Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bear Beginnings

Quoting from the caption on the photograph: Bear Beginnings- Two "Imagineers" from WED Enterprises inspect final sketches of Disneyland's newest attraction, "Country Bear Jamboree." The concept for this 15-minute country comedy was developed through a series of artists renderings at the Glendale, Calif. planning and design firm.

The two Imagineers are Al Bertino who was the model for Big Al and Marc Davis. Al and Marc are the two Imagineers credited with the story and character development for Bear Country. The storyboard on the top is of the beginning of the show. What is more unusual is the storyboard below. It appears to be some sort of 1890's Nell and Snidely melodrama with a full on saw scene and a dim witted, large hero. Anybody know the film or project that these storyboards are for? (Note: I have left the image at a large size so you can click on it and get a larger picture than normal.)

4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Nice pictures! I'm an animation nut, and I don't recall anything Disney produced with that "Perils of Pauline" theme. Maybe this is one of the many projects that never made it to completion.

Chris Merritt said...

WOW! Very, very cool. I had no idea they boarded out the whole Bear Band show...

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

NICE photo, I'll be studying that board for hours! I miss the CBJ, almost reason enough to go to Florida! The bottom panels are a hidden bonus! Thanks.

Katella Gate said...

The only things I can tell about the "Mystery" story board are rather obvious, so forgive me.

First, what ever this project is, it's in a very early stage and only the story men have worked on it. No character design, no hint of costuming, props, or layout. Just a sequence of ideas. I mention this because if it never got out of the story department, there may not be much documentation on it.

The other is gender inversion which is typical of "topical" 70's humor. Notice that the hero is going thru the sawmill, not Penelope. Unfortunately how he gets out of the scrape his hidden.