Brew reader David points out another fascinating sets of color photos in the Life Magazine archives that show the live-action reference footage shot for Sleeping Beauty.

The voice of Donald Duck was a guest on the December 12, 1954 broadcast:

Disney is allowing a group of contemporary artists to turn Mickey Mouse ’street’ through a new program called Bloc 28. The artwork displayed so far on the project’s site is, for the most part, vapid and uninteresting. There’s no real observation about the character of Mickey in any of these pieces, just a little paint splatter and rough edges to make it ‘urban’ enough for people with too much money to pretend that they’re buying art. I’m all for reinterpreting classic cartoon icons in subversive ways, but reinterpreting cartoons with the full sanction of a corporation defeats the purpose. Air Pirates these guys clearly aren’t.

I’m no expert on the box office, but when Disney’s CG “blockbuster” Bolt opens with less than the studio’s throwaway live-action film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, there’s going to be some eyebrows raised. Here’s some analysis of Bolt’s tepid opening from BoxOfficeGuru.com:

Disney’s big offering for the holiday season Bolt opened in third with sales that were a bit disappointing. The PG-rated animated flick took in an estimated $27M from 3,651 theaters for a $7,395 average. The debut came in well below what other November toons in recent years have opened to – 2005’s Chicken Little,2006’s Happy Feet, and last year’s Bee Movie all bowed in the $38-42M range. Like Bolt, these films were non-sequels and did not have Thanksgiving to provide a boost. The canine flick even screened in 980 3D theaters and featured the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, but that did little to spark excitement. However with kids getting out of school for the holiday this week, sales could stay strong in the days ahead giving the Mouse House a respectable ten-day start.

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Bolt opens today. The film may need the Dalmatians “Twilight Bark” to fight off the blood-sucking box office competition this weekend.

What did you think of the film? This post is open to our readers who have actually seen the picture. Please submit your comments below.

Life Magazine has just put its entire photo archive online via Google. Results in the search of “Walt Disney” bring forth a treasure trove of rare pictures – including many candids (like Walt eating chicken), behind the scenes shots (like this mixing session from Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom), and special posed sessions with animators (like Ward Kimball).

Click here – but be prepared to spend a few hours eyeballing this material!

Within the last two weeks I saw Disney’s Bolt and rewatched Pixar’s Wall•E (as well as moderating a Q&A with writer/director Andrew Stanton). Talking to Stanton about his innovative new film, I was reminded that Pixar’s next release is Pete Docter and Bob Peterson’s offbeat Up and Stanton’s next project is an adaptation of Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. Two completely different films, pushing Pixar (and animation by extension) in new directions, following several prior envelope-pushing efforts from Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles, etc.).

Meanwhile Bolt, the first effort from Walt Disney Animation Studios (the new name of the Feature Animation group), is a good solid commercial production. It plays it safe and gives audiences what it expects from a film labeled with the Disney brand.

I had wondered how John Lasseter, running parallel studios, might differentiate the material Pixar would tackle versus the projects to be released under the WDAS banner. Originally I had hoped that John would return Disney to being a hand drawn animation studio, empowered (as Pixar is) to challenge the preconceptions of what hand-drawn character animation can be. However, the choice of The Princess and The Frog seems (to this outsider) a throw-back to what Disney once was, designed to placate the demand for further Disney Princesses’™, and not the progressive direction I was hoping for.

And then it occurred to me. It all became clear.

I don’t know if this is by design, or is Lasseter’s master plan, or if it’s just my wild fantasy… But I think the two studios could (should?) co-exist as a modern day, feature length equivilent of Disney’s two concurrent shorts series of the 1930s: Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies. At least it seems to be where they are heading.

Back when, the Mickey Mouse cartoons were the soul of studio. Disney’s bread-and-butter pictures; they were what the public expected and demanded from his studio. Big, broad and designed to please. The Silly Symphonies were the heart (or at least where Walt’s heart was, en route to Snow White). Each Silly was completely different, pushing the latest technologies, developing new ideas and pursuing new talent. And won all the Oscars.

Presently, WDAS is in full “Mickey Mouse” mode: reinforcing the brand, producing crowd-pleasing films of highest artistic quality and delivering what audiences of all ages, all over the world have come to expect.

Pixar’s films are already reminiscent of the pioneering ways of Walt’s Silly Symphonies. In fact, the basic situations in Toy Story, A Bugs Life and Cars might’ve been inspired by classic Disney shorts like Broken Toys, Grasshopper and the Ants and Susie, The Blue Coupe. They don’t play it safe, consistently break new ground – and win all the Oscars.

There’s no way to bring back Walt Disney. He was one of a kind. In addition to his triumphs in film, theme parks and family entertainment, Walt laid the foundation to create great works of animation – and the blueprint is right there in the studio’s history. Perhaps John Lasseter has figured that out.

If not, may I make a suggestion…?

Disney’s Roadside Romeo has opened in India and it’s a huge hit. Let me repeat that: It’s a HUGE HIT. According to a Disney exec, “in its first four days it exceeded the entire Indian gross of The Incredibles.”

This means only one thing. The population of India is clearly not ready yet for animated films. It’s understandable, I mean didn’t they just introduce automobiles into the country last year or something. So here’s my proposal: All animation should be immediately removed from the nation of India. I’ve written a letter outlining the plan.

Dear People of India,

As of tomorrow, anything animated—whether CG, stop-motion, Flash or drawn—will be taken off of your airwaves and out of your theaters. Additionally, any DVDs containing animation can be dumped in useless neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Furthermore, a moratorium will be placed on any animation currently being produced in India. Send your animators home. Trust me, nobody wants to see this crap anyways. As part of your cartoon re-education, all children’s toys based on cartoon characters must be traded in within 72 hours for books about Renaissance painting and storytelling how-tos by Robert McKee. As a goodwill gesture, we will also ship you Richard Williams who will conduct his popular Masterclass in India’s 200 largest cities.

We’ll try the plan for two years. Don’t worry, good ideas like this take time. When the fine people of India feel they’re good and ready to respect the animation art form, I will personally send over a print of One Froggy Evening. If you enjoy that more than you did Roadside Romeo, we’ll send you Dumbo the following month. If you still enjoy Roadside Romeo, we’ll take more drastic measures like defrosting Walt and sending him over to help you see the light. Either way you’ll finally be able to see that your enthusiasm for Roadside Romeo was one huge terrible fucking mistake. Don’t feel too bad, even animation-savvy countries make mistakes sometimes.

Do we have a deal India? Let me know when you have a moment. We’ll go to In-n-Out afterwards to celebrate.

Sincerely,

Cartoon Brew