Song of The South is probably my favorite Disney movie storywise.
It's the only movie where the stories aren't stuffed with filler (unless you count the live action sequences)
Disney didn't write the stories of course, but Bill Peet staged and cut them together very cleverly in his storyboards and gave the animators a strong structure to work in.
Most Disney movies are derived from 4 or 5 page fairy tale stories, and then filled up with 65 more pages worth of junk that has nothing to do with the stories: naked flying babies, animals that wipe dishes clean with their butts, long sneezing sequences, big chunks of insufferable pathos and more.
The Uncle Remus stories are told straight. They're good stories for kids and they look beautiful. I'm not sure if these first few frame grabs are Kahl; they look a little different than the close ups, so someone help me out here...
The backgrounds are beautiful, the compositions clear and handsome and the animation is really fun to look at.
Brer Fox here has a lot more detail and a more complex construction than Elmer Fudd (who is generic) and this would make him harder to control. Only really top animators could turn this guy around and tilt his head in every angle. If you are trying to teach yourself construction, this is the wrong thing to study, because there is too much to control. Start with Elmer and Porky or Tom and Jerry who are more basic.
Also Disney characters move so much and flail their arms all over the place that you get distracted from the drawings and mesmerized by the flailing. It's easier to copy the flailing animation than the really tough solid drawings.
These drawings can be figured out logically in the same way Elmer can, by starting with the basic shapes. I'll do that in another post.
In the meantime,
Thanks to all you kind folks who support my rantings! I hope you get some progress out of it!
