The MousePod - MousePod #26 - ...and the Oscar Goes to Disney
 

I know what it looks like. Two and a half hours? Has Jesse lost it?
Nope. This is a good one. And it’s worth the time.
This weekend, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hold the 79th Academy Awards. So what’s a Disney fan to think of that?
This fan started to think about all of the Oscars Disney won through the years, particularly the animated shorts. Did you know that Disney has not won an Oscar for best animated short subject since the ’60s? Did you know that between 1932 and 1969, Disney won 13, including every one awarded during the 1930s?
So here’s what I did: I asked several friends (here in San Francisco, in LA, and Orlando) to watch all 12 of the ones Disney has released on DVD, and to share their thoughts with me. I called all of them separately via Skype (except for two couples who called together) and then spent most of the week editing their comments together to sound like a round table conversation.
Whether you’re willing to suspend disbelief long enough to fool yourself into thinking it sounds like a real round table doesn’t matter - what does matter is that my friends are intelligent, articulate, and love Disney - and I’m lucky that they’re my friends. And you’re lucky you get to hear them talk. For two and a half hours.

Download MousePod #26 - ...and the Oscar goes to Disney


More...

I may listen to this instead of watching the Oscars. Sounds infinitely more interesting!:cheers:

Jeebus, I know these people and I don't want to listen to them for 2 1/2 hours. Especially since one of them is me.

iTunes...activate.

Driving to work along PCH, the ocean spread out to my right, the Mousepod playing through my radio...

Life is good.

The time went by surprisingly speedily, as I listened to see what everyone's opinions would be. I only cringed occasionally during my own contributions. (I seemed to develop a complete mental seizure while trying to talk about "Lend A Paw," and I wish I had remembered the title of the classic Warners cartoon FEED THE KITTY.)

I'd take this two and a half hours over any number of bloated H'wood epics any day.

I'm only part way through, I sound like an a$$, but everyone else has great commentary! I'm loving it so far.

I'm afraid.

Heheh, I mute the volume whenever I'm on. I can't stand to hear myself.

Jesse doesn't know this, but he woke me up from a nap, and I was groggy. He said the sound quality on my phone was great, but alas the commentary quality was half asleep.


I hate the sound of my own voice anyway, so I doubt I'd listen to the stupid things I say in any event.


That said, and maybe it's because I know all the participants ... but I find the format of listening to my friends speak to be incredibly boring.

Don't get me wrong ... I never find that boring i.r.l. But it's not what I want to hear in a podcast.


Sorry.



I hope actual audiences are entertained somehow.

Hey, does anyone know the year the Looney Tunes version of Tortoise and the Hare was released, vs. the Disney version that was almost universally panned (and compared unfavorably to the Bugs Bunny counterpart)?

1941 - "Tortoise Beats Hare" by Tex Avery
1943 - "Toroise Wins By A Hare" by Bob Clampett
1947 - "Rabbit Transit" by I Freleng

meanwhile, Disney's Toby Tortoise and Max Hare appeared again in "Toby Tortoise Returns" in 1936.

I'm pretty sure I have all (or most) of these cartoons.

And for the record, there are some "experts" who cite Max Hare as the inspiration for Bugs' personality.

So if that first Bugs version, in '41, is the one we were all comparing the Disney version to ... that's not a terribly long time between the two (6 years?) ... and I hereby call shenanigans on apologies for chrono-primitivism.

oh... and there are at least eight Paramount animated shorts from 1948-1960 that feature "Moe Hare" and "Tommy Tortoise".

(sorry this episode is boring to you, iSm - I intend to constantly change the format, so everyone is bound to love some and hate some. I personally love this one, but perhaps it's because I was sad that I didn't get to enjoy the Disney salon in Long Beach)

Jesse, it's simply because I lived it. I think the temporary change of format and voices will be very interesting to your listeners.


(plus, I don't want to discourage you from edited shows!)

Six years was a long time back in the golden age of animation. Heck, "The Old Mill" was only five years later than "Flowers and Trees".

Oh, no doubt. Thanks to Disney ... that period of five or six years saw the most amazing growth in the art of animation EVER. An achievement unequalled to this day.


It's just that I got the impression most people felt the Bugs version was vaguely in the 50's. But perhaps I'm wrong about that assumption.

You know, I will hold a thousand parties but STOP TALKING! Stick with what you do best, bitch.

Exactly, and I'm not up to that part, and after we hung up, I felt I should have had much more to say about this. The Old Mill was so incredibly cinematic, it played like a sweeping epic feature. It holds up as a Silly Symphony, virtual no plot, but a day in the life, but done with the sweep and grandeur of Gone With the Wind. And used as a format to show off the multiplane, it did not overuse it. Reiterates again to me, Ub Iwerks was a genius all the way around and not merely a great animator. But then, I'm totally stating the obvious here.

