Such maquettes enabled animators to visualize the characters they were drawing from difficult angles before the days of computer modeling.
“With this little maquette, you could see what the construction of the character would look like,” Procopio said.
“Our media was 2D, [but] we have to think in 3D and draw as if this character was alive on paper.”
During his more than 25 years of experience at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Procopio worked on films such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid.”
At the museum, viewers will be able to see Ursula, the evil sea witch villainess from “The Little Mermaid,” in all her six-tentacled glory. For the film, her tentacle count was reduced to six to conserve on “drawing mileage,” Procopio said.
Procopio purposely sculpted each tentacle in a different motion.
“I tried to do a different movement on each tentacle, so the animators can see what the possibilities were,” he said.
The piece is one of the favorites of Alison Bruesehoff, the Forest Lawn Museum executive director.
“I like the way she’s sculpted,” Bruesehoff said. “[Procopio] really caught her malevolent expression.”
Ron Clements, one of the directors of “The Little Mermaid,” worked closely with Procopio and remembers the animation experience he brought to the production.
“[Procopio] was able to bring a lot of life to the maquettes and a lot of personality that I think was really good,” Clements said.
One of Procopio’s own favorites is the maquette of Beast, from “Beauty and the Beast,” rendered in a gray color that starkly contrasts the bright palette of its glass-encased neighbors at the museum.
