Feb 05 2023
“There it is, Wendy! Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.” Peter Pan Today is the birthday of the Disney classic, Peter Pan, released February 5th, 1953. The movie was based on the work Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. Barrie’s Peter Pan was first released …
Jan 13 2023
On January 13, 1938, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its New York City premiere at the Radio City Music Hall. The following day, The New York Times reported: “Sheer fantasy, delightful, gay and altogether captivating, touched the screen yesterday when Walt Disney’s long-awaited feature-length cartoon of the Grimm fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, …
Jan 12 2023
American artist and illustrator Clement Hurd was born on this day January 12, 1908 in New York City. He is well known for his children’s book illustrations, particularly his work with writer Margaret Wise Brown on Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942).
Jan 05 2023
One-of-a-kind animator, artist, and masterful storyteller, Hayao Miyazaki brought delightful “manga” (Japanese comic books) and “anime” (Japanese animation) films to venerating audiences via Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded with director Isao Takahata in 1985. Some of the first Studio Ghibli films made were Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), receiving recognition and …
Dec 28 2022
While Rankin & Bass were celebrating wintertime with their cute 1960’s stop-motion animations for Americans, including the beloved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Soviet animator Roman Kachanov was making his own very cute stop-motion films, including the Cheburashka children’s series. Kachanov has worked on many films, and was an animator for our recent feature, The Night …
Dec 21 2022
The Night Before Christmas (1951) was directed by the prolific Soviet animation duo of Valentina Brumberg and Zinaida Brumberg, who were also known as the “Brumberg sisters” as well as the “grandmothers of Russian animation.” Some of their most well known films are Little Red Riding Hood and Ivashka and Baba-Yaga. Not your typical Christmas story, it begins …
Dec 14 2022
To celebrate the season, here’s a vintage style Christmas Coca Cola ad by the Academy Award-winning, Soviet born animator Aleksandr Petrov. The commercial was created in 2001, and was based on Haddon Sundblom’s jolly Santa illustrations, which first debuted in 1931 Coke ads.
Dec 07 2022
Here is a charming excerpt, “Singing Cat,” from Ladislas Starevich’s first animated feature, and often regarded as his finest work, The Tale of the Fox (Le Roman de Renard), made with his daughter Irene in 1941. Ladislas Starevich was born in Moscow on August 8, 1882 and moved to France following the Russian Revolution. He …
Nov 30 2022
This animated short was created by Russian artist Yuri Norstein, who is known for his attention to fine detail in his beautiful handmade stop-motion films which often include layers of sketches and paintings on paper and glass. It took Norstein almost two years to create this short piece. He creates delicate movements, a unique sense …
Nov 09 2022
Here’s a little treat for Wednesday: a jam ad created for Russian Sugar directed by Yuri Norstein. It was one of a group of Russian Sugar commercials made by Norstein between 1994 and 1995 that used cutouts and drawings for the animations (a bit past the Soviet era but still delightful and created by beloved …