The Mouse Castle Lounge 07-17-2015 - Disney Historian Didier Ghez Talks About Disney Legend Eric Larson

By Tim Callaway

Eric Larson was truly one of the greats of Disney animation. He was one of Walt's Nine Old Men and was best known for animating Figaro in Pinocchio, Friend Owl in Bambi and Peg in Lady and the Tramp. He also worked on other classics including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty.

His greatest legacy, however, may be as the teacher and mentor to an entire generation of young animators that joined Disney in the 1970s and '80s. He had a passion for his art and a commitment to uphold the standards established by Walt Disney. Eric's memoir, 50 Years in the Mouse House, is a fascinating and heartfelt testament to that passion.

His book, however, was almost lost forever, and the story of Didier Ghez's search for the missing manuscript is nearly as compelling as Eric Larson's life itself.

Didier edited Eric Larson's original manuscript and combined it with material taken from interviews Larson gave and lectures he presented at the Walt Disney Studios. Didier adds 50 Years in the Mouse House to his impressive output of historical Disney works including all 16 volumes of Walt's People and his upcoming tribute to Disney concept artists, They Drew as They Pleased. Didier Ghez is my guest today in The Mouse Castle Lounge.

Enjoy!

For more Theme Park Press titles, please visit www.ThemeParkPress.com.

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/themousecastle/TheMouseCastleLounge07-17-2015.mp3

Listen and subscribe to The Mouse Castle Lounge on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

RSS Feed: http://themousecastle.libsyn.com/rss

The Mouse Castle Lounge 06-07-2015 - Former Disney Animation Story Man Steve Hulett, Part Two

By Tim Callaway

Two weeks ago in the Lounge, I began a two-part conversation with Steve Hulett. In the 1970s and 80s, Steve was a story man at Disney Animation, following in the footsteps of his father, longtime Disney artist Ralph Hulett. In part one, Steve shared how he started his career at Disney—working for writer Larry Clemmons—and ten years later, how his Disney career ended. Today, in part two, Steve tells more behind-the-scenes stories about some of the Nine Old Men including Woolie Reithermann, Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.

Steve talks candidly about the departure of Don Bluth and a group of other Disney animators to form their own studio in 1979, the challenge of working for animator and future Disney Legend Ken Anderson, the arrival of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg in the mid 1980s, and finally, the notorious internal memo that incited the wrath of Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider. Steve Hulett is my guest today in The Mouse Castle Lounge.

You can read more about Steve Hulett's Disney exploits in his book Mouse in Transition: An Insider's Look at Disney Feature Animation, available from Amazon.com and Theme Park Press.

Related Story: The Mouse Castle Lounge 05-25-2015 - Former Disney Animation Story Man Steve Hulett, Part One

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/themousecastle/TheMouseCastleLounge06-07-2015.mp3

Listen and subscribe to The Mouse Castle Lounge on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

RSS Feed: http://themousecastle.libsyn.com/rss

Inside The Mouse Castle 08-26-2014 - The Emmys' Robin Williams Tribute, Villains at Walt Disney World and Happy Anniversary 'Mary Poppins'!

Seth Meyers hosted the
2014 Primetime Emmy Awards.

This year's Emmy Awards show was a generally entertaining, if unsurprising, TV spectacle (Breaking Bad...check. Modern Family...check). If there was one reason to tune in Monday night, however, it was to catch Billy Crystal's poignant tribute to his close friend Robin Williams, who died on August 11. In the latest Inside The Mouse Castle, Anthony and I discuss one of the most moving In Memorium segments of this, or any other awards show, in recent memory.

Also in this episode:

• Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom is adding an extra touch of villainy to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween-Party this year. The Villains’ Sinister Soiree: A Wicked Takeover of Cinderella Castle is a new event, hosted by the evil stepmother herself, Lady Tremaine, that features music, desserts and special viewings of Mickey’s “Boo-too-You” Halloween Parade and the Happy HalloWishes Fireworks Spectacular. It sounds like fun, but is it really worth the $99 price tag to get in?

Lady Tremaine hosts the Villains' Sinister Soiree at the Magic Kingdom.

