Sunday, December 13th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Steamboat Willie)

A few days ago, The Walt Disney Company returned to their traditional animation roots with The Princess and the Frog, the new film by Ron Clements and John Musker (the directorial duo is best known for two Disney classics, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin). In honor of the release, I figure I will take the high road and not blog on the normal Disney criticism of racist undertones, and celebrate 2-D animation. I mean, Pixar has yet to make a bad movie, but we all long for some more traditional animation to come our way, so I decided to embed the Ub Iwerks directed, Walt Disney written and produced short Steamboat Willie. It is the film that brought the iconic Mickey Mouse character to prominence, and was the third to feature Disney's mischievous rodent lead, the first being the less popular Plane Crazy, released earlier in the same year, 1928.

As always with Disney animation, an aura of controversy seems to follow this film, although the renown and changing times seems to downplay the one time censored parts. During the big musical number, many of the scenes are considered to display cruelty to animals, including a bizarre scene where Mickey plays sow nipples as an instrument. What happened to Disney, Iwerks and their animation properties after the success of this film needs not be explained, as the Disney corporate name is one of the biggest in the world, let alone the entertainment industry itself. However, it is to be noted that the film is part of the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, as well as being one of the top 50 cartoons, as voted by members of the animation medium.

As for owning the film, it has been released on DVD uncut twice in the Walt Disney Treasures collection. The first is a compendium of old Mickey Mouse cartoons in Mickey Mouse in Black and White, as well as being a special feature on The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, due to it being one of Iwerks' seminal works. Even easier though, unlike other popular Disney works, this film is available all over the Interwebs without Disney issuing out copyright lawsuits all over the place due to the fact that as it has fallen into the public domain. So without further adieu, here is a legal showing of Steamboat Willie.

Usually, I do not blog about anything else on my Short Film Sunday posts, but I have been seeing a lot of blogs featuring a recent interview with Sigourney Weaver. I would post a source, but basically every movie site online has posted it, despite the fact that I can no longer find the video of the session. Anyhow, Weaver was being interviewed for her role in Avatar, when the topic changes to her thoughts on the possibility of Ghostbusters 3, where she drops some huge spoilers. She mentions that her character, Dana Barrett's, son will become ghost buster for this installment, and that Bill Murray will be playing a larger role than she would, but this time as a ghost, thus meaning that Dr. Peter Venkman dies in the movie, or in the space between Ghostbusters II and the upcoming sequel, if it ever comes to fruition.

Also, in about an hour from the time this is posted, Adult Swim is going to air a new Space Ghost interview with Zoe Saldana on her role in Avatar. The advertising blitz has began, and the return of Space Ghost to my late night lineup is a damn good start to it.

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Halloween Extravaganza)

This is the last Short Film Sunday I'll be posting before Halloween, seeing that next Sunday I will be hoarding nerdy memorabilia from The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. So, with the aforementioned information, I figure I should do a bit of a Halloween extravaganza, and put together three decent shorts that embody the spirit of the Halloween season.

First up, is the original short that inspired the feature length version that we are all a little more familiar with, Saw. The short, which was directed by James Wan and was written by and starred Leigh Whannell, the team behind the big screen version that would come out a year later, was actually made as nothing more than a pitch from Wan and Whannell in an attempt to be picked up from a movie studio and acquire actors. Of course, this short and the original film are actually good entries into American horror, so don't let the overkill of Saw VI, due out this coming weekend, or the announcement of an upcoming 3-D Saw VII, or even the VH-1 reality series Scream Queens ruin this for you. The short can now be viewed by the uncut edition of the Saw DVD.

Second, we get a little more child friendly with a 1929 short directed by the one and only Walt Disney and animated by the brilliant Ub Iwerks, The Skeleton Dance. The short was actually made just a year after Mickey Mouse's debut screen appearance, via the short Plane Crazy. The little film, part of the Disney Silly Symphonies series of shorts, has became a Halloween staple over the years, being named among the 50 greatest cartoons of all time in a survey of a thousand animation professionals, compiled by historian Jerry Buck, and Carl W. Stalling's score pops up on Disney Halloween CD's all over the place. A nice little fact, just nineteen days ago was the eightieth anniversary for this short.

Finally, if there is one short that embodies Halloween more than any other, it has to be Michael Jackson's Thriller. Some people may consider it a music video more so than a short film, but Wikipedia and IMDb are among the sites that count this as a film, albeit a TV film according to the latter. The video was definitely the first time filmmaking and music video would merge, and possibly the only time it would on such a magnificent level. The short is directed by John Landis, just fresh off of doing An American Werewolf in London, and co-stars Ola Ray (who, incidently will be one of the guests at the aforementioned AdventureCon) and the voice of horror icon Vincent Price. The short, which tells the story to the tune of Jackson's eponymous track off of one of the greatest albums of all time, Thriller, of a couple that leaves the showing of a horror flick due to the young girl being frightened, only to end up in a nightmare of walking, dancing undead. Of course, the short/music video will be bigger this year than ever after the passing of Jackson a few months ago. Adding to the hysteria of Wacko Jacko's October legacy is the fact that Thrill the World is expecting its biggest turn-out ever, which will attempt to break the Guinness World Record of most people dancing in sync to Thriller simultaneously the world over. Also, This is It, the documentary on the finals days of Jackson's life is set to come out just a few days before Halloween. Enjoy.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Sunday, October 11th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Runaway Brain)

Today will be the first Short Film Sunday that I have posted since the ever-lengthening Halloween season has began. So, in honor of the time of year, as well as a story from Cinematical earlier in the week on Epic Mickey, I thought I would go for a no-brainer with Chris Bailey's 1995 animated horror-homage short starring Mickey Mouse, Runaway Brain.

