So last week I headed over to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a neat 100th birthday tribute to artist Mary Blair. It was a fun show, hosted by the always-delightful Alice Davis, and featured a panel of artists who discussed Blair’s work.

A rather surprising fact-drop occurred when [...]]]> Funny story…

So last week I headed over to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a neat 100th birthday tribute to artist Mary Blair. It was a fun show, hosted by the always-delightful Alice Davis, and featured a panel of artists who discussed Blair’s work.

A rather surprising fact-drop occurred when moderator Charles Solomon introduced panelist Mike Giaimo as “art director of the upcoming Snow Queen.”

So… we’re on again with that?

This isn’t even the first time I’ve been startled by a casual re-announcement of Snow Queen during a presentation of something else. At the 2009 D23 Expo, veteran animation producer Don Hahn included artwork from the film in one of his presentations. You can trace back the rather bizarre history of this project through random stories we’ve posted over the years; the film has been re-incarnated so many times and in so many formats that it must be trying to wrest the title of “most tortured development” from Rapunzel/Tangled.

The last we’d heard was early last year, when the film was allegedly shelved again. But now, apparently, it’s back. Of course when I tweeted about this I was greeted with “Duh, you didn’t know that?” So maybe everyone else knows. Maybe you know. But I’m telling you anyway.

This is pretty exciting news. Hopefully it’ll be traditionally animated. That hopper is kind of empty now that Pooh has passed. Of course the way projects are constantly popping in and out of existence, I can’t keep track of this merry-go-round anymore.

I’m glad Giaimo is on board. A fan of Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle, he served as art director for Pocahontas and created that film’s unique look. Hopefully we’ll get a hand-drawn film with a unique and stylish visual flair.

Maybe they’ll stick to their guns this time. After the highly enjoyable Princess and the Frog and Tangled, I look forward to what they can come up with.

Disney animation stalwart Andreas Deja has set up his own blog with which to share his vast collection of vintage artwork and stories of working with the legends of Disney animation. I’ve no doubt it will be a project to follow with great [...]]]>

Andreas Deja with Eric Larson, 1980

Disney animation stalwart Andreas Deja has set up his own blog with which to share his vast collection of vintage artwork and stories of working with the legends of Disney animation. I’ve no doubt it will be a project to follow with great interest…

Why does this feel like some kind of awkward “health and hygiene” literature that would be distributed to [...]]]> Since we’ve seen my home-made attempt at a Disney recruitment brochure, why not a peek at the real thing? Courtesy of John Donaldson, here’s the cover of a Disney recruiting flier from the 1970s:

Why does this feel like some kind of awkward “health and hygiene” literature that would be distributed to teenagers?

I suppose that some are born into Disney fandom, some achieve fandom, and others have fandom thrust upon them; I’m not sure which of these categories I fall into, but my Disney predilection certainly manifested itself early. Perhaps it was the smuggled copies of Disney News in my [...]]]> I was one of “those” kids.

I suppose that some are born into Disney fandom, some achieve fandom, and others have fandom thrust upon them; I’m not sure which of these categories I fall into, but my Disney predilection certainly manifested itself early. Perhaps it was the smuggled copies of Disney News in my elementary school knapsack, or the scribbles of Spaceship Earth and monorails in the margins of my notebooks, but my personal obsession was well-known and acknowledged by all. People signed my yearbook “See you at EPCOT!”, and I recently found a document from my 8th grade graduation that predicted what the denizens of Shelby Middle School would be doing in the distant year of 2010. Whoever put together those prognostications suggested that I would be working as Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World; I recall being incensed by the suggestion at the time – nothing against the Character Zoo, but I was convinced that by 2010 I would be well on my way to replacing Eisner as Chairman.

But the full weight of my early fandom – and the realization of how truly unbearable I must have been – didn’t hit me until I was at home over the holidays and came across several boxes of old papers and school things from elementary and middle school. To even my surprise, it appears that hardly any assignment crossed my desk without me finding some backwards way of working Walt Disney World into the mix. There seems to have been a general tone of resentment that I was being asked to do busy work when I could be in Orlando or, at the very least, thinking about Epcot Center and reading about water hyacinths purifying waste water.

