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Fictionalized accounts of Walt Disney’s life are all the rage this season, so much so that even the Walt Disney Company is inventing random stories about its founder that are loosely based in fact.

On Monday, the Soho Rep in Manhattan will debut a new play written by Lucas Hnath called “A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney.” I haven’t found any reviews of the show, but the Wall Street Journal wrote that it “begins with a friendly greeting, but as [Disney] becomes ever more obsessed with his control of the narrative, he becomes less open with the audience, less appealing. He’s striving to dominate the truth.”

Character actor Larry Pine (House of Cards, Moonrise Kingdom, Oz) plays the role of Disney. It runs through May 26. The official show description:

Tonight Walt is going to read you a screenplay he wrote. It’s about his last days on earth. It’s about a city he’s going to build that’s going to change the world. And it’s about his brother. It’s about everyone who loves him so much, and it’s about how sad they’re going to be when he’s gone.

Right? I mean, how can they live without him? How can anyone live without him?

Artistic Director Sarah Benson directs the world premiere of Lucas Hnath’s adrenaline-charged odyssey, a supersonic portrait of the man who forever changed the American Dream.

Set Design by Mimi Lien, Costume Design by Kaye Voyce, Lighting Design by Matt Frey, Sound Design by Matt Tierney, Props by Jon Knust, Choreography by Annie-B Parson, Special Effects by Steve Cuiffo, Production Stage Manager: Heather Arnson, Production Manager: BD White.

Featuring Larry Pine as Walt Disney, Amanda Quaid as Daughter, Brian Sgambati as Ron and Frank Wood as Roy.

(Thanks, Daniel Savage)

Disney announced today that they will release a ‘lost’ Mickey Mouse short called Get A Horse! featuring Walt Disney himself as the voice of Mickey Mouse. The hand-drawn short “follows Mickey, his favorite gal pal Minnie Mouse and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow as they delight in a musical wagon ride, until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road.”

The never-before-seen work will be presented at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France on Tuesday, June 11. Lauren MacMullan (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Wreck-It-Ralph), Dorothy McKim (Meet the Robinsons) and animator Eric Goldberg (Winnie the Pooh, Princess and the Frog, Aladdin) will be on hand to present the film.

We uncovered lots of fascinating pieces of Disney history while working on Ward Kimball’s biography—you know, the one that the Disney Company’s lawyers won’t allow you to see. Among the discoveries were film reels of Ward’s home movies, which I can report are a fair deal more interesting than the average person’s home movies.

We transferred those reels, and with permission, I’m sharing a rarely seen piece of movie footage shot by Ward. Tomorrow, it will be exactly 65 years since this film was recorded (April 4, 1948). In it, Ward and Walt Disney visit the home of Dick Jackson, a wealthy businessman who operated a scale-railroad in the backyard of his Beverly Hills home.

Kimball had been a close friend of Jackson’s for years, and often dropped by for steamups. A little over six years earlier—December 7, 1941, to be exact—as he was driving to Jackson’s for a steamup, he heard on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. The news unsettled him momentarily, but he “forgot it all with Jackson’s locomotive,” he wrote in his journal. Backyard railroading had the magical effect of allowing people to put the real world on pause, even if only for a few hours at a time.

In spring 1948, Ward had become aware of Disney’s budding interest in scale-model trains, and he invited Walt to come along to Jackson’s place for an afternoon of scale railroading. This is, I believe, the first time that Walt had ever personally operated scale-trains. Walt was hooked after the visit, and soon after he began constructing his own luxe backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific.

Kimball’s unusually close relationship with Disney allowed him to capture these unguarded moments of his mercurial boss. Disney appears to be enjoying every hunched-over second of the railroading experience, and he takes the time to acknowledge Ward’s camera on multiple occasions. Ward wrote about the day’s events in his private journal:

Sunday, April 4, 1948
Up with bright sun. Kids helped me put nitrogen around orange trees. If they didn’t, no Jackson train ride. Damp grass. At 12:45 left for Jacksons in Beverly Hills. 1st over there. He started the Colorado Central. Steam up at 2:00. Walt Disney arrived soon after. Got a big kick out of it all. We showed him the works. He couldn’t quite believe that it was all scale! He tried it out—got scared when drivers spin. “What the hell was that!” he’d ask me. He had lots of fun. We all took movies and Jackson took stills. Showed Walt Jackson’s shop. Kids rode and played “Train Robbers.” Home at 5:30. Broiled corn beef over fire place.

