The Dwarves that were left out

This is from the i paper last week: Drawings sold at auction have shed new light on some of he forgotten characters from Walt Disney’s 1937 film Snow White and the Seven dwarfs. Although Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, Happy, Bashful and Sneezy all made it to eh final cut in the film version of the … Continue reading →

Funding Jan Svankmaer’s Last Film

Svankmaer has been called a genius by Terry Gillam, so that makes him rather special. His animation is like nobody else’s and this film will be based on a play by the Capek brothers, who are also extraordinary talents from the country that has thrown up more than its fair share of strangely talented artists. … Continue reading →

Tom Waites for No One

This is an incredible animation from 1979 that won awards for scientific and technical achievement at the Erotic Film Awards. Only Waites could manage that and still be cooler than cool http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/tom-waits-for-no-one.html

Gollum and Turkish Law

This is from yesterday’s i newspaper, and would be funny if it wasn’t true: “He is shrivelled, slimy and will stop at nothing to lay his hands on a golden ring. But is Gollum a villain? The fate of a Turkish doctor hangs on the answer to that seemingly trivial question. Having shared a Facebook … Continue reading →

Animated James Thurber Classic

James Thurber had a fantastically wry take on the world, and this is a wonderful piece of domestic drama, the ultimate revenge on a spouse. Would never happen today of course.   http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/james-thurbers-unicorn-in-the-garden-animated.html

Pixar Eat Your Heart Out!

Animation has been around as long as cinema, and can be made a lot cheaper as there are no actors to pay or to have hissy fits. Here’s a gem from the silent era – a 1917 stop motion animation with a pair of dolls brought to life by a fairy, a white rabbit that … Continue reading →

George Cruikshank at The Holburne Museum

Cruikshank’s satirical political images are some of the most famous of the late 18th/early 19th century England. He showed no sign of his own politics, but took great joy in sending up the politicians of all shades and royalty of the age. But he was much more than a precursor of today’s political cartoonists; he … Continue reading →

The Man Who Had Gazooks on Batman

About a week ago, Lorenzo Semple Jr died. This is from his obituary in the i newspaper, by Anthony Hayward. He had the brilliant idea to turn DC comics Batman and Robin into the hugely popular tv series in the 1960s. It was an amazing series as the humour was quite adult but still fun … Continue reading →

Tennis Courts and Plasticine

The Museum of Bath at Work is one of those wonderfully obscure but fascinating museums, and works on many levels. The building was once a real tennis court, but then became an engineering works, so much of what is there is unchanged since they stopped business, and the whole was bought. It is as if … Continue reading →

Men in the Moon

When John Herschel was in South Africa, he was amused by an incident which must rank alongside Orson Wells’ stunt with the ‘War of the Worlds’, which succeeded in large part due to the lack of fast communications: “Richard Locke, a reporter on a New York daily newspaper, The Sun, … printed a story that … Continue reading →