Pshaw....

Just do what I do and mute the sound on yourself.

'Cause I think you are easily among the most charming speakers on the program.



(and that's not just because I love you dearly)



ETA: And what exactly would that be that you do best, that's not talking????

Here's a memory stimulant. I'm taking it down on Monday...

Wow, the rabbit from that other cartoon (the one who isn't Max Hare) looks SO CUTE when he hops along on all fours!

I hadn't seen that one in a very long time, and unlike much of the panel, I didn't have it in mind while watching Tortoise and the Hare. The boys at Termite Terrace certainly knew from funny.

Ah, thanks for posting that! I now realize that in my comparisons I was thinking of the sequel, including Bugs dressing as a turtle and getting his bunny friends to help him out. Still - this one is so much more amusing than the Disney version.

Who knows. But, talking while recording is NOT one of them.

I actually bacame suddenly articulate during the Old Mill discussion. :rolleyes:

Reminder to self: next time someone wants to interview you, be more awake and less surly. That way you won't sound like an idiot.

(I just got through listening to my comments on Three Little Pigs)

For anyone who has finished listening to the show, here's a special treat.

The first thing discussed in the podcast


The last thing discussed in the podcast

(They're coming down early next week, so enjoy em now)

Wow. That was one marathon podcast. It was fun to listen to all of you. You all sounded just fine to me. It was interesting because you interviewed each person separately, and to hear how their opinions differed from the others in the group, without the group feedback.

Mousepod, none of your links seem to work for me. :( I get to the video page, but when I press play, I get a little icon that circles in the middle, but that's all it does.

Anyone else having a hard time seeing these? They work on my end with Firefox and Safari...

It was my IE browser, I downloaded Firefox and it works fine. Thanks.

I like Ward's cameo appearance (and Mary Poppins)

I have Firefox on my computer just because IE likes to crap out once in a while. I really just use IE out of habit for the most part. My IE won't play them either.

:eek:

I think most people are that way. I know I think I have a horrable voice and I'm very self consious about it. But if I asked people, they'd probably say my voice is fine. I'll have to ask some people what they think....

But like NA, I'm afraid. ;)

I'll have to make time to listen (and launch Firefox), but it sounds like you did a great job, MP!

As in the interviews, I am off man out when it comes to hearing my own voice - it doesn't bother me. Probably because I am used to hearing it (from years of DJing and Radio).

I just cringe at some of the things I said.

Well then, if you were a DJ, then you must have a decent voice to start with! ;)

You are truely blessed. :D

It was so odd last night to realize that almost the entire Los Angeles contingent of the mousepod Oscars panel were in attendance at a screening of the Oscar-nominated short subjects.



We had a strange urge to call Jesse afterwards to discuss the films.

I finished listening this morning. Jesse, my hat is off to you, really. I can only imagine the time it took to edit everything down, you did an awesome job fitting so many different pieces into a cohesive whole.

I gotta say, I was and am really flattered you invited me to participate with such an august group of Disney experts. It was exciting for me to do it and miserable for me to hear myself ;)

That said, the time absolutely flew by. A really good shew and, as always, great musical selections.

You could just do a show on covers of Disney music and pull out some amazing things, I am sure.
:snap:

Still only about an hour in, but I'm enjoying it so far. I keep being reminded about lines of discussion we had "live" that I had forgotten about by the time Jesse called to record, so it's been nice to pick those up again. I'm also really loving the different perspective everyone seemed to bring. Some of us seemed to be focused on the technical aspects, some on the artistic, some on the social, some on their personal experience with each film, some with the films' presence around the world of Disney.

Oh, and those "extra-credit" players aren't working for me either.

I'm kinda tech-challenged, so I'm not gonna be downloading any alternate browsers or sundry software just so's I can view them.


sorry.

but it was a nice attempt to share.

Forgot to post - I really enjoyed this podcast with all the myriad opinions. :) I now know why I'm wrong about Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom - because I never watched it in school ;) Wonderful job, Jesse. That was a lot of fun to record, too.

I'll finish listening tomorrow (I know, I'm slow) but just wanted to say what a great job editing all the comments into a cohesive whole. I'm really enjoying it.
:)

Just got off the phone with flippyshark, who gave me an idea for tomorrow's show. The majority of the show will be taken up by an interview I did with an expert on Disney WWII stuff, and the rest will be odds and ends.

So he suggested that I do a short "round table" on It's Tough To Be A Bird, since I finally found a copy of the theatrical version (and posted it). If anyone is available to talk about it tonight or tomorrow, please PM me.

... and if you, like iSm, can't watch the embedded flash video but want to talk, I'll reencode it to a more watchable format ASAP.

This could be fun.