The production process

The creation of a sculpture demands a lot of time and efforts. Below you'll find, in detail, how a sculpture from the Walt Disney Classics Collection is made.

Choosing the Moment
Each sculpture in the Walt Disney Classics Collection is prefaced with at least two questions: “Which film moments and characters shall be brought to life in this new form? Which ones touch people’s hearts and memories in a special way?” They are essential questions, for every decision – from pose to painting – will ultimately flow from the desire to capture the magic in each of the chosen moments. A development team selects a team and then chooses a memorable moment to bring the theme to life. Specific characters and scenes from classic Disney feature films (both the timeless treasures of Walt’s day and the modern masterpieces of Disney “renaissance”) and short cartoon classics are selected to awaken old memories and spark new ones as animation sculptures.

Researching the Artwork
After the moment is chosen, artists utilize the Disney animation research library to find the artwork which originally brought the characters to life. Hundreds of pieces of original Disney animation art including production drawings, character model sheets, beautiful film background paintings, video prints taken directly from the films, and finished cels are carefully studied for information about the characters´ personalities, their movement and the way they express emotion in the scenes.

Sketching the Concept
Disney artists begin to sketch drawings of the specific pose to be used for the sculpture. The artists study these drawings and use their own expertise to find a pose or gesture with the most appeal and greatest emotional impact. Sculptures are made to scale.

Sculpting the Magic
Final approved sketches move on to the sculptor, along with the huge body of reference material. Rough sculpts establish the general line of action and correct proportions for the body, head and limbs. A Disney animation-trained sculptor uses original reference and preparation material to bring characters to life. Animators, including original Disney animators where possible, provide invaluable input by reviewing the sculpting and whiteware, and put them through a series of animation checks to see if the sculpts “read” properly and are believable.

Materials
All pieces are handcrafted from a high-quality, low-fire semi-soft porcelain. This medium allows for the use of a wider and more subtle color palette which enables the use of more authentic colors. It also supports a more complex range of poses, enabling a sculptor a wider array of film moments to replicate. Each sculpt is created from as many as 40 separate pieces, which are hand assembled, with added details sculpted individually prior to firing.

Perfecting the Sculpture
As in the original animation drawing process, rough sculpts are done – and done again. Animators, often including those who worked on the original films, critique the drawings and the rough sculpts. The animators and sculptors look for ways to more fully capture the piece’s emotion.

The perfect sculpture

Facilities
After the master sculpture is designed, sculpted and painted at the Walt Disney Studios, it is sent to production facilities in the Far East (Thailand and Taiwan) for replication. Skilled workers and production services are employed from several countries, including the United States. Disney had to identify production facilities that would ensure the highest production detail and quality control standards to guarantee that these handmade and hand-painted figurines would be as close to the prototypes as possible. Disney personnel work at each factory to ensure consistent creative guidance.

Casting
The final sculpt is cut into pieces , and a plaster mold of each piece is made. Sometimes as many as fifteen separate pieces are cut to capture the sculpture’s full detail. Slip, a liquid form of clay, is poured into the molds and allowed to partially air dry. The “greenware” is removed from the molds and assembled with more slip. Each piece must then be hand-detailed to add texture or to remove tiny marks left by the mold.

Firing
Following assembly, the piece is fired twice to produce a “glazed whiteware” with a luster that will enhance its final beauty. It then is ready for the delicate process of numerous decoration firings which help achieve the colors, shadows and textures. Each figurine receives a pinhole to allow for airflow during firing, so minuscule holes in the sculptures are not defects but true necessities in creating such complex, detailed pieces. It is during this stage, that the backstamp is fired onto a piece.

Creating Disney Color
In order to preserve the colors used on various characters in different scenes, original Disney animation color references are used in the selection and formulation of ceramic paints. The variety of colors used in Disney films gives the Collection a uniquely varied color palette. As Disney artists translate original Disney animation colors to ceramics, they discover new opportunities to suggest textures and special effects. Each sculpture is hand painted using its own palette, texture and finishing requirements, creating several challenges in the painting and firing stages. Various finishes (matte, half-matte or high-gloss), textures, and up to 25 colors can be combined on a single piece, often necessitating up to five separate paint firings. Colors are applied to the figure using color model sheets which clearly identify exactly where the different colors are applied for a given character.

Coloring the sculpture

"Plussing the Figurine"
From the very beginning, Walt Disney talked about “plussing” his cartoons to add that extra something to make them different from anything else. This is the same philosophy behind the plussing of the collection pieces. This allows the sculpture to be truer to the film’s intent and natural occurrence rather than be limited by porcelain. To enhance believability, pieces are “plussed” with precious metals, crystal, or blown glass elements to provide an extra touch which ceramics may not be able to convey. As a final “plus”, each figurine receives the Walt Disney Classics Collection backstamp of Walt Disney’s signature and an incised production mark indicating the year the sculpture was made. The backstamp symbolizes the painstaking and labor-intensive work which has gone into making each figure a bit of Disney story-telling magic.

Adding the Dialogue
To carry the life-like concept further, the figural personalities are often enhanced by using actual dialogue or song lyrics from the films in their titles, wherever possible. For example, the Jiminy Cricket sculpture from the Pinocchio scene carries the title of “Wait for me, Pinoke!” and the Belle and the Beast figurine from the Beauty and the Beast scene is aptly titled: “Tale as Old as Time”.

Certificate of Authenticity
Each sculpture is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity imprinted with the signature of Roy E. Disney, currently Emeritus Director and consultant of the Walt Disney Company.

Certificate of Authenticity