News

Click here to read the full article.

Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised Walt Disney Productions far beyond Walt’s expectations. That animator also led a union war that almost destroyed the company. Art Babbitt worked for the Disney studio throughout the 1930s and up to 1941, years in which he and Walt were driven to elevate animation as an art form, as seen in Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. But as America emerged from the Great Depression, labor unions spread across Hollywood. Disney fought the unions while Babbitt embraced them. Soon, angry Disney cartoon characters graced picket signs as hundreds of artists went out on strike…

The press called them “Loyalists.” But there were many reasons why hundreds of nonstriking Disney artists drove to work the morning of May 28, 1941. Dumbo and Bambi would not be completed without them. They also shared a gratitude toward Walt, who...

Edle Bakke, a veteran script supervisor at Disney whose credits included Being There, Tron, Gunsmoke and MacGyver, has died. She was 91.

Bakke died March 10 at her home in Oxnard, California, her niece, Lucile Bosche, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born in Brooklyn in 1927, Bakke and her family moved to the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles in 1941.

Soon after graduation from North Hollywood High School in 1945, the Walt Disney Co. hired her as a secretary in its Ink & Paint department, the all-female finishing school that completed hand-drawn animation projects at the studio.

She then worked for director Ward Kimball on ...

Edle Bakke, a veteran script supervisor at Disney whose credits included Being There, Tron, Gunsmoke and MacGyver, has died. She was 91.

Bakke died March 10 at her home in Oxnard, California, her niece, Lucile Bosche, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born in Brooklyn in 1927, Bakke and her family moved to the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles in 1941.

Soon after graduation from North Hollywood High School in 1945, the Walt Disney Co. hired her as a secretary in its Ink & Paint department, the all-female finishing school that completed hand-drawn animation projects at the studio.

She then worked for director Ward Kimball on ...

After five years of combining animated short subjects, and a combo live-action/animation feature, Disney dove into full feature animation fantasy again with the most basic of Fairy Tales. Just because he learned to create animation for a price doesn’t mean that the quality slacked off — the wondrous design and animation is augmented by terrific songs. Yes, half the picture is about cute mice and birds and other critters … which are done so well, the show is worth seeing multiple times. This handsome Signature Collection release follows earlier Diamond and Platinum releases … and don’t ask me to decode that classification system.

Cinderella

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code

Walt Disney

1950 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 75 min. / The Signature Collection / Street Date June 25, 2019 / 39.99

Voice Actors: Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Lucille Bliss, Rhoda Williams, Verna Felton.

Songs: Mack David, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston

Directing Animators: Les Clark, Marc Davis, Norm Ferguson, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl,...

When the Academy opened up voting for animated features to the membership at large and implementing preferential balloting, the balance of power shifted from indies to the big studios the first time in four years. This resulted in the final five nods for Pixar frontrunner “Coco,” GKids’ politically powerful “The Breadwinner,” the hand-painted “Loving Vincent,” and two surprising mainstream studio entries: “The Boss Baby” from DreamWorks and Blue Sky’s “Ferdinand.”

Indeed, one could argue that without the new rule changes and a Disney release last year, there likely would’ve been four indies joining “Coco.” Still, there were several positive takeaways: All five movies captured the zeitgeist in one way or another, and this marked the first time that two female directors were nominated in the same year: Nora Twomey for “The Breadwinner” and Dorota Kobiela for “Loving Vincent.” They joined previous nominees Marjane Satrap (“Persepolis”), Jennifer Yuh Nelson...

For DreamWorks director Tom McGrath (the “Madagascar” franchise), “The Boss Baby” not only provided a personal story about sibling rivalry and corporate displacement, with Alec Baldwin voicing a Trump-like corporate bully, but also the opportunity to create a separate 2D graphic design for several fantasy sequences.

“I think we’ve forgotten our roots a little bit [with CG],” McGrath told IndieWire. “But since we were doing a movie about a 7-year-old’s imagination, we could be very stylized, very abstract, and very colorful. And we had our heroes of animation from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s to drawn on: Maurice Noble, Mary Blair, Ward Kimball, and Chuck Jones.”

Read More: ‘The Boss Baby’ and ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Fight for Second Behind the Unstoppable ‘Beauty and the Beast’

After dabbling in a 2D sequence for “Madagascar 3,” McGrath experimented further with 2D environments inside the mind of his protagonist, Tim Templeton (voiced by...

