Luigi Kemo Volo is an Italian graphic designer and illustrator from Bacoli, a seaside town on the Bay of Naples. He is known for photo montages in which he shares ordinary moments with cartoon characters: brushing his teeth with Hank the octopus, eating spaghetti with Tramp, being woken up by a lion cub. He photographs himself at home or by the sea, then adds the characters digitally in Photoshop, matching poses, eye lines and light so that the meeting looks almost natural.
Volo has loved Disney films since childhood. According to Inside the Magic, he struggled to find illustration work at first, took a full-time job as a bartender and did photography on the side, before going freelance and combining both skills. He has said he wanted to show his young nephew, who shares his love of Disney, that magic can feel real. The series spread widely in 2019. Below are 30 of the images, with notes on the films and characters behind each joke. Most come from Disney and Pixar; a few guests are from other studios.
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Days out by the Bay of Naples
A stroll with Lilo and Stitch. Volo walks a white boardwalk by the sea wearing a flower lei, with Lilo holding his hand and Stitch riding on his head. Lilo & Stitch (2002) is set in Hawaii, and its message about "ohana", or family, fits a holiday walk.
Part of Ariel's world. Perched on a rock with a green mermaid tail, he poses beside Ariel and Flounder, both in sunglasses. The Little Mermaid (1989) began Disney's run of hit musicals in the late 1980s and 1990s.
An awkward catch. Sitting on a fishing boat at night, Volo seems to have hooked Ariel's purple seashell top, while she glares at him from the water with her arms folded. The joke works because the character's expression does all the talking.
Drawing from life. Here he sketches Ariel as she sits on a rock in the bay. It is one of the few images that shows his day job: he is an illustrator first, and the drawing in his hands is his own.
Watching the sea with Baloo. The bear from The Jungle Book (1967) puts an arm round him as they look out over the water, with Bacoli's coastline behind them. Baloo was voiced by the singer Phil Harris.
Floating down the river. Volo sits on Baloo's belly as the bear drifts on his back, a nod to the film's lazy river scene that accompanies "The Bare Necessities".
Lifted by Up. Volo dangles from a garden hose beneath Carl Fredricksen's balloon-lifted house, with Russell and the dog Dug hanging on. Pixar's Up (2009) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Morning routines with a little help
A wake-up call from Simba. Young Simba from The Lion King (1994) sprawls across Volo's face in bed, recalling the scene where the cub jumps on his father to wake him for the day.
Bathroom with Hank. Hank, the grumpy "septopus" from Pixar's Finding Dory (2016), wraps his tentacles around a toothbrush, razor, hairbrush and trimmer. Hank lost one tentacle, which is why he has seven.
Shaving with the Beast. Both have lathered up, and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast (1991) wields a razor next to him. The 1991 film was the first animated feature nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Blow-drying a mane. Adult Simba sits patiently while Volo tackles his mane with a hairdryer, playing on the film's "Hakuna Matata" swagger.
A trim too far. Sulley from Monsters, Inc. (2001) looks horrified as Volo holds up a handful of blue fur. Pixar's animators built special software to simulate the millions of hairs on Sulley's coat.
A cold night with Olaf. Tucked in beside the snowman from Frozen (2013), Volo has frost in his beard and icicles hanging from his nose. Olaf, who "likes warm hugs", is not the ideal bedmate.
Merlin's way of getting him up. The wizard from The Sword in the Stone (1963) levitates him out of bed with a wave of his wand, a neat use of a mid-air photo.
A back rub from Phil. Philoctetes, the satyr trainer from Hercules (1997), works on Volo's shoulders. In the film Phil, voiced by Danny DeVito, trains heroes; here he takes the softer job.
At home with heroes and friends
Movie night with Baymax. The inflatable health-care robot from Big Hero 6 (2014) shares the sofa and a tub of popcorn.
A lapful of Dalmatians. Volo hugs three puppies from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), a film that used xerography to copy drawings directly onto animation cels, which made all those spots manageable.
Sadness takes the pillow. Sadness from Pixar's Inside Out (2015) lies on top of him in bed. The film's argument that sadness has a purpose is one reason it is often used to talk with children about feelings.
Noodles with Mushu. The small dragon from Mulan (1998) serves a bowl of noodles with chopsticks while Volo slurps. Mushu was voiced by Eddie Murphy.
A strand of spaghetti. Tramp from Lady and the Tramp (1955) shares a single noodle, a twist on the most famous dinner scene in animation, here played for laughs instead of romance.
Lighting Lumière. Volo lights the candles of Lumière, the candelabra from Beauty and the Beast, who looks delighted to be useful.
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Who? The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella (1950) seems to have turned Volo's outfit into Cinderella's blue dress, and he is not impressed.
Doodling on Aurora. While Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (1959) sleeps, Volo draws a beard on her with a marker, the kind of prank siblings play on each other.
A fairy-tale meme. Prince Charming and Cinderella act out the "distracted boyfriend" meme, based on a stock photo taken by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem in 2015 that went viral in 2017.
The mirror shows a cartoon. Volo checks his reflection and sees an illustrated version of himself, screaming. It is a self-portrait in his own drawing style.
Villains and guest stars from other studios
A light from Hades. The god of the underworld from Hercules, with his flaming blue hair and a cigar, stands beside Volo as he lights up. Hades was voiced by James Woods.
Waiting for the bus with Totoro. This scene recreates the rainy bus stop from My Neighbor Totoro (1988). Totoro is a Studio Ghibli character created by Hayao Miyazaki, not a Disney one, though Disney handled English-language releases of Ghibli films for some years.
Jerry lights the fuse. Jerry, from MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons first released in 1940, sets off a stick of dynamite by his mouse hole while Volo crouches nearby.
A clown in the drain. In a yellow raincoat, Volo kneels by a storm drain where Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons waits with a paper boat. It parodies the opening of Stephen King's It.
Surprised Patrick. Patrick Star, from Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, gives his famous open-mouthed stare on the sofa, and Volo copies it with a bag of crisps in his hand.
How images like these are made
Photo montage is older than Photoshop. In the 1850s photographers such as Oscar Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson combined several negatives into one print, and in the 1910s and 1920s Berlin Dada artists like Hannah Höch and John Heartfield cut and pasted photographs for satire. Adobe Photoshop, first sold in the late 1980s, made the process faster and seamless.
Volo's images follow a few rules that anyone trying this can borrow:
- Plan the pose first. He shoots himself reacting to an empty space, so the character's position must be decided before the photo.
- Match the eye line. When his gaze meets the character's, the scene feels real.
- Add contact points. A hand on a shoulder, a hose in a grip or a shared noodle ties the two worlds together.
- Use light and shadow. Small shadows under feet and warm or cool tints help a flat drawing sit inside a real room.
Why the series works
The humour comes from mixing grand fantasy with chores: a dragon making noodles, a wizard as an alarm clock, a god of the dead lending a light. Fans also enjoy spotting references, from film scenes to internet memes. The characters remain the property of their studios, and the montages are fan art made out of affection for films many of us grew up with. Volo also draws characters that seem to climb out of the lined pages of his sketchbook, another way of blurring the line between paper and real life.
Sources: Inside the Magic: Guy hilariously photoshops himself with Disney characters (October 2019); My Modern Met en Español: Luigi Kemo Volo's notebook drawings; Wikipedia: Photomontage; Wikipedia: Distracted boyfriend meme. Images: Luigi Kemo Volo (@luigi.kemo); characters are the property of their respective studios.
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