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Given that we now live in the age of DreamWorks 3.0 , with Walt Disney Studios distributing the films that Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider will soon be producing, it’s kind of hard to remember the bad old days. When Jeffery Katzenberg was … … out to deplete Disney’s talent pool. He flattered Disney...

Good God. Are we really already be up to Volume 9 in the “Walt’s People” series? I can recall when Disney Historian Didier Ghez initially proposed these books (which – if I’m remembering correctly – was sometime back during the Pleistocene Epoch) that would collect & then reprint the very best Mouse...

If you were to ask David A. Price when Pixar Animation Studios first came on his radar, he'd probably tell you about this tech conference that he attended in the late 1980s where the work-in-progress version of "Tin Toy" was shown. "Tinny had just gotten stuck in that box," Price recalled. "And as he...

There's this genuinely eerie passage in Karen Paik 's " To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios " ( Chronicle Books , November 2007), which talks about how a single book basically changed the course of John Lasseter 's life. In ninth grade, Lasseter was searching the art section...

This is probably going to seem like a very weird request. But -- if you could -- I'd really like it if you guys could buy up a bunch of copies of " Walt Disney's Cinderella " (Disney Press, August 2007) Copyright 2007 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved "And why should we do that?," you ask...

You'd think that -- when the very first edition of " Leonard Maltin 's Movie Guide" was published back in 1969 -- that this then-18-year-old film historian would have been terribly proud of his first published work. Well, think again. "To be honest, I was embarassed by the book," Maltin admitted in a...

If you've been reading JHM for a while now, you already know that I'm a very big fan of Didier Ghez 's "Walt's People" books . So -- that said -- is it really all that big a surprise that I enjoyed reading " Volume 5 " of this ongoing series. Mind you, at 443 pages in length, this paperback is the heftiest...

It is one of the more intriguing aspects of the production history of Pixar 's latest, " Ratatouille ." The fact that this animated feature started off with one director (I.E. Jan Pinkava , who helmed this animation studio's Academy Award-winning short , " Geri's Game ") yet wound up being completed...

By now, I'm sure that you've heard that the Broadway musical version of "Tarzan" will be shuttering on July 8th after only 486 performances and 35 previews. To be honest, this news took a lot of theater insiders by surprise. By that I mean: Everyone in the industry was aware that -- since this Disney...

This past Friday, Amid Amidi (Who -- along with noted animation historian Jerry Beck -- rides herd on the always-entertaining-and-informative Cartoon Brew ) was singled out for a pretty amazing honor. You see, the Theatre Library Association declared that Amid's latest book -- " Cartoon Modern: Style...

It's one thing for Disney Studio executives to decide to base a motion picture on the " Pirates of the Caribbean " theme park ride. It's quite another to take that bare-bones idea and then turn it something truly special. A series of films that people the world over could then enthusiastically embrace...

I said it in the sub header for today's article. And I'll say it again here: If you don't want certain aspects of " Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End " spoiled for you, please exit this article NOW . Because I'm about to got into great detail about a particularly cool sequence from this Gore Verbinski...

First the good news: The rumors that you've hearing are true. Johnny Depp actually has told the folk at Walt Disney Studios that he'd be willing to reprise the role of Capt. Jack Sparrow. Which is why the Mouse has already tentatively made plans to shoot "Pirates 4" in 2009. With the hope that this film...

Yesterday, FraggleFan411 send me the following e-mail: Oh, come on. It's been months since you last wrote about the Muppets. Surely Disney must have something in the works for these characters by now. So spill already. FraggleFan411 -- Actually, I am working on a story about the Mouse's latest plan for...

In October of 1994, when Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg first announced that they were about to launch a brand-new entertainment company ... Well, this trio of show business vets was thought to be so unstoppable that the Hollywood press corps dubbed them the Dream Team. But 11...

I've been getting a lot of e-mail lately about Michael Barrier 's new book, " The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney " (University of California Press, April 2007). Particularly from Disneyana fans who just purchased Neal Gabler 's " Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination " and are now...

Karen M. writes in to ask a special favor: Dear Jim -- I just want to send you a quick e-mail to thank you for writing about Charlie Ridgway 's new book, " Spinning Disney's World ." On your recommendation , I picked up a copy and found that Mr. Ridgway's biography was just as you said it would be: Loaded...

Given that it's only 64 pages long, " The Art of Meet the Robinsons " (Hyperion, February 2007) can hardly be called an in-depth look at the creation of Walt Disney Feature Animation's next release. Copyright 2007 Disney Editions But -- then again -- given that making-of books aren't selling all that...

I don't know how Didier Ghez does it. I mean, the guy holds down a full-time job at Warner Bros. He also travels the world (Didier & his wife just got back from a trip to Africa). In addition to running his snazzy Disney History website (If you haven't already bookmarked this great little site, do...

I got a lot of nice notes in response to yesterday's Peter Ellenshaw tribute . Though what I thought was kind of intriguing was the theme that ran through many of these e-mails. Which was: "How I wish I'd had the chance to stand in Peter Ellenshaw's studio and watch that man work. See how the special...