#amblimation

Hi all. As promised, I am sharing a comprehensive .PDF of model sheets that were created for the Amblimation Cats movie that never saw the light of day. Most of these model sheets have not been published or posted anywhere on the internet as far as I'm aware. I'm going to get ahead of some questions for the good of the order:

Are these real? I certainly didn't sit and create all 117 pages myself for the sake of an elaborate hoax!

How did you get these? I work in the animation industry. A senior coworker caught wind of my cats obsession and said he had the Xeroxes and asked if I wanted him to bring them in. Internally, I flipped my shit. And then I digitized his hard copies.

How did your coworker get these? They were found in the library of the university he used to go to. (Not super unusual at an arts school in southern California.) He made photo copies back then and has been holding onto them. The thing is he knows nothing about CATS; isn't a CATS fan, never seen it, etc. I guess he just felt it was something worth holding on to!

Can you upload better quality? Unfortunately what you're seeing as good as the quality gets. These are scans of photocopies from the 90s. There is nothing to be done for the crunchiness.

What about (missing characters)? I'm showing you everything I was personally given!

Which character is (nondescript drawing of a cat)? If the image isn't labeled, your guess is as good as mine! I put all the misc./unlabeled cats in the back of the PDF. The only exceptions are ones that I felt were abundantly obviously supposed to be a specific character.

Who are the artists? Unfortunately, there's no way I can tell for sure. None of the sheets are signed. I wouldn't even go about guessing because many concept artists can perfectly emulate more "well known" illustrators whose styles were sought after. My coworker said he might be able to figure out who the draftsmen were; until then it's a mystery! If I find out, I will come back to this post and update it with that information.

Are these all the model sheets ever? No! In fact, there are model sheets that have been posted online that are not in the bundle I was given. I have no idea of the sum total of model sheets in existence.

Grizabella looks pretty much exactly how I expected her to look. I don't really have any qualms about this one.

This version of Macavity is the one that really stood out the most to me. I like the simplicity.

Old Deuteronomy, like Grizabella, looks pretty much how I expected him to look. I don't really have any complaints about this one.

Oddly enough, I think this image of Demeter is the one I like best. Also, judging by the fact that all the images of Demeter we get here have no stripes, I think they were going to combine her and Victoria's characters.

These are supposed to be Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. Reportedly, Steven Spielberg wanted them to be the protagonists of the movie, and it shows here.

I like this version of Rum Tum Tugger the best, since I feel it best captures his raw energy.

On the other hand, I do like the idea of Rum Tum Tugger having a fanboy!

Out of all the Mistoffelees designs on these model sheets, I liked this one best, since it looks the least silly out of all of them. Mr. Mistoffelees is not supposed to be a silly character.

Gus the Theatre Cat looks just perfect here!

I'm not sure how they could include Growltiger in this movie; after all, he isn't actually a living character. Maybe a flashback?

Released on December 22 1995, Balto was the 3rd and final film released by Steven Spielberg’s short-lived Amblimation studio. Due to it’s low box office performance (along with their 2 previous animated films flopping), Amblimation ended up shutting down, with most of its staff heading over to (then newly-found) DreamWorks to work on The Prince of Egypt. Balto was easily the best of Amblimation’s filmography and highly underrated.