What positions do the leg muscles of an animal -say a big grizzly bear- take when it is galloping? Just walking? What gives it that ungainly gait? How do certain birds, swans, for instance, achieve their grace of movement, and others, like the pelican and the secretary bird, their comical carriage?
To answer these and related questions visually, Walt Disney, creator of “Mickey Mouse" and “Silly Symphonies,” is making an interesting series of slow-motion pictures, showing living animals and birds in action.
Such a series, when complete, says Disney, will not only permit his animators to analyze the muscular movements of beasts and birds scientifically, but it will also provide a permanent source of reference and study for his staff. Thus "gag" men watching the films can garner new ideas for comic sequences while animators can produce hilarious effects by exaggerating the correct muscular action, though keeping their subjects reasonable believeable. […]
