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Ah yes, in my more desperate years I planned on opening DisneyCaves, a magical subterranean cave for kids to come and visit. It was like an adventure park, with falling stalactites and loose bedrock at every corner. I employed a bunch of tramps to dress up as paleolithic ghosts and everything…

somehow the whole thing never got off the ground.

There’s one huge problem…that doesn’t look like Walt’s famous signature. He’d always use those big loops, and that humongous circular thing dotting the I.

And Walt’s signature never ever trailed off like that.

It looks like a hoax…

When I was a kid I visited a lighthouse in San Diego. (I think it was called point Loma, I’m not sure) Anyway the rocks all around the lighthouse had names carved into them. I happened to look down and right at my feet was the name of my idol Walt Disney. (Not a cursive scrawl, just carved into a rock)

Was it carved by him or just a joke, I have no idea. It seems like it would be a waste of time to carve the name of someone famous into a rock but who knows.

I’ve always liked to think it was really him, and of all the names for me to stand on it was destiny for that one to be right at my feet.
True story.

Jeffery: That famous signature was designed for him by an animator (anyone know who??)
his real signature was actually more like the one pictured…

Just so we’re all on the same page of the same map, Cody is in Wyoming, not Montana.
Jay H.
Bozeman, MT

Hey Vivian,

I’m tagging you for the 8 Things Meme:

http://www.justonemorebook.com/2007/05/30/8-things-meme/

Haha..my first meme. Thanks Andrea…I’m on it!
vivian

Oh goodie. Another movie that takes an ironic look at the world of Fairy Tales with a ‘fish-out-of-water’ theme.

Christ.

the animation well done and awesome but the live action,, I do not think is matched.

Gotta disagree with you Jerry. After the trailer got through showing “classic” Disney animated clips (Tarzan…really?), after it got through the mediocre 2-D animation, after it got through the live-action footage with horrible CGI characters and effects, I still had hope for the soundtrack. However, once I saw two different Alan Menken songs interrupted (was that joke really good enough to do twice–in the trailer no less?) I officially lost all interest.

“How about if we make it a human trapped in a cartoon world….I know. we can call it “Alice’s Cool World”. Then we can throw in a bunch of marching and dancing and surfing penguins and some edgy ethnic sounding voices to liven it up.. and it can be about returning her back to the wild…..we’ll still need some robots that transform into hobbits that go back in time and plant the lightsabre at Ben Kenobi’s house.
other than that I think we’re good…now will it be 2d or 3d?

Dwed. Like, um, instead of, like, New York City? Like, um, they should have, like, totally pop up at, like, Disney World! Dewd! Like No one would’ve even noticed them! Like, that’s the joke!

Er, no, no, no! Like EURO Disney! No, no, no - that place! You know? In China? The one that’s like, you know, a total rip-off of Disney World?

Um, no. Wait a minute! Like, what if they suddenly showed up at, like, a Michael Barrier book signing. Like, Dewd! Y’know?

What the hey — it’s got animation by James Baxter & Co. and my daughter will dig it….I’ll be there to check it out.

I love how so many arm chair CEO’s pop up whenever you guys post something like this.

I thought that was a pic of the Ariel, The Little Mermaid.

I actually expected to really despise that trailer because, like Anibator said, ‘yet another ironic look at the world of Fairy Tales with a ‘fish-out-of-water’ theme.’ But I didn’t think it looked half bad.

Only reason I know to see that will be the “Goofy” Short before it.

The animation looks pretty good, especially since 2D is struggling to keep its head up here in America. Unfortunately, the plot looks too predictable. I don’t see anything spectacular with the live-action footage either.

However, as uncertain as I am about this movie, I do have one hope. And that hope is that the animation in this movie will help out in generating some new interest in movie audiences for fresh new traditional animation.

Well, I liked it.

And the last time we got a quality movie that mixed 2D and live action, it sparked an animation rennaisance. Let’s hope this does the same.

My only complaint, is that the villain looks a little too similar to the evil queen in Snow White, both in regular garb and hag disguise.

I did think the shot of the dragon looked awesome, though.

-Steve!

I’m still uncertain about the movie, but I do feel a little bit better about it after watching the trailer. The 2-D animation is gorgeous. I would just see it for that.

Yes, it’s very cliched and looks cheesy. I do love the scene of the cleaning animals. Who knows it could be a very entertaining movie.

I wish that they had tried to mimic the look of the early classic Disney fairy tales instead of using the generic Barbie doll princess design that the Disney artists used throughout the ’90s.

Wow, that looks really generic and cringeworthy. I don’t think this is going to be the film to put Disney 2D back on the map.

I was briefly encourgaed by the neat, subdued color palette in the opening scenes — nice throwback to the organic, classic look of early Disney features and a look that I’ve very much missed — but the bland Bluth-lite character design and animation just kills the visual appeal for me. And such “humor”… oy.

I hope, on behalf of all the luckless parental units who will be forced to sit through this drek, that it will be more tolerable than it looks, but I’m hard-pressed to find a single appealing thing about it thus far.

Boy, as Rodney Dangerfield might say, “tough crowd, tough crowd!

Actually, I’m looking forward to this film. What the hey, it’s got animation by James Baxter.

All you up and coming animation masters out there, lighten up!

Can’t possibly be worse than “Thumbelina”…

This movie wasn’t made to insult or anger people. Just calm down and enjoy it.

Beautiful animation from James Baxter, incredible Character animation from Tippett Studio, great moments with great actors, and new music from Alan Menken!

Relax and have fun!

I’m not about to knock the animation, just the thought process behind this film. It bothers me that Disney is so content to ridicule its own legacy for the sake of some easy laughs. I remember back when “The Little Mermaid” first debuted, seeing Glen Keane being interviewed about his work and recalling the sage advice given to him by his mentor, Eric Larson about imbuing your characters with “sincerity”. I’m afraid that’s a quality that we haven’t seen for some time in animation, due to the sitcom-style scripts we’ve been subjected to where all the humour is of the sarcastic, one-liner variety.

I agree with Aaron’s comment above, regarding the Menken songs. It appears they’re being made out to be the butt of the joke, with modern day audiences being seen to be way too cool to understand why characters would suddenly break into song. As a longtime fan of musicals, both live-action and in the Disney animated features, I resent this constant denigration of the art form by those who are too conditioned by contemporary crap to be able to appreciate that wonderful genre. I’m afraid that “Enchanted” will probably appeal to the same jaded audience that is currently flocking to the likes of “Shrek the Third”. So much for “sincerity”…

*shriek*
James Baxter!

The ten or so minutes of 2D animation at the start will be well worth the 11$ movie ticket for me. And it honestly doesn’t look that bad. (Could it be worse than Shrek 3 or Happily N’ever after?) I haven’t been this hyped to see a *mostly live action* movie for… …. uh, Never.

No offense to Pixar and Dreamworks and everyone else, but I am (like, I think, most traditional animators) SO sick of 3D.

so many opinions….

The animated fairy tale and the twisted animated fairy tale may be “over” in my book, but I certainly ain’t going to complain about a movie for 13 yr old girls that has what looks to be some beautifully animated bookends.

I might actually see this just for the animation. I wish James Baxter great success.

I’d like to call for a moratorium on ironic fairy tales for the next ten years or so. Unfortunately, the undeserved BO of the god awful Shrek 3 will ensure that we have to put up with about a hundred or so of these things before the trend is thought to have gone stale.

Calm down, folks, calm down! This film is only distrubted by Diseny, nor is the animation done by the studio either. What I do hope atleast is that the film will help make way for the first in-studio traditional animated feature (The Frog Prince), one I hope bring the studio back in focus (”I hope”).

As for your comment, John A., you don’t happen to work for John K., do you?

All this talk about James Baxter, but didn’t Andreas Deja animate some of this as well??

Animation quality aside, it looks like a made-for-TV movie.

I think Pete was right on the money to be honest.
As for Anibator, after seeing Shrek 3, I really am in no mood to see a off-center, fairy tale mocking movie.
Still, I have no room to judge until I see it… It’s just such a shame that 90% of this movie is live action, James Baxter doesn’t mean a thing once those actors steal the movie.

I’ll be seeing it, I’m positive the actual animation will be quality. I’ve not seen anything but the few pics they’ve showed here at cartoon brew, but hearing that it’s JAMES BAXTER and 2d animation will ensure that I’m sitting in the theatre to see this one.

Looks like I either have to tear up my Invisible Pink Animation Fangirl License after saying I thought it looked cute -OR- that this is another animated feature that I never have to watch because nothing in the movie itself could be half as entertaining as seeing you (presumably) otherwise rational adults churn up cyberspace over it. (Bookmarks thread and gets a big bag of popcorn…)

Looks terriff! Can’t wait!! Thank YOO!

I’m not even going to read these comments, since I expect most of them to be negative. But to me, I’m really liking the trailer. The animated look is very swirly, something a bit different in the design. But because it’s Disney, I don’t think the jokes will be stretched as far as they can go.

James Baxter did the 2D on this film, enough said. It looks amazing … it’s as good as any i’ve seen before, but with amazing attention to detail. James Baxter’s one of the best guys out there right now and Disney made a VERY wise choice outsourcing to him.

As far as the live-action bit, though it has been done before, it hasn’t been done quite like this. From what I hear there is a good fusion of 2D and 3D in the real world, and even though all the songs are spoofs of classic Disney songs from before, they are good anyway. Even the animation and character design is supposed to be a throwback to all those classic Disney tales. The whole thing is a throwback to that. And whoever was saying that the characters look so generic - uh, what? I look at them and I see perfect animated representations of the live-action actors who play them.

This movie is not gonna disappoint like most of the other recent/upcoming animated films.

Looks like a cute harmless chick flick. Nothing revolutionary, but no doubt I shall lock away my masculinity, see it at the theater, and laugh in a manly way when people mention it (whilst I silently weep inside).

I like it. It’s not just a fairy tale film, but more of an animated fairy tale meets real world, and that’s different (and interesting) enough for me to want to see it. I liked seeing the 2D chipmunk character get into the real world. Shrek’s spoofs of Disney animated films was always kind of off, since they couldn’t use the exact Disney versions. It was more of a spoof of “something kind of like a Disney film that is just different enough so that we don’t get sued”. This should be a good time, and the animation (2D and 3D) looks great.

I guess that’s the new twist on the old song; “I’m so tired of 3D”. Several years ago animators were up in arms when executives decreed that audiences were “tired of 2D”. Difference is, most 3D artists stood alongside their 2D counterparts in disagreeing with that statement.

If Thalia’s thinking is correct, I guess 3D artists can expect for there to be no similar solidarity when the “tired of 3D” statement comes from studio PR offices. Ironic, since the next 2D feature was green-lit by a guy famous for his 3D work.

wow, so many grumpy-pants around here!

thank god none of these opinions matter!

I thought the animals cleaning her apartment was funny.

Uh, wow. This would feel more at home on the Disney Channel, I think. Complete with obscenely pandering ’sassy black woman’ joke. Yikes.

This is not the film I would put out after promising to ‘move forward’ at the end of the previous one.

I think the reason for the cynical comments is because we want to move past the Disney Princess stuff. The audience has matured since The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin, and the rest came out in the 90’s. We want more mature stories, not more Disney Princesses, even if it is a spoof. And how can you go back to doing another Disney Princess film, once you’ve spoofed that type of movie? Judging from history, once something is spoofed, that pretty much spells the end of it. How can an audience be expected to take another Disney Princess movie seriously after seeing that type of movie being made fun of? What does this mean for the Frog Princess?

Ok….I was able to download it. It looks very tongue in cheek….which might work, who knows? The 2D looks great! I wish the CG stuff was 2D, reflecting her world. But….you never know. I worked with Kevin and James at Disney Feature years ago. They are both VERY TALENTED and know their stuff. Trailers are really a tough way to judge the finished product. They are frequently outsourced……so……I’d say let’s wait for the thing to hit the big screen and see what it really is. Hey….at least it’s not a sequel or remake!!! That’s refreshing! I’m pulling for it to deliver the goods!

Why is this being released in theaters? It looks like a bad TV movie. I agree with Matt Wilson on this one; this deserves a Disney Channel-exclusive premiere.

the animation itself actually looks good. I even like the character designs somewhat. what bothers/distracts me is the rushed shading that was obviously added with a click of a mouse. shading needs more care and attention than that.

I’m not very excited about the movie, but I’ll keep an eye out for it for sure.

Wow that 2d animation is stunning, shame the rest is live action. Realy liked the self irony with the songs being interrupted. Very funny.

I don’t think the animation is anything special and the design of the witch is low-end TV at best. I’m disappointed.

Yay princess fangirl!
You came out of the princess closet!

Let’s skip to the theatre together!
I can hardly sit still in my seat, I just can’t wait to see this!
XD

I have heard about this film for a while. Not sure what to make out of it form the trailer. I am excited about new Menken tunes and the animation does look great. I did get a laugh from the cleaning animals.

Um, sorry to interrupt, but the movie file from that link seems to have been removed…

I bet all of you saying ‘Princesses are SO OVER’ can’t WAIT for ‘Princess and the Frog’, anyway. I’ll go to this just for the animation. It’s a fluffy family movie, kids will doubtless love it and Giselle will be swishing her skirts with the other girls in bad Photoshop publicity art by the end of the summer. What the hell’s the harm?

If you want Art, there’s lovely oomphy new Bird Pixar movie coming, so chill.

I don’t necessarily want “art” but I would give my left eye for an animated movie with even the slightest bit of ORIGINALITY.

