R.O. Blechman's "Simple Gifts" - Prologue

Prologue to R.O. Blechman's animated television special "Simple Gifts" . This prologue piece is designed by Maurice Sendak, animated by Ed Smith , with watercolor by Sara Calogero. Music by Arnold Black. The entire special was directed by R.O. Blechman. The quality on this clip is not the greatest since it is from an old VHS tape recording of the show. As far as I know PBS has not aired this again in recent times. It's a beautiful Christmas special that really should be released on DVD.

Richard O'Connor has posted an original drawing from this sequence on his blog :

Original Art from "Simple Gifts" click HERE

O'Connor relates this about animator Ed Smith:

Once I asked Ed Smith (who animates in ink) what he does when he makes a mistake.

His response: "I'll let you know when that happens."

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Tateh's Flipbook, from Milos Forman's "Ragtime"

Sergio Pablos "Dr. Doppler" Pencil Tests

Some wonderful animation by master animator Sergio Pablos of the character "Dr. Doppler" from Disney's "Treasure Planet".

(See the interview with Sergio on The Character Design Blog .)







Here are some of the same scenes , but in different form (note that one of the scenes is in much rougher form , so it's interesting to see how he roughed it out first , then tied it down more at a later point) .