General

Wednesdays with Wade: Going to the Dogs

In honor of this film’s release on DVD yesterday, Wade Sampson is back with even more stories about “Lady and the Tramp”

Published

19 years ago

February 28, 2006

Jim Korkis

I wrote an extensive article about the creation of “Lady and the Tramp” last year in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of this film. It is one of my favorite Disney animated features and I am happy that this week it is being re-released again on DVD.

The film was released on June 16, 1955, just one month before the opening of Disneyland. And — as I mentioned last year — the artists who worked on that film set at the turn of the century were pulled in to help with Disneyland’s Main Street and I can certainly see some strong influences. Of course, there are strong influences at Walt Disney World as well. Which is why there is a “Tony’s” restaurant on Main Street.

Did it ever bother anyone that on an All-American Main Street that there would be an Italian restaurant? Well, it is because Tony’s restaurant is such a strong image from “Lady and the Tramp” set during the same time period. Tramp eats at other ethnic restaurant locations in the movie but it is “Tony’s” where he is known as “Butch” and the spaghetti eating scene that stands out in people’s minds.

In fact, Walt wanted to cut the spaghetti eating scene from the film, feeling that it would be awkward at best. It was animator Frank Thomas who experimented in his backyard with his own dogs eating spaghetti and came up with some sketches that finally changed Walt’s mind and resulted in one of the most romantic moments in American films. Thomas was lucky. Before animating the intense fight between Tramp and the rat, animator Woolie Reitherman kept rats in a cage next to his desk to study their actions.

The picture required four years and cost four million dollars to make which was quite a sizeable investment when Walt was so strapped for cash with the development of Disneyland. “Lady and the Tramp” was the first Disney animated feature to be released in CinemaScope as well as the first Disney feature to be based on an original story created at the studio.

As early as 1937, Walt Disney was intrigued by a story outline by the late Disney Legend Joe Grant about a cocker spaniel named Lady who had to deal with the arrival of a new baby in the household as well as a mother-in-law with two devious Siamese cats. Grant had used his own dog, “Lady Nell” as well as the birth of his first child as the inspiration for the story and for the concept artwork that he showed to Walt. All of the basic elements of the story, except for Tramp and the supporting cast of canines, were in Grant’s treatment.

Although Walt liked the story, like many of the other stories under development (from “Beauty and the Beast” to “The Little Mermaid”), he felt there was something missing. Walt always liked to “plus” a story rather than settling for the obvious plot formulas. In the mid-1940s, he read a story by Ward Greene, an executive at King Features Syndicate, entitled “Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog” and he felt the roguish dog in Greene’s story would give the story of “Lady” a little more “bite” and conflict as well as a romantic angle.

Walt — in his best press release mode — claimed that he got in contact with Ward and that they ” … exchanged doggish anecdotes and family experiences involving our own pets. It wasn’t long before Ward had whistled up the Tramp and it didn’t take much urging to incite Ward to write a book about their amazing adventures.“

Walt loved dogs. That little white poodle we saw with Walt on some of the introductions to his weekly television show was named “Lady” but she was just one of a long line of dogs that Walt loved from his earliest days in Marceline to his success in Hollywood.

In fact, the classic story of one of Walt’s dogs — a small chow puppy named “Sunnee” — inspired one of the scenes in “Lady and the Tramp.” Walt’s wife, Lillian, didn’t care for dogs because she felt they were dirty, had fleas and shed fur. So Walt researched and found that the “cleanest” dog was the chow.

So one Christmas, he bought a chow puppy, put it in a hat box with a big ribbon and presented it to Lillian as a gift from Santa. Lillian was angry because she felt Walt had gotten her a hat and she felt that Walt had terrible taste in hats. However, when she opened the hat box, the little puppy popped out its head. After a quick scream from a surprised Lillian, she fell in love with the dog and insisted it sleep in the bed with her and Walt. That scene of a puppy popping out of a ribboned hat box at Christmas was later re-created in “Lady and the Tramp”.

Actually, it was Walt who came up with the name of “Tramp” against objections from Greene and the film distributors and just about everyone else who felt the name was too “adult” for a Disney film. At different points, Tramp was called Homer, Rags and even Bozo. It is hard to imagine Tramp being called anything but Tramp.

The live action reference model for Tramp was found at a local dog pound by Disney story artist Erdman Penner. He rescued the dog only hours before it was to take the “long walk.” The dog was less than a year old and a female. After she finished modeling, she lived out the rest of her life happily at Disneyland’s Pony Farm, a wonderful anecdote that Disney Historian Jim Korkis shared with me in last year’s article.

