tealin: (4addict)
GREAT LIVES: WALT DISNEY

Gerald Scarfe (famous cartoonist and production designer on Hercules), Richard Williams (longstanding animation director, most notable for Roger Rabbit), and Brian Sibley (who ... wrote a book?) discuss the life and legacy of Walt Disney. Mr Scarfe also talks a little about working on Hercules, which was interesting for me to hear, knowing the people he's talking about; it's a bit like overhearing stories about your roommate from a stranger they went to high school with. Anyway, it's all very interesting, and Mr Williams is, as ever, very knowledgeable on the animation history side of things.

And then, as I was sitting in my little cubicle that I've made my own world, with the drawings* pinned on the wall which almost say 'keep out,' my little province was invaded by these words:
If you go to the Disney studio – which is very anodyne and very very clean and set up – all of the artists there have got these little cubicles set up, and they've made these little cubicles their own world. They put drawings and pin them on the wall, and almost cover the door with them, which says 'keep out'; that's their little province.
... and I had a very very odd sensation, almost a psychological version of your vision coming back into binocular focus after you've been crosseyed for a while, which I realised was the extremely unfamiliar event of my mind and body being in the same place at the same time. Usually when I sit down at my desk I plug in to Radio 4 and my mind goes and plays in the buttercups and sunshine** of Radio 4 Land, following wherever it takes me, while my body stays and works on my scene, but this morning it led me right back to where I was sitting. Weird.

*Well, I say 'drawings,' one of the things I have pinned on my wall is Sunday's LA Times article on Radio 4. THE CIRCLES, MAN.
**Wellll, more like dimly-lit libraries and jovial dinner parties, unless it's a natural history program...
tealin: (nerd)
The famous Nine Old Men of Disney* (and any number of less glorified but still talented assistants, etc) made a habit of looking at the Sports section of the newspaper for great dynamic poses that they could deconstruct and use to enhance their drawings. Today, we have the internet! Here, in one place, is a large collection of great poses!

Check out the action lines on these puppies! Phwaaar!

And more here, from other matches...

The expressions ain't half bad either.


*who are continually exalted in-house but whose well-documented curriculum of lifelong study and self-improvement is rarely followed, ahem AHEM. [glare]
tealin: (Default)
I don't think Dreamwidth does polls, or at least as a non-paid-account I can't create any, so I direct you to my LJ where you can participate in the snark democracy party!
tealin: (Default)


Various work-related forces are conspiring to take me away ... I still have two commissions on the books and have already fallen behind on some important emails, but ... I just ... can't. Please don't be concerned or take it personally but I'm going to be less of a 'presence,' to some extent, on Les Intarwebs for the time being. Cheerio!


How disturbing is it that Owl lends himself so readily to Tubbs?
tealin: (catharsis)
For those in LA, NY, SF, and ... does Chicago have a two-letter abbreviation? Waking Sleeping Beauty opens this weekend. For everyone else, keep an eye out, it's worth your time. There's a very in-depth article on it here. And if you live in some unfortunate small town ... well, there's always DVD.
tealin: (Default)
Fandango has a Frog Pod too!

The Disney Legacy – in which Bruce, Andreas, Eric, and Mark talk about being fanboys emulating the Nine Old Men

No new footage but lots of face time!
tealin: (fnav)
New footage! Old footage! Reappropriating the Caffeine Patch! The TOP SECRET theatre! (That got a nice laugh when we watched it in said theatre... we've been calling it that ever since.)

I've got clips on the other siiiide... )
tealin: (fnav)
Ron, John, the other John, Andreas, Bruce, and Mike say:

Hooray for Hand-Drawn Animation!

Featuring Andreas' Happy Dance and special guest appearances by some fresh-faced rookies!
tealin: (mwahaha)
Click the image! Click it!

Goofball! Villain! Goofball! Villain! Ahahahahahaa!

More beeee-yootiful Seq. 6 colour keys from Ian Gooding here!




[clicks some more] ... eeeheeheehee ...

Hot Stuff

Jun. 16th, 2009 02:54 pm
tealin: (fnav)
Well, looks like the word is out already ...

Princess and the Frog Sneak Peek on June 28

I'm afraid you'll have to sit through some more twee Disney Channel faff for it, but there you go ... We just saw the 'sneak peek' yesterday and ... it's certainly a peek all right. Maybe a peek and a half, but I'm biased because they put in a shot that spoils a small but entertaining surprise.

