Initially, Gabriel asked Michael Giaimo to create conceptual paintings for the film as they both shared in a style of shape-based and secondary art details. Giaimo, himself a former assistant animator and then a CalArts teacher, accepted in which he worked several months on a freelance basis. After Goldberg became the film's co-director, the two directors asked Giaimo to officially join the staff, in which he was promoted to being the film's art director. For Giaimo, he relied on a color-saturated, elegant designs in a less-than-realistic format inspired by "prehistory Caribbean themes and creatures derived from Mexican and African folk art." Giaimo also sought out inspiration for the film's look from the works produced by earlier Disney art designers such as Richard Kelsey's story sketches from his unproduced film "Hiawatha", Eyvind Earle, who worked on "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), and Mary Blair.