Larry Roberts who did the voice for “Tramp” retired from show business in the Fifties and returned to Cleveland where he reassumed his last name “Salters” and went into the ladies’ clothing business. He first worked for Bobbie Brooks, Inc., a company founded by his uncle, Maurice Saltzman. He then moved to New York City and was a designer for Russ Togs, another ladies’ clothing manufacturer. Larry died of AIDS-related causes on Fire Island, New York sometime around the late Eighties. He was chosen to play the role of Tramp in “Lady and the Tramp” when a Disney storyman discovered him performing onstage. Roberts was extremely active in the Hollywood theater scene. He created and was part owner of the Players Ring, a prominent Hollywood theatre group of the day. “Lady and the Tramp” is his only film credit.

Before voicing Lady, Barbara Luddy was a radio actress well known to audiences of the “First Nighter” radio program. She also voiced Merryweather in “Sleeping Beauty”>Sleeping Beauty” (1959), Kanga in the “Winnie the Pooh” featurettes, and Mother Rabbit in “Robin Hood” (1973). Finally, here’s an interesting bit of trivia: Ms. Luddy had a single line role as the grandmother in the Carousel of Progress attraction shown at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, at Disneyland Park and later at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort.

As a kid, one of my favorite characters in the film was the feisty little Scottie known as “Jock.” Jock’s Scottish voice was done by the versatile Bill Thompson, well known to Disney fans as the voice of Mr. Smee in “Peter Pan” and the White Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland” and the little Ranger in the Donald Duck cartoons. Thompson also supplied another Scottish voice for the Disney Company. He was the first voice of Scrooge McDuck in the short “Scrooge McDuck and Money.” In 1957, Thompson joined the Los Angeles branch of Union Oil as an executive, working in community relations and unfortunately only occasionally doing voice work for animation. Jock is really not a black dog because it would have made him too dark to see any facial expressions. He is painted in a medium value with darker shades of grey and the backgrounds are always light behind him making him look like a black dog.

Singer Peggy Lee supplies the voice not only of “Peg” the female dog in the dog pound but also the voice of both Siamese cats, “Si and Am”, as well as the voice of “Darling,” one of Lady’s owners. The character of “Peg” was originally named “Mame” in the storyboards but since this was the Fifties, there was a concern that it might be considered offensive to President Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie. Miss Lee very graciously allowed the character to be named “Peg” instead. Several characters in “Lady and the Tramp” went through name changes. Even “Si and Am” at one point were called “Nip and Tuck.” Eric Larson who animated Peg claimed that when he animated “Peg” that she was based “partly on Mae West and a lot on Peggy Lee.”

In 1987, Peggy Lee sued Disney over “Lady and the Tramp.” Lee’s lawsuit claimed that she was due royalties for video tapes, a technology that didn’t exist when she agreed to write and perform for Disney. She only gave Disney permission to use her voice and songs for the original film and soundtrack recordings. She was eventually awarded $2.3 million, but not without a lengthy legal battle with the Disney Studio that negatively impacted her health. The lawsuit was finally settled in 1991 and set a precedent for future talent contracts at Disney. Lee was dissatisfied with the settlement and threatened that she was going to write a book about the entire incident but never did. She passed away in January 2002.

Beginning with “Cinderella,” Walt filmed live action reference footage on minimal sets in order to help save time with the final animation by pre-determining angles and composition. I would love to see some of that film footage as well as the live action film footage from “Peter Pan.” I’ve seen a series of stills from those films but never the actual live action footage. (Disney did live action footage as early as “Pinocchio.” Ward Kimball shared with Jim Korkis that they had shot live action film of an actor portraying Jiminy Cricket including a scene where Jiminy warms his rear end by a fire. An excerpt of that film footage still exists.) With “Lady and the Tramp,” it would have been difficult to get real canine actors to do what was needed to be done to provide the necessary reference action for the animators.

So one of Walt Disney’s innovations in the making of the feature that few people know (and that I’ve never even seen reference photos of) is that Walt had his artists construct a miniature Victorian mansion just like the one in the final film. With Walt’s love of miniatures, he made sure it was furnished to the last detail. Then, the artists used celluloid cutouts of the principal characters (especially the animal characters that were done in the appropriate scale) to move around the house to get an idea for composition of scenes and the relationship of the character to the background. It really helped the artists get a “dog’s-eye view” of going up the stairs and through doors.

