Frank and Ollie were equally talented, and may have even been a tad better in terms of acting through animation, as they always got the best "parts." But those three (Frank, Ollie and Milt) were definitely the three best actors of the nine.
Tbh, the favorite parts of Disney's greatest works were all the labor of the animators, cel painters, and technicians, and not the fact that Walt owned/operated the company.
@@BrendanOG I know. I was just saying all the parts that make Disney films great are because of people like Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Art Babbit, etc., and not so much the namesake of the company they worked for.
Richard Williams said that, according to Milt Kahl the secret of mouth animation, which he learned during Song of the South, was in "progressing the action", not in moving the mouth. When a character talks, move them somewhere or in some way. I think the head swaggle is a great example of this principle. It looks a little excessive in a compilation like this, but in the movies themselves it never feels like that. Milt says its this same trick is what made Jim Henson a genius of animation, for being able to get so much character out of what is essentially a sock puppet. Henson always progressed the action when acting with the puppets.
This sounds fascinating and I'd love to understand it better; do you remember where you saw/heard Williams talking about this? Like it makes sense, especially with the Jim Henson comparison, but what does it mean from a more technical standpoint?... Would Milt lead movement with the mouth, or perhaps would mouth shape somehow inform head movement?
@@RoyceRemix This was in the video lecture of Williams' "Animators survival kit". There are many clips of the lecture on youtube but I'm not quite sure if the specific part can be found. If you want to trust mysterious links from strangers, here's the clip. It's real low quality and the audio went out of sync for some reason when I rendered it: files (period) catbox (dot) moe (slash) fbu11l (point) webm If you don't wanna use the mysterious link, the point is to act dialogue using the movement of the head/body, not over relying on mouth action/lip sync. Frank Thomas would for example always animate the mouth last. The example given in the clip is that in the Song of the South scene the Fox says "I'm going to skin you alive", and Milt hardly animated the mouth, just a small movement of the upper lip with all the teeth gritted, and instead almost all of the delivery of the line was done by the Fox leaning forwards towards the Rabbit. Very little relevant mouth action to the syllables that were being said, but still the acting felt like the mouth matched the lines, because he "leaned into" the delivery of the line. You can see this well with Tigger and Shere Khan. The giant protruding lower jaw makes for very large mouth movement, and the shape of the mouth doesn't vary greatly between syllables, but the head movement ties it together and makes it believable.
I agree with the idea of "progressing the action" but shouldn't any movement be something that's unique to the character? Milt Kahl was an an amazing animator with such smooth motion and balanced motion (largely for being an incredible draftsman), few animators in the Disney Renaissance (much less today) could even come close to the near perfect animation he made (though I'd argue James Baxter animator of Belle, Rafiki, Quasimodo, Moses and the main Horse from Spirit (as well as horse of the same name from Adventure time Character). But to me the Milt Shake this many times comes across as a little lazy and repetitive.
@@filmnutcase6206 I think there's a good amount of character variety in the shakes. Few of the goofier characters are quite similar, but with the more serious/defined characters the way a character shakes their head is fairly different, and justified by the context of the scene. Madame Medusa, Shere Khan, Sir Ector are all smug/condescending/full of themselves, but their head swaggles are still distinctly different. It's a gimmick for sure, but I don't think it's lazy because Milt makes sure that the shake doesn't break the character. None/few of the shakes are identical/formulaic. If he just followed the same formula for each shake (same degree of turning the head, same timing, etc) then I'd agree it's lazy, but that's not the case. It's no more lazy than any other kind of secondary action.
@@Masiyooo Well yeah I wasn't trying to say it was a deal breaker (though I can't personally that there's enough variation on the shake, though it can work very well for smuggness) it's more of a distraction, not the worse thing by any means but I do wonder if some secondary action by Mr. Kahl could've been done better, oh well.
Actually it is somewhat realistic, not for animals though because of course animals don't talk. Some people have this head waggle when they talk, some don't. My mother's ex-boyfriend had a shake of the head waggle when he disliked something and tried to communicate why he disliked it. All depends on who you meet.
