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Earlier this week, Paul T. sent me an e-mail with an image attached that -- I'm sure -- will titillate a certain segment of the Disney fan community. Jim, Check out what I found on an animation art auction cite!! It's a bare-ass Ariel!! Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Well...

Earlier this week, Steve B. wrote in to ask: Dear Jim, When the Disney-MGM Studios theme park opened, it was promoted as a working studio. Both live action and animation were being produced there. There was discussion in the news about the high costs in California driving production out of that state...

New and a bit alarming Who 'd have ever thought that this could be? Well, " Beauty and the Beast " co-director Kirk Wise doesn't seem all that surprised that this Academy Award-winning film (which was the first animated feature to ever be nominated for Best Picture) got selected for...

I was on the phone with Simon Wells last Friday morning as those first post-quake / tsunami images were coming in from Japan . And as the director of Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" put it: "Here in Hollywood, everyone seems obsessed with how much your movie cost to make or how much your...

Several years ago a group of young artists were griping about things at their studio. Their behavior amused and annoyed me. I scolded the kids and informed them that one day they would look back and remember this time as the good old days and wonder why they ever complained about anything. Every studio...

"Book publishers send me out to schools all the time. And the kids there always ask me how they can get a job like mine. And my answer is: Put your stuff up on the Web. Because you never know who's going to see it." Trust me, folks. Noah Z. Jones knows of what he speaks. You see, this illustrator...

So why exactly should you buy " Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant & Joe Ranft " (Disney Editions, August 2010)? Because this new John Canemaker book not only does a brilliant job of paying tribute to these animation legends, this 192-page hardcover contains one...

I’ve often been asked this goofy question. “How would you run an animation studio if you were in charge?” Questions like this come from young people who assume I have answers. The truth is, I’m not in that position, and I don’t expect to be. However, I once ran my own business...

I don’t know who came up with the bright idea, but it was a darn good one. What about spending our noon hour with the Vice Chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation ? Would Roy Edward Disney accept our invitation, we wondered? The only way to find out was to simply ask. The early 1980s proved to...

Walt Disney acknowledged that the name “Disney” had become a thing, a genre, an entity separate from himself. By Walt’s design, he had become was a character, a front man for a grander idea. Many of you remember seeing Mr. Disney on television pitching some amazing story about Disneyland , that latest...

A group of young guys and gals gathered in the office of a Disney veteran on the third floor of the Animation Building. “Boy, you missed it,” the old timer rhapsodized as he spoke about the good old days of the late 1930s and early 1940s. “This used to be a great place to work, but the strike ended all...

When talking about the Walt Disney Company’s origins, the cliché that people usually default to is “It all started with a Mouse.” Which isn’t exactly true. A full five years before Mickey came on the scene, Walt was trying to get his “Alice Comedies” series off the ground. And the little girl that Disney...

Earlier this week, it was kind of ironic that – in a headline that talked up how well “Up” was doing at the domestic box office – Variety mentioned “ The Incredibles .” Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc and Pixar Animation Studios. All Rights Reserved “Ironic how?,” you ask. Well, in a time where this...

Known for both his temper and his stunning draftsmanship, Milt Kahl has been described as Disney’s “Jekyll and Hyde” figure, a man who defined animation and defied his fellow animators. More than any other artists, Freddy Moore and Milt Kahl defined the Disney style. Freddy Moore designed the studio...

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...

This past Saturday, film directors and animators gathered to pay tribute to Hungarian-born artist Jules Engel , a man whose work combined a modernist orientation of serious art with the commercial leanings of animated films. This year marks the 100-year anniversary of his birth. A small man, usually...

Well, it's September now and the kids are headed back to class. Which means that it's time to start stocking up on those essential school supplies: Pencils. Erasers. Lined paper. Copyright 2008 Silman-James Press. All Rights Reserved And if you've got a son or daughter who's heading off to Cal Arts ...

Last Tuesday night, I traveled down to one of the cities I most dislike in all of Southern California: I went to Hollywood . Good ol’ Tinsel Town, with its sidewalk hucksters wearing eBay costumes of Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob , with its endless food courts and faux-trendy boutiques. Hollywood, that theme...

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...

Back in the 1960s, our morning was interrupted by a special meeting. It was held in a small conference room just off A-Wing in Disney's animation building. I honestly don't recall everyone in the meeting. But I do know that production boss Ken Peterson and Andy Engman were present. Why this special meeting...