#dale baer

[acmeoop]

Yzma Poses “The Emperor's New Groove” (2000)

[elijones94]

🦉🐯 The personalities of owls in animation range from wise mentors to comedic types. When I was a kid, I oftened called friends and family members names of cartoon characters that match their personalities. For example, Grandpa Dale reminded me of Owl from the “Winnie the Pooh” cartoons due to his frequent words or wisdom and his habit of taking an afternoon nap. I based this drawing on a picture I saw on a blog post by former Disney animator Andreas Deja. It is of a scene from the 2011 “Winnie the Pooh” movie in which everyone has gathered at Owl’s house discussing their fear of Christopher Robin’s alleged abduction perpetrated by the dreaded monstrous Backson. Deja actually animated a small bit of Owl and Tigger interacting. The late Dale Baer was the lead animator for Owl. 🐾🌳

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/07/disney-owls.html?m=1

[artofwinniethepooh]

Owl pencil test by Dale Baer for Winnie the Pooh (2011)

[saehooh]

Inspired by Dale Baer's drawing of the film "Feast" concept art.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

An aesthetic I often think about... The Golden Age of Hollywood, particularly the animation and cartoons, but revisited through a late '80s/early '90s lens...

Yeah, that was a thing circa 1988-1994ish. A real nostalgia rush for the way movies used to be made and how things used to look, but reinvented with those signature offbeat qualities of the late '80s and the tech/effects they had on hand.

In a way, Robert Zemeckis' WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT - featuring exemplary animation directed by Richard Williams and an unsung Dale Baer - and Tim Burton's BATMAN really ushered in this era. Throwback films like the INDIANA JONES series already existed by this point, but I feel it was movies like these that really started a brief movement of sorts.

The former reminded audiences that it was not only cool to like cartoons again, but that the old favorites were actually pretty neat. After Roger Rabbit, you saw revivals in Looney Tunes and you saw many TV cartoons made in a similar vein, ending a frustrating era where most cartoons on TV were kidvid toy commercials. This was also greatly helped by Disney releasing their animated classics and cartoon shorts on video for the first time during this era, and soon Warner Bros. and Turner were releasing retrospective VHS and LaserDisc compilations pulling from their vast libraries of animated shorts. Especially w/ character birthdays coming up!

The latter lead to a bunch of pulp-style superhero/action movies, though that aesthetic seemed to quickly flame out by the mid-1990s. THE ROCKETEER went down as a cult classic, while THE SHADOW, THE PHANTOM, and others just couldn't cut it at the box office. Curiously, there was also a BRENDA STARR, REPORTER movie - simply titled BRENDA STARR - that was filmed in 1986 (it's the image of the woman on top of the windowsill, high off the ground), but wasn't released in the U.S. until 1992. While it was a big critical and commercial flop, this campy take on the 1940s comic strip kind of beat this wave to the punch? There was also a CAPTAIN AMERICA movie partially set during World War II made after the success of Tim Burton's BATMAN, too, one that also had a hard time getting released after it was completed.

It all just happened to come out around the same time.

[nintendroid]

Classic Nintendo commercial resurfaces, Showcasing Mario, Link and others animated by Disney Legend Dale Baer

The artwork/animation in the commercial was handled by none other than Dale Baer. Baer worked on countless Disney classics like Robin Hood, The Rescuers, The Lion King, Tarzan, and others. He also did work for other landmark films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Turns out Baer also worked in the commercial field for 27 years, which is what led him to this Nintendo-related spot. 

Miyamoto gave these characters life. Baer gave them soul. Will we ever get an interpretation like this again? 

GoNintendo’s article

Watch the commercial here

[punster-2319]

Last year when veteran Disney animator Dale Baer passed away it was said that his last known animation work was on The Bob’s Burgers Movie, but for some reason he was left uncredited. If I could take a wild guess I would say that he animated a good chunk of the opening scene/musical number just from how fluid the animation was.

[excitementshewrote]

[pazam]

Found out Dale Baer died today. He was a Disney animator known for Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove and many others. I knew him from an assembly at my CalArts program back in 2019. He was a pretty cool dude that left an impression on me and the animation industry. He will be missed.

