Commentary 08 Jun 2013 04:20 am
Forever Frozen
This week’s films included the documentary, The Dirty Wars. This is the film taken from Jeremy Scahill‘s book of the same title. It’s about the wars America is pulling secretively atacking whomever they choose without proof of reason.
The film centers on Ayman al Zawahri, an American who protested the workings of the U.S. in the past tseveral years. He was assassinated by a drone after having been called the #1 enemy of the U.S. after the murder of Bin Laden.
Scahill presents and argument and gets no response of proof of al Zawahri’s guilt. He is beyond belief when Zawahri is killed by a drone. The film makes its point and has a strong theme. It’s quite a good documentary.
THe NY chapter of the Academy had Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley present to answer questions from the Academy’s Patrick Harrison.
These Q&A sessions are going to be on the Academy’s website soon. When Chris Wedge‘s session is up, I’ll let you know.
1 
21) L-R: Harrison, Rowley, Scahill . . | . . .2) Harrison
3 
4
3) L-R: Rowley & Scahill
5 
6
5) Scahill
Here’s a NYTimes interview with Mr. Scahill.
There was a second Academy film to see this past week. On Thursday the Pedro Almadovar film was a real bust. Seventies disco meets an Hispanic airline, from the point of view of the cockpit. Absolutely dreadful is about all I can say for it. Since I’m a big fan and waited patiently to see this one, it was very disappointing. That’s about all I can say.
The Disney kingdom of Arendelle trapped in eternal winter
More of the Disney “Frozen”.
Let’s hope that that shadow does not belong to the following character.
Trouble
It’s like being trapped in a little doll shop that
both my sisters would have rejected.
In comparison, how less pretentious and more beautiful in its
simplicity, was the Russian feature.
Or Errol le Cain’s beautiful book illustrations.
His Line?
Speaking of Frozen, it’s too bad that this clip isn’t s much fun as I had expected. It’s nice, though to see Disney in his natural state. Just thought I’d share.
Draft Notes
Part of the treat of gathering the drafts from Hans Perk‘s site, A Film LA is that he leaves notes about what he’s read on those animators’ drafts. Here are some samples from just the Peter Pan and the Lady & the Tramp notes:During the posts of Peter Pan:
- My MOST important reason for posting these is to give recognition to those many animators whose names are forgotten since the iconic status of the “Nine Old Men” has overshadowed them all. Mind you, I revere the Nine as the next man, but there were so many more great artists.
- Today we find e.g Marvin Woodward who was with Disney since September 1930. Jack Campbell started in 1933 and did such memorable scenes as the ones with the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio. Don Lusk started just a year later – and more memorable scenes. As a matter of fact, except for Art Stevens, all animators mentioned above started at Disney in the mid 1930′s, excepting Fergie and Woodward, so they had between some 15 and 22 years of experience at this time, not counting their time before they got to Disney’s studio.
- And there were many more animators working on Peter Pan that should be recognized. Cliff Nordberg, Hal Ambro, Jerry Hathcock, Eric Cleworth, Hugh Fraser, etc. etc. It is to recognize the skills and talents of ALL the animators that I post these drafts.
On the drafts for Lady andthe Tramp, Hands commented:
- As I wrote before: I find this film incredibly well drawn and very well animated – less occasional “fumbling” than on the previous couple of films. It is a step up from Peter Pan, and on it’s way to the meticulousness of Sleeping Beauty. The inking is SEVERAL steps up! The inking of the ending of lines in Pan was at times erratic – here it is under FULL control! It is a beautifully drawn film, with beautiful layouts, backgrounds and inking. Also, it is a nicely told story with a few surprises (though after seeing it for the umpteenth time, I am not all that surprised anymore) and especially fun side characters, like Jock, the beaver, the pound dogs and the Siamese cats. And then Milts marvelous scenes – Frank‘s (Thomas) spaghetti with-a da meat-sa balls… This film is truly a classic.
Last Laps
Actress, Esther Williams died this past Thursday at the age of 91. At the age of 17 she won the Olympic gold medal for swimming and this led to a good film career. Her swimming sequences in the films became Busby Berkeley-type numbers with dozens of swimmers surrounding her in large pools. Apparently, she burst her ear drums some nine times in the making of these sequences, over the course of her career.
She swam with the Hanna-Barbera characters, Tom and Jerry, in the film Dangerous When Wet. A very colorful sequence that isn’t terribly wonderful in its animation, but it certainly suits the film. She started as a gymnast and ended as a bone fide movie star.
creepy Eyes
Tom Hanks was on David Letterman last night, and he came with his big moustache direct from his Broadway part in Lucky Guy.
