The Fabulous Disney Babe - Apr 11, 2003

The Fabulous Disney Babe
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The first panel discussion was "The Panel of Disciples". I just want to say, after seeing this, that I would pay perfectly good money to see Brad Bird even read the yellow pages. He stole the show - and that's not an easy thing to do with this crowd. Ron Clements, Andy Gaskill and John Lasseter joined him - I'll go into details next time.

Glen Keane gave an extended lesson on Ollie Johnson's work - extending into Andreas Deja's time for Frank Thomas!  Andreas' lessons on how drawings and animation, for lack of a better word, "work", are becoming a staple of these lectures. I want you to look at this picture of Andreas and Glen.  It's totally dark. They don't know a camera's pointed at them.  Look at the adoration on Andreas' face when he looks up at Ollie's work. You want to know why Lilo had such heart?  Because her animator is madly in love with Disney animation, that's why. He described himself as "a Disney Geek".  One of us!

The next panel was John Canemaker, author of The Nine Old Men and several other, incredible Disney books, and writer and Disney animation expert Charles Solomon.

Finally, Frank and Ollie came onstage, and talked about how they met, their first work in the studio, and their longtime friendship, sharing some funny stories I'll tell you next time. They did mention http://www.frankandollie.com - go give it a look.

•  •   •

In case you missed it, here's the information on my Theme Park History class:

Manufacturing the Magic: The History of Disneyland and Growth of the American Theme Park

Registration for the class, which takes place at LTU's Orange County campus, is now open. To register, call LTU at 714. 427. 0588. LTU is located at the 405 and 55 freeways in Costa Mesa .

The class takes place 3 Saturdays starting on May 24, 2003. (May 24, May 31 and June 7)The cost of the class is $129.00. Class times are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. the first two Saturdays, and 9:00 to noon the third. The class instructor is Michelle Smith. There may be guest presentations during the class.

The last class takes place at Disneyland. You are required to provide your own admission.

The textbook is Disneyland the Nickel Tour. The textbook is available online at http://www.camphortree.com

Talk to you again soon

Fab

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-- Michelle Smith

Michelle Smith can be reached using the Talkback form below or by emailing her at [email protected].

The Fabulous Disney Babe's column is posted every Friday and whenever else she has something to say. For more on Michelle's background, see her first column.

The opinions expressed by our Michelle Smith, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.

-- Posted April 11, 2003

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