It seems that most animated movies aimed at kids these days are mostly exclusively laden with animal characters with human traits, but DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby has other ideas, and as I say in my video review above for lovers of genuinely amusing toons it is a wildly funny, original and entertaining flick for all ages. In fact it really seems a throwback to a zanier Chuck Jones-Ward Kimball form of animated treat — one full of non-stop antics, comic action and…...

Like Pixar, Disney continues pushing the envelope with its shorts program, and “Inner Workings” offers yet another innovation in hybrid animation and quirky narrative.

Director Leo Matsuda (story artist on the Oscar-winning “Big Hero 6” and “Wreck-It Ralph”) takes us inside the cartoony body of a hapless clerk named Paul, whose brain and heart engage in a tug-of-war that nearly tears him apart.

But unlike Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Inside Out,” the intent is purely physical, not cerebral. “I’m a Japanese Brazilian so I’m very disciplined, but I also like to party,” said Matsuda, who was inspired by the human anatomy illustrations from the “Encyclopedia Britannica” that he flipped through as a youth.

Matsuda recreated the graphical look of those layered acetate transparencies in his short along with an ’80s vibe that’s pushed and theatrical. His influences were Jacques Tati, Wes Anderson, Disney’s Ward Kimball and Bruno Bozzetto,...

Ward Kimball might be the most important name in animation you've never heard: one of Disney's first animators, he worked on the dwarfs for “Snow White,” designed Jiminy Cricket for “Pinocchio” and redesigned Mickey himself in the '50s. Later he became a member of the “Nine Old Men” who advised and counseled Walt and the Disney company for decades. All that, and he mentored Brad Bird, Pixar's presiding genius and one of the most important figures in animation today.Kimball had hobbies too, though, and one of them was trains: he was fascinated by railways and collected railway memorabilia (Kimball is part of the reason Disneyland features lots of train-related attractions). So it's hardly surprising that when Los Angeles' Union Station, the last of the great, palatial American train stations opened in 1939 just down the road from Disney, he was there with a camera, shooting the only known footage of the opening.

Belting out an incredibly funny and intelligent speech at the National Board of Review Awards, Meryl Streep showed all that she has no fear as she delivered the best actress award to Emma Thompson.

Having more than a few negative things to say about Walt Disney, her are some of the highlights from the 64-year-old's iconic speech:

"This is a very late night, and we have Spike Jonze — twice — coming up, so I want to say to you, I have a short, sweet, kind of funny version of this tribute to Emma Thompson, and I have the long, bitter, more truthful version, so I would like a vote — and I'm serious! I'm happy to do just the short one. I'd love to do the long one."

After the audience told her to go for the long version, the "Devil Wears Prada" starlet continued, "Some of [Walt Disney's] associates reported that Walt Disney didn't really like women.

Meryl Streep stole the show at last night's National Board of Review Awards in New York City with an amazing speech in which she simultaneously honored Emma Thompson for her role as P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks while also slamming Walt Disney as a sexist and anti-Semite. "Some of [Walt Disney's] associates reported that Walt Disney didn't really like women," Streep said from the stage. "Ward Kimball, who was one of his chief animators, one of the original 'Nine Old Men,' creator of the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, said of Disney, 'He didn't trust women, or cats.' And there is a piece of received wisdom that says that the most creative people are often odd, or...

Innovative animator whose credits include Lady and the Tramp, Petroushka and Grease

The pioneering animator John David Wilson, who has died aged 93, launched his studio, Fine Arts Films, in 1955 and found success with his first short subject, an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, Tara the Stonecutter, which was screened in America with Teinosuke Kinugasa's Oscar-winning samurai drama Jigokumon (Gate of Hell, 1953). Next came Petroushka (1956), for which Igor Stravinsky (despite negative feelings towards animation following Disney's Fantasia) was persuaded by Wilson to prepare a shortened score for the film and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the soundtrack. Petroushka won several festival awards and was the first animated film to be accepted by the Venice film festival.

Wilson's diverse productions ranged from innovative TV commercials for Instant Butter-Nut Coffee, made with the actor and humorist Stan Freberg, to a groundbreaking 15-minute film, Journey to the Stars, for the United...

Alice in Wonderland

Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske

Written by Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Milt Banta, Bill Cottrell, Dick Kelsey, Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Del Connell, Tom Oreb, and John Waltridge

Starring Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Verna Felton

I should not pride myself in my ability to not be bored stiff by black-and-white movies, or by a supposedly stilted style of acting present in films from before the 1960s. There is a perception in the world, though, that audiences under the age of 30—I’m nearing the precipice of being on the opposite side of that line, but not yet—are, for the most part, unable to deal with older films or engage with them properly. On one hand, I bristle at the stereotype, not just because of my love for film of any age, but because I know from writing for this website,...

