I actually have two "fish" cels from the "Beautiful Briny Sea" number in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS. That segment combining live action and animation is a knockout. (Did you know the music was a "trunk song," left over from MARY POPPINS?)
The newest acquisition has the left two fish. Here's how the cel looked when I got it, bad mat and all.
It is one of those mysterious cels that matches the sequence but doesn't appear in the film. (Cutting room floor?)
It was unfortunately severely trimmed by the previous owner. I re-created the background with the empty shell on the left, but I retained a pose of the right side fish I liked. Here's the digitally composited background:
In the finished setup, all three fish are swimming along together, once again. I now can have a "Beautiful Briny Sea" cel at home and in my dressing room at Hollywood's El Capitan theatre!
Another childhood favorite was THE SWORD AND THE STONE. While it may not hold up quite as well as some other Disney features, it has some good moments, especially the wizards' duel, and the squirrel sequence wherethe little girl squirrel gets all "twitterpated" about young "Wart" as a squirrel.
I acquired this cel earlier this year.
This was one of those B/Gs where the characters never completely clear the B/G. When this happens, I hand paint the character's edges in Photoshop, so when the cel is placed on the re-created B/G, the ink/Xerox lines don't show. What's behind the cel isn't crucial because it's covered. (I'm giving away my secrets here!) I only do this when it's impossible to recreate the entire B/G. Sometimes I'll leave 2-3 cel points so I can exactly place the cel as it appears in the film. Withthe squirrels, I kept Wart's hand (paw?), his eye area, and part of his tail. In this way the cel can be perfectly positioned. When I recreate the entire B/G, sizing is exact but I have to ballpark the positioning using elements of the background.
At any rate, the squirrel setup is a great pose, and now once again has its key master (laserprint) B/G.
Last - Madam Mim as a beauty!!!I was able to get this, and settled for eyes closed because I'd never seen a cel from this very short segment, literally just a few frames. It was a tight shot. The Art Corner cel (released as a souvenir at Disneyland) was (as often is the case) heavily trimmed.
Here's the digitally recreated key master background:
And finally the finished setup with laserprint B/G. You can clearly see where the trimmed cel sits on the finished B/G. I haven't decided exactly how I'll mat this. I thought I'd leave the scan "as is," uncropped, so you can see the entire piece.
All in all, a very good day's work for the animation art form and my collection!
