From the Disney Art Class - 1935

It's amazing what you find when you move house, I totally forgot about this document until I unpacked a box full of files from my filing cabinet after my wife and I moved house recently.

Snow White was well into development by this point and Walt's famous memo to Don Graham articulating his views on the development of animation was just over a month away. This takes you there to that exciting time when animation was on the verge of the next exciting jump in evolution.

It's a great read, very fitting to find it as I'm about to push forward in finishing my first independant short film. All the Disney shorts mentioned by Dr. Morkovin are available on DVD and I believe the film "Sleep" he mentions is actually Robert Benchley's "How To Sleep" which was released in 1935.

Dr. Morkovin is Dr. Boris Morkovin who was the chairman of the department of cinematography at USC(University of Southern California).He was recuited in May 1935 to subject the construction of a gag to the same kind of scrutiny Don Graham scrutinized action.

Walt - 1938

Personally, I've never seen this photo taken during work on Bambi, I've seen other photos from the same shoot but not this one.

Mickey Mouse Sunday - December 18, 1938?

Walt and the King of the Little People

I love this publicity photo of Walt for Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

Walt - 1966

Walt won many awards over the course of his life and career, some 960 to be exact. Like many of us Walt was an animal lover, his films particularly Bambi and the True-Life Adventures confirm that as does this photo, for anyone that needed proof.

In this photo, taken in 1966, Walt is awarded this Resolution from the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association in "gratitude and appreciation for his immeasurable contributions to the veterinary profession."

Mickey Mouse Sunday - March 8 & 22, 1936

I haven't posted any Mickey Sundays in a very long time. I have quite a few now, probably covering most of the 30s now. I never tire of looking at them. When I'm working on a storyboard and feel uninspired I look at them, the clarity of the drawing is exceptional. I don't mean that I use them to inspire my staging, I just get a kick out of looking at someone elses work and their skill at executing it in such a simple way.

Walt and Ward

One of the Disney/animation history book highlights of the this year will no doubt be Amid Amidi's Ward Kimball biography Full Steam Ahead!: The Life and Art of Ward Kimball I'm looking forward to it. Here's a photo I have in my files, the reverse reads:

Walt Disney and a member of his staff, Ward Kimball(left) confer with Willy Ley, science-factual author and space historian, in the "World of Tomorrow"unit of Disney's forthcoming television productions for ABC-TV. Ley has been technical advisor on the science-factual productions being readied for TV release this fall.