Cartoon Modern

ADVENTURES IN MUSIC: MELODY (1953) was Ward Kimball’s directorial debut at Disney. I think it’s a fairly uneven film, both visually and conceptually although there’s still a lot to appreciate in it and I always enjoy watching it. Below are some frames that I scanned in from a 35mm print of the film. They were originally intended for the book, but alas, a lack of space meant they had to be cut out. It actually worked out fine because now everybody can enjoy the stills in hi-res here on the blog. Click on each image to get a supersized version of each image.

Tom Oreb is the first (and probably last) 1950s-era designer to arrive onto MySpace. No matter that he’s been dead for nearly 20 years, he’s already got quite a following on the site. Become his friend at:
http://www.myspace.com/tomoreb

In other Oreb news, Hans Perk recently posted a couple extremely rare mid-Fifties model sheets from Disney’s TV commercial unit (HERE and HERE) which I’m almost positive are Oreb’s work.

I’m super-excited to announce that I’ll be Scotland for the Projector 2006 festival, which takes place next week from October 11-14. The festival takes place in Dundee, Scotland, about a one-hour drive north of Edinburgh. I’ll be doing a “masterclass” about 50s design on Friday, October 13, and will also be presenting a couple different programs of rare 1950s animated shorts. These are screenings you won’t want to miss if you’re anywhere close to the festival. Even though I’ve personally seen all the films in the 50s programs, I’m anxious to attend the screenings myself because there’s nothing quite like seeing amazing animation design projected via film onto the bigscreen, the way it was meant to be seen.

A full schedule of Projector events can be found at ProjectorFest.com. Festival director Susie Wilson has put together a strong slate of screenings and talks that also includes Chris Landreth of RYAN fame and sound designer Larry Sider, a frequent collaborator with the Brothers Quay. It promises to be a lot of fun. I’m also going to try and check out Edinburgh for a day or two. If there’s any good anmation sights to see over there, let me know at amid [at] animationblast [dot] com. Below are some of the shorts that I’ll be screening at Projector: