Looking Backward

I'm writing this as a bit of an addendum to the VANITY FAIR article on the early years of Cal Arts.

I'm pleased and honored to have been included in the list of interviewees, and think that the article is a good snapshot of that time. But like a snapshot, it only shows a few details, while others are fuzzy, and there may be distortions to the image. This post will attempt to bring one issue in particular back into focus.

One attitude that prevailed at that time was that if you weren't going to Disney you weren't going anywhere. After all, the Cal Arts program had been set up to retrain artists for the Disney studio as the older artists retired. We ate, breathed and learned from Disney films (This monolithic attitude began to crack in our second year, thanks to my classmate Darrell van Citters, who arranged visits after hours from artists Michael Maltese, Mike Lah, Maurice Noble and Ed Love as a hint of what else was out there.) Cal Arts sponsored a talk by Chuck Jones and another by Richard Williams.

Phil Young on Disney animation, teaching, and Walt's Nine Old Men

Walt Disney in 1937

Phil Young is an animator, artist and teacher. He worked at the Disney studio for 25 years, often working with some of the legendary "Nine Old Men", Walt Disney's hand-picked top animators who were synonymous with the first Golden age of Animation. Phil worked on many of Disney's biggest hits, including Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, as well as some of the legendary misses like The Black Cauldron. FLIP asked Phil to tell us on a sentimental journey back to the 1970s - and reveal what the studio was really like back in the olden days.

Pups of Liberty now on DVD!

Hear ye!  Hear ye! A message of independence!  Friends of FLIP Bert and Jennifer Klein announce the DVD release of their independently animated film Pups of Liberty.  When I say 'independent', I don't mean 'small studio financing their own film', I mean 'animators working out of their living room for free'. Bert and Jennifer enlisted heavyweight animation talent such as Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Frans Vischer, Hyun Min Lee, Tony de Rosa,  Jay Jackson, and James Lopez to lend their skills to the cause.  The resulting film is  the top quality production you see here.....

The Thief and the Cobbler - The Recobbled Cut Mk 4

Cover artwork for Garrett Gilchrist's Recobbled Cut

Garrett Gilchrist is an independent film-maker with a passion for animation. He has spent many years attempting to rebuild the original director's cut of one of animation's greatest might-have-been epic films: The Thief and the Cobbler. In a two-part interview, FLIP asked Garrett to talk a little about his latest edit - The Recobbled Cut (Mark 4).