Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters is a terrific book which unfortunately is now out of print. Originally released in 1988, “Characters” is Jack Kinney’s first person account of twenty seven years at the Disney studio. Unlike a lot of other books on animation history, Kinney doesn’t soft-pedal it here. If one were to accept the version of things that the Disney company has been selling for years, one would assume that working for Walt was an always idyllic experience and that no one ever fought or used improper language or indulged in the evils of drink or even went to the bathroom. Kinney does his best to show that being a 20-something artist in the 30s and 40s wasn’t a whole lot different than it is now. Jack and his cohorts emerge, warts and all, as real flesh-and-blood folk.
I would have included the requisite Amazon link here but, like I say, the book is now out of print. If you run across a copy, do yourself a favor and pick it up. The anecdotes fill a necessary void in animation lore and Kinney’s illustrations complement the proceedings nicely.
[Kinney (who died back in '92) is probably best known for directing the "how-to" series of Goofy cartoons in the 40s and 50s. I'd stack these shorts up against just about anything done at Warner's or MGM for sheer hilarity.]
Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters
Jack Kinney
***1/2 (out of five)
John Kricfalusi (aka “John K.”) can often be overly opinionated and (I feel) just flat-out wrong. His love of early Hanna Barbara TV fare and his denigration of the Disney acting style is baffling to me. On the other hand, the guy’s made some damn funny cartoons. I remember seeing Ren and Stimpy for the first time in the early 90s and being knocked on my ass by the sheer audacity of it. While it definitely had a signature style it was a throwback to the great zany cartoons of the 30s and 40s. In particular John is a huge fan of Robert Clampett. I can’t fault that sort of hero worship (and the influence is clear in K.’s own work). I don’t know why it is that Kricfalusi can’t keep a show on the air for more than six episodes (I suspect it’s because he’s a frickin’ handful) but when he does resurface every few years he always beings the funny.
I didn’t see Underworld. I have my reasons; they are superstitious and idiosyncratic in nature and I won’t get into them here. I freely admit that this is not the fairest of reviews based on that fact. I was quite thouroughly lost for the first 30 minutes or so of “Evolution” and I probably wouldn’t have been had I seen the original. My fault not theirs. That fact aside, I suppose I had a relatively good time with this picture. Once the main plot kicked in and the final battles had played themselves out I was entertained.
In all fairness to Len Wiseman and company don’t use me as a guidepost (not that you would anyway). I mainly just wanted to acknowledge that I’d seen it and that it wasn’t bad.
Underworld Evolution
2006
Len Wiseman –Director
Danny McBride–Writer
**1/2 (out of five)
If Inspired 3D Short Film Production has any real faults it is that it tries to cover too much ground in too little space. While it does an excellent job of laying out an overall workflow for creating an animated short, it tries to do chapter-long encapsulations on (for instance) the animation process. This is a tough topic to cover in 20 pages. –Still, this is a minor criticism. “Inspired” is really a terrific book. It encourages the reader to approach movie creation in a logical manner and a lot of headaches can no doubt be avoided by heeding its advice. Throwing in a DVD of several shorts (many of them excellent) is just gravy.
A worthy purchase.
Inspired 3D Short Film Production
Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia
**** (out of five)
It just occurred to me that I watched this one over the holiday break and forgot to post a review (for whatever that’s worth). I dug this movie in the theatre. I’m really encouraged by this new wave of unabashedly R-rated comedies and this one had a sweet side that sort of took it to the next level. Steve Carell is great in it and he gets terrific support from both Seth Rogen and (the ever-reliable) Paul Rudd.
However, I’d probably give the theatrical cut 3 and a half stars and I’d only give the DVD version 3. I don’t know what it is with these studios thinking that more automatically means better. “Virgin” was already right at the cusp of being too long and now it’s a bit of slog. It’s not that any of the new material is bad, it’s just that it slows the pace unnecessarily. I wish more DVDs were like the Sin City that I picked up but haven’t watched yet: Give me both cuts and let me decide which one I want to watch.
The 40 Year Old Virgin
2005
Judd Apatow –Director
Judd Apatow and Steve Carell –Writers
*** (out of five)
For whatever reason I enjoyed this season more than season 6. There were plenty of laughs and I finally got an episode I always wanted: the ‘Treehouse of Horror’ segment with full-on 3D animation of Bart and Homer (done by a fledgling PDI). The CGI still holds up. The animators successfully captured the feel of the Simpsons in the computer realm. It’s a fairly groundbreaking segment I feel.
Thankfully this time out I didn’t have to send away for replacement packaging following the ill-advised plastic character head debacle. What it is with these companies making boxes that I can’t shelve properly?
Keith Lango’s got a good deal running over at his website. For the past year or so he’s been doing a subscription service for his Video Tutorial series. Now through the end of January if you sign up you get two videos free. I couldn’t say no to a deal like that so I finally bit the bullet and signed on. January’s video isn’t ready as of this writing but I did watch the first of my freebies last night. I gotta say I’m really impressed. The video was simple and direct without being too elementary and the principles espoused were very solid indeed.
I’ve never actually reviewed one of these on my blog before so I figured what the hell? I’ve been watching M*A*S*H for something crazy like 30 years now. It may very well be my favorite television show of all time. It may sound cliched (and even a little creepy) but I feel like I know the denizens of the 4077th. I look forward to these sets every six months so that I can spend a little time with my “friends”.
All of that being said, the seams started showing around season 8 or 9. Everyone seems to be trying a little too hard. Still, that chemistry among the actors carries us through and episodes like “Death Takes a Holiday” and “The Life you Save” are still outstanding by any measure.
Even though I think M*A*S*H actually peaked around season 5 or 6 Fox still gets my money every time a new season is released.
I really love this book. When I read it the first time back in the mid to late 80s it was my introduction to the fabulous history of the American animated cartoon. It’s tremendous to give names and faces to the artists that have given us all such joy over these past several decades. Being the first book of its kind “Mice” might seem a little cursory nowadays. Other, more exhaustive studies have followed it but to me Leonard Maltin thoroughly achieves what must have been his aim: to give us a pleasant survey of the cartoon business landscape as it existed between say th 1920s and the 1960s. The book is a fun, breezy read and it’s impeccably well-researched (with the able assitance of Jerry Beck).
If you’ve ever been curious about the people and the circumstances that gave rise to American cartoons as we know them I can’t recommend Of Mice and Magic highly enough. [The only reason I'm giving it four and half instead of five stars is that it hasn't been updated since 1990 and, let's face it, a lot has happened since then. --So, if you're out there, Leonard, let's have a new edition!]
Of Mice and Magic
Leonard Maltin
****1/2 (out of five)
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