All About Whit

The baby carried home his first home work assignment last week – to complete an “All About Me” poster.   I can’t glamorize the process…it was akin to pulling teeth.  But, we finally got it done and he is pretty darn proud of his hard work :-)
 

I asked the baby the questions and then transcribed his answers.  Read all about Whit:

• I am 3 years old.
• My birthday is December 12.  (Yay!  He knows it!)
• I am in this grade pre-3.  (I helped with that one.)
• My teacher is Miss Lynn.
• I get to school  in “my own car.”
• These are the members of my family: Mommy, Daddy and Brother.
• When I grow up I want to be “just like daddy.”  (Aw, sweet boy.)

These are a few of my favorite things:

• color – red (this was after he insisted his favorite color was rainbow for about 10 minutes)
• animal – hippopotamus (again, a struggle to decide on this as he initially wouldn’t budge from “black is my favorite animal.”)
• food – spaghetti (??)
• book – Star Wars
• sport – tennis
• thing to do in school – play with legos
• thing to do at home – sleep (really??), play and write numbers (not sure we’ve done this yet but I suppose we should start????)

Three super cool facts about myself:

• “I run fast, kick the ball fast and swim fast.”
• “I have a very happy face.”  (yes you do, sweet boy)
• “I help my Daddy work and use tools.”

I am a star because: “My mommy gives me a lot of kisses.”
I show others I care by: “telling them they awesome.”

He can’t wait to turn it in to Miss Lynn tomorrow.  In the mean time, he’s super excited to have Bird coming over in a few!!  And Honey and I have a sushi date tonight!!
xoxo

Ub Iwerks' 'ComiColor' cartoons.

So, today I thought I'd add some of the amazing posters and lobby cards I got from the 'ComiColor cartoons' Ub Iwerks created with his studio, after he had left Disney in 1930. The cartoons used the Cinecolor process and were created between 1933 and 1936. Check out the fabulous artwork and designs Ub did for these posters. Makes me proud to say that the creator of Mickey Mouse was of Dutch descendancy.

Officially, his name was Ubbe Ert Iwwerks and his father, Eert Ubben Iwwerks came from Uttum, 'East-Friesland', a provence that once was part of the most Northern region of my country, but now belongs to Germany. After his immigration to the US, he married Deborah Pierce in 1880, but later remarried with Laura Wagner. Their son, Ub, was born on March 24, 1901. I've tried to post the artwork as much as possible in chronological order and they're pretty high res, so be sure to click on them and check them out up close. If you've never seen any of these shorts, you might find some of them on You Tube, as they're pretty much in the public domain by now. 

Below: 'Summertime' was released on June 15, 1935. the funny thing is, the last work Ubbe did for Disney, before setting up his own cartoon studio, was direct a few shorts for Disney's 'Silly Symphonies' series. Three of those were part of the so-called "Four Seasons' series, which included a 'Summertime' short. The last of those, 'Winter', was directed by Burt Gillett after Ubbe had left. 'Winter' was released by Disney's new distributor Columbia Pictures on November 5, 1930. The name you see on Ub's posters, 'P.A. Powers'  and his 'Celebrity' company were originally Disney's distributor, but their relationship had ended once Pat had helped Ubbe set up his own place.

Big Boy Room Kick Off

Here’s how it all went down…

Honey: I now know which one of the boys is your favorite.

Me: What on earth are you talking about?

Honey: Look at John’s room…full of cool things and decorated nicely.  Now, look at the baby’s room.  It looks like a victorian grandmother died in there.  Please do what it takes to make the boy a nice room.

(Totally befuddled that he thought I’d actually decorated the baby’s room as opposed to just dumping things in there to tend to later, yet realizing that he just turned over the purse strings, I duly swallow my pride…) 

Me: You’re right.  It is awful.  I was trying to be frugal.  I will certainly make it right.  You did say to do what it takes.  Right?  Mmmm, okay then.  I’m on it lickety split.




In my defense, the boys have been sharing a room since the baby left his crib earlier this spring and he literally spends zero time in there.  Regardless of the sharing arrangement, I have always planned to do a room for him – but it’s been low on the list – until now.  Recall that the towels are on the balloon shades because the baby proclaimed them to be “BERY (very) SCARY” and wouldn’t step foot in the room.  And the fact that I left that giant hook in the ceiling (what on earth was that there for?) when we did a bazillion dollars of work on the house before move in day is a clear testament to the fact that we did said work while I had a three year old and a three month old and we were squatting at bestie S and Mr. Todd’s house.

Sooooo, here’s what I’m working with…

• A mish mash of furniture, including a vintage four poster solid maple Ethan Allen bed from my parents (Hear that Sister? I just called you vintage. Which must make me antique), a mattress from Honey’s brother, Honey’s childhood dresser, an antique chair, a thrift store side table and the antique secretary that was in his nursery.

