in order to save money by eliminating the need for model sheets, bakshi let animator john sparey draw some of the first sequences of fritz. bakshi states that he knew that "sparey would execute them beautifully." poses from his sequences were photocopied and handed out to the rest of the crew. the film was produced almost entirely without pencil tests. according to bakshi, "we pencil tested i'd say a thousand feet [of footage], tops. ... we do a major feature without pencil tests—that's tough. the timing falls off. i can always tell an animator to draw it better, and i know if the attitude of the characters is right, but the timing you really can't see." bakshi had to judge the timing of the animation simply by flipping an animator's drawings in his hand, until he could see the completed animation on the screen. veteran warner bros. animator ted bonnicksen was incredibly dedicated to his work on the film, to the point where he completed his animation for the synagogue sequence while suffering from leukemia, and would take the scenes home at night to work on them.