And why’s everyone so impressed with the animation in this clip? It looks like everything Disney’s ever done.

Christ I would love to see something new.

OK, I haven’t managed to download the trailer for some reason but I know what’s in it and I worked on the film so…

The scenes in the trailer are not the best representation of the animation in movie and while they stand up well within the context of the film they are not wow scenes. The characters are, of course Disneyish however the color design is not.

Andreas Deja did animate a few scenes but very few, the majority was done by James, which will be obvious when you actually see the film. I think Rick ( hi Rick! ) is right, it’s going to be hard to tell from the trailer. I hope it does well, it was great to work on. I’m very happy I had the chance to.

The link doesn’t work anymore.

Now I will never know what I’m missing! (Or not missing!)

you are all wrong. I worked behind the scenes of the movie and read through the script. My working behind the scenes would not make me biased because i only did b*tch work, but it looked pretty incredible

It certainly doesn’t look very good to me, not necessarily very bad either. Kind of a variation of Shrek, that could have a couple of sympathetic jokes, but also a lot of artifical CGI stuff and a waste of 2D animation that will probably be a very small part of the movie anyway.

One thing I really hated is the clear product placement like those Coca Cola advertisements here and there.

While the whole idea of translating a fairy tale to real life seems to have more potential and originality than just copying Shrek, the type of gags seem pretty much the same. Apart from the fact that again, it seems to mix an apparently cynical attitude with a very traditional love story.

It looks like it’ll be enjoyable for its audience. Whether the film is going to be memorable? Not sure yet.

I’d much rather see part of Bill Willingham’s Fables series receive a 2d->live-action treatment (though definitely not by Disney). Having the Homeland material in 2d, the Mundane world done live-action, and the non-human Fables done with CG.

Considering Disney Channel is pretty much planning to make a permanent home for Kim Possible and American Dragon:Jake Long on the dreaded Toon Disney, I’m very pleased to see a small shift in direction of traditional animation. It’ll be quite a while but we will manage to resurrect 2-D animation at least to some degree. Also this appears to be a cute movie.

You don’t showcase a legacy of classics before a new feature if said skills can’t pay the bills. Or if a small bit of animation bookends an awkward live-action movie that whitewashes NYC except for a sassy black bus driver. I don’t know if a generic looking parody for a portion of a movie shelling Disney’s princess legacy is what we need to get the Juices flowing again… and I’m upset that the entire rebirth of disney 2d amounts to that much in the new regime(OR AT LEAST THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT)’s eyes. Frog Princess can’t get here soon enough.

Amy: “It’s a fluffy family movie, kids will doubtless love it and Giselle will be swishing her skirts with the other girls in bad Photoshop publicity art by the end of the summer. What the hell’s the harm?”

Basically that over the course of a decade we started withg a doe-eyed redhead pining to marry a man by seducing him, an “intellectual” whose merited so by reading one book and after dreaming for something more to life settles for … marrying and being subservient to a man/beast… at least Jasmine and Esmerelda has some personality and added a wee bit of color and fiery intelligence to the mix, Meg in Hercules is genuinely tragic, while Lilo and Nani are probably the most well rounded concepts of women ever animated by the studio. So a goofy white generic naive princess character who looks just like the Barbie dolls based on Cinderella is probably a step backwards in the long run, and negates a decade’s worth of building the idea women in animation can be more than broad strokes.

This is brilliant.

Seems like the issue of copyright has been coming up in my life a lot recently, especially with the issue of scanned images & photos. I’ve been meaning to get ahold of a lawyer and talk about the issue of what if someone takes one of your vintage photos that you had scanned and did some digital manipulation to it (a la Photoshop) and then they go and put it on a sheet of other vintage images and sell it on their website.

Anyway, thanks for sharing this, Jerry.

Interesting use of Fair Use, shame it takes a few minutes before it’s actually watchable though.

That was funny and informative. I hadn’t known that the new work must not compete financially with the original. Thanks, Jerry.

One interesting thing is that the way it’s cut shows the difference between the different animation styles used at Disney over the years. For instance, going from rubbery, squash-and-stretchy Tytla animation of the Snow White dwarfs, to a shot with very stylized design and movement from Mulan.

This “commercial impact of the work”… seems like a loose interpretable concept. OK, so even if you’re not openly competing financially with the original, you are in fact sort of altering the impact of the work by presenting samples of it - maybe I haven’t seen Monsters Inc, and you show me a sample from the end of the movie where we see Mike being threatened by Randall - OK, so now I know Mike is going to get in trouble because of Randall, who is a bad guy… whatever, maybe it doesn’t tell me much, but maybe it’s not what the author/s had in mind about what can and what can’t be show for free. So my question would be - can’t in fact… pretty much anything… be considered to “alter the impact of the work”?? Which can in turn “alter the commercial impact of the work”…?

This … is … very… informative… and … kinda…cool .. hehe

These young legal minds may be brilliant but they still misspelled “Dalmatians” on the end credit crawl.

Did clever and “incredibly annoying” suddenly become the same thing?

Very Ingenious. Demonstrating copyright law through a carefully-edited collage of excerpts of movies belonging to the most litigious copyright holder of them all.

I’m waiting for the sequels which demonsrate copyright with Rush Limbaugh and Scientology.

Hahaha

I guess this isn’t the place to debate copyright law, but this video is awfully one-sided…well what little I saw of it before becoming annoyed. Still, a clever idea.

Brilliant! And of course it’s one-sided; it’s describing how copyright law is defined. There aren’t two sides to a law.

One-sided in that it seems to consider copyright to be unfair. As a designer I naturally think copyright - protection from being ripped off - is good! The only real problem for me is the over-zealous prosecution of minor infringements by big companies whose copyright, and their ability to profit from it, is no longer in any danger!

But I absolutely loved the compilation! Brilliant - and I haven’t seen ‘Monsters Inc’ but the clips were so short they were meaningless to me, and gave nothing away - and a nice test of the ‘fair use’ defence - will the Disney lawyers challenge it?

Here’s a link to a government webpage you should visit if you are in need of copyright information and forms.

http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html

It only costs $45 plus postage. You don’t have to be F. Lee Bailey to fill in the forms to protect yourself.

Hey, that model sheet we focus on in close-up, showing Mickey in a suit, is from PLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE BEE! Then still in production, we can only assume…

That’s a riot!! Too bad they couldn’t've made it a hair more serious, tho….and cut the “kiddie” portion! I’m a giant plush-collector…. but trying to make IT “animate” was pretty damned pathetic, for real!

Thank you! I have always heard of this tv show…but never actually saw clips!

Maybe I’m really wrong about this, but nothing really happened in that damn garage - beyond the possibility of Walt setting up a camera stand.

Certainly it helps build a terrific myth — starting out in a garage and all, but the fact is that within a few short months of his arrival, Margaret Winkler had provided money for production and the Disney Bros. Studio was established. There doesn’t seem to have been money to do anything more than purchase nice letterhead for the letters to Winkler — and Roy paid for that! Once they had a studio what purpose would a garage two blocks away serve?

In any case, by the time Mickey appeared on the scene in spring 1928, Walt had long ago moved from his Uncle Robert’s (in fact he had moved at least five times since then) and had settled at the house on Lyric Avenue. That was where the ink and paint work was done for Mickey’s first film, Plane Crazy.

Perhaps I’ll debate this forever, but that’s how I see it.

I worked with Ken at FilmFair. He was a great guy and had a million amazing stories from his Disney days. He was known at the time as the director of the General Mills Monster cereal spots (Frankenberry, Chocula, Boo Berry, etc.) I told Ralph Bakshi about him and Ralph hired him to animate Holly scenes on Cool World. He did the really long scene (that ended up getting stolen) and the scene where Brad Pitt shoos the doodle away from Lonette in the Slash Club. Ken’s company was called Funnybone Films. Is Ken still around?

i’m only into this thing 15 seconds and Art Baker has said “i tell ya” 87 times.

Anyone know whose voice that is? Surely it’s not Mr. D. there, eh??

Does anyone else find it strange that they took “Steamboat Willie,” the first successful sound cartoon, and played it as if it were silent, with silent-film type musical accompaniment and effects? The irony of it struck me as somewhat funny.

That’s gotta be Uncle Walt. Too bad about the misrepresentation of Steamboat Willie being named by Art as Mickey’s first cartoon, instead ofcorrectly naming Plane Crazy. Mind you, growing up, I knew about SW, but never found out about PC until my collecting teen years…

I think that puppet is Walt’s too. I’m sure I’ve seen it before in some publicity photo, which I can’t place at the moment.

A fascinating piece. And you are right about the puppet. That thing will haunt my dreams for years to come.

“Does anyone else find it strange that they took “Steamboat Willie”, the first successful sound cartoon, and played it as if it were silent, with silent-film type musical accompaniment and effects? The irony of it struck me as somewhat funny.”

That’s exactly how “Steamboat Willie” played at the Main Street Cinema at Walt Disney World in the 1970’s, only since 6 different (looped) films were playing continuously in the same room, there was just “generic” silent film type music playing in the background. The first time I saw it, I was too young to know that SW was “the first sound cartoon” and thus didn’t see anything odd about it being played as a silent film.

The puppet’s voice was probably Jim MacDonald. He had taken over Mickey’s voice sometime in the mid 1940s. (Although I think Walt did Mickey’s voice for the Mickey Mouse Club animation.)

“Maybe I’m really wrong about this, but nothing really happened in that damn garage - beyond the possibility of Walt setting up a camera stand.” Joe

Actually Uncle Rober’s garage has the distinction as being the first animation studio in Los Angeles and the west coast. Walt was was working on presentation “Joke Reel” for Alex Pantages,in the garage when Margaret Winkler wired Walt on October 13, 1923, and subsequently abandoned the Pantages project a few weeks later. (One other little titbit: The Winkler contract that formed the Disney Company that we know today, was singed at Uncle Robert’s house)

Now Walt also rented rented a back office of the Holly-Vermont Realty Company, (4451 Kingswell Ave) for $10 a month about the same time- Either as work for the Pantagas reel or for the Winkler deal- this detail is a little sketchy. Then in February 1924 they moved next door to 4649 Kingswell Ave and remained there for a little more then two years.

Though the lore and the myth of Mickey being born in a garage, liken to Lincoln in a log cabin, seemed all the more romantic. Hence by the early 50’s the Alice comedies had all been forgotten- Mickey was the star, and yet his glimmer was starting to dim by that time as well.

Aside from the confused and inaccurate historical details, how do the images of a wooden frame garage relate to a publicity picture of Walt taken in the early 1930s in an obviously plastered wall room with drapes? The garage was behind Robert Disney’s home on Kingswell. Robert Disney was a Real Estate agent, and I believe that the Holly-Vermont Realty Company belonged to Disney’s uncle. That building at the corner of Kingswell and Vermont is six blocks west of the Disney house on Kingswell. It stands to reason that Robert Disney helped Walt and Roy with the acquistion of the various properties, something that Walt, new to Los Angeles, would have been hard pressed to have accomplished without having had any contacts.

Regarding Keith Paynter’s idea that it was Walt’s voice, I believe he is mistaken. First of all, Walt’s MICKEY voice was not as high-piched. Second, Walt was a better actor in the vocal delivery than McDonald in that he did not have to rely on starting and ending each line with the laugh to maintain the pitch. That gets to be annoying and tiresome, and the voice really is not acting, but an imitation without the feeling of genuine warmth that Walt gave the character.

don -

i’d be happy to burn a DVD from your 3/4″. we’re all set up to work with scads of formats - even Selectavision !

lemme know, j.j.

The very end of the Snyder interview is the best, when Ward comically ‘turns’ on the host. Ward Kimball knew all about good end buttons.

What a kick!

Best advice in the world: keep that childlike feeling of fun!

Thanks for that wonderful post.

Wonderful stuff! Classic Ward Kimball. I smiled throughout all 7 videos. Thanks for posting it here.

I thought I was the only one who kept a 3/4″ deck - still have it in my entertainment center… :)

I do find it sad that things like this change. However, as Wards famous railroad was a private endeavor and not actually a “Disneyland” in and of it’s self. I am sure that Ward’s family feel that the place is not what it was without Ward. So as things go I can lament it’s passing almost as a part of Ward himself. No easy thing for the family to do. I’m sure of that. Thankful for the things Ward left us. His wonderful creations, Images, Music and Humorous interviews.

I’ll always remember how kind he was to me as a kid. I only had once conversation with Mr. Kimball. When I was a kid I called him up on the phone and chatted with him about Fantasia and the future of Animation and his famous band (F.F.+2)He was very kind and easy going to this young kid. (I was a pest of a kid) He told me to call T.Hee. Funny guy. Sad about the Railroad though. Again, I’m sure this is not an easy thing for his family to do.

Prepare for the wrath of Kimball’s ghost. :(

I know nothing lasts forever and Ward, the raison d’être, is gone, but this news still makes me extremely sad. I always wanted to think of Grizzly Flats existing somewhere.

At the risk of sounding like some New Age /Gnostic type , it (Grizzly Flats) still exists somewhere … in our collective memories of Ward Kimball. This whole Kimball attitude : doing something just for the sake of doing it , not because it was practical or a money-making venture ,but because it was fun and it was there ; that seems to have been Kimball’s attitude to animation and life in general. Who’s stopping us from building our own backyard railroads (or equivalents) ?

Thank you Ward (and Betty) for your example .