 

• A similar smattering of decorative accessories, including a pair of lamps and a rug found at the Ballard’s outlet, another pair of corbels like in my den, two random plans of wood and a mirror from a local boutique.

• A white diamond matelasse coverlet and shams that came off our second guest room bed in our old house and a couple of yards of velvet fabric purchased about a year ago.  It’s Como Gris and is a much prettier blue/gray/green in person. 

And here’s how I envision it all coming together…


Honey is working on removing the hook, painting the room and ceiling and installing crown molding and Mother and I are going to knock out some sewing.  More to come very soon…
xoxo

Labor Day Weekend

Aside from battling an outbreak of moths in my kitchen and whiteflies in my garden (lucky me, right?), we cobbled together a few fun outings over the long Labor Day weekend.  We did happy hour at the pool Friday, girls night out Saturday, cooked out with friends Sunday, and Mexican with my family tonight.  But the highlight of the weekend was definitely the end of summer pool party at the club today.
  

It’s back to school, baseball, laundry and cooking tomorrow.  Where on earth did summer go?!
xoxo

Steamboat Willie and Flip the Frog.

In 1930, Disney's closest friend and most important animator Ub Iwerks left the studio and went into business for himself. The man that designed Mickey Mouse and single-handedly drew Mickey's first cartoon shorts, decided to create a new star, 'Flip the Frog' and produced the very first color cartoon with sound, as Flip debuted in his first short 'Fiddle Sticks' on August 16, 1930.

Above: Opening and closing title cards of 'Fiddlesticks', crediting Ub Iwerks not only as animator but also as producer.

Flip's first two cartoons were created using the two color Technicolor process, the others were done in Black & White (although only a black & White print survived of 'Flying Fists', the second cartoon). One of the main artists working with Ub at his studio was Grim Natwick, who had worked for Max Fleischer, where he had designed and animated on 'Betty Boop'. In all, Ub's new studio produced 38 Flip the Frog cartoons between August 1930 and October 1933. After that, Iwerks created 14 cartoons starring a character called 'Willie Whopper' until September 1934. The studio also produced the 'Comicolor cartoons', a series of 25 shorts, starring characters like Sinbad, Aladdin and Don Quixote, which used the 'Cinecolor' process, developed by William Crespinel in 1932.

Let's check out some of the similarities between 'Steamboat Willie' and the early Flip the frog cartoons. If you've been following my posts, the first one should be familiar to you by now. It's Black Pete again, chewing his tobacco behind the wheel in 'Steamboat Willie'. His mouth opens, his teeth too and he spits (if you have trouble viewing any of the images below, just click to enlarge).

Here's Flip the Frog in 'Fiddlesticks', behind his piano. A very familiar looking mouse is playing the violin and he's wearing a red pair of trousers too, just like Mickey (the actual Mickey Mouse cartoons from that time were in Black & White, but his trousers were already shown to be red in the various merchandising items). Flip is shocked when he sees some black goo hit his piano, he looks up and sees a bird doing a familiar act.

Here's another one.The next scene is from 'The Village Smitty', released on 1931. Flip is a town smith and while repairing a horseshoe, he flies backwards through the air and ends up in the fire. Flip is screaming his lungs out and the horse successfully extinguishes the fire!

Here's Black Pete once more, in a scene from 'Steamboat Willie', yelling at Mickey to scrub the decks. Mickey sticks his tongue out at him and Pete reacts, trying to kick Mickey down the stairs, he ends up hurting himself.

Below is a scene from 'The Soup Song', another 'Flip the Frog' cartoon from 1931. In this short, Flip works at a diner, but serves multiple roles. He takes coats at the door, works in the kitchen making soup, waits tables and does a few sing and dance acts on stage with a cute girl. In the following scene, Flip throws himself in the arms of the girl (or so he thinks) at the end of their dance routine, but unfortunately for him, he ends up in the arms of another character, who isn't to happy about Flip's stunt.

The Original "Black Cauldron": Can It Happen?

This has always been an unfortunate happening in Disney animation history, one that Kevin T. Rodriguez of Examiner brilliantly summed up as a "sore spot" for animation fans in his fantastic article, Top 10 Reasons Criterion Should Get Animated. Animation fans know the story: Jeffrey Katzenberg, new to the Disney company, viewed The Black Cauldron and told the crew to cut ten minutes of the film. He eventually edited out more footage when the crew didn't meet his demands ("I said ten minutes!"), resulting in the removal of 12 minutes in total.