I could probably put together a whole book of my bizarre attempts to insert Disney into my schoolwork, from doodles of Epcot pavilion logos to vocabulary assignments where I managed to come up with a sentence about wanting to be at Walt Disney World for every single vocabulary word. Naturally, I also worked my tendencies into various school projects – sadly, I have never been artistic, or I would have been one of those genius kids who builds scale models of theme parks. Instead, I mostly wrote (surprise). I remember doing a biography of Walt very early on in school, but what inspired me to post today was this hilarious brochure for Disney Animation that I whipped up for some long-forgotten assignment.

I don’t even know what this was for, or when, although I would guess late elementary school or very early middle school. That would place it directly before or right on the cusp of Disney’s animation renaissance with The Little Mermaid in 1989 (although I had, of course, dutifully seen The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company in theaters). The fact that this pre-dated everyone’s swanky renegotiated contracts in the 1990s makes it even more funny.

While I was raised on a steady diet of old footage of hijinks with the Nine Old Men, I don’t recall ever really thinking that Disney Animation was a worker’s paradise (until, again, the 1990s); I’m therefore going to chalk up this brochure’s insane level of overstatement to the fact that we were supposed to be “selling” something for this assignment. And sell I did. I’m sure I figured that I knew way more about animation than my teachers, so I could say whatever I wanted and they wouldn’t know that every animator didn’t get a huge private office of their own. I’ll also say that, knowing my young self fairly well, this brochure smacks of a “done on the morning-of” effort (it’s far more primitive than a brochure for the parks that I did for an assignment in 8th grade), which would account for its rather unimpressive nature. Again, I probably figured that the teacher would be so impressed by my reputation in this particular field that I would never be questioned!

So here’s my representation of Disney Animation, circa the very late 1980s. Perhaps some of our readers from the animation industry can vet its veracity? Just don’t tell my teachers if I got it wrong!

This cracks me up for many reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t remember it at all and I have no idea where I got any of these “facts” (and statistics!). I’m sure I completely made up the projected increase in demand “by 1995″, but strangely enough that probably turned out to be an underestimation. I just wish I knew if the “Walt Disney is looking for talented young artists!” bit was an intentional shout-out to all those famous old ads from Walt’s time.

Good pay, good hours, free art supplies, and the prestige of working for the Walt Disney Company?? Sign me up!

It’s a fascinating month in May at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, with showings of the 1941 classic Dumbo and a look at the Disney Studios during World War II. There’s even an extremely rare screening of 1943′s Victory Through Air Power! Good stuff. As always, you can find out [...]]]>

It’s a fascinating month in May at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, with showings of the 1941 classic Dumbo and a look at the Disney Studios during World War II. There’s even an extremely rare screening of 1943′s Victory Through Air Power! Good stuff. As always, you can find out information about the museum at its website, and be sure to subscribe to its blog.

The Walt Disney Family Museum
May 2011 Events Calendar

Join us for Dumbo-themed screenings, classes, activities and fun!
Plus a Salute to Walt Disney Studios during World War II

SCREENINGS + DISCUSSIONS

FILM OF THE MONTH – May 1–May 31
Dumbo (1941)
1:00pm and 4:00pm daily, Theater
(except Tuesdays and May 21 + 22)
Tickets available online

May 21 – World War II: Fighting the War with Ink and Paint
3:00pm, Theater
Tickets available online

It was the day after Pearl Harbor when the U.S. Army moved into the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, California. Not only was the Studio a convenient storage facility during World War II, but Walt Disney himself was recruited by the government to create training and propaganda films, which made up more than 90% of the company’s production.

Join noted Walt Disney Family Museum historian and author Paul F. Anderson as he chronicles Walt’s contributions towards the War effort. Relive this pivotal time through never-before-seen images, rare video clips, and moving stories—and through this narrative, discover how Walt Disney whole-heartedly devoted himself and his organization to winning the war. Paul’s presentation is sometimes funny, often emotional, and thoroughly uplifting.

