Dear Dearette,

Hi, I'm sorry I never got a chance to post to this
topic before it got archived =(!  I was offline
again as usual during the weekends -_-!  I think
I know the source of those $82k Lion King cels
you saw at your friend's mansion.

As Aimee said, all movies Disney made after The
Little Mermaid were hand drawn, but all the 'cels'
were computer colored.  The Little Mermaid was the
last Disney feature film to use traditional cels.
After Disney went CG to color their films though,
I know for a time through Sotheby's, they still
offered artwork from the film through an unusual
auction which I have no idea if they still do
today =/.  I know for sure they did it for the
Lion King though.

What Disney did was this!  They offered for sale
1/1 limited reproduction cels of certain scenes
of the movie for sale (i.e. there would be only
ONE official reproduction cel reproduced for that
scene).  These were then auctioned off at
Sotheby's like production cels, BUT they clearly
stated that since the film was CG colored, all the
'cels' that were being offered were 1/1
reproduction cels (and hence could be comparable
to actual production cels even though the cels
never really appeared on the screen).

How do I know this?  Well, I have copies of the
Sotheby's catalog for those films in my house
somewhere, and that's what they said when I last
read them, I think =/ (Yeah, I have a 'wonderful'
memory.).  Also, once I tried to buy one of those
1/1 reproduction cels (NOT Disney though) for
Fox's/Don Bluth's Anastasia, and the guys at the
gallery explained it to me again -_-.  If you're
wondering, that purchase never worked out 8(!
Although the 1/1 reproduction cels from Anastasia
were MUCH cheaper than any of the ones from
Disney's Sotheby auction, some screwy
miscommunication happened between the gallery and
Fox studios -_-!  The scene I wanted reproduced
(and it's matching production drawing) got
DESTROYED somehow 8(!  They ended up sending me
a completely different scene and matching
reproduction cel >8(!  I returned it for a full
refund, but it took me 1 year to get the shipping
fee reimbursed ($30.00 or so) >8( along with
months of pestering on my part >=(!  Yeah, that
was a fun purchase, NOT 8(!

So, anyways, your rich friend does indeed have one
of a kind 'cels' from the Lion King =D!  These of
course, are TOTALLY DIFFERENT than even the
handpainted limited reproductions sold at the
Disney Store (Those runs usually have at LEAST 100
or so copies in the 'limited' run, but your rich
friend's is the ONLY one of it's kind in the
world!).  Also, from what I remember, all those
1/1 reproduction cels are of course entirely hand
inked and painted ;) from the original production
drawing!

Well, like I said, I was too late to post about
this earlier -_-, but I hope this helps clear up
some unanswered questions in that post now in the
new archive =D!


Sincerely,

Sonia