Disney Punch Mash-Up Trailer

Courtesy of forensicator8 on YouTube. Hat tip to blastr, and to my beloved for sending the link.

Is the Academy Award for Best Picture a Farce?

My spouse (not a Disney Parks fan, but an animation nerd) has a bone to pick with the Academy for last night’s Best Picture win, and the fact that Toy Story 3 didn’t win. From his blog this morning, Why The Oscars’®©™ Best Picture award is a farce:

As good as it undoubtedly is, [The King’s Speech] isn’t better than TS3 and the collected body of work Pixar has turned out. TS3 like Godfather II, and yes I believe they deserve to be discussed together, was able to be as good as – if not better – than the great original movie. (TS2 was 50% of a great movie and certainly not in a league with the other two. Drop me a line and I’ll explain why.) The depth of character, the incredibly mature story it told, the writing, the storytelling, the acting were all of a quality seldom matched. And it’s nomination was nothing more than tokenism. Feh. A pox on all The Academy’s houses.

Myself, I can live with the fact that Toy Story 3 walked away with just two Oscars, for Best Song and Best Animated Feature.

But it bugs me that I can’t imagine an animated film winning Best Picture, despite the excellent work in this medium. And let’s remember that it is in fact a medium, not a genre . . . which makes it odd to set apart in the way that we do. Plus, comedies tend to be perceived as less prestigious somehow than serious dramas, or even thrillers, so if we ever do see an animated film win best picture, my money’s on something more like Metropia than Toy Story, despite the fact that the latter is a better film.

I’m not sure I’ll go as far as my spouse, in calling the awards a farce. But the deeper I get in animation fandom, the more disgruntled I am with the Academy’s apparent attitude.

Disney Animation Backgrounds

How’s this for cool? The Animation Backgrounds blog has a bunch of beautiful images from Cinderella, Bambi, and a bunch of other Disney (and other) flicks. I like the one above, from the 1935 cartoon, Musicland. There are also some stunning images from Pinocchio.

Hat tip: Dark Roasted Blend.

Minuscule: The Best Toon Disney Show You Haven’t Seen

Heads-up to animation lovers: Minuscule is an adorable and funny little set of French cartoon shorts airing from time to time on Toon Disney. Based on the IMDB page linked above, it looks like it’s airing Friday nights at 9:45 Eastern, but I’ve just set my DVR to record the whole series rather than trying to catch it live, as I’m guessing Toon Disney might air them somewhat irregularly, as they do Shaun the Sheep and other short cartoons. (I’ve been at home sick all week, so I’ve had plenty of time to catch up on my viewing!)

Some of the episodes are on YouTube, and I’m posting one here to give you a teaser (courtesy of sonhex), but the animation’s so beautiful you really want to see it full-size, trust me.

Kudos to Toon Disney for reaching out to other animation studios for innovative programming! In my opinion, it definitely enhances the brand.

More MP3s at Disneyland Paris Music Site

Does my Palm Pilot remind me to check the Disneyland Paris Music Site for new files every two weeks? Yes. Am I a geek? Yes indeed. And it pays off . . . today I found new files in two places:

• Their “Music” page, which updates every two weeks, now has “Good Morning Walt Disney Studios Show Music” and “Steamboat Willie” album music.
• Their “Bonus” page, which updates periodically but seemingly without any pattern, now has “Oasis Theme Area Music” (which I couldn’t seem to download properly) and the full ride music for “Soarin’ Over California”

Vintage Walt Disney Cartoon: Alice’s Egg Plant (1925)

Chickens going on strike! An oversized mouse laying an egg! Check out Alice’s Egg Plant, one of the Alice comedies made by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in the 1920s. (Might want to watch it with the sound off . . . the soundtrack was dubbed in later, and is somewhat distracting. Thanks Crayshen for posting it to YouTube!)

You might notice one of the main characters strongly resembles Felix the Cat . . . this is not an accident. From Wikipedia:

Julius the Cat, later renamed Mike to match the name of Ike the Mouse which he often appeared with, bears a striking resemblance to Felix the Cat. This wasn’t accidental: Charles Mintz, who distributed both the Felix series for Pat Sullivan and the Alice series for Walt Disney, had insisted on this in an attempt to emulate Felix’s success. Ike the Mouse on the other hand, bears a striking resemblance to a nude Mickey Mouse. This couple was one of the earlier attempts to create a cat and mouse pair in the animation business.

Ah, the earliest forerunners of Itchy and Scratchy . . . it warms my heart.

No Love for the Cheapquels

I stumbled across CM Venom’s blog tonight while tag surfing . . . and apparently we agree on a few things. Check out one of his recent posts, “Chance Of “Home On The Range II”…Zero:”

I know these “films” (for lack of a better word) filled the Disney coffers with money, as they were intended to do. (After all, the cheaper the product, the higher the profit.) But from an artistic standpoint, all they do is weaken the good name that they’re stacked upon. The world doesn’t really need to see what happened when the Little Mermaid returned to the sea, how Tarzan grew up, or a situation where Kronk got a “new” groove. Thankfully, the death of this unfortunate trend means we’ll never be subjected to The Rescuers III: The Rescuers Do Vegas, or Lilo & Stitch III: Lilo’s Prom Night Date Rape.

CM Venom also weighs in on Pocahontas:

In real life, Pocahontas came to England as part of hostage situation, was baptized, took the name “Rebecca Rolfe”, and died of smallpox on the way home from England. Now that’s a direct to video sequel I want to see.

Shaun the Sheep Joins the Mickey Mouse Club

DIS News tells me that Disney Channel will be airing interstitial segments starring Shaun the Sheep, from Aardman Animations:

“Shaun the Sheep” follows the comedic stories of a young sheep who leads his barnyard pals into all sorts of adventures. The character was first introduced in the Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit” short “A Close Shave,” from Aardman and Nick Park.

“Aardman Animations represents the platinum standard in stop-motion animation and ‘Shaun the Sheep’ brilliantly captures the unique brand of humor for which they have become world famous,” said Disney Channel Worldwide prexy Gary Marsh.

Cracking! Might this be just enough to get Mr Broke Hoedown to watch the Disney Channel with me?

Coming Summer 2008 from Pixar: Wall-E

A higher-definition version is available from Apple.com.

Happy Birthday Donald Duck!

Donald turns 73 today! So, here’s a little Saturday morning entertainment:

(And once again I ask, what the heck is a radio cartoon?)

Donald Duck fans in India can celebrate by watching a birthday special on their mobile phones, according to DIS News:

The Walt Disney Internet Group, that is focused on digital media platforms is ringing the special occasion through a ‘Birthday Special’ designed to engage and provide an entertaining experience for all the Donald Duck fans across the country on their mobile phones. A unique ‘Donald Zone’ has been created on Reliance mobile world, Planethutch and Airtellive for mobile users across India. Consumers can get access to interesting downloads of wallpapers, animations, ringtones, games and trivia on the http:// wap.disney.in on their GPRS enabled phones.