• Happy 50th Birthday to the practically perfect Mary Poppins, which opened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 27, 1964. 
• Community star Donald Glover will finally get a crack at playing a role he's long coveted, Spider-Man. Previously passed over for current film Spidey Andrew Garfield, Glover will voice the web-slinger in Disney XD’s animated series, Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors.
• We're really excited about a new book written by longtime Disney animator Andreas Deja. The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspiration from Disney's Greatest Animators will be released in February 2015 and you can pre-order your copy on Amazon right now.
• Starting tomorrow, I will be in the Happiest Place on Earth to take part in the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. I'll be running in the 5K race on Friday and the 10K on Saturday (nope, not doing the half yet). Want to track my progress in the 10K on your smartphone? Text my bib number (30834) to 345678. Interested in other stalkerish behavior this weekend?: Visit http://www.rundisney.com/blog/articles/ATT-Athlete-Alerts-08-25-14.

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle08-26-2014.mp3

Listen and subscribe to Inside The Mouse Castle on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

RSS Feed: http://insidethemousecastle.libsyn.com/rss

Thirty Days of Disney Movies, Day Two - Least Favorite Movie

In 1952, Disney produced a rousing live action movie based on the legend of Robin Hood. You would think 22 years later, it would've informed them on how to make an entertaining animated version.

It didn't.

Hampered by a limited budget at a studio spiraling down in the years following the death of its founder, 1973's Robin Hood marked the low point in Disney animation.

Robin Hood and Little John, walking through the forest

On paper, it sounded pretty fun. An animated take on the residents of Nottingham and Sherwood Forest with animals playing the characters. Five of the surviving "Nine Old Men" would contribute their talents (producer/director Woolie Reitherman and directing animators Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and John Lounsbery). Well known Hollywood character actors would do the voices (Phil Harris, Peter Ustinov, Terry Thomas, Andy Devine and Pat Buttram, among others). Popular singer/songwriter Roger Miller would contribute a few songs (and provide the voice of the narrator, Alan-a-Dale). What could go wrong?

Plenty.

Robin Hood went so far out of its way to be family-friendly, it jettisoned most of the swashbuckling derring-do that made earlier film versions of the story so exciting. Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) and his hefty sidekick Little John (Harris, still channeling Baloo from The Jungle Book) spend a lot of time just walking, talking and playing tricks on the buffoonish (you can't really call him evil) Prince John (Ustinov). They do get in some scrapes, most notably at an archery contest set up by the prince to capture Robin, but the ensuing chase is so broadly slapstick with runaway tents and crashing elephants, there's little fear that our heroes are in any real danger. Even in the climactic scene where Robin finally confronts the lazy (you can't really call him menacing) Sheriff of Nottingham (Buttram), Robin's final plan of action is not to fight, but to run away. Oh, the sacrifices you must make to keep a G-rating.

Robin Hood's worst transgression, though, is how it blatantly recycled animation from earlier Disney films, as this often-viewed YouTube video illustrates:

Disney would redeem itself somewhat in 1977 with the release of The Rescuers, but more than a dozen years would pass after Robin Hood before the animation studio would truly begin to rise from the ashes and be a creative force again.

This is part two of my 30-day Disney movie challenge. Tomorrow, we rev up the engine for my favorite Disney comedy.

www.disneynewsarchive.com
www.facebook.com/disneynewsarchive
www.twitter.com/disneytim
www.youtube.com/disneytim

Remembering a Legend: Ollie Johnston

Disney Legend Ollie Johnston was born today in 1912.

A master of personality animation, Johnston grew up in Northern California, studied art at Stanford and later attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. In those early days, animation interested him, but he was never truly inspired by its potential until he saw Disney's 1934 Pluto cartoon Playful Pluto.

The flypaper sequence in Playful Pluto is an animation landmark for being the best earliest example of a cartoon character demonstrating a thought process. It was drawn by Norm Ferguson, a gifted Disney artist who went on to be a supervising animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. He was also an animation director on such films as Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Johnston joined Disney in 1935 and had a career at the studio that spanned over 40 years. He was one of Walt's "Nine Old Men," the core group of animators who created virtually all of Disney's animated feature films from the 1930s to the 1970s. Among Johnston's most notable characters were Thumper (Bambi), Alice (Alice in Wonderland), Mr. Smee (Peter Pan), Baloo (The Jungle Book), Prince John (Robin Hood) and Sir Hiss (Robin Hood).

Johnston forged a lifelong friendship with fellow animator Frank Thomas. Together they wrote several books, including what is considered to be the bible of modern animation, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.

Johnston passed away on April 14, 2008 at the age of 95. He was Disney's last surviving "Old Man."

Video clips are from the 1995 documentary Frank and Ollie, © Disney. 

 

www.disneynewsarchive.com

www.facebook.com/disneynewsarchive

www.twitter.com/disneytim