May 22 – Screening – Victory Through Air Power + Conversation
2:00pm, Theater
Tickets available online

Walt Disney Family Museum historian Paul F. Anderson will offer a visual presentation on the making of the film, and the resulting impact the film had on Allied war strategy. This brief presentation will be followed by a screening of Walt Disney’s Victory Through Air Power (1943), after which we will open up the floor to any questions.

MUSIC

May 15 – Volti: A Musical Presentation
4:00pm, Special Exhibition Hall
Tickets available online

Join us in our Special Exhibition Hall to hear Volti’s professional vocalists, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary. The ensemble encourages, fosters and showcases contemporary American music and composers, to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences.

CLASSES + ACTIVITIES

May 7 – Inside the Studios: A Day in the Life of a Studio Member
1:00—3:00pm, Gallery 5
Free with paid Museum admission

Our Inside the Studios Series allows visitors to experience what it’s like to be a member of a studio team, through live demonstrations in our Galleries. This month, we’re kicking off the series by focusing on “the Animator”. Stop by Gallery 5 where you will see an animator hard at work and you can ask questions while watching the artist impart life into their drawings.

May 21 – Voice-over Class: Intermediate
Workshop #1: 10:00am—1:00pm, Learning Center Media Studio
Workshop #2: 2:00pm—5:00pm, Learning Center Media Studio

This intermediate class by Disney voice-over artist, Ned Lott is a follow-up course to our introductory workshop. This class will focus on performance for different applications in the art of voice-over acting. You will receive further training on how to use your body as the instrument to help further develop your own creative character voices. Don’t miss this fun and inspiring class. Registration required. Email education@wdfmuseum.org or call 415.345.6814.

Price: Members: $55 // Non-Members: $60

MAY DISNEY DISCOVERIES! + LOOK CLOSER SERIES

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Saturday, May 14 + Sunday, May 22
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center Art Studio
Create your own magical feather! In honor of the film of the month, we will use a variety of materials to make your special charm that’ll help you fly like Dumbo!

LOOK CLOSER:
May 28 + May 29 – Look Closer: World War II Disney Insignias
3:00 pm, Lower Lobby
Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts, behind the scenes information, or just additional information during the 5 to 8-minute gallery talk.

Typically, when a new animated film is released, I post some artwork in case anyone’s out looking for that sort of thing. I didn’t get around to it when Tangled hit theaters, but since it’s back in the spotlight with its recent DVD release, I thought I’d post some pretty pictures for you [...]]]>

Typically, when a new animated film is released, I post some artwork in case anyone’s out looking for that sort of thing. I didn’t get around to it when Tangled hit theaters, but since it’s back in the spotlight with its recent DVD release, I thought I’d post some pretty pictures for you to enjoy. Film stills, development art, and character art await…

Stills

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Character Art

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Development Art

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Sketches

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After a decade of troubled development, Disney Feature Animation’s take on the Rapunzel fairy tale finally arrived in theaters last fall. Despite near-constant meddling from executives and marketing mavens during those long years, Tangled scored a hit with both critics and audiences, and is one of the most thoroughly satisfying offerings from Disney [...]]]>

After a decade of troubled development, Disney Feature Animation’s take on the Rapunzel fairy tale finally arrived in theaters last fall. Despite near-constant meddling from executives and marketing mavens during those long years, Tangled scored a hit with both critics and audiences, and is one of the most thoroughly satisfying offerings from Disney animators in years.

While it took Tangled‘s sizable domestic and international box office take to offset the massive costs incurred by a decade of endlessly rebooted production, the fact is that the film was a big hit – which makes it all that much more confusing that its home video release (available on DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo) is so embarrassingly sparse. There are probably about 4-5 different versions of this film that were developed in the last ten years, and barely any of that work is hinted at in this release’s extra features. The apparent disregard by Disney’s home video department for fans and animation buffs is pretty glaring by this point, and the fact that a major new release comes out with barely any supplemental material shows how far things have fallen off at the studio since the glory days of the early 2000s. That being said, the movie is still excellent and well worth your time, so you might as well give into the darkness and check out this bare bones release!

