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The Reluctant Dragon (1941 Film)
''The Reluctant Dragon'' is a 1941 American comedy film produced by Walt Disney, directed by Alfred Werker, and released by RKO Radio Pictures on June 27, 1941. Essentially a tour of the then-new Walt Disney Studios facility in Burbank, California, the film stars radio comedian Robert Benchley and many Disney staffers such as Ward Kimball, Fred Moore, Norman Ferguson, Clarence Nash, and Walt Disney, all as themselves. The first twenty minutes of the film are in black-and-white, and the remainder is in Technicolor. Most of the film is live-action, with four short animated segments inserted into the running time: a black-and-white segment featuring Casey Junior from ''Dumbo''; and three Technicolor cartoons: ''Baby Weems'' (presented as a storyboard), Goofy's ''How to Ride a Horse'', and the extended-length short ''The Reluctant Dragon'', based upon Kenneth Grahame's book of the same name. The total length of all animated parts is 40 minutes. Overview Opening The film starts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Werker
Alfred L. Werker (December 2, 1896 – July 28, 1975) was a film director whose work in movies spanned from 1917 through 1957. After a number of film production jobs and assistant directing, Werker co-directed his first film, ''Ridin' the Wind'' in 1925 alongside director Del Andrews. He was brought in by Fox Film Corporation executives to re-shoot and re-edit Erich von Stroheim's film '' Hello, Sister!'' ( 1933), co-starring Boots Mallory and ZaSu Pitts. Most of Werker's work is unremarkable, but a few were well received by critics. Those films included ''House of Rothschild'' (1934) and ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' (1939); the latter film is considered one of the best in the Sherlock Holmes series. During the early 1940s, he directed a number of comedies including Laurel & Hardy's '' A-Haunting We Will Go'' (1942). In the late 1940s, Werker worked for the B-picture film studio Eagle-Lion Films. Notable films from that period include the unique mystery thriller '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Weatherwax
Paul John Weatherwax (July 8, 1900 – September 13, 1960"California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (26 November 2014), Paul J Weatherwax, 13 Sep 1960; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.) was an American film editor, and two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Biography Weatherwax was born in Sturgis, Michigan, began his editing career in silent films in 1928, and over his career edited about 85 films. His final credit, 1961's ''A Raisin in the Sun'', was selected for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005. He also assisted, although uncredited, on the direction of ''Star Spangled Rhythm'' in 1945 and ''Vendetta'' in 1950. Partial filmography Weatherwax's films include: * ''Oh, Kay!'' (1928) * ''Rough Romance'' (1930) * ''Lady Godiva of Coventry'' (1930) * '' Body and Soul'' (1931) * ''Surrender' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s). Photography Contemporary use Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. Computing In computing terminology, ''black-and-white'' is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Nash
Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and a street in that town is named in his honor. In 1993, he was posthumously made a Disney Legend for his contributions to Walt Disney films. Career Nash made a name for himself in the late 1920s as an impressionist for KHJ, a Los Angeles radio station, on their show, ''The Merrymakers''. He later was employed by the Adohr Milk Company for publicity purposes. Dubbed "Whistling Clarence, the Adohr Bird Man", Nash rode the streets with a team of miniature horses and gave treats to the children. In 1932, Nash happened by the Disney Studio with his team of horses, and decided to leave a copy of his Adohr publicity sheet with the receptionist. As it turns out, his name was recognized from a reprise appearance on ''The Merrymakers'' a few days pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norm Ferguson (animator)
William Norman Ferguson (September 2, 1902 – November 4, 1957) was an animator for Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Studios and a central contributor to the studio's stylistic development in the 1930s. He is most frequently noted for his contribution to the creation of Pluto (Disney), Pluto, one of the studio's best-known and most enduring characters, and is the artist most closely associated with that character. He is also credited for developing Pete (Disney), Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf#Disney_version, Big Bad Wolf. Ferguson, known at the studio as "Norm" or "Fergy", was the primary animator of the Evil Queen (Disney), witch in ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', the first in a long line of great Disney feature villains. He was also a sequence director on the film. Career After starting at the studio in 1929 as a cameraman, Ferguson switched to the animation department and rose rapidly, despite a lack of formal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Moore (animator)