If it turns up on YouTube afterwards I'll post links.
tealin: (fnav)
I saw some marketing materials for Frog yesterday – little things they're going to hand out to promote the movie – and for the first time in roughly forever I found myself thinking 'Oooh, I want some of those.' They're stylish! And, dare I say, sophisticated. And, most unexpected of all, really complement the ... the ... general aura of the film. What is this world coming to? I only hope the rest of the marketing/packaging follows the same aesthetic ...
tealin: (manic)
I'm still nibbling away at my more in-depth review of Up, but in the meantime I was reminded of something I read back when I was in high school that made a lot of sense and has stayed with me ever since. Italics are the author's, bold text is mine.
Basil's character has many strengths in itself, but it has in addition an extra one which originates in the relationship between him and his audience. This is that, adult or child, we identify with him. If we are not Basil, we would like to be, and for an hour and a quarter we believe that we are.

[...] Many [Disney features] have a central character whose personality is two-dimensional. It is this character with whom we are intended to identify, and the two-dimensionality is deliberately created so that we can graft onto the character sufficient of our own attributes for the identification to be successful. In The Rescuers, Penny is 'everygirl;' in The Sword in the Stone, Wart is 'everyboy.' In The Great Mouse Detective, however, the character who might might have been expected to take on this role, Olivia, is far from two-dimensional, and it is Basil with whom we are intended to – and do – identify.

Basil is more than just a collection of behaviour patterns. One leaves the cinema feeling that one knows him as a personality – every characteristic rings true. When, for example, Ratigan escapes the palace in his bat-powered dirigible, we may be surprised at the nature of the Heath Robinsonish vehicle which Basil devises for the purposes of giving chase, but we are not surprised that Basil would have been capable of inventing it.

– John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Characters



I wish Mr Grant would have written succinctly enough that I could print this out onto a poster that I could pin on the outside of my cube where people might actually read it, but that's what blogs are for!
tealin: (fnav)
Five New Shots at Rope of Sand Silicon

I wonder if seeing the band in colour will ever not be weird.
tealin: (mwahaha)
It's the last (official) day of animation on Frog. And it's raining!

Sympathetic fallacy FTW.
tealin: (Default)
I go on and on (and on and on) about ideas and opinions in frank language, but I communicate personal information in cryptic references to history!

Another Conversation with Cherry )

Also: L.A. does not have lilacs. :(
tealin: (fnav)
I resized them down a leetle to save excess loading time (if you want full-res you can download your own trailer!) and fiddled with the contrast and saturation (though I may be thrown off by monitor calibration). There are a couple of image banks where you can find practically any screencap you want (this one is useful...) so I'm not going to waste waking hours clutter up my LJ with redundant images. I'm only putting up ones about which I have something to say that might be of interest, or which I particularly like but you might miss when watching the trailer at speed.

In absolutely no order whatsoever:
Heeere, piccy piccy! )
tealin: (fnav)
FINALLY:
PRINCESS AND THE FROG HIGH-RES QUICKTIME TRAILER


You can also download it through iTunes but you have to find their movie trailers section, which after some stumbling I did, but it was too long a process to dictate it here. There is scrolling and small text involved. Just ... go find it!

And if you think 'yeah, but I've already seen it' I say to you NO! It is NOT THE SAME in crappy YouTube 'HD,' and Quicktimes you can stop-frame!

Screencaps and commentary to come ...
tealin: (fnav)
- FROG TRAILER - FROG TRAILER - FROG TRAILER -

FROG TRAILER


Also available in high-definition!


It's supposed to arrive on iTunes sometime tonight (56 minutes and counting...) but in the meantime, YES. BEHOLD.

That's New.

May. 3rd, 2009 01:54 pm
tealin: (Default)
Hold onto your seat, world, here comes Dr Facilier!

Also there are some frogs and stuff ... ehh [dismissive shrug]. ;)



Let's hear a big cheer for digital videos of televisions! Hurrah!
tealin: (Default)
Hey look, They are talking about The Princess and the Frog! Talk about it some more!

Syndicated CNN Video Clip

I post it purely in case someone may be desperate for media coverage – it's only got footage from the teaser, some very predictable statements from talking heads, and narration by a perky yet aggressive woman in that extremely annoying content-light CNN kind of way.

36 days to proper trailer time!



OMG 36 DAYS WUT. [panics a little more]

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