Behind Pixar’s string of hit movies, says the studio’s president, is a peer-driven process for solving problems. How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity (alternate print link for those having trouble with the first link), by the co-founder of Pixar and the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios Ed Catmull.
posted on Sep 1, 2008 - View this thread

In January of 2004, Disney shut down their Florida animation studio, part of their decision to move away from 2D, or cell-shaded, animation for good. Two years later, as part of the new deal with Pixar, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were brought in as heads of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and promptly declared that 2-D Animation would thrive again on their watch. For their first new project, the team wanted to show support for the still-struggling New Orleans, and simultaneously introduce Disney's first Black Princess in "The Frog Princess" (Or The Princess and the Frog, as it is now known), a fairy tale set in 1920's Jazz-era Louisiana, with Randy Newman providing a period-specific score. Much response to the project has been quite positive, but as with all things, the devil is in the details.
posted on Jul 22, 2008 - View this thread

The last of Disney's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston, has passed away at the age of 95. His work at Disney on several classic features and his books with Frank Thomas (The Illusion of Life in particular), have long been inspiring to animators like myself. He was one of the great ones, and will be missed.
posted on Apr 15, 2008 - View this thread

Peace on Earth - 1939 Disney animation directed by Hugh Harman. And Goodwill to Men, a 1955 remake by Hanna-Barbera.
posted on Dec 24, 2007 - View this thread

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue was an animated drug prevention television special starring many popular cartoon characters from American Saturday morning television. Airing in 1990 and financed by McDonald's, it was simulcast on all three major American television networks. The VHS home video edition of the special also opened with an introduction from then-President George Bush Snr and Barbara Bush. And thanks to the wonders of the interwebs, you can watch the whole thing here. And you really should. After all, where else are you going to get to hear cartoon characters like Garfield and Winnie the Pooh talking about smoking crack and shooting juice?
posted on Dec 3, 2007 - View this thread

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair.
posted on Oct 21, 2007 - View this thread

The Donald Duck animated short film anthology. Donald Duck's family tree. More Donald Duck family trees. Donald, Donald, Donald. Quack, Quack, Quack.
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - View this thread

Salvador Dali and Walt Disney collaborated in 1946 on the short animation Destino. Disney had concerns about some of the graphics and it was never released. Lost for 56 years, it was restored in 2003 and has not yet been released for wholesale distribution. Tommorrow is your last chance to see it at the Dali and Film exhibit at the Tate Gallery. Previously.
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

The author of this site takes screen-shots from long-pan scenes of classic animation and puts them together to re-create the original larger background images. Much cooler than it sounds, honest. [via MeFi's own kokogiak, sort of]
posted on Aug 10, 2007 - View this thread

Mars and Beyond - 50 years ago, this animated episode of Tomorrowland aired on Disneyland a few months after the launch of Sputnik - an entertaining melange of astronomy, sci-fi, pop culture, science, speculation, and surreality. Walt himself and Wernher von Braun make guest appearances and clip 5 is particularly trippy. (Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
posted on Jun 10, 2007 - View this thread

Cloned Disney cels: page 1 [Russian, bad English], page 2 [Russian, bad English]
posted on Apr 10, 2007 - View this thread

The 50 Greatest Cartoons Ever: the List - including links to the full-length videos of the corresponding toons on YouTube and Google, etc. Based on a twelve year-old-vote by the animation industry, which explains why there are no appearances by Cartman, Bart, or Fry.
posted on Dec 21, 2006 - View this thread

He had an awesome name for an animator. He created Mickey Mouse. He won two Academy Awards. He invented rotoscoping. Now he is mostly forgotten, except among cartoon aficionados. Also forgotten: Flip the Frog. He was Ub Iwerks.
posted on Dec 17, 2006 - View this thread

Tom Hignite wasn't content owning one of Wisconsin's most successful companies, Miracle Homes. The evangelical contracting magnate had a dream. He would be the Walt Disney(sound) of the 21st century. So he turned a portion of his 7,000 square foot house into a studio, hired a crew of veteran Disney and Warner Bros. animators, and proceeded to make a feature film QT starring his own creation, Miracle Mouse. This is the story of how it all went wrong.
posted on Dec 10, 2006 - View this thread

Ask Greg allows fans of Disney's first dramatic animated series, Gargoyles, to submit questions to series co-creator and producer Greg Weisman. It's been around since 1996 and has become a treasure trove of information and insight into not just the show, but the animation industry in general. Ask Greg and a fan-run annual gathering has kept the flame of the Gargoyles Universe alive and their efforts are paying off. Recently Disney began releasing the show on DVD and now it's set to return in the form of a comic published by Slave Labor Graphics and written by Greg Weisman.
posted on Jun 9, 2006 - View this thread

Advanced Animation by Preston Blair, "the best 'how to' book on cartoon animation ever published." Blair, a Disney and MGM animator, put the book together in 1947 to illustrate the various basic principles of animation, only to have the book pulled from shelves after the rights to use some of the characters were revoked. Animation historian Jerry Beck has been hunting for a first edition of Blair's landmark book for many years. He finally found a copy and is sharing high-quality scans on the Animation Archive. (Archive previously linked in this thread; discovered via this thread.)
posted on May 7, 2006 - View this thread

Chicken Little is Disney's first feature length 3d animated movie (without Pixar). Mark Dindal, director of Cat's Don't Dance and Emporer's New Groove, is at the helm. Is there a chance that the sky won't hit them in the face?
posted on Dec 8, 2004 - View this thread

Disney WWII-era propaganda An interview with Dave Bossert, the producer of a limited-edition two-DVD set of propaganda films produced by the Disney animation studio between 1941 and 1946--many of these shorts, including Donald Duck's Der Fuehrer's Face, were previously available only as nth-generation bootlegs because of their stereotypes and politically sensitive subject matter. (Also included in the collection is the previously extremely rare feature-length 1943 animated film Victory Through Air Power, designed to convince the American public that the only way to win the war was investment in long-range bombers.) [more inside]
posted on May 24, 2004 - View this thread

Pixar Dumps Disney: "It is impossible to know how bad this is for Disney." On the other hand: Disney can begin creating sequels to all of Pixar's films, something it could not do under its current arrangement and is almost certain to exploit. On the third hand: One film executive suggested that Mr. Jobs could now be considered a candidate to run Disney if indeed Mr. Eisner ever left.
posted on Jan 29, 2004 - View this thread

Suspended Animation. With its recent batch of new layoffs, Disney's animation department has just about completely abandonded production on any and all traditional 2D animated features in favour of flashier money-making 3D computer-animated fare. Is an artform dying?
posted on Aug 20, 2003 - View this thread

It's the plot, stupid. USA Today runs their usual insightful commentary about the upcoming release of Lilo and Stitch. It obsesses over the absence of CGI graphics pointing to Atlantis as evidence for the failure of traditional animation to draw box office. Funny me, I thought that Atlantis bombed because of a plot better left in 50s serial format, a cast of sterotypes rather than characters, and no sense of humor beyind dirty French jokes repeated over and over again. And is huge success of Pixar due to their pioneering animation, or their brilliant comic talent? What causes FX myopia anyway? Granted I can understand why fanboys obsess over the wrong things in a movie. Do the studios set it up by trying to hype each new summer release as the next big technical development (while the artistic development gets trumped by Waking Life and Insomnia?)
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

Dali worked with Disney on a project called Destino and only 15 seconds were made. but if it's anything like his work with Hitchcock, they should release it to the public.
posted on Oct 10, 2001 - View this thread

Disney steals a plot from anime once again, and here is the proof.
posted on Jun 15, 2001 - View this thread