W. DISNEY: The Triumph of American Imagination (2007, Neal Gabler, *Audiobook)

Gabler Neal, Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination, London, Vintage, 2007. "This is audible" :) Narrated by Arthur Morey.

Some critics describe Walter Elias Disney as a greedy capitalist, a mercenary butching fairy tales for profit. Intellectuals prefer to see him as a cultural pollutioner manipulating masses into merchandising consumption. "He wasn't an animator. He couldn't draw, not even his own signature" - they say - Always reminding us some sad story about employees working for pennies or how he was an abusive boss bully, a conservative dickhead, an anti semite nazi...!!!
This book is not a simple biography, it's a very well founded defense of the genius that was also a man; the most positive biography on Walt I've ever read (hear really) but not at the risk of losing objectivity: you'll know about his outbursts of wrath (sometimes his cruelty), the fierce oposition to laborist activism ("Commies sons of the bitches" used to said; Walt was a fervent hater of anything he though was communist influenced).
But beyond the shadows of the man's life there are some fine examples of his initiative, risky spirit, obsessive perfectionism, and inventiveness; all of which can be found on this book: Inverting the live-action animation relationship (Alice's Series). Giving Oswald personality. A bet on sound animation (Mickey). Mickey inbetween of Charlie Chaplin - Douglas Fairbanks type of heroe. Donald as an anti-Mickey (a bad-ass duck). Conceiving excellence as a corporate value. Insisting on specialization (extremes - inbetweens); Art classes for animators. Investing on colour. A full length feature cartoon, a perfect movie (Snow White). Colaboration with Lepold Stokowsky. Animation as an art experience: Fantasia. The Studio war output. Controversy about Bambi as reflecting negatively on hunters. Using "quickies" to finance quality on better pictures. The release of Song of the South in a socially unstable country. Failed project with Salvador Dali. Nice anecdotes (They hired real life dwarfs to draw them for Snow White!), some very obscure: Walt's mother died from monoxide poison. Wildlife documentaries with the Disney touch. 1st big studio producing for Television. The creation of a cultural icon: Disneyland...
This book has all of this and much more; a fascinant reflection about Walt Disney overcoming the myths and rumors surrounding his public persona and his own inner shadows: a real triumph to his unlimited imagination.
(by pelida77)





AUDIOBOOK / MP3 / 700 MB (180 MB X 4 parts) / 33hours / Audio: Eng
Narrator Arthur Morey /(Sample) 16.0 KHz / 48.0 Kbps.
4/4 parts (RAR container)

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FUNNY PICTURES: Animation and Comedy in Studio-Era Hollywood (2011, Goldmark & Keil)

Goldmark Daniel and keil Charlie [Eds.], Funny Pictures: Animation and Comedy in Studio-Era Hollywood, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2011.

PDF / 3 MB / 344 pp / Eng / 0520267249 / 978-0520267244

The comedy vein in American animation have always been favored, the goal of the golden age of animation was to amuse, that is: to make the audience laugh. But why there was such a predominance? In this collection of essays, the links between comedy and animation are explored from a variety of perspectives.

- Paul Wells focuses on the many ways Chaplin's cinema have influenced animation; e.g.: Felix in Hollywood (Otto Messmer, 1923), compare Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936) with Clock Cleaners (Disney, 1937).
- Mark Langer takes on the Fleischer Films to destroy the myth that they were failed gag narratives "made up as they went along". Instead he prefers to see their style as an inheir of the Vaudeville comedy and the New York urban context.
- J.B.Kaufman analizes the basic construction of comedy in early Mickey Mouse cartoons and what was different with Disney's later personality animation comedy.
- Gag oriented cartoons are seen as a reaction to the Great Depression in Donald Crafton essay. Expressing the Depression simbolically or literally: The three little Pigs (Disney, 1932); When my ship comes In (Fleischer, 1934); Honeymoon Hotel (Schlesinger, 1934); The Grasshopper and the Ants (Disney, 1934).
- The 30's cartoon gag narration is the subject of Richard Neupert study, focusing on three short masterpieces: Musicland (Disney, 1935); The Sunshine Makers (Van Beuren, 1935) and Funny Little Bunnies (Disney, 1934).
- Susan Ohmer reveal us Disney comedy as a precise Science to make us laugh (for profit), a narrative device constructed thanks to the efforts of the Audience Research Institute and George Gallup (one of the first attempts of marketing research).
- The golden age cartoons were racist... but funny. This is the subject of Nicholas Sammond research: the racist comedy in Golden Age animation.
- The relations between animation and live action comedy it's what gets Henry Jenkins atention (specially the Tex Avery cartoons).