The Film

I would be surprised if a single aspect of this film – save from the fact that it tells the story of Rapunzel – made it through the gauntlet of constant retooling that marked its development. Originally the pet project of veteran Disney animator Glen Keane, and intended to be his directorial debut, the film transitioned early on from traditional to computer animation after it was decided to move all Disney animation to the digital realm. Faced with the success of Dreamworks’ Shrek, the Eisner regime mandated that the film take a more “hip and edgy” bent, and for a while it became Rapunzel: Unbraided.

With Eisner gone, the film returned to its roots and became just plain Rapunzel again, but then came the surprising news in 2008 that Keane (citing “health reasons”) and co-director Dean Wellins were surrendering control of the project. In their place came Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, to whom John Lasseter had entrusted Bolt when it was wrested from the hands of its creator, Chris Sanders.

There was more drama – casting changes, a general confusion at Disney about whether or not they were in the business of making fairy tales, and a last minute, marketing-enforced title change to the less feminine/more confusing title Tangled – but thankfully a great movie managed to emerge nonetheless. One gets the feeling that the film is filled with fleeting references to probably dozens of abandoned characters and storylines, but the narrative that emerges is sleek and far more focused than Disney’s previous fairy tale, The Princess and the Frog (a film that I enjoyed very much).

The roots of the story are simple: a young girl is kidnapped and raised by a wicked old woman who needs the magical properties of the child’s hair to keep her young. She keeps the girl, Rapunzel, locked away in an tower, and fills her young head with terrifying tales of the horrible world outside. Still, Rapunzel wonders what’s out there in the great, wide world and sees enough from her tower window to encourage her wanderlust.

Things come to a head when the improbably named bandit Flynn Rider stumbles upon her tower and tries to use it as a hiding place for his ill-gotten gains. He is surprised and captured by Rapunzel, who eventually manages to blackmail Flynn into taking her on an adventure while the nefarious Mother Gothel is away on a lengthy trip. Naturally, hijinks ensue.

There are many remarkable things about this film. One is the fact that, despite its remarkably smarmy and obnoxious ads, the film plays as very sincere and likable. Rapunzel, voiced by Mandy Moore, is an incredibly appealing character and manages to project a sweet naivete without crossing over into obliviousness. Rider, voiced by TV’s Zachary Levi, was a major concern after seeing the film’s trailers, but all of his most obnoxious moments are dispensed with fairly early in the proceedings. His “smoulder” shtick is never as funny as it seems the filmmakers thought, and there’s the occasional echo of “‘tude” from lesser animated features past, but what came off as irritating in the trailers is much less so in the film itself. Levi is an extremely charismatic guy, and as the “Rider” persona fades into the background his character becomes winning in a way that is very rare for modern Disney male heroes.

The look of the film deserves special notice; it’s colorful and lush, and avoids the plastic look that plagues so many modern computer-animated features. It’s not the “painterly” look that we were promised for so, so long, but the human animation remains leaps and bounds above anything that any other studio – including Pixar – has done before. There’s a lovely organic translucence to everything, and the backgrounds and color design deserve recognition. My only gripe in the artistic department would be with a number of secondary characters who push the bounds of caricature beyond the breaking point.

The music and a handful of songs come from Disney stalwart Alan Menken and collaborator Glenn Slater. The score is reminiscent at times of other Disney classics such as The Little Mermaid, and that helps contribute to the overall feel. The few songs in the film are enjoyable if not especially memorable, although my absolute favorite – the number that Rapunzel sings to kick off the film – is scored in a really obnoxious jangly frat-rock style that clashes completely with the film. It’s a shame, because it’s a really great song and does a fantastic job getting across the Rapunzel character to the audience.

Mention should also be made of the villain, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). It’s interesting to make your big bad a kind of passive-aggressive, smothery mother – especially since I’ve encountered a few of those myself in my time. Her big production number, in which she combines warnings about the many evils of the outside world with little asides about Rapunzel’s weight, is kind of hilarious in how it plausibly portrays how the girl has been convinced to stay in the tower for her entire life. I have some qualms with the number itself – while the song is fine, the way it’s staged is by far the most “Broadway” moment of the film and, especially considering Murphy’s stage experience, on film it comes off as very “New York” in a way that clashes. It’s funny – I really liked the song when I heard the soundtrack before the film was released, but it’s just a little over the top on the screen.