Let’s go make something fun …

Don’t be too sad, Kimball lovers, for old the old Grizzly Flats railroad didn’t really die! You can find quite a few of the engines and cars at the Perris, California old railroad museum. Just Google it to find out more. Pay a visit if you can, they have a beautiful train barn holding the Baldwin locomotive with Ward’s paintings on the smokestack.

The recent Walt Disney Presents dvds have a segment at Kimball’s railroad. I just recently learned about it and now to find out it will soon be gone. Very sad.

Well that sucks!

> The recent Walt Disney Presents dvds have a segment at Kimball’s railroad. I just recently learned about it and now to find out it will soon be gone. Very sad.

Heh, I knew about this 20 years ago having seen some of that stuff on Disney Channel (back when the used to show those things).

That’s weird. I always thought that he donated the engines, fire engines, and rolling stock to a museum in L.A. in his will.

I wish I still had the picture of me sitting on the cowcatcher of the big coal burning locomotive. Mr. Kimball was a generous man who loved to share his railroad collection (since it couldn’t really be called a ‘train collection’) with everyone. I’m pretty sad to see it broken up. Would this include his toy train collection? That took up an entire separate building!

Nancy, almost all the toy trains(along with the rest of his antique non-train toys) were sold at auction (mostly on Ebay) a few years ago. It would have been a heck of a collection to keep in one piece–I’m sure absolutely unmatched anywhere–but I’m also sure all the items went to loving collectors(and some dealers).

I bid on and got one item that I remembered from a visit there–a 1920s bisque comics figurine.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ward and Betty many, many years ago when they came to Vancouver for a book signing event. Not too many people showed-up, so I had the fortunate opportunity to spend some time with both of them talking about their experiences at Disney (Betty worked for a short while in Ink and Paint) and their railroad.

I sent Ward some giant Russian sunflower seeds which he grew. He sent me a picture of the sunflower towering over him in his backyard. We sent many letters back and forth…a very generous man with a great legacy and sense of humor.

Ward’s toy collection was auctioned off a couple of years ago, so I suppose the dismantling of Grizzly Flats is just the next, sad, logical step.

OK ye dern fools! Go over to www.oerm.org/pages/GF.htm and see Ward’s prize engine and passenger car waiting for you to visit them! There are also many Kimball links there. It’s called the Orange Empire Railway Museum and is located out in Orange County at Perris. I love it there, my brother-in-law often volunteers there and helps to paint and take care of the “rolling stock”.

Back in the early 90’s a group of us from Warner Brothers went to visit Ward at his home and got the full tour of the place…the big barn with just one train car left in it, the building with his huge model train collection, and yet another smaller building with antique mechanical toys. We went inside the Grizzly Flats railroad depot and I got some photos of myself and Ward on one of his firetrucks, which was housed in yet *another* one of the buildings on the property.
It’s nice to know his wife is still alive, she was a friendly lady who served us up some lemonade as we talked with Ward (who was very sharp and sarcastic, which was cool) and he signed some things for me..I had brought a 78 rpm of one of his FireHouse Five records and a drawing of him and Fred Moore from “Nifty Nineties”…Ward was truely a genius and eccentric. His contributions to that studio helped make it what it was, he added a real sense of fun and absurdity, stretching the boundaries to ingenius classics like “Mars and Beyond”.
When I found out he had passed away I went and left some flowers on the railroad tracks which extended out from the backyard to the sidewalk.

I remember he had this painting on his wall in the house of a slice of watermelon. He said the seeds were actually junebugs that had been glued to it. I don’t know why but I thought that was really neat. It just showed me the sort of creative absurdity that I enjoyed so much and felt added that extra wacky quality I think Disney needed in their cartoons and characters.

Cynthia
tangoland.com

And there are still people who think John does not care for Disney, shakes head.

Nice to know some of Wards stuff will join Ollies Train. For those that dont know read this.

http://www.frankandollie.com/OlliesTrain.html

Ward’s train and toy collection was sold by Noel Barrett in 2004. The collection realized 5 Million dollars in auctions. You can read more about it here

http://www.toyzine.com/magazine/auction/Ward-Kimball-post-auction.htm

and the second auction here

http://antiquesandthearts.com/AW-2005-06-14-13-27-37p1.htm

At least it they will keep some of it.

Being from San Gabriel, it’s been sad to see parts of the railroad being sold off piece by piece. I’m quite disappointed the cities of San Gabriel or Temple City failed to recognize its importance. A full size railroad in one’s backyard is a great example of those who dream and do; pursue and explore. This is California.

End of an era, all right.

I only got over there once, during my time at Disney. Went with jamie Oliff one saturday morning and it was one of the best things i ever did while in CA. i suppose he may have said the same things to alot of his visitors, but I couldn’t believe how open he was; he had a lot to say and showed us EVERYTHING… the trains, the station, the toy trains, the fire engines.

Run do not walk, to the Orange Empire Railroad Museum when they have things running. Buy and read the book The Walt Disney Railroad Story- lots of detail about Kimball and his trains , then walt and HIS trains. Join the Carolwood Historical Railroad Society. Go watch Pigs Is Pigs, the grizzly Flats Depot was the model for the station house in the short. Go drive out to Gold Country up out of the Bay Area and visit the original Grizzly Flats way out beyond Placerville and visit the Roaring Pines Railroad on theway.

Guys like Kimball were giants and they didn’t fool around with toys. Those steam engines were hissing, spitting, live things that could kill you if you didn’t know what you were doing. But he did what he wanted to do regardless.

And he did so much.. a lesson for us all. How did he do it? I don’t know, but we owe it to those guys to not waste one inch of the time we have.

I remember he said, if you’re collecting stuff, buy other collections, don’t just try and pick things up one at a time. Haven’t taken that advice yet. He also said, We didn’t watch alot of TV.

I lived on El Camino Real in San Gabriel valley during the 60’s and 70’s - great years. The end of our street was the Kimball’s property. We would climb over a 12-15 foot high chain-link fence and sneak in the barn where the two locomotives were stored - WOW! Couldn’t put it into words at the time. They seemed so big and powerful.

I remember the Kimball’s always threw parties, especially during the Holidays (X-Mas). Mr. Kimball would sound the steam whistle that could be heard - it seemed for miles. We were very young at the time. He had two beautiful daughters that had blond hair and blue eyes. One used to drive a green 1967 Volkswagon van.

There were empty lots at the end of El Camino Real, and I remember playing in the dirt with my brothers and finding “Horn Toad Lizards” and “Ant Lions”. We would keep them as pets and show them off to people at the parties. Those days are long gone, development…

Kids these days will never experience anything of that kind. Times have changed. So, Thank You Ward Kimball and family for the excitment you brought us and all the memories that will last forever.

Rememberance

Larry, David and Brian Day (sons to Earl and Marilyn Day 1960-70 circa at 8827 El Camino Real)

We should point out that there has been some debate over the translation.

The explanation on the translation problem is HERE.

It turns out that it was a quibble over just one word.

The mouse mimes firing an AK-47. That speaks in every language.

Yeah. The whole Palestinian issue is a minefield to walk on here.

Someone seem to paste on the subtitles to purposely defame against the Palestinians. How the subtitles are structured should leave you in suspect.

Have a chat with the Electronic Intifada (http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml) about this. They’re the most indispensable resource on the Palestine/Israel conflict.

I try to approach this story with laughter. “Farfour”’s speaking style is exactly the same as I would expect from hardline imams preaching their sermons. Every line is screamed, the message is hammered into your head. In summation, the rhetoric isn’t modified in the least to appeal to kids, they just put a sermonizer in a walkaround costume. When I was a kid if I happened to attend mass from a Cotton Mather-style priest, all fire and brimstone, I felt scared and wanted to run away. Children are the same everywhere, and so I wondered if that clip just scared kids watching al-Asqa TV away. :-)

Sticking to the animation theme, when the Mickey Mouse clone says “Condoleezza”, he sounds like Beavis.

i like how the guy holds his giant mickey mouse head on with his left hand.

I think I’m going to be sick.

Sorry to play devil’s advocate, but this isn’t radically different from most of the kids shows you’d see on CBN.

I agree wth Stephen, this is every bit as bad as it looks.

Zaki, why would anyone bother to fake subtitles to defame a nation who just democratically voted a terrorist group into power?
And trusting Electronic Intifada as “the most indispensable resource on the Palestine/Israel conflict” makes as much sense as trusting Pravda for fair and balanced reporting on the Cold War.

If this is what kids are exposed to in a democratic Arab state, it goes a long way to explain why the supply of suicide bombers never runs dry

This was even lower in quality than that suicide-bombing animation that got all over the internet last year.
I like how Farfur has trouble holding his mouse head on. Or is he a cat with a big ear? The world may never know.

Great! Fantastick! That was all we lacked : a beloved worldwide icon condoning hatred!!

You do have a point, Soos. But that doesn’t really put this clip in a positive light, does it now? :-)

Zaki, there are plenty of people that speak Arabic. I doubt anyone would try to pass off fake subtitles; that would be too easy to catch.

>>>but this isn’t radically different from most of the
>>>kids shows you’d see on CBN.

I will *NEVER* grasp the utter lack of sense of magnitude this statement displays. You really see near equavalence here? I mean… REALLY?

>>> Someone seem to paste on the subtitles to purposely
>>> defame against the Palestinians.

They do quite a good job of that themselves. Is there any dancing in the streets on that show? Don’t get me wrong, though. At this point, everyone in the area, including Israel, can go and blow themselves into orbit for all I care.

>>> That was all we lacked : a beloved worldwide icon
>>> condoning hatred!!

Someone call John K!

the set is nice.

No analytical mind here… I’m just plain disgusted.

Well I guess Disney allowing Mickey to appear on a Hamas show is proof positive that Walt DID hate the Jews. (smirk) That girl and whoever is in the Mickey suit could use a ride on “It’s a small world After All”. That would straighten em out!

P.S. They should go on the version of “It’s a Small World” that’s in Orlando because THAT one has Israel in it!

Hey Soos, I understand the playing the devil’s advocate, and I am against the brainwashing of children by any religious group, but I highly doubt you will see anything on CBN preaching such hate and violence. I was raised Christian, and while I am the liberal black sheep of the family and I go round and round with my family about issues like abortion, gays, and our ignoramus president, no one in my family or anyone I have ever been around in the Christian communities would ever advocate the violence and hatred toward just a vast group of peoples. I truly hope that you don’t really believe that statement yourself.

This has to be one of the MOST CRUEL FORMS of Child Abuse out there. I’m shocked you guys didn’t mention the fact that Disney’s daughter has ripped Hama for this. She went so far as to call this pure evil.

p.s. Jeannine - both sides have similar sentiments. for example. http://www.kkk.bz/youthcorp.htm for kids employ similar tactics. if we went around using the kkk site as a way of judging white Christians then surely those who do not want peace will win. This is a terrible way to measure and evaluate the Arab and Muslim world.

Quoting you; violence and hatred toward just a vast group of peoples. No one likes to admit they may actually have faults too. By that I mean the ones you really haven’t gotten used to e.g. the president.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

In the words of South Park, “Terrorists is de crraziest peeples!”

“Sorry to play devil’s advocate, but this isn’t radically different from most of the kids shows you’d see on CBN.”

I think you get the award for stupidest comment of all time with that one, genius. CBN children shows are no different than a Sunday School class.

The show in question has now been pulled from the air; it is unclear WHY, exactly- and while it’s probably because of bad publicity, it is possible that Disney’s legal department may be responsible (they refuse to comment). So, all these years, we’ve been joking about Disney’s lawyers being able to scare anybody…and maybe it wasn’t a joke after all!

That mouse looks like he has a toothache!

Seriously, that is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen. Sic ‘em, Disney!!

Why not show this video to other Muslims, Arabs or more specifically Palestinian-Americans that live in your neighbourhood?

Have you guys ever discuss with them openly about whether this video is legit?

Why would this video opened with “Mickey clone teaches Palestinian children hatred & Islam supremacy” at all?

How come no one here questioned the legitimacy of the website pmw.org.il? Is it a really trustworthy source to look up the the whole Israel/Palestine issue?

Anyone heard of the Black Panther colouring book, btw?

And did anyone here ever look up Marjane Satrapi on Cartoon Brew?

That’s all I can ask.

That mouse looks like he has a toothache!

Ha ha ha ha ha! Must be the implanted one with the ticking sound that he’s holding, destined to go off on the next bus he rides to an amusement park.

But all joking aside, although this is wrong on so many levels, there is a small psychological slip in the “speech” which is scariest of all: When he’s stressing the condemnation all the other world leaders, he refers to Ariel Sharon, then says to himself, “oh yeah, he’s dead.”

This indicates that his mindset is such pre-programmed brainwashing that he spews ahead uncontrolably, without realizing exactly what he is saying. This is the sign of a irrational fanatic, and what’s really scary is that he is not the only one.

wouldn’t it be cool if you punched farfur in the face, then waited a moment to pull off the mickey head, anticipation builds as we reveal the damage, some dude all shaking and sniffling blood. then, a tiny flick to the eyebrow, making him flinch. as you walk away, i bet he would lose balance, and fall over.

Hey Zaki,….are you trying to defend this nonsense?

I don’t think that anyone with any intelligence actually thinks that all
Muslims, Arabs, or Palestinians are like this. And if you think that they do, then your just as bad. I’m sure you don’t, but that’s how your coming off.

In this case, it doesn’t matter about the Israel/Palestine issue, who’s right, who’s wrong…it doesn’t matter…this is the some of the sickest propaganda I have ever seen, regardless of whether or not it is “legit”.

