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  • Blog Post: Looking for some last-minute Valentine's Day shopping suggestions? Here are some books and a new TV show that you might want to consider

    If you listen carefully today, you can hear thousands of people around the country quietly cursing. "And why are these people cursing?," you ask. Well, that's because these folks are just now realizing it's February 13th. Which means that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. That day when...
  • Blog Post: Walt Disney Studios: New "Wreck-it Ralph" Clip Released

    Watch it on your iPad or iPod Wreck-It Ralph smashes into theaters everywhere on November 2 nd !! "Like" WRECK-IT RALPH on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WreckItRalph "Follow" WRECK-IT Ralph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wreckitralph Visit the official site: www.disney.com/wreckitralph
  • Blog Post: Terrific "Tangled" is the hair ... er ... heir apparent to Disney's fairy tale crown

    I have been writing professionally about The Walt Disney Company for over 25 years now. Which is why I can tell you what it felt like to be in a theater on November 17, 1989. Which was the night that " The Little Mermaid " was first released to theaters. As the credits rolled, I remember turning...
  • Blog Post: "Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed" pays tribute to Disney Legend Frank Wells

    You remember Michael Eisner , right? That infamous micro-manager who was in charge of The Walt Disney Company during an unprecedented period of growth. When - within one twenty year period -- the Mouse House moved from being this film & theme park company that was worth $1.8 billion to becoming a...
  • Blog Post: The female artists & animators who changed Disney Studio’s “boys will be boys” culture

    There’s a mistaken notion that back in the 1950s the Walt Disney Studio was strictly a man’s world and women were not even allowed in the Animation Building. It was believed that women employees were restricted to the “women’s work” over in the Ink and Paint Department where...
  • Blog Post: Animation fans can make a real difference this coming weekend

    Greetings from the Universal Orlando Resort . Where I’m now in my final day of covering the grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter . Photo by Jim Hill It has been an absolutely amazing couple of days. And I’m heading back to New Hampshire tonight with all sorts of stories to share about...
  • Blog Post: Hollywood hypes what it hopes will be its 2011 & 2012 hits at the Licensing International Expo

    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...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday: The Wow Factor

    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...
  • Blog Post: Volume 9 of the “Walt’s People” series features some great behind-the-scenes stories

    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...
  • Blog Post: How do you carve “Snow White” ‘s Hag and Evil Queen out of clay?

    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...
  • Blog Post: Why For did Disney wind up giving Maleficent the bird

    Trina P. wrote in to say: Thanks for sharing those pictures from the Tim Burton exhibition at the MoMA . I’m a huge Burton fan and had wanted to get down to NYC while that exhibit was there, but never found the time. I noticed that you had a lot of pictures from Tim Burton movies that never got made...
  • Blog Post: When you work in animation, there’s just no avoiding those Pink Slip Blues

    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...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday: Funky Warehouse Syndrome

    Some years ago, I watched helplessly as Walt Disney's animation department was moved out of their old building on the Burbank lot. You see, the new management needed room to expand, and animators took up space. So clearly somebody had to go. The Animation Building on Disney's Burbank Lot. You can wait...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday: Looking Back on Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" -- Part Un

    Though not an overwhelming success, I think " The Hunchback of Notre Dame " was one of the most sophisticated animated films I've ever worked on. I actually went to my old pal, Gary Trousdale when I got word that he and his co-director Kirk Wise might be adapting this Victor Hugo novel for the screen...
  • Blog Post: ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive fundraiser shines spotlight on how modern animated features are actually made

    Are you confused about where animation is going these days? If so, join the club. What with the rise of performance capture, the revival of hand-drawn animation over at Disney, not to mention CG going 3D, animation students aren't sure what they should be doing these days in order to properly prepare...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday : Here's to the real survivors

    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...
  • Blog Post: Toon Thursday : Mermaids, donuts and musical concrete

    Hey, folks -- Jim Hill here. Before this month's Floyd Norman column officially gets underway, I thought that I'd take a moment to let JHM readers know that Mr. Fun recently launched his very own blog. Appropriately titled Mr. Fun's Blog . So if you want more than just the usually once-a-month dose of...
  • Blog Post: Oscar Watch '08: Miramax maxes out while the Mouse gets skunked

    "Maybe Tuesday will be my good news day ..." -- lyric from "The Man I Love" by George & Ira Gershwin Well, if you worked on the Miramax Films side of the Mouse House, Tuesday definitely was a "good news day." Disney's art house arm snagged Academy Award nominations for four of its most recent releases...
  • Blog Post: Toon Tuesday : Disney's Night School

    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...
  • Blog Post: Animation fans prematurely shoot off their mouths about "Bolt"

    How many of you know the story of the blind men and the elephant ? I bring up this ancient Indian fable because ... Well ... I have to admit that I was highly amused by what happened last Wednesday. When the on-line animation community went completely bananas over those "Bolt" pre-release images . Copyright...
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