Female artists of film animation honored @ AMPAS
Aug
2
2017
From the earliest pioneers of hand-rendered animated films, to the advent of digital technology, women have been at the forefront of the animation medium. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the women who have been at the forefront of film animation Mindy Johnson, author of Ink & Paint: The Women of ...
Farewell, puppet man …
Sad news to hear that puppeteer Bob Baker (1924-2014) died today at 90 of natural causes. Baker, along with his partner Alton Wood, founded the Los Angeles-based Bob Baker Marionette Theater in 1963, the oldest and longest running children’s theater company. In June 2009, the theater was designated as a Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument. Baker’s puppetry was ...
Mary Blair, the woman artist who inspired Disney’s “Nine Old Men” 1
At last night’s panel discussion of Walt Disney’s animated classic, “Peter Pan” (1953) (the new blu-ray version is now playing at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre), we learned about the film’s core group of animators. Walt Disney jokingly referred to this crew not as “Pan-imators,” but rather as his “Nine Old Men.” The expression puns on ...
“I’m flying!” Pundits to prattle on Peter Pan panel
Jan
10
2013
“I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan and Wendy A special celebration takes place Friday night at the marvelous El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. It’s a “Peter Pan” panel discussion, moderated by Leonard Maltin, at 7pm, with Walt Disney’s animated classic from 1953, “Peter ...
Music and dance contribute to early Disney animation
In this clip from a talk at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival last summer, the amazing Marge Champion, 91, chats with the Pillow’s Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, about her participation in Walt Disney’s Snow White (1937). The occasion was the publishing of Mindy Aloff’s super book, “Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation.” Mindy, ...