Most days my eyes
slam open at about 6:00 AM in the morning.
And, most days I can close them and sleep for another 45 minutes or so. Not when I’m away from home, when my eyes pop
open, they stay open. I’ve tried and
tried to lay around for awhile and it just doesn’t work. So, it’s up, turn on the news, and make the
weak coffee available in the room. Hey,
it’s a start at the day’s caffeine requirement.
So, I watch a little news, got to stay informed, and check my email
while drinking some weak coffee.
Actually, come to think of it, this morning coffee was all that weak,
I’d remembered to add one of the Starbucks VIA packs I carry now when
travelling. J Then after a
quick shower, I was dressed and out the door before 7. A stop at the coffee shop, got there a few
minutes before it opened, so there was a wait and nice conversation with
another guest about the Walt Disney Family Museum. Yup, on this day I was decked out in my
Museum ball cap and one of my t-shirts.
I find they are great conversation starters. With the coffee shop now open, I grabbed my
large quad shot latte and pastry, and it off to the queue. When I arrived there are only a couple of
people ahead of me in line, but… remember my comments about this in my last
post. In a couple of minutes my friends
show up, so now, everyone behind me is now 3 people further back in the queue,
and by the time the D23 staff were ready to open the doors, we were about two
dozen back in line. But, not to worry,
we have Heather! J And, of
course, we got four seats; front row left side of the stage. COOL!!!
Go Heather!!!
First
session of the morning was WACKY AND WILD DISNEY ANIMATION hosted by co-host of
D23’s Disney Geek, Billy Stanek; with Disney animator and director Eric
Goldberg and animation historian Jerry Beck.
First off, I must file a protest.
D23’s own Jeffrey Epstein is and always will be for me – The Disney
Geek! Okay, on to the presentation. We spent the 45 minute hearing about and
seeing some of the more psychedelic and visually amazing animation put on the
screen, as well as some of a more racing nature. An example of the more racing, we were shown
a clip from Steamboat Willie, which the panel agreed would be expurgated in today’s
environment or garner an R rating, this was the scene of Mickey using a pig as
an instrument. Also in that short, there
are scenes which would probably garner the wry of PETA. Some of the really visually stunning
animation came for such scenes as Pink Elephant on Parade in Fantasia, and
Donald Duck’s dream sequence in The Three Caballeros. The story of Ward Kimball’s losing the soup
eating scene from Snow White was told.
I, of course, knew this one, because there’s an exhibit at the Museum
dedicated to this event. Ward was told
by Walt that the soup scene was being cut just before the full animation was
scheduled to start. But, Walt, being a
master at motivation, immediately following with giving Ward the character of
Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. Eric also
told of doing some animation of the Genie from Aladdin to some of Robin William
routines before Robin was on board to do the voice. It was what sold Robin on doing the part.
Next up
in the session queue, DRAWING WITH PERSONALITY with Famed Disney animator
Andreas Deja. I’ve seen Andreas at the
Walt Disney Family Museum, and again a really nice guy. In this presentation he demonstrated several
drawing techniques and discussed the styles of several famed Disney animators
including “The Nine Old Men.” He did
bring up a point I don’t think most in the audience had ever considered, if you
look at Mickey Mouse from a profile, he has a nose that looks like an
olive. But, if look at him from straight
on, his nose look more like a button on the end of his snout. While discontent in style, Andreas explained
that this is because from head on and olive shaped nose would interfere with
and make animating Mickey’s eyes and facial features. This continuity issue has just become
accepted, by both artists and audiences.
Andreas went on to demonstrate his drawing of another of his characters
– Jafar from Aladdin. While doing this
demo, he asked the audience to take out the sketch books we’d received the day
before and draw our rendition of Jafar, but with a catch. Draw him as a child. I didn’t even try, I have pick up pen or
pencil to draw with in over 35 years, thanks Dad. L But this
father would have loved to see what my young artist would have done with it. At the end of the session, Andreas asked for
volunteers to let him show their work. A
few people came up, and there were a couple of very interesting drawing.
Now up, TINKER
BELL: THE EVOLUTION OF A DISNEY CHARACTER hosted by Disney animation historian
and author, Mindy Johnson, with Margaret Kerry, Ginni Mack, Mae Whitman, and
Peggy Holmes. The host for this
presentation – Mindy Johnson, has a book coming out in the fall of next year –
Tinker Bell: An Evolution. Guess what’s
going to be on my 2013 Christmas list?
If I wait that long! Anyone who
knows me, knows that I am a huge Tinker Bell fan. I’ve had a crush on Tink since I was about 5,
and have a few Tink trinkets in my collection, even got my picture taken with
Tinker Bell at Pixie Hollow. So to say I
was looking forward to this presentation was an understatement. To start the session, Mindy talked a bit
about her forthcoming book and some of the interest things she discovered while
doing the research. While talking about
this research, she showed a picture of an attractive young blonde with the “Big
Mooseketeer” Roy Williams, who was also an animator and artist at the studio,
and drawings of Tinker Bell. For years,
everyone knew that Margaret Kerry was the live action model for Tinker Bell,
but nobody knew the identity of this young blonde. Well, today we learned her identity; on stage
with Mindy was Ginni Mack, the first face character model for Tink. Mindy even managed to find a picture of Ginni
at Marc Davis’s drawing board with a drawing of Tinker Bell, a shot that was
thought not to exist. Of course, the delightfully
irrepressible Margaret Kerry, at 83 still the embodiment of a Pixie, and Ginni
had some amusing exchanges on stage.
