Search Results for: blog walt disney and the us state department

The 1941 Walt Disney Animators Strike

The Walt Disney Corporation has such a good family-friendly image.  It really styles itself as an ideal place to work.  We can only imagine that things were even better in Disney’s golden era, when the man himself was still running things.  But that wasn’t always the case; in fact, in 1941 hundreds of Disney animators went on strike. The Business Insider has some fantastic photographs of and other images from the strike, and of the materials the strikers were circulating.  But it’s a bit lacking on the specific details of why animators would go on strike, especially so soon after … Continue reading →

Preserving the Laugh-o-Gram, Walt Disney’s First Studio

If you’re at all interested in Disney history, or even just that of film or animation, there’s something going on right now that you really ought to know about. A group called “Thank You Walt Disney” is currently trying to raise enough money to preserve the Laugh-o-Gram building in Kansas City, MO. Local news site Ozarks First has the details. The Laugh-o-Gram building is the site in which Walt Disney did his first professional animation work around 90 years ago, before he moved out to Hollywood and built the company that would bear his name. The studio was on the … Continue reading →

Tom Hanks to Play Walt Disney in “Poppins” Movie

Earlier in the year the internet was abuzz about a fake movie poster created by French graphic artist Pascal Witaszek. It featured actor (and former Mouseketeer) Ryan Gosling with dark hair and a mustache reclining in a train car. He held a pencil poised above a drawing pad. Outside the window a cloud formed the shape of a Mickey Mouse head with ears. The poster was for a Walt Disney biopic entitled “Walt,” starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Ron Howard. It was entirely fake, but plausible enough that it really got people thinking. What would a Walt Disney biopic … Continue reading →

Obscure Disney History in “Epic Mickey”

Who are you again? “Epic Mickey” was a video game that, while enjoyable, suffered from multiple problems. One of them was that it perhaps catered to too narrow of an audience. It was chock full of Disney history – and I mean old school, black and white short cartoons Disney history – but it was a video game. How many gamers also get a thrill from references to Mickey’s most obscure cartoon companions? I imagine that there isn’t too much of an audience overlap. Of course that’s not to say that no one enjoys the two; the game’s developer himself … Continue reading →

Rare Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon Discovered

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has been getting more attention lately than he’s had in over 50 years. Now that the Disney Company bought him back so he could have a major role in the “Epic Mickey” video game, one could say this is the best Oswald’s career has been since its start. It’s fitting, then, that one of the early shorts featuring him has just been discovered in a film archive in the United Kingdom. The Reuters news agency reports that employees from Huntley Film Archives, one of the U.K.’s largest, discovered the old cartoon this year when doing a … Continue reading →

Captain America: The Noblest Avenger

“Avengers, Assemble!” With these words, Captain America calls together the many scattered members of Marvel Comics’ crime-fighting squad. It’s appropriate, then, that Captain America is the subject of Marvel Studios’ last superhero flick before next summer’s “Avengers” ensemble piece. When first perusing the list of this summer’s comic book films I figured I’d give “Captain America” a pass. The straight-laced always-been-a-do-gooder Steve Rogers (the Captain’s alter ego) has less character development than some of his more conflicted counterparts, and thanks to an overabundance of History Channel specials on the topic I’m currently experiencing a little of World War II-era ennui. … Continue reading →

A Study in Princesses: Careers Coda

You need more than just him in your life, Ariel Today I’m going to add a tongue-in-cheek coda to my otherwise serious series on the Disney Princesses. If most of these princesses should have had something other in their lives than their men, what should those things be? I’m going to posit alternate endings to most of the films; mainly, recommendations for the careers into which the Disney Princesses ought to have embarked instead. Some suggestions might be a bit sillier than others. “Snow White” – One thing Snow White did excellently was to get those dwarves to come out … Continue reading →

My Yard Goes Disney

Many of my friends are addicted to Home and Garden Television, or HG-TV. I don’t know if any of them are Disney fans, and that’s a shame. Disney website Stitch Kingdom reveals that beginning on June 6, HG-TV will air the new show “My Yard Goes Disney.” For the show Orlando-area families can sign up in hopes to win an outdoor makeover for their home by Disney designers. Yard decor will be inspired by Walt Disney World and the theme of “family memories.” That last bit clicked in my mind. It wouldn’t be too difficult to extrapolate why Disney might … Continue reading →

Walt Disney and the U.S. State Department

About a month ago I learned of the most interesting rumor about “Saludos Amigos” and “The Three Caballeros.” The little-known 1940s flicks, which feature Donald Duck traveling to Central and South America, meeting, and having adventures with Brazilian parrot Jose Carioca and Mexican rooster Panchito Pistolas, were supposedly commissioned by the U.S. State Department. As soon as I read this, I instantly had to know more. I really wanted to learn the real story, if one existed, behind the rumor and share it with you here. I couldn’t do that, however, until I was able to find at least some … Continue reading →

Destination: Disney

Last month Disney teamed up with bubbly Travel Channel personality Samantha Brown in order to make a new web series: “Destination: Disney.” So far the eight shorts, all clocking in between three and four minutes, focus on the Disney Dream cruise ship. Each episode of “Destination: Disney, Innovation and Technology,” finds Brown exploring different corners of the Disney Dream, usually concentrating on one of the many technological developments scattered throughout the ship. Many of the shorts talk about aspects of the ship that I’ve covered before, such as the “magical portholes” available in each stateroom or the shifting design of … Continue reading →