The original film is silent so I added some music—of course, Kimball’s band The Firehouse Five Plus Two. Below are identifications of the people in the film, including Ward’s wife Betty and their three children:

“Animation is a young man’s game,” Chuck Jones once said. There’s no question that animation is a labor-intensive art that requires mass quantities of energy and time. While it’s true that the majority of animation directors have directed a film by the age of 30, there are also a number of well known directors who started their careers later.

Directors like Pete Docter, John Kricfalusi and Bill Plympton didn’t begin directing films until they were in their 30s. Don Bluth, Winsor McCay and Frederic Back were late bloomers who embarked on directorial careers while in their 40s. Pioneering animator Emile Cohl didn’t make his first animated film, Fantasmagorie (1908), until he was 51 years old. Of course, that wasn’t just Cohl’s first film, but it is also considered by most historians to be the first true animated cartoon that anyone ever made.

Here is a cross-selection of 30 animation directors, past and present, and the age they were when their first professional film was released to the public.

1. Don Hertzfeldt (19 years old)
   Ah, L’Amour

The new Philip Glass opera The Perfect American, based on Peter Stephan Jungk’s novel of the same name, debuted on January 22 the Teatro Real in Madrid. The opera, which was inspired by unflattering myths and half-truths about Walt Disney, has received mostly mild reviews in publications like the NY Times and Opera News, though the LA Times was enthusiastic. Spanish daily El Pais reports that crowds have been respectful if not ecstatic: “It won a long applause. It was not rapturous, far from it. But there was not a single boo.”

Don’t fret if you’re unable to make it to Madrid. You can see the opera from the comfort of your own home and make your own judgements about how successfully it portrays Disney’s life and worldview. The opera will be broadcast live on Medici.tv on February 6. It appears to be free, though the site requires registration. The opera will remain viewable for 90 days after its online debut.

Twitter user Melissa Farley snagged the first photo of Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Hanks is portraying the role of Walt Disney for the film Saving Mr. Banks, a drama about the making of Disney’s Mary Poppins. Hanks spoke about the role recently in this Hollywood Reporter interview. So what do you think of the pic: does Hanks evoke Walt or does he evoke Tom Hanks with a mustache?

Diane Disney Miller, author J.B. Kaufman and Lella Smith (creative director of the Disney Animation Research Library) discuss the art just published in Kaufman’s second new Snow White book, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animation.

This second Snow White book by J.B. – not to be confused with The Fairest One Of All, both on sale today – is primarily an art book published in conjunction with The Walt Disney Family Museum’s new exhibit, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic (opening November 15th and will run through April 14th 2013). This book walks the reader through the movie, scene by scene, accompanying the art with behind-the-scenes stories about the film’s production. I highly, highly recommend it!!

I will be presenting a fantastic set of surreal cartoons at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next Friday night. My show, Animating the Subconscious, is part of a series of film programs at the museum, under the umbrella title of The Surreal Screen, all of which prelude an upcoming exhibition there, Drawing Surrealism. My cartoon show will present 35mm vault prints of ten classic cartoons that explore “imagination’s more outlandish perimeters”. The full list is below, but highlights include Disney/Dali’s Destino, Fleischer Studios’ Betty Boop Snow White and Screen Gems cult favorite Willoughby’s Magic Hat (I can’t wait to see that in 35mm on the big screen). Join me on Friday October 19th at 7:30pm, at LACMA on Wilshire for a bunch of great cartoons that will blow your mind. For more information and tickets, click here.

