#mark henn

[disneyllect]

[fishygeek]

Some concept art of Ariel

[disneytva]

Presenting the 2024 class of Disney Legends! 🎉

In Animation and Puppetry the following awarded people are:

-James L. Brooks ("The Simpsons" franchise)

-Frank Oz ("The Muppets" franchise, "Star Wars" franchise, "Inside Out" franchise)

-Mark Henn (Walt Disney Animation Studios Animator)

The award ceremony will be held Sunday, August 11 at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.

[artist-issues]

Listen

Lilo & Stitch is my favorite Disney movie. I love it for all it accomplishes and the story and music and characters are in my blood.

But the best Animated Feature Film Disney ever made, objectively, was Beauty & the Beast. Lion King comes close. The Little Mermaid is right up there next to them.

But for a movie with all of the Disneyness—faith, magic, princesses, small stories in an epic lens, music, beauty, relatability, iconic legacy, characters voiced by actors who act instead of star-power names, airtight story structure, a message that's just true no matter who's watching—it's Beauty & the Beast.

And I accept challenges because it'll make us appreciate it more.

[lulu2992]

Last month, I also watched the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 100th Anniversary short film Once Upon A Studio, and I loved it.

It’s not the story I liked most; it was nice and cute, but nothing revolutionary or unexpected. What I loved was seeing and hearing all these familiar characters, especially the 2D-animated ones, again. I’m a fan of hand-drawn animation and really miss it, so I was happy to experience it once more, even if it was only for a few minutes.

I love traditional animation because it’s always felt more magical and “personal” to me. I missed seeing a character on screen and thinking, “I know who drew you”. Here, when Louis (The Princess and The Frog) appeared, I recognized his original supervising animator Eric Goldberg’s work. I also knew that impressive shot of Peter Pan and the Darling siblings flying around the building could only have been animated by James Baxter (his brain works in 3D; I don’t know how he does that but it’s always mind-blowing). And as a fan of Mulan, seeing her not only being animated by Mark Henn, whose style I think is unmistakable and who was her supervising animator in the 1998 movie, but also holding hands and singing with Snow White (the first Disney protagonist) and Asha (the latest Disney protagonist) was quite special and moving.

What’s also great is that you can tell they tried to remain as faithful as possible to each movie’s original visual style, which means characters, for the most part, really look like they’ve just come out of their respective films. Graphically speaking, the numerous protagonists all have their own identity (it clearly was the artists’ goal, and I think they achieved it), but the whole thing still looks surprisingly coherent. The vast majority of the original voice actors are back, which is a very nice touch as well.

I don’t know, I just think the care, skills, and passion of the people who worked on Once Upon A Studio were palpable, and that felt good. Their attention to detail is evident, and as someone who grew up watching hand-drawn animated movies and truly loves the artistry behind them, I appreciate that.

[artofwinniethepooh]

Original Tigger introduction for Winnie the Pooh (2011) animated by Andreas Deja (with Pooh animated by Mark Henn in the last shot), which calls back to the character’s introduction in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)

[elijones94]

⛄️ Do you wanna build a snowman? ❄️

[womeninfictionandirl]

Princess Tiana by Mark Henn

[life-in-toontown]

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN MARK HENN DOESN’T HAVE ONE ALREADY?!

EXCUSE ME?!

[waltcrewlog]

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/studios/retired-disney-legend-mark-henn-work-had-been-more-meaningful-236985.html

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Clean-up drawings of Ariel’s iconic hair flip from The Little Mermaid (1989)

[marciabrady]

...it's the fact that they brought james baxter back, one of THE animators, to draw belle (who you all know is one of my least favs) and vowed he'd draw her better than she was depicted in the original. and honestly, judging from his animation of bambi&friends and his INCREDIBLE work on peter pan and the darlings flying, i believe him!!! so belle is getting that much love and attention and they gave aurora to a trainee who admitted to struggling with drawing her on model. and it shows 🫠🫠🫠BUT at least we have this edit to show us what could've been lol shout out to theycallmeobsessed on IG! he also remade ursula

[fishygeek]

early ariel dress design, I'm guessing this is either supposed to be her dinner dress orrrrr the dress she wears in the village. This character model sheet kinda reminds me of the fairytale, when the little mermaid is wonderful at dancing but she feels as though shards of glass are stabbing her feet everytime she steps. And she tries to act all cheerful regardless. 😐😐😐

[aiiaiiiyo]

[artist-issues]

