#Ken Anderson

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Concept art for Robin Hood (1973) by Ken Anderson

[sesiondemadrugada]

Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, 1959).

[thewaltcrew]

Chanticleer concept art by Marc Davis

Chanticleer is likely the most famous of all canceled projects at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Although these drawings were done in the early 1960s, the studio had been trying since the late 1930s to develop a feature film based on two French stories: the play Chantecler by Edmond Rostand and the Roman de Renart or Reynard the Fox, a literary cycle first collected in 11th-century Europe. The two stories were initially developed separately. Storymen Ted Sears and Al Perkins were the first to work on them, but they quickly ran into the same problem that would constantly plague Chanticleer for its entire development existence: how to make an arrogant rooster into an appealing protagonist.

Sears: We, or any other cartoon outfit, cannot depict a likable, interesting rooster character. Good animators have told me this, and only some revolutionary change or inspiration would make a rooster character sympathetic.

Development on Reynard also ran into similar problems of having a protagonist with a less-than-admirable personality, as Reynard the Fox is one of the most famous sources that propagated the image of a fox as a sly trickster. By 1945, the idea to combine the two properties came about, likely to help alleviate the problem of Chanticleer’s arrogant character by having a villain for him to play off of. Attempts to develop it again continued on through the 1940s, but nothing ever panned out.

In early 1960, Marc Davis and Ken Anderson, uninterested in any of the films in development at the time, took a trip down to the Animation Research Library to find ideas for a film they could develop on their own. Davis, being a fan of musical theater, wanted to do a big Broadway musical-style animated feature. They came across the old treatments for Chanticleer and jumped on the chance. They disregarded the original source materials (aside from the basic premises) and began to develop their own plot, envisioning it as a satiric comedy.

The story would have been about a rooster named Chanticleer who believes that his crowing makes the sun rise every morning. Everyone else in the village adores Chanticleer because they believe in his power too, and they elect him mayor of the town. However, he becomes an overbearing leader, ordering the hens to lay more and more eggs. The townsfolk come to resent him, and Reynard the fox arrives and takes advantage of the situation, wishing to exploit the village for his own benefit. He entertains the citizens, and the chickens stay up all night, becoming too tired to lay any eggs. An angry Chanticleer orders Reynard to leave, but Reynard announces that he will run for mayor against Chanticleer. Chanticleer finds himself in a duel at dawn against a Spanish rooster who works for Reynard and doesn’t realize that the sun has risen without him. Once he discovers that his crowing does not bring up the sun, he realizes his foolishness and is humbled, allowing the villagers to forgive him. Because although his crowing never made the sun come up, it did awaken the citizens for them to be able to start their days.

Cost cutting is what effectively ended Chanticleer’s chances. Walt was pressured to stop the production of animated feature films moving forward, as their already existing catalogue would have been enough for the company to profit off of during re-releases.

Davis: Walt was about ready to dump animation; then he got to thinking, “I owe these people something,” which he did. So he said, “Hell, these guys know how to make these films without me.” I don’t think the others realized how eager the members of this business gang were to get rid of animation. Everything after Dalmatians was done with a minimum of Walt’s supervision. I think he got spread very thin: he got terribly interested in the Parks, his vision of Epcot, and more.

But as preoccupied as Walt was, he didn’t have it in his heart to shut down animated film production for good. He did, however, reduce the output by setting a schedule of a new film every four years rather than every two. This meant that one of the two films in development at the time, Chanticleer and The Sword in the Stone, had to be cut. The decision was obvious, as Chanticleer would have been much more expensive to produce, and The Sword in the Stone was a simpler story with human characters and a cute underdog protagonist.

Davis: We had all the artwork up on the walls, and the money people at the studio came in like it was a funeral. We went all the way through the presentation and met with silence. Then a voice from the back of the room said, “You can’t make a personality out of a chicken!” They all filed out and that was the end of it.

Walt would soon call up Marc Davis to ask him to help out at WED (later called Imagineering), which is where Davis would stay for the remainder of his Disney career (where he would contribute to some of the most beloved Disney attractions of all time), thereby making Chanticleer the very last thing he worked on at the animation studio.

