Barbour provides no specific quotations or citations from the publicity material he is referring to. It was most likely press kit articles that featured veteran wildlife photographers Alfred and Elma Milotte. Barbour was clearly playing hard and loose with subject and context and then jumps to the bizarre conclusion that Disney is advocating child abuse via his otherwise generally celebrated nature documentary.Heigh-ho folks. Let's welcome some new experts on children's discipline. They come from an unlikely place, the Disney Studio in Hollywood. What are their qualifications?
It seems they spent three years watching lions in Africa. That's right. Three years watching lions. The connection between our children's discipline and African lions is obscure to me. But maybe I'm dumb?
Please don't think I am kidding. I've just taken time to read newspaper publicity for that recent Disney lion picture. A reporter quotes the lion-watchers as saying the law in lion families is obey or die. So lion mamas slap their cubs around. Maybe the lions have read modern psychology too. The reporter says that they never are harshly brutal in their punishment. Just knock the little ones across the landscape. Haymaker love taps.
What's the result? Hold on to your hats. There is no juvenile delinquency among the lions in that part of Africa! Isn't that marvelous? The lion-watchers seem to think so. They are quoted as saying that a headstrong lion would be a terrible nuisance to the rest of the lion family. No doubt. No doubt.
If this publicity was intentionally humorous, I'd enjoy it. But it isn't! It is serious. Wallop your kids. Knock 'em spinning. But don't be harshly brutal about it. Punishment is the rule of nature.
Did this publicity appear in your papers? I hope not. Your human instincts regarding the rearing of the human young are sounder than the instincts of lady lions prowling the African veldt. I agree that Walt Disney has geniuses on his payroll. I'll admit that the lion-watchers are the best animal photographers in the business. But child guidance advice from Walt's lions is too much.
Please, Mr. Disney!
Television is only a few years old, but already a number of traditions have been founded which make it a bit more enjoyable around Christmas time. One of the most delightful traditions to be set up is the annual appearance of Walt Disney before the television cameras. Because Christmas is basically children's holiday, this year, as last, Walt leaves his studio and produces for television on the "Walt Disney Christmas Show." And what a show he has lined up for this year. Disney will devote more time to his cartoon characters. There will be the Uncle Remus Tar Baby sequence from "Song of the South." a scene from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Bambi," plus previews from Disney's next big feature, "Peter Pan," now in production, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy and others will, of course, contribute their comedy cavorting. Live talent will include Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Don Barclay, all of whom have taken part in Disney films. The show, according to advance notices, will open in the convalescent ward of a children's hospital on Christmas morning, with Dr. Miller, played by Don Barclay, entering as Santa Claus. This should be a wonderful afternoon for the kiddies as well as adults, especially for Christmas. Ann and Lyn, our two little "Indians." are already talking about the Disney show and look to Christmas with great expectations. Why not? What more could you want, Santa Claus and Walt Disney on the same day.
The program's sponsor, Johnson and Johnson provided $250,000 to produce the special, a figure unprecedented in the medium's then short history. CBS, embarrassed by not running the 1950 show, quickly lined up the 57 stations that sealed the broadcast agreement with Johnson and Johnson.The Walt Disney Christmas Show on TV yesterday was still entrancing even when the color of the movie production had been lost. Anything so well done originally as Disney's Bambi, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Uncle Remus, can still get under the skin of young and old alike. One solid hour of Disney classics went out over 57 stations of the CBS-TV network with Walt Disney himself acting as emcee before a gathering of enthusiastic children.
"Walt Disney World's first Christmas will be a spirited two-week holiday full of gaiety, tradition, colorful Disney character parades, and commemorative religious pageantry of the season.Yuletide decorations will bring added sparkle to the already fun-filled Magic Kingdom — "decked out" literally for Christmas with a giant tree and hundreds of wreaths of hemlock and holly. Special daily Holiday Parades (beginning December 20) and two mammoth candlelight processionals are part of the spectacular events scheduled for the holidays.
Florally adorned by poinsettias, snapdragons, petunias and 50,000 pansies, the theme park will feature lights and decorations in each of the Main Street shop windows. And in Town Square, a snowy, 50-foot Christmas tree, especially selected and cut from a forest in Paradise, Mich., will serve as a colorful centerpiece for the festive theme park celebration. More than 1,200 lights and a thousand giant ornaments adorn the tree."
Now . . . something never in model kits before. Zap/Action pirate scenes based on Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, the most popular attraction in Disneyland. First you build these exciting and detailed scenes . . . then at the touch of a lever . . . release Zap/Action . . . and the pirates perform a variety of surprise actions! And the Zap/Action can be reset over and over again!
The most popular attraction at Disneyland is the Pirates of the Caribbean, an electronic wonder that is years ahead of its time in excitement, imagination and animation. Here, all the authenticity of the Age of Pirates are combined with the most advanced technology and that special Disney fun touch to provide a sight, sound and action attraction that has thrilled millions. Now, Pirates of the Caribbean is the basis for an entirely new kind of kit series from MPC . . . a total scene kit series with the added dimension of Zap/Action. Like Disney, MPC has created the lighter side of the Age of Piracy . . . yet combining it with the authenticity and the proven appeal of action and excitement.
