The First Japanese Animation Films in 1917
In this research note I intend to discuss some aspects of the history of the earliest Japanese animation films for the cinema. The first task is to assemble from the…
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Animation Anecdotes #201
Disney’s Boysenberry Mountain. In the Disney animated feature, Fantasia (1940), the majority of the action in the Pastoral Symphony takes place in the brightly colored Elysian Fields at the foot…
“Dead End Cats” (1947)
Note: I wanted to start today’s article with an apology to the cover artist on Van Beuren Classics, Milton Knight. In designing the cover for the set, we altered the…
In Her Own Words: Virginia Davis
The Disney Brothers Studio did not start with a mouse but a little girl named Virgina Davis. On October 16, 1923, a New York distributor, M. J. Winkler, contracted to…
Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” on Records
A fond look back at how the two-time Oscar winning song and score from Disney’s Pinocchio took the form of soundtrack albums over the last 60 years. All the Songs…
Paramount Sales News #39: “Superman” “Popeye” and “Mr. Bug”
September-October 1941 We’re in the homestretch of the Fleischers’ reign now. There’s a fascinating history behind how Paramount got the deal to do the Superman cartoons (a series the Fleischers…
French Animated Features – Part 16: 2014
This is the 16th installment of my ongoing survey of French animated features – this week, a look at the features released only last year, with films by Jacques-Rémy Girerd,…
What Were The Earliest Foreign Animated Films Shown in Japanese Cinemas?
Editor’s Note: For the next few Saturdays we are posting a special series of intriguing historical essays on aspects of early animation in Japan. I think this is information that…
Animation Anecdotes #200
Animated Bone. In 1991, cartoonist and animator Jeff Smith released his independent comic book, “Bone”, which immediately received critical acclaim and complimentary comparisons to the works of Walt Kelly and…
FIRST LOOK: “Van Beuren Classics” on DVD & Blu-Ray
Here at Thunderbean, there are more projects in some kind of progress than I can honestly keep daily track of, but it’s clear already it will be the busiest year…