FANTASMAGORIE
1908/b&w/1 min. | 35mm supplied by Academy Film Archive

BIMBO’S INITIATION
1931/b&w/6 min. | Fleischer Studios | 35mm supplied by UCLA Film and Television Archive

SNOW WHITE
1933/b&w/7 min. | Fleischer Studios | 35mm supplied by UCLA Film and Television Archive

LULLABY LAND
1933/color /7 min. | Silly Symphonies (Walt Disney Pictures) | 35mm supplied by Buena Vista

PORKY IN WACKYLAND
1938/b&w/7 min. | Looney Tunes | 35mm supplied by Warner Bros.

WILLOUGHBY’S MAGIC HAT
1943/b&w/7 min. | Phantasies (Columbia Pictures) | 35mm supplied by Sony Repertory

IMAGINATION
1943/color/7 min. | Color Rhapsodies (Columbia Pictures) | 35mm supplied by Sony Repertory

THE OLD GREY HARE
1944/color/8 min. | Looney Tunes | 35mm supplied by British Film Institute

DUCK AMUCK
1953/color/7 min. | Looney Tunes | 35mm supplied by Warner Bros.

DESTINO
2003/color/7 min. | Walt Disney Pictures | 35mm supplied by Buena Vista

Walt Disney’s first home – his family’s house on Tripp Ave. in Chicago – is for sale. This is where Walt spent the first four years of his life, before the family moved to Marceline, Missouri. Walt’s father built the house himself.

It’s been up for sale for several years and there are no takers. According to this story in today’s L. A. Times, preservationists are concerned it’ll be torn down as it lacks historic landmark designation. Situated in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, a city councilmen there (quoted in the article) considers Disney a racist. “Walt Disney was a bigot, and I’m not going to sit here on a panel and create a historical landmark for a bigot.” I hope someone at the Disney Studio will consider purchasing the place; the $179,000 asking price is probably less than the cost of craft services on the next Iron Man movie.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: Real Estate, Walt Disney

In his latest “Wonderful World of Walt” column, animation historian Jeff Kurtti explores Walt Disney’s favorite foods. Suffice it to say, Walt was not a foodie:

“[Walt] had eaten in hash houses and lunch wagons for so many years (in order to save money) that he’d developed a hash house/lunch wagon appetite. He liked fried potatoes, hamburgers, western sandwiches, hotcakes, canned peas, hash, stew, roast beef sandwiches. He wasn’t keen for steak — or any expensive cuts of meat. He didn’t go for vegetables, but he loved chicken livers or macaroni and cheese. He liked to eat at Biff’s [a little coffee house on a nearby corner]. He felt they did their potatoes “right” by pan-frying them.” — Diane Disney Miller

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: Jeff Kurtti, Walt Disney

May 13th had been circled on my calendar for a while now as it’s the date of the Toronto Book Fair & Paper Show. According to its’ website, the show is the place to be if you are searching for rare and used books. Being that this was my first time, I was super excited. [...]

Who needs the Disney Company! We’ve already got the movie poster for a biopic about Walt Disney so we may as well go ahead and cast the movie. That’s what Cartoon Brew reader Ron did in the comments section yesterday. Below are his novel casting choices for the likes of Roy Disney, Ub Iwerks, Margaret Winkler, Fred Moore, Bill Tytla, Art Babbitt, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and others. Share your dream cast in the comments.

Roy O. Disney :: Joel David Moore

Ub Iwerks :: Tarran Killam

Charles Mintz :: Jeremy Piven

Margaret Winkler :: Samantha Morton

Fred Moore :: Sam Huntington

Ward Kimball :: Chris Diamantopoulos

Bill Tytla :: Kevin Dillon

Art Babbitt :: Don Swayze (Apparently, Swayze has already committed to this non-existent film. Ron wrote in the comments, “I’ve met him in person and he looks just like a young Art Babbitt. I told him that in fact and said he should try to play Art Babbitt in a biopic. He seemed open to the idea once I explained who Art Babbitt was and his contribution to history.”)

