Chief, Your Butt's on Fire

Trailer for "Chief, Your Butt's on Fire" from Steve Moore on Vimeo.

I am pleased to announce the completion of my brand new short, Chief, Your Butt's on Fire.  I decided to make it the old fashioned way, fully animating the whole thing myself, by hand, like in my student days.  The only concession to technology would be scanning the drawings, and painting and compositing digitally.  It took 13 years to do.

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.

My Awesome 21st Century Upgrade to Disneyland's Peter Pan Ride

I've had this idea for about eighteen years now.  I have no way of making it happen, but I do have an outlet to share the idea with you Imagineers out there, boldly assuming you haven't already considered this and abandoned it for some reason.   Here goes.....

I propose an entirely new Peter Pan ride, where you are sprinkled with pixie dust, think happy thoughts, then fly, actually fly, like Peter, Wendy, and the boys over London to Neverland.  You would not be in a fake boat riding on a clanky overhead rail.  You would be completely untethered.  What's the secret?  

Bad Ex Studios

Starting out, we all fancied our careers taking the Frank and Ollie trajectory. Working at a studio for life.  Meet another lifer and fall in love.  Get married on the studio lot.  Buy a house and fill it with studio memorabilia.  Maybe a studio themed swimming pool.   Name your kids after the studio's characters.  As the years passed, you would create legendary film moments, be idolized by the younger generation, and retire as an animation legend.

In reality, most of us have had a series of Wile E. Coyote trajectories -  flying along, feeling confident, then "PAF!"  Rock face.  Something went horribly wrong.  A studio layoff.  A studio closing.  And like Wile E., you put on that flight suit and try again.

And then there are those studios you wanted to love but ended up hating.  A bad ex studio.  You're thinking of that bad ex studio right now.  The place you were pigeonholed.  Or were put down by abusive management.  Or didn't fit into studio cliques.  You had such high hopes.  It was supposed to be the one.  Your forever studio. These are the ones you never quite get over.

"Walt's Dead - You Missed It"

Those were the words of Ward Kimball, spoken in 1980 to a small theater full of Cal Arts students.  He might as well have been preaching atheism in a cathedral.  Students were not only hurt, but outraged that this "nine old man", this apostle of Walt, could deny their dreams of Walt's Second Coming.  They were, after all, the new generation being groomed to restore and continue the Walt Disney legacy.

Thirty two years later, that generation is still dreaming.  In the Fantasy Disney Studio in their minds, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, and seven other guys become the new nine old men, and John Lasseter becomes Walt, bringing back old school animation for good,  and the artists move back into the old animation building, with the old desks, and marry ink and paint girls, and have lunch at Alphonse's and martinis at the Pago Pago.  Sigh.

When Glen Keane announced last week that he was leaving the studio, a chorus of shrieks rang out.  How could he do that?   The blablogs were on fire with comments on his announcement - barking up opinions as if Glen actually owed them an explanation for what was, in fact, a personal decision.

I don't know Glen, personally.  But I know he's done the best character animation of his generation and has nothing to prove.  He gave thirty six years to a studio that, during his tenure, grew, as if on steroids, into a pumped-up, corporate soulcrusher.  They'll go on making animated films (or not), but its homey, midwestern roots are gone, save for some very nice people working there, dreaming, dreaming, of the Fantasy Disney Studio in their minds.

"Walt's dead. You missed it."

-Steve

Jerry Rees' Home Movies of Ward Kimball

by Jerry Rees

Back in the day, Rebecca and I were delighted to receive an invitation to attend a gathering at Ward Kimball's house.  Kelly Kimball was there of course.  Brian McEntee and Chuck Richardson were there.  Ward and his crew fired up full size steam engines and gave visitors rides back and forth across his property.  What a blast!  And what a shock it must have been for people passing on the neighborhood street, seeing steam engines racing toward the fence, then slowing at the last moment and edging up to the bumpers at the end of the tracks.  Most of the day was spent chatting, eating and riding the trains.  But Ward saw several of us peeking at the building where he kept his vast collection of miniature trains.  He let us in and asked "you want somethin' to run?"

He fired up several trains at once and got everything chugging.  You could tell he was having a blast!  Boy did his eyes twinkle...

Later that day he wanted to see the tapes I'd been recording.  He said he liked the footage better than the stuff a news crew had staged and shot earlier.  He found it more candid and fun.

That VHS tape has been sitting on a shelf for a whole lot of years.  After intending to digitize it for a long, long time, I finally gave it a shot.  Some of it is still in decent shape.  But there are segments lost to tape degeneration.  I could kick myself for not doing it sooner!  But over the next few weeks I plan to go back and salvage as many scenes as possible - both the big trains, and the miniatures - and post it all on my site.

The piece I shared today was just the first test (before the digitizer broke!).  I've ordered a new one and will be back at it in a few days.

Hope it made you smile!