Even if it isn’t legit,…it’s still pretty f’d up,….right?

Now, if it was BARNEY the charachter used, THAT would definitely be sign of the End of days!

Imagine it: “I HATE YOU, YOU HATE ME, WE’RE A GRUNGY FAMILY…”

The Horror!!

Second only to sex, nothing sells better than hate. It’s too bad I don’t believe in God, or more specifically, the existance of divine retribution, because I would love to believe that there is a Hell waiting for people who teach children to hate.

I am fluent in Arabic. The subtitles are 100% accurate. Having watched this incredible video, I feel genuinely sick. But hey, I expect nothing less from Hamas. Or from Islamic Jihad. Or from Hizbollah. Or Al Qaeda. Or the various armies of the apocalypse that pop up daily in Iraq.

I wish Israel would just give these lunatics their stupid land; then we can watch them tear at each other for a change.

come on guys don’t get your panties in a bunch… it’s plainly and simply: poorly done propaganda. and it’s not the first time mickey has been given the job to brainwash the youth of the world.

and i’m sure if the US gave the Palestinians several billion dollars per year and equipped them with nukes and an air force better than our own, israel would talk trash about them and create propaganda against them… oh wait they already do that! the only difference is they’re good at it using things like cnn, nytimes, etc. instead of a stupid kid’s show.

The Palestinians shelved it already. Why should Disney get involved now?

I just feel very sorry for that girl.

So where’s the next episode or is this all there is? SUCH A CLIFF HANGER!!

Brainwashing pure and simple. If I had kids I wouldn’t let them watch this or any so-called children’s entertainment with an extremist political angle.

Akira, the United States already does give the Palestinians millions upon millions of dollars every year, and no, what is on the news stations is not equatable with using cartoon characters to indoctrinate children to hate.
you have to go back to the Third Reich to see that kind of deplorable tactic.

What some people won’t do during “sweeps”.

Actual translation: “Hey Kids! Today is anything can blow up day!”

guido, i dont want to go on and on about this, but the kkk, is not exactly what i am talking about when i mention christians, and i am certainly not blind to the issues in some supposed christian type churches, i watched jesus camp recently and it made me sick.
i am not sure i understand your last bit either. i will never claim that there are not faults within any religious group, and i have never claimed that i dont have faults (except to prospective employers of course). I would never judge all muslims or palestinians based on that one video, i was simply responding to soos’ comment on how you might see something similar to that on cbn.

DanO, maybe you can show me evidence of major US financial aid to Palestine? i tried looking and i don’t see them in any foreign aid lists. if you check out fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/31987.pdf it shows in 2004 the aid to israel close to 3 billion and the list stops with Kenya at .13 billion… if there was palestinian aid it would be less than kenya, definitely nowhere near the ballpark of what we are giving to their enemy neighbor/invader, israel.

For info on aid to Palestinians, see here.

Dan’s right. It’s millions and millions. Akira’s right that it doesn’t come close to what we spend on aid to Israel. Watch the video again, Akira, and you’ll see why that is.

His gloves keep switching hands ._.

Every day, the U.S gives more than $7,023,288 to the Israeli government and military (and at least $108 billion since 1948). There’s no evidence that the Palestinians are given any financial aid.

From a USAID faq:
“[O]n July 16, 2003, the United States, by invoking special Presidential waiver authority, for the first time ever and in recognition of important progress in the reform of Palestinian institutions, signed an agreement with the Palestinian Authority authorizing a $20 million cash transfer for the purpose of maintaining municipal water, sewage and electrical services and providing for PA directed municipal infrastructure development. In December 2004, the United States provided the PA with the second cash transfer of $20 million, which was used entirely to pay off debts to Israeli utility companies. The final $50 million cash transfer to the Palestinians was provided in August 2005 and was intended for small scale infrastructure projects in Gaza. However, as a result of the Hamas election victory in January 2006, this sum was requested back by the United States Government. All other assistance to the PA takes the form of in-kind assistance (training, technical assistance, equipment, etc.) rather than cash.”

How many Palestinians are there that moved to the US? From Wikipedia: According to the US Census Bureau’s 2000 count, there were 72,112 Palestinian-Americans living in the United States, however, The Arab American Institute Foundation estimates the figure at 252,000 while the Palestinian American Council puts it at 179,000 (1999).

There’s a possibility the number of Palestinians who moved to the US or are raised there are growing.

Whatever the count, there are a lot of Palestinians living in America.

Here are some of the well-known Palestinians that lived and earned in America:
Ray Hanania (http://www.hanania.com)

Maysoon Zayid (http://www.maysoon.com)

Dean Obeidallah (http://www.deanofcomedy.com)

And Edward Said, who’ve passed away many years ago.

The point is, with that much Palestinians living in your country, why wouldn’t you show this video with them and discuss with them openly about it?

Please keep in mind that the point of Jerry’s post was about a Mickey Mouse-lookalike, not about US/Israeli/Palestinian relations. Please respect our site rules so we don’t have to start deleting posts not directly related to the topic of the post.

Dear Amid
I bear full responsibility for what I’ve said, and would withdraw myself from this debate regarding the Israel/Palestine. I wish to focus on what’s really important here: Animation.

Arguments such as this would only draw wedges between animators, or fans of animation. Thank you for your time. You’ve all been wonderful.

“I will *NEVER* grasp the utter lack of sense of magnitude this statement displays. You really see near equavalence here? I mean… REALLY?”
Yes. And if the CBN were a Muslim station instead of a Christian one, you’d see it too. The CBN’s children programming delights in the superiority of the Christian religion. The Left Behind series, a masturbatory fantasy where all the righteous are sent to heaven and everyone else is impersonally murdered by Super Jesus is freely handed out to children.

I don’t mean to excuse the AK-47 or other things, but there’s an obvious hypocrisy here. Furthermore, I wonder how many of people outraged by the suggestion that Palestinian children take up arms were similarly outraged after Israel’s last bombing.

So, all those people who keep saying it’s terrible that Disney keeps having the copyright terms extended, and that Mickey Mouse should be in the public domain so that anyone can do anything they want with the character… was this what we were discussing, or did you have something else in mind? ;-)

FYI: after promising not to air anymore of the program, the Palestinian channel has just shown another episode of this reprehensible show. a show that uses Mickey Mouse to espouse Islam taking over the world with armed struggle.(which is quite different than any christian program mentioned where God or Jesus exact any aggression on earth because those religious shows don’t ask their followers to take up arms and kill)

Look, if you’re going to have a cartoon animal teaching kids to blow themselves up, it really ought to be Wile E. Coyote. :)

Hey Soos and Akira and Zaki, please get this straight: NO ONE on Israeli TV or CBN or any US network uses cartoon characters and/or children’s TV shows to advocate MURDER or the violent overtrhow of democracy. Every society and/or religious group uses propaganda for its own purposes but you have to LISTEN to what they’re actually saying. I defy you to find a Mickey rip-off on an Israeli or American network telling his viewers to go kill all the non-believers and take over the world. The cause for Palestinian statehood may be a just one but there’s no excuse for this garbage.

There’s some incredible irony about a such preeminent symbol and icon of American culture being used to denounce the culture it’s been ripped from. The show creators hate America but like Mickey Mouse? In a very messed up way that should speak to the universal appeal of the character, and to the commonality between the Islamic and Western world.

I’m not even going to touch on how wrong it is to encourage and spread hate to children, that is inexcusable.

Also if Islamic kids like this “Farfur” character wouldn’t it be extremely strange to see the real Mickey Mouse some day?

Time to send Mickey to GITMO!!!

>>> Second only to sex, nothing sells better than hate.

I’d rather buy sex than hate.

Wait… that didn’t come out right.

Dear Amid and Jerry,
I am glad that there is this comment forum available for this contentious issue but I have to argue that you can’t justify this posting so easily by saying it is just “about a Mickey Mouse-lookalike, not about US/Israeli/Palestinian relations.” I have been reading Cartoon Brew for years, even as far back as when there was only Cartoon Research…I know that you guys post much that is related to copyright infringement, so it’s not out of the blue. But do you post every instance? I don’t know if that’s such a pertinent argument, but there is a great deal of ‘copyright infringement’ or general parody or let’s-see-how-close-we-can-get-to-stealing all over the world and a lot of it is really funny, I remember the Russian winnie the pooh one, that was an awesome cartoon. Japan, Eastern, Western Europe, if you ask me, Disney characters are clearly well into the public domain, in fact, they’re almost meaningless. This is a mouse, it’s not mickey mouse, it’s a man in a mouse suit, it bears an incredibly strong resemblance to Mickey, yes, but in the end the simplicity of some of these drawings yields easy copying…Readers of this blog might have been turned on to (since it was posted here) the book “the pirate and the mouse” about Dan O’Neill using Disney characters to his own end. It’s a pretty interesting book regarding those issues, O’Neill is a little crazy, but it brings up a lot of questions. Also, Michael Barrier’s book ‘Hollywood Cartoons’ talks about how those early cartoons exchanged hands, from Disney to Lantz, the question of Friz Freleng maybe copying Disney’s mouse in his early work. So that’s all primordial cartoon ooze and here we are now- Mickey is an institution and a flat symbol (has anyone read Bill Watterson talking about the abuse of his characters and how he feels about Calvin and Hobbes merchandise in general?).

Okay, where am I going? I better get there soon. You all know this since I’m sure you all are big fans of this site, like me- I cannot help but be disturbed by this posting on behalf of Amid and Jerry, this is a situation that provokes such ridiculous comments as: “wouldn’t it be cool if you punched farfur in the face, then waited a moment to pull off the mickey head, anticipation builds as we reveal the damage, some dude all shaking and sniffling blood. then, a tiny flick to the eyebrow, making him flinch. as you walk away, i bet he would lose balance, and fall over.” We’re not given enough context in this situation to tell if there’s sarcasm or what in this statement, it is absolutely ridiculous that someone would post that, I hope they understand the irony. Yes, there is propaganda, there is stealing. What is this ‘palestinian media watch’ I’m definitely going to look that up. But Jerry, you posted a snippet from the LA times that had weighted language in it:”If ever there were a real claim that the company suffered dilution to the value of its intellectual property, this is it.” You can’t claim an unbiased, only for the copyright stance here so you have to expect these postings and the sense of urgency on the part of those who post. I have a lot of questions about this clip, who arranged it, what was left out, it is just a piece of media floating on the internet with stray corners all over and no authors, no one accountable- or i’m not computer savvy enough to find out. We have to know what we’re doing or else we’re perpetuating the status quo. Has anyone seen “Outfoxed” or in general watched Bill O’Reilly? I don’t know about CBN or whatever, I do know that propaganda, violent and otherwise exists all over, it may or may not get exposure, and there are degrees of subtlety, from the looks of it this one lacks subtlety, the palestinian nation is under pressure of complete extinction at the hands of a force much much bigger than them (symbolically, literally tied to Disney- the global corporation). They use what they can to survive. Does this make it okay? I don’t know, that’s a debate. Sometimes it works to be Gandhi and sometimes that type of resistance ends in outright genocide that goes unnoticed by the ‘watching’ world. These are extremes but this is an extreme case.

(What I’ve wanted to do for some time is make a stop-motion type (time-lapse photography type) film of the Israeli settlements closing in on Ramallah, not so slowly, really, starting in the hills and moving down into the main town. That’s a piece of animation i’ve been meaning to make myself.

I’m sorry to get so political, but I have to stress that it’s almost impossible to post something like this and justify it by the terms of the website, the interests of the website, this is not an interesting case of stealing, a man in a mickey-type suit, it’s just a heavily weighted one. I enjoy this website a lot and will keep enjoying it and I trust its intellectual choices. I’m sorry to go on for so long, but this is an issue that concerns us all, using the internet as we do, in the globalized world, in a time when arab-u.s. relations are active and there is cause and a consequence for all of our actions. Maybe I went too far and you’ll delete my posting i don’t know. I just needed to make my point (I don’t know if I did).

Elaine, I agree with you that this posting is about much more than copyright infringement and we should expect responses a bit more emotional (and one would hope more thoughtful) than the usual. I think that most have been very insightful and respectful, and the sillier ones may even have a purpose as well.

Buried somewhere within your very long comment is a strong insinuation that this video may be acceptable. That it’s shown out of context and that it may be understandable, given that Israel is threatening to wipe Palestine out altogether. That’s a very strong statement to make. I think you need to study postwar history as well as the Oslo peace accords and see if the reverse is true.

Given that we are all supposed to be apolitical from here on in, I think you were fortunate indeed to get that one out.

“* The budgets for these shorts are “$2million or less.”

Now is this on a per short basis? or is this for the lot of shorts?

2Mil per short sounds excessive to me. I’d imagine a studio could get episodes worth of content for that much. Anyone able to answer this?

I think the fact that it’s Business Week explains everything. And makes me rather wary of any investment information they give…

Haha. Silly writers.

The Roger Rabbit shorts I worked on cost much more than that! Roller Coaster Rabbit cost 8 million, mostly because they changed directors on the short and had to start over. This short was the Florida studio’s first completed project.

When it comes to wasting money, nobody beats Disney.

I’d add, without irony, that 2 million is a very realistic budget for a Disney FA short made entirely in Los Angeles, not excessive.

Oh, my lord! Two million dollars?!

If it’s traditional animation — we’re talking about pencils and paper. Plus, they’re not paying animators a fortune, are they?

