Pocket Sized Angel

The stylized background work of 101 Dalmatians, under Ken Anderson’s direction

Paula Sigman: Ken Anderson in 101 Dalmatians brought a whole different look… very angular and abstract. It’s very modern in its look.

Ken Anderson: It was the first use of Xerox line on any kind of a feature picture, and I personally loved the idea of seeing an animation drawing in Xerox, so then I tried to make it one world by doing the same thing with the backgrounds.

Brad Bird: And a guy named Ernie Nordli went over the backgrounds and made perfect symmetrical things a little asymmetrical and fattened some things up and gave it a little more of a caricatured quality. It’s a subtle effect. His drawings were then Xeroxed and placed over the background painting to bring it all together and make it all feel like it all had the same graphic quality as the foreground characters.

Brad Bird: There’s something very sophisticated about using the impression of a shape to be where your color is defined. While it looks simpler, it’s actually very hard to do well. And Walt Peregoy had a real knack for that, and I think Ken Anderson recognized that in Peregoy and let him go to town.