How to inspire a Mickey Mouse Operation

On this very day seventy-five years ago Walt Disney commissioned a letter to Don Graham who was employed as an art instructor for Chouinard Art Institute (currently known as California Institute of the Arts). The purpose of sending out an eight-page letter was to request the assistance of improving the artistic output of Disney’s employees. As a result of Mr. Graham’s acceptance to instruct the team of animators the company was ushered into a golden age of film animation that produced their finest works including: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). What was said in the eight page letter that convinced Don Graham to accept the position as a corporate instructor of animation? Have a look at the letter for yourself which has been transcribed below with a page by page image scan of the original document. I would like to mark a valuable reference to the website Letters of Note for doing all the leg work in transcribing the letter from the scanned images of the orignal letter. Here is a direct link to the web page in which I have retrieved the transcription. The original letter has been discovered scanned by Michael Sporn who has posted the high resolution images on his personal website. I have embedded the high resolution images at the very end of the transcription if you would like to have a look at the material.

Adams, Bale, Wahlberg discuss The Fighter

Amy Adams, Christian Bale, and Mark Wahlberg talk about their contribution for the biographical film The Fighter (2010). Each one of the actors have been interviewed separately from the others. The first part of the video is an interview with Amy Adams, the second part with Christian Bale, and the last part with Mark Wahlberg.

Ben Affleck talks about The Company Men

For your viewing pleasure here is a clean feed of an interview with Ben Affleck as he discusses his new movie The Company Men (2010).

Portman and Kunis discuss Black Swan (2010)

My anticipation to watch Darren Aronofsky's new film Black Swan (2010) has been on the rise for the last year. When I first heard the news late last year that Natalie Portman will be starring in his new film it was a given that I would want to go and see it. Now that all the promotional videos and official trailers have been released I can tell I will definitely enjoy watching it. Embedded below is a video interview with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in which they discuss their participation in the film.

Musical remix of A Little Princess (1995)

Back in the 1990s there was a movie adaptation of A Little Princess that was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Back then I did not know anything about Cuarón's potential as a heavyweight film director (although I highly appreciate watching his work now). Recently the movie has been remixed into a musical revue by YouTube beat master Pogo. Here is the video for your viewing pleasure.