The aforementioned story was that Pixar Animation is rumored to be considering adapting the new imaginative upcoming Nintendo Wii game, Epic Mickey, into a feature film. The game, due out next fall, looks strikingly well for a Wii game, and is already in talks to be developed to Play Station 3 and Microsoft XBox 360. The plot of the story is that some of the more jaded characters in the Disney animation canon is angered at Mickey Mouse's endearing and undying cultural status, led by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks' original creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, begin wreaking havoc on some of the more beloved Disney stories. Back to the Cinematical article about the consideration of putting the game's intriguing plot on the big screen, it caught my eye as special due to the fact that it will be the first time the newer generation will see a charming version of Mickey, which, in the last few years has become more synonymous with any other symbols of conglomeration or bastardry. In fact, the last time I was happy to see Mickey on screen was during his brief cameo in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. So, it brings up the question, could the cutesy mouse be entertaining enough to keep the attention of children once again in a new generation outside of Kingdom Hearts and in the cinematic world?

Well, I may had answered that question myself when I was reading my latest copy of Geek Monthly, and saw the ad for Medicom's figure for Runaway Brain (as pictured up above), and remembered the nice little short that accompanied by A Kid in King Arthur's Court and George of the Jungle, as well as being on the home video release for A Goofy Movie. Of course, before I watched it again, I didn't recall it being as good as it was. Some of the finer points missed during my younger, more innocent days, is the fact that Mickey is playing a Mortal Kombat style game with characters of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, that Kelsey Grammar voices Dr. Frankenollie (which Wikipedia tells me is named for classic Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston), the frame that mimics the poster for The Exorcist, and a nice Wilhelm scream.

As for the director Chris Bailey, he has yet to take a jump into feature films, but is best known outside of this short, which played at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, for being an animator on The Little Mermaid and The Lion King. So, without further adieu, enjoy Runaway Brain.

P.S., since I've not been blogging as of late, a bonus short for today. After talking about Oswald up there, I thought I would give him his moment after I found the famous 1927 short that brought the character to prominence, Trolley Troubles, directed by Disney himself.

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Destino)

If you go to any cinema related message board on the Internet, usually if Walt Disney Pictures is brought up, it is in very negative tone focusing on the company's law suits, urban legends, arrogance and a growing consensus of some of the films as being overrated. Hardly anywhere does normal bloggers give Walt Disney and all of the very talented animators that followed in his footsteps and company the credit they deserve, being a collective group of true visionaries in the animation medium. It is easy to look at the strides Disney has taken in recent years, just 2009 has already featured the Disney-Pixar instant classic Up, and will see the return of 2D animated princess stories with The Princess and the Frog, as well as Disney's distribution of Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki's latest Ponyo. Yet, if you look back to 1945, you can see just how influential of a filmmaker and artist that Disney himself, and his companions were. The very popular Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali came together for a collaboration with Disney, eventually writing a screenplay with Disney employee John Hench for a short film called Destino, until the financial troubles the company felt in a post-World War II world would eliminate the means to create the short. However, when gathering segments for Fantasia 2000, Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney would bring the project back to life, hiring director Dominique Monfery to use Dali and Hench's storyboards, Dali's wife, Gala Dali's, personal journals, as well as consulting with the then 92 year old Hench to create what the film would had originally looked like, and adding music from Mexican singer Armando Dominguez to fit in the music inspired art theme of the Fantasia sequel. Monfery would also use an eighteen second snippet from the test footage actually animated by Dali, just re-colored. It is the scene with the tortoises, around the 5:22 mark of the video.

The short, of course, wouldn't end up making the movie, but would be released theatrically alongside the comedy Calendar Girls in Britain and Sylvain Chomet's brilliant Italian animated feature The Triplets of Belleville everywhere else. It would also garner four critics awards and an Academy Award nomination for best Animated Short Film, losing out to the Australian Harvie Krumpet.

But before you get all bent out of shape due to an Oscar nomination, most of my favorite shorts doesn't get close to seeing the famous golden statuette, but what makes the film special is that two very different, yet very influential artists could come together and create such a beautiful film. If you're a fan of Dali's, you could watch some of these images unfold all day, one my favorite scenes being a throwback to the Dali-written, Luis Bunuel directed 1929 Un Chien Andalou (my favorite short film, which one day I will get around to posting on here), starting at about 4:02 minutes in. So, without further ado, 58 years in the making, a true, rare (this is more than likely pirated, so if YouTube deletes this soon, my apologies), classic, Destino.


P.S. I found the picture on a random wallpaper search on Google. Kind of a nice peice of fan art in itself.