A. Film L.A. test

A week ago today I spent several hours in line to see the Christmas Carol Train Tour exhibit at L.A. Union Station. It marked the beginning of a national tour promoting the new film by Robert Zemekis made for Disney called A Christmas Carol , of course based on Dickens' famous book. The train exhibit seemed extremely well done. Reference costumes, clips, models and a cute photo opportunity. Best of all, there were original Dickens documents on display. Very popular but less impressive was the "morph yourself into the characters" setup. This last bit did have problems, though: it spoke of "morph yourself into one of four characters," but there were only three, as the female lead was not available. Also, the images have as yet not turned up in my email, I wonder if they ever will...[They did, Monday night, eight days after the event!] After the train exhibit, we got into a new line, this time for the inflatable theater. Oh boy... Ok, my main bone of contention: i...

Returned from the D23 event "UP all night" at the El Capitan in Hollywood, where I saw PIXAR and Pete Docter's UP. I loved it! It is a wonderful movie. I thoroughly recommend it, and I hope it does as well as it deserves!! It has an interesting story with fun twists and surprises. Delightful, at times sinister, at times an action/adventure movie. I would say that, except for songs, this film has it all! The 3-d stereoscopic effect is nicely understated and is only used to help tell the story. The event itself was nice, too, though there was a good long wait first: in line 8:30 pm, doors opened at 10, film started at 11. Once inside we were welcomed by the organ music of Rob Richards, who played an hour non-stop, until the lights went down for a little welcome by D23-head Steven Clark and a nice talk by actor John Ratzenberger , who has the distinction to have voiced characters in all of the Pixar features. Then trailers, including a nice one for The Princess and the Frog,...

Not too long ago, I was lucky enough to be able to acquire this, the invitation to the party at the Disney Studio on Hyperion Ave. on June 25th, 1932 to finally celebrate the start of the distribution agreement with United Artists. The celebration was just as much about the parting of ways with Columbia, with whom business had gone sour. As Roy Disney stated as early as in April 1930, they were not "overburdened with 'Good Intentions'." Though the deal was signed December 1930, and announced in April 1931, the Disney shorts were still delivered to, and distributed by Columbia until mid 1932, hence the late date of this party. I especially like the wording, the down-home quality of Mickey's "dialogue" in this invitation. This is how Mickey should talk. If you who read this blog are, or are going to be a writer for Mickey, please realize that Mickey sounds best when he reacts, and remember to use as few words as possible! Now read this invitation, "an...

When I visited the Disney studio lot in Burbank for the first time in 1978, I noticed a panel holding a row of nice shadow boxes with paper cutouts explaining the process of animation. I later learned that these were done by legendary Disney animator Bill Justice. Originally situated just below eye level on the left of the entrance to hallway 1D in the Animation Building, the hallway of the Gods--or the Kings, depending on who is relaying the story (left image), it has since moved up one floor to just left of hallway 2A on the south-east end of the main corridor, a few inches lower than before, something that seems to reflect the sentiments of the company through the nineties. The wood paneling has also been painted white which can be seen in the right two images which I took last week. The boxes are quite elaborate little works of art that explain the process of animation from story, sound recording, animation, ink & paint, background, camera and editing to projection. They were s...

At last an image of the infamous Iron Pencil at work! Check out my previous post for details on the workings and patent drawings for this contraption! Blog reader Gunnar Andreassen pointed out a whole new world of images on Getty Images, and while browsing these, I stumbled over the image of a sound re-recording session at the Disney studio, for the wonderful short film "Toot, Whistle, Plunk & Boom," dated September 1st, 1953! Note how the gentleman in the center (maybe Jim MacDonald) points with his "iron pencil" which in turn gets the lights on the rail at the top to point at the same spot on the scores of the other gents, the mixers, who turn their dials according to their instructions--the spots are clearly visible on their scores! [Addition:] More!

A few days ago, the prolific Michael Sporn posted a few drawings that originated with Jack Kinney, including a few pages of girls drawn by Fred Moore. I noted in a comment that "All of the girls, except the very first one in Kinney’s caricature, are from the unofficial in-house publication “The Mousetrap” that was issued in 500 numbered copies in 1937 by “The Ward Ritchie Press.” Number 91 of these was reprinted as a facsimile in the late 70s. The original run had watercolors applied differently in each issue (by Ward and Betty Kimball, Ward Ritchie, a "Mrs. O.," and two guys, Webb and Pete). They were, of course, painted before the magazine was bound. Ward Ritchie was the publisher, his business pretty nearby at 1936 Hyperion Ave. while he lived at 2110 Griffith Park Blvd. (nearly back-to-back locations between Udell Ct. and Lyric Ave.). Ward Kimball was the main editor (perpetrator?) of this spiral-bound magazine. To underline this, and for comparison, here are the t...

The eminent historian Michael Barrier has recently posted an item about the fake Disney sighting in the 1944 film "Once Upon a Time." What struck me in the whole issue is that I find that the office actually REALLY looks like Walt's formal office! I have shamelessly stolen the screen grab from Mike's site, the left image below. Then, a triptych composed of one black and white photo taken during Walt's lifetime and two taken in 1968, and finally a plan of Walt's formal office in the Animation Building in Burbank, room 3H-1 which I recreated from photos. The office currently may still be hidden behind the walls in the Disneyland Opera House, if it is not already moved into the Disney Archives' storage in conjunction with the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln recreation. On the floor plan, the camera in the scene from Once Upon a Time sees the light red area, originating behind "Walt"'s left side. The three photos are taken in the direction of t...

Remember to pop by the Western Center Museum in Hemet now Saturday 5/9/09 at 3:00 pm - the day before last of The Music behind the Magic exhibit - and "join Disney Artist and Historian Stacia Martin [author of the booklet in the new World's Fair disc set !] for an entertaining browse through more than five decades of vintage Disney Vinyl Recordings from her extensive personal collection. Classic favorites from the family turntable of yesteryear will be heard along with rare promotional and production tracks. Memorable music, beautiful cover art and fascinating history wait to be DISCovered!" I hope to see you there! << Click to open flyer as PDF...                                         ... or as JPG! >> Prepare yourself for a true audible feast, with Disney goodies from the ver...