Board it — animate it — wrap it. This ain’t rocket science.

When the hell did animated film making suddenly become so difficult and expensive?

I think it’s likely the reporter for this piece misunderstood accurate historic information and kind of mangled it as shown here. What would have made sense would be if he’d written:

“In the 1930s, preceeding the production of “Snow White”, Disney used some of his shorts as a training/testing ground for the much more sophisticated effects he wanted to get onscreen in his first feature”. That would have been true, although as far as which shorts were used in that way, “The Old Mill” is the only one I can remember reading about for certain–not sure if or what the others would have been.

Well the short, The Tortoise and the Hare, was the first one in which lipsync was done to such a high standard and it really set the bar animating dialogue.

At 2 mil, we know they’ll animate the crap out of it. More important: is it actually going to be funny?

‘The Goddess of Spring’ was a short they produced to see how they would go about animating a realistic human female character, so I guess that could have been considered a testing ground for Snow White as well.

One source said that the Mickey Mouse short, The Worm Turns, was a test for the special effects used when The Queen transformed into a Witch.

Can I join the Shorts Club?

Flowers and Trees is another short to test technicolor, Three Little Pigs was used to develope character, and there was definantly others but I’m not 100% sure as to what they were.

Why do shorts have to be funny?

Let’s hope Daisy doesn’t see this

This is not strange in and of itself, well at least not in comparison to that Mickey Mouse vs. The Clap magazine clipping displayed here sometime last year. At least Donald doesn’t test drugs on members of his own species here.

Be sly. VD is high. Since Disney made “A Few Quick Facts: Veneral Disease”, perhaps it’s Donald who caries his message to the troops.

It’s a good thing they kept ideas like this out of the ‘How To’ Goofy series too.

At last we know the TRUE origins of Huey, Dewey, and Louie…

Unfortunately, Donald’s own ne’r-do-well brother didn’t listen. Suddenly, Donald found himself caring for three unexpected bundles of joy…

I’m a little put-off that the object of his affections, aside from being human, looks unconscious.

I guess Donald was the obvious choice here - since he goes around without any pants on and he’s always wak-wak-wakking off…

Are we supposed to think he just boffed that girl in the background…? @__@

Maybe the reason Donald was never able to talk straight is because he was having syphillitic fits.

I find it interesting that the early incarnations of the Disney characters - Donald specifically - were a lot more… human, to say the least. Now they’re just soulless corporate icons. At least back then, they really tried to parallel Donald to a real experience as a soldier during WWII.

Though I’ll admit, this particular example is a little weird. Hehe.

Yes! Donald Duck promoting safe premarital sex! Freedom fighter forever!

(FWIW - Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Donald’s sister’s kids.)

I’ve heard of rubber duckies, but that’s just silly.

We should all know by now that Donald has a thing for human woman. Remember his stag night movie The Three Cabellros? I’m sure he was saying “and me without a pro!” to himself throughout half of that movie! Daisy sure does put up with a lot!

He forgot his condom, but at least he remembered his Roofies.

Donald made that face after finding out he got AIDS from Queer Duck

…or Daffy

…or the Do-Do bird (doesn’t it live in Africa?)

Frankly I’m a little disturbed by the bestiality implications, to say the least.

I don’t think the poster was from the 4th Medical Corps Division as has been stated at Hake’s. I think the 4th MCD the moniker to be for the 4th Marine Corps Division, of which there was a 4th Medical Battalion.

This Division saw extensive action in the South Pacific including the invasions of Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. The unit received the Presidential Unit Citation and a star was later awarded for the assault on Iwo.

The tropical foliage would match the 4th Marine Corps Division’s theater of deployment.

Well, Rob, were you also disturbed by “The Three Caballeros”? I hope Daisy didn’t see that, either, Corey. :-D

Hey Rob, it’s only Bestiality if the animal in question is dumb.

If they’re sentient, it’s more like doing an alien. ^_^

Kudos to Disney’s Ken Shue for making this wonderful Mary Blair artwork accessible in the form of this new book.

Disney’s preproduction art is a real treasure, and we can only hope more of this art will be made available in the future.

Ooh la la! I’m drooling already. While a lot of these Cinderella concept paintings from Mary Blair have been reproduced (in “Art and Flair of Mary Blair,” and some of the other Art of Disney books), it will be fun to see them at a larger size and on pages designed to give them the prominence they deserve.

This book will be gorgeous! Lets hope they release a Peter Pan and Alice book too.

That’s going to be a hit. Wow.

By the way, Disneyland’s Gallery(above Pirates) still has on display the original pages from Retta Scott’s version of the Cinderella Golden book, along with the originals from Peter Pan(I believe Dick Kelsey? Other artists include Blair) and others. It’s amazing to see the artists’ amazing facility with technique up close–and the Gallery also reproduces the pages in a high quality giclee for purchase. The quality of those is well worth $20 bucks for a 14×36″.

What’s more amazing is that we were able to retrieve so much of the original Disney art from the warehouses of Golden Books in Racine Wisconsin before they shut the place down.

Now, all that fantastic art is here in Glendale, and we’re able to share this treasure trove with millions of others in the form of new books and exhibits.

I can’t wait to see this art at full scale and full resolution. Thanks for the heads-up!

I want to date that book. it looks crazy elegant.

I want to DANCE with this book.

Oh wow.

I STILL keep an eye open for Little Golden Books using the original 50’s illustrations. They’re tending to release new ones with generic modern artwork, but occasionally the old ones can still be found in print.

I love how Pixar is getting guys like Bob Pauley and Tony Fucile to draw their Golden Books.

Last summer I was fortunate enough to be in Tokyo for the Art of Disney show. The Eyvind Earle stuff from Sleeping Beauty was amazing, but Blair’s little paintings have SO much character and style; they were definitely the best (the show had dozens and dozens of her stuff on display). My favorite being her color sketches for when Alice is running through Wonderland from the cards at the end; wacky and endearing, with insane colors (you could say, almost neon).

She’s great. And this little book is sure to be good.

China just wouldn’t be China without bootlegging. :-)

Well, this is pretty lame, and its scale is actually somewhat amusing, but one thing that gets me is,

If Disney’s lobbyists hadn’t paid the US congress so much money to extend copyrights to damn near infinity (which, in my mind, amounts to no less than bribery en masse) then older Disney characters like Mickey Mouse would actually be in the public domain by now, and should.

So to me the issue isn’t quite black and white when it comes to old Disney characters, not to mention most of the feature film characters were just lifted from older stories that had entered public domain. Pinnochio was released the very month the story entered public domain.

Thanks for posting link to a translated copy of this video. I hadn’t known that it had been around for 22 years! That’s a long time for somebody to notice what has been going on there. It’ll be interesting to see if anything is done about it.

Hahaha, that’s made my day! The slogan “Disneyland is too far away” just clinches the deal! If you check out some of the other videos, you will also see knock offs of Bugs Bunny and Shrek!

!!!!!!

the place’s website address says it all
http://www.bs-amusement-park.com/

The park manager saying : “no, this is not Mickey Mouse, it is a cat with big ears” was hilarious ! I guess he took a cue from certain early 30’s characters like Foxy. “(It’s not Mickey Mouse, it’s a fox , just look at those pointy ears”.)

http://www.vitaphone.org/foxy4.jpg

The folks in China certainly outdid themselves with this elaborate, but substandard, plagarism of the parks. Must’ve taken years to build, too. The plagarized Shrek and Hello Kitty are the nadir, though.

Sure it’s a rip off, but doesn’t Disney appropriate other people’s work as well? Watch the old Popeye cartoon of Aladin and the Disney movie some time. Uncle Walt’s little minions more or less copied the character design of Popeye’s villain to make their villain character Jaffar. Franky the Disney villain isn’t as much fun to watch. It’s easy to say it’s alright to barrow from the Popeye version of Aladin because the copyright was allowed to lapse into public domain, but is the Millenium Copyright Act which protects Disney’s rights, to virtually forever, a just law? Their older intellectual property should have been allowed to lapse……forcing them to make new quality toons.

I can’t get too upset over the commies ripping off Disney’s old stuff. Disney has allowed itself to become a stagnet and repetitive product through strong arm congressional and presidential lobbying. You have to hand it to the Chinese for liking stagnet and repetitive culture.

This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen!!!
Why they don’t sell “Barmani” jeans and “La Costeau” shirts in that park is beyond me……..

This is more pathetic than those imitation pinatas in SoCal.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/old-brew/perhaps-they-could-make-animation-exec-pinatas

Also I could be very wrong but that seemed more like a Japanese report about China.

Needless to say, China is somewhat involved in a current legal dispute over the Ultraman franchise (between Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of the shows and characters, and Chaiyo Productions, a Thai company which wants to outright steal Ultraman from them). A Chinese company co-produced an illegal TV series which was to have aired in Thailand by now, but was successfully stopped by Tsuburaya. The lawsuit still continues.

Daniel: The copyright wouldn’t run out on Mickey Mouse himself, just on the cartoons he appeared in. Mickey Mouse is a trademark which allows exclusive use by Disney as long as they use him. At least that’s what I understand.

You know, this reminds me of the time someone in America tried to cash in on Disneyland’s success by building a substandard amusement park with mostly off the shelf rides and lots of overpriced shops and restarants. I think the man’s name was Michael Eisner, and the park was called California Adventure, hey, did anyone ever sue him for that?

The costumes and art in that park are so bad. I am laughing so hard!

Does this mean I can go ahead with my plans for a Chairman Mao theme park i’ve been hatching up? “He’s just a cat with big ears” and besides, mainland china is “too far away”….

I particularly like the mash-up of “Goofy” and “Opus” into a single incongruous character. Also, check out the low-rent SHREK in the final freeze frame behind the in-studio host!!! They should call this Amatuer CosPlayLand.

Yes. but how much does it cost to get in?

The more pitiful thing about China/Hong Kong’s piracy is most of their pirated/bootlegged goods are flooding eBay (video games and otherwise)

This is not surprising at all for a place where they have been substituting poisons for safe ingredients in food and drugs just to cut costs. For 20 years now, according to the NY Times.

This pretty much explains Southeast Asia in a nutshell. It’s hard to stop it as well due to the years of buildup that took place and the number of pirates out there. It’s pretty much beating a dead horse with those people and you have to learn to accept it or else it could still be annoying (like the newbies who buy anime bootleg DVDs without knowing the full truth).

And yes for some of us around the globe, Disneyland is TOO far away! :-)

For anyone who might be interested, an author (Norman Spinrad) did a story quite a few years back, entitled “Year of the Mouse”, which this post reminded my of, for reasons which will be obvious if you’ve read Spinrad’s story.

Spinrad has a webpage and he’s posted an English version of the story there. I think it’s apropos to mention it here. May this find you happy and healthy.

Disney steals ‘Jungle King’ repackage it as ‘Lion King’ and then denies all evidence of the theft after they make a billion dollars. I won’t lose sleep over this…

Pretty much, what goes around, comes around!

Thanks Rob for the Spinrad piece. It kinda puts things into perfect perspective in the end.

This is the tipping point. We’re going to war with China.

>> Does this mean I can go ahead with my
>> plans for a Chairman Mao theme park

Do not miss Chairman Mao’s Wild Ride! Take a wacky adventure through the destruction of a culture and the ruination of millions of lives in this zany ride! Fun for the whole family!

And the newest attraction: Anti-Space Mountain. You hop a ride on an antisatellite weapon, and fill Earth orbit with even more useless junk! Yay!

>>> Disney steals ‘Jungle King’ repackage it as ‘Lion King’

Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba)
Who lives down in deepest darkest Africa? (Africa)
Who’s the one who brought the jungle fame?
Who’s the king of Animals in Africa?
Kimba the white lion is his name!

Wow. I feel really old right now. :(

This is not the first time someone ripped off Disneyland. In Japan in the 1960’s they built a fake Disneyland called Nara Dreamland. It just closed recently For more info check out this article

Nara Dreamland

What?! They copied Hello Kitty!?
Who copied Musti!?!?
Who copied Miffy?!?!

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/12/is_hello_kitty_a_cop.html

Also, wasn’t Mickey/Oswald a Felix imitation?

And isn’t the Disneyland castle’s design stolen from the Neuschwanstein? http://web.wilson.k12.pa.us/buildings/sh/staffpages/clatin/Neuschwanstein.jpg
And the Matterhorn looks an awful lot like the… matterhorn:)

Oh man, I want to go there!!
I think I’d rather go to this mind-bending weirdoland than any of the current parks Disney has to offer.

> What?! They copied Hello Kitty!?
> Who copied Musti!?!?
> Who copied Miffy?!?!

Heh, I remember Musti! :-) (thanks Nickelodeon for having shown those obscure Eurotoons 25 years ago)

> Oh man, I want to go there!!
> I think I’d rather go to this mind-bending weirdoland than any of the current parks Disney has to offer.

Better yet, I’d want an Otakuland! (see “Otaku no Video”)

Todd Goldman now has his own theme park!

You misspelled it. The actual name of the place is “Shenanigans Amusement Park.”

For those of you who think that the early Disney cartoons should be allowed to go into the public domain, this is what happens when studio-owned films end up in the public domain:
My Man Godfrey
He Walked By Night
Zulu
Royal Wedding

Fortunately, in some cases, the inheritors of the original rights, the would-be copyright holders (if the copyrights were still in effect), have the courage to release restored/remastered releases against a tide of cheap $5 DVDs from fly-by-night distributors. Such films as “His Girl Friday,” “Charade,” “Till the Clouds Roll By,” “The Little Princess,” and, in the near future, “Royal Wedding,” are examples.