If you’re looking for a real-life example of head swaggles like this, just look at anyone from India when they’re talking about something that makes them happy. (At least, that’s what it reminds me of, and closely resembles a live-action version of the Milt Kahl swaggle)
As a child, I watch old Disney movies just for the head swaggle. I always found it interesting, how those little bob of their head convince me that the 2D drawings are not just character, but as if they are living person. It's magic how so much personality is delivered through a simple movements. What is crazier is the fact only Milt Kahl can do this, and it have become his trademark.
I think this is one of the reasons why I like 2D animation so much better than 3D. It has more life and personality, and more of the personal touch of the animators.
When my sisters and I (who were close in age) used to watch these classic Disney vhs I could detect recycled images/scenes/cameos/Easter eggs. Probably the first time I saw film elements.
Milt actually had his own term for characters he liked to use this for, as heard in the Disney Family Album episode featuring interviews with him. He refers to how he made Sir Ector in Sword in the Stone a "wobblehead" - I think it's cute that he owned it like that lol
I'm imagining how it went: *In the middle of Disney old men meeting room* "Ah-ah-ah! I take dibs designing this character! ....hm? Yeah, i need their head to waggle"
I have a fondness for this kind of head-swaggling. It's very... show-offy though. In that classical Disney way. As in "yes, I could just move the head from point A to point B like a normal animator but instead I will have the character shake it back and forth as he turns it in a way that's still complimentary to the motion." It's very unrealistic. Nobody moves their head like that in real life. And yet is somehow makes the character feel real because it sort of captures the complexity of real movement and constantly reminds you how 3-dimensional and solid the head is. It's the kind of movement you can't really imitate with a design that isn't volumetric. It's kind of musical.
I agree that it's great animation and adds a lot more dynamics to a dialogue scene, including the accompanied follow-through animations of hair, jewelry, etc. And while these dynamics may have often times been the purpose of the movement, I would argue that it's not necessarily unrealistic, in general.. Everyone has different mannerisms, some people talk with their hands a lot, or use a lot of facial movement, while others don't... and also consider that culture plays a role, as it did with the way people SPOKE in America in the 30s-60s (word choice and tone/cadence alike), and I think if you watch movies from that period you'd see that mannerisms were similarly different in general. These things are half of what I personally enjoy about movies from the mid 1900s, both animation and live-action.
No one moves like that in real life? I would argue that people are always jiggling, fidgeting, or shifting in some manner. No one holds perfectly still.
There actually is a real-life equivalent of the swaggle in india! An interesting video by Drew Binsky introduces and documents a few examples, dubbed ‘the indian head wobble.’
@@tahutoa I grew up with Milt's work in all my favourite disney movies so I... actually do move my head a lot when I talk and now I know where I learned it as a kid xD
I think it works so well at being the characters to life because it’s an exaggeration of body language, much like stage actors have to over emphatically express everything. By giving a broader range of movement, it adds depth to the communication through body language.
Out of context this movement looks almost obvious & repetitive, but it's awesome how it suits each character's acting & personality in the moment. It doesn't feel like Kahl repeating himself because it always adds so much to the scene! And when we hear the voices, the animation plays off them so naturally.
@@reginaldforthright805 you need to understand character anatomy/proportions to do this effectively. Not to mention understand their personality as well as each swaggles is different for each character. No, it's not as "basic" as you think.
Yeah, this was a time when xerox became all the rage because of its reduced cost, iirc. Instead of actually inking the cels they just photocopied them away, which meant you could see the pencil strokes in motion. It's rough but charming in its own way.
@@giuliabianco8425haha. The drawings are better in this era than any other because cleanup never captures the animators accurately. Loses the subtleties of expression and volume.
3:06 I find this especially funny since Kahl's head swaggles were a flex to other animators. So Thomas imitation swaggle feels like a form of mocking to Kahl's flexing.
Its such a fun, whimsical stylistic choice that really contributes to classic Disney's charm. The fact that he did it to stunt on em makes it even better lol
God. I always wondered what made the humans in aristocats so charming (aside from the general delightful and quirky design), it's this lifelike, whimsical shaking of the heads. I feel like so many unasked questions of mine have been answered. What a pro.
Just saw a fb post about this and had to look it up. It's so fun to learn that something I never gave much thought to turns out to be an absolute beast flex among people who understand animation. 😂
As a kid I just thought this was a quirky Disney style of character movement that all the animators in the company knew how to do. I never realized it was one dude flexing on the rest of the Disney staff
The insane thing toe is how many different emotions these head waggles can convey: anxiety, smugness, panic, excitement, exasperation, bashfulness, even Medusa's super fake attempt at motherly sympathy. And you can see that in the subtle changes in the speed, degree, and angle of the waggle.
