Key Matching Cel and Master Background

Yeah baby!  One of the final holy grail items for the collection is now safely ensconced in the Tulgey Wood:  a key MATCHING cel and master background!  Woohoo!  Great scene of Alice running through the Tulgey Wood following the Mome Rath path, just before she encounters the Brush Dog.  What a treat.  A great beginning to a new era.

Dog Flower Mum Cel

This is a cool little cel, once of flowers from the Live Garden, looks to be a mum.

This little guy appears in the scene where Alice is fleeing the mean flowers and it barks at her on her way out.  I like the fact that this is a full cel and retains it notatations in the lower right corner.

One From the Wall - Alice Studio Setup with Walt Signature

We've recently acquired one of our Holy Grail items here in the Tulgey Wood, a Walt Disney signed cel setup.

I love this cel. It is from the very first sequence that was animated, when Alice encounters the Caterpillar.  Several things mark this as such. First, Alice's face is rounder and more childlike than in the rest of the film.  Second, the color of Alice's collar is a lighter shade of blue than the rest of her dress. One can only assume that it was (wisely) decided that it would have been way too much trouble to animate her dress that way throughout the entire film. Third (but only audibly) Kathy's voice is much younger sounding in this sequence than in any other. 

I've always wanted a cel from this sequence, and a Walt signed cel?  Killed two birds with one stone with this acquisition.

I also figured something out, like a bolt from the blue.  Remember this cel setup from before, the one that Walt *almost* showed on national television?

I always wondered why the mat board at the bottom was so much wider than at the top.  And now I know:  To allow for Walt's enormous signature!  Guess he just never got around to signing my other setup.  Oh well, probably a good thing, it would've cost me a whole lot more than it already did!

Alice's Sister Full Figure Cel

Cels of Alice's sister are rare enough, she has so little screen time, but full figure images are very tough simply because she's only on screen for a few seconds at the very end of the film standing over Alice trying to wake her up.  I recently acquired this full figure cel and it is quite lovely, wouldn't you agree?

2013 Year in Review

This year was a sporadic one for the blog, but we covered some interesting topics.  The majority of the year was spent on animation art, in particular animation drawings. I even tried my hand at a little animation myself :-)

We also looked at a variety of Italian movie posters

A new Zaccagnini discovery

Some David Hall storyboards

A few cels

And who could forget the Vinyl Aprons!

A variety of trading cards from around the world

Some really cool dolls

And some early attraction tickets

And last but not least, some really big leaves!

I wish every one of my faithful readers a safe and prosperous new year.  See you in 2014!

Cel of the White Rose from the Garden of Live Flowers

Rounding out our flower garden series of posts is this cel of the White Rose.  A very scarce character, she only appears during the song, twice briefly.

The voice of the White Rose was Norma Zimmer, who is probably best remembered as Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady" on The Lawrence Welk Show.  I remember watching this show with my grandparents when I was a kid.  I was pretty young, so I don't really remember her on the show, but I do remember hearing Lawrence Welk introduce the Champagne Lady.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Sadly Norma Zimmer passed away two years ago in 2011.

Cel of a Tulip from the Garden of Live Flowers

This is a nice cel, and of a rare character as the Tulips are really only onscreen for a brief time just before the song, one line in the song, and when they are comparing Alice to a weed.

This particular cel is from their first screen appearance, when they ask Alice if she'd like to hear Tell it to the Tulips.

Cel of the Iris from the Garden of Live Flowers

We've had a successful year here in the Tulgey Wood, and have managed to acquire a few new cels to expand our tiny collection.  I must say that I particularly love cels of the various flowers, and this is no exception.  Here we see the Iris in mid warble as she warms up her voice just before the musical number "All in a Golden Afternoon".

Accordian Owl Cel

From my favorite sequence in Alice in Wonderland, the Tulgey Wood, comes this original cel of the Accordian Owl.

Alice has more characters than any other Disney animated feature, mostly because of the Tulgey Wood.  Cels of the various Tulgey Wood critters are relatively scarce since each is on screen for such a short amount of time.

Original Alice Cel

Flash forward about 4 years I think, and Howard Lowery's auctions were in full swing, with at least 2 and sometimes 4 auctions per year. Imagine my surprise when this cel shows up in one of his catalogs.


I immediately pulled out my drawing and rushed over to the tiny shop in Burbank to compare my drawing to this cel. It is not an exact match, but it is only a few frames away - I don't recall exactly how many but at the time I did single step through the film to see just how close they were, and it is a matter of 2 or 3 frames.

So of course, I had to have it. And I do, it is happily on my wall with this interesting Xerox background that works pretty well with it.

Holy Crap! That's Walt Holding My Cel!

Tonight as I was going through binders of photographs looking for something interesting to post in a 'behind the scenes' vein, I made an astounding discovery. Well, astounding to me at least.

This is my only really good cel setup, it is a studio-prepared setup with a studio background (art props most likely) with the cool little WD emblem in the lower right corner and the funky pencil script. I got this at a Howard Lowery auction waaaay back, 1992 or 1993 I think, and I shelled out big time for it, having just sold my entire runs of X-Men and Daredevil comics to finance this particular purchase. 'Cause, you know, there's no future in comic book resale value compared to animation art...

Tonight, as I was looking for photos (Walt with ink and paint girls, Walt with Ward and Mad Hatter art, Walt with multiplane camera, ho hum) I found this one. Looks intriguing, lots of Mary Blair art on the walls, movieola in the background, Evan K Shaw figures on the desk, oh, and Walt is holding two cel setups. The eye is immediately drawn to the one he is looking at, a large close up of Alice. But wait, the cel in his right hand looks so familiar.
With my limited photoshop skills I was able to isolate that part of the photo and do a little perspective rotating and skewing, and voilà! It is indeed my cel setup. And Walt held it...thumbprint right on the mat and everything...pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Jello Commercial Cels - Alice and Caterpillar

The last of my cels from the Jello ads, first up is the Alice that I got along with the Gryphon. The white headband seems to be a trademark feature of cels from the Jello ads. The effects cel of the water is interesting, and certainly not from the two video clips I have.

Next is another Art Corner setup, this time with Alice and the Caterpillar as a butterfly. This originally had another cel as well, Toughy from Lady and the Tramp (go figure). Again, the two clips I have do not feature the Caterpillar, so there must be more Jello ads out there somewhere.

I do not have a reliable date on the ads. The video collection I have says 1956, but I have no other evidence of that date. The campaign materials I have from the original release do not mention Jello anywhere, in fact one of the larger campaigns for the original release was with a competitor, Royal Desserts.

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.

Inker's Test of Mother and Baby Oysters

This is one of those things you find and you just say 'wow, that is really pretty cool'. This is a set of inker's test cels of Mother Oyster and several Baby Oysters.

The ink lines are pretty amazing, and surprisingly done in multiple colors, including a little dry brush work on Mother's pearl nose and shell. I've only ever come across two sets of inker's tests, these and an Alice I have that is just black ink only...not sure how rare these are, I imagine they were used for practice or to test the ability of new hires or potential hires, so were probably discarded or wiped.