Peggy Holmes, as director of animation, was there to talk about the
upcoming installment of the Tinker Bell Movies – Secret of the Wings. A story about how Tinker Bell discovers… well
I’ll leave that for you to discover in a few weeks. But, my second most favorite part of this
session… Until only recently, first in
Hook and then in the new Tinker Bell movie series, Tink’s only communications
came in the form or bells ringing when she talked. Mae Whitman has been the voice of Tink in all
the new Tinker Bell movies, and when she began to speak on stage, my heart
fluttered! As with Ginni and Margaret
Mae is the personification of a Pixie, and of a particularly cute little Pixie
named Tinkerbell. Mae is young enough to
be my daughter, but I still think I’m in love.
J Now for my
favorite part of this presentation, a gift from Alice Davis from the estate of
her husband Marc Davis. Marc was Tink’s
animator, and had done a concept sheet of various drawings of Tinker Bell as a
reference. Well, Alice had this concept
sheet reproduced, and we were each given a copy. Thank You Alice! And oh yeah, congratulations on your recent very
well deserved Window on Main Street. J
After the
lunch break, HEARING VOICES: A SALUTE TO
DISNEY VOICE ARTISTS was hosted by Tim O’Day.
Joining Tim on Stage were; Kathryn Beaumont – Wendy Darling of Peter Pan
and Alice, Lisa Davis – Anita from 101 Dalmatians, David Frankham – Sgt Tibbs
from 101 Dalmatians, Bruce Reitherman – Mowgli from Jumgle Book and Christopher
Robin from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Bill Farmer - Goofy, and finally
Chris Sanders – Stitch. Missing was
Dickie Jones – Pinocchio, as he was unable to make it at the last moment. It was just a wonderful time listening to
these voice actors talk about their experiences. A couple of interesting notes: Lisa Davis was originally tested to do the
voice of Cruella Deville, but, she felt is wasn’t right for her. How do you tell the great Walt Disney that
you think he’s made the wrong choice?
Well, in Lisa’s case you simple ask if you can read for Anita while Walt
reads Cruella. Walt said, “yes,” and the
rest is history. The other interesting
note, you may recognize Bruce Reitherman’s last name. Yes, he is the son of Woolie Reitherman, one
of Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” Bruce got his
role as Christopher Robin because the voice actor initially doing the role hit
puberty and his voice cracked during production. Bruce Dad, Woolie, sitting at the dinner
table one night was asking, “where am I going to find another kid to voice
Christopher?” Looking across the table,
he spied his 10 year old son, again, the rest is history.
The
second afternoon presentation was SNOW WHITE:
STILL THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL, hosted by Tim O’Day with, Marge Champion,
Alex Rannie, and Gabriella Calicchio.
While this presentation started out well. How could it not with Marge Champion on
stage. Marge is the live action model
for Snow White, and performed most all of the scenes before they were animated,
so the animators could watch how she moved and her clothing flowed. This allowed for a more realistic animation,
which Walt felt was very important to a successful movie. She talked about being up in lodge during the
premier, while her friend Shirley Temple was right do front. Interestingly, she had no bitterness in her
voice. She understand, as Mr. Disney had
explained, that people might think that his artists just rotoscoped the film from
live action footage. Alex Rannie, noted
film musicologist and historian, showed us several slides of music sheets from
the movie and explained some of the development process. Now here is where the presentation broke down
for me. Gabriella Calicchio, the new CEO
for the Walt Disney Family Museum, came on stage to discuss the Museum, and the
new special exhibit coming soon to celebrate Snow White’s 75th
anniversary. In my opinion, it was a
very poorly conceived presentation on her part, and I am not going to discuss
it all here. I am handling that through
private channels, but I will stay that as a Founding/Friend Member of the
Museum, I was not happy to learn of this exhibit and the great deal they are
preparing for D23 members before hearing about it as a Museum Member. And, I am not alone, there were a few dozen
other members in that audience equally perturbed. I still think the Museum is a great place,
and enjoy attending anything I can and learning all I can about Walt Disney,
but, there are some additional tweaks to the leadership that I think need to be
made. If you plan on going, I’d still
recommend it.
Just
before the dinner break we were shown a Bonus Featurette: “Once Upon a Mouse.” This was about a 30 minute featurette down
back in the 80s that fast frames through most all of the Disney animation
catalog of the day. For me, it was a bit
hard to follow, but, hey… It’s
apparently not been seen in a while, and I couldn’t find any good reference on
youtube, so… We sat through it. It was okay.
Now, for
the real “piece de resistance” of the event, AN EVENING WITH ALAN MENKIN. Alan Menken won 2 Academy
Awards each for “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Pocahontas”
for a total of 8 Oscars, along with 11 other nominations. Alan has also composed musical scores for “The
Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” “Home on the Range,” “The Shaggy Dog,” “Enchanted,”
and “Tangled.” Alan isn’t a public
performance kind of guy, so this was a really rare treat, and his performance
truly felt like a personal thing he was doing for friends. So there is no real way to recap this other
than to say, IT WAS AMAZING!!! He was
scheduled to do an hour and fifteen minutes and ended up doing a full 2 hours. It was the perfect end to a pretty incredible
2 days. I even managed to make it into a
couple of pictures D23 posted for their recaps, you can find
them here.
Would I
do it again? In a heartbeat, it was worth
every penny paid, and just wait until you hear about Monday’s events.
Your comments or questions
are always welcome. If you have a
correction or something you think I should look at in my research, please feel
free to contact me at mr.grumpyguy@gmail.com
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