- Philip Brophy enunciate the idea that cartoons are comical because underneath they have a... sexualized base, and symbolizes paraphilia sexual practices (atraction to objects rather than persons). To prove it, he will analize different cartoon characters: Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, The Roadrunner, Tinker Bell, Gerald and Mr. Magoo.
- Charlie Bowers films are the subject of Rob King Essay (and of course also The Mutt and Jeff cartoons).
- Tex Avery obsessions and humour (the same thing really) get Scott Curtis atention. His tendency to repetitions on single gags, and the automatism aspects of Avery's comedy.
- Ethan de Seife writes on Frank Tashlin visual comic style.
- The music and the sound effects are what makes a cartoon funny, that's the thesis of Daniel Goldmark; he will analize the work of the most important animation composers: Carl W. Stalling; Scott Bradley; Max Steiner; Joe Denat and Edie Kilfeather; Frank Churchill; Leigh Harline; Oliver Wallace; Philip A. Scheib.
- Linda Simensky analizes 1990's cartoons comedy.

Some are brilliant, others pure nonsense... It's a fun collection of essays (with a lousy cover art job: there's nothing funny about that picture). (by pelida77)

Do you want to read this book? You could follow this link...

THE HAND BEHIND THE MOUSE: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999, Leslie Iwerks)

The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story / DIR: Leslie Iwerks / WRITTEN: Leslie Iwerks / PHOTO: Shana Hagan / EDIT: Stephen Myers; Seth Flaum / NARRATION: Kelsey Grammer / MUSIC: John Debney; Louis Febre / PRD: Leslie Iwerk Productions / 1999 / 1h 30m.

INTERVIEWEES: Ollie Johnston; Chuck Jones; Mark Davis; Ed Friedman; Mark Kausler; John Lasseter; John Hench; Richard Edlund; Don Iwerks; Virginia Davis; Roy Disney; Leonard Maltin, Russell Merritt, and Joe adamsom.

Who was Ub Iwerks? A pioneering animator? An Special Effects Technician? A great and generous teacher? A fast work at drawing? A free-spirited Artist? Through the years a man's work comes to form his face; looking at his photo I think it's possible to have a glimpse of Ub Iwerks life. He was all of that and more: he was a Genius.

Leslie Iwerks made her directorial debut in 1999 with this documentary about the achievements of his grandfather, the animation legend Ubbe Eert Iwerks (1901-1971). Overcoming a tough childhood; Ub learned the basics of animation in a comercial art job; where he got to know Walt Disney. Together they planted the seeds of an empire: they were two sides of the same passion. Like Walt, Ub was obsessed with perfection, and like him he was not marked by conformity to customs: he didn't rest on his laurels.

An inside look into the art of Iwerks. The "circle drawing, perfect perspective, rithmic animation". His legendary ability to draw faster and better than anyone: an average of seven hundred drawings per day for Plane Crazy (1928); Gallopin Gaucho (1928); and the first Silly Symphonies totally animated by him - layout, design, animation-, including masterpieces like The Skeleton Dance (1929).

You'll see him experimenting with the mixing of live action and animation. From the rough techniques used in the Alice's Comedies of the 20's; to the subtle and fluid illusions of The Three Caballeros (1945) and Mary Poppins (1964). Remaining loyal to Disney when the Charles Mintz / Oswald the lucky rabbit affair. Of course, creating the Mickey Mouse character. Breaking with Walt a couple of years later to make his own path with the opening of a Studio, Celebrity Productions (selling up his shares of Disney). There he nurtured some future talents: Shamus Culhane, Irv Spence, Ed Friedman, Grim Natwick, Steve Bosustow, and Chuck Jones. And his work would become a tour de force of the improvisatory, anarquist and surreal animation style: Flip The Frog, Wille Whopper and the Comicolor Cartoon's.

Finally you'll see him retiring from animation, and becoming the head of the photographics FX laboratory back at Disney's; where he earned the reputation of great creativity for solving technical problems: helping with the development and improvement of the multiplane camera, the Xerox's inking process, the sodium vapor travelling matte...

A captivating documentary; with some flaws (like Walt's southern accent off-voice used to read the letters) but made - you can tell - with love for the subject. (by pelida77)

AVI / 800 MB / 1h 31m / Audio: Eng / (5 RAR parts)
Video: MPEG-4 / 720x480 (3:2) / 1069 Kbps / 29.970 fps / 0.103 Qf
Audio: MP3 / 48.0 KHz / 137 Kbps

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