So said Walt Disney about the character he created in 1928, and immortalized in the hearts of children of all ages around the world. In the decades since, Disney has built a commercial empire with memorable cartoon icons such as Minnie Mouse, Pinocchio and Pluto—each with its own line of collectible memorabilia. But the original artwork and cels (the clear sheets of celluloid on which characters are painted by hand) from Disney’s award-winning films are the items that lay claim to high-art status—or at least prices. In today’s market, a sharp, tenacious investor can amass an animation collection that gains value at least as reliably as a blue-chip stock portfolio.

Pam Martin, a collector in New Jersey, is one such aficionado. Her animation collection—25 years in the making—contains more than 1,000 pieces, many of which appraise for several thousand dollars. She especially treasures two: an illustration of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King in 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (not a Disney film) and a marquette (a three-dimensional figure used in the animation drawing process) of the witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Appraisers have valued each piece at about $10,000.

The lifelike qualities of the witch and other Disney characters, which are a hallmark of the studio, intrigues Martin. “You can see the detail in her gnarly, bony little hands,” she says. “If you didn’t know the story, you’d still know she was evil.”

Tom Tumbusch, a Dayton, Ohio, author of five books about so-called Disneyana and editor of Tomart’s Disneyana, a quarterly collectibles magazine, attributes this obsession with detail to the original creators. “Disney artists were constantly observing life to make their drawings as lifelike as possible,” he says. “That is what Walt wanted.”

Disney artwork was first licensed for public sale in 1938 through the now-defunct Courvoisier Gallery in San Francisco, which sold Snow White cels for $21.35 each. Courvoisier stopped selling them in 1946. It was not until 1973 that Disney put cels on the market again, through its original art program. By then cels from popular films like Robin Hood (1973) were selling for about $75.

The Big Basmajian
Collecting art based on classic films began as a hobby for animation enthusiasts; prices rarely exceeded $1,000. But in 1984, Christie’s East in New York auctioned the animation art of Disney employee John Basmajian; his vast collection of original Disney artwork cracked the market wide open. His Mickey Mouse cel from Brave Little Tailor (1938)—estimated to bring up to $2,500—sold for $20,900. “The big Basmajian sale blew the lid off and kick-started the Disney animation craze,” Tumbusch says. With the demand for animation art at an all-time high, values skyrocketed. A Mickey Mouse setup (several cel layers) from Lonesome Ghosts (1937) hammered for $49,500, and Mickey shouting from the wings in the original Orphan’s Benefit (1934) sold for $121,000, placing animation cels in league with modern fine art.

Like most collectibles, quality works are not easy to find. It can take months—perhaps years—to procure a valuable piece. “The value of each piece depends on the film, the date, the character portrayed and whether the animation cel has a production background,” says Helen Bailey, entertainment memorabilia specialist for Christie’s in the United Kingdom. “For example, in December 2004 we sold a cel from Snow White with various animals in the dwarfs’ kitchen—the cels were post-production, so not as rare, but it had a background that was a wonderful watercolor scene. It made £11,950 ($21,510).”

Many other factors can influence the value of a cel, including:

Hand-drawn versus computer-generated cels: In 1989, The Little Mermaid became the film that put Disney’s tradition of hand-drawn and hand-painted animation to rest forever. “After The Little Mermaid,” Tumbusch explains, “everything was hand-drawn on paper and scanned into a computer. There were no hand-painted cels.”

While the shift was technologically revolutionary, it has had surprisingly little impact of the market value of hand-drawn cels. Market values have steadily increased over the past 25 years. The new, more cost-efficient computer-generated art has its devotees as well. According to Laine Ross, a California-based fine art specialist, giclées (digitized high-resolution art) of significant characters from current films like The Lion King (1994) continue to woo aficionados. Collectors seem to be driven more by characters and films than technology.

Film and era: Most big-ticket cels tend to be original works from landmark films. “Setups from films produced between 1946 and 1954 are rare and command high prices,” Tumbusch says. A setup consists of a scenic background and multiple cels, each containing a character and any special effects, such as rain or snow. Each cel is layered to create an action setting. Setup art from landmark films range in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the scene, characters and medium.

