Walt Disney's Tarzan, Kala animation drawing by Mario Menjivar

This is a fun pickup for several reasons.  First, anyone who knows me knows I’m a Disney maniac.  Second, it’s actually been a minute since I’ve been able to add anything to my Disney art collection.  So when I saw this on Romitaman’s site, it was almost a no-brainer.

Obviously I recognized it immediately as a drawing from Disney’s animated Tarzan movie.  The listing description identified it as an animation drawing of the character Kerchak, the dominant male of the gorilla group.  And it listed the artist as Disney Animation Studios.  But as I took a closer look at the piece, a few things began to stand out.  First, the inscription in the upper left that seems to have been signed by the artist.  I couldn’t quite make out the whole name but the two first initials seemed to be M.M.  Secondly, the more I looked at the Gorilla’s head and face, it just didn’t look like Kerchak to me.  And finally, I noticed the word BARS written very lightly next to some of the long vertical lines that ran through the drawing.

So the first thing I decided to do was try and find out who the artist was.  Since I could only make out the first two initials, I popped on over to IMDB and started scrolling through the credits.  It reminded me of why people always get up and walk out when the credits start rolling.  Haha!  Anyway, I started looking for anyone in the animation department with the initials M.M.  After almost going blind, the only name I could find with those initials was Mario Menjivar, who was listed as one of the three animators for the character of Kala, the female gorilla who saved and raised Tarzan.  It was only then that the drawing made more sense.  I immediately put the movie on and fast forwarded to the scene where the poachers capture some of the gorillas.  And right there at the 1:13:37 mark was the exact animated shot of this very drawing -  Kala in a cage with the same facial expression and her hands on the bars (see screenshot in Additional Images).  And yes, I did fast forward to the end credits and there was Mario’s name listed with the other two Kala animators.

It’s so funny because this is the second time in about as many months that I’ve had to do some detective work on a piece of artwork.  Nothing against Mike and his item description.  I’m guessing he probably just got that from wherever (or whoever) sold him the piece.  And yes, I would still love the piece every bit as much if I had never properly identified it.  But finding out certainly makes it a lot more fun.

Anyway, thanks to Mike for the great drawing (and for the fun that came along with it), and for ending my Disney art drought.  And thanks to all of you who stopped by.