But in many more cases, the poor releases create a disincentive for the studios to release restored/remastered versions from the original materials they still hold. The aforementioned “The Stranger” is only on an official MGM DVD outside of North America. Many more films, such as “Beneath the 12-Mile Reef,” the original “A Star is Born,” and Frank Capra’s classic “Meet John Doe,” have not had an official release.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

“HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”

“The real Disneyland is too far!”

“Come on! My children need wine!”

I wonder why Disney has to assert its copyright..
Although the Chinese state-operated amusent park infringed on Disney’s copyright, it is no use telling it not to display the dolls and the other things which look like Disney’s prouducts.

Well, Disney *is* planning/building a theme park in Shanghai; I guess that Disney feels that, since it’s building a new Disneyland in mainland China, it needs to assert its copyright and protect against ripoffs.

I would.

Doesn’t China already have Hong Kong Disneyland, which is officially Disney?

I had my tickets for that particular forum in hand days ahead–and still wasn’t able to make it in time before the doors were closed, darn it.
Traffic on the Ventura Freeway and on Sunset was horrible–that Festival is incredibly popular! Glad to hear it was as good as it sounded–and I’m sorry I missed so many old friends as well as the ones I’d yet to meet face to face. We tried, but 20 minutes late and “sorry, can’t let anyone in”.

The entire Festival was almost too much to take in, a real scene–great stuff for kids, many many fascinating vendors–and some serious price gouging on the food and drink(bottled water 4.95, lemonade: $5, a small chicken sandwich $10). It’s great to see such a cross section of Angelenos all in one place.
btw did anyone notice that Bill Peet Jr. had a booth (it was near Storyopolis)? A very nice guy.

I spent the weekend storyboarding, so I wasn’t able to attend. Drat!

Anyway, I still give Michael Barrier’s take on the Old Maestro the nod. And, not because Barrier interviewed me for his book either.

In any case, trying to capture the real Disney is a daunting task for any author. I guess the only way to really know Walt was to work with him — and that would only be the beginning. These books give you a glimpse of this fascinating man, and I recommend both.

“…you can’t deny his [Gabler’s] enthusiasm for the subject.”

With all due (and sincere) respect to Jerry, I must say I can easily deny it. It’s possible that in the past Neal Gabler has written books on subjects for which he felt enthusiasm — but I don’t see it here. If he has any deep feeling for the best work of Walt Disney — or for animation itself — it’s well concealed in his book.

I would unreservedly recommend Mike Barrier’s book, though. [I do wish it was as long as Gabler’s book.]

“…you can’t deny his [Gabler’s] enthusiasm for the subject.”

Funny that there is disagreement on this.

I totally do see his enthusiasm. It’s just that he has his own slant in terms of where he places his analysis of his subject. Perhaps it’s just that Gabler hasn’t been a lifelong archaeologist of Disney lore or stuck-in-adolescents cartoon fan (like me).

I read Gabler’s book. I also read alot of the comments by Mike Barrier and others pointing out the many mistakes that Gabler made in the book. THAT SAID, it still is a very good read and gives you a good sense of who Walt was as a person. One subject that Gabler goes in to in the book is whether or not the rumor was true that Walt was anti-semitic. Gabler leans toward saying that he was not anti-semtic and in doing so, points out a lot of mistakes in “Hollywood’s Dark Prince” which I also read and which suggests that he was not only anti-semitic but racist against blacks too. Then to further disprove the rumor, Gabler mentions several prominent Jewish employees of Disney including…and this was a suprise to me: Marc Davis and Joe Grant. Does anyone know if that’s accurate or was that one of the many mistakes he supposedly made? I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m just curious.

I’ve read both books and, though I think Barrier has a better feel for the man (and his cartoons), I think both are worth reading. I’ve written an essay in which I summarize what I learned from them: “Despite these differences, both present a career in three acts: animation, Disneyland, and the Florida project. To be sure, Disney’s studio has always been involved with cartoons and, during his life, Disney was always involved with those cartoons. But the nature of Disney’s involvement changed in quality and intensity, allowing other projects to attract his most passionate attention and activity.”

Thanks so much for posting these!

I’m absolutely amazed that Walt Disney was unhappy with the look of this film. It’s the studio’s post-war masterpiece.

Those color schemes are wonderful. 101 DALMATIONS had a fantastic look to it. It is truly one of my all-time favorite animated features, and has been since I was a little kid. Full, penciled animation on modern, stylistic backgrounds must have been pretty new for Disney at the time. A classic I shall never forget. I really like these images.

This may be a dumb question, but they don’t have a motion picture unit in the military any more, do they?

I don’t think they do Floyd, at least I haven’t yet heard of one these days. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen/heard of an ACTOR in the service these days.

By the way, it’s cool to see Woolie Reitherman & Frank Thomas’ names on that list, too!

Some years ago, we had the opportunity to hear from a bunch of industry veterans who served in the Culver City Armed Forces Unit during the Second World War.

Guess who their Commanding Officer was? An actor, named Ronald Reagan. Boy, did they have stories to tell.

The 30th Audiovisual Squadron at Vandenberg AFB, CA is still active in documenting missile launches and some of their photographers have served in Iraq. Norton AFB in San Bernadino had a huge facility which was closed down in the 1980’s. The Navy has a highly respected photographic school where even people from other branches of the service have received a solid education.

Interesting to see George Goepper and Van Kauffman on the list as they were assigned to help Hank Porter fulfill the insignia requests that flooded Disney’s. Based on my research, I believe Porter designed a minimum of 75-80 percent of the estimated 1,200 combat insignia designs created at Disney’s during the war.

Dispatch From Disney’s and the pin-up gatefold have always been one of my favorite Disney war era collectibles.

It’s kind of comical to see Jules Engel’s listed among these folks since he was NOT at Disney when he went into the service!!! Another studio rightly listed him repeatedly as being among THEIR boys in uniform (making this mention all-the-funnier). ;o)

What would REALLY be cool (and suitable) would be repros of the actual Tiki Room figures–I’d buy them in a heartbeat.

I revere MM and Co., but this is kind of…grotesque–too much of a stretch to me. Not appealing as either Tikis or as cartoon characters. I thought they were made out of Legos at first glance.

I have a giant collection (still ongoing) of Goofy! I think I’ll by-pass this go-round, tho!

Mickey looks like he’s giving a very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Those statues are scary and awesome. You could mount them on the roof like gargoyles so they stare down visitors with their giant wooden freaky teeth.
The Donald one in particular looks about ready to knife someone.

I’m a huge Disney fan and these still fall in the ‘creepy’ category for me. As drone said above, I’d love to see reproductions of the Enchanted Tiki Room carvings, but these faces are grotesque and off-putting.

These are definitley creepy.

I kinda like the Donald one, but the others look creepy!

Creepy.

Gotta go with creepy.

I 2nd the suggestion for mini Tiki Room figures. I think these characters would scare away woodland animals and small children. A Stitch tiki could be fun…yet most likely just as terrifing….

I like them. I think that any time Disney allows reinterpretations of their main stable of characters, it’s a good thing.

I want the Don for my Donald collection.

I think the Goofy one comes off the best. I would -consider- purchasing one for a friend or family member.

these don’t look like tikis so much as really bad representations.

I wonder how big they are.

Nice webstore Disney’s got going there. Every attempt to get information about these things gets an error message or an endless promise that the information is “loading”.

Goofy doesn’t look weird, Mickey’s got a creepy smile going on.

But Donald? That one is PERFECT.

eek!
I like ‘em!
Anyone else notice SpongeBob’s house in the background?

I think I am going to worship those tikis.

Hahah, these are awesome!

I wouldn’t mind putting a couple of these near my door, just to thoroughly freak out anyone who comes in. I think the Mickey Mouse one is the most disturbing - it looks like there are pins keeping his mouth open.

They all look like they’re in agony.

Remember that old ’70s “Movie of the Week” TRILOGY OF TERROR, where the evil Zulu doll stalked Karen Black in her apartment?

I think you could do a very spooky remake of that using the Donald statue pictured above.

Nice animation there, and it’s great to see the surreal campiness of the original movie preserved in it.

and it’s abouuuuuuuuuuuuut TIME that people who knew who they are! I was just there in Feb…..and actually (after alllllll these years of WANTING them at Mexico, Epcot)…got to “MEET them!” I pray to God that merchandise will also ensue! Anyone know!?

Ole`!!

Cool… I grew up reading comics of José Carioca and see him again (No matter this ride is nothing about Brazil anyway) and animated is really cool, thanks a lot for the post! I have to say… I hate the music, is always the saaaaameeee…. but the animation is really cool, I love it…

Now I have to find a way for go to Disneyworld… but how?

Man I remember working on boards, designs, and jokes for this ride 7-years ago .
Disney nuked it before we started animation and said it would be toooo expensive.
Nice to know they revisted the idea.

While I’m often leery of attraction makeovers at the parks, this one seems like such an inspired and natural choice. The Mexico boat ride always put me in mind of the Mary Blair illustrated “Las Posadas” sequence in The Three Caballeros, due no doubt to its similarity to “It’s a Small World” as well. From the images on Laughing Place it looks like the Disney artists did it right, too, especially judging from that lovely animation that looks quite true to the original movie’s style. Congrats and thanks to all who were involved in this upgrade!

I’ve rode this twice now and I was surprised how good the characters looked from the laughingplace still photos. When I saw the animation in person, not only did it give me a headache but they felt surprisingly unlike the characters from the film. Jose and Panchito are interchangeable and follow Donald in the same fashion the Finding Nemo characters chase Nemo in The Living Seas With Nemo and Friends attraction. However, that said there is still much to love and applaud the attraction for giving us. It retains the atmosphere of El Rio del Tiempo and shows us that the culture and locations they filmed 25 years ago look just as good today. Also, the Mariachis that sing inside the Mexico pavilion now have the Three Caballeros in their set list! :) There is no Three Caballeros merchandise yet, but I expect it to be just as strange as the Splash Mountain merchandise.

Happy to see some 2D animation coming out of Disney’s, and I’m glad they chose The Three Caballeros

There is a better version of the ride through on Youtube that shows off the animation better. I worked with Eric for 6 months animating on this project and it was a dream come true.

Yay 2D!

I was on this ride in Dec 2005 and I felt it was sorely in need of updating…so it’s fun to see one of my favorite trios livening things up. Interesting to find out that a rework had been in the making seven years ago.

Yes, that is Rob Paulsen as both Panchito and José Carioca.

Excellent job on the animation! I’ll have to go to Florida again someday to see this attraction and more.

Been waiting to see this since hearing about it a little over a year ago. Looks great!

So good to know they made one of the Epcot rides less of a BORE. Maybe this one will actually be fun.

And you know what else? This just occured to me: If they’re smart, they’ll put a version of this in California Adventure. It would totally fit in with the theme and it wouldn’t SUCK like the rest of their rides (with a few exceptions of course).

I’m all for it being installed at DCA.

I have a new reason to visit Epcot. One of the things I love best about Florida.

Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for this. The Three Caballeros is my all time favorite Disney movie (although Pinocchio and Dumbo are without a doubt the best ones). Been there too many times in recent years to warrant going again, but I’ll defiantly wanna pop back there at some point to ride this and hopefully buy some Jose Carioca stuff! =D

Yes! Find a way to put it in California Adventure! It would be nice to see some actual DISNEY characters in a Disney theme park.

I am SO happy that the Three Caballeros are back, even if they’re in Orlando!

I already saw the video, in order to avoid “anticipointment”.

And maybe one day we’ll produce new Joe Carioca comic book stories again in Brazil! :-)

I loved the cheese factor of the original ride, it was a huge inside joke in my family. But it was about time they updated it. I am happy to see they kept a lot of the original aspects of it, and I am very happy to see classic 2-D characters integrated into a ride. I am sad to see the weird mexican merchants from the end of the ride go though.

MiceAge has a review up also, which readers here may find of interest. It details what has changed from the original ride, with plenty of before and after shots. “Snappy Serape” by Kevin Yee is here.

Yay for the Caballeros! Bert, you and Eric did an amazing job on this attraction. Congrats!

I love it. And i can’t wait to go back and ride it again.

I just visited Epcot yesterday and got to ride the new THREE CABALLEROS attraction at the Mexico pavillion and the animation was great! It was very nice to see these three fellows back together in 2D form and to have a World Showcase attraction that actually showcases the Disney characters related to that country!! Kudos to Disney! =)

Congratulations to you and Eric and the rest of the crew, Bert. I know this is going to be a smash hit. How about putting the CABALLEROS in theatres?

That ride looks superb. I LOVE the animation they made for this ride, and I espicially hope they reprise the classic “Three Caballeros” song as a seperate Animated Music Video. That has the best Disney Animation I’ve seen in ages, without a trace of 3D anywhere!

Nice animation-I would have liked to have seen Donald join the Flyers of Papantla,or make the atalante statues of Tula come to life and dance. Have any of these people been to Mexico beyond Tijuana or Acapulco? From the video it looks like the “It’s a Small World Mexican Style” area is now smaller-thank God! Adding The Three Caballeros is a small improvement, but an improvement nevertheless in an Epcot ride that was basically a respite from the heat and sun of Florida.

i was still wanting it to have them (also) being animatronics, tho!