Marc Davis :: David Cross

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston :: Jason Bateman and Jon Cryer

Shamus Culhane :: Kevin Connolly

Bill Peet :: Topher Grace

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Art Babbitt, Bill Peet, Bill Tytla, Charles Mintz, Frank Thomas, Fred Moore, Marc Davis, Margaret Winkler, Ollie Johnston, Roy O. Disney,

It’s no secret that the Walt Disney Company is fiercely protective of its intellectual property, but the law works both ways, and they’ve been accused of wrongdoing almost from the moment that Walt’s company became successful. While researching my upcoming biography of Ward Kimball, I found a reference to a “Mann lawsuit” in his notes from 1940. Ward wrote about how animator Fred Moore had been questioned by Mann’s attorney’s, as well as how animator Ham Luske had testified on the stand.

I became curious to learn more about what the lawsuit was all about. The plaintiff was Ned Herbert Mann, a well respected veteran special effects artist who had started his career working with the production designer William Cameron Menzies on The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Mann believed that he had patented an animation process back in 1934 that was similar to Disney’s and he was trying to prove that Walt had traced the mouths of characters off of photostats while producing Snow White. The Disney company was eventually able to prove that the claim was completely baseless and the judge dismissed the case.

The only information I could find online regarding the case was an article from the St. Petersburg Times from June 29, 1940. You can read the entire article below. The article is fascinating, not just for the information it provides about the Mann case, but also because it lists some of the dozens of other cases filed against Disney at the time. According to the Disney studio’s attorney Gunther Lessing, “The trouble seems to be that almost everybody sees one of his brain children somewhere in Disney’s cartoons.” Some of the cases against Disney at the time included:

* Adriana Caselotti, the voice of the character Snow White, had sued Disney because some of the songs she sang had been released as records, and she wanted a share of the record profits. The case was thrown out when Lessing produced a document that proved “she had signed all her rights in her performance to Disney every time she put her signature to her paycheck.”

* A guy in California filed a lawsuit because he claimed that one of the dwarfs used his laugh or “an exact imitation.”

* A woman filed a lawsuit which claimed that while Disney hadn’t copied her words or music, he had infringed on the spiritual feeling of her work.

* A gas station operator in Minnesota claimed he had sold 15 gallons of gas to an animator who was on vacation, and that he had suggested to the artist that the Disney studio produce Pinocchio.

The article also talks about how Disney had sued a biscuit company that was making unauthorized Mickey, Pluto and Horace Horsecollar animal crackers. The Disney company sued for $24 million dollars, but eventually settled out of court for $8,000.

Here’s the entire piece:

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Fred Moore, Gunther Lessing, Ham Luske,

Here’s an unique piece of Disneyana. The un-happiest letter on Earth. Collector Philippe Videcoq is currently selling (on eBay) a very rare and unusual item: the original, complete telegram sent by Roy Disney to notify worldwide Disney offices the day after Walt’s death.

This is the original copy forwarded by Disney’s London office to their Paris branch, and received at 4:46pm on December 16, 1966. It starts with: “Please convey the following statement by Roy Disney to all employees and associates – The death of Walt Disney is a loss to all the people of the world” and ends with: “Private family funeral services. No flowers.” It is a very moving homage to Walt and his career and honestly states: “There is no way to replace Walt Disney“.

The sale ends this coming Wednesday. You can read the entire 6-page telegram by clicking each thumbnail below:

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Roy Disney, Walt Disney

The “Walt Disney hated Jews and blacks” accusation is one of the most vile mistruths tossed around about the old man, yet a quick browse on-line suggests that more young people believe it today than ever before. How did this happen? Why is the single fact that kids know about this 20th century entertainment giant a shopworn charge, long ago disproven, that he was anti-Semitic and/or racist?

I began to understand the situation more clearly after spending some time exploring Yahoo! Answers, which contains dozens of questions about Walt’s beliefs. The questions don’t stem from Marc Eliot’s notorious hack job Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince—remember, nobody reads anymore—but rather from pop culture references, particularly animated shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken.

