Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2009
From our new quarters on the Nordisk Film lot!

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Prod. CM20 - Mickey Cuts Up

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Mickey Cuts Up was directed by Burt Gillett and released 11/30/1931. It is found on Disney Treasures DVD: Mickey Mouse in Black & White Volume 1 disc 1. You may still find it here on YouTube. Have a look, if you need a clearer understanding of the following documents! Gillett left some documents pertaining Mickey Cuts Up behind, and I would like here to show a few of these that I recently lucked into. It is interesting to speculate in which order these were written - they seem to all be in Gillett's own handwriting and would probably date to late August or early September 1931. First we have two pages, numbered 1 & 2, with ideas linked to names, Otto and Webb, which to me seems to mean that the ideas were originally thought out by either Otto Englander or Webb Smith. There are interesting ideas that did not make the film - they are crossed out: "mower bumps up and down on hedge - trick cuts." Some were not crossed out and made it in the film: "Cuts down tre...
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Trader Mickey's Director

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Here is an item that can clear up what seems to be an obvious mistake in the information I have seen so far regarding UM2, Trader Mickey. All sources (*) mention that Dave Hand was the director. But this little document from 1932, from Burt Gillett's own papers, mentions Gillett as director... I have previously posted the draft here , and a part of the bar sheet here - in both I mentioned Hand as the director, but above document, and the handwriting on the bar sheet, which looks like all other Gillett handwriting that I have, convinces me that Gillett directed it. Hand himself mentions that his directorial debut was on my favorite, Prod. UM7 - Building a Building . The fact that the Trader Mickey draft mentions Hand may be the reason for the mix-up...? Note the other info on this sheet (click the image) - it shows the start and finish dates in 1932 on the five films mentioned (UM8 being Mickey's Good Deed ). I suspect these were the dates that Gillett's involvement started...
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A Quick Culhane/Tate note...

Remember the discussion we had about Shamus Culhane's animation showing up on the draft as Norm Tate? Well, I had a little think about it. I wonder why I didn't do that before. I have previously expressed that the drafts are working documents that should point those in need of information to the responsible person. Since Culhane left, the responsible person and the one to be on the draft would logically be his assistant, Norm Tate. In other words, it is correct that Tate is on the drafts. The questions should instead be about credit: 1) why isn't Culhane credited on the film, and 2) why is Norm Tate? The first one is easy to answer: he left. Sorry, no credit. We have seen this more often - remember the missing credits for Don, John and Gary on The Fox and the Hound? Not a very nice thing to do in my book, but, well, a fact of life. The second one I have as yet no answer for, except maybe that some production person made a list of credits based on the draft, which under NOR...
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