The pictures of that disc look bootleg as all get out to me. The art is silkscreened on the disc and the amray case is a cheap recycled one common to bootlegs (the disc holder is the clue.) The booklet looks cheap as well. Not to mention there is no reason they’d be releasing a NTSC disc in France with prices in US and Canadian dollars!

Unless someone can show me anything official from Disney, I call fake on the “French” SOTS.

History can not be ignored. And not at the expense of our art.

Even if the film is offensive by today’s means, it should still be commercially available, so we can decide for ourselves. I have always wondered what this film was like, as I have always seen pictures from it, but never an animated clip.

Here’s to hoping Roy Disney makes good on his word.

i am always flabbergasted at this film being so damned “taboo!” Depicting black people ….& white people….as friends!!! Uncle Remus has always been a beloved character….in ANY culture. What, in heavens’ name, is so almighty wrong with THAT!? I’m sure I am joined by the countless who WANT it available. How UNdemocratic can we GET, guys!?

Enough already with this “this film is banned” crap! About as stupid as an issue can GET!!

This project is ruffling a few feathers. I watched a segment on the local news last week where people were adamantly speaking against the re-release of the film. I would like for this film to see the light of day again. I think I’m smart enough to realize that this film was made in a different time. And, for those folks suggesting that this film could be damaging/hurtful to kids, especially African-American children, well… that’s what parenting is for - to put the film in context and educate kids on the rights and wrong displayed in the film. All in all, I believe you can still enjoy this film responsibly without completely outlawing it.

The booklet also features information copied directly from the film’s IMDB page. It reeks of bootleg.

There isn’t a single offensive frame in the entire movie. People who protest this movie only do it to bring attention to themselves and to pick on a big target like Disney.

My parents still have a copy of this on VHS. While certainly not the best Disney film released the unfortunately small amount of animation in the movie really is stunning. I, for one, would love to own this in a restored digital format.

Let’s hope Roy and pals are successful.

I hope that if they will release the movie it will be properly restored, like the first waves of the Disney Treasures. Recently restored Disney movies (such as “The Little Mermaid” or “Peter Pan”) were ruined with the restoration.

Personally, I think Disney should not only release it, but they should stop treating it like it’s an embarrassment. That “Disneyland Paris” link mentioned that James Baskett was the first live actor that Disney ever hired. I think that’s impresssive. (Hopefully, he got paid well)

Disney should grow a spine and release it during Black History Month and include all sorts of bonus materials. Certainly talk about James Baskett, but also the entire history of black artists in the cinema from Stepin Fetchit to Halle Berry. Make some featurettes about Sidney Poitier, Hattie McDaniel and all those who paved the way for today’s stars like Will Smith. Have interviews with Spike Lee or John Singleton. Include frank discussions about Bosko, Coal Black and Mammy Two-Shoes (If you can get permission) and point out how far we’ve come.

They could bypass the usual tired disclaimer and give the whole thing a really positive spin.

The Song of the South dvd is a pirate. It is from the restored videotape released in France (yes, Disney spent money restoring the film). It’s tape source shows quite prominently. I’d wait for an official release.

Smells like something from Asia. Japan for instance recently opened up legal sale of all movies 1953 and earlier as public domain. (Coincidence that “Godzilla” dates from 1954?? I don’t think so.) Disney of course still sells their own DVDs but they sit next to much cheaper versions made from old prints.

If this disc includes Clampett’s “Coal Black” as a ’special feature’ it’s another PAL to NTSC video conversion boot, running faster than it should. The cover screams bootleg, using British VHS artwork that is 20 years old. I’m not convinced. If thy’re including “books on tape”, gauranteed that’s what you’re buying, and the DVD will be “free”.

This is no more “official” than the dozens of DVD’s that show up daily on ebay.

kudos to all of the above. Especially “Chazzwazzim” ’s note….imagine!!…”damaging/hurtful to kids!” Any current (network) SITCOM is far more “damaging,” to say the least!

3 cheers for Chuck’s comments, too! Again, I chant….”Enough, already!”

I agree this item looks like a bootleg. No authentic French DVD release would be solely in English, nor in NTSC. If this item also has extras, it’s a point of curiosity that the back cover carries no listing of them.

It’s a remarkably warm and loving film, and it’s post-slavery, so the relationship it depicts between the races is that of employer-employee, rather than master-slave. If you think about the real life state of race relations in the 1950s, which necessitated the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, its depiction is actually quite sugar-coated in contrast to the reality. Nevertheless, Uncle Remus is possessed of a wisdom, enlightenment, and common sense that the film’s adult white characters only attain through trial and error. The movie reprises “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” a few too many times, but race relations can never be as ideal as we’d all like to think as long as a film like this cannot be seen as the time piece it is.

The biggest obstacle, I fear, is Disney itself — which has become so paranoiacally PC, they actually had Leonard Maltin apologize for Arthur Shields’ naturally Irish accent in THE HARDY BOYS as an artifact “of less enlightened times.”

As I’m living in France, I can confirm that’s a fake dvd. The only version of song of the south in france was released ten years ago in vhs. To add to that, price on the sticker would be on Euro, usual logos of french disney dvd editions are missing, the name on the sticker wouldn’t be “disneyland theme park, paris”, but simply Disneyland Paris, the beginning of the bar code is an english one, and french editions always features french code beginning with 3459379 or netherlands with 87, they say it could be read on US and Canada dvds players but no official dvd realesed in the french park is a zone one dvd, as nearly noone wouldn’t be able to read it without being able to desactive the zone protection of his dvd player here, and the last but not the least, the title would be Melodie du sud, and all would be written in french ;p I need to check that, but I don’t remember to have seen other cover than the french editions in the park.
Not to mention that a website which sells only one dvd, and where all the pages are the same don’t seems very professional.
To add a last thing the text is a copy paste from here. They have simply added “and a brief release at Disneyland Paris” in the middle of it.

How cool is that! We just saw this today at art school and boy did I miss this cartoon/movie. That’s the problem with alot of people today, were too sensitive. I understand why they might hesitate on putting this out due to the fact that were all “sue happy” these days. I don’t see whats wrong with something so brilliantly done. I’m sure there’s worse things; a kid could watch (Aqua Teen Hunger Force for one). Good job Roy! I’ll be first in line to pick this up…..

Political correctness has gotten out of hand…this ain’t nothin’ we all don’t already know. Those who deem SOTS “racist” have no friggin’ clue what the word means. If anything, SOTS is “raCIAL,” not “raCIST.” “Racist” is something done out of hate, “racial” is something that concerns a certain race. These PCers really piss me off! I truly hope Roy Disney isn’t talking out of his a** and blowing smoke our way…..I want my son and grandkids to see this film! Since the next batch of WALT DISNEY TREASURES has only three items, I say add SOTS as a fourth. C’mon, Dis! There’s profit in it!!!

I would love to see this film again (i’m sure I had seen the film as a kid) and yes, I’d love to add it to my burgeoning Disney collection. But, as a white guy who grew up in the North, I’d be really curious as to what black folks think about this film. What I remember of it doesn’t/didn’t offend me but it has no relation to my experience. I’d like to know how a black person living in this country feels about the film, how one would explain “the context” of the film, and how one would explain this to their children. I don’t think it’s too awfully PC to try and gage the reactions of the viewing public on a product that may hurt and offend, that’s just being sensitive.

I also wonder if this film is becoming much better and important than it was/is simply because it’s not being released currently.

All this nonsense smells alot like “Ethnic McCarthyism”. Are you now or have you ever watched Song of the South?!

If a man could lose his job for saying “niggardly” - and one did - then I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for a [i]SotS[/i] reissue.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. As close as the release may have been, I would not be surprised if all the fallout of the Imus/Rutgers stuff puts this release on the back burner.

Who uses niggardly in this day and age? Yah just don’t.

Essentially, it is much ado over nothing. One of the Disneyworld’s most popular rides is based on, and has, the animated characters from this movie. It *is* stereotypical, but I believe that if Birth of a Nation can be released, so can this film. All it needs is some context, which honestly, the controversy itself has provided [Disney was kinda right to worry. Between the HUAC and the rumors of anti-semitism, there are a good couple of unsavory details people like to bring up, some with good reason, some with less so.] An intelligent release is all it needs. What they did with the Mickey Mouse Treasures set is appropriate, a critic putting it in an intelligent context [I recall Bill Cosby was going to do it at one point on an old release, but that may’ve been a rumor.] I doubt it’ll be so difficult. I feel like the main people worrying are Disney. Parents can easily decide what to show and what not to show thier children. Context is key to the release of this.

Disney should talk to me. I’ve actually screened “Song of the South” for an all African-American audience. (The 16mm print belonged to Disney)

Anyway, the audience loved the movie, and requested I show it a second time. Any questions, Disney? I’m available.

Am I living in an alternate dimension? Why am I the only person who is repulsed by this movie? I understand that the endless hordes of Disney nerds want their “great, lost classic” in their video collections, but please. Spare me. Song of the South is an obscene, repugnant tribute to racism. I’ve been able to view whatever clips float their way onto youtube, and I’m shocked. This is a movie that belongs on the same historical trash-heap as blackface minstrel singers. It’s f’ing obscene, people.

I’m not a proponent of censorship of anything - I’ve been a faithful student of Frank Zappa, and there’s this silly notion of free will that sticks in my brain. So if you want to spend your money on a picture like Song of the South, hell, your funeral.

@ Sir Daniel Thomas MacInnes

Please tell me you’re joking.

How anyone can pass judgement on a film that they’ve viewed only as a few clips on YouTube is beyond stupid. I don’t know what clips you saw, but there isn’t anything racist in the movie. I own the entire movie on Laserdisc and I’ve screened it many times with my friends and family (not that it’s any of your business, but I’m in an interracial marriage and my in-laws have never been offended by anything in the movie)

Now, I’ll admit that the live action portion of this film is weak, but it was a movie aimed at children and the dialogue tends to be a little simple minded. Nevertheless, the message is clear: A fertile imagination will get you through tough times, whether you’re a young boy who misses his father and feels abandoned, or a wise old man who’s led a hard life, a little guy has to know how to use his head, and that we all have to find our own laughin’ place.

I’m sorry you’re incapable of seeing beyond skin color or regional dialect. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s hardly the” obscene, rupugnant, tribute to racism” that you descibe.

Re the Daniel Thomas MacInnes post:
Great comedy writing, dood. Almost believable.

As for SOUTH, it came out on laserdisc in the 1990s. Several kind, anonymous souls have nicely transferred their out-of-print laser copies to DVD and made them available through the usual channels, for the usual cost.

If Disney would just release it on DVD and put $39.95 on it we would see who is really offended or not. Just don’t buy it if you don’t want to watch it.

Song of the South Was Discussed on CNN Mar. 30th. 2007

Click here for video. Quality is not real great. I put a copy on MySpace. I am still new at this. Hope it works.

Jessica —I love your dinos! esp. the raptor on your blog. To see that move on a big screen would be reason enough for a Fantasia 2010.

Speaking of prehistoria, Why is there no mention of Johnny Hart’s passing on Cartoon Brew? I know he’s not an animator per se, but I’m sure his art and graphic sense inspired many Brew readers like myself.

Too many ideas but no way of doing it??

This is spot on. Very funny.

A wonderful interpretation by the great Jessica Plummer.

Er, I thought Meet the Robinsons and thought it was an excellent film, or if not that, at least lightyears ahead of the dreck Disney’s been putting out up to this point, such Home on the Range and Chicken Little. If anything it’s a sign that Disney’s fuiture movies will be so much better

Ugh, I’m so tired of people ripping on Disney even when they come out with great films. Chicken Little was a great story, with great animation, and it showed a lot of guts on Disney’s part to release something so cartoony. As for Robinsons, again, great film, the story meandered a bit, but the animation and design were impeccable. I agree that Home on the Range was awful, but why is it that people have such a hard time focusing on the GOOD things Disney puts out?

“why is it that people have such a hard time focusing on the GOOD things Disney puts out?”

Because it’s been YEARS since Lilo and Stitch. And since, they haven’t done much, if anything worthy of praise.

“Because it’s been YEARS since Lilo and Stitch. And since, they haven’t done much, if anything worthy of praise.”

Blah. Lilo and Stitch had some great animation, but the story was yet another in a string of ‘kid meets alien’ stories that everyone and their mom has done since E.T. Unless you belong to the crazy elitest group like Ms. Plummer here, who seem to think that if it isn’t 2D, it’s no good, then I just don’t see what’s so great about L&S that you can’t find in Robinsons…

“Unless you belong to the crazy elitest group like Ms. Plummer here,”
Yay for your attempt at name calling, ’cause that just validates your point, doesn’t it?
And the animation and design were impeccable in Meet the Robinsons? No, it wasn’t. Put it up against Pixar (even early Pixar).

“Blah. Lilo and Stitch had some great animation, but the story was yet another in a string of ‘kid meets alien’ stories that everyone and their mom has done since E.T. ”

I think that referring to Lilo and Stitch only as a ‘kid meets alien’ story is a disservice. You’re writing off all the other details and nuances of that movie that elevate the story above a simple three-word description. There are good reasons why L&S clicked with people of all ages, and if it were just a ‘kid meets alien’ movie I doubt that it would be as popular.

“Yay for your attempt at name calling, ’cause that just validates your point, doesn’t it?
And the animation and design were impeccable in Meet the Robinsons? No, it wasn’t. Put it up against Pixar (even early Pixar).”

