Browse By Tags

What with " Toy Story 3 " in theaters right now, " Cars 2 " due to debut next summer and a sequel to " Monsters, Inc. " reportedly in the works, one has to wonder what other follow-ups Pixar Animation Studios has planned. Well, based on the domain names that The Walt Disney...

Welcome to Las Vegas. Where the 2010 Licensing International Expo is just winding down. Just like last year, before attendees could enter the Mandalay Bay Convention Center , they first had to walk through this gauntlet of colorful banners which trumpeted all of The Walt Disney Company’s key brands and...

It’s that time of year again. When high school and college students all over the country are graduating. More importantly, when JHM readers reach out and ask for my suggestions when it comes to the perfect graduation gift for the would-be animators and Imagineers in their families. This year, though...

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...

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...

David Kracov remembers the night that he decided to quit working in animation. “A bunch of my friends took me out to Astroburger . And while we were eating, Brad Bird tried to talk me out of quitting. Brad said that he wanted me to come work with him on this new movie he wanted to make. Which was about...

Did you see where “ How to Train Your Dragon ” was No. 1 again at the box office this past weekend ? According to Box Office Mojo , if this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois film keeps up this pace, it will soon become DreamWorks Animation’s highest grossing non-Shrek movie . Which is kind of ironic....

In an age where even blockbusters have to battle for screen space (Witness what happened late last month when the studios behind “ How to Train Your Dragon ” and “ Clash of the Titans ” clashed over the limited number of 3D-capable theaters that were available at that time), what chance does a dinky...

For the past few months, JHM has been talking up “ Waking Sleeping Beauty ,” that terrific new documentary about the Second Golden Age of Disney Feature Animation. Well, this film goes into limited release this Friday in New York, LA, Chicago and San Francisco. The 1975 graduating class of Cal Arts included...

You’ve probably seen a lot of Joe Ranft -related material popping up around the Web over the past few days. John Musker ’s excellent story reel-based tribute to his old pal (who was tragically killed in an automobile accident back on August 16, 2005 ). No to mention the first installment of Leo Holzer...

Why are all these people racing through the streets of New Orleans? * Photo by Nancy Stadler Because “ Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from Walt Disney Studios ” is closing on March 14 th . Which means that you now only have six short days to catch this acclaimed exhibition. Photo by...

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...

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...

I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue And it's hey to the starboard, heave-ho Look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you In mysterious fathoms belo w ... Twenty or so years ago, I gathered with a small group in a Walt Disney Animation Studios screening room in Glendale, CA. Directors John Musker...