Thursday, June 6, 2013
The Old Mill, classic Disney short from 1937
"The Old Mill" was a 1937 short animated film by Walt Disney studios (Direct link to YouTube). The film shows the effect of a storm on various animals who inhabit an abandoned windmill.
During this period, Disney was trying to push the art form of animation to new levels of mood and realism. The studio was pioneering the multiplane camera, sweeping camera moves, more naturalistic animal behavior, and effects animation for the wind and rain, all of which were used in Disney's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
An exhibition of the art of Snow White opens at the Norman Rockwell museum on Saturday. The show continues through October 27.
Wikipedia:
multiplane camera,
The Old Mill
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Video: Walt Disney explains the multiplane camera
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6 comments:
Saddens me in a way to see these old animations and think of how today computer animations are valued more.
I just love to watch these animations and flip through them frame by frame to see how they did them.
James, thanks for posting this. I haven't seen this in about 25 years. When I was very young my family had a satellite and they would show all kinds of old clips of animation on the Disney channel back then. In '87 my parents really got involved with church and decided that there were things on tv they would rather us small children not see, so I know it's been since the late 80's since I've seen this short.
I love the way the ripples and reflections are handled in the opening.
If we're talking about Snow White then I have to post the remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs1bG6BIYlo&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The emphasis on art fundamentals and training (not to mention their understanding of film making) made a huge difference.
Look at this short created just a year prior:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R38yK8JUY7k
And as of this week, Disney Feature Animation has fired the last of their 2-D animators. So tragic.
It's so amazing how much effort Disney put into his works. I still remember reading that people were originally calling the idea of full-length animated features Disney's Folly because they thought it could not be done.
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