A great fan of
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Art Wood collected cels,
storyboards, and character drawings from some of the most famous
creators of animated cartoons. The collection is full of such surprising
"firsts," as a paper drawing for Gertie, the first popular
animated feature, a cel and presentation drawing from Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, the first popular full-length feature.
While works relating to animated cartoon art make up a small portion
of the collection, they are among the most important in the animation
field.
Pioneering
animator Winsor McCay (1869-1934) created this line drawing
for the scene in which Gertie encounters a woolly mammoth in
the first commercially successful animated film, Gertie
the Dinosaur. In 1903 the American Museum of Natural History
in New York mounted the first exhibition of dinosaur bones which
captured McCay's imagination. He created the film before the
invention of animation cels, so he and his assistants had to
draw thousands of images on paper and film them individually.
He first presented his animated dinosaur as part of a Vaudeville
act in which he stood on a stage and introduced Gertie, who
then "walked out" on a movie screen. He asked her to perform
tricks and she complied. Audiences, unaccustomed to film, often
thought Gertie was real. McCay, already famous as a comic strip
and editorial cartoon artist, had created two animated films
prior to Gertie the Dinosaur - Little Nemo
and The Story Of A Mosquito. Gertie has been
listed on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress
since 1991. |
![Image: see caption below](images/02839r-th.jpg)
Winsor McCay,
[Gertie the Dinosaur],
1914.
Ink on tracing paper.
LC-DIG-ppmsc-02839 |
The
Library no longer has permission to display this item.
Gustaf Tenggren.
[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
Model Sketch for the Seven Dwarfs].
Pencil, ink, and watercolor on brown paper. ca.1937.
LC-DIG-ppmsca-03342
© Disney Enterprises, Inc. |
Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, the popular feature-length movie created
by Walt Disney Productions, originated in 1934 when Walt Disney
(1901-1966) excited his creative staff with the romantic fairy
tale. Minor characters in the Grimm Brothers version, the dwarfs
took on new life in Disney's story. This presentation drawing,
attributed to illustrator Gustaf Tenggren (1896-1970), depicts
the major characteristics of each of the seven dwarfs. Tenggren
gave Snow White the Old World look that Walt Disney
sought for his breakthrough animated feature. Born in Sweden,
the artist illustrated children's annuals until he emigrated
to the United States in 1920 in search of new career opportunities.
In 1936 he went to work for Walt Disney. His Scandinavian heritage
influenced his work in the scenes he created for Snow White.
The film is listed on the National Film Registry. |
The
Library no longer has permission to display this item.
Walt Disney Productions,
Snow White, 1937.
Tempera on celluloid.
LC-DIG-ppmsc-02838 © Disney Enterprises, Inc. |
While
not the first feature-length animated film, Snow White
was the first American feature-length animated film and the
first Technicolor feature. Although produced at the extraordinary
cost of $1.5 million during the depths of the Depression Snow
White paid off as it earned $8 million in its first release,
a phenomenal sum in 1937. At the time the average price for
theater admission in the United States was twenty-five cents
- and many children were admitted for a dime. More than 750
Disney artists worked on the film during the years of production,
1934-1937. This entrancing animation cel portrays Snow White,
a figure which has captured the hearts of generations of Americans,
reaching for a songbird. |
Walt Disney
introduced the popular character Jiminy Cricket in the animated
film Pinocchio in 1940. The character was designed
by master animator Ward Kimball to narrate and balance the story
of the boy puppet gone astray by ill-intentioned characters.
Production on Pinocchio began in 1937 and required
one million drawings to bring it to life. The film featured
generous use of the multiplane camera (a Disney innovation designed
to impart the illusion of life), detailed backgrounds, and spectacular
special effects. Disney autographed this drawing of Jiminy Cricket
tipping his hat in 1940. The original recipient was American
editorial cartoonist, Karl Kae Knecht, who cartooned for the
Evansville [Indiana] Courier from 1906 to 1960. |
The
Library no longer has permission to display this item.
Walt Disney Productions,
Jiminy Cricket, 1940.
Pencil with watercolor and ink.
LC-DIG-ppmsca-03346 © Disney Enterprises, Inc. |
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