The nice people from Walt Disney Pictures rang up a couple of weeks ago and invited me to spend a couple of days at their Burbank animation studios to celebrate the fact that their next big release,
The Princess and The Frog, heralds a return to hand drawn animation.
They didn’t need to ask twice. I was standing at the airport with mouse ears firmly planted on my head before they could utter the words “is your passport current?”
Within seven days of receiving the phone call I was in Los Angeles. The town where midgets believe dressing up like Chuckie and terrifying you should earn them a healthy tip:
… and dry cleaners feel the need to cleanse your soul as well as your suits:
It’s pleasing to report that the Disney animation studios are as magical as you would imagine.
Their hedges have surprise rodents springing out of the middle of them
...
... and dopey looking pillars are de rigeur ...
“I believe that’s from the Fantasia period of architecture”
The other thing the studios boasted was an impressive posse of squirrels.
This is not a euphemism.
The squirrels caused me some undue excitement, as I’ve never actually seen one before. The photo below is testament to this fact - it was taken at the exact moment that I looked out the window and spotted two squirrels running up a tree.
After our initial tour of what is possibly The Happiest Workplace on Earth ™, we were taken on a quick tour through the Disney archives … which was reminiscent of hanging out in the bedroom of that childhood friend who had heaps of cool stuff that you weren’t allowed to touch.
Now, behold Dave Smith,
hoarder curator of the awesome old toys:
“You can look, but don’t breathe on anything”
The cache of memorabilia that Dave has gathered for this collection would make eBay go into meltdown. The heady mix of items - which has taken him 40 years to collate - includes vintage Donald Duck food products, Mary Poppins’ hat from the film, postcards from Walt Disney himself, Snow White board games and egg timers that look startlingly like Tom Keneally.
(If you want to check out a little video of Dave taking a tour through the Disney archives, you’ll find it
here on YouTube)
And that, dear friends, is part one of the Disney scrapbook. Please come back on Monday morning to read part two, where we really get stuck into it. We'll fail a drawing class, meet John Lasseter (creative head of Pixar and Disney Animation ... also the awesome bloke who directed Toy Story)
and hang out with some of the animators who are currently finishing The Princess and The Frog.
We'll also take a sneak peek at some footage from the new film and have a go at director John Musker for scaring us in 1985 with The Black Cauldron. It's going to be such fun.
Until then, have a cracking weekend.