Robert Fred Moore (September 7, 1911 – November 23, 1952), was an American artist and character animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Often called "Freddie," he was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Despite limited formal art training, he rose to prominence at Disney very quickly in the early 1930s, due to his great natural talent and the tremendous appeal of his drawings. His drawings are still greatly admired by animators and animation fans. Life and career Early life and career beginnings Moore was born in Los Angeles and is best known for being the resident specialist in the animation of Mickey Mouse. He is most notable for redesigning the character in 1938 for his landmark role in "''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''" in ''Fantasia'', a look which remains Mickey's official look to this day. His animation of the earlier Mickey Mouse design was especially memorable in the 1938 short ''Brave Little Tailor'', the last significant appearance of the "pie-eyed" Mickey. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ward Kimball
Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honored with two Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. Outside of his job as an animator, Kimball was a railroad enthusiast as well as a talented jazz trombonist. He founded and led the seven-piece Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two, in which he played the trombone. Early life Kimball was born on March 4, 1914, in Minneapolis. His father was a salesman who traveled widely. He grew up in the Midwest, often residing with his grandparents. Career While Kimball was a brilliant draftsman, he preferred to work on comical characters rather than realistic human designs. Animating came easily to him and he was constantly looking to do things differently. Because of this, Walt Disney called Ward a genius in the book ''The Story of Walt Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who established a sheep ranch there in 1867. Billed as the "Media Capital of the World" and only a few miles northeast of Hollywood, numerous media and entertainment companies are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank, including Warner Bros. Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, The Burbank Studios, Cartoon Network Studios with the West Coast branch of Cartoon Network, and Insomniac Games. The broadcast network The CW is also headquartered in Burbank. The Hollywood Burbank Airport was the location of Lockheed's Skunk Works, which produced some of the most secret and technologically advanced airplanes, including the U-2 spy planes that uncovered Soviet Union missile components ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)
The Walt Disney Studios, located in Burbank, California, United States, serves as the corporate headquarters for The Walt Disney Company media conglomerate. The 51-acre (20.6 ha) studio lot also contains several sound stages, a backlot, and other filmmaking production facilities for Walt Disney Studios's motion picture production. The complex also houses the offices for the company's many divisions, with the exception of the 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox), which remains on its namesake lot in Century City. Walt Disney used the earnings from the successful release of ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' to finance the construction of the Burbank studio. Disney is the only major film studio out of the Big Five that does not currently offer regular tours of their studio lot to the general public. Since the mid-2000s, Adventures by Disney has offered tours of the studio, but only as an integral component of their Southern California tour package. The other way ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tour Guide
A tour guide (U.S.) or a tourist guide (European) is a person who provides assistance, information on cultural, historical and contemporary heritage to people on organized sightseeing and individual clients at educational establishments, religious and historical sites such as; museums, and at various venues of tourist attraction resorts. Tour guides also take clients on outdoor guided trips. These trips include hiking, whitewater rafting, mountaineering, alpine climbing, rock climbing, ski and snowboarding in the backcountry, fishing, and biking. History In 18th-century Japan, a traveler could pay for a tour guide or consult guide books such as Kaibara Ekken's ''Keijō Shōran'' (The Excellent Views of Kyoto). Description In Europe The CEN (European Committee for Standardization) definition for "tourist guide" – part of the work by CEN on definitions for terminology within the tourism industry – is a "person who guides visitors in the language of their choice a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film and it is derived from the classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1930s, comedy films took another swing, as laughter could result from burlesque situations but also dialogue. Comedy, compared with other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In '' The Screenwriters Taxonomy'' (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story. Therefore the labels "drama" and "comedy" are t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an abbreviation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy holding, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
