Today's animation study is of Milt Kahl's other tiger, Tigger.
First of all, I really like the jiggling eyebrows at the start, showing his devilishness.
The contrast of the nice slow anticipation with the ensuing quick motions is nice.
As he's moving back and forth singing "the wonderful thing about Tigger", all of his actions are in time to the different parts of the music. The bounce of course is timed to the beat of the music, but his feet move in time with the tempo of the words.
As he bounces around on his tail, I love that he remains solid and dimensional at all times. I love also that as his body crunches up, you get a sense of his stuffed-animal quality. I really like the little touch of him holding onto his feet here too.
I love the variation in the movement - a full on performance:
Yet while there's so much action, there are also well-executed pauses in it to give the viewer chance to breathe.
As he does a purry growl, he does a nice circular head motion while his jaw stays in place. I love that the jaw doesn't follow the circular movement.
His actions are always well posed and well timed to make everything ultra-clear in the same way that a stage actor is ultra-clear.
As he says "what a strange lookin' creature", he gives a little glance back to Pooh. Milt didn't have to do that, but little additions like that really help sell a moment in my view.
As he considers his foe in the mirror, I love the very subtle compression in his neck as he says "hmmmmmm". Look at the little wrinkles on his neck.
As he moves into saying "look at those beady little eyes", he does an anticipation that melts really well into the animation. Often with anticipations, they move in a different direction to the main action and so are quite visible, but this one is passed through on the way to the main action, so it's much more subtle.
Then as he says "and that proposterous chin", he takes a step forward - again not a necessity, but it adds to the believability of the scene. Actually, looking at it a little more, the step forward allows the head to stay in roughly the same spot as he changes pose rather than moving to the right of the screen. I wonder if that was was he was aiming for?
It's worth noting here also that although Tigger is a soft plush toy technically, he is composed of a lot of straight lines which stop him from feeling too squishy. Look at his tail - lots of straight sections.
I love how the whole body works together in this movement.
I just love the clarity of poses like this.
As he finishes the "pyjamas" move, he slows in to a rest rather than bouncing around to come to a halt, giving a nice relief from the previous action.
I love the attitude on this bit. Like he's saying "you don't know what you're talking about, how dare you question me".
The next bit I find funny, but perhaps not for the reasons intended. Tigger here is getting ready to scare the "imposter", and the movements I think are rather reminiscent of how a gang memeber might square up to someone :P
Note the lines left in the air by the feet.
Note also that each part of the movement are given enough time to read well:
I'm not sure if this is worth mentioning or not, but I always loved the way his tail doesn't disappear under the table cloth. I don't know how to descibe why I like it, it just kind of gives a charm to the scene, a softness of sorts. I'm not explaining very well lol.
Finally I love that his tail keeps twirling nervously. Its such a simple move, but says so much about what's going on under the table.
So there we are! This is the third Milt Kahl scene I’ve broken down here. Perhaps I should have a break from him and concentrate on some other animators! As usual, all thoughts welcome :)