"Still, it seems unlikely that the money-strapped Playboy would risk the ire of Disney unless they got some kind of go ahead. The general theory right now is that Disney, a company that used to shuffle any movie even slightly controversial to one of their other wings like Touchstone, is looking for any extra way to market a movie that has been rumored to cost more than $300 million and so decided to just let this slide as long as their name was nowhere near it. If the pictorial doesn’t vanish and Disney doesn’t make a comment, we might have to assume that to be the case."
Jon Bershad
Mediaite
"In Scandinavian countries, it was once common to bury a fish until it rotted, then dig it up and eat it. Most Americans would say they'd never do anything so unhygienic. But the Walt Disney Co., possessed of an overstuffed pop-culture pantry, has done something almost as gamy: It's excavated a 28-year-old flop, Tron, and is offering it as a Christmastime delicacy. To be fair, Disney isn't simply reheating leftovers. It's concocted a sequel, with the curious title of Tron: Legacy. ("Legacy," ironically, being a high-tech euphemism for "obsolete.") Everything in the long-delayed follow-up is said to be brand new, except the dopey premise and the likelihood that it'll lose a bundle."
Mark Jenkins
NPR
"It's an extremely fun bit of entertainment, with some surprises, loads of nostalgic pandering to the sort of person who saw the original Tron as a kid (such as me), and some interesting commercial notes."
Cory DoctorowBoing Boing
"A half-century ago, well-known Disney theme-park creators Rolly Crump and Claude Coats designed the Museum of the Weird with the idea of spotlighting a parade of ghostly organists, magic carts, talking chairs and other surreal exhibits. Walt Disney wanted to use the museum as an adjunct to the Haunted Mansion, complete with its own restaurant. But the museum was never built, though some of the more ambitious pieces were incorporated into the mansion itself.Disney is in discussions for a movie based on the museum with screenwriter Ahmet Zappa, according to a source close to the project. (Zappa, son of Frank, is also developing a movie for Disney that may or may not be inspired by its Enchanted Tiki Room attraction.)Under its new leadership, Disney seems to be taking a two-pronged approach to movies. It's getting into business with top-tier filmmakers (add David Fincher and Tim Burton to Del Toro and Favreau) even as it's putting chips down on seemingly as many theme-park attractions as possible, and trying to merchandise more than ever. The net effect: a studio slate that's a strange combination of stubbornly visionary and explicitly marketing-driven."
Steven ZeitchikLos Angeles Times
"Membership in ASIFA is open to anyone who pays a yearly fee, and nominations are voted by members who have been approved by an ASIFA committee. According to reports, DreamWorks Animation automatically buys a membership for every employee, and may employ as much as 40 percent of the total ASIFA membership.
"Annies results caused something of a scandal in 2009, when DreamWorks' "Kung Fu Panda" won 10 awards while Pixar's "Wall-E," the eventual Oscar winner and consensus choice for one of the best films of the year, was completely shut out."
Steve Pond
The Wrap
Commenting on Disney/Pixar's disassociation with ASIFA and the Annie Awards
"But even if [Toy Story 3] does win, the directors of animated films have a way to go in attaining top Hollywood status. Unkrich's name does not leap to people's lips the way Christopher Nolan or David Fincher do. The online version of Time's story misspelled Unkrich's name as "Les Unkrich." The print magazine spelled it right, and it was corrected online, but it's evidence of how obscure even the most eminent animation directors are. Unkrich has won three Annie Awards for directing (for Finding Nemo, shared with Andrew Stanton; Monsters, Inc., shared with Pete Docter and David Silverman; and Toy Story 2, shared with Pixar top dog John Lasseter and Ash Brannon). When animation finally wins respect in the best picture category, the next step will be to give these guys their due in best director."
Tom Appelo
The Hollywood Reporter
"It does have a unique flavor or flair that isn't found in a lot of places, (but) it's not like living at Disney World. It's a real town, (with) real issues."From a CNN news report.
Celebration resident Chris Stellwag
YOU'LL FLY to Los Angeles with three members of your.family via luxurious TWA Constellation, stay at the exclusive Hampton-Sheraton Hotel. At Disneyland, you'll ride flying elephants, midget cars, pimte ships, "rocket to the moon" . . . see all the wonders of Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Fantasyland. On a Tanner-Gray Line Bus Tour, you'll visit a real movie studio, network TV shows, homes of Hollywood stars. You'll enjoy a whole week of thrills with all regular expenses paid—plus $250 in cash for meals and anything else you like!
Eluding a deputy Sheriff who had questioned him concerning his possession of a gun, J. Ridford Worth, 39, of 818 N. Angelino Ave., Burbank, yesterday shot himself in the chest in the foyer of Walt Disney Studios, according to police.
At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, where he refused to make a statement, Worth was reported as not in critical condition.
