People are always asking me, what are my favorite animated scenes? I have so many I can't really choose my favorite, but here are some:


All of Bob Clampett's Great Piggybank Robbery,

All of Friz Freleng's Back Alley Oproar.

The Horse in Chuck Jones's the Draft Horse.

Eric Larson's work on Figaro in Pinnochio

Marc Davis' Cruella Da Ville in 101 Dalmations

Bill Littlejohn's work on Snoopy dancing on Shroeder's piano in Charlie Brown Christmas

John Sibley's Goofy in Galloping Gauchos

All of the Mickey short, The Band Concert.

All of UPA's Rooty Toot Toot.

Thom Enriquez and Andy Gaskill's designs of the Circle of Life number in The Lion King

Eric Goldberg's Genii in Aladdin.

Frederic Back's the Man who Planted Trees in the original French. I'm not just being snobby. Although my French isn't that good, I followed the story anyway and enjoyed the images and the music more. Plus, Phillipe Noiret has such a beautiful narrating voice- apologies to Christopher Plummer.

John K's Stimpy's Invention

Paul Dreissen's Cats' Cradle

Borge Rings' Anna & Bella

All of John Hubley's Adventures of an *.

Nik Ranieri's animation of Roger Rabbit expressing his moral outrage before getting hit with a ton of bricks in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Dori doing the whale sounds in Finding Nemo

Gary Trousedale's and Chris Sander's gag drawings on any picture we happened to be on.

I'll think of some more later....
------------------------------------------------------------
Birthdays: George Fredrich Handel, Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps'), Mayer Amschel Rothschild-1743- founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, Victor Fleming director of GWTW, Tom Bodet,
W.E.B. DuBois, Johnny Winter, Peter Fonda, Ed Too Tall Jones, William Shirer, Allan MacLeod Cormack-inventor of the CAT Scan, Kelly MacDonald, Steve Jobs, Kristin Davis, Dakota Fanning is 13.

Roman Festival Terminalia, god of borders and boundries.
Not to be confused of course with Janus god of portals and doorways.

1821- In a house in Rome’s Piazza de Espagna 25 year old English poet John Keats died of tuberculosis. As he was dying he joked: ” I can feel daisies growing over me”. He instructed that his grave marker bear only the self deprecating message” Here lies one whose Fame was Written in Water.”

1847-Battle of Buena Vista- No, not between Michael Eisner and Roy Disney but General Zachary Taylor against the Mexican army. While Zachary Taylor was called "Old Rough and Ready", Winfield Scott was "Old Fuss and Feathers".

1935- Walt Disney Mickey & Donald cartoon "The Band Concert". This was the first color Mickey Mouse cartoon.

1940-Woody Guthrie had just arrived in New York City and was staying in a fleabag hotel in Manhattan. He overheard on the radio Kate Smith singing Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” and was annoyed because he felt it was overtly patriotic and corny. It was everything he hated about Tin Pan Alley, a rose-colored tune denying the class injustice and suffering of the Great Depression. So Woody took out some paper and his guitar and composed six stanzas he originally called God Blessed America, but he later changed to 'This Land is Your Land". It became the song he’s best remembered for and today it’s considered just as patriotic as God Bless America.

1942- In the dead of night a Japanese submarine surfaced off the California coast and fired its cannon at lights it thinks is a city. In reality it's an oil refinery near Goleta (Ellwood) just north of Santa Barbera. The brief bombardment caused $150 dollars in damage. The sub breaks radio silence to report to Tokyo that " Enemy coast sighted. Los Angeles is in Flames." The incident fueled the panic that Californians had that the West Coast was ripe for enemy invasion. The incident was lampooned in the Steven Spielberg comedy "1941."