cult films

walt disney + salvador dalí : destino
dir.: dominique monfery
2003

the film tells the story of chronos, the personification of time and the inability to realize his desire to love for a mortal. the scenes blend a series of surreal paintings of dali with dancing and metamorphosis. the target production began in 1945, 58 years before its completion and was a collaboration between walt disney and the american spanish surrealist painter, salvador dalí. salvador dali and walt disney destiny was produced by dali and john hench for 8 months between 1945 and 1946. dali, at the time, hench described as a “ghostly figure” who knew better than dali or the secrets of the disney film. for some time, the project remained a secret. the work of painter salvador dali was to prepare a six-minute sequence combining animation with live dancers and special effects for a movie in the same format of “fantasia.” dali in the studio working on the disney characters are fighting against time, the giant sundial that emerges from the great stone face of jupiter and that determines the fate of all human novels. dalí and hench were creating a new animation technique, the cinematic equivalent of “paranoid critique” of dali. method inspired by the work of freud on the subconscious and the inclusion of hidden and double images. 

dalí said: “entertainment highlights the art, its possibilities are endless.” the plot of the film was described by. dalí as “a magical display of the problem of life in the labyrinth of time.” 

walt disney said it was “a simple story about a young girl in search of true love.”

stanley kubrick: an animated filmography
by martin woutisseth
+: his blogspot

(Source: thedailywhat)

the skeleton dance

the clock strikes midnight, the bats fly from the belfry, a dog howls at the full moon, and two black cats fight in the cemetery: a perfect time for 4 skeletons to come out and dance a bit.

dir.: walt disney
animation / family / short
1929 

some facts:

- the 1st of walt disney’s silly symphony series.
- worried that he would be too dependent on mickey, walt disney wanted to diversify. carl w. stalling came up with the idea of producing “musical novelties” (which would later become “silly symphonies”). he even came up with the idea of the dancing skeletons for the 1st of the series (as a child he had seen an ad in “the american boy” magazine for a dancing skeleton and the image stuck with him).
- joseph barbera tells in his autobiography “my life in ‘toons: from flatbush to bedrock in under a century”, he saw “the skeleton dance” at the third balcony of the grand roxy theater in new york: “i saw it about 70 miles from the screen, but the impact on me was tremendous nevertheless. i saw these skeletons dancing in a row and in unison, and i asked myself: how do you *do* that? how do you make that happen?”
- “the skeleton dance” became the 1st cartoon that the cartay circle theater in los angeles ever showed.
- at the time, walt disney distributed his films through a company run by pat powers. but powers couldn’t sell it to distributors (who found the dancing skeletons odd and even gruesome). undeterred, disney was able to have the film screened at the carthay circle theater in los angeles, where it was a rousing success.

(Source: lacinemateca)

steamboat willie

mickey mouse, piloting a steamboat, delights his passenger, minnie, by making musical instruments out of the menagerie on deck.

dir.: ub iwerks and walt disney (uncredited)
animation / family / comedy
1928

some facts:

- is actually not the first synchronized sound cartoon. walt disney’s rival max fleischer had produced a series of sound bouncing ball “song car-tunes”, which featured synchronized dialogue and music starting in 1926. the first to be produced was my old kentucky home (1926).
- one scene that was planned but never animated was at the loading dock. after mickey loaded the cow onto the boat, he was to have loaded the sow and her piglets as well.
- before the copyright for “steamboat willie” expired was set to expire in 2003, disney lobbied the us congress successfully for an extension of copyright protection by twenty years. because of this law, “steamboat willie” will not enter the public domain until 2023.
- a full 30 seconds of scenes of what might be considered cruelty to animals have been removed from several versions of steamboat willie, including mickey pulling a cat’s tail and then swinging the cat by the tail above his head, picking up a nursing sow and “playing” her babies like an accordion keyboard, and using a duck as bagpipes.
- when pete throws mickey off the bridge, mickey blows a big “raspberry” sound at pete from behind. pete wheels around, but mickey waves his hands behind his rear to give the impression it was flatulence.

+: wikipedia

The Monk & The Monkey

a determined young boy, Ragu, is sent by his master on his final quest to become a monk. a seemingly simple task becomes an unexpected challenge for Ragu as he discovers the real value of his quest.

(by Brendan Carroll)

35mm
by pascal monaco

a shortfilm about cinema itself. they picked 35 of their favorite movies and tried to simplifly them as far as possible. the outcome is a 2 minute journey through the history of film.
can you name them all?

concept / layout: sarah biermann, torsten strer, felix meyer, pascal monaco
animation: felix meyer, pascal monaco
sound: torsten strer