Production background: Background art determines the value of a scene, not simply the cel alone. A single background painting usually includes several cels. Therefore, a valuable group must include all of the cels used with the background. A single cel sheet can be auctioned as stand-alone art and will often command a high price if a buyer is looking for a piece to complete a scene.

Important scene, important animator: A different animator usually works on each scene, and the artist marks each drawing. “Value will be the highest for any given film if [the cel] is an important character at a key scene in the film, with the original background as they appeared together in the film,” Bailey says. Other factors also come into play, such as the animator’s skill and stature. For example, animator Freddie Moore was highly talented with female figures. “One of his little girl drawings sold for $32,000,” Tumbusch says.

Because of improved documentation, collectors will find it easier to research the animators of more recent films. “Disney keeps a record of what animator makes what scene,” Tumbusch says, “so you can get that information and use it to make decisions. Scripts are filed with the Library of Congress and are all timed at so many seconds per scene, so you can figure out who was responsible for what scene by viewing a video to pace a scene out frame by frame.”

Everyone loves a good Hollywood yarn, and if one is associated with an animated film, values can increase. Consider famed surrealist artist Salvador Dali—a friend of Disney’s—who in 1946 worked on story sketches for a Disney film project called Destino with studio artists John Hench and Bob Cormack. The work hit a financial snag and was shelved until 1999, when Roy Disney fought to have it completed using Dali’s original art and new computer-generated animation. The result was a seven-minute film, nominated for a 2004 Academy Award in the Best Animated Short Film category. The limited edition lithographs created from Dali’s original film art are currently valued from $800 to $1,500.

Start with the Classics
According to Bailey, a significant Disney art collection should be comprised of some of the earliest and most rare characters—such as Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Pinocchio from the 1940s. “The most important pieces would be production backgrounds from key scenes in the film,” he says. In 1996, a set from an early Disney short, The Mad Doctor (1933), sold in London for $38,295. “It was Mickey Mouse on a watercolor production background, and was one of the most expensive pieces ever sold there,” Bailey adds.

Achieving high prices at auction usually indicates many value-related factors have come together at once. “The media might report that a cel sold for $25,000,” Tumbusch says, “when in fact the sale was comprised of a cel from a prominent animator’s key drawing with a unique matching, original painted pan background. If the same cel sold alone, the price would be more like $3,000.”

Today, overall economic trends as well as industry changes among studios and distributors have contributed to a dwindling supply of high-caliber collectible animation. That, combined with collector demand for vintage Disney animation, has spurred a plethora of mass-produced fakes. Collectors must be smart about how they select their pieces and their dealer. “Find reliable purchase sources and seek appraisals from experienced animation art dealers,” Bailey stresses. Martin recalls an incident several years ago involving a group selling Pinocchio cels. “They hyped them as ‘only investment,’” she says. “It turned out that the art was from a film entitled Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, which was not a Disney film. People spent thousands of dollars on the cels, and when they tried to sell them they discovered they were only worth one or two dollars.”

The advent of online auctions has created another avenue for fraud. Auction buyers should employ an escrow service, where funds can be held until the work is authenticated. “Have the paint on the piece tested,” Tumbusch advises. “Disney paints were all custom-made by the studio and can be positively identified by spectrographic analysis.”

Many outstanding cels were never sold commercially and have no identifying labels or seals. Experienced dealers know how to identify them. “Most dealers have good connections with former animators and will have access to pieces that may never go up for sale [to the public],” Tumbusch adds.

Again, industry knowledge drives wise decisions. Before you purchase, consider where your money will best appreciate, but not at the expense of animation’s most important rule: have fun. As Disney once said, “Always remember, this whole thing was started by a mouse.”

Angela Black is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer who collects and writes about art and antiques. thescribe@juno.com.

CEL SOURCES
Animation USA
800.392.0020
www.animationusa.com

Cel-ebration
732.842.8489
www.cel-ebration.com

S/R Laboratories
818.991.9955
www.srlabs.com

COLLECTING SOURCES
Walt Disney Art Classics
www.disney.go.com:80/disneyartclassics

Walt Disney Collectors Society
800.932.5749
www.wdccduckman.com

Collectors Editions
800.736.0001
www.collectorseditions.com