One last compliment I have is for the animal “comedic relief” in the film, warhorse Maximus and Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, Pascal. In modern era Disney films, wacky animal sidekicks are best when they’re limited to silent pantomime – witness Flit and Meeko in Pocahontas. Rapunzel builds on this tradition by keeping its animals silent, and it really works well.

It’s been a rough decade for fans of Disney animation, and it’s nice to see it end on a high note with Tangled. Much of the studio’s future remains in doubt, but if they continue to produce work of this caliber, hopefully they’ll start to receive the respect and independence they deserve. There are definite nits to pick with the film – many are probably vestiges of its long development, and there’s a particularly egregious deux ex machina towards the end, that should have been finessed in some other fashion, but the long story short is that overall it’s a fun, enjoyable, extremely pleasant film and that’s too often a rarity anymore.

The Discs

Released March 29, 2011 – Rated PG – 100 minutes
Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo – $49.99
Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo – $39.99
Single-Disc DVD – $29.99

The increasingly onerous Disney release model steps up to the plate once more with three different versions of the film available for purchase: DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo. The insanity of this scheme can be seen in the fact that if you buy the most expensive iteration, you’re getting the exact same film on four separate discs in four separate formats, with hardly an extra between them. That’s insanity.

Video & Audio

The film looks great, whether on Blu-ray or DVD, in 1.78:1 Widescreen. The Blu-ray features DTS-HD 7.1 surround audio, while the DVD comes in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Bonus Materials

Here, again, is where the release falls apart. Most of this material is promotional stuff that was released online before the film’s release, and I’m kind of baffled as to why this film didn’t get the respect it deserved. Maybe because it doesn’t feature a jumping lamp?

As usual, DVD viewers get the worst of it; the few extras included on the DVD release are marked with an asterisk below.

Features

• Deleted Scenes – Three brief deleted scenes are included in storyboard form, with introductions by the film’s directors. They hint at story elements that were cut from the final film.
• Storybook Openings * – Two takes on a traditional “storybook” opening considered for the film. I wish they had used this conceit, but the information they convey is pretty similar to that contained in the actual film’s introduction. Again, the filmmakers appear to frame the clips – too bad the camerawork is really obnoxious…

• 50th Animated Feature Countdown * – This clip, released online before the film’s release, runs through each of the now-canonical Disney animated features starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and ending with Tangled. At some point in recent years, it’s been decided to shoehorn 2000′s Dinosaur into the canon, even though it was not a product of Walt Disney Feature Animation. But this revisionist history allows Tangled to become Disney’s 50th animated feature, hence this montage.
• Extended Songs – Two slightly longer versions of songs from the film are presented via rough, unfinished animation.
• Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale – This is what amounts to the “making of” feature for this release, and needless to say it does not get the job done. Distilling ten years of development into its 12-minute running time would be impossible, but that brevity is made worse by the fact that much time is spent re-hashing the previous 49 Disney features as well as dabbling in other trivia. In fact, this piece feels more like a bunch of promotional web shorts spliced together. The one saving grace are the hosts – Mandy Moore and Zach Levi – who are extremely likable people and come off as charming despite the weakly-scripted material. With these two highly affable hosts, the making-of special could have been exceedingly enjoyable. Instead, it’s just a waste.
• Promotional Films – The disc does not include the film’s trailers, but it does include nine promotional videos that were produced for television and the web. These are actually pretty funny; some are styled as infomercial-type ads for items from the film, and manage to be contemporary without reflecting poorly on the film.

In Summary…

It’s always great to go see an animated film that pushes all the buttons with success, and it’s especially rewarding to see Disney do well. If you missed this in theaters you need to ignore the advertising and check it out; while Disney’s home video department should be ashamed of the shabby treatment it hahs given the title, the film is still fantastic despite the disc’s lack of extras. Highly recommended.

Click to buy on Single-Disc DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo