I just wanna talk about this bit of animation right here for like…two seconds. This is probably my favorite bit of animation ever and here’s why.

First of all, this sequence is living proof that Keane was most definitely someone who studied under Frank Thomas. This is a testament to Keane’s awesome ability to animate emotionally sensitive material that we really only saw in Disney work before this in Frank’s work.

Despite being beautifully animated, which is nothing less than what anyone should expect from Glen Keane, it’s really amazing how emotion evoking it really is. Because you’ve got this terrible storm going on in the background, this guy has just jumped from a burning boat about a hundred feet high, neither he nor his wife has any idea where they’re going or if they’re ever even going to get home again and yet there’s this really touching moment going on. 

Keane manages to give us a soft and tender side to this very manly looking guy. The subtle yet beautiful way he strokes Tarzan’s head, the way his thumb sort rubs his forehead, and the gentle way he looks at him. And even though we’ve probably never escaped from a burning boat and have been stuck in the middle of a storm, most of us can relate to that gentle look and touch either as a parent or a child or as both and that’s what makes it brilliant. Tarzan’s also playing a big part here too. It looks like he might have been sleeping or cuddling in his mother’s chest out of fear of the storm but as soon as he feels his father’s touch and sees him he looks over and smiles at him. It’s suddenly as if now that Daddy’s here everything is going to be okay. It also makes Tarzan a real source of hope for these people who’s futures seem rather bleak at this point.

What I guess I really enjoy about this is that  you can really literally feel the love here and he manages to do it with just a few gestures and that’s just really beautiful in a way that no amount of special effects or elaborate character designs could ever hope to match.

I only stopped to point this out because I’ve been watching this gif go for about ten minutes and I can never get over how lovely it is.

I can’t believe all the notes. I should do analyses like this more often.