It was especially important to pre-plan scenes in “Lady and the Tramp” because this was the first cartoon feature to use CinemaScope. With the wider screen, the characters had greater freedom to move around through alleys, streets and even the house itself, rather than moving the backgrounds behind the figures as had been done in previous films to give the illusion the character was walking down a street. Unlike earlier animated features, fewer cuts and close-ups were necessary to conceal the lack of space for movement.

For such a wonderfully simple story, there were an amazing number of changes. When Trusty the bloodhound is crushed underneath the dogcatcher’s wagon, he was originally supposed to die which is why Jock howls so mournfully. Walt, who had taken criticism for death of Bambi’s mother, decided the scene was too intense and had the animators include Trusty in the final Christmas scene.

Another scene was planned that was “inspired” by “Pink Elephants on Parade” from “Dumbo.” In the scene, Lady would be fearful of the arrival of the new baby and would have a nightmare where a baby bootie would split in two, then four and continue to multiply menancingly until Lady wakes from her dream when she sees real shoes and the wearer happily announcing that the baby had been born. Another planned scene would have had Lady and the Tramp walking in the park and a song would have introduced a fantasy segment where the roles of dogs and humans would be switched where dogs are the masters and the humans are their pets.

I don’t know whether any of this material will appear on this week’s DVD release. But I just love the film so much I wanted to share some of the notes I’ve had in my “Lady and the Tramp” files that might help you see the film a little differently.

General

Seward Johnson bronzes add a surreal, artistic touch to NYC’s Garment District

Published

9 years ago

June 23, 2015

Jim Hill

Greetings from NYC. Nancy and I drove down from New
Hampshire yesterday because we'll be checking out
Disney Consumer Products' annual Holiday Showcase later today.

Anyway … After checking into our hotel (i.e., The Paul.
Which is located down in NYC's NoMad district), we decided to grab some dinner.
Which is how we wound up at the Melt Shop.

Photo by Jim Hill

Which is this restaurant that only sells grilled cheese sandwiches.
This comfort food was delicious, but kind of on the heavy side.

Photo by Jim Hill

Which is why — given that it was a beautiful summer night
— we'd then try and walk off our meals. We started our stroll down by the Empire
State Building
…

Photo by Jim Hill

… and eventually wound up just below Times
Square (right behind where the Waterford Crystal Times Square New
Year's Eve Ball is kept).

Photo by Jim Hill

But you know what we discovered en route? Right in the heart
of Manhattan's Garment District
along Broadway between 36th and 41st? This incredibly cool series of life-like
and life-sized sculptures that Seward
Johnson has created.

Photo by Jim Hill

And — yes — that is Abraham Lincoln (who seems to have
slipped out of WDW's Hall of Presidents when no one was looking and is now
leading tourists around Times Square). These 18 painted
bronze pieces (which were just installed late this past Sunday night / early
Monday morning) range from the surreal to the all-too-real.

Photo by Jim Hill

Some of these pieces look like typical New Yorkers. Like the
business woman planning out her day …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the postman delivering the mail …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the hot dog vendor working at his cart …

Photo by Jim Hill

… the street musician playing for tourists …

Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention the tourists themselves.

Photo by Jim Hill

But right alongside the bronze businessmen …

Photo by Jim Hill

… and the tired grandmother hauling her groceries home …

Photo by Jim Hill

… there were also statues representing people who were
from out-of-town …

Photo by Jim Hill

… or — for that matter — out-of-time.

Photo by Jim Hill

These were the Seward Johnson pieces that genuinely beguiled. Famous impressionist paintings brought to life in three dimensions.

Note the out-of-period water bottle that some tourist left
behind. Photo by Jim Hill

Some of them so lifelike that you actually had to pause for
a moment (especially as day gave way to night in the city) and say to yourself
"Is that one of the bronzes? Or just someone pretending to be one of these
bronzes?"

Mind you, for those of you who aren't big fans of the
impressionists …

Photo by Jim Hill

… there's also an array of American icons. Among them
Marilyn Monroe …

Photo by Jim Hill

… and that farmer couple from Grant Wood's "American
Gothic."

Photo by Jim Hill

But for those of you who know your NYC history, it's hard to
beat that piece which recreates Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph of V-J Day in Times Square.

Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, a 25-foot-tall version of this particular Seward
Johnson piece ( which — FYI — is entitled "Embracing Peace") will actually
be placed in Times Square for a few days on or around August 14th to commemorate the 70th
anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day).

