Wednesday, June 19, 2013

David Hall Storyboard - Alice in the White Rabbit's House

Taking some time out from my frantic attempts to prepare for the Dayton Disneyana Show (you should all come!) to post this storyboard by David Hall.
Similar to the previous 'boards posted here and here, this is executed on a very heavy board material, with peg holes along the bottom edge (5 holes), with a pasted on caption.  At some point someone tried to peel up the left edge of the caption to reveal the signature, and in the process tore the caption and lost a segment. The caption should read "The magic takes effect, and in a flash Alice shrinks to her normal size."  The segment "in a fl" is missing.
Like the Bill the Lizard 'board previously posted, this is very nicely inked.
Studio notations on the back identify this as sketch #446 for feature 1017 by David Hall, filed on Dec. 14, 1939.  If you look at the previous studio notations on the two other 'boards, you get an idea of exactly how many drawing David Hall did; it is an amazing number.  Consider that this particular scene is pretty early in the film.  The scene with Alice playing with Dinah is identified as sketch #10, and this is sketch #446, and we're barely 1/3 of the way through the story!
Also like the previous two drawings, this was selected for inclusion in Surprise Package, and the notations on the bottom of the 'board confirm that.  But there is a new notation not present on the first two, "4 color wash", and if you look at page 47 from Surprise Package, indeed it has had a color wash applied to it.  You can tell it is not a watercolor by the quality of the color, very flat and even compared to David Hall's beautiful watercolors.
There appear to be several instances of a color wash having been applied throughout the story, but this is the only concrete example of a side by side comparison that I have.

2 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Wow, what a beautiful drawing. Are you sure this was ever supposed to be from a storyboard? Even the best 'board drawing are usually not this finished.

Just wondering...

Matt said...

@Major - pretty sure. All David Hall's stuff in 1939 was used in story treatments that eventually became a Leica reel. The presence of the pasted on caption indicates it was a story drawing. Granted, storyboards these days are a lot rougher, but in the 1930s, this was the norm.