Great Animated Performances: Meeko as Supervised by Nik Ranieri
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“So Eric Goldberg tried to get another go-ahead with talking animals but Jeffrey (Katzenberg) just wanted them mute. He wanted them a’silent.�? Hitting the ‘t’ extra hard and taking a beat, “I think he’d just finished watching SNOW WHITE…I don’t know.�? A hint of an unflappable hard-boiled sitcom wise-cracking star rings through. Ranieri sighs and sinks a little further. “So, I just said this is really bad. I went to Mike and said that the character is not doing anything and it’s got a lot of work - feathers, tail, the whole thing and not a lot of pay-off, and it’s a hard character to animate and I know you and you want it very turkey-like and that’s a lot of work. So we talked about it, and he suggested a raccoon. And Joe Grant did some drawings and Glen did a couple and I said I’d think about it….�? He pauses, thinking, then he corrects himself and pulls himself up straight. “No. You know, it was Glen who first suggested it, not Mike…so I said to Glen ‘Racoons have been done, I want something different.’ And he says ‘Well tell me, where’s a raccoon been done in Disney Feature Animation?’ and I said well there’s…uh, well there’s..um uh.. well dja.aaa… ya’ know there really hasn’t been one. A least not as a featured character so I think Okay.�? His face wraps around a sort of ‘why not?’ expression. “The hands are articulated and there’s opposable thumbs and if I’m going to do a character I might as well have it as anthropomorphic as possible. So I went to Mike and said ‘Glen had an idea about a raccoon’ and all this and he says ‘Okay, let’s develop something.’ And he and Eric started talking and they realized it was a better idea than a turkey.�?
“Anyways I got a couple of reference drawings from Glen and some reference drawings from Joe Grant and I looked at them and decided to start from scratch. Mike was using a book for reference that was a Golden Book by Tenggren - an animal or farm book or something, with very broad shapes and I looked at the raccoon and I didn’t quite like it, but what I did like was the bear.�? He wraps his hands around a shape in the air. “So I looked at the bear and used that as a reference and I drew Meeko from that. And then I thought to myself, Okay , how can we make him look different? And the difference is that with cute characters you want to give them huge eyes, so what I did with Meeko is I’ll give him teeny eyes to contrast the norm. And I looked at Pocahontas, the way Glen was drawing Pocahontas and he had done this sort of almond shape. Up�?, gesturing with his fingers, “so I decided to do teeny thin eyes with the same angle so that he and she would fit into the same universe. So Meeko was pretty much the same character that I designed from scratch.�?
The glow of parental pride comes over his face while he nods and his smile makes his eyes close to a squint. “Every other character I ever worked on has always had another designer connected with it in some way, except for Meeko. Yes Glen did some drawings but they weren’t inspirations, they were simply some racoons. I wanted a design�?, he gestures with both fists and his voice drops as he says the words.
Nik Ranieri has every reason to be proud of that design. And even greater reason to be proud of how well he used it. Central to what makes him a truly gifted animator is Ranieri’s ability to apply the principals of animation in ways that makes his work seem effortless. Of these principals, Ranieri has the best grasp on staging, appeal and timing. And of all the characters in POCAHONTAS, Meeko is the most universally appealing in both his design and his animation. This is enhanced by Ranieri’s carefully worked out staging. It is clever and surprising without ever getting in the way of the character or the story. And finally: the timing on Meeko. Impeccable.
Let’s look closer at each of these elements, starting with Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s description of Appeal in The Illusion of Life:
…anything that a person likes to see, a quality of charm, pleasing design, simplicity, communication, and magnetism. Your eye is drawn to the figure that has appeal, and, once there, it is held while you appreciate what you are seeing.
A weak drawing lacks appeal. A drawing that is complicated or hard to read lacks appeal. Poor design, clumsy shapes, awkward moves, all are low on appeal.. Spectators enjoy watching something that is appealing to them, whether an expression, a character, a movement, or a whole story situation. While the live actor has charisma, the animated drawing has appeal.
Only simple and direct attitudes make good drawings, and without good drawings we have little appeal.
By this definition alone, it’s difficult to recall a character from the second golden age of animation with greater appeal than Meeko. While that’s all well and good, if the appeal is not properly used in service to the other principals, then of what good is the design, or even the most appealing drawings? Which brings us to staging.
The master animator and one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, Eric Larson tackled the question of staging in a lecture he delivered to the new recruits in 1982 (remember, this is before Ranieri came to the studio). According to Larson:
In our films we have but seconds, or portions therof, to present our story to our audience. If our message has not gotten over in the allotted time, that’s just too bad. We can’t say we’re sorry and obligingly run the film back so our audience can take a second or a third look in order to enjoy that which we have laboriously created.
And therein lies our challenge. In the short time we have for our presentation on the screen, we must be sure our message is well staged - clearly and quickly stated. This means that the business and characters in every scene must be carefully considered and presented. … Alexander Wolcott made it clear to us in 1939 when he warned that “animation, being basically a pantomime art, should be expressive and visual.�?
In short, as we have to always ask ourselves, is our drawing alive and does it say what we want it to say? Perhaps this is rule one in staging.
In every scene in POCAHONTAS in which Meeko appears, his staging is clear and clean and easily readable. His poses are an ideal reflection of his emotional state, and his body gives voice to his thoughts without a single line of dialogue. We know what he’s thinking, we know what he’s plotting, and most important - we know how he’s feeling. This is the best kind of communication through action that animation has to offer. It’s remarkable to see how much Meeko adheres to the decades-old “half filled sack of flour�? model that has been an animation industry standard for exampling clear and readable staging of emotion.
And finally, there is the movement and rhythm and timing of animation. Turning once again to Eric Larson’s notes:
Timing, in theory, a very simple little trick that, skillfully done, creates rhythm, pacing and vitality in our animation. We crowd drawings close together to create and define mood and attitude and we space them apart to give emphasis. How we space and use all those drawings determines the life and tempo in our scenes.
In our actions the big moves may move us from place to place, suggesting the spirit and emotion in our character, but the smaller moves, the embellishments within the big moves, magnify the attitude and emotion and add dimension and sincerity, keeping our action from being just ordinary or passable.
And oh, what a treasure trove of carefully timed big and small moves there are in Meeko! Add the elements together and an unrivaled pantomime of clowning is born through the gifts of an extraordinary animator.