Photo by Jim Hill

By the way, if you'd like to check these Seward Johnson bronzes in
person (which — it should be noted — are part of the part of the Garment
District Alliance's new public art offering) — you'd best schedule a trip to
the City sometime over the next three months. For these pieces will only be on
display now through September 15th.

General

Wondering what you should “Boldly Go” see at the movies next year? The 2015 Licensing Expo offers you some clues

Published

9 years ago

June 10, 2015

Jim Hill

Greeting from the 2015 Licensing Expo, which is being held
at the Mandalay Bay
Convention Center in Las
Vegas.

Photo by Jim Hill

I have to admit that I enjoy covering the Licensing Expo.
Mostly becomes it allows bloggers & entertainment writers like myself to
get a peek over the horizon. Scope out some of the major motion pictures &
TV shows that today's vertically integrated entertainment conglomerates
(Remember when these companies used to be called movie studios?) will be
sending our way over the next two years or so.

Photo by Jim Hill

Take — for example — all of "The Secret Life of
Pets" banners that greeted Expo attendees as they made their way to the
show floor today. I actually got to see some footage from this new Illumination
Entertainment production (which will hit theaters on July 8, 2016) the last time I was in Vegas. Which
was for CinemaCon back in April. And the five or so minutes of film that I viewed
suggested that "The Secret Life of Pets" will be a really funny
animated feature.

Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, Universal Pictures wanted to make sure that Expo
attendees remembered that there was another Illumination Entertainment production
coming-to-a-theater-near-them before "The Secret Life of Pets" (And
that's "Minions," the "Despicable Me" prequel. Which
premieres at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival next week but
won't be screened stateside 'til July 10th of this year). Which is why they had
three minions who were made entirely out of LEGOS loitering out in the lobby.

Photo by Jim Hill

And Warner Bros. — because they wanted "Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice" to start trending on Twitter today — brought
the Batmobile to Las Vegas.

Photo by Jim Hill

Not to mention full-sized macquettes of Batman, Superman and
Wonder Woman. Just so conventioneers could then see what these DC superheroes
would actually look like in this eagerly anticipated, March 25, 2016 release.

Photo by Jim Hill

That's the thing that can sometimes be a wee bit frustrating
about the Licensing Expo. It's all about delayed gratification. You'll come
around a corner and see this 100 foot-long ad for "The Peanuts Movie"
and think "Hey, that looks great. I want to see that Blue Sky Studios production
right now." It's only then that you notice the fine print and realize that
"The Peanuts Movie" doesn't actually open in theaters 'til November
6th of this year.

Photo by Jim Hill

And fan of Blue Sky's "Ice Age" film franchise are in for an even
longer wait. Given that the latest installment in that top grossing series
doesn't arrive in theaters 'til July
15, 2016.

Photo by Jim Hill

Of course, if you're one of those people who needs immediate
gratification when it comes to your entertainment, there was stuff like that to
be found at this year's Licensing Expo. Take — for example — how the WWE
booth was actually shaped like a wrestling ring. Which — I'm guessing — meant
that if the executives of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. didn't like
the offer that you were making, they were then allowed to toss you out over the
top rope, Royal Rumble-style.

Photo by Jim Hill

I also have to admit that — as a longtime Star Trek fan —
it was cool to see the enormous Starship Enterprise that hung in place over the
CBS booth. Not to mention getting a glimpse of the official Star Trek 50th
Anniversary logo.

Photo by Jim Hill

I was also pleased to see lots of activity in The Jim Henson
Company booth. Which suggests that JHC has actually finally carved out a
post-Muppets identity for itself.

Photo by Jim Hill

Likewise for all of us who were getting a little concerned
about DreamWorks Animation (what with all the layoffs & write-downs &
projects that were put into turnaround or outright cancelled last year), it was
nice to see that booth bustling.

Photo by Jim Hill

Every so often, you'd come across some people who were
promoting a movie that you weren't entirely sure that you actually wanted to
see (EX: "Angry Birds," which Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia
Pictures will be releasing to theaters on May 20, 2016). But then you remembered that Clay Kaytis —
who's this hugely talented former Walt Disney Animation Studios animator — is
riding herd on "Angry Birds" with Fergal Reilly. And you'd think
"Well, if Clay's working on 'Angry Birds,' I'm sure this animated feature
will turn out fine."