Hi! I read your take on the "Snow White being dead" theory and I agree 100%, so I immediately got curious about your opinion on another popular assumption about another popular Disney fairytale movie: The Little Mermaid. A lot of people have been saying that Eric never truly fell in love with Ariel and was solely and literally enchanted by the beauty of her voice as Ariel is, well, a mermaid and mermaids/sirens have always been known (at least in Western culture) for their singing voices that lured sailors to them (and their deaths, usually), so I do see why this seems very plausible for a lot of people. Personally, I don't really buy that theory, but it's a possibility given the history of mermaids/sirens and sailors in fiction. What do you think? It's really been on my mind for quite some time lol

No! Because 1) a siren’s voice is always used to bring a man to the siren. And Ariel’s all about going to Eric.

2) Eric does fall under a love spell in the movie, but it’s Ursula’s, so we know what that looks like, and his affections for Ariel are not that.

3) Eric almost kisses Ariel and is clearly attracted to her and falling in love with her childlike wonder when she does not have her voice.

4) Ursula’s contract stipulated that Eric and Ariel had to share a kiss if what ladies and gentlemen? True love. Which means it has to be genuine. And she clearly thought they had that without Ariel’s voice, or she wouldn’t have had her eels flip the boat over in a panic when they almost kissed.

5) Ariel’s voice is like Snow White’s beauty. Let me explain. Nobody talks about how pretty Ariel is in the movie (except for the scene where she walks in with the pink dress on.) But several scenes with different characters put an emphasis on how beautiful her voice is, even when compared with all her sisters. Just like how an emphasis is placed on Snow White’s physical beauty. But both kinds of beauty (physical, vocal) are using that age-old fairy tale technique of using “beauty” to symbolize something deeper: “virtue.”

Eric is committed to finding the source of Ariel’s voice because it is associated with the “mystery girl” he already believed existed, and now experienced saving his life. Remember, Ariel is not the only character with a dream in the movie. Eric dreams of “the right girl.” And there’s already hints that he believes in some kind of magical, supernatural fate associated with her that will draw them together. She’s almost a mythical creature in his mind already; someone who is out there against all odds, like unicorn waiting to be caught up to, and will be there for him when the time is right. She’s worth the wait, she’s worth the search, she’s worth everybody rolling their eyes at his romantic nonsense. That’s the sense you get from Eric before he ever encounters Ariel.

So of course the filmmakers are going to introduce her to him with a voice. Something he can’t see, something only he heard—so he can’t be like Prince Charming and use a physical trait, like whether or not she fits a shoe to identify her to others. He can’t identify her to others! It’s something only Eric could hear. That’s importantly thematically, because everybody thinks his dream is just all in his head anyway.

So then when he has a near-death experience, and there’s no explanation for how he could’ve survived, and he sees and hears basically a vision of a girl with a beautiful voice singing to him, of course he’s going to go, “I knew it, she’s real, she rescued me.” And then the filmmakers give you hint after hint that the people around him are denying it, that they’re giving him plenty of reasons to doubt what he thinks was the fulfillment of his dreams, but he doesn’t.

Why? Because he believes it’s more than just “a good girl came and rescued me.” He believes it’s supernatural—it’s fate that the one girl who’s right for him made an appearance when he almost died. I mean, if you were Eric, wouldn’t you be thinking, “of course I couldn’t die; I haven’t met Her yet.”

What I’m saying is, Eric represents Ariel’s dream: that not all humans are bad, and the surface world is worth loving. But Ariel also represents Eric’s dream: that there is a girl out there who is specifically right for him, and if he just waits and believes it, nothing can keep him away from her—and her voice is just a symbol of that.

With both Eric and Ariel, the characters learn to find out what their “dream” is really like, instead of just relying on their ideal. And of course, it turns out the thing they were dreaming of was there and real and even better than they imagined all along. Then other characters like Grimsby, Sebastian, and King Triton get to see that Eric and Ariel were right.

So, no. The filmmakers did not create a story where Eric was only in love with Ariel because of a siren spell in her voice. They took very obvious, intentional steps and scenes to avoid saying that. But I enjoyed answering this question because I get to explore their relationship more! So thanks!

[art4mad]

MADness #82: Balloon Boy!

MADness #82: Balloon Boy!

I’m not making this up… it really is Monday! Time for another high-flying episode of the seemingly endless flight that is our trek through my work at MAD Magazine. This week we reach new heights of mendacity both in the subjects of the work I did and my being credited for new work in issue #503 at all! I had two pieces in MAD #503, May 2010, although neither were technically new. One was part of…