I never noticed this. But this really is a defining characteristic of the older Disney style, 1st and 2nd gen. They all did it. It's as characteristic as the particular voice actors or the scratchy black Xerox lines and noise.
this is like signing your name on your animation without even writing it, i love it, no one ever moves like that but you just know it means pridefulness
1:18 and 1:28. These are my favorites. I love the secondary movement of Thomas O'Malley's ear and how it moves in the opposite direction of his head until it has time to catch up, it's just such a fun little detail. And I (I know I'm saying love again but) love the way the old man moves his head up so drastically, and then back down again. Ugh I love Milt Kahl's work so mUCH
A couple other examples of Milt Kahl head swaggles you forgot to include was: -Peter Pan (1953) was when Peter disciplined the lost boys shaking his head saying “we’ll I’m surprised you blockheads!” -Lady and the Tramp (1955) when Trusty talks about his grandpappy old reliable and asks if he don’t recollect mentioning him before. Also when Tramp imitates a woman screaming “Stop that racket you’ll wake the baby!”.
I immediately thought of several other films when I see the ones from the Jungle Book, and they showed up afterwards. These swaggles brought/bring so must character and awesomeness
This is why I miss hand drawn animation. The Nine Old Men had a distinctive style and approach to animating characters and Milt Kahl’s drawings definitely stood out with the “head swaggles”.
Beautiful how he gave his animation such natural personality and mannerisms. It never looked like he was following some animator’s handbook; more like he learned then perfected the technique to the point he truly made it his own.
this little action was such an influence on me as a child that i would actually do this while talking, and sometimes i still do. crazy how a little thing like that has an impact (albeit tiny and subconscious) on how i act as an adult.
Ever since I got into digital art, I can't help but be impressed by this. It's tons of work for an amazing expressive effect that isn't even worth it. I feel like I'm watching an animator sing "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" to himself and it's great.
It's cool when an animator has a trademark like this! Animators don't get enough credit, that's just how it goes, but it's subtleties like Milt's head swaggles that make his scenes identifiable to him.
Man it’s so ABSURDLY expressive tho. That’s how people’s heads move! It’s a perfect pairing to the lines being spoken. Especially the last example of Baloo’s mocking tone. Like… those voice actor’s lines probably wouldn’t have landed so well without this one trick. Damn, what a flex.
Two things, 1:31 is almost rotoscope-quality animation, it's so good. And then 2:58 the head swaggle is ALSO synced with the animated hair flopping back and forth. Incredible.
i love the milt kahl swaggle. it makes character's feel like they're in their own heads, full of themselves, or the intensity of how the feel wracks their whole body. it feels like every character has their own "tempo". it's very cool
Okay, it's quite like a manirism but it gives so much life into the characters. Milt Kahl is still considered one of the best animator ever for a reason.
Got to love how a single man so subtly injected tons of life and emotion and realism into every traditionally animated disney movie with a technique people wouldnt even realize is there until you point it out. Its like CGI work, people build entire cities from scratch so well, you dont even know the shot isnt on location.
The head swaggle helps the characters emphasize what they're saying while simultaneously making them come off as even more sarcastic and pretentious. It's also extremely satisfying
I know very little about the world of animation. Today I saw a random suggested post talking about the legendary swaggle and why it's so amazing... now I'm obsessed. Milt Kahl was a BAMF. Flexing on the world with something most people will never fully appreciate or even understand
Moving characters head in perspective is tricky and the head movements are also timed to their line delivery. Mit Kahl did this knowing it wasn't easy just to flex lol
What I love about the Swaggle is that it adds definition to the characters emotion. The Swaggle matches the scripts motion and expression perfectly with added sass and intensity to what the character is seeing and feeling.
Hannah Barbara cartoons always do a cheaper version of this by bobbing the head up and down when a character is talking. By always I mean every single time a character speaks.
