorothy Thompson wrote a movie review for the New York Tribune after watching "Fantasia." The article posted here was a reprint of that review, probably in a West Coast paper.

"A 'Nazi' Abuse"
Click to Enlarge

I'm certainly no film critic, but I thought "Fantasia" broke new ground on a number of fronts: introduction of multi-channel audio, a segmented film concept that could be re-released with new and updated segments, and a significant effort to use classical themes rather than relying on typical cartoon "slapstick." What was interesting was that the film received recognition with two Special Awards -- innovation with Fantasound and the unique visualization of music in the film.

From a financial perspective, the film was not very successful. The full stereo version was only shown in 12 theaters and only 16 complete copies of the film were ever made. People that were expecting a traditional cartoon literally walked out of the 125-minute film and RKO's editing to 81-minutes didn't seem to help much. I was surprised to learn that the film didn't achieve profitability until 1969. However, today the film is viewed very differently. In 1998, it ranked 58 on the AFI's list of the Top 100 films.


Wikipedia has a good summary on "Fantasia":

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Fantasia features animation set to classical music and no dialogue—only spoken introductions by host Deems Taylor before segments. The music was recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and seven of the eight pieces were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Animated artwork of varying degrees of abstraction or literalism was used to illustrate or accompany the concert in various ways. The film also includes live-action segments featuring Leopold Stokowski, the orchestra and American composer and music critic Deems Taylor. Fantasia was notable for what were then considered its avant-garde qualities and for being the first major film released in stereophonic sound—using a process dubbed "Fantasound".

Fantasia was originally released by Walt Disney Productions itself rather than RKO Pictures, which normally distributed the Disney films, and exhibited as a two-hour and twenty minute roadshow film (counting the intermission) with reserved-seat engagements. The film opened to mixed critical reaction and failed to generate a large commercial audience, which left Disney in financial straits.

Fantasia was eventually picked up by RKO for release in 1941 and edited drastically to a running time of 81 minutes in 1942. Five subsequent re-releases of Fantasia between 1946 and 1977 restored various amounts of the deleted footage, with the most common version being the 1946 rerelease edit, which ran nine minutes shorter than the original 124 minute roadshow version. A 1982 reissue featured a newly recorded digital soundtrack conducted by composer Irwin Kostal, but was taken out of circulation in 1990 after a restored version of the original Stokowski-conducted soundtrack was prepared. The original version of Fantasia was never released again after 1941, and although some of the original audio elements no longer exist, a 2000 DVD release version attempted to restore as much of the original version of the film as possible.

Disney had wanted Fantasia to be an ongoing project, ideally with a new release each year. The plan was to repeat some of the scenes while replacing others with different music and animation, so that each version of the film would include both familiar material and new segments. However, the film's disappointing box-office performance prevented such plans from being realized.

After the successful release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney decided to produce more features. The film was produced on a budget of $2,280,000 [roughly $33.7 million in 2007 dollars], to which $400,000, nearly a fifth of the budget, went to the musical recording techniques.

By the late 1930s, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse was losing his popularity with movie audiences. The Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts series had spawned the spin-off Donald Duck series, which was proving to be more popular and profitable than the former, but Walt Disney wasn't ready to give up on his favorite character and devised a special short that would be produced as a "comeback" film for Mickey Mouse. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on Goethe's balladic poem Der Zauberlehrling (1797), was planned as a special Mickey Mouse short and would be completely silent save for the program music by Paul Dukas, L'apprenti sorcier (1897). The story artists who developed The Sorcerer's Apprentice originally suggested Dopey from Snow White for the title role, but Disney insisted upon using Mickey.

As work began on The Sorcerer's Apprentice in 1938, Disney happened to meet famed conductor Leopold Stokowski at Chasen's, a noted Hollywood restaurant. Stokowski offered to serve as conductor for The Sorcerer's Apprentice at no charge, and assembled over one-hundred professional musicians in Los Angeles to record the score for the nine-minute cartoon.

The animation department worked to make The Sorcerer's Apprentice one of their most ambitious works. Animator Fred Moore redesigned Mickey to give his figure more weight and volume in keeping with the modern efforts at the studio, and to give him eyes with pupils for greater expression. The film's color styling, pacing and layout, character animation, and effects animation were done with an increased attention to detail. The unnamed sorcerer in The Sorcerer's Apprentice was nicknamed "Yen Sid" in the department ("Disney" spelled backwards).

All of this excess came at a high price: $125,000, a price Walt Disney, and especially his brother and business partner Roy, knew they could never make back from the release of one short film. In comparison, most Disney shorts at the time averaged a cost of $40,000, which was $10,000 above the average budget for an animated cartoon made outside the Disney Studio. Disney's most successful short cartoon, The Three Little Pigs (1933), had made $60,000 in revenue. Following a suggestion by Stokowski, Walt Disney decided to expand The Sorcerer's Apprentice, originally intended as simply a regular Silly Symphonies cartoon, into a concert feature with several animated sequences set to music of which The Sorcerer's Apprentice would be one. To provide continuity and explanation, the composer and music critic Deems Taylor was recruited to provide live-action narrative introductions at the beginning of each segment. Stokowski suggested the title Fantasia, which literally means "A medley of familiar themes, with variations and interludes", which became the film's final title. A working title for the film was The Concert Feature.

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

A review of “Fantasia” by Dorothy Thompson, copyright New York Tribune, November 25, 1940. Based on the copyright notice, this was probably an article that was reprinted in a California publication. “A ‘Nazi’ Abuse” The negative review notes that “Altogether Mr. Disney’s later films, and above all the films in Fantasia, are a caricature of the Decline of the West. They are cruel, and in the latest work brutal and brutalizing.”

"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - 50th Anniversary Program

As series of postings of "Fantasia" items in the Cowan Collection...

In 1990, Disney released a 50th Anniversary VHS tape set. With the boxed set came a Fantasia program that was similar to the original 1940 program posted earlier.

Here is the 50th program for your enjoyment.... Please Click to enlarge...

----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Fantasia” (1940) -- 50th Commemorative Program. Came with Disney 50th release of Fantasia video tape. (2 copies: 0805 & 0806) [Item: 13-1/2"W x 11-1/4"H] SeqID 0805

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"Fantasia" (1940) [Series] - 1940 Program

As series of postings of "Fantasia" items in the Cowan Collection...

Here is the original program that was distributed for those watching "Fantasia."

Remember to Click each page to view an enlargement so you can more easily read the text...


----- DATABASE NOTES -----

From “Fantasia” (1940). A special program guide to Fantasia printed by Disney. Many pictures and descriptions of the film events and development. Purchased from little book store in New Orleans. . [Item: 9-5/8"W x 12-11/16"H] SeqID-0044
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