A Very Parent Trap Valentine's Day

We bring you a few pieces of one of history's most charming romantic comedies, The Parent Trap.

Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills play twins who get split up at birth. They meet at summer camp and decide to switch places in order to reunite their divorced parents. Get some Fig Newtons and see if their little "trap" works.

And watch for some great movie magic, largely credited to the great Ub Iwerks (the man behind Mickey Mouse's early success). Split screen and body double techniques hold up very well even against fancy new movie techniques of today. 

Charles Ruggles, who plays the Grandfather, is as charming as any old man could possibly be on film. And funny too.

Brian Keith's character lives in the Carmel, California area, is wealthy, outdoorsy, and has the best ranch house I've ever seen. Maureen O'Hara's character is wonderful. My wife says, "she is so stunningly beautiful" every time she first appears on the screen.

The Parent Trap (1961) is my favorite live-action Disney film. It is the most re-watchable of all the movies I own. It is extremely whitty, beautiful, and like I said, charming.

Haven't got plans for Valentine's Day? WATCH THIS. Never seen it? Go buy it right now. Try not to be tempted by the 1998 Lindsay Lohan version. Or the sequels. None of which are the worst things in the world but they don't hold a candle to the original.

One of the real gems of the film is the animated title sequence before the film. It's beautifully crafted  stop motion animation by Bill Justice, X. Atencio (Haunted Mansion, etc.), and T. Hee, (Fantasia, etc.).

Hayley Mills, we love you. Call me. Email me.

 
First six photos from the cover of my cool 2-disk Parent Trap laserdisc.

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Animation Studies

We don't often feature the works of art that are the Disney animated films. And we really should, for they are the basis of many beloved theme park attractions.

My adorable wife recently surprised me with a number of FANTASTIC animation books. From these books we can study various ranges of movement with only a few drawings by some of the old greats. Leaps and bounds above the pencil tests my fellow students and I produced in art school. I did, for a time, work as a character artist at Disney- not in Animation though former animators did train us. I will always remember one Sr. Artist teaching me that we do not draw characters "line to line" but we "feel the shape of the figure and draw accordingly." He was clear that anyone could memorize how one line connected to the next but if you don't "feel it" the character has no volume.

SLEEPING BEAUTY- Samson and Prince Phillip, 1959 by Milt Kahl

PINOCCHIO- Pinocchio by Jack Campbell

THE THREE CABALLEROS- Donald Duck, Panchito, Jose Carioca, 1945 by Clyde Geronimi

SONG OF THE SOUTH- Brer Rabbit, by Milt Kahl

ALICE IN WONDERLAND- Mad Hattter, by Milt Kahl

101 DALMATIONS- Roger Radcliff and Pongo, by Milt Kahl

Andreas Deja

Recently famed animator Andreas Deja left Disney (reasons unknown to me) and started a blog (among other things, no doubt). "Right now I am focusing on my own animated short films, sculpting with wire and this Blog. I might be back at Disney some time.....who knows," says Deja on his blog.

If there was such a thing as a second (or third) set of "Nine Old Men", Andreas Deja would definitely be among them.

HERCULES- Hercules, by Andreas Deja

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[Image source] Images ©Disney

National Geographic Aug '63

 

Sometimes collections of striking imagery cannot stay hidden in dusty old boxes. We present a new series that offers images that please the eye. Today we present some photos from a 1963 issue of National Geographic magazine. We get a snapsot of what the Disney company was in '63.

 

Photos ©National Geographic Society

[Part 2]

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