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.

A ‘heads up’ on some Disney Programs at the upcoming 16th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival, April 5th through 18th.

Friday, April 6 • 6:45 • Prince Music Theater • Tickets $10.00
Fantasia (1940) — A screening of the landmark film with an ensemble of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians, performing onstage preceding the screening.

Saturday, April 7 • 2:30 • Prince Music Theater • Tickets $8.00
The Disney Cartoon: Nine Decades of Magic — A screening of Disney shorts spanning nine decades of the company’s history. Shorts will include Pixar’s Red’s Dream, Roger Rabbit’s Roller Coaster Rabbit and the Salvador Dali-designed Destino.

Saturday, April 7 • 7:15 • Prince Music Theater • Tickets $10.00
A Salute To Roy Disney, an on-stage interview with Leonard Maltin. (Maltin will also be hosting a screening of rare Our Gang shorts on April 7th at 4:30pm)

Sunday, April 8 • 2:15 • Prince Music Theater •Tickets $8.00
Disney Cartoon Rarities – 35mm prints of Disney shorts including Hell’s Bells, Egyptian Melodies, Music Land, The Whoopee Party, Hawaiian Holiday, The Band Concert, as well as examples of Alice in Cartoonland and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Non-Disney animation at the Philly Fest will include a screening of the forthcoming anime feature Paprika and a program of contemporary animated shorts.

David Lesjack, on his Toons At War blog, has begun series of posts about Disney’s 1942 Academy Award winning short Der Fuehrer’s Face.

David’s blog is normally filled with odds and ends, interesting bits of obscure information and minutiae on Disney’s World War II animation. These latest posts on Der Fuehrer’s Face contain all sorts of new things I’ve never seen before – the original sketch (possibly by Kimball) for the sheet music, posts on Oliver Wallace and Spike Jones, comic strips and merchandising. Fascinating stuff.

Okay, I promise to stop posting silly Disney food products–as soon as they stop making them.

Brew reader Michael Eilerman snapped this pic of Old Yeller Dog Food at his local Kroger’s supermarket last week. Memo to Disney: Old Yeller had rabies! Tommy Kirk has to shoot him at the end of the flick. It’s a very disturbing film. I’m not feeding my dog any of this stuff!

What’s next? That Darn Cat-food?

Earlier: Mickey Meat Burgers, Disney Tomato stickers, Mickey Mouse Liver Paste, and Popeye Paté.