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Thursday, April 23, 2020

Original Production Animation Cel of Pongo and Perdita from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," 1961



Original hand painted production animation cel of Pongo and Perdita from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," 1961, Walt Disney Studios; Set on a lithographic background; With original Art Corner Certificate sticker; Size - Pongo & Perdita: 5 1/4 x 9", Image: 9 x 11 1/2"; Unframed.

To purchase this cel or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others, keep thee unto her so long as ye both shall live?" - Priest

"One Hundred and One Dalmatians" ("101 Dalmatians"), is a 1961 full length animated feature film by Walt Disney Productions. It was adapted from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel of the same name. It stars Rod Taylor as the voice of Pongo and Cate Bauer as the voice of Perdita; with Betty Lou Gerson as the voice of the evil and villainous Cruella de Vil. The animation of all the characters from the film was quite extraordinary.

The film "Sleeping Beauty," 1959 was very expensive to make and it took a huge financial loss at the box-office; as a result, the Disney animation studio was considering closing. During the production of "Sleeping Beauty," Walt Disney told animator Eric Larson: "I don't think we can continue, it's too expensive." Because Disney's entire company was based on animation, he was looking for a way to continue with animation, and at the same time significantly reduce costs.

The animator Ub Iwerks had been experimenting with Xerox photography to aid in animation process. By 1959 he had modified a Xerox camera to transfer the drawings by the animators, directly onto animation cels. The process would preserve the spontaneity of the penciled drawings but eliminate the inking process, thus saving time and money. However, the limitation was that the camera was unable to deviate from a black scratchy outline, and the resulting cels lacked the fine lavish quality of hand inking.

One of the enormous benefits of the Xerox was that it was a tremendous help towards animating the spotted Dalmatian dogs. According to famed animator Chuck Jones, Disney was able to complete the film for about half of what it would have cost if they had had to animate all the dogs and spots. To achieve the spotted Dalmatians, the Disney animators envision the spot pattern as a star constellation. Once they had an "anchor spot," the next spot was placed into the pattern, and so on until the fully spotted Dalmatian was achieved. All totaled, the film featured 6,469,952 spots, with Pongo having 72 spots, Perdita 68, and each puppy 32.

Pongo was animated by Ollie Johnston and voiced by Rod Taylor, who was an Australian TV an movie actor who appeared in over 50 films. Perdita was also animated by Ollie Johnston, and she was voiced by Lisa Davis and Cate Bauer. Lisa Davis (who also voiced Anita) recorded about a third of the film as Perdita, but got married and moved to New York. So for the balance of the film, Perdita was voiced by Cate Bauer. It is unknown which actress recorded which lines.

This is a fantastic original production animation cel of Pongo and Perdita from the famous double wedding ceremony scene. Pongo's plan to get Roger to meet Anita at the outdoor park works, and soon they are standing before a Priest (seen through a stained glass window) inside of church. Pongo and Perdita are standing outside of the same church window, and both couples are wed in unison. It really doesn't get any better than this! A large and perfect image of the pair, with both dogs looking into each others eyes, sporting their blue and red collars, and paw in paw as they are read their wedding vows. A fantastic piece of original production artwork that is perfect for any serious animation art collection!

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