I guess this is slightly O.T. as the film referenced here is a live action short.

I was at a horror movie convention in Burbank yesterday (Monsterpalooza ‘09) and found this piece (above) in a box of cheap lobby cards. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, nor could I couldn’t stop laughing at it. This has to be the worst Disney poster/ad art/promotional painting I’ve ever seen! It looks like a Bruce McCall-National Lampoon spoof – but it’s the real thing. It’s so stupid looking, so God-awful, even the logo/typeface is so boring; I can’t believe they thought this would be an effective come-on to a film, even a short. I bought it for $2.

Is this the worst poster Walt Disney’s name was associated with? I don’t mean worst film… I mean, of all the films Walt produced in his lifetime, was this the lamest movie poster to bear (no pun intended) his name? If not, do you have a better candidate?

UPDATE: Kevin Kidney posted a follow up on his blog, with a full image of the original painting used in this poster.

Remember that rare Leon Schlesinger merchandising manual we posted about a year ago? Here’s how one Looney Tunes licensee used it. Dan Goodsell recently posted these rare ice cream packages (click thumbnails below to view enlarged image of each) on flickr. Dig the blue hairy Daffy Duck, the early still-evolving Elmer and note the fact they chose to use the obscure Fluffnums (from Tashlin’s Porky’s Romance) and “Patrick” Parrot (from Avery’s I Wanna Be a Sailor) as representative Looney Tunes.

Frankly, I learn almost as much about old cartoons from their merchandising as I do from watching the cartoons themselves. Thanks to Dan Goodsell for continuing his archeology in this area of research. Check Dan’s blog regularly for new finds – and updates on Mr. Toast.

(Thanks, Billie Towser)

Pixar’s UP opens today. I gave you my opinion last week – what is yours?

Please comment below only if you’ve seen the film.

I swear, Pixar isn’t paying us to post all these news items about their film products, but frankly, it’d be kind of nice if they did. Tomorrow afternoon between 2-5pm, Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra will be hosting a lecture with Ronnie del Carmen, who was story supervisor and lead story artist on UP. In addition to discussing his work on the film, del Carmen will be signing copies of The Art of UP as well as the tie-in storybook that he illustrated called My Name is Dug, and a new personal book, There You Are. Admission is FREE. More details on the Gallery Nucleus website.

Lou Romano emailed me to point out this amazing blog post he did about his work on UP. It’s got tons of development art, animated fx tests, and photos from research trips.

Attached to today’s release of Up is the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3. I love how they squeezed the entire cast (and their voices) into it.

UPDATE: We’ve refreshed the link. If it doesn’t work, go see it today with UP and give us your comments.

(Thanks, Iain Robbins)