Writers of these shows, who can rarely be relied upon to come up with clever or original humor, recycle a playbook of dated pop culture references, among them that Walt hated Jews and that he’s frozen. Family Guy writers are so enamored of the anti-Semitic charges, that they’ve made the accusation multiple times, including this instance:

Combine the endemic laziness of animation writers with an every-child-left-behind educational system that has created a legion of TV viewers who can’t recognize that they’re being duped by old hearsay instead of being revealed new truths, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

I dropped by the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco last year and it was one of the most well curated and delightful museums I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. The museum achieves its aims of documenting Disney’s vast achievements and then some. The reality though is that most teenagers will never visit the museum. To address the rampant distortions about Walt, the Disney family and company must expand their on-line presence and make an effort to combat the inaccuracies with relevant information about Walt Disney’s life, history and legacy.

I’m sure the Walt Disney Company has plenty of employees already who manage their brand on-line and actively communicate with fans on the Internet. But seeing as how their company’s success is so indelibly tied to a single name, it would behoove them to also have a full-time employee or two dedicated to managing their founder’s reputation lest these lies are repeated often enough to be accepted as truth.

The problem of TV writers spreading disinformation about Walt is so widespread that even former Disney stars are perpetuating the stories. For example, take this appearance by Zac Efron on Saturday Night Live. Walt Disney appears in the skit, and along with him, the two stock Walt gags: he’s anti-Semitic and he’s frozen.

I’ve collected some of the most representative questions and answers from Yahoo! Answers that show the scope of the perception problem for Disney.

After analyzing all of the related Walt Disney questions on Yahoo, it’s clear that the most common sources of Walt’s character assassination stem from jokes on Family Guy and Robot Chicken, resulting in questions like this one:

Or this one:

Walt has defenders but the reasons are often as misinformed as the questions.

Here’s a defense from a “D

The classic science fiction author Jules Verne received his own Google Doodle today–U.S. readers will see an that image of the Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea submarine portholes as they search with Google.

Verne was born on this date in 1828. Today hAccording to UNESCO’s Index Translationum database, Verne is the third most translated author in the world–only topped by Walt Disney and Agatha Christie.

Other Google Doodles have honored Jane Austen Oscar Wilde, Agatha Christie, and Ahmad Shawqi. (Via Publishers Weekly)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This has probably popped up on all the Disney fansites, but I thought it worthy of posting here for Brew readers who (like me) avoid those sites. It’s the first episode of Disney’s D23 webcast, Armchair Archivists, hosted by Disney buffs Steve Czarnecki and Josh Turchetta. It’s worth watching for the bittersweet vault footage of [...]

Letters of Note: How to Train an Animator, by Walt Disney

A letter written by Walt Disney in 1935 to Don Graham, tasking him with organizing art classes for the Disney animators. To put the timing in perspective, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, and Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940.

Disney was a business tycoon, but he understood his business was in storytelling and emotion. From the letter:

Comedy, to be appreciated, must have contact with the audience. This we all know, but sometimes forget. By contact, I mean that there must be a familiar, sub-conscious association. Somewhere, or at some time, the audience has felt, or met with, or seen, or dreamt, the situation pictured. A study of the best gags and audience reaction we have had, will prove that the action or situation is something based on an imaginative experience or a direct life connection. This is what I mean by contact with the audience. When the action or the business loses its contact, it becomes silly and meaningless to the audience.

If you’re a fan of conservatively dressed middle-aged white men, boy, do I have a treat for you today. This photo from February 24, 1959, was taken on the occasion of Ben Sharpsteen’s retirement from Disney. Sharpsteen, who is flanked by Walt and Roy, was the supervising director of Pinocchio and Dumbo, as well as Walt’s most frequently whipped “whipping boy,” among many other roles during a thirty-year career at the studio. Pretty much anybody who was a somebody at Disney showed up for his retirement soiree. It is an inspiring image from Hollywood’s Golden Age, and alternately, a sad commentary on how little diversity existed in the upper ranks of the Walt Disney Company during this period.