This got me thinking about all the had waggles in The Secrets of a Nimh. It's such a little thing we don't notice but such a flex/trademark we know to love
i cant be the only person who adapts movements and habits from characters that heavily influence my life, (like head swaggles or scratching try back of your neck)
You ever just animate a head swaggle to flex on other animators
Old interviews with his coworkers actually said he did it to show off
Looking at you Milt Khal 😂😂😂
this is what i imagine james baxter is doing whenever he animates something rotating
@@throwachair4574 Or Miyazaki doing a flyover
Other animators: 0:13
Personally I'd rather go with the term "Milt Shake".
Nah should totally call it the "Milt tilt"
Nice
Its funny untill you realize the term “milt” means fish jizz
Sounds tasty
He could teach you, but he'd have to charge.
When you realize your favourite parts of Disney are actually one guys work.
Frank and Ollie were equally talented, and may have even been a tad better in terms of acting through animation, as they always got the best "parts." But those three (Frank, Ollie and Milt) were definitely the three best actors of the nine.
Tbh, the favorite parts of Disney's greatest works were all the labor of the animators, cel painters, and technicians, and not the fact that Walt owned/operated the company.
@@JSmusiqalthinka I was not talking about Walt
@@BrendanOG I know. I was just saying all the parts that make Disney films great are because of people like Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Art Babbit, etc., and not so much the namesake of the company they worked for.
James Baxter comes to mind
smh (swaggling my head)
Swh
Smh
2:50 _AND THERE'S AN ACCURATE MIRRORED IMAGE_
Holy crap this man was an absolute mad lad
I never thought about that before, my god. The precision is insane, especially since she has crooked teeth to mirror as well.
Imagine he had to do twice the work for the mirror scene.
Does anyone know what film this is from because it's driving me mad?
@@nicoka484 The Rescuers (1977)
@@LindsayTotty thank you!
I never realized how often he did it but... yeah, wow, that’s a lot.
Richard Williams said that, according to Milt Kahl the secret of mouth animation, which he learned during Song of the South, was in "progressing the action", not in moving the mouth. When a character talks, move them somewhere or in some way. I think the head swaggle is a great example of this principle. It looks a little excessive in a compilation like this, but in the movies themselves it never feels like that.
Milt says its this same trick is what made Jim Henson a genius of animation, for being able to get so much character out of what is essentially a sock puppet. Henson always progressed the action when acting with the puppets.
This sounds fascinating and I'd love to understand it better; do you remember where you saw/heard Williams talking about this? Like it makes sense, especially with the Jim Henson comparison, but what does it mean from a more technical standpoint?... Would Milt lead movement with the mouth, or perhaps would mouth shape somehow inform head movement?
@@RoyceRemix This was in the video lecture of Williams' "Animators survival kit". There are many clips of the lecture on youtube but I'm not quite sure if the specific part can be found.
If you want to trust mysterious links from strangers, here's the clip. It's real low quality and the audio went out of sync for some reason when I rendered it:
files (period) catbox (dot) moe (slash) fbu11l (point) webm
If you don't wanna use the mysterious link, the point is to act dialogue using the movement of the head/body, not over relying on mouth action/lip sync. Frank Thomas would for example always animate the mouth last. The example given in the clip is that in the Song of the South scene the Fox says "I'm going to skin you alive", and Milt hardly animated the mouth, just a small movement of the upper lip with all the teeth gritted, and instead almost all of the delivery of the line was done by the Fox leaning forwards towards the Rabbit. Very little relevant mouth action to the syllables that were being said, but still the acting felt like the mouth matched the lines, because he "leaned into" the delivery of the line.
You can see this well with Tigger and Shere Khan. The giant protruding lower jaw makes for very large mouth movement, and the shape of the mouth doesn't vary greatly between syllables, but the head movement ties it together and makes it believable.
I agree with the idea of "progressing the action" but shouldn't any movement be something that's unique to the character? Milt Kahl was an an amazing animator with such smooth motion and balanced motion (largely for being an incredible draftsman), few animators in the Disney Renaissance (much less today) could even come close to the near perfect animation he made (though I'd argue James Baxter animator of Belle, Rafiki, Quasimodo, Moses and the main Horse from Spirit (as well as horse of the same name from Adventure time Character). But to me the Milt Shake this many times comes across as a little lazy and repetitive.
@@filmnutcase6206 I think there's a good amount of character variety in the shakes. Few of the goofier characters are quite similar, but with the more serious/defined characters the way a character shakes their head is fairly different, and justified by the context of the scene.