Ward Kimball was one of Disney's "Nine Old Men," referring to a group of original Walt Disney animators who created some of the studio's most iconic animated characters. Kimball, for example, is the man who brought Jiminy Cricket to life, later going on to help spearhead the animation in some of Disney's feature films (like Mary Poppins), as well as playing a large role in a Disney television series which began as Disneyland in the 1950s and went on to take a number of titles throughout the years, with it currently known as The Magical World of Disney Junior. As part of that Disneyland television series (itself created as part of a deal to help fund the creation of Disneyland), Ward Kimball was responsible for a three-part documentary series under their...

Read More...

It’s been 60 years to the day since Peter Pan, the Walt Disney animated classic, opened in theaters nationwide. So what better way to commemorate the birthday of the boy who wouldn’t grow up than by checking the film out on Blu-ray for the very first time? That, at least, is the thinking behind Disney’s decision to release the Diamond Edition of Peter Pan today, hoping to remind children of all ages of this iconic animated entry. A few movie-specific issues aside, this is a fully packed home media release, a massive new Blu-ray, overstuffed with special features, even if some of them might be too familiar.

The story of how the always-young Peter Pan takes three British children to the fabled island of Neverland and their exciting adventures against the villainous pirate Captain Hook is one of the most familiar of the last 100 years. Who among us...

The new Blu-ray/DVD/Digital release of Walt Disney’s Peter Pan includes the bonus features from previous DVD releases plus a few additions, including Growing up with Nine Old Men, a short documentary in which Ted Thomas, the filmmaker and son of top Disney animator Frank Thomas, checks in with the children of the other artists who were nicknamed the Nine Old Men. There are no revelations or airing of dirty laundry, but if you’re a diehard Disney buff you’ll enjoy learning about the personal lives, families, and hobbies of such animation titans as Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, and John Lounsbery. (Marc Davis and Eric Larson...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...

John Carter did not go exactly as planned at the box office for Walt Disney Pictures, but the movie currently in theaters is not the studio's first time working with the material. Legendary Disney animator, Ward Kimball, drew some cool pieces of of art based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom.

We have a video from one of Walt Disney's Dinseyland specials for ABC. Our friends at io9 shared the 1957 episode, Mars and Beyond, which you can watch below.

I remember watching the Disneyland specials on ABC as a kid, and may have even seen this one at one point. Check out some more of Ward's awesome artwork below.

What do you think of the art? Would you have rather seen a movie built around Kimball's work?

Follow me on Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr...

Some of you probably already know how big of a fan I am of the art of animation. One of the things I've always wanted to do in my life was to become an animator, but as you all know, life pulls you in different directions, and that's not what I ended up doing.

Animation has become a huge industry. The traditional 2D animation style is currently hanging by a thread, while CGI animation is booming. I've always been partial to the traditional animation style. There is a look, style, flow and soul to it that can't be replicated with CGI animation.

Animated filmmaking all started with Walt Disney and his vision. The first feature length animated film ever produced was Disney's Snow White. In 1935 Walt Disney wrote an 8-page memo about the business of animated storytelling, and talks about how animators should be trained.

The memo was written to...

Carlsbad - LEGOs…those colorful blocks that snap together so easily. Many view them as a childhood toy, but they’re serious fun among collectors and adult builders. They can vacation at the American LEGOland. They can get those rare pieces at Lego stores across the country in malls. Lego video games featuring Star Wars, Batman and Indiana Jones are all the rage. Keeping up with what’s happening in Lego is about as foreboding a task as your mother keeping up with your LEGOs.

Joe Meno organizes the Lego universe through BrickJournal magazine. The periodical announces upcoming products, events and how-to articles by top buildings. It’s a coffeetable magazine featuring all the Lego pieces your kids lost under the sofa. The pages are addictive even for someone mildly interested in Lego with illustrations that show how the plastic building blocks can snap into amazing works of art. For...

Volume 4 of the Disney Classic Short Films collection has an odd problem in that the title cartoon, while undeniably classic, pales in comparison to the rest of the cartoons in the set. For adult Disney collectors the older make-up of the films on this disc won’t be a problem, but for the kids it’s hard to say whether or not they’ll be all that enthralled with many or any of the cartoons in the fourth volume.

The Tortoise and the Hare (1935)

Kids have been told the tale of The Tortoise and the Hare for decades. The best part of this cartoon (used briefly in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) is the way the tortoise moves; as his shell moves along a perfectly straight line, his arms and feed move in a smooth motion that just looks really neat. The Tortoise and the Hare as a story has aged...