See the group party photo and identifications after the jump.

The man of the hour, Ben Sharpsteen, is seated in the center. Click for the large version:

In this next version of the photo, I’ve attempted to identify as many of the artists as I could. There’s at least a half-dozen other artists that I thought I recognized, but didn’t label unless I was absolutely sure. If you can positively identify other people in the photo, please comment and I’ll update the identifications.

I am fascinated by the science of retrieving sound waves from wherever they go after they hit the air and dissipate. Since waves don’t end but keep spreading out, any sound ever made is technically still out there waiting to be rounded up and heard again. That’s incredible. It means, among other things, that if we could refine the science enough, we could literally hear epic moments like the Gettysburg Address or re-experience sweet, personal exchanges like a baby cooing. How eerie yet thrilling would it be to stand in a field in Pennsylvania and hear Abraham Lincoln’s actual voice brought back to life by modern technology corralling scattered sound waves? But, in some ways, I don’t think we need to wait for those advances. Have you ever been somewhere and heard the echoes of the past? Not specific words, maybe, but whispers of sound that seem to linger. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, there is a massive natural stronghold of great tactical benefit during the Civil War. The army that controlled Lookout Mountain, with its towering height and expansive view, was in a position of virtually impenetrable superiority, and as such it was the scene of fierce fighting. At the base of the mountain, if you stand very still and listen very carefully, the wind still carries the sounds of long ago. It is haunted. In Walt Disney Production’s The Haunted House, Mickey and friends are hearing things. I wonder if it would help to know it’s just trapped sound waves.

P.S. Enjoy your book, Little Rhys!

http://www.amazon.com/HAUNTED-HOUSE-Disneys-Wonderful-Reading/dp/039492570X

http://www.earlymoments.com/Our-Products/Disney-Book-Club/

The CalArts Story from Christine Ziemba (CalArts) on Vimeo.

From 24700, the official blog for CalArts, this interesting historical gem from 1964 has been found in their video vaults. “The CalArts Story” was a short film (about 15 minutes) that was originally presented at the gala premiere of Mary Poppins. It’s long and drawn out—much like the live action short films produced by Disney during that time, but it’s a fascinating look at what Walt Disney had in mind for the future of the school.

Posted by Ward Jenkins on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: CalArts, history, short film, Walt Disney

Dallas Poague of Monkey in a Dryer and Pally Pal paper toys has recently put his love of the great 1930s where his internet is! Although the site is currently under construction, his tribute to Ub Iwerks is chock fulla interesting facts, comical cartoons and a 90-minute biography of the man behind the man who swiped The Mouse right out from under him (citation needed)! So go pop some corn, grab a sarsaparilla and while away the day watching cartoons in living blackened white – just the way your grandparents like ‘em!

Posted by Stephan Britt on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: 1930s, Animation, cartoons, Flip the Frog, Monkey in a Dryer, Pally Pal, Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney

So I never got around to my Mouse House rants. I've cooled off a bit, so I won't bore you too much with how I think the whole "pin trading" business is one of the biggest parent-fleecing rackets the folks at Disney have ever come up with - and as I'm sure y'all are aware, these guys are expert at emptying parental pockets.

One thing I do still feel the need to rant about is the subservient role of women in the Disney universe. Don't get me started on the whole "Some Day my Prince Will Come" stuff. I remember when my daughter was about 2, sitting and watching "Cinderella" with her snuggled on my lap. There were already issues in my marriage, although I was no where near at the wanting a divorce stage then. I still had hope that things could actually change. But I remember sitting there as the Prince and Cinders drove off in the carriage to "And they lived happily ever after" and thinking, "Yeah, but then he started taking her for granted and she ended up having to do all the work around the Castle," and I wondered why I was letting my daughter watch it.

Three years later, when things were really going downhill, I wrote about 200 pages of a "grown up book." There's one scene where the protagonist gets drunk and takes all the Walt Disney videos that feature the main female character waiting to get "saved" by her Prince and she rips them out of the video cases, then buries the evidence in the outside garbage cans.