Davis: I had always kind of doubled up: I did story on an awful lot of stuff that was not made, including some damned good things. I think some of the best drawings I ever did for the Studio were for Chanticleer.

Chanticleer has grown a legacy of its own, perhaps solely because of how appealing and well-drawn Davis’ work for the project was. As animator Andreas Deja put it, “Marc designed some of the best-looking characters I’ve ever seen--those drawings want to be moved and used... The designs for Chanticleer show the same level of graphic sophistication as his paintings. When that’s combined with his very thorough knowledge of anatomy and the Disney appeal, the result is outstanding.”

Mel Shaw attempted to rework a new treatment for Chanticleer in 1981, but it was quickly squashed. In 1992, Don Bluth, an ex-Disney animator who, like everyone else, loved Marc Davis’ work on Chanticleer, tried his hand at the story himself with the film Rock-A-Doodle, though to little critical or commercial acclaim.

Although Marc Davis never worked on an animated film again after Chanticleer, some of the designs he created for that film did find their way into his WED project America Sings and later Splash Mountain, when the animatronics from America Sings were repurposed.

research sources from [x][x][x], The Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art of Five Decades of Unproduced Animation by Charles Solomon, and Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man, Chanticleer chapter by Charles Solomon photo sources [x][x][x]

[elijones94]

🐯 “The less Shere Khan moves, the more intimidating he becomes.”~ Andreas Deja 🐾

[2othcentury]

Sport Magazine (January 1976)

[nickysfacts]

Happy hauntings, hope you enjoy your visit!🪦

👻⚰️👻

[dreebo]

Ken Anderson.

[pommiegirl]

Joe Hendry's Entrances/Songs

Sharing because my youngest loves to see the views go up!! So please go and watch them all numerous times!!!

[jasvvy]

[dastiel4ever2111]

This is a bit different because I'm not really focusing on parents and children but siblings this time! Their parents aren't famous, we do get a bit of history because of Warren's story on the British Soap Opera Hollyoaks. He was left at an orphanage with his sister pretty early on in his life. Top left is Nick Gage, top right is Ken Anderson, bottom left is Eddie Kingston, and bottom right is Warren Fox.

Warren like I said was left at an orphanage with his sister Katie, she never pops up in my stories because she is dead. She died of a drug overdose. Warren is sometimes featured in the stories, but because he lives in England and is kind of a criminal shithead, the other two avoid him but Ken especially. Eddie is a bit more understanding because Warren is his brother by blood. He also understands where Warren is coming from for the most part.

Warren and Eddie are the only ones related, they have the same mother but different fathers. Eddie shares a Dad with both Ken and Gage.

Gage in my stories is always evil! He's either very abusive, controlling, and overall dickhead. Or he straight up tortures people. He was abusive towards both his brothers but Ken got it the worst. Eddie was more dominant whereas Ken is laidback and chill.

Ken in all of my stories is a psychologist. He's not a psychologist in real life nor is his wrestling character. But he suits it perfectly in my opinion! Since he isn't working in the wrestling community (he was for a short while but turned to announcing for boxing) he helps out with the psychological aspects of the wrestlers. Because I put the characters through so much he is usually always involved.

Eddie is such a cinnamon roll, always so supportive of his brothers. He is extremely protective of Ken, not all that close to Gage because of their pasts and like I said about Warren, he is supportive when he can but also tells him when he's being stupid. Like right now in Hollyoaks he is going on this revenge tour and it is going to cost him everything. Eddie isn't perfect by any means but he always tries his best.

[sesiondemadrugada]

Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geromini, 1959).

[acmeoop]

Chicken Little Concept Art (1967)

[elijones94]

🐯 “Everyone runs from Shere Khan.”~ Shere Khan 🐾

[tomoleary]

Ken Anderson - Concept art for 101 Dalmatians (1961)

Source

[samsdisneydiary]

The Bare Necessities: The Making of 'The Jungle Book'

The Bare Necessities: The Making of ‘The Jungle Book’