Photo by Jim Hill

Mind you, there were reminders at this year's Licensing Expo
of great animated features that we're never going to get to see now. I still
can't believe — especially after that brilliant proof-of-concept footage
popped up online last year — that Sony execs decided not to go forward
with production of Genndy Tartakovsky's
"Popeye" movie. But that's the
cruel thing about the entertainment business, folks. It will sometime break
your heart.

Photo by Jim Hill

And make no mistake about this. The Licensing Expo is all
about business. That point was clearly driven home at this year's show when —
as you walked through the doors of the Mandalay
Bay Convention Center
— the first thing that you saw was the Hasbros Booth. Which was this gleaming,
sleek two story-tall affair full of people who were negotiating deals &
signing contracts for all of the would-be summer blockbusters that have already
announced release dates for 2019 & beyond.

Photo by Jim Hill

"But what about The Walt Disney Company?," you
ask. "Weren't they represented on the show floor at this year's Licensing
Expo?" Not really, not. I mean, sure. There were a few companies there hyping
Disney-related products. Take — for example — the Disney Wikkeez people.

Photo by Jim Hill

I'm assuming that some Disney Consumer Products exec is
hoping that Wikkeez will eventually become the new Tsum Tsum. But to be blunt,
these little hard plastic figures don't seem to have the same huggable charm
that those stackable plush do. But I've been wrong before. So let's see what
happens with Disney Wikkeez once they start showing up on the shelves of the
Company's North American retail partners.

Photo by Jim Hill

And speaking of Disney's retail partners … They were
meeting with Mouse House executives behind closed doors one floor down from the
official show floor for this year's Licensing Expo.

Photo by Jim Hill

And the theme for this year's invitation-only Disney shindig? "Timeless
Stories" involving the Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm brands that
would then appeal to "tomorrow's consumer."

Photo by Jim Hill

And just to sort of hammer home the idea that Disney is no
longer the Company which cornered the market when it comes to little girls
(i.e., its Disney Princess and Disney Fairies franchises), check out this
wall-sized Star Wars-related image that DCP put up just outside of one of its
many private meeting rooms. "See?," this carefully crafted photo
screams. "It isn't just little boys who want to wield the Force. Little
girls also want to grow up and be Lords of the Sith."

Photo by Jim Hill

One final, kind-of-ironic note: According to this banner,
Paramount Pictures will be releasing a movie called "Amusement Park"
to theaters sometime in 2017.

Photo by Jim Hill

Well, given all the "Blackfish" -related issues
that have been dogged SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment over the past two years, I'm
just hoping that they'll still be in the amusement park business come 2017.

Your thoughts?

General

It takes more than three circles to craft a Classic version of Mickey Mouse

Published

9 years ago

June 9, 2015

Jim Hill

You know what Mickey Mouse looks like, right? Little guy,
big ears?

Truth be told, Disney's corporate symbol has a lot of
different looks. If Mickey's interacting with Guests at Disneyland
Park (especially this summer, when
the Happiest Place on Earth
is celebrating its 60th anniversary), he looks & dresses like this.

Or when he's appearing in one of those Emmy Award-winning shorts that Disney
Television Animation has produced (EX: "Bronco Busted," which debuts
on the Disney Channel tonight at 8 p.m. ET / PT), Mickey is drawn in a such a
way that he looks hip, cool, edgy & retro all at the same time.

Looking ahead to 2017 now, when Disney Junior rolls out "Mickey and the
Roadster Racers," this brand-new animated series will feature a sportier version
of Disney's corporate symbol. One that Mouse House managers hope will persuade
preschool boys to more fully embrace this now 86 year-old character.

That's what most people don't realize about the Mouse. The
Walt Disney Company deliberately tailors Mickey's look, even his style of
movement, depending on what sort of project / production he's appearing in.

Take — for example — Disney
California Adventure
Park's "World of Color:
Celebrate!" Because Disney's main mouse would be co-hosting this new
nighttime lagoon show with ace emcee Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Goldberg really had
to step up Mickey's game. Which is why this master Disney animator created
several minutes of all-new Mouse animation which then showed that Mickey was
just as skilled a showman as Neil was.

Better yet, let's take a look at what the folks at Avalanche Studios just went
through as they attempted to create a Classic version of Mickey & Minnie.
One that would then allow this popular pair to become part of Disney Infinity
3.0.