Madame Medusa, Shere Khan, Sir Ector are all smug/condescending/full of themselves, but their head swaggles are still distinctly different.
It's a gimmick for sure, but I don't think it's lazy because Milt makes sure that the shake doesn't break the character. None/few of the shakes are identical/formulaic. If he just followed the same formula for each shake (same degree of turning the head, same timing, etc) then I'd agree it's lazy, but that's not the case. It's no more lazy than any other kind of secondary action.
@@Masiyooo Well yeah I wasn't trying to say it was a deal breaker (though I can't personally that there's enough variation on the shake, though it can work very well for smuggness) it's more of a distraction, not the worse thing by any means but I do wonder if some secondary action by Mr. Kahl could've been done better, oh well.
"The Milt Kahl Head Swaggle" almost sounds like an underground dance move to me.
New band name
Or a bedroom dance move
MrTrombonebandgeek
NO-
@@MrTrombonebandgeek I am filled with existential dread when I consider what this could possibly represent in the bedroom
@@Doc_Fun maybe a swing of the hips in such a way?
I think my favorite part is at the end, Thomas mocking Kahl while animating a part of the script where Baloo mocks Bagheera.
Lol
It really is completely ridiculous how much kahl overuses it
@@reginaldforthright805this is a 3 minute compilation out of the literal hundreds of minutes he animated. fuck off lmao
Something I always loved about Disney movies that I never knew was a thing until 3 minutes ago
God and I LOVE that this came up as under the Jazz topic
And you know I watch this and think, why did they EVER think Jungle Book needed to be remade??
same!! but when i read “disney head swaggles” i intuitively mimicked one, bc they were ingrained in my mind even if i didnt realize it was an item!
@@nickcarter4006 To be fair the Jungle Book remake is one of the "better" ones
He really wanted the audience know that the characters were talking. Don't just move the mouth, move the head too!
And the body too.
What kills me in neither animals or humans move their head THIS MUCH so it's not even realistic it's just a flex
And yet he passes it off as realistic
Actually it is somewhat realistic, not for animals though because of course animals don't talk. Some people have this head waggle when they talk, some don't. My mother's ex-boyfriend had a shake of the head waggle when he disliked something and tried to communicate why he disliked it. All depends on who you meet.
If you’re looking for a real-life example of head swaggles like this, just look at anyone from India when they’re talking about something that makes them happy. (At least, that’s what it reminds me of, and closely resembles a live-action version of the Milt Kahl swaggle)
Good animation does not need to be realistic.
It needs to be believable.
For animals, they do such head swaggles when they are shaking something off their fur.
As a child, I watch old Disney movies just for the head swaggle. I always found it interesting, how those little bob of their head convince me that the 2D drawings are not just character, but as if they are living person. It's magic how so much personality is delivered through a simple movements. What is crazier is the fact only Milt Kahl can do this, and it have become his trademark.
I think this is one of the reasons why I like 2D animation so much better than 3D. It has more life and personality, and more of the personal touch of the animators.
Me too bro this is what ignited my love for animation
Remember the creepy nanny in earlier Simpsons seasons? When she threatens Bart.
Yea
Like that.
When my sisters and I (who were close in age) used to watch these classic Disney vhs I could detect recycled images/scenes/cameos/Easter eggs. Probably the first time I saw film elements.
Milt actually had his own term for characters he liked to use this for, as heard in the Disney Family Album episode featuring interviews with him. He refers to how he made Sir Ector in Sword in the Stone a "wobblehead" - I think it's cute that he owned it like that lol
I'm imagining how it went:
*In the middle of Disney old men meeting room*
"Ah-ah-ah! I take dibs designing this character! ....hm? Yeah, i need their head to waggle"
tigger's waggles are my favourite!!
"And just look at that preposterous chin!"
Yeah! When I read the title It immediately brought me back to tigger.
I have a fondness for this kind of head-swaggling. It's very... show-offy though. In that classical Disney way. As in "yes, I could just move the head from point A to point B like a normal animator but instead I will have the character shake it back and forth as he turns it in a way that's still complimentary to the motion." It's very unrealistic. Nobody moves their head like that in real life. And yet is somehow makes the character feel real because it sort of captures the complexity of real movement and constantly reminds you how 3-dimensional and solid the head is. It's the kind of movement you can't really imitate with a design that isn't volumetric. It's kind of musical.
