Thread by @amid

Disney's One Hundred & One Dalmatians was released in theaters on this day 61 years ago. This film (along w/ Sleeping Beauty) represents the apex of design in the studio's hand-drawn features. Here's a short thread about the key players responsible for the film's graphic mastery.

Bill Peet wrote the film's adapted screenplay & boarded the entire film by himself, and during this process, he developed the initial look of the characters. He said it had taken 40 people on Pinocchio (which he also worked on) to do the same work he did alone on this film.

Tom Oreb refined Peet's approach to character design, and produced lots of exploratory works as well as more refined models. He was fired mid-production due to mental health & substance abuse issues, and never made another major contribution to an animation project.

Ken Anderson was the film's production designer. He came up with the film's brilliantly graphic line-dominant approach & the idea of using Xerography. Walt Disney hated the final result & Anderson was so distressed by Walt's reaction that he suffered back-to-back strokes in 1962.

Ernie Nordli is an unsung designer on the film. He figured out how to draw the architectural linework in the backgrounds, using a system of thick primary lines and thinner lines that ran parallel. It was his last major project for Disney; he committed suicide in 1968.

Walt Peregoy was color stylist. Below: his rough color studies + one comparison of a rough study/finished BG. The final BGs were created on 2 layers - one for linework & one for color. This separation of elements, made possible by Xerography, allowed for a striking graphic look.

This thread is about the design, but one animator must be singled out: Marc Davis for his animation of Cruella de Vil, one of the all-time classic examples of combining performance with the graphic possibilities of animation.

Ironically, Marc Davis, who took his work to an entirely new place with Cruella, never animated again. He was only 47 years old when the film came out. What a way to go out!

Just a few of the other animation greats who contributed to the final graphic look of the film: Milt Kahl, Don Griffith, Ray Aragon, Vic Haboush, Vance Gerry, Dick Ung, Homer Jonas, Tony Rizzo, Al Dempster, Bill Layne, Ralph Hulett, Collin Campbell

Three of the key people discussed in this thread, working on 'Sleeping Beauty,' the film before '101 Dalmatians': Bill Peet (sitting at left) and Tom Oreb besides him, and Ken Anderson at right.

Some have picked up on the dark side of the design crew's personal lives so it should be added that Peet, who wrote/boarded the film, was a high-functioning alcoholic by this point in his life. Unlike Oreb, who had lots of other issues, it didn't affect Peet's ability to perform.

This is Ernie Nordli (l) & Dick Anthony during the production of Sleeping Beauty. Anthony, a bkgrnd painter, was part of a major layoff post-SB & didn’t move on to 101. He felt hopeless after being let go – he’d been at Disney for decades & didn’t know what to do with himself.

Anthony barely left his home for months, before killing himself in Jan 1960. I’ve heard that Anthony & Nordli (who later committed suicide-see above) were good friends & Anthony’s death hit Nordli hard. Easy to imagine the guilt Nordli felt as he continued working at the studio.

In animation discussions, we often fail to acknowledge the humanity of the people who create the work. Hopefully this thread sheds a bit of light on the geniuses who created an all-time graphic classic even as they fought their own personal battles.