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Tuesday, June 22, 2021

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


Original hand painted production animation cels of Perdita, Lucky and another Puppy from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," 1961, Walt Disney Studios; Set on a lithographic background; With original Art Corner Certificate sticker verso; Size - Perdita, Lucky, & Puppy: 5 x 7", Image: 9 1/2 x 12"; Unframed.

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

"I'm tired and I'm hungry and my tail's froze...and my nose is froze and my ears are froze. And my toes are froze." - Lucky

"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.


Original hand painted production animation cel of Perdita without the background.
 
 
Original hand painted production animation cel of Lucky and a Puppy without the background.

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.


Original Art Corner Certificate sticker.

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.
 
Lucky is one of Pongo and Perdita's fifteen puppies and he almost passed away soon after birth; but fortunately was revived by Roger Radcliff. Anita, Roger, and Nanny gave him the name Lucky because of his fortuitous survival. As he grew older, Lucky loved to watch television and he often sat directly in front of the set.  He also lived up to his given name as he seemed to avoid tough circumstances just by sheer luck. Lucky was voiced by child actress Mimi Gibson.

This is a fantastic original production animation cel setup of Perdita, Lucky, and a Puppy walking through the snow, all three dogs are eyes open, and are full figure. A beautiful piece of original Walt Disney artwork that is perfect for any animation art collection!

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