John Canemaker's Sweet "Dreams"
(continued from page 1)
The book also focuses on the "new generation"
-- today's top story artists at Disney. Chris Sanders, responsible
for translating the story of Mulan into "animatable"
terms, reveals how he gets over trouble spots. "He said that
the real task is to flow around the problem," remembers Canemaker.
"You have to solve the problem in other ways when you come
up against something."
The author also looks at the work of Brenda Chapman, who has since
left the studio to direct The Prince of Egypt for DreamWorks.
During her tenure at Disney, Chapman's story work brought quiet
moments of humanity to such films as The Rescuers Down Under
and Beauty And The Beast.
In addition, the book will also feature story sketches by two of
today's top animators -- Glen Keane (from Pocahontas) and
Mark Henn (from Mulan). Most of the story boards in the book
are represented as Canemaker wanted. This means that Paper Dreams
is a horizontally shaped book, and a dream for those who savor the
smallest artistic details, as the double page spreads recreate the
feeling of looking at an actual "board."
The Extras
It's evident from the book that Canemaker
relishes the archeological-like stage of researching, where treasures
are often found in the Disney
Archives and Animation Research Library. Paper Dreams
features many of these, including a reproduction of a Bill Peet
story board, created for The Sword In The Stone, in 1949.
The board depicts the film's "wizard's duel" and according
to Canemaker, "It's so incredibly imaginative and graphically
oriented. It's much better than what finally appeared in the film."
There's also a photograph that Canemaker has waited over three decades
to use -- it features story man Roy Williams showing a story board
to a teenage visitor to the studio, by the name of Richard Williams.
They're not related, but the youngster in the photo is indeed the
same Richard Williams who would go on to much acclaim in the animation
industry for his many eclectic projects, including the Academy-Award
winning short subject A Christmas Carol and Who Framed
Roger Rabbit.
More than just a "pretty coffee table book," Paper
Dreams delves into the lives of the artists in and outside the
work place. Humorous anecdotes peel back the layers of what day-to-day
life at the studio was like. The book shows how Roy Willaims was
often the butt of jokes, for example, members of the story department
once left a wheelbarrow filled with water in the back seat of his
car.
The closeness of the French artists, Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, the
twin brothers, who created the storyboards for the gripping pre-credit
opening of Hunchback of Notre Dame, is also revealed. Canemaker
remembers how he was only able to interview, Paul, while Gaetan
was on vacation. "Paul kept referring to an empty chair where
Gatean would have been had he not been away," laughs the author.
"It was like interviewing Harvey the rabbit!"
Such background information allows Paper Dreams to shed more
light on this often overlooked and laborious of all the artistic
disciplines at the Disney studio. Says Canemaker,
"Animators concentrate on their scene, on their action. They
really get into minutia. But, story people have to look at things
in a wider, more encompassing way. They have to draw well and express
themselves well, graphically, as well as dimensionalize and emotionalize
characters. There are many skills that they must have and the best
ones have them all."
Paper Dreams: The Art & Artists of Disney Storyboards
by John Canemaker. Illustrated. New York, New York: Hyperion, 1999.
272 pages. ISBN: 0-7868-6301-2. (US$60.00)
Mike Lyons is a Long Island-based freelance writer who has written
over 100 articles on film and animation. His work has appeared in
Cinefantastique, Animato! and The Disney Magazine.
