I am really looking forward to this upcoming book by Jeff Kurtti, which should be released next year.

This sad news just in from Joseph Titizian:

[I was so sad to hear of the passing of Ginni Mack, the original model and true inspiration for Tinker Bell.

I was honored to meet Ginni and learn of her contributions to Disney Animation from the 1940s to the 1990s as an Artist and Supervisor at the Studio's Ink & Paint Department. I look forward to learning more about Ginni and the many unsung Disney women in Mindy Johnson's upcoming book, "Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation".]

I just got a copy of this new book by Jim Korkis. As always, this is an enjoyable, light read full of fun stories about little known-aspects of Disney history.

I just got this newly released book from Theme Park Press.

I love those short autobiographies of Disney's Imagineers and Parks Operations people. This one is no exception: it's a easy and fascinating read. 

This just in from filmmaker Aaron Pacentine:

[I'm a filmmaker and producer with FamilyFilmsProductions.com I wanted to bring to your attention a brand new independent documentary film on The Parent Trap. Hayley Mills is participating and others from the 1961 film and sequels. I have already received clearance from Disney to go ahead with my documentary. We are also in the process of arranging to using music from the 1961 film as well.  

 We are trying to get the word out on the project and trying to raise the funds.]

I have no information about the project beyond this. I might support it this week.

I have not yet received this very specialized reference book but I know that some of you will want to know that it has just been released.

This book is pure images and no text. This is not a book for historians. It is one for Pixar hardcore fans and art directors.

I enjoyed it very much but I do not consider it a "must have."

Talk about a book that took me completely by surprise. With a title like this I was expecting a pure "marketing" product. Not so at all. This is an outstanding book, full of never-seen-before illustrations and photographs, and impeccably researched by Marcy Carriker Smothers, an author who clearly cares deeply about her subject matter.

This is a book that will be a pure delight to fans of Walt Disney himself and to Disneyland enthusiasts. I never thought I would say this about a book titled Eat Like Walt, but this is clearly a "must have" for many of us.

Outside world events rarely influence what is posted on this blog, but it happens from time to time.

They Drew As They Pleased - Volume 4 (Chronicle Books, 2018) will feature a chapter about Disney artist Walt Peregoy. Before he joined Disney for good, Peregoy created this beautiful drawing featuring the US, Russia and the UK defeating Hitler and Nazism...

Anyway... Brighter things tomorrow with a rave review of a book I was originally not expecting to like.

I just received recently a review copy of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons by Dave Bossert and David Gerstein. From my standpoint there is no doubt that this is a "must have."

It is full of never-seen-before artwork, photographs and illustrations (and I mean from cover to cover) and the text will allow you to know absolutely all there is to know to date about all the Oswald cartoons. I was utterly fascinated when I read an early version of the manuscript a few months ago.

Then again, I am biased, since I played a small part in this quest by strongly recommending to Dave and David to work together on this project (the quest for the lost Oswald and Alice cartoons not the book itself). I can't tell you how excited I am with the results and with the number of "new" Oswald shorts that they have re-discovered.

I will be reviewing two wonderful new Disney history books over the next few days, but in the meantime my good friend and animation historian John Canemaker has just released the first review of They Drew As They Pleased - The Hidden Art of Disney's Late Golden Age and I though you might enjoy reading it.

Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation is a revolutionary book about Disney history. It finally gives the women of Walt Disney's animation (not just those from Ink & Paint) the place they deserve... and it's a very important place.

The book is also absolutely massive. You are definitely getting tremendous value for your money.

And it is chock full of brand new information and photographs... from start to finish.

I truly believe that this is a book that will remain THE reference on the subject in 50 years.

More importantly, I believe that this is a book that none of us can afford not to get. This one absolutely has to be part of your Disney history library.

The author, my good friend Mindy Johnson can really be proud of what she achieved!

Here are two new books that have just been released by Theme Park Press. The American Animated Cartoon is a re-release of a great book that had been long out-of-print. And here is what the publisher sent me about Passport to Pixie Dust, a biography I will definitely pick up:

[Ted's Excellent Adventures

Ted Kellogg sweltered through weeks in the jungle. He was far from civilization, and the natives were sometimes restless. The boats were leaky. The skippers were sketchy. The spiels were in Spanish. Fun times on the Jungle Cruise? Think again. This was no E-ticket ride...

Before Ted Kellogg began his 32 years in service to the mouse, he put on his figurative fedora and channeled his inner Indiana Jones. From tropical jungles to the open sea, Ted survived a deep-sea dive that went too deep, a monstrous storm off the coast of California that nearly wrecked his ship and killed his crew, robbers and night raiders in Central America, and other hair-raising encounters.

With the jungle and the sea out of his system, mostly, Ted took a job in Disneyland, but before long he transferred to Walt Disney World, then being built, and took charge of the park's many water craft. If it floated in or around the Magic Kingdom, Ted Kellogg knew about it.

Equal parts adventure story and Disney cast member memoir, Ted's tale is testament to the power of following your dream, whether on land, on sea, or in a certain Magic Kingdom.]

I discovered those two photos recently thanks to my friends Tom Morris and Jim Hollifield. Jim wrote:

[This photo (of Walt and the rabbit) was taken when Walt visited Hot Springs, Arkansas and met animals in the now defunct "IQ Zoo," an unusual organization which studied and demonstrated learned animal behaviors. The woman is Marian Breland, who operated the IQ Zoo with her husband. Here's another photo from the same day in which it appears Walt is wearing the same jacket and tie. A reporter who covered Walt's visit shared this with me. He remembered that Walt was hoping for some Hot Springs therapeutic relief from neck and back pain in late 1965; a colleague snapped the photo of him as he waited to talk to Walt. Sadly, this gentleman only took notes while he talked to Walt, and the reporter seen interviewing Walt for a radio station is now deceased. Perhaps there's a recording out there somewhere! Here's a link to a page with info about the IQ Zoo.

More info, including the original photo and Walt's follow-up letter.]

disney film on alchohol

I was interviewing artist Tad Stones a few days ago and realized that in the late '70s he had written and directed a Disney educational short that I had never seen, titled Understanding Alcohol Use and Abuse.

I just found it on YouTube and thought that some of you would enjoy it.

My good friend Sebastien Durand just attracted my attention to the fact that an upcoming exhibition at the Cinematheque de Paris will pay homage to the story man / writer of Asterix, Goscinny, and that part of it will focus on the fact that he was heavily inspired by Disney as a kid.

I just received a review copy of A Kiss Goodnight. It's a cute kid story about Walt, but what makes the book special of course is the song by Richard Sherman and the illustrations by Floyd Norman.

And so now I have three practically-impossible-to-find foreign books to locate: The "Power of Princess" exhibition catalog from Japan, the Shanghai Disneyland book that was only given to the VIP guests for the Grand Opening of the park and this French book about Pirates of the Caribbean written by my good friend Jeremie Noyer and only given to cast members at Disneyland Paris. I am not amused.