JOURNEY BACK TO OZ (Filmation, 1974)

Thought I'd share an interesting find. I don't own many original production backgrounds. My animation art collection is primarily Disney cels.

But this week I acquired an original hand-painted master background from Filmation's JOURNEY BACK TO OZ. And of course my first thought was to share it with you.

I have scanned it, so what you are seeing here is not a digital recreation, but a scan of the actual artwork!

Below, I have included a screen grab of this background in a single frame of the film. Interesting to see how various video production monkeys get their hands on films and ruin the integrity of the color palettes. I have seen this time and time again. Perhaps the most distressing is early animated classics with the color intensities so ramped up they look like a different film. who thinks this is really necessary to sell DVDs?

While not an animation classic, this production took nearly a decade for Filmation to complete. This particular B/G definitely has a kinship to Eyvind Earle's work... even if it is a distant cousin.

Interesting...