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Saturday, December 30, 2017

Original Production Animation Cel of Tony and A Plate of Spaghetti from "Lady and the Tramp," 1955


 Original hand inked and hand painted production cel of Tony and Plate of Spaghetti set on lithographic background with a hand painted cel of the table and a lithographic overlay of the bottom of the table cloth from "Lady and the Tramp," 1955, Walt Disney Studios; Size - Tony: 8 x 8", Image 8 1/4 x 17 1/2"; Unframed.

To purchase this cel setup or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!

"Now, here you are, the best spaghetti in town!"  - Tony

"Lady and the Tramp" (released on June 22, 1955) is a full length featured animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Distribution. The film was the 15th in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and it was the first animated feature filmed in with the CinemaScope widescreen film process. The film was based on the story "Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog" by Ward Greene and tells the story of a female American Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a refined, upper-middle-class family. Lady meets a male stray mutt named Tramp and they embark on many exciting and romantic adventures.

One evening in 1937, Disney storyman Joe Grant invited Walt Disney over to his house for dinner and ended up showed Disney a drawing he had made of his pet spinger spaniel, who was named Lady. Walt loved the drawing and suggested that Joe make a storyboard out of it; which he did and the plan was to create a new animated film, simply titled "Lady." The story that was pitched ended up being too simplistic to Walt Disney's taste, and the project was put on hold until about 20 years later.

Although the spaghetti eating sequence is the best known in the entire film, Walt Disney was prepared to cut it; because he thought it would look both silly and not be romantic. However, animator Frank Thomas was against Walt's decision and took it upon himself to animate the entire scene, without the use of lay-outs. Walt was so impressed by Thomas's work, that he kept the scene in the film.

The spaghetti scene is usually referred to as the "Bella Notte" scene because of the romantic love song "Bella Notte" that is first sung by a chorus in the opening credits; and then by Tony and Joe while Lady and Tramp eat spaghetti together while on a romantic, moonlit date. The song has become an iconic love song, and the animated sequence is one of the most unforgettable Disney moments ever created.


Original production animation cel of Tony with the plate of spaghetti without the background.


Original production animation cel of the table without the background.

This is a large and wonderful original production animation cel of Tony, the owner of Tony's Restaurant, bringing a huge plate of spaghetti with extra meatballs to Lady and Tramp. There is also a hand painted cel of the table and a lithographic overlay of the bottom of the table cloth to complete the image. This is just a wonderful piece of animation history and certainly would be a great addition to any animation art collection! The dialog for the scene is below:

Tony: "Now, here you are, the best spaghetti in town!"

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