"I won't lie to you. We were under a lot of pressure to
get the look of this particular version of Mickey — he's called Red Pants
Mickey around here — just right," said Jeff Bunker, the VP of Art
Development at Avalanche Studios, during a recent phone interview. "When
we brought Sorcerer Mickey into Disney Infinity 1.0 back in January of 2014,
that one was relatively easy because … Well, everyone knows what Mickey Mouse
looked like when he appeared in 'Fantasia.' "

"But this time around, we were being asked to design
THE Mickey & Minnie," Bunker continued. "And given that these Classic
Disney characters have been around in various different forms for the better
part of the last century … Well, which look was the right look?"

Which is why Jeff and his team at Avalanche Studios began watching hours &
hours of Mickey Mouse shorts. As they tried to get a handle on which look would
work best for these characters in Disney Infinity 3.0.

"And we went all the way back to the very start of Mickey's career. We began
with 'Steamboat Willie' and then watched all of those black & white Mickey shorts
that Walt made back in the late 1920s & early 1930s. From there, we
transitioned to his Technicolor shorts. Which is when Mickey went from being
this pie-eyed, really feisty character to more of a well-behaved leading
man," Bunker recalled. "We then finished out our Mouse marathon by
watching all of those new Mickey shorts that Paul Rudish & his team have
been creating for Disney Television Animation. Those cartoons really recapture
a lot of the spirit and wild slapstick fun that Mickey's early, black &
white shorts had."

But given that the specific assignment that Avalanche Studios had been handed
was to create the most appealing looking, likeable version of Mickey Mouse
possible … In the end, Jeff and his team wound up borrowing bits & pieces
from a lot of different versions of the world's most famous mouse. So that
Classic Mickey would then look & move in a way that best fit the sort of
gameplay which people would soon be able to experience with Disney Infinity
3.0.

"That — in a lot of ways — was actually the toughest
part of the Classic Mickey design project. You have to remember that one of the
key creative conceits of Disney Infinity
is that all the characters which appear in this game are toys," Bunker
stated. "Okay. So they're beautifully detailed, highly stylized toy
versions of beloved Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm characters. But
they're still supposed to be toys. So our Classic versions of Mickey &
Minnie have the same sort of thickness & sturdiness to them that toys have.
So that they'll then be able to fit right in with all of the rest of the
characters that Avalanche Studios had previously designed for Disney Infinity."

And then there was the matter of coming up with just the
right pose for Classic Mickey & Minnie. Which — to hear Jeff tell the
story — involved input from a lot of Disney upper management.

"Everyone within the Company seemed to have an opinion
about how Mickey & Minnie should be posed. More to the point, if you Google
Mickey, you then discover that there are literally thousands of poses out there
for these two. Though — truth be told — a lot of those kind of play off the
way Mickey poses when he's being Disney's corporate symbol," Bunker said.
"But what I was most concerned about was that Mickey's pose had to work
with Minnie's pose. Because we were bringing the Classic versions of these
characters up into Disney Infinity 3.0 at the exact same time. And we wanted to
make sure — especially for those fans who like to put their Disney Infinity
figures on display — that Mickey's pose would then complement Minnie.

Which is why Jeff & the crew at Avalanche Studios
decided — when it came to Classic Mickey & Minnie's pose — that they
should go all the way back to the beginning. Which is why these two Disney icons
are sculpted in such a way that it almost seems as though you're witnessing the
very first time Mickey set eyes on Minnie.

"And what was really great about that was — as soon as
we began showing people within the Company this pose — everyone at Disney
quickly got on board with the idea. I mean, the Classic Mickey that we sculpted
for Disney Infinity 3.0 is clearly a very playful, spunky character. But at the
same time, he's obviously got eyes for Minnie," Bunker concluded. "So
in the end, we were able to come up with Classic versions of these characters
that will work well within the creative confines of Disney Infinity 3.0 but at
the same time please those Disney fans who just collect these figures because
they like the way the Disney Infinity characters look."

So now that this particular design project is over, does
Jeff regret that Mouse House upper management was so hands-on when it came to
making sure that the Classic versions of Mickey & Minnie were specifically
tailored to fit the look & style of gameplay found in Disney Infinity 3.0?

"To be blunt, we go through this every time we add a new character to the
game. The folks at Lucasfilm were just as hands-on when we were designing the
versions of Darth Vader and Yoda that will also soon be appearing in Disney
Infinity 3.0," Bunker laughed. "So in the end, if the character's
creators AND the fans are happy, then I'm happy."

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Tuesday, June 9, 2015