Talk about Duck and Cover!

A rare wartime propaganda poster from World War II, using Donald Duck to urge soldiers to use condoms (prophylactics), is being auctioned off this month at hakes.com.

It is believed to be of Australian issue. The lower right insignia “4MCD,” is believed to be for the Fourth Medical Corps Division. Art is signed “Cyril Jones.”

(Thanks, BoingBoing and Edward Cox)

Via Didier Ghez’s always informative Disney History blog comes word of a new Cinderella storybook that uses Mary Blair’s concept art from the Disney film. The book will be released in September.

It’s the Crappiest Place on Earth!

It’s one thing to bootleg a DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean, but it’s quite another to rip off an entire theme park! While copyright piracy is a major concern in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park has gone ahead a built an imitation Disneyland right down to the costumed characters who look awfully - and I mean awfully - familiar.

An article about the park in China’s business newspaper, The Standard, quotes a Chinese consumer who asks: “I don’t understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn’t others be able to use those characters besides [Disney]?”

The article also describes Beijing as being a place where “one can spend a morning at an imitation Disney amusement park, have lunch at a KFC knock-off, shop for fake foreign-brand fashions in the afternoon and relax at night with a DVD of a Hollywood film that is still in the theaters in the United States.”

Japan’s Doraemon and Hello Kitty are also swiped. Here’s a TV news report where a park executive claims their Mickey Mouse is simply a “cat with a big ear”.

More photos and video about this park can be found on JapanProbe.com.

(Thanks, Steve Worth)

I took a break from my deadlines on Saturday to see Mike Barrier discuss his Walt Disney biography at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Milt Gray, Eddie Fitzgerald, Miles Kruger, and award-winning author Amid Amidi were also there to cheer Mike on. The auditorium was packed (the entire LAT Book event itself has evolved over the years to become an annual must-do) and the panel of biographers (the others tackling Frank Lloyd Wright, Einstein, and Hitler) were fascinating. I just picked up my copy of Barrier’s new book at the Festival and will begin reading it this week. I know that once I open it I’ll never put it down till I finish, so I’m reserving some time to it during the next few days.

I couldn’t attend the panel with Neal Gabler on Saturday afternoon, but CSPAN telecast the session in the wee hours of Sunday morning. I haven’t read Gabler’s tome yet either - I’ll do so after I devour Barrier’s - but you can’t deny his enthusiasm for the subject. I took the liberty of posting just Gabler’s comments on Disney in two parts on You Tube. Here is the first part (5 mins.), the second part (9 mins.) is embedded below.

An update at the Cartoon Modern blog: a collection of color keys by Walt Peregoy from Disney’s 101 Dalmatians.

Hans Perk has posted a fascinating historical document on his blog: a list of Disney artists serving in uniform during WWII. The document, which is from spring of 1943, says that 165 Disney artists were in the service at the time, or more than 25% of the studio’s workforce. It’s definitely a trip seeing animation artists identified as Lt. Lee Blair, Pte. Jules Engel and Corp. Donald Lusk.

I can’t decide if these are cool—or really creepy.

These tiki garden statues are being sold through the Disney Stores (and online). I imagine they’d be fun to stare at while eating some Mickey Mouse Liver Paste.

(Thanks, Brad Constantine)

A few days ago, Walt Disney World in Orlando re-opened the boat ride in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot Center. They have added a Three Caballeros storyline to the ride featuring new animation of Jose Carioca and Panchito on a search for Donald through Mexico. LaughingPlace.com has posted a complete tour of the attraction in still pictures. And naturally, someone took home video (Windows Media) of the ride.

The animation looks terrific—I believe our friend Eric Goldberg directed these pieces. Is that Rob Paulsen as Jose Caroica?

(Thanks, Jon Cooke)