No, name calling has nothing to do with my point. When someone trashes 3D movies for being 3D (which is certainly how this came across to me), it’s elitism. And Robinsons stacks up very well against Pixar. In fact, I’d say that the Robinsons animation was in many ways BETTER than early Pixar. But it depends on what you’re looking at. Arcs? Squash and stretch? Certainly better in those departments.

If Disney’s smart they’ll hire Miss Plummer

as a personal friend of Ms. Plummer calling her an elitest is far from acurate. Jessica knows a good story when she sees/reads it whether it is live action, 2D or 3D. The medium is not what should carry the film. I think that she was making a refrence to the more quality work that was done in the days old 2d disney and the 9 old men (her personal heroes).

Ha, Plummer needs no defenders. This comic is a loving smooch compared to the cutting pieces that adorn the halls inside Disney.

Jessica draws with gusto and guts. No apologies ever needed as long as you draw with passion. Lose that passion and you make nothing but excuses. She’s allowed to not like a movie. Here’s my hope: She’ll work up a brilliant reel and help us make the next one better.

…man… has anyone seen a movie by Satoshi Kon, or anything from Studio 4°C?? I mean, it’s like Disney, Pixar or WhoEVER is not even looking in that direction. I can’t believe there is a discussion here about Lilo & Stitch being a “movie for all audiences”, or even a good film for that matter. Go see “Mind Game”, please….

Mind Game is one of my if not my favourite film in general, but the brilliance of one film does not affect the quality of another. Lilo & Stitch definitly is a good film.

…caught! I was overreacting… it’s just that, even if Disney films are quite different from one another, when compared to Japanese, Korean, Israeli animation, they ook like they are from the same tree. Happens to Ghibli movies too…

Contest, contest, contest!! And besides, I don’t live too far away from their location so shipping would be cheap.

I have a stupid question: Is there a CD (or two) included with this book, or are the unused songs presented solely as sheet music?

I want this book. It’s pricey at first glance, but it’s over 300 pages, lt’s limited to 1000 copies and has ringing endorsements by the folks who matter in the soundtrack community. The Mary Blair cover is awesomely appropriate, and is a great invitation for what’s inside. Schroeder, an appropriately musical last name, of the composer and Peanuts’s piano playing music maven. Great job Russell!

I’m having trouble bringing up th PDF form. Is there a way around that? I’m sure this book will be fantastic, thanks for the heads up!

Russell Schroeder has delivered a teriffic book.

Who can beat Disney music and animation? I grew up falling in love with both — so you can bet I’m in tune with this book.

Good job, Russell.

I too am wondering if there’s a CD with the book.

Sounds like it, but there’s no explicit mention of one. If it’s “yes” I’ll definitely get it.

I was hoping Alex Rannie would respond to queries about a CD. He wrote me in an email:

“In reply to some of the comments, there is currently no CD available of the demos, but there will be if I have anything to say about it.”

I’m not sure if that means there still may be a CD included - or not. Alex?

This is absolutely phenomenal. Shouldn’t there be, you know, tremendous, even mainstream, excitement about this?

Alex is having a problem posting comments. He sent along this further note:

The book “Disney’s Lost Chords” does not contain a CD. Some of the songs mentioned in the book can be heard as extras on various Disney CDs and DVDs (Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, etc.).

There is, as of yet, no CD album solely devoted to these unheard Disney melodies, but several folks are working to remedy this situation.

For those who cannot open the PDF order form, on my blog I posted it as a JPG here…

I’m thrilled to hear that Leslie Iwerks’ documentary on Ub will be on the Oswald set. I saw the film a few years ago (with Leslie in attendance for Q&A and book signings), and I remember it to be a good documentary.

I don’t believe that Donald Vol. 3 will complete the presentation of Donald on DVD. The Disney press release simply indicates that Donald Vol. 3 will run from 1947-1950. If I’m not mistaken, there should be enough Donald Duck shorts from after that time period for a 4th volume, Disney willing.

Coolies! I can’t wait for Donald and Oswald. Should be good stuff.

So now all we need is one more Treasures wave with: 1) Chronological Donald vol. 4, that includes all the remaining bits and pieces, including “Donald in Mathmagic Land” and all the other Ludwig Von Drake shorts; 2) “Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow” and 3) “Song of the South.”

Wow! I guess he IS one lucky rabbit! as are we!…the Ub Special on DVD is worth the set all by itself….now all we need is ‘Song of the South” and we can all die happy.

I’d love to see a “Zorro” Treasures release. I loved that show!

Chris = Oh man, you’ve reminded me of mathematic land. I loved that film as a kid, and would love to own it again on DVD. Sog of the South remastered would be a beauty too: even though I don’t really care for the live action segments, he animated bits are some of the best work the Disney animators ever did, IMO.

Wow, first that Popeye set and now this…I still need to get Looney Tunes Vol.4 too! My wallet’s gonna be taking a beating this year. I’ve missed out on a lot of the Disney Treasures sets as I only started collecting them last year, and now some of them, like the Goofy one, are mega money, so I’ll be grabbing the Oswald one as soon as I can.

I am definitely scooping up all three sets as soon as they’re available. If there is another wave, I’d very much like to see a set dedicated to Disney’s ‘educational’ cartoons, like the Jiminy Cricket “I’m No Fool” films, Donald in Mathmagic Land, Ben & Me, and etc.

“now all we need is ‘Song of the South” and we can all die happy.”

I think not. I want to live long enough to enjoy all this animated bounty for decades to come.

I can’t believe they were going to end this series WITHOUT completing the Donald run! Donald in Mathemagic Land MUST be released!

And Song of the South, but we can all dream…*sigh*

droosan —Can’t help you with “Mathmagic” or “I’m No Fool”, but “Ben and Me” is on the Disney Rarities set from wave 5.
I myself would like to see “It’s Tough To Be A Bird” or anything else touched by Ward Kimball that’s still hiding away. Obviously, Song of the South needs to be released as well. I for one, can do without the Disneyland plugs.

There’s a great rundown of the WDT series on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Treasures

I’m excited about the animation DVDs you’ve mentioned, but I’m very excited about the Disneyland set. “Disneyland USA” didn’t contain as much stuff as I had hoped.

Kudos to Disney… But spare a thought for those in Australia (and elsewhere?), where the release of the previous waves seems to have stalled indefinitely after only a few sets.

I agree with Paul, a Zorro Collection would be a true treasure! But, for now I’ll settle for this history making collection of “Oswald”. Welcome back home, Ozzie!

I might be the only one, but i’d like to see “Disneyland Showtime” come out on that Disneyland DVD… the one with Kurt Russell and the Osmond brothers running around a late 60’s/ early 70’s Disneyland.

I’m suffering from conflicting info the web has somehow fed me.

I heard that Disney was going to stop the Treasures series.

I also heard that they are increasing the moratorium, greatly limiting the time of availability, on the DVDs of their classic features as well. Although I figure that may have some possibility of truth with Blu-Ray and HD DVD around the corner.

Any of you offishul types of this blog want to post clarification on this?

I mean, its pretty obvious that some Treasures will continue. It is just that they have such a damn short shelf life. Why would I want Donald Vol three, when I can no longer buy Donald Volume 1 and 2 in the treasures series, on the open market?

My wife is in agony waiting for the followup installments of SPIN & MARTY and THE HARDY BOYS. Me too.

What, no “80th Anniversary” spin for Oswald? ;-)

Hopefully the Oswalds will get a lavish restoration and some re-made title cards - and even more hopefully Disney will remember to put them on the DVDs! The Iwerks doco is a pleasant bonus - I was only thinking a few weeks ago how odd it was that it hadn’t made the leap to DVD yet, and eyeing the second-hand VHS prices ruefully. But the main disc will be a bit sparse, surely - aren’t there only 9 or 10 Oswald shorts that have escaped from the ravages of time and destruction?

@Stephen Rowley: July should be an interesting month for Treasure-starved Aussies.

Captain Murphey:
Of the animation sets, the following:
Complete Pluto Vols 1 and 2
Chronological Donald Vols 1 and 2
Mickey Mouse in Color Vol 2
Mickey Mouse in Black and White Vol 2
Silly Symphonies Vol 1 and 2
Disney Rarities

Are all available right now from Bestbuy.com for 29.99 or less. I recommend anyone who has holes from previous waves in their collection to check it out while they’re still available. You need to search for the treasure with just the title. Searching Disney Treasures won’t come up with anything.

I’d love to have all the Ludwig Von Drake’s on DVD!

At about the time Disney announced that they were no longer going to release any more Walt Disney Treasures DVDs they added a page to the Walt Disney Legacy DVD site with a peek at what was to come in the second wave of the Legacy set. These were: “Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic”, “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” and “Destino”.

It looks like they’ve now abandoned the Legacy DVD series as these are no longer on the official Disney Legacy website, and two of them are now scheduled as Disney Treasures DVDs.

I wonder what happened to Destino… again?

It would be nice to see “The Martins and The Coys” dropped from the “Make Mine Music” DVD included on a future Disney Rarities Volume 2.

To clarify Kevan’s post above re: Best Buy.

I decided yesterday that it was high time to get The Silly Symphonies and went to BestBuy to get both volumes. Ugh, volume one is not available. Also went to Amazon to check and same thing. So now I’m doing the ebay thing (where I’ll pay too much for it no doubt). Moral of the story - get them when they release them!

Silly Symphonies Vol. 1 is not available. It’s interesting that it’s still on the Best Buy site since it was a first wave release (2001). I don’t why, but I have yet to pick up any of the last wave releases. I need to get the Silly Symphonies Vol. 2, but I’m not sure I want Pluto Vol. 2.

I missed the first Silly Symphonies and Mickey in colour wave, but luckily those were the ones that DID get an Australian release (albeit without the tin covers). So I have pretty much all the animation Treasures to date except Pluto 1, because I’m not THAT huge a Pluto fan.

Yeah, grab them while you can. Ever since I missed those first three I’ve always pre-ordered the ones I wanted.

I’m grabbing Donald 3 and Oswald as soon as Amazon lists it.

Amazing stuff. Thanks for sharing this wonderful article with us.

It’s an amazing evoloution from Snow White to today. But the creative process itself hasn’t changed much at all- Ideas still come from human minds….FOR NOW. Bwahahahaha!

That is sad.

I never knew of Tim Onosko. However, I used to read Disney Adventures all the time when I was much younger. I can even recall some of the features the magazine used to have, particularly in the summertime when the Disney features would come out. Although I stopped reading the magazine as I got older, I still recall it from time to time, especially when watching Disney movies like THE LION KING and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.

Thank you from that magazine, Tim Onosko.

What’s preventing YOU from reprinting Mr. Onosko’s Bob Clampett piece? Just curious.

Vince - I’ll do it when I get a chance if no one beats me to it. I’m literally up to my eyeballs in work this month. I was kinda hoping someone else would do it (and we would give a generous plug).

Jerry - Tim was kind enough to allow me to use his interview in my upcoming book Bugs’ Buddies (to be released sometime in 2008). I was absolutely shocked to hear last week of his passing through his wife, as he had been extremely kind in his emails and did not give any hint that he was terribly sick. Bugs’ Buddies will be dedicated to his memory.

I DID know Tim throughout my college years at the UW. He also stayed at my home in Orlando when he was researching his amusement park book “Funland USA.” His success came as no surprise to me. He was a man bursting with talent.

I also remember his love of classic cartoons. Back in the 70’s when I was still in Madison, I can remember a party he threw (with his future wife Beth) where he showed us some UB Iwerks cartoons that he had unearthed. It was the first chance any of us had to see them.

Tim had kind of a “prickly” personality that rubbed some people the wrong way, but I always liked and admired him. Although we did not keep in touch, I was saddened to read about his death. He will be missed.

Tim and I worked together while I was producing at Disney in the mid-90s. He was a wonderful man and we hit it off immediately. I remember SO fondly having dinner with Tim in Santa Monica and then, after going to our cars, still hanging around in the parking lot, keeping the conversation going on Disney, movies, technology, and life in general.

Our collaboration and friendship was one of the true high points of my life, professional and personal.

I know its short notice but there will be a memorial service in Madison at the Nakoma Golf Club April 15 starting at 2pm.

Here’s an article from Madison’s Capital Times about Tim’s last project. I knew him from when I used to hang out at the Madison Commodore PET Users Group back in the early 80s. Since I was only a middle school kid back then, I often felt out of place in a room filled with University engineers and other technogeeks. Tim was somebody I could relate to. He did a few presentations for the club and I remember enjoying them. I wish I could remember more aside from him with his cigarette in hand and his jacket (which made him stand out like a sore thumb in a room full of tshirts and oxfords).

I remember one time he came to the meeting late and he brought a new Sony watchman so he could watch a Wednesday night baseball game. Back then, that was an impressive toy. The last time I ran into him was probably around 83-84 at a fast food joint on East Washington ave. After that, I just read his stuff in Omni (one of my favorite mags back in the 80s).

I wish I knew about his illness before I read about it in Doug Moe’s column. My little brother and I are big fans of Warner Bros cartoons and I’m sure we could have talked for hours.

While the fine art pieces add an important dimension to the current exhibit, there is a wealth of inspirational material from the Imagineering library and enough Disney art to create a spectacular exhibit.

This is wonderful news, I’ve been hoping the exhibit would come to L.A.! Big thanks to you and Jerry for all of your great art and animation coverage. I’m a big fan of the Brew, check it every day. New format looks great.

Surely there are American museums who would have suitable Durers, Blakes etc to augment the collection if the Louvre pieces aren’t allowed to travel?

My publisher is right across the road from LACMA. If it makes it there I WILL come.