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.

Donald Duck on Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sure, it’s a bit disconcerting that Donald’s sleeping with a prostitute. But I’m more unsettled by the fact that she’s photorealistic and human.

This Australian poster from World War II is currently on auction at Hale’s (stories about it on the Disney History, Cartoon Brew, and BoingBoing blogs). From Hale’s:

This rare poster is the only one we know of and we believe of Australian issue. Text at top reads “And Me With Out A Pro.! Be Sly VD Is High.” Great art depicts Donald Duck in an Australian soldier’s uniform while behind him is an attractive woman in a tight slinky dress lying in wait behind a large plant. Donald has an exasperated look on his face as he is without a prophylactic. At the lower right is insignia “4MCD,” we believe to be for the Fourth Medical Corps Division. Art is signed “Cyril Jones.”