[stevehatguy]

The Making of ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’

Part 6

Burny’s small but mighty team of animators was slowly coming together.  Block and Keane animated the majority of Scrooge in the film.  Keane also requested to work on Willie the Giant as the Ghost of Christmas Present, basing the giant’s awkward movements on his son Max, who was 18 months at the time.  Ed Gombert had storyboarded these sequences and, after his work in story was finished, Gombert stayed on as an animator, bringing Ratty and Mole back to the screen.  Burny called up Dale Baer and asked him if he would animate the climactic sequence in the cemetery where Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Future, played by Mickey’s old nemesis Pete.  Baer had started at the studio in 1971 as only the second person to be accepted into the studio’s newly formed training program led by master animator Eric Larson, one of Walt’s Nine Old Men.  Baer left Disney in 1977 and had been working on the outside since.  He was thrilled to be offered this juicy section of the film as well as the chance to work with Burny again.

The only character that was proving to be the most challenging was Mickey himself.  Burny needed someone that could animate the mouse’s deceptively simple design with confidence and ease.  One day he saw an animation test of Mickey that was done for The Emperor and the Nightingale, a proposed short subject that Mickey would star in.  He was impressed with the animation and learned that it was done by a young artist named Mark Henn.  Henn wasn’t even a full-fledged animator yet.  He had just come into Larson’s training program the previous year and was now trying to get promoted, which is why he had done the Mickey test.  It worked.  Not only did Burny see to it that Mark was promoted to animator but he gave him the job of being his ‘Mickey Man.’  Quite a way to begin a career at a Disney.

[perkins-buzo]

Dale Baer, RIP

[elijones94]

🦈 This is one of my favorite drawings I’ve done. This is Sharkman Maui. In my copy of the “Art of Moana” book, I saw an early concept drawing of a bald-headed Maui, like the one you see here with the shark fin and tail. The gold bracelets are my homage to the Genie from “Aladdin” and somewhat of King Triton from “Little Mermaid”. The drawing I saw in the book was done by the late Dale Baer. 🌊🪝

[artofwinniethepooh]

Eeyore pencil test by Mario Furmanczyk done in preparation for Winnie the Pooh (2011)

“Here's another test shot I animated which I thought was lost forever haha. Dale Baer was my mentor at this time which was awesome! He worked with the Nine Old Men and shared many cool stories about the studio back then.”

[saehooh]

Work in progress.

Inspired by Dale Baer's animation of Disney's Feast.

Shot X3 on each frame.

Running on 24 FPS.

Currently altogether 17 frames in total.

Animated by Saeho Oh

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

There's a lot of talk lately about THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, given that it has reached its... Ya know... 30th Anniversary? And a re-release is currently rolling in theaters? Which I just caught recently!

There's questions on whether a sequel of sorts could ever be made, and it sometimes that gets me thinking...

Thinking of an alternate history where... Pixar wasn't Disney's second powerhouse animation producer opposite the now 100-year-old Walt Disney Animation Studios...

But instead, Skellington Productions...

Skellington Productions, sadly, only made it to two movies. NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS was a small success in 1993, making about $50m off of its $19m budget. (Compare that to ALADDIN, which cost $28m, and THE LION KING, which cost $45m.) I feel the involvement of Tim Burton - hot off the success of BEETLEJUICE, BATMAN and BATMAN RETURNS, the novel concept, Disney's marketing machine (releasing it as a Touchstone film back then), and its innovative stop-motion animation made for a film that people were a little curious about.

This movie's box office circa 1993 wedges it firmly between Disney's mega-hits like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN, and... Everything else. Off the top of my head, I think FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST was the highest-earning not-Disney animated movie (yes yes I know, Disney owns it now, you know what I mean) of the immediate post-LITTLE MERMAID/ALL DOGS stretch. Most films missed the double-digits, even, that's how... Rough it was out there from 1990-94.

And lightning did not strike twice for JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, despite it being directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, just like NIGHTMARE. I'm guessing GIANT PEACH's problem was it not having that hook NIGHTMARE had, again, that really cool premise of a Halloween creature taking over another holiday. This, instead, was a Roald Dahl story with icky gross bugs. So GIANT PEACH lost money, Skellington Productions withered away, and so did their planned film based on the Carol Hughes book TOOTS AND THE UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE.

