It’s (finally) starting to get chilly down here in the South, and that turns our thoughts to … penguins. Okay, not really, but for the purposes of this week’s edition of Saturday Morning Cartoons, let’s just say that’s true as we present you with The Legend of Rockabye Point, featuring the cutest penguin ever. The…
Earlier this week, we posted a review of Kendra Bean’s wonderful new illustrated biography of Vivien Leigh, subtitled An Intimate Portrait. Today, Kendra has graciously agreed to answer a few questions for us about Vivien and the process of researching and writing the book. You state early in the book that you were first introduced to…
Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait Kendra Bean Release Date: October 15, 2013 Running Press Hardcover, 272 pages Tomorrow, November 5th, marks the one hundredth anniversary of Vivien Leigh’s birth. And though she appeared in fewer than two dozen films during her career, she remains one of the most memorable actresses to ever grace the screen,…
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) is a chilling piece of short fiction, providing a look into madness through the eyes of a narrator who believes himself to be perfectly sane. Though intriguing in its own right, the story does not seem to be ripe for animated interpretation–at least upon first glance. But the artists at…
Modern American movie production is generally associated with southern California, where the warm climate makes an ideal setting for year-round filming. But in the earliest days of film, when small film studios began sprouting up in the hopes of making big bucks in the fledgling industry, production was centered on the east coast. New York…
1929 was a good year for Walt Disney: his seminal creation, Mickey Mouse, had just broken out as a huge star in the wake of the immensely popular short Steamboat Willie (1928). That cartoon’s success led to a series of sound-synchronized Mickey cartoons being released to theaters, two of which (Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho) had been…
In 1931, William Powell accepted a contract from Warner Bros. and entered a new phase in his burgeoning career. It was, at least at first, a solid move for the star. He had made his film debut almost a decade earlier at Samuel Goldwyn’s eponymous studio, in a small supporting role in 1922’s Sherlock Holmes, and toiled…
In 1933, Betty Boop was at the height of her cinematic fame. The Fleischer-animated shorts–racy, daffy, and wonderfully musical–were immensely popular. Audiences couldn’t get enough of sweet Betty and her crazy adventures, and the Fleischers continued to churn out one appealing cartoon after another. Over the course of her 1930s filmography, Betty Boop hosted any…
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