Mr. Mark Davis, a legendary animator at Disney Studio, and
his wife visiting Japan.
On Oct. 1995, Mr. Mark Davis, visited Japan with his wife, Alice,
for 17 days. He is a great animator ( At Disney Studio, they call
"imagineer designer" ) who has had varied careers since
he has taken a part in the management of Disneyland with Walt
Disney from the beginning, he's been here several times to operate
Tokyo Disneyland. But the contact with people in animation field
was limited.
This visit was at the invitation of the company which sells the
serge, and many events were held. This was the first time his
visit Japan got a lot of publicity in the media. We are glad that
he was introduced not only to the people in Animation trade but
also to the general public.
He is a member of " Nine Old Man" , the group of skillful
animators who produced many long animation cartoon films of Disney.
He was the leading animator and character designer for "Bambi
", "Cinderella", "Peter pan", "101
Dalmatians", "Sleeping Beauty", etc. He also took
a part in story making, stage setting, layout in some films such
as Bambi.
He drew villains like "Cruella de Ville" and "Meleficent"
with sharp lines, and he designed American Beauty like "Tinker
Bell", "Princess Aurora" and "Cinderella"
simply and nobly. Few other animators can draw dessins as accurately
as he did. I cannot think of those who match him except other
members of "Nine Old Men" and only the late Mr. Yasuji
Mori in Japan.
After the production of many masterpieces, Walt Disney became
more interested in making amusement park. They started planning
to build Disneyland. As a good partner of Walt, he put his ideas
into sketches very skillfully. They were created into famous "Audio-Animatronics"
figure such as Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and Pirates in the
attraction "The Pirates of the Caribbean".
During this visit to Japan, "An Evening with Mark Davis"
(sponsor: Oriental Land) was held at Bay Hilton hotel on Oct.
10. People in the animationfield gathered there. After seeing
the video showing his activity, we listened to the talk of Mr.
and Mrs. Davis. We even had the opportunity to ask him questions,.
which was very exciting.
I had a chance to call at the house of Mr. Davis luckily about
8 years ago. Then I could see he was a very kind person although
he sometimes looked a little fierce. I am waiting for an opportunity
to introduce his whole career and his real personality to people
working for Japanese animation.
Right now he works for Disney only as a consultant, but he is
still trying to introduce "Disney Spirit" all over the
world. Privately he is also planning to publish the book of water
color paintings on Papua New Guinea he has drawn over the years.
Everybody, don't miss to see his conceptual design exhibited
at the gallery when you go to Tokyo Disneyland!
On Dec. 10, 1995, the set of 3 Laser discs, "Donald Ducks/
A Star is Born" came out from Pioneer LDC. It is originally
produced and sold only in Japan. The films in it were selected
by Takashi Namiki. "Der Fuchrer's Face" was to be contained
as one of the films for the first time in the world. Unfortunately,
however, its intention was frustrated. but it is still rich in
content, with the films newly translated into Japanese. We can
see the varied styles of Donald's film in a short time.
This is already out of stock in Pioneer LDC, as well as "Mickey
Mouse/ A Star is Born".
Bilingual CAV. Limited Production by Pioneer LDC. \15,450
Films included are as following.
1/30 Menu
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