Even though today is Mickey Mouse's 85th anniversary, this
Disney icon looks like he hasn't aged a day. Especially if you watch this
classic cartoon character capering in his newest ground-breaking theatrical
short, "Get A Horse!"
As you can see by the clip which accompanies today's article
(which is a special anniversary present that Walt Disney Animation Studios is sharing with JHM & Huffington Post readers), the opening section of
"Get A Horse!" deliberately replicates the look of the very first
Mickey Mouse shorts that Ub Iwerks
animated back in 1928.
"That was when Mickey was still new to the world. Back
when there was a brashness to this character and anything seemed possible whenever
he appeared on the screen," Lauren MacMullan, the director of this new
WDAS production explained during a recent interview. "I really missed that
version of Mickey Mouse. Those early synchronized sound cartoons that Walt
& Ub poured their hearts and souls into. Those black & white cartoons
had such a charm & an energy."
Well, as it turns out, just as Lauren was looking back with
nostalgic fondness, WDAS was actually exploring new ideas for Mickey Mouse cartoons.
"Rich Moore — my director on 'Wreck-It Ralph' — told me
that 'You should pitch some ideas for that project,' Lauren continued. "So
I re-watched a lot of the old black & white cartoons. And I just loved how
Mickey could do anything in those shorts. How — if he wanted to tip his hat to
Minnie but Mickey wasn't actually wearing a hat at that time — he'd just lift
his ears clean off his skull. I wanted to tell a story that was set in that
anything-is-possible universe. So I came up with a premise that I thought was
kind of unusual."
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
And indeed it was. For as soon as MacMullan unveiled the piece of concept art
that artist Brittney Lee had helped her create for this high profile pitch
meeting, Walt Disney Animation Studios heads John Lasseter and Ed Catmull greenlit the film in the room.
"Which was pretty wild," Lauren admitted. "I
mean, I've been in pitch meetings before. But I've never been in the room with
the people who could actually greenlight a project. Much less have them
greenlight that project right there in the room."
Mind you, "Get A Horse!" has a pretty unusual creative concept. So
much so that it was immediately determined that this new Mickey Mouse short
would need to run in theaters.
(L to R) Lauren MacMullan & Dorothy McKim. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
"Once that happened, Dorothy McKim — who came on board
as the producer of this short — and I spent about a year developing a story
for 'Get A Horse!," MacMullan stated. "We worked with some really
talented people here at the Studio to make an authentic-looking Mickey Mouse
cartoon from the late 1920s. Something that Walt & Ub would have put
together, back when everything was done on deadline and Disney Studios didn't
have a whole lot of time or money to spend on the production of these
shorts."
And to produce an authentic-looking replica of a late 1920s Mickey Mouse short,
MacMullan & McKim turned to a modern animation master, Eric Goldberg. Best
known for his work with the Genie in Disney's Academy Award-winning full-length
animated feature, "Aladdin
," Goldberg has long been celebrated for
his ability to get inside other artists' heads. To be able to replicate the
particular animation style of a specific artist with an often eerie accuracy.
"This is something that I learned to do while I was in London
doing animation for Richard Williams Studios," Goldberg explained. "And
when it came to 'Get A Horse!' … Well, I had to set my mental clock back to
the late 1920s. For there are a lot of animation techniques that are used today
that weren't invented yet or weren't commonly employed by people who worked in
animation back then."
Eric Goldberg addresses the crowds at the Annecy International Animation Film
Festival. Which is where the world premiere of "Get A Horse!" was held back
in June. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
So Goldberg and some WDAS vets then jumped into production on "Get A
Horse!" Employing every trick in the book in an effort to make this new
cartoon look like something that had been made back when Mickey was celebrating
his first anniversary, not his 85th.
"Part of the way that we made 'Get A Horse!' look like
something that Walt & Ub made while they were rushing these shorts through
production is that — once we'd finished animation — we'd then go back in and
deliberately insert mistakes," Eric said. "We'd tell Gina Bradley,
our head of scene planning, that she needed to go back into a particular scene
and — for just two frames — make the buttons on Mickey's pants go from being
white to black. Oh, us hand-drawn guys had a ball working on the first two
minutes of this short."
Ah, but given that "Get A Horse!" is 7 minutes long, what happens in
the other five minutes of this Walt Disney Animation Studios production? Would
you believe eye-popping, full-color 3D insanity? But in order to get the full
experience, you're going to have to go to a theater next week and catch a screening
of Disney "Frozen." Where this
new Mickey Mouse short acts as a curtain raiser for that new full-length
feature.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
But know this: Before MacMullan came to work at the Mouse House, she
spent a lot of years working on "The Simpsons" and "King of the
Hill." And a lot of the irreverent fun that you find in those animated
television series permeates "Get A Horse!" Which has Mickey doing
things that — in the 85 years that this Mouse has been in show business —
he's never done before. Which is why there's already quite a bit of Oscar buzz
building around this new WDAS production.