I agree that it's great animation and adds a lot more dynamics to a dialogue scene, including the accompanied follow-through animations of hair, jewelry, etc. And while these dynamics may have often times been the purpose of the movement, I would argue that it's not necessarily unrealistic, in general.. Everyone has different mannerisms, some people talk with their hands a lot, or use a lot of facial movement, while others don't... and also consider that culture plays a role, as it did with the way people SPOKE in America in the 30s-60s (word choice and tone/cadence alike), and I think if you watch movies from that period you'd see that mannerisms were similarly different in general. These things are half of what I personally enjoy about movies from the mid 1900s, both animation and live-action.
No one moves like that in real life? I would argue that people are always jiggling, fidgeting, or shifting in some manner. No one holds perfectly still.
But. But _I_ do that in real life. I mean, I learned it from watching Tigger as a kid, but "life imitates art" is still life, so...
There actually is a real-life equivalent of the swaggle in india! An interesting video by Drew Binsky introduces and documents a few examples, dubbed ‘the indian head wobble.’
@@tahutoa I grew up with Milt's work in all my favourite disney movies so I... actually do move my head a lot when I talk and now I know where I learned it as a kid xD
oh hey, he does draw some pretty sharp elbows
Why did I go back and watch the video again to look at the elbows?
Kahl's sharp elbows reminds me of how sharp Jamie Hewlett drew his wrists and elbows when Gorillaz was just starting out.
I think it works so well at being the characters to life because it’s an exaggeration of body language, much like stage actors have to over emphatically express everything. By giving a broader range of movement, it adds depth to the communication through body language.
Out of context this movement looks almost obvious & repetitive, but it's awesome how it suits each character's acting & personality in the moment. It doesn't feel like Kahl repeating himself because it always adds so much to the scene!
And when we hear the voices, the animation plays off them so naturally.
I was thinking exactly this. Despite him insisting to always do this, it never comes off as forced, he always does it in a way that fits in.
Yeah!!!!
He did this to show off because there weren't many who could pull this off.
There wasn’t ANYONE who could pull it off***
I mean its pretty basic. I think any competent animator could do a head shake but why would you
@@reginaldforthright805 you need to understand character anatomy/proportions to do this effectively. Not to mention understand their personality as well as each swaggles is different for each character. No, it's not as "basic" as you think.
@@raydhen8840Yeah those are things any competent animator should have lol
@lurking5018 Those are things they know NOW, because of his work.
I love how every animator puts there own unique details in there animations that's what makes these movies so special
I really like how his animation artstyle has little to none line cleanup. Gives the entire animation a sketch book feel.
Yeah, this was a time when xerox became all the rage because of its reduced cost, iirc. Instead of actually inking the cels they just photocopied them away, which meant you could see the pencil strokes in motion. It's rough but charming in its own way.
@@giuliabianco8425haha. The drawings are better in this era than any other because cleanup never captures the animators accurately. Loses the subtleties of expression and volume.
3:06 I find this especially funny since Kahl's head swaggles were a flex to other animators. So Thomas imitation swaggle feels like a form of mocking to Kahl's flexing.
Thomas thought Kahl was insincere. They basically hated each other.
@@Sandalleno33-uw2ix read the nine old men by John canemaker
And it's funny how much it matches how Baloo is mocking Bagheera, as here, Frank Thomas IS also mocking Milt Kahl.
Lol seems excessive when you put it all in a compilation.
@Axtwyt Starkiller obviously, or i wouldnt have made the distinction that its seems excessive when COMPILED.
I’m gonna be honest that shit looks very difficult to animate
You'd be 1000% right. Dude pissed off other animators cuz he raised the bar so high with his 3D head waggles. On PAPER, nonetheless.
It was next to impossible to animate. He wasn't just the best at it, he was one of the only ones who could do it at all
Its such a fun, whimsical stylistic choice that really contributes to classic Disney's charm. The fact that he did it to stunt on em makes it even better lol
God. I always wondered what made the humans in aristocats so charming (aside from the general delightful and quirky design), it's this lifelike, whimsical shaking of the heads. I feel like so many unasked questions of mine have been answered.
What a pro.
