Ollie Johnston: A Celebration of Life - 8/19/2008 at the El Capitan Theatre
Page 8 of 10

For Ollie�s 93rd birthday he visited the studio. Keane showed him some computer animation he had created for Rapunzel. He was especially interested in showing him the technical aspects of the system they were using. Ollie watched the scene unfold, and then said, �Well Glen� I was just wondering� what is she thinking?� Keane quietly said that Ollie was still teaching him. These things will never stop. He concluded, �He lives on in the artists at Disney, and I�m sure in your hearts, too.�

There was heartfelt applause for Glen Keane as Leonard Maltin again took the stage. He added that while Rapunzel was not due until 2010, both Frank and Ollie had given notes to Glen. So this film would still bear their imprint.

Next to take the stage were animation veterans John Musker, Ron Clements, and Brad Bird. Musker brought a backpack along, and as he set it down joked, �I�m doing a Carrot Top thing!� As he fumbled with the contents, he explained that he was going to share a memento of his first meeting with Ollie, at CalArts in 1975. As he held up a small film strip viewer, he declared, �This was my tool for learning about Ollie at CalArts.� Before DVDs or home video, there was Super-8. Musker pulled up small cardboard boxes, each of which held ten minute segments from Song of the South, Peter Pan and other Disney classics. They studied these and kept notes.

Maltin chimed in, remembering when he would hold up strips of film to study individual drawings. Ron Clements also recalled that Tyco had made little projectors that all the animators bought. They could study the films frame by frame with them. As they packed away their treasures, Maltin asked when each had first met Ollie.

Ron Clements told of working at Hanna-Barbera in 1973. The artists there were real �Hollywood� types, with leather jackets and big gold chains. After he went to work at Disney, he ran into a low key, unpretentious guy by the Coke machine in the hallway. He was wearing a simple plaid shirt, and Clements assumed he was there to service the vending machine. Then he realized that it was actually the great Ollie Johnston.

As a schoolboy, Brad Bird simply wanted to know how Disney animation was done. His parents suggested he start at the top and work down, and make an effort to actually meet the Disney animators. Bird explained that he knew, �There was a job out there!� Through a mutual friend he met Disney composer George Bruns, who introduced him to everyone at the studio. He knew just enough about Frank and Ollie to know who they were. When he confided his ambition to draw animated cartoons, he related, �They were nice, but they were busy.�

He said they were shocked when he showed up three years later with fifteen minutes of animation. He couldn�t tell anyone at school, he explained, because no one then knew who Frank and Ollie were. Joked Clements, �They didn�t know who they were.�

Bird described his time at Disney as a front row seat. �Imagine,� he sighed, �A happy, happy thing!� With great passion, of course, comes conflict. His mentor, Milt Kahl, claimed that Ollie�s work had no extremes. Ollie�s work was subtle and illusive. Kahl�s work was all technical, Frank�s was cerebral, and Ollie�s drawings flowed like water with a wonderful, subtle feeling.

Clements pointed out that although his mentor was Frank Thomas, his office was right next door to Ollie�s. He felt that, together, they were probably the two greatest actors in animation history. Frank was analytical. He didn�t make the work seem difficult, Clements ruefully observed; he made it seem impossible.

Frank would flip a stack of drawings over and over again until the edges were ragged. Ollie, on the other hand, would lightly touch pencil to paper, letting the drawings simply flow. Animation legend Chuck Jones called Ollie the Lawrence Olivier of animation. But Clements felt he was more the Jimmy Stewart, because his work was so natural.

John Musker explained that he didn�t get to work with Ollie, although he did come and look over his work on The Little Mermaid. Musker also admitted to learning a lot by looking at Ollie�s rejected drawings from The Fox and the Hound.

Musker did recall a humorous incident with Ollie. Milt Kahl was teaching and the young Brad Bird was on hand. Ollie arrived with the voice artist for Bianca from the Rescuers, the lovely Eva Gabor. They were there to admire the pastel drawings that had been prepared for The Black Cauldron. Ollie was beaming, Eva was dressed to the nines, and introductions were made all around. Seeing the intricate drawings, Eva exclaimed, �I envy you so much. I would give anything to be in your shoes.� Brad Bird immediately slipped off his flip flops, handed them to her, and said, �Here!� Ollie kept his smile intact, although a pained look crossed his face.

As the crowd roared, Bird sheepishly admitted, �Yeah, I was charming.� Maltin pointed out that Bird did put Frank and Ollie into a Warner Brothers film. The scene in The Iron Giant, Bird explained, was an opportunity to give a tip of the hat to that generation of animation artists.

The scene, depicting two old timers at the railroad tracks, was recorded at their homes (as were their lines for The Incredibles). Bird explained that he had to use some tricks to get them to yell. Frank really didn�t want to, but with some volume and reverb, it came out just fine. �They got some residuals,� said Bird.

He also joked about �freaking out� the young animator who was handed the scene. He was given the task of animating the two greatest animators in the world. For The Incredibles they were again subsidiary characters, designed as caricatures of Frank and Ollie. Bird proudly stated he was glad he got them in both films. �They meant everything to me,� he said, �They inspire me to this day.�

Musker next shared some clips of Ollie�s animation from Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The first clip, Mr. Toad on trial, was notable for the fact that Ollie animated each character in the scene, showcasing his ability to contrast. The next clip, of Toad in jail, was notable for the way Ollie emphasized the character�s limitations. The ball and chain attached to Toad�s ankle dictated the direction of the scene in a challenge well met by Ollie.

The next clip, from the Ichabod Crane portion of the film, showcased Ollie�s mastery of comedy. A scene between Ichabod, Bram and Katrina brought down the house. Of another clip showing Ichabod�s eccentric dancing, Musker said, �He took something complicated and made it look easy.�

The panel then decided to �totally geek out� by examining the dance sequence frame by frame. Musker explained that thirty years earlier he had raided the animation library at Disney to see Ollie�s rough drawings. As the pencil sketches were projected one a time, and then to speed, Musker gleefully exclaimed, �It�s geeky!� Bird replied, �Testify!� As the sequence finished, Leonard Maltin approvingly observed, �That was terribly geeky of you, John.� To which Bird replied, �More geeky! More geeky!�

The panel concluded with some final thoughts. Clements noted that Ollie really loved the characters he animated, and really believed they were alive. He spoke of them as if they were real. Maltin pointed out that this was true of many performers of that era. There was no reserve, no ironic distance. Musker added that a word that was used a lot was �appeal.� Bird wrapped it up by saying that one could be sincere about a million things, but an animator must believe that something is alive.

After thanking the panel, Maltin again suggested, �Let�s go back to the source.� A video clip from an early Disney Channel TV program aired, with Frank and Ollie showing a class of animators the importance of observation. As the scene came to an end, Maltin marveled, �How lucky for us there�s so much of them.� He then introduced another CalArts student, Mark Kirkland. The Emmy Award winning director of some sixty episodes of The Simpsons had brought a selection of unseen photos of Ollie to share.

�I have an old fashioned slide show,� Kirkland began. He explained that he had originally intended to take a photo to give Ollie, but that it turned into a project. There were photos of Ollie�s home, Frank and Ollie with the trains, and Ollie telling stories. Kirkland said that Ollie was a great story teller, and was a great listener as well.

The first time he was taken to meet the pair he was accompanied by his father, Douglas Kirkland. The father explained that his son Mark was a CalArts graduate, playing hooky that day from his first job. Frank and Ollie, Kirkland said, thought that was great.