David Lynch’s A Goofy Movie Mashup Trailer

My friend Geoff left this link in the comments on my last post….and it’s amusing enough that it really warrants a post of its own! Courtesy of CodyRicheson on YouTube.

Makes me want to watch Mullholland Drive again, actually.

WALL-E & Watchmen Mashup Trailer

Courtesy of TM2Megatron on YouTube. In high res no less, woot!

Star Wars Fun Roundup

Star Wars Money. Hat tip: BoingBoing

AT AT Dali tattoo. Hat tip BoingBoing.

Eddie Izzard on Star Wars, courtesy of Elding83

Omodaka Hidden Mickey

Well, maybe not really a hidden Mickey, maybe more of a decorative Mickey. But I was amused to see the little guy pop up in the background of this video by Omodaka, an avant garde electronic artist I saw this week at US Japan Nite, an event I’d highly recommend to any fan of eclectic, mostly punk new music.

Mickey seemed to get a visible reaction from the hipsters standing next to me in the club. He is after all the leader of the club that’s made for you and me.

Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” in US Theatres August 14, 2009

Doing anything August 14, 2009? Well, if you’re in the US you could do worse than to go Ponyo, the latest Hayao Miyazaki film, just announced for release in US theatres that day, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

If you’ve read much about John Lassiter, you probably know already that Miyazaki has been a huge influence on him. And if you’ve watched a single Miyazaki film, you know the animation is stunning, the storytelling superb, and the cultural references often a tad confusing for American audiences (I had to watch Spirited Away a couple times before the Shinto really started to sink in).

Hat tip: Blue Sky Disney.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

How could I not sign up for Ada Lovelace Blog Day? This celebration of women in technology honors a woman who was, by some accounts, the first computer programmer:

She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage‘s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the “first programmer” since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.^[1]

I’ve also seen her called the founder of scientific computing…so hey, that means I can thank her for the very existence of my day job!

So I set about looking for women in the Disney company who had made significant technical contributions. Just for a little background here, I was looking for engineers, computer programmers, technicians, and others whose work is primarily technical, or has arrived at their managerial position through a technical track. I did some research on the web, thought back through the books I’ve read, and asked my readers for nominations. I contacted a fellow blogger with deep knowledge of Disney history.

Well, let’s just say that my research would indicate that there is still plenty of room for growth! While women have certainly played prominent roles in Disney arts and design (Mary Blair, for example), and in management (Meg Crofton and Cynthia Harriss both come to mind), it’s hard to find women among the technology leaders.

But there’s also progress. It is with great pleasure that I read about Darla Anderson, who Variety calls the “only woman in Pixar’s so-called ‘brain trust.”

The producer of “Monsters, Inc.” and “Cars” first got interested in CG animation in the ’80s while working on commercial production in Southern California. She was, she admits, the “only girl” at then-tiny computer animation festival Siggraph in the early ’90s when she first saw some of the short-form work of Pixar co-founder John Lasseter. Soon after, she decamped to Emeryville to take over Pixar’s commercial division.

While working on spots for Listerine and Coca-Cola, Anderson and her staff got roped into helping with the risky project that was taking up most of the rest of the staff’s time in the small office: “Toy Story.”

Now, this is a geek girl I can identify with. And she’s not alone….the dre poetic blog has a summary of a panel discussion featuring several women behind-the-scenes at Pixar, which is great reading for anybody interested in the company.

I’m sure there are other fabulous technical women working behind the scenes at Disney…..so I throw the challenge open again to my readers. Whether it’s a high-level executive that I’ve missed somehow, or a top-notch new engineer at Imagineering, what women do you know who have made significant technical contributions to the Disney company?

I’m Guessing They Meant Assortment?

It’s worth hopping over to EngrishFunny.com to read the comments.

Pal Mickey: Hot Item on eBay

Who woulda thunk it? But just today I learned on one of my favorite Disney fan interweb message boards that Pal Mickey, now discontinued by Disney Parks but still fully functional, is routinely fetching over $100 on eBay, as opposed to the $60 (or so) that he used to cost in the parks. I didn’t believe it, actually, so I followed the advice of one poster to check the “completed listings”, and yes indeed there they were.

It also sounds like there are still a few Pal Mickeys out there in the shops at Disney World, perhaps especially out at the resorts.

What an odd thing that there’s apparently still such demand for the little guy! And no, mine won’t be showing up on eBay anytime soon….perish the thought!

Jentasmic: My Top 7 Disney Parks Best Moves

We are shocked! We have Main Street and the Castle all to ourselves!

I’ve written about my biggest mistakes before….but this week’s Jentasmic! column at StudiosCentral.com takes a more optimistic spin, looking at the best moves I’ve ever made related to my Disney Parks trips. Strangely enough, one item actually made it onto both lists:

6) Staying onsite at Disneyland Paris. When writing my “top 5 mistakes list,” I felt that staying onsite had not been worth the trouble and expense, given that my spouse had spent that night solo in a perfectly good Central Paris hotel room, 45 minutes away by train. And I’m still planning to commute from Central Paris on my next Disneyland Paris trip, scheduled for late August of this year (fingers crossed! I hope we can make it happen!). But maybe that early entrance to the park for the included-with-stay Good Morning Fantasyland Breakfast was worth the expense and trouble; after all, we got that fabulous picture of my son in front of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, with nary another Guest in sight. And y’all know how I feel about the importance of afternoon breaks when you’re traveling with the under-10 set, right? So I’m starting to believe it was in fact money well spent, especially if it was just a one-time thing.

Sesame Street Explains the Madoff Scandal

A little topical entertaiment, for you Muppets fans, courtesy of JimmyKimmelLive on YouTube.