T. HEE DRAWS EDDIE

This'll have to be a hastily done post. Workers are in the house tearing down a wall and with the din I can't think straight. Fortunately Milt recently gave me a couple of Xeroxes that readers might be interested in, so I don't have to appear empty-handed. 

Okay, here's (above) the first Xerox. It appears to be a caricature of me drawn by renowned Disney caricaturist, T. Hee. Wow, it's terrific! T. Hee really nailed me...but, huh? Wait a minute...how can that be? The inscription says it's George Manuel, who was a story artist in the 30s and 40s. Holy Mackerel! That could only mean one thing...there was another me all those years ago...and he called himself George Manuel!

Sure, it could be a coincidence, but the likeness is so striking that I'm forced to consider another possibility, ie., that I'm a vampire who holds on to life by sucking the blood of others. I don't recall having done anything like that but, who knows?

Milt also gave me a copy (above) of Marlena Dietrich's scathing review of Snow White from 1937.  He got it from a site called "Animation Anecdotes," which I bookmarked as soon as I got home. I don't agree with Dietrich's evaluation of the film, but you have to admit that it's funny.

Milt reminded me that caricaturist Al Hirschfeld also wrote a negative review of that film and I include it below.

Okay, that's it! I've gotta get out of the house!

MY TRIP TO DISNEYLAND

I've seen lots of vintage photos of The Mad Hatter (above) and I wanted to have my picture taken with him. Alas, he was nowhere to be seen.

Horace Horsecollar's girlfriend (above) was there....

....as was Grumpy (above). It wouldn't be Disneyland without Grumpy.

There's a new attraction in Disneyland called Pixie Hollow, and it's pretty well done. It even has a Don Martin-type frog pond, but I wasn't able to get a picture of it.

The Hollow is the home of the Five Princesses (above). Little girls wearing princess costumes flock to the Hollow to pal around with beautiful grown-up princesses.

 When I was there the The Five were on a lunch break and the little girls were going nuts with waiting.

Later I made my way to Fantasyland.

Disneyland excels at handling crowds. People in this picture (above) are almost shoulder to shoulder yet they remain even-tempered. The sights and sounds are no doubt diverting, and so are the people watching opportunities, but above all for me is the fascinating use of architectural space. I couldn't take my eyes off it!

I got some dirty looks when I took shots of the crowd. Sheesh! What was that about? Was everybody there on the lamb from the law? Maybe I stumbled into some kind of felons convention.

I stopped at some stores and was impressed by the props on the shelves along the walls. 

You can't buy these props, they're for display only.

How'd you like to have that crawling monster (above) on your wall?

I wish I'd gotten more shots of Adventureland. 

Here I am (above) in Minnie Mouse's house. Boy, Minnie has good taste in architecture!

  

I want to live in this house! I hope the designer got some sort of prize.

I've gotta go back to Disneyland soon. It's a photographer's dream! 

STORYBOARDING THE GANG CARTOON

Storyboarding the Gang Cartoon

Seventy years ago you could do a cartoon with nothing but a rabbit and a hunter and everybody loved it. No more. Something about modern life requires many people on the screen at the same time. A frame with only two characters in it now seems empty...desolate...icy...loveless. At least that's what employers believe.

If you're dismayed by this then cheer up! Help is on the way! Theory Corner offers you this lesson in storyboarding what I call the gang cartoon (gang = ridiculously crowded). The panels are unrelated, there's no story being told here. I'm just putting up suggestions for organizing the kind of crowd that modern cartoons require.

The organizing principal in a gang cartoon is fairly simple. In each set-up the crowd confronts a single speaker. I call that speaker (my term) the "solo confronter."

In panel "A" we see a flying (i.e. downshot) perpendicular doublet/triplet wedgie (i.e. group} facing a reverse (back shot) solo confronter. In panel "B" we see two flanking triplet wedgies, also both facing the forward solo confronter.

In panel "C" a triplet wedgie confronts a reverse solo confronter with a few neutral "pawns" present as a sort of garnish.
Panel "D" shows two flying doublet wedgies facing a reverse solo confronter. Got the hang of it now? If so, you're ready for the grand finale in panel "E" below....

Panel "E" shows a cascading, right to left flying tsunami octet facing a forward solo confronter. Now THAT'S professional staging!

YOUNG WOMEN VS. OLDER WOMEN

Younger women have obvious assets, you don't need me to point them out. Older women have assets too, but they don't get discussed very often. I thought I'd take a minute to examine what those assets are. 

Let's face it, young girls haven't seen much of life. They don't have...depth. They lack....

...they lack "gravitas."

They're always lost, always spilling things, always tripping over curbs, always getting their fingers caught in drawers.

Older women (abvove) on the other hand, are confident and worldly. They see life from the lofty heights, from the eagles' point of view.

Not only that, but older women get the joke. They're more hip....more with it.

Younger women are always playing hard to get. How wearisome!

Older women know the score. They're not afraid to take the initiative. 

Younger women are only attracted to men with animal magnetism. A few chick magnets (above) get all the girls.

Older women (above) have no need of chick magnets. They're tickled to death to live with normal men. They don't care if their husbands leave their BVDs on the sofa. 

Now, I admit that not all older women (above) have gravitas.

I also admit that some older women take...well, a bit of getting used to. Give me time. I'm stll working on that.

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One more thing! You MUST see this video Steve Worth showed me last night! Watch the whole thing, from beginning to end. It lasts about 40 minutes.

ADVICE FROM MILT

INT. FAST FOOD RESTAURANT

MILT: "Hi Eddie! Am I late?"

EDDIE (VO): "No, no. Have a seat."

MILT: "What's the matter? Why so glum on this wonderful day Mother Earth has given us?"

EDDIE: "Glum? Do I look glum? I'm not...I'm not......"

EDDIE: "...Oh, what's the use of hiding it? I've had a bad day!"

 MILT: "A bad day? Really? What happened?"

EDDIE: "Well, this morning my wife and I were standing there at the barbecue, nibbling on bits of hamburger..."

MILT: "Say no more! I see the problem. Burgers are full of cattle steroids."

EDDIE: "Weeell.... there's more. My wife leaned too close to the coals and caught fire so I reached for a bucket of water and threw it on her. Only it wasn't water. It was battery acid. She was reduced to brain, a lung and an eyeball."

MILT: "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie...how often have I told you....meat effects your senses, including your vision."

EDDIE: "That's not all! I scooped the brain and guts into a shoebox and ran for the hospital. On the way I fell into a manhole and dropped the box. The contents were immediately chewed by vicious dogs."

MILT: "That means the dogs got some of the steroids. See how that stuff spreads through the ecosystem?"

EDDIE: "Wait, wait, there's more! A tanker truck came by and its cargo of lemon juice and pepper splashed onto the still-living brain. It was horrible. The brain twisted and writhed in pain.

Me, I crawled out of the manhole but my legs were shattered. I had to crawl here over gravel and broken glass. It took hours."

MILT: "Well you can't expect to make good time if you insist on eating things like cattle steroids! I mean, geez!"

MILT: "Look, how 'bout we get a couple of salads, then you'll feel better."

EDDIE (VO): "Yeah, a salad! You're a wise man, Milt. I'm starting to feel better already!"