Ghoul Friend

I've only recently discovered the new Mickey Mouse animated shorts for TV.  I think they're pretty cool, in their own way.  I'm a bit surprised that the Disney Studio is okay with some of the premises and jokes in these shorts, but l think by doing so they are gaining back some audience, like me, that they lost a long time ago.

I'm not into the zombie thing that is going around, but I like this set-up shot of Goofy for one short called "Ghoul Friend"— good for a Halloween posting I think.

© Walt Disney Productions and their appropriate designees

Special Denizen

The Disney universe is an odd duck, so to speak. Much of it is loved, globally, and much of it is criticized for its white bread values. Under various bosses, its film library has wandered all over the map, and considering its immense success, it's hard to critique it in general. Known as the 'Disney version', classic fairy tales have been sanitized and sentimentalized, and has 'corrupted' generations of little minds to a princess mentality. Not a horrible thing, but disturbing if it becomes obsessive.

These days, efforts are made to correct some of the idealism, such as in "Brave" (though the little heroine is still a princess and somewhat ideal).  Where are the average but extraordinary little girls?

Ah, Lilo and Stitch, one of my favorite latter-day Disney creations, presents Lilo with her 'ordinary' modern day frustrations of family issues, compounded by the 'extraordinary' problems of a little extraterrestrial — Stitch — a characterization that I find very entertaining. Lilo is a very enjoyable characterization as well, but I think that Stitch, with his manic-depressive personality, is a special denizen of the Disney universe.

 The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

Underground World

This is gorgeous art deco storyboard art for one of the animated Superman films of the '40s. If comics could be illustrated this way, I think comic books would make their way to more people. In fact, really, why not comic books that are more 'illustrated' than 'cartooned'?

I love that throne!

Animation story board art — The Underground World — 1943

General's Favorite Film

This, of course, is the delightful and fanciful background set piece for the circus train scene in the 1941 'Dumbo', the general's favorite film in the Spielberg film '1941'.

Animation background — Dumbo — 1941

© Walt Disney Studio

Character Development

There are some really great character development visualizers that have worked and are working on various animated films, but few people could deny that Peter de Sève is a crown prince among them, case in point:

Peter de Sève — character development of Shan-Yu for Disney's Mulan

Lyrical, Laughable, Lovable

Gulliver's Travels, the 1939 full-length feature cartoon, was Paramount's response to Disney's Snow White feature. It had some interesting animation techniques combining rotoscoping for Gulliver, and stretch and squash for the lilliputians (25,000 of 'em!).

It was just one of so many landmark movies to come out in 1939.