Thursday, June 26, 2008 |
15:48 - Defibrillating the Golden Age
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Scuttlebutt has reached me that the first short from Walt Disney Animation Studios under John Lasseter, the Goofy film "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater", is now available from iTunes for the usual $1.99.
It's fantastic. For six minutes I thought it was 1944, except for all the references to HDMI and subwoofers and delivery guys who will show up within a convenient 8AM-5PM window.
Some of it was shipped overseas (the credits list some contract houses such as Wang Film), which is disappointing; but I imagine that to some extent this was a bootstrapping exercise—they had to make some sacrifices in order to show that it's a viable use of the time and money, even with Lasseter calling the shots.
I'll also be looking forward to "Glago's Guest", which reportedly will be showing in front of Bolt when it comes out in November (or else will probably show up on iTunes with as much alacrity as "Lifted" did). We'll see just how much newness is to be had from the new boss. (Much as it pains me to say it, I'm just about ready for a change from the ponderous and self-important artsy shorts from the likes of Roger Allers and Don Hahn in recent years—"One By One" and "The Little Matchgirl". All right, guys, you're all deep and socially conscious and stuff. We get it already. Gimme some Goofy.)
At the same time, another item on iTunes that I'm checking out is "Dream On Silly Dreamer", a 40-minute partially animated documentary of the rise and fall of Disney, which by all accounts is great viewing. I'll know by tonight...
UPDATE: It's very good indeed. It's about the 90s-era Golden Age, the boom and the bust that followed; and made as it was in 2004, it came before the stirrings of rebirth that have occurred more recently. Something about Lasseter and Jobs and company would have made a dandy footnote...
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