Rich Drees at FilmBuffOnline.com reports that Roy Disney, speaking at the Philadelphia Film Festival this past weekend, made it clear that a home video release of Song of the South is long overdue. Said Roy:

“I’ve got a bunch of cohorts working with me to convince the powers that be that it’s the smart thing to do. [Song Of The South] is a wonderful film that deserves to be back out in the public. All it needs is context. Some of that animation is stunning, even by today’s standards.�

In the meantime, for those who can’t wait, Disney has apparently released SOTS in France, in English, and was selling it at Disneyland Paris! Check this out. (This turned out to be a bootleg.)

Drawn by Jessica Plummer

Russell Schroeder has written and self-published an eye-opening (and ear-opening) book on the unused music for Disney films (both animated and live-action). The book, called Disney’s Lost Chords, is being published in a limited edition of 1000 copies, and is available solely from the author. The book features 77 (mostly) unheard songs and is illustrated with over 200 pieces of never before published developmental art.

Disney’s Lost Chords presents the Vocal/Piano arrangements for 77 unused songs originally written such classic Disney films as Song of the South, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, So Dear to My Heart, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, The Story of Anyburg, U.S.A., Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book. As an added bonus this volume includes musical numbers from several projects like Rainbow Road to Oz and Chanticler that were eventually shelved after initial development. The cover art (by Mary Blair, at left) was created in 1948 for a souvenir program for an event benefiting the Hospitalized Veterans Music Service of the Musicians’ Emergency Fund.

Musician and Disney historian Alex Rannie has seen the book and has this to say:

Disney music is an area of personal interest and expertise; I’ve read most all there is to read about music at the Studio. But nothing could prepare me for the depth of research and breadth of artistry in Russell Schroeder’s book. I can’t offer enough praise for Russell’s labor of love, and once word gets out, Disney’s Lost Chords is going to disappear faster than you can say “Bob’s your uncle!”

DISNEY’S LOST CHORDS
Hardcover, 9 1/4 x 12 1/4
312 pp., illus.
A Limited, Numbered, Edition of1000 copies
$75
Available only through:
VOIGHT PUBLICATIONS
2055 Lower Tuskeegee Road
Robbinsville, NC 28771

Download order form here (PDF FILE)

It was announced late Friday and posted on several other websites since: the Walt Disney Treasures will go on.

At least, for another year. This latest “wave” of releases are literally due to popular demand. Your voices were heard. In production for release on December 11th, 2007 are:

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Chronological Donald, Volume 3
Disneyland: Stories, Secrets, and Magic

Leonard Maltin is back as host and producer. Each volume is a limited edition. Chronological Donald, Volume 3 features Duck cartoons from 1947 onward which, combined with the previously released two volumes, will complete our collection of every one of Donald’s classic short films.

Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic is a “comprehensive look at the “Happiest Place on Earth.â€? The centerpiece is a new documentary with archival footage, including Walt’s own words, as well as new interviews, that reveal the secrets behind one of the world’s most famous destinations.

The big prize in this group is the volume devoted to Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney’s first animated star. Silent shorts made from 1926 to 1927 are revitalized with brand-new musical scores. This collection will also include Leslie Iwerks documentary about her grandfather Ub, The Hand Behind The Mouse.

More information on these sets will be posted here in the future. Click to read the official press release.

“The Making of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs,” courtesy of Popular Science Monthly (January 1938). Posted on the Modern Mechanix blog.

(link via Boing Boing)

I didn’t really know the late Tim Onosko personally, but I always admired his writings. We’d corresponded a few times throughout the years and thus I was saddend to hear today of his passing.

I first became aware of Onosko with his transcription of a Bob Clampett Q&A in The Velvet Light Trap (Bob Clampett: Cartoonist, No. 15, Fall 1975), a piece that desparately needs to be reprinted or posted on the web. He went on to write articles about the future, the past, about film and amusement parks, so it was no wonder he’d end up working at Disney in various capacities, including in the development of Epcot, and designing Disney Adventures magazine.

Onosko later worked for Universal Studios and most recently produced a documentary, Lost Vegas: The Lounge Era.

He was one of us–and he’ll be missed.

While it looks like animation fans in the United States definitely won’t be getting the “Once Upon a Time Walt Disney” exhibition that was in Paris last year and is currently displaying in Montreal, there is some exciting news to report. Colin Stewart, a columnist for the OC Register, did some research about the potential of a US exhibit and shares his findings at his Arts of Innovation blog.

Speaking to Lella Smith, director of the Walt Disney Co.’s Animation Research Library, Stewart found out that fifteen other museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), attempted to the get the exhibition, and because of that enthusiasm, there’s a “good possibility” of a similar show. In fact, the curator of the current exhibit, Bruno Girveau, is headed to LA in April to discuss the possibility of a show with LACMA. (Apparently, the reason that they can’t just bring this exhibit to the US is that the fine art pieces by Albrecht Durer, William Blake and Gustave Moreau were lent by the Louvre on condition that they only be displayed in two locations, a precautionary measure designed to limit possible damage to the pieces.)

This isn’t a review or critique of Meet The Robinsons, but I saw the film today at a screening at the El Capitan, in 3-D.

In a nutshell, it’s a very likeable film with eye-popping visuals, gorgeous art direction and pleasing character designs. The 3-D is great. The Streamline Moderne future is pretty cool, though the architecture reminded me more of Music Land (the 1935 Silly Symphony) than Tomorrowland. The story is a bit disjointed—shifting from heartwarming reality one moment to off-the-wall zaniness the next. In Disney terms, think if Pollyanna were grafted into Babes In Toyland. But it does hang together pretty well.

The film ends with a great quote from Walt Disney himself:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney

This quote perfectly caps the theme of the movie, but even moreso, it sends a subtle message about Lasseter’s commitment to Disney heritage—and possibly states a new direction for the beleaguered animation studio. Or at least I’d like to think so.

Am I reading too much into this? All I know is the quote was a nice touch, and I left the theater feeling pretty optimistic about the future—of Disney.