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Agree To Agree… At Last

Could the wait almost be over?

A full year after the Chinese central government signed off on the plans for the park, Disney and the local Shanghai government have signed an agreement to create the joint venture company that will built the new resort. The step was, as seems typical, announced by Shanghai officials in the Chinese press and reluctantly confirmed by Disney. This doesn’t mean everything is ready to go; the central government has to sign off again on the joint venture and various regulatory hurdles must be overcome. It makes one wonder that anything ever gets built there.

The prognosticators had prognosticated that a deal would be signed at the start of this month, following the close of the Shanghai World Expo. For once, they prognosticated correctly.

Now the wait begins again – when will we see some artwork? Although I have to say that this is probably the first Disney theme park to come out of the gates promoting a “pleasant, low-carbon environment.” Please, no diamonds in Disneyland! And leave your buckyballs at home!

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Meet Me Down On Main Street

The L.A. Times has posted an interesting photo essay comparing the main thoroughfares of Disneyland and Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

Marceline has changed a lot since the Disney family moved away a full century ago; as the article points out, the train doesn’t stop there anymore unless you make a special request. The town’s population of 2,500 is well under five percent of Disneyland’s daily capacity. Yet efforts to revive the area’s sagging economy continue; the Walt Disney Hometown Museum now occupies the old rail depot and helps keep Walt’s Missouri legacy alive.

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November At The Walt Disney Family Museum

November has arrived, and with it the chilly weather, football, and regret at too much Halloween candy eaten. It also means it’s time to celebrate the birthday of ol’ Topolino himself, Mickey Mouse, who turns 82 this year. Hard to believe, really.

Anyway, this auspicious birthday means a month of programming at the Walt Disney Family Museum including a number of classic Disney shorts as well as a visit by some Mouseketeers. Check out the listing of events below, and think of us poor suckers on the east coast who don’t get to visit! For ticket information and more, be sure to visit the Museum’s website.

SCREENINGS + DISCUSSIONS

FILM OF THE MONTH – November 1-24
A Month of Mickey Mouse and Friends (1928-1942)
1:00 pm and 4:00 pm daily, Theater
(except Tuesdays, November 13, and November 20.)
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org
Join us in our Theater for a selection of Mickey Mouse cartoons including: Steamboat Willie, the Karnival Kid, The Band Concert, Mickey’s Birthday Party, and more!

November 13 – The Evolution of Mickey Mouse with Vincent Vedrenne
3:00 pm, Theater
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org
Learn about the history of Mickey Mouse and his transformation over the years. Vincent Vedrenne, an executive in The Walt Disney Company’s Office for Corporate Brand Management, guides us throughout the different stages of Mickey’s development, how he was conceived, and what he has come to represent around the world.

November 20 – M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E Club
3:00 pm, Theater
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org
Here’s your chance to share Mickey Mouse memories when three of the original Mouseketeers come to the Museum! Join Bobby, Sharon, and Cubby as they talk with Lorraine Santoli, author of The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book, about what it was like to work with Walt.

MUSIC

November 7 – Volti Chamber Chorus
4:00 pm, Special Exhibition Hall
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

November 6 – From Storyboard to Animatics
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Learning Center Art Studio
In collaboration with The Cartoon Art Museum.
Instructor and Animation Industry Professional: James Scott Hummel.
In this beginning-level class, we will explore that magical moment where the static storyboards of a cartoon are combined with filming techniques, voice-over and sound effects to create the animatic. Registration required.

NOVEMBER DISNEY DISCOVERIES! + LOOK CLOSER SERIES

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Second Saturday of each month
November 13 – Disney Discoveries!
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center Art Studio
In honor of Mickey’s birthday, come and create your very own Mickey Mouse statue. Using a variety of materials, assemble and paint your own one-of-a-kind version of our beloved Disney character.

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in young visitors while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

LOOK CLOSER:
November 26, 27 + 28 – Look Closer: Earliest Known Drawings of Mickey Mouse
11:00 am and 3:00 pm, Gallery 2
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.

November 18 – Sketch Mickey: Mickey Mouse’s Birthday!
11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Learning Center
Drop into our Art Studio and draw your favorite version of Mickey Mouse; the pre-1939 more rounded Mickey, the pear-shaped Mickey of the early 40s, or create the Mickey of your imagination!

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Laugh-O-Grams Lost And Found

Today marks the 88th anniversary of the release of Walt Disney’s Puss In Boots – one of his Laugh-O-Gram series of fairy tales. This provides an opportunity to discuss a crackerjack bit of cinematic sleuthing recently revealed by historian David Gerstein. In a tale of celluloid archaeology worthy of Indiana Jones, Gerstein and fellow researcher Cole Johnson have unearthed three previously-lost Laugh-O-Gram shorts. This means that all of the seven produced Laugh-O-Gram films are now known to exist.

Produced at Walt’s Kansas City studio between 1922 and 1923, these films have long been thought lost. It was previously believed that only six Laugh-O-Grams had been produced, with prints of four (Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and The Four Musicians of Bremen) circulating in the public domain. Goldie Locks and the Three Bears remained undiscovered, and two separate films – Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer – got mixed up in memories over the years and eventually became misremembered as a single short.

The films flitted from owner to owner throughout the years. Walt’s Laugh-O-Gram studio went bankrupt; the shorts were sold to Pictorial Clubs of Tennessee for non-theatrical distribution before they themselves went out of business. Yet the Laugh-O-Grams continued to circulate; they and other shorts from non-Disney studios were re-titled by other distributors for release domestically and overseas, and that’s how these “lost” Disney shorts wound up sitting unnoticed in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and private collectors.

Read the full, fascinating story of how Johnson and Gerstein discovered the lost films at Gerstein’s blog.

The best news is that these films have now been restored, and for those of you living in New York City, they will be screened at MoMA tomorrow, November 4th at 4:30 PM. The shorts, which will be screened with piano accompaniment by Ben Model, include the Laugh-O-Grams Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, Puss in Boots, Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, The Four Musicians of Bremen as well as the live-action/animation hybrid Newman Laugh-O-Grams that aired as interstitial material at the Newman Theater in Kansas City. Also on the slate will be five later films from Ub Iwerks’s studio; Techno-Cracked (1933), The Brave Tin Solder (1934), Jack Frost (1934), Don Quixote (1934), and Balloon Land (1935). Tickets for the screening are available at the MoMA site.

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Storyboardin’

Something I keep neglecting to mention is that the Walt Disney Family Museum has started its own blog, Storyboard. The blog features stories about goings-on at the Museum, as well as tales of historical interest about Walt and his artists. Most recently, prolific Disney author Jeff Kurtti penned a tribute to actor James MacArthur.

Check it out, bookmark it, and leave them some comments!

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