Man you gotta have a REAL good understanding of your characters’ proportions to be able to do this effectively
I never realized how much their heads, well, swaggled until now. Like wow.
Milt: Draws endless head swaggles
Other Animators: Weird flex but ok
These comments: meh it's unrealistic
The video: several animals talking and wearing clothes and also a wizard
It's the plausible impossible!
"Oy, Milt. We need you to come swaggle this head would'ya?"
Just saw a fb post about this and had to look it up. It's so fun to learn that something I never gave much thought to turns out to be an absolute beast flex among people who understand animation. 😂
I think we must've seen the same meme!
As a kid I just thought this was a quirky Disney style of character movement that all the animators in the company knew how to do. I never realized it was one dude flexing on the rest of the Disney staff
It was one guy with cerebral palsy whom the other animators begrudgingly tolerated since he was one of the “nine old men” and very cantankerous.
The insane thing toe is how many different emotions these head waggles can convey: anxiety, smugness, panic, excitement, exasperation, bashfulness, even Medusa's super fake attempt at motherly sympathy. And you can see that in the subtle changes in the speed, degree, and angle of the waggle.
Those animations by the end, i love their rough lines, it makes everything look so unique.
This is a very specific form of nostalgia I never knew I had
I never noticed this. But this really is a defining characteristic of the older Disney style, 1st and 2nd gen. They all did it. It's as characteristic as the particular voice actors or the scratchy black Xerox lines and noise.
look at all em' swaggles
It feels like they rotoscoped these scenes. Surprised that they weren't; really impressive stuff from one the 9 ol' men.
Yeah a bunch of these I never even noticed were his trademark, I assumed it was something the voice actors had done in recording and was thrown in.
Nobody:
Milt Kahl: *shakes head*
Most of the time head swaggles always look out of place or just awkward but here it feels super natural.
I just realized that it's because of this dude that I do a little head swaggle when I'm talking, even as an adult.
this man just couldn't stop flexing
Should he not have? They don't call him the world's greatest animator for nothing.
I was today years old when I learned that Tigger was a Shere Khan stuffy.
It's extra work but it breathes THAT MUCH life into the animation!
this is like signing your name on your animation without even writing it, i love it, no one ever moves like that but you just know it means pridefulness
1:18 and 1:28. These are my favorites. I love the secondary movement of Thomas O'Malley's ear and how it moves in the opposite direction of his head until it has time to catch up, it's just such a fun little detail. And I (I know I'm saying love again but) love the way the old man moves his head up so drastically, and then back down again. Ugh I love Milt Kahl's work so mUCH
Milt Kahl be like flexing on everyone 😂
A couple other examples of Milt Kahl head swaggles you forgot to include was:
-Peter Pan (1953) was when Peter disciplined the lost boys shaking his head saying “we’ll I’m surprised you blockheads!”
-Lady and the Tramp (1955) when Trusty talks about his grandpappy old reliable and asks if he don’t recollect mentioning him before. Also when Tramp imitates a woman screaming “Stop that racket you’ll wake the baby!”.
The 13th basic principle of animation, that never made to the book: the head swaggle.
Milt Kahl animating head swaggles is basically just him head swaggling at everyone.
I immediately thought of several other films when I see the ones from the Jungle Book, and they showed up afterwards. These swaggles brought/bring so must character and awesomeness
Animation is a constant flex on others, don’t forget
This honestly probably explains why I shake my head when I talk.
I now realize one of the reason I love some of these films so much is because this little detail is in them, and it is amazing.
I love the Cuphead vibe of the music you picked out for that video.
This is why I miss hand drawn animation. The Nine Old Men had a distinctive style and approach to animating characters and Milt Kahl’s drawings definitely stood out with the “head swaggles”.
As soon as I learned of this fact I began to tell it to anyone who would listen, and I’m glad that others found it as neat as I do.
This is probably why I shake my head so much now.
Real animation Brilliant " Nuff Said "
Beautiful how he gave his animation such natural personality and mannerisms. It never looked like he was following some animator’s handbook; more like he learned then perfected the technique to the point he truly made it his own.
Those shakes made the mood in each character and I loved it as a kid
I’ve always loved that trademark swaggle!! It ads so much character and personality to the animation
this little action was such an influence on me as a child that i would actually do this while talking, and sometimes i still do. crazy how a little thing like that has an impact (albeit tiny and subconscious) on how i act as an adult.
