Friday, January 31, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo A-SPEC-10 - Alice Jumping

Next from the Key Book set is the photo of Kathy jumping.  My assumption is that this is from the sequence when Alice is entering the Queen's grounds for the first time through the maze, and hears the Card Painters and jumps up and down to see over the hedge.
I cannot match this to a specific frame of film (mostly because that whole sequence is dominated by the hedge) but as this is a SPEC still it may have been a press still image taken from a different angle, or it could be from another scene entirely.  I do know that this image is also very popular with Disney, both at the time of release and even to this day.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo - Alice with the Card Guards

This next photo from the Key Book is a new one on me, a photo from a deleted sequence apparently. There is no scene in the final film where Alice is being marched away by two Card Guards.
The trial is Sequence 11.0 according to the animators draft, and Scene 1 is the cards flying through the air at the end of the Croquet scene.  The next 10 scenes were cut, and it is likely that this is from one of those scenes.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo A-SPEC-? - Alice at the Bottom of the Rabbit Hole

Next up from the Key Book photos is this very fun image of Kathy hanging upside down as she reaches the end of her journey down the rabbit hole.
She must be wearing an early form of Gravity Mary Jane.  Notice the pair of hands holding the wall behind her, I'm guessing it was less than stable.
This particular image is frequently used by Disney even today.  My particular copy's negative number is very difficult to read, and is missing the numeric component due to the way the negative was centered when printed.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo 1049-9 - The Mad Tea Party

This is a bit of a repost, but since I acquired this new copy of the photo from the Key Book with a different reference number and snipe intact I thought I'd share it again.
This is one of the earliest photos of Kathy as Alice.  According to the snipe this is a rehearsal for the Mad Tea Party sequence.  The reference number indicates that this is from October of 1949, nearly two full years prior to release.
And I must say that Kathy does indeed look very young :-)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo 650-51 - Alice on the Sea of Tears

Next of the Key Book stills is this of Kathy standing on the Drink Me bottle while sailing the Sea of Tears - or a reasonable facsimile thereof.  This is very similar to the still originally posted here.
This one still has its original snipe on the back.
Looks like they may have reversed the scene either in the still or in the final animation.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Live Action Reference Photo 749-24 - Alice and the Caterpillar

Starting another batch of live action reference photos, all of which seem to have come out of a key book by the look of the punched holes.  First up is this great one of both Kathy and Richard Hayden as the Caterpillar!
I don't think I was aware that Richard Hayden performed the live action reference until I got this still with its snipe still intact on the reverse.
The Caterpillar sequence was among the first animated and the look of Alice in certain scenes is quite different from the rest of the film.
Even the colors of her dress vary slightly, with the collar tabs being a lighter shade of blue.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

New Mary Blair Exhibition Catalog Coming Soon!

The Walt Disney Family Museum is going to have what looks to be a spectacular exhibition of Mary Blair artwork this year, running from March 13 - September 7, 2014. And there is going to be this very cool catalog (complete with AMAZING Alice cover) accompanying the exhibit! Order yours today from Amazon!  And go to the exhibit!

Thanks to Didier over at the Disney History blog for the heads up on this.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Courtroom Scene Rotoscope Layout Drawings

This just in from the far flung reaches of the Tulgey Wood, a set of rotoscope layout drawings of the courtroom scene.  There seems to be a lot of courtroom art out there, and I have my fair share of it.
What's neat about these is that they are a close match to the previous set of animation rotoscopes I posted earlier.
These are not meant to be animation drawings (I think) but layout drawings.
The 5 digit numbers written on the page correspond to the frame number on the live action footage shot for this scene.  You can see examples of this on the various scenes included on the supplemental of the newest DVD and Blu-Ray discs.
Framing/tracking boxes here also lend to the layout argument.
But, what is cool is that I do have a matched set, one from the animation drawing and one from this set of layout drawing, that both correspond to frame 05322.
You can see subtle differences, due I'm sure to the tracing style of whomever did the trace for the animation vs layout drawings.  But they both match very well with the final image.
I just love stuff like this :-)

Sunday, January 5, 2014

English Sheet Music - How D'You Do and Shake Hands - Set Complete!

I love completing a set.  This is the very rare (and only recently confirmed to exist) English sheet music for How D'Ye Do and Shake Hands.
Similar to the US sheet, this title does not appear on the song list on the other sheets (in this case All in the Golden Afternoon)
but it does on its own sheet!  Does that mean that this sheet was produced after the others?
The world may never know.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year 2014! 
A limited edition Disney Soda Fountain pin of the Mad Hatter.