The Animation Guild Blog passes along the news that the third season of My Friends Tigger and Pooh has been canceled. This after the crew working on the show was told that the third season was a certainty. Looks like belt tightening is occurring across… Read More »Christopher Robin Usurper Given the Axe
Pixar’s robot love film has now passed $218 million at the US Box Office. Disney increased the theaters over the labor day weekend, the 10th week of it’s run, which resulted in a little bump. But if you want to help bump up the box… Read More »WALL-E Rolls On With Big Box Office Numbers
As John posted last week, Disney is showing Sleeping Beauty in a limited engagement at their El Capitan Theater in downtown Hollywood. It’s showing for the next three weeks while we wait for the 50th Anniversary DVD and Blu-Ray release to come out in October.
Thursday night was the first showing of the film in this theater. It was preceded by a panel discussion on the film. And I was lucky enough to get to go.
Even though I live about 40 minutes away, this was my first time to the El Capitan Theater. It’s just easiest to go to a local one. But I was quite impressed with it. This is an old time, one screen affair with a balcony. I just had to sit in the upper section. I got there early and got to hear an organist playing Disney songs until the evening’s program actually got started. That was lots of fun.
Up first was the panel. It was hosted by Don Hahn, the producer of such big hits as Beauty and the Beast (my favorite movie ever) and The Lion King. I think he was as pleased to be there as the rest of us were.
There were five people on the panel itself. Blaine Gibson and Frank Armitage actually worked on the film as animators. Bob Thomas wrote his first book on Disney animation during the period they were working on the film. Tony Baxter is currently an imagineer with Disney. Finally, Princess Aurora herself was there in the form of Mary Costa. Each member of the panel got a few minutes to talk about some aspect of the film.Read More »Opening Night Sleeping Beauty at the El Capitan
As much as anyone Dr. Randy Pausch embodied creativity and technology combined. His work founding and teaching at the Entertainment Technology Center for Carnegie Mellon University, his life long passions, including working for Walt Disney Imagineering, and his emotional “Last Lecture”, in fact a gift for his kids, are good models for us all. So it makes sense that Dr. Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar and current President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, be awarded the first Randy Paucsh Prize.
Without the leadership and vision of Dr. Ed, Pixar would not exist; without his passion for excellence and creativity, Pixar would not have hit every ball out of the park with a perfect record of films out of the Emeryville Studios. Catmull will give a speech at CMU on September 26th when he receives his award.
The full press release is below the cut:
Read More »1st Randy Pausch Prize from CMU ETC goes to Pixar’s Ed Catmull
There’s a bit of animation history up for bid over on eBay right now. It’s a collection of character drawings and autographs from Walt Disney and a few of the artists who accompanied him on his famous South American tour in 1941. Other artists include… Read More »Animation History: Collection of Sketches from Walt Disney’s South American Trip
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… Read More »Animated Anatomy
“Sleeping Beauty,” one of the most spectacular, stylish, and unique films in the history of Disney animation, has undergone a total digital restoration of its picture and soundtrack in advance of the October 7th release of its 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition on Blu-ray Hi-Def and DVD, and will have an exclusive digital wide-screen engagement at Hollywood’s legendary El Capitan Theatre from August 29th through September 18th.
Lucky audience members will experience a brand new state-of-the-art restoration that was created using high resolution digital scans of the original 50-year old Technirama 70 negative (over 7.5 miles long), and hear a new special 7.1 stereo mix made from the original multi-channel stereo music masters recorded in 1958. This special engagement of “Sleeping Beauty” will play from August 29th through September 18th.
Daily showtimes are 10 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7 p.m., and 9:15 p.m.
To help celebrate the film’s new restoration and the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray DVD release, a special opening night gala event will take place on Thursday, August 28th at 7:00 p.m. These are always a pleasure to attend, so if you’re in the LA area on the 28th, you should get your tickets asap.
See the full Press Release below the cut:
Read More »Disney’s Sleeping Beauty on Big Screen at El Capitan
Are things looking up for Walt Disney Animation Studios. All signs that I’ve seen point to yes! Honor Hunter over at Blue Sky Disney has his own bothans in Burbank and he concurs in this important update on changes at WDAS. From the next film… Read More »Blue Sky Update on Walt Disney Animation