Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Story Reference Stills

I'm beginning a new series, all about two of Alice's forgotten characters in the world of Disney, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.

All throughout the development of Alice in Wonderland, Disney struggled with how much of the two books to include in the final product. As such, all the original Carroll characters (and a few new ones) received at least some treatment. Two of those characters were the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.

These are original stills that were used as reference - presumably for story development - enlargements of the original Tenniel illustrations of Alice with the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. I found these with a large bunch of story stills from the estate of a former Disney employee. There were 34 of these Tenniel illustration stills, along with additional stills of story art.

Mock Turtle - Lobster Quadrille Storyboard Stills and Art

No Gryphon today, but lots of Mock Turtle. I think this is the storyboard sequence for an abandoned song called The Lobster Quadrille (as mentioned in Lost Chords) but I am not positive about that. I have posted the entire sequence since there are some pretty fun images in here that are not of the Mock Turtle. Again, these are stills from the same estate as yesterday's post.

I don't know who the artists is for these, anybody out there know who did these?

Guess this is the Lizard with the French Horn - Bill's cousin

and Frog with Lute....

and the blowfish with the music stands is quite something as well...

I love the Mock Turtle-ettes!


I swear it looks like that lobster is wearing loafers...



This past summer this one sold at auction, but I didn't get it :(

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Jello Commercial

Ok, so when I said that the Gryphon and Mock Turtle were forgotten characters, that was only partially true. They never appeared on the big screen...but they did appear on the little one. This is a Jello commercial from the same video collection as this post. But unlike the previous one, this one is almost entirely new animation, including the Gryphon and Mock Turtle!



Alice sounds like Kathryn Beaumont, but still need to verify.

David Hall Story Art Stills - The Caucus Race

This first drawing depicts the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, again completely out of sequence, but what else is new?

 One assumes this is the caucus race, with all the various critters from the Pool of Tears in attendance, as well as the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, and of course Alice.  There is a label, but I cannot make it out, presumably it is '49' based on the label on the next image..

 The next still is a detail of the previous one, focusing on Alice, the Mock Turtle and the Dodo, with various other denizens on the periphery, labeled '49A'.

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - David Hall Storyboard Stills

This is a series of stills of David Hall storyboards of Alice leaving the pool of tears and encountering the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle on shore.

In this detail you can see the Gryphon in a very similar pose as one of the Tenniel illustrations from yesterday's post.

This is a very nice portrait of these two characters, I particularly like the Gryphon's bowler hat.

Here it appears as though the Caucus Race is beginning, with Mock Turtle and Gryphon taking part.

These stills came from the estate of Jack Cutting, Disney Foreign Agent (I love that title, sounds positively mysterious), and was part of a larger group that essentially covers the entire story arc.

David Hall Story Art Stills - Alice and Company Come Ashore

Alice and her new-found friends make their way to shore in this watercolor, labeled '47'.

 This detail focuses on Alice and the Dodo, labeled '47A'.  There is a lot of detail in this image, you can see the pigeon, the fish, the mouse, the hedgehog, and on the shore you can see an array of beach cabanas with snails making their way towards the beach.  And in the full image you get a first glimpse of the Gryphon and Mock Turtle.

This watercolor was reproduced in color in the David Hall book, severely cropped to focus on the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, which sequentially is much later in the story.

Gryphon and Mock Turtle - Jello Commercial Cels

This Gryphon cel I acquired a very very long time ago, before I even knew of the existence of the Jello commercials. It came with another Alice cel that had the same heavy black lines, so it seemed like it belonged. I'm very glad I bought it when I did!

This next cel setup of Alice and the Mock Turtle is a Disneyland Art Corner setup as it is on a Sleeping Beauty background print, something that they did a lot of at the Art Corner.

Mock Turtle Pastel Storyboard

I love this little storyboard, the Mock Turtle just looks so shocked, or maybe stunned.  Whatever is supposed to be going on in this scene, he was clearly not made aware of it in advance.

I don't know who did this particular piece of art, but if I had to guess I'd put my money on Bill Peet.

1st Anniversary of the Blog

Hard to believe its been a whole year of blogging. Where does the time go? Looking back over the past 231 post, there have been some pretty good ones, and some not so good ones (you can tell when I was particularly tired). Some of my favorites have been the series on the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, the Goebels, and the Weeki Wachee record post.

For today's anniversary post I thought I break out one of my favorite pieces of concept art, this very cool pencil, ink and paint drawing of the Mad Hatter.

This drawing is on a piece of trimmed animation paper, and is a little worse for wear, but the image itself is fantastic. The stylized rendering is very reminiscent of the UPA stuff that was going on at the same time, and while I don't know who exactly executed this drawing, it has a zany quality that I usually attribute to Ward Kimball. One of my faves.

Dodo Suggestions Model Sheet - May 1950

Today we have a very interesting model sheet, the Dodo Suggestions model sheet (550-8007).   What I like about the various 'suggestions' model sheets is their rough nature, a lot of the construction of the characters is still visible whereas a 'final' model sheet is generally taken directly from cleanup animation drawings.

What's interesting about this model sheet is the inclusion of one of the Tenniel illustrations.  I posted previously a series of stills that included Tenniel illustrations of the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, so the inclusion here is not without precedent, but still unusual.

Also, a word about model sheet numbers.  The code number dates the model sheet.  This sheet has code 550-8007, the 550 represents May of 1950.  The 8007 is some other internal numbering scheme, probably having to do with when the sheet was registered with the production staff, but that is unclear to me.