The Rescuers Animation Cel: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Three-part animation cel used in the Walt Disney Production’s 1977 film The Rescuers. This hand-painted scene depicts the two mice, Bernard and Bianca, on a leaf with Evinrude the dragonfly.

A celluloid (or cel) is a transparent sheet used in the process of hand-drawn animation. Characters were drawn on cels and superimposed on a fixed background image to reduce the number of reproductions necessary to produce an animation. The Little Mermaid was the last Disney feature film to use this hand-drawn method of animation. Starting with the 1990 feature film The Rescuers Down Under, Walt Disney Animation Studios began using a digital method of animation known as the Disney Computer Animation Production System (CAPS).

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1977
• maker: Walt Disney Productions
• Object Name: Animation Cel
• Object Name: cel, animation
• Physical Description: acetate, synthetic (overall material)
• Physical Description: paint, acrylic (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 12 in x 16 in; 30.48 cm x 40.64 cm
• place made: United States: California, Los Angeles
• general subject association: Motion Pictures
• Subject: Animation
• ID Number: 1979.0978.01
• accession number: 1979.0978
• catalog number: 1979.0978.01
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.