A good chunk of the footage, in question, centered around the film's climax: The Cauldron-Born sequence. The Horned King finally obtains the deadly weapon and uses it to bring life to the skeletons laying around his creepy castle, and form his army of the dead. With that, the skeletons are to bring terror to the land of Prydain. The noticeable edits can heard in the scene where the Horned King's henchmen see something green and misty in the water. One of the henchmen pokes it with a spear and then all of a sudden, a skeleton appears! But then... We cut to two of the henchmen behind the man who pokes the green thing, as that happens, the score skips! Then we see another one looming towards the screen, then three skeletons jumping out of the water and attack the two henchmen offscreen. Then we cut to Taran, Eilonwy and Fflewdurr Fflam, watching in horror. Very, very noticeable.

Over the years, we've seen and heard some different things about the cuts made to this film. Cels of a man melting have appeared, and people who worked at Disney at the time shed some light on what happened. Michael Peraza also offered animation fans an excellent three-part recollection of the film's production history, briefly commenting on a screening that went over disastrously. The original 1985 home video release of Pinocchio also includes an exclusive trailer that has a deleted shot (at approximately 1:05) of the third skeleton that pops out after the henchman pokes the water. The trailer also gives the henchman who ties Fflewdurr up a name, Moose. Did he have a bigger role? Did he have scenes that were cut? Also, Peraza did confirm that the original version of the film exists, and the crew considering using the negative for the film's first VHS release in 1998, but this unfortunately did not happen.

What was cut from the film would take a while to pick apart, since so many sources show so many things from DisneyWar (which mentions Roy E. Disney being disturbed by a shot of a flying creature, presumably a Gwythaint, graphically clutching a boy with his talons and flying away) to interviews with folks who worked on the film. Jeffrey Katzenberg certainly defended his actions whenever he was asked about the film, as he felt that the film should've been for children even though Disney was clearly making this film for the teenage and adult audience.

The last home media release of The Black Cauldron occurred on September 14, 2010 for the film's 25th anniversary. It had a better transfer and a deleted musical number with the Faire Folk. Anything new? No, sadly, except a game or something. No documentary or featurette about the making of the film, or any of the deleted sequences. It was probably just something Disney had to get off their chest, since a better quality version of the film had already been available on DVD in France.

Whenever this film will come to Blu-ray, we don't know. I'm going to say 2015, for the film's 30th anniversary. It's also very possible that it might show up next year, since The Great Mouse Detective is hitting Blu-ray next month, as the previous DVD came out two years ago. Will the Blu-ray of this film come with what we want? Probably not, given Disney's attitude towards animated titles that don't sell as well as their others.

What would make a great Black Cauldron Blu-ray? For starters, the full uncut version. If the original exists on a negative, they can restore this for the Blu-ray release. Second of all, a great Black Cauldron Blu-ray would keep the great bonus features from the first DVD release: The art gallery and the original theatrical trailer. They could also include the trailer from the Pinocchio videocassette, and some TV spots if any of them still exist.

Of course we all know why Disney wouldn't give us the uncut version, since they don't want to offend family audiences. The original version of The Black Cauldron was to have content that was more unsuitable for children than anything seen in the other films, so releasing that would be a no-no for Disney, unless...

They release it as a collector's title, much like a Walt Disney Treasures set. Last year, Warner Bros. released the excellent Tom & Jerry: Golden Collection Volume I, which contained all of the original, unaltered versions of the classic Tom & Jerry shorts that had some jokes in them that aren't acceptable in this day and age. This set came with a warning on both the packaging and the beginning of the disc, one you can't skip, one that explains why the cartoons have that content in them. Perhaps Disney can do this with The Black Cauldron, since the title isn't exactly a "favorite" amongst family audiences or most people other than fans and Disney lovers like myself who want the title just to own it.

Picture this, the uncut version of The Black Cauldron on Blu-ray and DVD, opening with a message that says something like this: "Disney intended to make this animated feature film for the teenage and adult audiences only, aiming for content that would've possibly gotten it a PG-13 rating. The more graphic scenes were edited out of the film, making for a film that was more suitable for family audiences. The version of the film contained on this disc is the original version that the studio set out to make. IT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES."

If Disney can't find archive footage for a behind-the-scenes featurette, they could at least provide the entire story via production notes and also reveal things we don't know of the film's production history. More on the early work done for the film in 1970s before it took off. There's a lot of things they could do for a behind-the-scenes feature.

A lot of us don't want the eventual Blu-ray release of this film to be a hack-job. The recent The Rescuers Blu-ray is really lacking in bonus materials, as is the Blu-ray of The Fox and the Hound and the DVD release that preceded it. As I've said in my previous article, the not-so-successful Disney films deserve more attention and care for the home video releases. Each Disney film has a cool production history behind it, why hide that? Disney wasn't afraid of explaining production complications on other DVD and Blu-ray releases of their classics, though they did tend to brush over them from time to time, sugarcoating things. A Black Cauldron behind-the-scenes documentary would be nice, one that has no problem criticizing the decisions made at the time.

That's my ideal Black Cauldron Blu-ray. What would you like to see on the next home media release of this film?