Letterman cut in mid sentence during a conversation with Hanks to say, “Now I remember who you remind me of, with that moustache.” Hanks was somewhat surprised but said, “Who?”
Letterman responded, “. . . that conductor from The Polar Express.” Hanks asked, without a second’s break, “Are my eyes creepy enough?”
on 08 Jun 2013 at 9:32 am 1.Don Cox said …
That film cannot have been about Ayman Al-Zawahiri, as he is Egyptian not American, and is still alive. He is the current leader of Al-Qaeda, and is a sworn enemy of the USA.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 10:41 am 2.Michael said …
Time for you to catch up on the news.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 11:16 am 3.Tom Pope said …
A minor note about Esther Williams; she won a national championship, not the Olympic medal. She made the team in 1940, but the games were cancelled.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 12:07 pm 4.Pierre said …
Sorry Mike but I think you mean Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by an American drone strike:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/middleeast/anwar-al-awlaki-a-us-citizen-in-americas-cross-hairs.html
Ayman Al-Zawahri appears to be alive and well:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/world/ayman-al-zawahiri—fast-facts
Regardless of who the film is discussing, I’m certain it’s very compelling.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 1:37 pm 5.Michael said …
Obviously you’re right, Pierre. Thanks. You also deserve an apology, Mr. Cox. I made the mistake of searching for spelling info on the internet. My error.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 3:29 pm 6.Nat said …
I understand your feelings about Disney’s Frozen completely. In fact, I wrote a similar article before several months ago on my blog.
http://the-animatorium.blogspot.com/2013/02/disneys-next-film-taking-disappointing.html
It completely lacks the honesty and beauty of the Russian feature (which we desperately needs a high quality US real ease). And really, the bland character designs and unoriginal ‘modernized’ plot leave a bad taste in one’s mouth. Disney just seems to be playing it safe.
on 08 Jun 2013 at 3:57 pm 7.Mark said …
Wow. Those frozen images look…well….awful. I didn’t know Margaret Keane was working for Disney…http://www.keane-eyes.com
on 09 Jun 2013 at 5:23 pm 8.Shane (Fighting Seraph) said …
I remember seeing footage of that Russian film years ago, and that upcoming Disney film looks extremely banal.
on 10 Jun 2013 at 3:41 am 9.Michael said …
The “Russian film” was released in 1959 after Dave Fleischer had supervised a version adding almost 15 minutes to the length. He used a number of scenes of reuse as footage that played over a song which was added to the film. The celebrity voice overs included Sandra Dee, Tommy Kirk and Patty McCormack with a live action intro starring Art Linklater. This version can still be found via Amazon. TCM has some fine information on its site.
on 10 Jun 2013 at 2:31 pm 10.the Gee said …
The original Soviet film version is probably not copyright protected, right?
While the version with the 15 mins of added footage you mention probably is protected.
I ask because years ago, I did see one of the versions on Archive.org, as a Public Domain film.
Also, my opinion doesn’t mean a whit about this movie. So having been upfront with that caveat:
Man, that is one boring movie! The first time I tried to watch it was on TV, on some holiday, maybe on PBS. I had to stifle it. Ever since then every thing I’ve read about the upcoming Disney version made me cringe. The story just seems rote or something.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Soviet era animation (stop-mo, hand drawn). There is some fascinating stuff there. So I can’t take issue with the animation production. That “Snow Queen†falls into a category of animated features that numbs me. That’s bad but it is my problem.
Whatever Disney does…I can’t see the studio making it better…There’s so many other stories that can be told–adapted and made from mostly whole cloth. Count me in as one of those lunkheads who thinks investing in Newer is better than adding gloss to Older and mixing in Tried and True elements. Feh!
(For instance, where’s “The Wild� At some point footage from that movie has to leak. The movie that resulted from that development ( I swear) made me think “Madagascar†which is unfair to the movie but if the studio was going to abandon development on something Different at least follow it up with something Just As Different (and hopefully Good). )
on 11 Jun 2013 at 8:17 am 11.Elliot Cowan said …
82 minutes of The Wild were leaked in 2006.
Mostly to cinemas.
on 11 Jun 2013 at 5:52 pm 12.the Gee said …
Ha.
I obviously didn’t bother to look up specifics, like the working and eventual title.
I still don’t have time for that. So, thanks for correcting that.
If that was “The Wild†I was under the impression what was released was much tamer than what was in production earlier.
Again, no time.
Thanks for yours though!
Cheerios and all that!