Marty Sklar honored with Window on Main Street

Jim Hill

16 years ago

Early this morning, Martin A. Sklar’s friends & family
gathered at Disneyland. Where this Disney Legend was then honored with his very
own Window on Main Street.

And it was kind of appropriate that Marty spent his last
official day as a Disney employee at the very place where his career with the
Company began back in the Summer of 1955. Just a few doors down from where – as
a 21-year-old recruited straight out of UCLA – Sklar used to churn out copy for
the Disneyland News.

Now you have to understand that – by staying with The Walt
Disney Company for 53 years – Marty was a member of a pretty exclusive club. By
that I mean: Only a handful of employees managed to stay on at the Mouse House
for 50+ years.

“And just who was the first to achieve this milestone?,” you
ask. Well, I had to dig through a pile
of old Disney Newsreels (i.e. the official in-house newsletter for Walt Disney
Studios employees) before I finally uncovered the answer to that question in
the June 10, 1983 issue.

And – as it turns – Disney Legend Eric Larson (who – at that
time – was Animation Training Director at the Studios) was the first person to
work for the Company for five decades plus. In recognition of this achievement, studio
employees on June 1^st, 1983 all wore buttons featuring Larsen’s
caricature.

There was also a special luncheon held in Eric’s honor in
the Studio’s Gold Room. Where then-Walt Disney Productions president Ron Miller
presented Larson with the Company’s first-ever 50-year service award.

But you know what else was interesting about this particular
issue of the Disney Newsreel? Check out the cover story:

Experimenting with Computer Generated Graphics

Disney’s animated cartoons have been extremely popular in
the past, focusing strictly on drawn animation in a carefully realistic style.
The release of “TRON” last summer has indicated that Disney artists are
beginning to experiment with new animation technologies and techniques.

“TRON” was the first motion picture to incorporate an
extensive use of computer-generated graphics. At the time of the production of
the film, the state-of-the-art images that the computer produced were too
metallic and precise. Because of these characteristics, the computer’s
application was ideally suited for the “environment” of “TRON,” but totally
inappropriate for the organic and “dreary” look of “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

One of the challenges presented to Disney animators today is
to create computer-generated images with a human or animated element. It is the
challenge Glen Keane and John Lasseter are accepting.

Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved

Based on Maurice Sendak’s award-winning children’s book,
“Where the Wild Things Are,” Glen and John are combining drawn animation and
computer images in a series of film tests.

The “Wild Things” test is done by encoding characters’ and
background perspectives and the changing position of the camera into the
computer. MAGI Sythavision Inc. (Mathematical Applications Group Inc.) artists
and technicians create simple groups of geometric shapes that represent the
basic form of the characters and put them in a computer-generated model of the
set. This is all done according to the position of the camera as it follows the
action in the film, and these resulting images are photographed. Drawings are
electronically encoded back into the computer which places them in the correct
positions within the set in each frame. The computer will also color the
animated drawings, adding shadows and highlights according to the animator’s
instructions. This entire image is photographed on film by the computer for the
final product.

The entire process gives the perspective of a
three-dimensional cartoon, with the camera moving in and around obstacles in
the environment.

Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved

The “Wild Things” test is being done to determine the
success of both animator and computer interacting with one another. Disney
animators want to see if this technology can be incorporated to enhance or even
re-design the traditional “animated cartoon.”

According to the head of Disney’s Special Visual Effects,
Lee Dyer, “[Motion Picture Production Vice President] Tom Wilhite is
encouraging us to try different things.”

John, Joe Ranft and Brian McEntee are developing “The Brave Little Toaster,” which in its final form could become a 70-minute full-length
feature film. “Basically, ‘Wild Things’ is a test piece, “ explains John, “ but
we would like to use this technique for ‘The Brave Little Toaster.’ “

Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved

Part of the problem with expediting the film’s production is
the limited ability Disney has to create computer-generate images. All work in
the past has been done by outside computer imagery firms.

The combination of computer-generated graphics and Disney
animation is in its very basic stages of what it could eventually become. John
reports that, “In five years these tests will seem so primitive, they’ll look
like ‘Steamboat Willie’ does today.” But just as “Steamboat Willie” gave Disney
the recognition as a forerunner in animation technology some 50 years ago, “The
Wild Things” test and “The Brave Little Toaster” have the potential to give
Disney similar recognition in the future.

Now I have to admit that I find it a trifle bizarre to come
across this particular story just a week before Comic-Con. Where Warner Bros.
will be hyping Spike Jonze’s live-action version of “Where the Wild Things Are.”
More importantly, where Walt Disney Pictures will be talking up its sequel to “TRON.”

But you know what really gets to me? How young John &
Glen look in the above picture. Here’s hoping that some enterprising animation fan
is able to print out this image and then persuade Lasseter & Keane to sign
a copy of this picture at their respective panels in San Diego next Thursday.

Oops … Sorry … I guess I got distracted there for a moment.
Today’s story is supposed to honor Marty Sklar. Who – during his last official day
as Walt Disney Imagineering Ambassador – definitely deserves some pomp and
circumstances. A little song and dance.

And speaking of dance … I wonder if – as Marty thinks back
on what Disneyland was like on Opening Day – he ever recalls the work that
Miriam Nelson did.

Miriam (for those of you who don’t know) was the official
choreographer for the “Dateline: Disneyland” TV special that aired on ABC on
July 17, 1955. And in the years that followed, Ms. Nelson choreographed a lot
of shows & ceremonies for “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Most noticeably the
Golden Horseshoe Revue. (To learn more about Miriam Nelson’s career with the
Company, I suggest that you swing on by MouseClubHouse.com today. Where Scott
Wolf has just posted a terrific interview with this show business veteran.)

Getting back to Marty now … Here’s hoping that Mr. Sklar
enjoyed that ceremony earlier this morning. Given that – for years now – Marty was
the guy who decided which longtime employees would receive a Window on Main
Street … Well, it’s only appropriate that Sklar now be singled out for this
honor.

Anyway … Happy trails, Marty. Thanks for all those years you
put in at the Company. Here’s hoping that – when you finally get around to
writing that book of yours – you can look back fondly at all the time you spent
in the Mouse House.

Your thoughts?