Month: July 2014

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – The First One of All

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – The First One of All

Rob Jaiven

Snow_White_1937_posterSnow White & the Seven Dwarfs was the first full length feature animated film released anywhere in the world. Produced by Walt Disney Studios it premiered in December 1937 and was shown in multiple theaters staring in February 1938. Snow White was loved by the public and critics. It is still considered by many to be Walt Disney’s greatest achievement. There are many reasons for this. Snow White’s technical brilliance was overwhelming. The production was four years in the making. Six hundred to seven hundred artists worked on the film. More than two million sketches and paintings were used. All of this was why the film was so adored by all. It was obvious that this was really a masterpiece.

Audiences still love the film and all of the characters. This love for and the look of all of the characters is what drew everyone to the film. Of course the first and most beloved is Snow White herself. She really was the fairest of all. SW at the Well

Each of the Seven Dwarfs had their own look and character. Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Sneezy all became part of the national consciousness.(Trivia question – Which two dwarfs were voiced by the same person? The answer is Sleepy and Grumpy. They were both voiced by Pinto Colvig. Pinto was also the voice of Goofy in the Disney shorts.) When Snow White is running away from the Evil Queen it is the dwarfs who take her in. She becomes a sort of mother to them all.         http://animationartstudio.com/animation-art/animation-cel-snow-white-well-w-toby-bluth-bg

As for villains, the Evil Queen and her alter ego the Wicked Witch are two of the scariest of all. They were drawn to instill fear and the artists succeeded.

Evil Queen with Heartbox

WitchAppleQueen967

http://animationartstudio.com/animation-art/animation-cel-evil-queen-heart-box

http://animationartstudio.com/animation-art/animation-cel-witch-poison-apple

http://animationartstudio.com/animation-art/animation-cel-drawing-snow-white-evil-queen-0

Here are two animation cels and one animation drawing of the queen and the witch. You can see the care and detail that went in to the creation of them. Snow White was not released on videotape until 1994. Until then only the lucky few of us able to procure a bootleg copy of the film were able to view it with regularity. After 1994 it sold over fifty million video copies. It was released on DVD in 2001. It remains the first one – and to most the best of all animated films.

 

 

Movie Posters – How to Play Football

Movie Posters – How to Play Football

Rob Jaiven

                                     CARTOON MOVIE POSTERS NOT FOR KIDS ONLY

Movie posters that are vintage original release posters are quite rare and collectible. They are also fun to collect and display. One reason is the wonderful graphics. Another reason is that movie posters come in many sizes. A standard lobby card is 11″ X 14″. A window card measures 14″ X 22″. An insert poster is 14″ X 36″. This is a really nice size. They display really well. A pair of insert posters can really frame a wall or bay window on either side. This is an example. It is an original insert movie poster from 101101Dalmatian insert movie poster Dalmatians – 1961. Next is a half sheet poster which is 22″ X 28″. The most desirable posters to most collectors are one sheet movie posters. They measure 27″ X 41″. Often, looking at a great one sheet poster is like gazing through a window into another world. Now we start getting into large sizes. Any of these larger posters are quite impressive when framed and exhibited. A three sheet movie poster measures 41″ X 81″. A six sheet is 81″ X 81″. Finally a twenty four sheet poster is usually used on a billboard. That measures 108″ X 246″. There are even more sizes in between.

Cartoon movie posters are not actually animation art. They were not used in the production of a film. They of course were used to advertise and promote them.

Really vintage movie posters from the 1940’s and earlier can be incredibly rare. For many early films there can be only a only a small handful of movie posters known to exist. Even though there were certainly hundreds or more of many posters produced, for some films there are no known copies.

Goofy Football movie poster

 

Walt Disney Studios produced a series of “How to” cartoons starring Goofy. Many of them were how to play different sports. How to Play Baseball, How to Swim and How to Ride a Horse are a few. In 1944 Disney released How to Play Football. The poster is quite striking as you can see at the right. This poster has only one known copy.

http://animationartstudio.com/animation-art/goofy-football-cartoon-movie-poster

These movie posters were used at a theater, then folded up and sent to the next theater or just stored away. No one really thought at the time that they were collectible in any way. Anyway, over the years all copies except this one were lost or thrown away. Vintage cartoon movie posters are collectible because they have a natural scarcity. This is true about all objects that are truly collectible. If something is created with the plan to have it be collectible the odds are that it will never truly become collectible. It is the things that attain this natural scarcity kind of by accident that become really collectible.