If you think about it, in the early 1990s, not only was Walt Disney Feature Animation enjoying their "Renaissance", but the larger Disney enterprise was trying to get other animation projects off the ground. Multiple studios making multiple animated movies. Seemed like a dream come true amidst American animation's 2nd Golden Age, right?

It all began with WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, whose animation was done by Richard Williams' studio and Dale Baer's studio (the unsung, often not-talked about other heroes who were involved with the film's dazzling and rich animation).

ROGER RABBIT was a reverberating smash when released in 1988. A follow-up movie was immediately on the boards, short films were made, Roger was everywhere circa 1988-90, even sharing the stage with Mickey Mouse on his 60th Anniversary, theme park expansions were on the way... But then things deflated once a rift developed between Steven Spielberg (producer of the film, owned a significant stake in the franchise) and then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, and Roger faded slowly away by the end of the 1990s...

Then you have Skellington, who, to reiterate... Had a small sleeper with NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and a flop with GIANT PEACH... That one found its audience on VHS after the fact. My family and I had the VHS growing up, but not NIGHTMARE for some reason.

So, the ROGER RABBIT project, Skellington Productions... 2 strikes, it seemed... Three if we throw in the Disney MovieToons pictures; the DUCKTALES movie didn't do great, and A GOOFY MOVIE barely doubled its smaller budget. They too found their audience on video, GOOFY MOVIE *especially*.

It seemed like only Disney Feature Animation had the golden touch, and even that was starting to fade a bit, when POCAHONTAS landed a bit below the previous three pictures in the summer of 1995...

Enter Pixar...

TOY STORY was a big hit upon its Thanksgiving 1995 release, A BUG'S LIFE was a big hit upon its Thanksgiving 1998 release, TOY STORY 2 came after those two in Thanksgiving 1999 after being bumped up from mere direct-to-VHS movie to theatrical event, rest is history...

But, imagine for a second, an alternate history where it was Skellington Productions that became Disney's other big animation house... Not Pixar...

In this timeline... TOY STORY is a fluke, a huge hit but a one-time deal...

A BUG'S LIFE (funny how both studios' second movies were about insects) flops in 1998, for whatever reason...

TOY STORY 2 doesn't ascend to being a theatrical movie, and is instead the direct-to-video movie it was originally planned to be. And made by that satellite studio set up for it, no less...

And that's what Pixar amounts to in this timeline, one single successful movie that spawned some sequels not made by them that went straight to VHS/DVD. Maybe they sign a contract with a whole other studio after this goes over so badly...

Whereas Skellington... They make TOOTS AND THE UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE and it comes out around 1999/2000 and does well, possibly a sequel to NIGHTMARE for good measure, and who knows what else in the far future...

It's funny to consider this, when Henry Selick - after completing CORALINE - nearly collaborated with Pixar in the early 2010s for his ill-fated THE SHADOW KING. An adaptation of Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK could've followed, too. Fitting, right? Gaiman wrote the original CORALINE novella. THE SHADOW KING was a film that was relentlessly micromanaged by - no shock - John Lasseter, til its budget ballooned... Right around the same time Disney's film division changed chairmen, and the then-new guy (Alan Horn) looked at SHADOW KING and had the plug pulled, and all the props and materials made for that movie were destroyed thereafter. Selick was able to shop the concept elsewhere, but it never got off the ground since then. He ended up doing WENDELL & WILD instead.

In another timeline, ROGER RABBIT gets its sequel/prequel in 1992/93, maybe even another, and keeps going. Roger remains as ubiquitous in the Disney empire as Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Winnie the Pooh, and everyone else.

In a really cool timeline, all three of them are mainstays. But as is often the case in the world of movies, in Hollywood, in the capitalist system... sometimes things get wrecked and washed away in the storm, and a few survive...

How it all didn't work out is to be studied for years to come, for sure. Skellington Productions should've continued being a thing, and the world of Roger Rabbit should've been more than just one big successful movie and a couple of short films/theme park attractions...

Alternate history animation stuff is fun to ponder...