Ode to Gerald Scarfe and his Political Caricatures+Mouse House legacy

In 1997, Disney released their own take on the classic Greek Mythological tale of Heracles.

The Movie was Hercules. It was an interesting film to say the least. That's because it was a film who's art style broke free from the DISNEY Company's artistic mandate to have the art look exactly what the films were for the last 60 years by this point in time.

Rather than follow their 60 year template, Disney wisely hired this guy to provide them their artistic vision for the classic Greek myth. His name is GERALD SCARFE.

It's funny to say the least that unlike your typical art director regardless if they're hired at Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Dreamworks, etc, 

Scarfe's portfolio was mostly..... well..... I'm about to show and it's pretty surreal.

"That's not my teeth. That's my lower lip"

Scarfe must really have despised Margaret Thatcher.

I normally despise going all political due to the controversial nature of  viewpoints especially in this day in age but when I see these caricatures of politicians and celebrities as drawn by Gerald Scarfe, I can't pass up the opportunity to show them to you.

Ron Clements and John Musker were such huge fans of Scarfe's work that when it came time to produce the 1997 movie Hercules, they persuaded Scarfe to design the characters.

"We hired Scarfe in 1993 because he love his work."

Scarfe proceeded to draw multiple drawings for the Disney studio. 

You have to understand that he probably was not at Burbank when he drew these concept art pieces. I don't know where Scarfe was when he was drawing these but I heard he used a courier service as well as Fax Machines to send his drawings. This was the mid-90s after all and while the internet was available, the tech was still limited by phone lines and modem speeds so that of course precluded sending them via email.

Oh, and USB wasn't available until the Socket 7 motherboards showed up. And I highly doubt Scarfe would have used alternatives like Iomega Zip Drives.

That and computers probably weren't his forte back then and even if he had a computer back in the day,  there would have been compatibility issues with x86 or PowerPC machines vs. Disney's Unix based computers back then.

But look at how fluid his art is. 

It's full of life, exaggeration, and surrealism.

Surely the company would have stuck to these designs...

But NOPE!!!

They hired a certain SUE NICHOLS to tone down the drawings just to make things easier for the animators as well as marketable.

As much as I still love this movie both as a kid and an adult, I felt that the art lost a lot of the charm of Gerald Scarfe's artwork now that I've been exposed to his own work. Just compare these screengrabs to his both his political and concept artwork. 

But hey, at least this wasn't in the era of Puppet-Rigged Mandates where the execs tell you that the only way 2D animation can happen in their studio is to give in to puppet rigs no ifs, ands, or buts.

Had Scarfe dealt with that, he'd get up and walk out in absolute furor because nobody likes to see their art severely toned down by the bigwigs.

Here's Hade's finally having a breather after being animated by Eric Goldberg on Wacom Cintiqs follow the pickups for ONCE UPON A STUDIO.

"Finally, some much needed relief. Now I can rest before SQUARE ENIX calls me to appear on the next Kingdom Hearts game."

By the way, even if Scarfe's artwork wasn't toned down, Hades would still be portrayed by the great JAMES WOODS. 

I'm scared of how Hades will be portrayed in the Live-Action adaptation. Nobody can replace James Woods. Also, I'm not thrilled with Guy Ritchie's attempts to modernize the tale with TIKTOK related references. 

Anachronistic Tech and pop culture of today do not mix well with Greek Mythology.

As of this writing, Gerald Scarfe is still alive and well. 

Also, check out his website:

https://geraldscarfe.com/

It contains everything he contributed to.

Scarfe and Pegasus are awaiting your arrival.