6 Comments »   posted in Disney, Cliff Edwards

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First, a research request, because if Cartoon Brew’s readers can’t help out with this one, I don’t know who can. I’m looking for two episodes of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color that Ward Kimball was heavily involved with: “A Salute to Alaska” (1967) and “The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show” (1968). If you have copies of these and can help out, please contact me HERE. (UPDATE: Got the Anniversary Show, only looking for the Alaska special now.)

Second, here’s a real Ward Kimball curio: a 1965 newspaper article about a panel discussion that he participated in at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. CLICK HERE to read the article (and try to ignore the poor quality of the iPhone photo).

What’s so odd about Ward’s participation is that the topic of the debate was “Is Couture Design an Art Form?” It’s hard to imagine many other animators from that time who would have had the curiosity and interest to participate in such a discussion. The other panelists at the talk were equally respected in their fields: fashion designer Gustave Tassel, architect George Vernon Russell and silkscreen artist Sister Mary Corita. The debate over whether fashion design is art or not has long been settled (see the record-breaking success of the recent Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met), but nevertheless, it’s fun to read their thoughts and gain some historical perspective on the issue.

7 Comments »   posted in Disney, Ward Kimball

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Walt Disney Confessions

August 18, 2011 6:29 am

The self-explanatorily titled Walt Disney Confessions might entertain you for at least a few minutes today.

11 Comments »   posted in Disney, Walt Disney Confessions

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Del Connell (1918-2011)

August 17, 2011 6:35 am

Del Connell, who was a veteran Disney animation artist, Western Publishing editor, and comic strip/book writer, passed away on August 12 at age 93. Connell started working at Disney in 1939. Among other accomplishments, he worked in Joe Grant’s Character Model department, served as a story artist on Alice in Wonderland, and wrote the shorts The Pelican and the Snipe and The Cold-Blooded Penguin.

In the 1950s, he started a thirty-year run at Western Publishing where he wrote and edited thousands of Dell and Gold Key comics featuring cartoon characters from Disney, Warner Bros., Walter Lantz, Hanna-Barbera, and MGM. He remained especially close to the Disney characters: he wrote Donald Duck comics for decades, scripted the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip between 1968 and 1988, and invented Goofy’s alter-ego Super Goof.

I never met Connell, but heard plenty of nice things about him from his colleague Pete Alvarado who worked with him at Western Publishing for many years. For more about Connell’s life and work, follow these links:

Extensive chronology and memories of Del Connell by his grandson
Remembrance by Mark Evanier
Recent article about Del in the The Bakersfield Californian

(story via Disney History blog; the Connell photo at the top of this post is taken from Mark Evanier’s remembrance post)

4 Comments »   posted in Animators, Comics, Disney, Del Connell, RIP

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Lost Louis Prima Disney Song

August 15, 2011 12:30 pm

Here’s a real curio – and a treat for fans (like I am) of Louis Prima. The son of late song writer Floyd Huddleston (The Aristocats), Huston Huddleston, has just posted the first of several lost songs produced by Disney for use in a proposed version of The Rescuers. Says Huston:

“This is a song written by Floyd Huddleston, recorded at Disney in Burbank by Louis Prima, Sam Butera and the Witnesses. EXTREMELY rare recording, not even Disney has it, and was not used for the final film. To my knowledge, there were only storyboards and sketches for the Louis The Bear version of the film, most of which Disney has never released.

“Over the next few months, I will be releasing ALL of the unreleased songs and Demos from the film including “Rescuers Aid Society”, “Misery”, “I Never Had It So Good” “Sittin’ In My Favorite Position Doin’ Nothin’‘” and “All I Ever Do Is Think Of You“.

“Unfortunately, the demo version of “Someone’s Waiting For You” sung by Nancy Adams (singer of Love from Robin Hood) is, to my knowledge, forever lost.”

It’s certainly a pleasure to hear this, though its debatable if this version of the story would have made a better film. Who knows how much more discarded material the Disney vaults hold (if they kept it all)?

28 Comments »   posted in Disney, Louis Prima

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Disney Animation Exec: Story is Irrelevant to Our Company

August 10, 2011 10:58 am

John Lasseter believes that, “No amount of great animation will save a bad story.” Not every exec at Disney appears to share the same values though. Speaking at SIGGRAPH last Sunday, Andy Hendrickson, the chief technical officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, offered his opinion by emphatically stating that when you’re making a tentpole feature like Toy Story 3 or Alice in Wonderland, story is overrated:

“People say ‘It’s all about the story.’ When you’re making tentpole films, bullshit.”

He supported his theory by citing Disney’s recent Alice in Wonderland as an example: “The story isn’t very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn’t hurt.”

So according to Hendrickson, here’s the Disney formula: VISUAL SPECTACLE+JOHNNY DEPP-STORY = $$$. At least he’s honest about how Hollywood works nowadays. Give this man a promotion and corner office post-haste!

149 Comments »   posted in Disney, Ideas/Commentary, Andy Hendrickson, Story is Bullshit

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