Deputy Sherriff G. H. Weinner said he questioned Worth at the north end of Silver Lake, where the latter was examining a revolver. Worth jumped into an automobile and sped to the studios at 2719 Hyperion Ave., where his assertedly estranged wife Dora is employed as a secretary.
There, according to Detectives C. M. Pitts and W. L. Chase, who investigated, he shot himself. Asked why he had done it, he assertedly declared, "Ask Dora."Worth, according to police, is an unemployed salesman. Mrs. Worth resides at 508 S. Wilton Place, officers said.
"When it comes to best-picture glory, Pixar has gotten the shaft over and over again. But spending millions of dollars buying clever Oscar ads isn’t going to make a difference, although it will surely inspire wonderers to wonder about the whole pay-to-play aspect of the Oscar game. The only way an animated film will win a best picture Oscar is if the academy changes its mind-set about what represents a great film. For now, if you’re Pixar, you’ve earned our eternal cinematic gratitude for making movies that appeal to our childlike sense of wonder, sorrow and delight. But you still haven’t earned the right to be taken seriously by the motion picture academy."
Patrick Goldstein
Los Angeles Times
"With some high-profile holiday movies starting to hit Hollywood's prerelease tracking services, it appears first-weekend prospects for Disney's Tron: Legacy are significantly below where the studio needs to be with its pricey tentpole. The 3D sci-fi film has been marketed heavily for months en route to its Dec. 17 bow, and many have been suggesting a big opening and leggy theatrical run based on built-in interest from the cult base of its 1982 predecessor. But at this point, tracking suggests Tron: Legacy with as little as $35 million. Technically a sequel, Tron: Legacy references characters and events from the original Tron in a tale that occurs years later. But its $200 million production heft alone puts the 3D romp squarely in the category of movie reboot -- the first picture cost just $17 million to produce -- and an opening well north of $50 million would seem necessary to put the picture on a path to profitability."
Carl DiOrio
Hollywood Reporter
"We went up there for a day, showed it to their key people, had a nice two-hour roundtable where we told them what we wanted to improve, and they had some suggestions. Little nips, tucks, tweaks. We incorporated some of their ideas into the shoot we did in June and even though it only amounts to a couple minutes of stuff, it's those little adjustments that I think help bring the story to the next level."
Tron: Legacy Director Joseph Kosinski, from an interview on NYMAG.com, speaking about screening footage from the film at Pixar Studios "Clearly with Mickey Mouse, I mean, the guy is on everyone's paycheck so there are lines you just don't cross. I'm a big believer in pushing things too far and forcing people to pull you back. I put together a folder of Mickey smoking and drinking and abusing farm animals and, you know, shooting em and skewering em. Mickey did a lot of bad stuff back in the day but it doesn't matter that he used to do it. It doesn't matter that he used to do that because I don't even want to do that with Mickey, but I just wanted test where the line was. You'd be surprised at how far they've let me go." Game designer Warren Spector, discussing his handling of the iconic character in the new Epic Mickey video game
“They couldn’t stand him. They just couldn’t stand him. I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, ‘He’s ruining the movie.’... Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, What’s wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?… And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite… ‘But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?’ Which really made her nervous.”
Johnny Depp, from an interview in Vanity Fair
BURBANK. Calif. (AP) -With a pink poodle, a pocket-knife and his own red blood, Gary Drapala tried to storm the gates of the Walt Disney Studio to see actress Annette Funicello. Gary, 16, ended up arm-wrestling a policeman, and then telling this teen-age tale of unrequited love.
He left his home in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, N.Y. with a borrowed $100 and a burning desire to see Annette, onetime Mouseketeer on TV. "But I couldn't get past the gate," he said. "So I made a plan."
"I cut myself a little in a washroom of a service station near the studio. Then I went over to see the guard and ask him to give the poodle (a stuffed poodle he'd bought for $5) to Annette.
"I was going to double over, moaning. The guard would see the blood, and I wouldn't leave untilI saw Annette."
Gary gave himself a superficial 6-inch abdominal slash and faced the guard's suspicions glance Wednesday.
"But I lost my nerve." he said. "I just gave the poodle to him and walked off to the hospital." But at St. Joseph Hospital, across the street from Disney's, Gary's imagination started working again. Attendants called police when Gary informed them he'd been attacked by a knife-wielding stranger. Then at the police station, Gary became strangely silent. He finally agreed to tell all, though, if one of the officers could defeat him in Indian wrestling.
Juvenile Officer M.O. Daily's ham-sized hand reached across the interrogation table. There was a brief straining of muscles. Then Gary, his knuckles mashed against the mahogany, was talking like the proverbial magpie.
Police asked him what he'd planned to do if the guard had summoned Annette to view his slightly bleeding body, as planned. "I thought I'd fall on the floor and keep muttering her name over and over, "Annette, Annette, Annette. . ."
Then what?
"I suppose I'd have gotten up, given her the poodle, and left. All I wanted was to see her."
The studio said Annette was busy preparing for a personal appearance tour—in New York, of all places—and wouldn't have time to see Gary.
