The NY Times reports that Disney is having returned to them over 250 pieces of original classic artwork, most of it from Sleeping Beauty. These pieces had been lost for decades until four years ago, when they were found in a janitorial closet in Japan’s Chiba University. The fascinating story of their discovery is documented in the Times piece.

After restoration work, the pieces began touring Japanese museums in 2006. The artwork was also printed in this awesome exhibition catalog. Hopefully with the artwork now coming back into Disney’s hands, they’ll take the initiative of publishing an English-language version of the catalog, or better yet, combine it with the Sleeping Beauty artwork already in their archives to create the ultimate “Art of Sleeping Beauty” volume. Now there’s a book I’d love to have on my bookshelf!

Animation historian Jim Korkis had a series of three small strokes last week. The strokes were in a portion of the brain that control balance and equilibrium, so he’s a bit unsteady, but he has no paralysis or speech impediment, and did not have a heart attack (as many stroke victims do after their initial incident). I understand he’s doing pretty well, all things considered.

Jim is one of the most renown and respected animation historians in our field, and certainly one of the most knowledgeable Disney scholars I know. He’s also a great friend. Get well soon, Jim!

What’s wrong with the following sentence in this Andreas Deja interview: “I got to know, not only Marc Davis, but Frank Thomas, Artie Johnson, Ward Kimball, all these great animators, and just ask them all these questions about how they did certain things, what their trials and errors were, the ups and downs.”

Then again, the same article also doesn’t spell Rodin properly so it’s probably asking them too much to do the most basic research about animation history.