The Odd Parallels Between Disney’s Animation and The Beach Boys…

Maybe I'm totally reaching with this, but I'm gonna go for it... Disney Animation and The Beach Boys are very similar to each other... Like, really similar. Both are American, both have hailed from California, and both are as iconic as baseball, apple pie, and the red, white, and blue. Both also are more than …

‘Bambi’: An Animation Thesis, 75 Years Later…

A nice little break from the more personal stuff and ramblings, I wanted to talk about Walt Disney's Bambi... Yesterday, August 9th, marked the 75th Anniversary of the film's world premiere in London, which predated the general American wide release by a few weeks. Disney recently re-released the title on Blu-ray to celebrate, in an edition …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #5: Three More Anthologies…

We are now well into the second half of the 1940s... Walt Disney and his crew still can't afford to do a single-story animated feature. They pressed on, doing more anthologies, more short cartoons, and then... Live-action pictures, from hybrid films (Song of the South) to short nature documentaries (the True-Life Adventures)... Three more post-war …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #4: Goodwill and Package Features

We're now on Round 4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio Fantasia Dumbo and Bambi Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, and Make Mine Music Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of the Ichabod and Mr. Toad Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, and The Sword …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #3: ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Bambi’

Number three. Now moving onto the last two features that make up the Golden Age of the Walt Disney studios... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio Fantasia Dumbo and Bambi Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, and Make Mine Music Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of the Ichabod and Mr. …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #2: ‘Fantasia’

In part one, I looked at the various film and print logos for Walt Disney's first two animated features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. Though I'd love to cover certain films right now, this series will probably go in chronological order, so I most likely can't do those right now. If I …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #1: ‘Snow White’ and ‘Pinocchio’

Months ago, I did a post on the various logos that Pixar uses for their films. The interesting thing about Pixar logos? Usually just one is made for any given feature-length film, and minor variants are used on marketing materials. I was able to talk about all of their logos in one post... Walt Disney …

Conflicted on Nominations

The time is almost near... The nominations for the 89th Academy Awards ceremony will be out soon... I've talked a great deal about the Best Animated Feature category in the past, but this year - more so than any past year - I'm a bit conflicted about two mainstreamers. Now, before we go any further, …

Breaking Down the Later Disney Renaissance, Part 5

This is it folks... We're at the end of the Disney Renaissance. Or, more appropriately, the time where most people mark the end of Disney's esteemed Renaissance era of animated features. We're at the last film in a streak of box office successes, the end of an apparently idyllic time that soured a bit in …

Breaking Down the Latter Disney Renaissance, Part 4

Two prestige pictures, one zany comedy, what would it take to turn that fading candle into something akin to forest fire? Perhaps the answer was... Something that was more of an action picture and less an adventure-comedy love story. An adaptation of the legend of Hua Mulan was perhaps yet another thing that would make …