Duck Oates

The more you know, right?

Mickey Mouse in "Croissant de Triomphe"

Mickey Mouse - Croissant de Triomphe by Flixgr

I used to be a big fan of Mickey Mouse, but recently I've lost interest. Why? Because for a long time it's felt like Disney lost interest in him. CG Mickey? No thanks. Not even Kingdom Hearts Mickey could resuscitate his character for me. I know, I hear you gasp.

But wait! It looks like Disney is staring to remember that they make cartoons! They are making 19 to be exact, starting with this inexplicably french one. Is there an English dub? I have no idea; Disney only lets Americans watch stuff on their site, so I found this video on a french site. Don't worry, the french isn't difficult.

Maybe there's hope that Mickey will be redeemed. There's also talk of a Mickey Mouse/Roger Rabbit movie. Take a look at the news here.

Via ign.

Destino

Here's a curiosity. Many years ago Walt Disney and Salvador Dali collaborated to make a short film, but it was not completed in the end because it was too expensive. Then, years later, Roy E. Disney decides to pull out the storyboards and make the film, and it was completed in 2003. The results are... interesting.

Having trouble understanding it? Read on for my thoughts on interpretation.

Winnie the Pooh's Rabbit is Not a Woman

So here's a random confession: when I was a kid I thought Rabbit was a woman. It made sense to me. Everyone always refered to Rabbit as "Rabbit;" I think they rarely ever said "him." Rabbit always reminded me of my grandma (sorry Grandma!) and he was always fussing about the house and garden, which said female to me back then. Anyone else ever make this mistake?

Hipster Princesses!

Ahahaha! It's hipster Disney princesses! You have to check these out! The Mary Sue has a bunch of 'em here.

Disney Animation

I've seen a few articles today mentioning that Disney has posted their Paperman animated short to their youtube account. Which is cool. I checked out their channel and I thought it was even cooler that Disney's been putting up some stuff about computer animation and the tech they use. Check out this video demonstrating hair shaders:



Entertainment weekly's got some stuff about the next Muppets movie. You should check it out.

An Oddly Prescient Muppets Sketch

Take a look at the finale at 7:15 of this Pigs in Space meets Star Wars clip. It's like the writers could fortell the future, isn't it?

Fix-It Philip Jr.

I made this Fit-It Felix Jr. cake with a Super Mario pan today for my brother's birthday party. After supper I'M GONNA WRECK IT!

Japanese Wreck it Ralph trailer has AKB48 and new footage

I just learned that the theme music for the Sugar Rush game seen in Wreck it Ralph is performed in Japanese by the girl group AKB48. In the english version a well. Very odd choice. I guess it's supposed to be a Japanese developed fictional game then? Anyway, if you get past the intro by AKB48, there is a japanese trailer with a few new scenes. One that stood out to me was Veneloppe being bullied by a character I haven't seen in other trailers.



The short playing with Wreck it Ralph is called Paperman and I saw it at this year's Ottawa Interational Animation Festival. Visually, it looks amazing. The story is told without spoken lines and is, well, pretty sappy, but it's sweet. The cool part about it is that the figures of the characters were rendered without pupils in their eyes and missing other facial features, and artists animated the facial expressions by hand! You can read a quick explanation about this process here. They were trying to achieve a hand drawn look while still getting the best of the computer's capabilities. It's a cool effect but it may be impractical for a whole film.

The director of this short signed a poster for me. He wrote, "Good luck in animation."

Le sigh.

Hit the jump to see a clip from the Toy Story short Partysaurus Rex, playing with the re release of Finding Nemo.

You too can be cast in carbonite like Han Solo!

During 2012 Disney World has an event going on called Star Wars Weekends. One of the cooler things to do is an attraction where you can have your image taken and used to create your very own 8" figure featuring you frozen in carbonite! (Only $100!)