The Muppets Get Cooking With Cat Cora

Disney just sent me this little teaser about the Muppets.  Sounds tasty.

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A Dark and Stormy Night, 1929

Lightning crashes and the wind howls as a lone owl gives a plaintive hoot against the backdrop of a full moon.  A clock in a church belfry strikes midnight and a colony of bats fly into the night.  Nearby, a dog howls while two black cats hiss at each other atop two gravestones.  Suddenly, a bony apparition rises from the ground and leaps toward the audience.

It's time for the skeletons to come out and play.  Let's dance.

Eighty-one years ago today, Walt Disney premiered The Skeleton Dance, his first Silly Symphony cartoon.  Ripe off of the immense success of Mickey Mouse (Steamboat Willie debuted the previous November), Walt was already looking to explore new avenues in animation.  His musical director, Carl Stalling, was the first to propose the idea of a series of cartoons built on a foundation of music that starred non-recurring characters.  The first cartoon would be based on the musical piece "March of the Dwarfs" by Edvard Grieg.

It was a tough sell.  Mickey Mouse's popularity was skyrocketing and Walt's distributor, Pat Powers, was only interested in seeing "more mice."  Plus, Powers thought the subject matter was just too gruesome--the public wouldn't like it.  But, Walt persisted and eventually convinced the manager of the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles to give The Skeleton Dance a shot.  The response was enthusiastic by both audiences and critics.  Soon, The Skeleton Dance was booked into New York's Roxy Theater and became a bona fide hit.

Ub Iwerks, Disney's most talented and prolific animator at the time, drew virtually all of The Skeleton Dance and his artistry still delights to this day.  In the sequence where the the skeleton leaps toward the audience, we literally pass through him lengthwise, into his mouth, down his spine and through his ribcage.  There was no such thing as CGI trickery back then. This was all hand-drawn frame by frame--and it's significantly more difficult to animate a character coming right at you than it is to draw it moving side to side.  Iwerks was a master at it.

The dance itself is chock-full of clever bits as the skeletons move across the screen in unison and then in a ghoulish "Ring Around the Rosie."  They alternately squat and stretch and even disassemble and reassemble themselves, all in time to Stallings' catchy score.  As dawn approaches, our ghastly friends hurry back to their crypt, but we suspect they'll return again when next the clock tolls midnight.

The Skeleton Dance's impact on animation cannot be underestimated.  It set the creative tone for the more than 70 Silly Symphonies that followed, among them such classics as Flowers and Trees and The Three Little Pigs.  Its influence can be seen in other famous Disney scenes like "Night on Bald Mountain" from Fantasia and "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo.  Even Tim Burton, whose credits include The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride can give a tip of the skull to The Skeleton Dance for showing how the macabre can be fun and even whimsical.  

The Skeleton Dance stands the test of time and ranks among Disney's best short cartoons.

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The 40th Anniversary of the Walt Disney Archives: Having My Cake and Name Dropping Too

"Just walk up and say hello," my friend Dana said.

"No, he's busy," I said. "I don't want to bother him."

"Come on, you know you want your picture taken with him."

"Yes I do, but not now."

"You're just being shy."

I was not.  Shy would've been getting the nerve to ask Robert Iger out on a date.  Since the president and CEO of the Walt Disney Company isn't really my type, that wasn't an issue.  Saying hello is a fairly simple process.  I could see, however, that he was busy talking business to some people outside the Walt Disney Studios Theater, just minutes away from introducing chief archivist Dave Smith to an audience ready to celebrate 40 years of the Walt Disney Archives.  Now was not the time.  I was sure I'd be able to see him at the reception after the event.  I'm very polite when I stalk well-known people.

Dave Smith has been running the show at the Archives for its entire existence.  In the late 1960s, when he was a reference librarian at UCLA, he completed an extensive bibliography on Walt Disney and was later asked by the studio to help devise a system of organizing and archiving Walt's many letters, awards and memorabilia.  So, Dave took a hiatus from his university work...and never returned.  Forty years later, he's made the Walt Disney Archives the gold standard for animation and pop culture preservation.

Although the event last Friday wasn't meant to be a farewell party--Dave isn't retiring until October--it certainly felt like one, especially when Archives manager Becky Cline fought back tears as she paid tribute to Dave and his incredible legacy at Disney.  Becky will succeed Dave as chief archivist, and it's a well-deserved promotion.  She's spent more than twenty years with Disney, most of them at the Archives.  As a child, she grew up near Burbank and was a regular visitor to Disneyland.  "Mary Poppins" was the first movie she ever saw.  By her own admission, she has the best job in the world.  She can stay.  She's one of us.

Other VIP's in attendance included film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who did a Q&A with Dave (I have to name drop here.  I found out a few weeks ago that Mr. Maltin follows me on Twitter.  As an admirer of his work--his book "The Disney Films" is one of the reasons I've been a lifelong Disney fan--I'm genuinely flattered).  Also showing up was Karen Dotrice (little Jane Banks in "Mary Poppins") who donated her jacket from the "I Love to Laugh" scene to the Archives.  A parade of Disney execs also we're on hand to donate items.  Before the evening was over, the Archives added to its collection the Red Queen's scepter from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," the Dead Man's Chest from "POTC 2 & 3," John Locke's knife and an Oceanic boarding pass from "Lost,"  Nicolas Cage's dragon ring from this summer's "Sorcerer's Apprentice," a lighted disc from the upcoming "Tron Legacy," a wand from "The Wizards of Waverly Place" and a jacket worn by Joe Jonas.  Consider for a moment the range of items represented here.  Now add memorabilia from 11 theme parks and a wealth of animation and film items accumulated during Walt's lifetime, and you have just a small idea of the breadth of the Archives collections.  It's truly staggering.

After the presentation, we were treated to cake and champagne outside the theater.  It was also time to troll the crowd for some more Disney celebs.

When you're a Disney geek, your idea of celebrity is different from normal people.  Others may go gaga for, well, Lady Gaga or Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt.  More conventional Disney fans may be impressed with Miley Cyrus or the JoBros.  I'm gobsmacked by the likes of Tony Baxter, X Atencio and Bob Gurr (and if I have to explain to you who these people are, be gone with you).  It was with great satisfaction, then, that I spotted next to the champagne table none other than Disney composer (and legend) Richard Sherman.  With his brother Robert, Richard Sherman composed his fair share of the Great American Songbook while at Disney.  The Sherman Brothers wrote the music for "Mary Poppins," "The Happiest Millionaire," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," among many others.  I had seen Richard perform a few songs at a screening of the documentary "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers" at the D23 Expo last year, but it was a treat to finally meet him in person.

The evening was ultimately about Dave Smith, though, and in anticipation of the many well-wishers at the event, a table was set up at the end of the sidewalk for a meet-and-greet with the man himself.  Dave chatted with the steady stream of attendees, posing for pictures and signing autographs.  I'm sure by the end of the evening, he was tired of hearing all the praise being heaped on him, but he accepted it humbly and with class.  

And what about Bob Iger?

Ummm, well, he left early.  I didn't see him at the reception.

Next time, I'll be more rude.

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