I just received my holiday gift. It is pure delight. Here is what I was able to learn about this little gem:

This book was given to all employees at Disney Feature Animation during the time they were making The Princess and the Frog, around 2008/2009. It's a compilation of the caricature show they had once a year. Ed Catmull and John wanted to publish it. Tamara Khalaf designed and curated it. John Musker wrote the foreword.

Apologies for the bad photos below. They are just meant to give you an idea of the content.

 

It is this time of the year again! So many good Disney history books have been released this year that picking the very best ones is a difficult task. In no particular order, here are the books (and one magazine) which I believe really moved the needle in 2020 (Note: I am yet to get Christian Renaut's new book, which therefore cannot appear in this list):

Kurtti, Jeff; Hunt, Vanessa: The Disney Monorail: Imagineering the Highway in the Sky published by Disney Editions; 2020.

Cline, Rebecca; Price, Charles; Allan, Graham: Holiday Magic at the Disney Parks: A World of Celebrations from Autumn through Winter published by Disney Editions; 2020.

Ghez, Didier: They Drew as they Pleased Volume 6: The Hidden Art of Disney's New Golden Age published by Chronicle Books; 2020.

Ghez, Didier: Walt's People: Volume 24 published by Theme Park Press; 2019.

Kaufman, JB; Hollifield, Jim (editors): 2020 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual published by Hyperion Historical Alliance Press; 2019.

Blyth, Jeff: Polishing the Dragons: Making EPCOT's "Wonders of China" published by Bamboo Forest Publishing; 2020.

Lambert, Pierre: Alice Au Pays des Merveilles published by Huginn Muninn; 2020.

Korkis, Jim: Secret Stories of Extinct Walt Disney World: The World That Disappeared published by Theme Park Press; 2020.

 

I discovered this book yesterday on eBay and knew immediately that it would become a Hanukkah gift to myself. The description says that it is 152 pages long. I can't wait to get it.

I had never seen this book before and did not even know it existed. This looks like a special release sold only to members of the Disney Studio in the mid-2000s.

I will report on the book's content as soon as I get it.

 

According to this newly released interview, Don Bluth has written his autobiography and is looking for a publisher. I can't wait to read that book.

This upcoming book could be really interesting.
 

Do not miss today:

- Disney Historian Christian Renaut on The Best Of Disney’s Animated Features

 

I can't wait to read Christian Renaut's new book. It does not contain any illustrations but it relies on hundreds of interviews that Christian conducted with Disney artists since 1985. I have a feeling this will be a "must-have".

I just received a copy of Charles Solomon's excellent new book, The Disney Princess - A Celebration of Art and Creativity, released recently by Chronicle Books.

There is more text and a larger variety of illustrations than in Charles' previous books and this volume will, I feel, satisfy both the wider audience and knowledgeable Disney history enthusiasts.

I am glad to add it to my large collection of reference books (although I probably would have recommended removing the glitter that the publisher decided to add on the book's pages). Paul Felix's caricature of Charles at the end and the dedication to Howard Green at the beginning are the cherries on the cake from my standpoint.