33 Comments »   posted in Disney, Editorial cartoons

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I would have noted this earlier, but I just spotted it myself. Hollywood trade paper, Variety, posted the first review of Disney’s new Winnie The Pooh feature on its site April 1st, and it appeared in its weekly print edition this past Sunday (issue dated 4/11-17).

The review (by Justin Chang) is luke-warm, but positive. In case you can’t get past Variety’s pay wall, here are a few of the relevant parts:

“This soothingly short 69-minute picture boasts a few touches that, if not exactly crass, have been applied with perhaps too knowing a wink, resulting in a slightly condescending aftertaste.

“Misled by Owl’s iffy reading-comprehension skills, (Pooh and friends) come to believe Christopher Robin has been abducted by the Backson, an ugly, ill-mannered monster that looms ever more fearsomely in their imaginations in “The Backson Song” (the most memorable of the original tunes penned by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez). Performed over an inventive montage of quick-moving chalkboard drawings, this interlude is one of two musical sequences conceived and animated in a bolder, more fanciful style, the other being “Everything Is Honey,” in which Pooh finds himself in a golden-hued wonderland where everything is made of something sweet.

“(The directors) stick to a visual palette that, under Paul Felix’s art direction, retains the two-dimensional, watercolor-based style of the classic Pooh adventures, albeit polished to a high-tech gloss that in no way compromises its retro charm. The desire to stay true to what was lovable and enduring about the originals is palpable throughout, down to the amusing storybook conceit of having the characters interact not only with the narrator (voiced by John Cleese), but also with the letters and punctuation marks on the page.”

The film opened today in Europe. If you’ve seen it, tell us what you think (a U.S. talkback post will be here on July 15th).

Oh, and the photo above was snapped in the hallway of Disney Feature Animation (in the “Hat Building”). It’s a full-length mural, painted on the wall, I suppose to inspire the production staff to think 60s style… and, for the record, Disney never released any film in “Deluxe Color” which was owned back then by 20th Century-Fox. Disney of course, had a long term deal with Technicolor™ (though they did strike an Eastman Color print on rare occasions), but I digress…

25 Comments »   posted in Disney, Feature Film, Winnie the Pooh

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Six Rare Pieces of Animated Ephemera

April 12, 2011 1:19 am

Here are six good and rare animation-related clips I discovered on Critical Past, a stock footage house that specializes in films from US government agencies.

Not Walt Disney’s finest moment: his 1947 testimony in front of the House Un-American Activities committee HERE and HERE.

Japan, earthquakes and animation from 1945: “A Few Quick Facts: Japan” was produced by UPA for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine.

Animator Fred Moore working at his desk (or at least pretending to work). Over one minute of Freddie footage from 1943. Does any other footage of Moore animating exist?

A clip from a 1958 military film produced by New York studio Film Graphics Inc, which was co-owned by Lee Blair (Mary Blair’s husband).

Footage of animators working in the FMPU (First Motion Picture Unit), plus a clip from a FMPU training film. I see Joe Smith and Gus Arriola in this clip, as well as the back of Rudy Larriva and Jules Engel’s heads (I think).

Disorientation Crashes, a handsome UPA short produced for the US Navy’s “Flight Safety” series. Most likely designed by Bill Hurtz and animated by Bobe Cannon and Willis Pyle.

31 Comments »   posted in Classic, Disney, First Motion Picture Unit, FMPU, Fred Moore, Freddie Moore, Lee Blair, UPA

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Bob Clampett’s Maps of Warner Bros. Cartoons Studios

March 31, 2011 5:38 pm

Don’t miss these never-before-seen hand-drawn maps by director Bob Clampett illustrating the various Warner Bros. animation facilities (called Leon Schlesinger Productions at the time) and identifying where the artists worked.

It’s a nice complement to this recent photo that turned up on eBay that identifies the various buildings on Disney’s Hyperion lot in the 1930s.

3 Comments »   posted in Classic, Disney, Bob Clampett, Hyperion Studios, Warner Bros.

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First clip from Disney’s “Winnie The Pooh”

March 31, 2011 12:00 pm

Disney released this 60 second excerpt from the forthcoming Winnie The Pooh feature, set for release on July 15th:

(Thanks, Edward Himel)

109 Comments »   posted in Disney, Winnie the Pooh

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Milt Kahl is Even Grumpier Than You Thought

March 30, 2011 11:11 pm

If you read just one thing today, make it this newly released 1976 interview with Disney animator Milt Kahl conducted by Michael Barrier and Milton Gray. Hearing Kahl speak his mind brings the past alive in a way that few history books can, and sheds light on the divisions and rivalries between the golden age Disney animators. When the interview took place, Kahl had recently left the Disney studio after forty-plus years and he doesn’t mince words:

“The way that I feel about it is that my performance in The Rescuers is good. The only thing is that you know that this picture is going to be mediocre. It has a few high spots, but it’s full of bad taste that is, as I like to put it, tempered by bad judgment. That’s kind of a lousy way to put it, but I feel that way. I’m really rather bitter about the set-up, about some of the people who I thought considered that we were working together, and I find that we really weren’t. Here I am, a person at the height of my powers, and I feel there’s not a place for me anymore. I don’t want to be involved; I can’t fight this thing. And there certainly isn’t a place for me anywhere else in this business.”

47 Comments »   posted in Animators, Disney, Milt Kahl

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