I'd forgotten how much I hated about Disney's lack of feminism until I was at Disney World and we visited Minnie Mouse's house.

Attached to Minnie's bulletin board was this "to do" list:



Anyone else feel like barfing?

I mean, seriously. Doesn't Minnie have anything better to do besides calling Mickey every thirty seconds? Her whole freakin' life revolves around Mickey - she's either calling him, making his lunch, or doing Mousercize and eating a low fat nutritious breakfast so she can stay skinny for him.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Wanna make a bet Mickey isn't sitting around all day mooning over Minnie, but actual *does* something with his life? *****Rant Over*****

Meanwhile, on the moving front, it's now a mere 29 days until we move out of the marital manse and into a temporary furnished rental, before closing on our new abode about a week later. I've been busy packing boxes. So far have done 2 wardrobe boxes and five linen cartons in my bedroom, plus 18 cartons of books - and that's just from my study. The latter is somewhat unnerving considering that currently there is NOT A SINGLE BOOKSHELF in the new house. Don't they READ?! I mean, I know I have more books than your average bear, but...the mind boggles. Needless to say that projecto numero uno is to build bookshelves wherever there's free wall space. I'm so looking forward to getting the move over with and getting all settled into the new house.

Finally an update to the Never Ending and Somewhat Surreal Saga of saraclaradara's feet. Apparently, due to all the walking at Disney, I managed to aggravate a previously fractured sesamoid in my left foot. No exercise for another week (not good, when you're stressed out about moving and the government is trying to mess with your chocolate)and the usual icing and ibruprofen. To quote the Rolling Stones: "What a DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG is is, getting old!"

Still, maybe next time I can get one of those motorize scooter thingies to whiz around on. I could run over Snow White if she starts blathering on about how some day her Prince will come.
Unless it's the Purple Rain kinda Prince. Then I'll ask for tickets to the show.

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
Author: Neal Gabler
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN; 10: 0-679-43822-X
ISBN; 13: 978-0-679-43822-9

This massive biography – over 600 pages, plus over 200 more of notes, appendices, bibliographies, and index – is advertised as “the definitive portrait of one of the most important in twentieth-century American entertainment and cultural history. […] meticulously researched – Gabler is the first writer to be given complete access to the Disney archives […]”

It probably is definitive. It is notable that where virtually every other Disney biography since his death in 1966 has been heavily criticized by animation experts for gross factual errors and deliberate misrepresentation of his attitudes or motives (such as claiming that Disney was a spy for the FBI, encouraged anti-Semitism, or was really an illegitimate son of a Spanish dancer), the worst that Gabler’s critics have been able to accuse him of are minor errors on the level of whether serious production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began in September 1936 or several months earlier. These errors may be significant to cinematic historians, but the average reader will find them trivial.

Gabler’s book, with more than 65 photographs from throughout Disney’s life plus other graphics such as a teenage life sketch and his first business card, ought to replace every popularized Disney biography previously written.

There are no big surprises here, and there is much detailed information about events glossed over in previous biographies. For example, every book has told how Disney created Mickey Mouse to replace his earlier cartoon star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit when the latter was stolen from him, but few have told exactly how this happened. Gabler devotes five pages to the event, giving names and dates. Want to know about the notorious but previously vaguely-described Disney studio strike of 1941? Gabler gives it pages 356 to 371, again going into detail. Any questions that a reader may have about Disney’s personal life or his career should be answered in this book.

To a large extent, Disney’s story is the story of the whole American animation industry. Many of the men who became famous at other studios in later years, such as Warner Bros.’ animation director Friz Freleng and music arranger Carl Stalling, got their start among Disney’s first employees.

Gabler notes how many other studios hired away some of Disney’s best men to create cartoons for them during the 1930s, or during the ‘40s made parodies of Disney’s features such as WB’s Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and A Corny Concerto. It would be an exaggeration to say that Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination can serve as a one-volume history of the animation industry, but it is without doubt an essential read for every animation fan and an essential purchase for every public and academic library.