William Norman Ferguson (September 2, 1902 – November 4, 1957) was an American animator for Walt Disney Studios and a central contributor to the studio's stylistic development in the 1930s. He is most frequently noted for his contribution to the creation of Pluto , one of the studio's best-known and most enduring characters, and is the artist most closely associated with that character. He is also credited for developing Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf . Ferguson, known at the studio as "Norm" or "Fergy", was the primary animator of the witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , the first in a long line of great Disney feature villains. He was also a sequence director on the film.
18-474: The Picnic may refer to: The Picnic (1930 film) , a Mickey Mouse cartoon The Picnic (1976 film) , a Two Ronnies television film The Picnic , a 2012 short silent film The Picnic (novel) , a 1937 novel by Martin Boyd The Picnic (Tissot) or Holyday , an 1876 painting by James Tissot "The Picnic" ( The Amazing World of Gumball ) ,
36-733: A high volume of work- about 18 feet a week as opposed to the more average ten at the Disney Studios at the time. (A "foot" of animation- a measurement based on film footage- is sixteen frames). Norm Ferguson served as a sequence director or directing animator on many of the classic Walt Disney features films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 through the 1950s, including Pinocchio , Fantasia , Bambi , Cinderella , Peter Pan , and Alice in Wonderland . Ferguson, who later in life suffered from diabetes, left
54-424: A picnic. Minnie asks if she can bring her "little Rover", although Rover turns out to be a huge bloodhound the size of Mickey. The mice tie Rover to the back of the car and drive to the picnic spot, but along the way, Rover spies a pair of rabbits and gives chase, dragging the car behind him. Rover chases one rabbit through a series of rabbit holes, but the rabbit pulls the final hole away, and the dog bangs his head on
72-495: A rainstorm chases all of them to cover." The short was released on December 7, 2004 on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929-1935 . The short appeared on the following TV anthologies: Norm Ferguson (animator) After starting at the studio in 1929 as a cameraman, Ferguson switched to the animation department and rose rapidly, despite a lack of formal art training. His early animation of
90-579: A recycled gag from that picture in which one of the dogs sniffs into the camera. The same gag would be reused in 1931's The Moose Hunt and 1939's The Pointer . Gijs Grob says in Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse : Ferguson had animated the bloodhounds in The Chain Gang which formed the blueprint for Pluto, and he would remain the expert on the character for the rest of Pluto's career, animating important scenes for him, like
108-479: A television episode "The Picnic" ( Wander Over Yonder ) , a television episode "The Picnic", an episode of the Indian TV series Dhoom Machaao Dhoom See also [ edit ] Picnic (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title The Picnic . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
126-465: A week-long adaptation of The Picnic in the Mickey Mouse comic strip. In the strip, the dog's name was "Tiny", and didn't bear as much resemblance to the final Pluto design as "Rover" did. Pluto appeared in the strip six months later, on July 8. Motion Picture News (November 29, 1930): "Diverting. Mickey Mouse gets himself nicely messed up in a picnic. What the birds ants and whatnot do to
144-402: Is in the pip class and not only stirs up loud merriment but even elicits a healthy round of applause, which is some tribute considering that the public has been regaled with a considerable quantity of cartoon comedies in the past year or so. In the present subject Mickey takes his Minnie for a picnic in the woods, where they disport themselves while the animals of the forest raid their lunch, until
162-458: Is remembered for having worked "rough" and "loose", in animation terms, with a focus on feeling, action, and the character's personality rather than detail, structure, or formal draftsmanship. Fellow animator Fred Moore is quoted as having said of Ferguson, "He doesn't know that you can't raise the eyebrows above the head circle, so he goes ahead and does it and it gives a great effect." Animator Shamus Culhane remembered Ferguson as having produced
180-425: The 1934 short Playful Pluto - in which the dog is stuck to a piece of flypaper- a "milestone in personality animation...through it all, his reaction to his predicament and his thoughts of what to try next are shared with the audience. It was the first time a character seemed to be thinking on the screen, and, though it lasted only 65 seconds, it opened the way for animation of real characters with real problems." He
198-475: The Disney Studios with his health and career in decline in about 1953. Immediately after a brief, unsuccessful stint with Shamus Culhane Productions, described by Culhane in his 1986 book Talking Animals And Other People , Ferguson died as a result of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California in 1957. Ferguson posthumously received the industry's Winsor McCay Award in 1987 and was posthumously inducted as
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#1732776883655216-415: The dog who would become Pluto drew strong response at the studio and on-screen for giving the character a personality and apparent inner life that was considered a great step forward for the young art form of animation. Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston paid extensive tribute to Ferguson's work in their 1981 book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life , calling his famous "flypaper sequence" from
234-715: The flypaper scene in Playful Pluto (1934) and the skating scene in On Ice . Already in The Picnic , Ferguson shows that he understands the pup best, animating Pluto lovingly licking Mickey, Pluto biting himself to get rid of fleas, and Pluto sniffing into the camera. The dog returned as Pluto six months later in The Moose Hunt , and became so popular that he got his own series in 1937, starting with Pluto's Quintuplets . In January 1931, Floyd Gottfredson drew
252-514: The food is just too bad for Mickey, but perfectly swell insofar as the audience and its inclination to laugh is concerned. Produced in his usual, inimitable style by Walt Disney." The Film Daily (December 7, 1930): "Pip Cartoon. There seems to be no end to the original antics and laugh-producing stunts emanating from the Walt Disney workshops and performed by the sprightly Mickey Mouse and his chief co-worker, Minnie Mouse. This latest number
270-521: The ground, dazing Rover. Mickey and Minnie set up for the picnic, and Mickey cranks up the portable gramophone. The mice dance to " In the Good Old Summer Time ", but the birds and squirrels are active too, swiping the picnic food while Mickey and Minnie are dancing. Rover follows his nose until he finds Mickey, just as a stormcloud bursts and begins to pour. Mickey gathers up the food and the gramophone—both overrun with animals and bugs—and
288-492: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Picnic&oldid=1220306112 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Picnic (1930 film) The Picnic is a 1930 American animated short film directed by Burt Gillett and produced by Walt Disney . It
306-544: The three friends jump into the car. Rover's tail acts as a windshield wiper as Mickey and Minnie drive home through the rain. The dog, called "Rover" in this cartoon, is an important step towards the creation of Pluto as a major character in the series. Animator Norm Ferguson first drew a pair of bloodhounds in the August 1930 Mickey Mouse short The Chain Gang , and Rover is clearly a continuation of that idea, even featuring
324-475: Was first released on October 9, 1930, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. It was the twenty-third Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the eighth of that year. The cartoon is notable as the first appearance of a pet dog called "Rover", an early version of a character that was renamed Pluto six months later, in the April 1931 cartoon The Moose Hunt . Mickey arrives at Minnie's house to take her out for
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