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Being green typically isn't all that fun. It usually means going without (i.e. reusing your bath towels during a hotel stay) or having to do something that can sometimes be kind of gross (EX: washing out pet food cans so that they can be placed in the recycle bin). But what if I were to tell you...

As I sat at my drawing board wildly sketching away on a new feature film idea, I suddenly glanced up to see two visitors in the room. It seems they were scrutinizing the sketches, models and story boards in my cluttered office. The two older gentleman were wearing the pastel colored garb usually sported...

I didn't work on Disney's " The Black Cauldron ," so you'll gain no film-making insights from me this time around. Oddly enough, this was a very important film for The Walt Disney Company. And although it didn't exactly burn up the box office charts when it opened, "The...

It was late summer 1958 and things had been going well. The mad rush to wrap the animated feature film, “ Sleeping Beauty ” was finally succeeding, and the film was well on its way to completion. Taking a break from the drawing board, I headed up to the second floor of the Animation Building...

You probably already know the story. A group of young guys move into the establishment and begin to shake things up. The old guard naturally has issues with the young punks, and they begin to push back. It’s a story we’ve all heard before, and I find it amazing that it remains a story that never really...

I hope that you’ll allow me to indulge myself here with a new series that I’m going to call “The Disney Artists You Never Knew.” Only this time, it’s personal. Because I’m now going to write about my old pal & colleague, Jim Fletcher . James Lawrence Fletcher was born in Des Plains, Illinois, and...

I’m going to apologize in advance for today's column because I'm sure that it's going to make a lot of people angry. I have a plan that some might call radical. But it’s a plan that I’m afraid we need. Tough times demand tough decisions, and here’s one to consider: Get rid of digital animation at Walt...

There's a popular television show called " Survivor ." I've never been able to watch this show or even take it seriously. It's difficult to consider the consequences of surviving on a desert island when craft services is located nearby. However, I did see some real survivors a few weeks ago as I walked...

Like most old guys, I tend to get my brain stuck in a certain time frame. So I didn't immediately recognize the man sitting in the limo. For some odd reason, I expected to see the guy I remembered. The slender, dark haired young man with the horn rimmed glasses. However, this older gentleman didn't exactly...

We called her "Big Liz" because she was tall. Animation artist Rolly Crump even featured her in a series of black & white posters that he designed back in the 1950s. The wonderful stylized poster featured Elizabeth Case Zwicker giving poetry readings at a local Beatnik hangout. That's right, kids...

Did you know Walt Disney Studios once provided what could be considered the finest animation course ever offered? That's right, kids. If you've shelled out the big bucks for an animation education at such institutions as California Institute of the Arts or Sheridan College , you might be surprised to...

It's a standard thing this time of year. Travelers loaded with gifts are trying to make their way home to spend the holidays with family and friends. This scenario is often played out in movies where our hero finally makes his or her way home just in time to spend Christmas with the family. After all...

If you were a young woman working in Disney's animation department in the 1950s, chances are you were pretty darn good. Though it was clearly a man's world back then, you might be surprised to know that the Mouse House had a fair share of young women toiling away at animation desks. Savvy young women...