Sep 21 2022
In Birthnight, Night visits young Tima, a boy who sleeps with the light on because he is afraid of the dark, and she invites him to her nighttime birthday party in the woods. If the story doesn’t sound intriguing enough, the eccentric synth music of Eduard Artemyev is sure to transport you to another world, …
Jun 29 2022
Inspired after seeing this at Soviet Visuals and Folklore Film Fest‘s #SovietFilmWednesday, this was the first Soviet film I shared a little over two years ago, and it is still one of my favorites. What can I say, I love rain and cats, and the illustrations are beautiful. A Rainy Story is about a cat who wanders …
Jun 22 2022
The Scarlet Flower (Аленький цветочек, Alenkiy tsvetochek) is a popular Russian folktale based on Sergey Aksakov’s rendition of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Similar to the traditional tale, it begins when a merchant father, Stepan Yemelyanovich, asks his three daughters what gifts they would like from his travels. The oldest daughter, Gordeya, wishes for …
May 28 2022
Happy birthday, Small World! 🎈 The colorful “It’s a Small World” attraction first opened in Disneyland on this day, May 28, 1966, following its successful showing at the New York’s ’64-’65 World’s Fair UNICEF salute at the Pepsi-Cola pavilion. In the opening ceremony, children from around the world in traditional costumes joined Walt Disney. Water that …
May 19 2022
On May 19, 1960 this cheery Disney film was released to the public. It is the story of an orphaned girl raised by missionaries who arrives in a town fraught with feuds, and transforms the community with her positive attitude. Pollyanna’s shining quality is that she can always find the good in something. Yes, it …
May 11 2022
This wonderfully illustrated 1968 Russian animation is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. It begins with a Copenhagen tour guide’s introduction to Andersen’s story, which is not quite the same as the Disney version. As is usually the case, the older tale is much darker. Much of the imagery in this animation is also dark, yet …
Mar 30 2022
Thank You (Spasibo, Спасибо) is a hand-drawn 1973 animation directed by Vladimir Tarasov, who is best known for his Soviet science fiction films Contact (1978), Contract (1985), and The Pass (1988). In Thank You, a group of polite children take a field trip to learn about airplanes. Click the “cc” icon for subtitles.
Feb 27 2022
Disney imagineer and animator Rolly Crump was born on February 27, 1930 in Alhambra, California. Inspired at the young age of three by the Disney Silly Symphony short, Three Little Pigs, Crump began drawing in 1933. He started working with Disney in 1952, doing “inbetweening” or “tweening” to provide the illusion of smooth movements between film frames. …
Jan 06 2022
On January 6, 1973, the educational children’s animated Schoolhouse Rock! series premiered on ABC with the episode “My Hero, Zero,” dedicated to the enigmatic number and the powers of ten, and featuring the song “My Hero, Zero.” However, “My Hero, Zero” was actually the second show to air, since the pilot first aired in 1971 …
Oct 21 2021
Today is the birthday of Disney artist and designer Mary Blair, born on this day October 21, 1911 in McAlester, Oklahoma. Blair was an integral part of Disney, designing incredibly beautiful, unique concept art for a variety of Disney attractions and animated films, including her most well known work on the “It’s a Small World” …