Category — Mickey Mouse

It’s no secret that UP is doing well, and it should, it’s awesome.  Yes, that about sums it up: AWESOME.

My wife and I took the boys (ages 3 and 5, respectively) to an advanced screening at the beautiful El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, CA, which begs the question why did it take this long to write a review?  Eh, it’s a long story and it can’t compete with anything PIXAR is offering so we’ll just skip the excuses and get straight to the heart of the matter, which happens to be just that, the heart of the matter.  UP is about heart and lots of it.

Sure, the same can be argued for just about anything that Disney-PIXAR has created, and it would all be true, but UP takes the idea to new heights – and I’m not talking balloons here.  It’s an epic love story wrapped in a layer of silly, sweet fun, the likes of which haven’t been seen on screen since, well, WALL-E.

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Via designer and illustrator @JoeyEllis comes a set of ‘cute’ Disney themed twitter emoticons. Click to see the whole set.

Previously we saw Joey’s amazing 1933 Mickey Mouse themed mural for his son’s bedroom.

After learning about the very sad news of Wayne Allwine’s passing via twitter (via@aprilwinchell who does some voice work for Disney as Clarabelle Cow), I wrote my tribute last night. Of course, there is so much more to Wayne than I could sum up in a few grief inspired words. For instance, I totally forgot about his mission to keep the unique talents of the Ukulele and spirit of Cliff Edwards (voice of Jiminy Cricket) alive.

Perhaps the best tribute is how Mickey Mouse has recently been re-invigorated for the Walt Disney Company by “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” on The Disney Channel. I know that Wayne and Russi worked with the show’s producers to make sure that Mickey and Minnie stayed true to their characters even while making themselves available to a new generation. I also know that they were working with Disney to make sure there was someone ready to step into Mickey’s shoes if needed. There has even been talk of another animated feature with Mickey and the gang.

I know that many more tributes will pour in from those who knew Wayne better and I be adding them here as the days go on.

• April Winchell
• Mark Evanier
• Andy De Maertelaere
• Cartoon Brew (read the comments)
• Voice Actors in the News
• Will Scott
• LaughingPlace.com
• Jim Hill
• Kate at Cholula Red
• John Matthews
• Rich Koster of DisneyEcho
• The AP’s Obit
• LA Times

To add your tribute drop me an email with the link.

Update: Clip of Wayne on Ukelele with Russi at an NFFC convention (via LaughingPlace.com) below the cut:

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You go Mickey. When I’m your age, I want to look as young as you do today.

These last 80 years have been quite transformative for you. You’ve gone from a sweet and unpretentious little rascal to a modern day role model for the young. The next 80 are sure to be as transformative, especially as more images of you begin to enter the public domain. Sure there will be fights, huge ones, for control of your future. You have become a part of us. And now you belong to all of us as much as you ever belonged to Walt and the company he set up with his brother. I only hope you’re up to the task.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse.

We’ve always known there is a bit of a dark side to Mickey Mouse. Usually he was just being his mischievous self, but sometimes, as in Runaway Brain, he seemed like a completely different mouse. Okay. Maybe he was a completely different mouse. But he’s always been fairly squeaky clean when it comes to consumer products. In the last few years, however, we’ve been treated to some wider extremes of Walt’s most famous creation.

Walt Disney’s influence as a creative visionary and artist has inspired generations and BLOC28 by Disney is a new label that uniquely connects today’s street art and contemporary art culture with Disney’s most iconic character, Mickey Mouse. BLOC28 by Disney – Series 2, builds on the phenomenal success of the first series with well-known urban artists Aroe, Chaz Bojorquez, Ewok, Rime, Suiko and Tenga.

Each artist developed a one-of-a-kind piece of Mickey–themed art in their signature style which serves as the inspiration for a line of limited-edition product. And in celebration of the contemporary art community, Disney is kicking off a ten-day auction of limited edition BLOC28 product with eBay Giving Works to benefit Art Share Los Angeles – a community arts incubator whose mission is to shape lives through art, education and community action.

If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles it can be incredibly difficult to get your hands on the BLOC28 line of products. So this auction is probably your best chance. Plus it supports a good cause. So everyone is a winner.

More information on the auction is available at eBay.

This weekend you’ll want to make sure to head over to South Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee’s “Animatus” exhibit to see his wild creations that peel the skin off your favorite animated characters to reveal the skeleton’s inside. This Mickey Mouse is just a taste.

If you’re Basel, Switzerland you can catch the exhibition at the natural history museum. Otherwise, Michael Sporn has pictures.

For its vigorous pursuit of copyright extension and trademark protection the Walt Disney Company is often made to be the villain in the war for freedom of expression and artistic expression. I obviously have a dog, or two, in this fight (my content is stolen all the time, but I also license it under a CC license for easier fair use). Additionally, I am a bit conflicted over whether I think copyright extension has gone too far, which I do, versus protection of the lovable characters created by Walt Disney and his artists, where I would hate to see others, who may not have the same love and passion that Disney’s artists do, in control.

So this article in the LA Times about how the Walt Disney Company may have flubbed the copyright for Mickey Mouse during his early days, definitely interests me. The short of it is, copyright laws can be very arcane and how it’s enforced today often depends on the requirements dating from the era of its creation. Apparently a researcher, a former Disney employee who doesn’t like the way the company is treating Walt’s creations, found that the original release of Steamboat Willie was on shaky copyright grounds.

There’s a lot more to the story than that. But the end result is Disney may or may not have lost the copyright on the Steamboat Willie short, but they still own the trademarks on all the various Disney characters (with a few exceptions where the Disney characters are based on public domain stories). So even if someone was to press for a public domain use of Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie and try and market that movie or stills from it, they would still face a very costly legal battle from Disney’s deep pocket over exactly how the film could be used without violating Disney trademark on Mickey Mouse.

In no way does this mean Disney no longer owns Mickey Mouse. Nor did Disney lose the copyright or trademark on Mickey or any other Disney characters (many iconic characters got their start in Steamboat Willie). At the most, I think you might see a few people try and sneak a full version of the Steamboat Willie short on a DVD or compilation with a clear disclaimer about how they’re not Disney and that the movie is in the public domain.

I, for one, would like to see a version of Steamboat Willie where a true passionate fan of early Disney animation is able to show how the magic was made. Sort of a subject matter expert DVD commentary. Or how about some mashups or remixes of the short with other music or animation cues. Public Domain would allow that. As long as it was clear it wasn’t Disney making those editions.

Eventually everything must enter the public domain where it can be used to create new artistic endeavors. This is how cultures grow and stay healthy. They question now is just when?

I’m loving these Mickey Mouse Paintings by Floyd Gottfredson between 1978-1983. Gottfredson pencilled the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip beginning in 1930. He was inducted as Disney Legend in 2003.