Man these movements, these small HUGE! Details, thats why it feel so natural and magical
Ever since I got into digital art, I can't help but be impressed by this. It's tons of work for an amazing expressive effect that isn't even worth it.
I feel like I'm watching an animator sing "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" to himself and it's great.
It's cool when an animator has a trademark like this! Animators don't get enough credit, that's just how it goes, but it's subtleties like Milt's head swaggles that make his scenes identifiable to him.
He really flexed on everyone THAT much 😂
These are all my favorite characters and cartoon movies as a child. I didn't know it was a single animator responsible for them!!! That's amazing.
This man has head swaggled his way through my childhood and i love it.
Finally knowing why so many old Disney characters shake their heads around is so satisfying
Man it’s so ABSURDLY expressive tho. That’s how people’s heads move! It’s a perfect pairing to the lines being spoken. Especially the last example of Baloo’s mocking tone. Like… those voice actor’s lines probably wouldn’t have landed so well without this one trick. Damn, what a flex.
Two things, 1:31 is almost rotoscope-quality animation, it's so good. And then 2:58 the head swaggle is ALSO synced with the animated hair flopping back and forth. Incredible.
You know how hard it is to lip sync and to do it while the head is moving like that, amazing, i never get tired of watching this
i love the milt kahl swaggle. it makes character's feel like they're in their own heads, full of themselves, or the intensity of how the feel wracks their whole body. it feels like every character has their own "tempo". it's very cool
Do y’all realize how impossible this was? How bloody talented Milt really was?
@SamIam ok.
Okay, it's quite like a manirism but it gives so much life into the characters. Milt Kahl is still considered one of the best animator ever for a reason.
People calling it unrealistic, something tells me though this is how the animator himself would act out the delivery
Many animators kept mirrors at their desks so they could act out the facial expressions and see how it looked. Your theory checks out.
Man I felt ready to cry after having to animate a turnaround of a head, yet he’s OUT HERE DOING THIS WAAAAATTT
Got to love how a single man so subtly injected tons of life and emotion and realism into every traditionally animated disney movie with a technique people wouldnt even realize is there until you point it out.
Its like CGI work, people build entire cities from scratch so well, you dont even know the shot isnt on location.
I never realized it, but this one trick is part of the characters for me, it's just part of the expression it's so natural
The head swaggle helps the characters emphasize what they're saying while simultaneously making them come off as even more sarcastic and pretentious. It's also extremely satisfying
i love that in old disney movies animate the slightest movements, and each character moves like water
HOW did i never notice this before!!?? and they always seem like they are natural to each character.
Now this is all I'm gonna pay attention to any time I go back to watch these movies
That’s what I really love about Milt Kahl’s Animation.
Milt Kahl's work is immaculate.
I feel like Milt Kahl singleheadedly made thousands (if not millions) people around the world swaggle their heads more when speaking
I know very little about the world of animation. Today I saw a random suggested post talking about the legendary swaggle and why it's so amazing... now I'm obsessed. Milt Kahl was a BAMF. Flexing on the world with something most people will never fully appreciate or even understand
Moving characters head in perspective is tricky and the head movements are also timed to their line delivery. Mit Kahl did this knowing it wasn't easy just to flex lol
What I love about the Swaggle is that it adds definition to the characters emotion. The Swaggle matches the scripts motion and expression perfectly with added sass and intensity to what the character is seeing and feeling.
Hannah Barbara cartoons always do a cheaper version of this by bobbing the head up and down when a character is talking. By always I mean every single time a character speaks.
What an incredible artist Milt Kahl was. His work inspired generations of animators.
Well, I’ll never be able to un-see this now, but it does deserve to be recognized!
backbone of the industry
Still to this day.
The chadliness of animating the head swaggle is how the wild animator woos potential mates.
This got me thinking about all the had waggles in The Secrets of a Nimh. It's such a little thing we don't notice but such a flex/trademark we know to love
i cant be the only person who adapts movements and habits from characters that heavily influence my life, (like head swaggles or scratching try back of your neck)
Milt Kahl may be my favorite Disney animator lol. That head swaggle is an essential part of his work, I even noticed it in The Black Cauldron!