Tank Riot Podcast on Walt Disney

The hosts of Tank Riot Podcast are outrageously smart, irreverent, hip, and beyond geeky. And occasionally foul-mouthed, so don’t listen with the kids! But you owe it to yourself to find some time to listen to their discussion of the life and works of Walt Disney.

We discuss the life, works, controversies and urban legends of the animator everyone thinks they know. From Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy to Donald Duck and Pluto, we discuss the animators like Ubbe Iwerks and the voice actors like Clarence “Ducky” Nash and Pinto Colvig that made the myths possible. Also: Where the Wild Things Are, Zombieland, Paranormal Activity, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox, Big Man Japan and more!

Disney history geeks probably won’t learn much new, although I’ll confess I didn’t know what the last words were that Walt wrote. But even if you already gots all the facts, this is good listening.

Can’t Tell the (Disney) Players Without a Scorecard

Honor Hunter of Blue Sky Disney has created a couple excellent cheat-sheets for those of us who might confuse Ollie Johnston with Eric Larson, or somehow even forget who Ed Catmull is.

• The Nine Old Men: Walt’s original supervising animators.
• Suits vs. Creatives, Heroes vs. Villians: Major players in the “Walt Disney Company Game”

Those with opinions on Tony Baxter (or wishing to form some) will want to read the comments on the Suits vs Creatives post fer sure.

Cutest . . . Stormtrooper . . . Ever!

I mean really, couldn’t you just lay down and die?

(Photo found on Flickr, taken at ConnectiCon, courtesy of DS Daijoubu.)

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.

Nara Dreamland: Another Disney Clone Park

Thank goodness for the Interweb. How else would I have friends like Eric from MouseGuest, who send me links to awesome things I may have otherwise missed?

Nara Dreamland is another Asian Disney clone park, this time in Nara, Japan. The illustrated trip review at ThemeParkInsider presents it as a wonderful mass of contradictions. One minute you’re in Disneyland, the next you’re in that haunted, abandoned theme park from Spirited Away. And Hello Kitty is there too!

Haven’t had enough? Need a little spin on the Screw Coaster? Here’s a YouTube for you, from the same good people:

1943 Walt Disney Cartoon: “Education for Death”

This haunting 1943 cartoon is among those featured on the DVD Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines. More details and commentary can be found on Wikipedia and IMDB.

Also currently available on YouTube is the 1942 cartoon Der Fuehrer’s Face, which features Donald Duck as a Nazi. I find some of the imagery too disturbing to include for viewing on my blog (for example, there’s a hideous stereotype of a man apparently of Asian descent). You might recognize the main song from the cartoon, as Spike Jones and his City Slickers rather famously covered it later on. Check out this Wikipedia article if you’re hungry for more info.