(via SlashFilm)

Back in July we posted about a new Nintendo game in development, Epic Mickey. Now, the November issue of Game Informer magazine has the scoop on this new game from Junction Point and Disney Interactive Studios.

BTW, if you look really closely at that cover painting you’ll spot Oswald the Lucky Rabbit behind the gates in the center.

I’m not a gamer, but this thing looks pretty cool to me. Game Informer also posted a video podcast with game creator, Warren Spector, where he discusses his love of Mickey Mouse, Disney and all things classic animation - and on another page they post a gallery of Spector’s Disney collection, which includes everything from a killer The Three Caballeros half sheet poster to several issues of Gemstone’s Disney comics.

(Thanks, Platy)

Here’s some show-and-tell. I found these odds and ends of UPA publicity at Cinecon, the classic movie convention held in Hollywood over Labor day weekend. None of these miscellaneous tid-bits are very important, but they are all part of the great jigsaw puzzle of film history — and can be telling on how the UPA cartoons were marketed and perceived by the public at the time. The first row is a four page spread from a pocket-sized movie magazine called Prevue (July 1953). I posted the cover below left (click on thumbnails to see full size image). You never know what you’ll find in oddball (and odd-sized) fan magazines such as these. In addition to the UPA pages, there were three pages promoting Disney’s live action feature The Sword and The Rose.

Next we have several clippings from Motion Picture Herald, a weekly trade magazine aimed at theatre owners. A dealer was selling a whole years run of 52 issues from 1952. I went through them all and found these items of interest: Columbia Pictures took out several back cover ads touting there current releases, done in a “newspaper” style, with press-style blurbs. At left, a bit about producer Steve Bosustow and his Academy Award; in the center, Columbia highlights a Bethesda Maryland theatre who billed Rooty Toot Toot and a bunch of Magoo cartoons over the main feature (Return of the Texan, a 20th Century Fox film); and at right, proving the incredible popularity of Mr. Magoo, the Herald ran this photo of a theatre in London who made a whole show of Mr. Magoo cartoons: “The First Mr. Magoo Show”. I wonder if there were ever a second or third?

And finally, a double-page ad in February 10th 1951 edition of Motion Picture Herald hyping the popularity and press (NY Times, Life Magazine, comparisions to Disney’s Three Little Pigs) of UPA’s Gerald McBoing Boing. It’s rare for any individual short to rate a full page ad - more so a two page spread.

Reviews of the Walt Disney Family Museum are beginning to appear in papers and online. There aren’t many (if any) animation-related museums in the US—and especially none as well-endowed as this one—so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received by the media and general public. Here’s a round-up:

Peter Hartlaub in the SF Chronicle

John King in the SF Chronicle about how they transformed old Presidio buildings into a musuem

Photo tour on MousePlanet.com

Edward Rothstein in The New York Times

Lori Rackl in the Chicago Sun-Times

I’m still not a fan of Family Guy, but I have to admit this is a terrific sequence from last night’s 8th season premiere episode.

UPDATE: You should read the comments on this post for sequence production details from Family Guy director Greg Colton, and the lead animator of the piece, Darlie Brewster (posting with the handle DarlieB). Our thanks to both of them for participating in the comments.

I collect all the Pixar and Disney Little Golden Books because they usually feature incredible artwork by the studio’s best artists. And the price is right too, only $3.99. The uber-talented Lorelay Bove illustrated the latest one based on The Princess and the Frog and she’s offering a tiny sneak peek on her blog. It’ll go on sale October 13th - and I can’t wait.

Animator Steve Segal had an opportunity to preview the new Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, which is opening to the public next week. He sent us this eyewitness report of what to expect:

On Sunday I visited the Disney Family Museum. If you’re even a casual Disney fan and you are in the vicinity of San Francisco you must make a point to visit it when it opens in the beginning of October. Unfortunately they don’t allow picture taking so you’ll have to come to see it yourself. I took some pictures from the outside and was able to sneak a few in less traveled areas (Click thumbnails below for larger images).

There are 9 separate galleries containing a staggering 214 video presentations. Some projected, most were small video screens populated throughout the museum. It covers pretty much all of Walt’s life and work. Here are some of the highlights (spoilers below):

• In the entryway is a collection of awards, including the famous 8 Oscars custom-made for Snow White.

• There are some recreations, but lots of original artwork, like storyboards, animation drawings and cels; the most memorable for me being Tytla’s drawings of Chernobog from Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia. Exquisite draftsmanship was on display in some drawings from The Band Concert, and the Brave Little Tailor.

• They have the actual train that Walt gave rides to his guests in his backyard.

• Correspondence from famous people, dozens of TV screens playing his myriad television programming.

• One of the most impressive recreations was an exact replica of the multiplane camera, you first encounter it from the second level and look down through several levels of art, then when you are down on the first floor the controls and background from Bambi (a recreation) is in the gift shop.

• There is also a gigantic model of Disneyland (or at least what they claim is Walt’s original idea for the park, which is probably not true, but impressive nonetheless).

• There are some interactive games for kids like making sound effects to go along side Steamboat Willie and Silly Symphony quizzes.

• There are a large number of kiosks where you can hold an old timey telephone speaker to your ear and hear a personal story from a friend or Disney artist.

• There is an interactive representation of the pages from the notebook of Fantasia effects animator Herman Schultheis. You can enlarge and move around the pages on a huge table. Check out Michael Sporn’s Splog for some pictures.

• There is also a small state of the art theater that will have special guest lecturers and screenings of Disney classics. Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, The Three Caballeros and Walt and El Grupo are scheduled.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is located at 104 Montgomery Street, in The Presidio district, San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit the website.