New Mickey Mouse Short Before FROZEN Is Amazing

There has been a lot of buzz about the new Disney animated film FROZEN, a musical about two princesses/sisters living in an enchanted land. Though it sounds like classic Disney, it is but with a modern twist (actually two!) which really take this out of the standard Disney-formula and make it really something special. It's one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and moving films the studio has released in many years.

But make sure when you go to see it to get to the theatre early. Not just to get a good seat but to see the new animated short that precedes the film called GET A HORSE. This Mickey Mouse curtain-warmer looks like something from the Disney vaults circa 1930. But it's actually a brand new film created by not one but two teams of Disney animators; one group recreated the classic Mickey look from that time period (B&W with a boxy frame and a very bouncy-style animation) while the second group did the 3-D work.  They even found some old recordings of Walt's voice to use for Mickey!

Now you may be wondering how an old-school short would have 3D but that's the true surprise and the real joy of this film which, I believe, is the most effective (and realistic!) use of 3D animation since the new process took off a few years ago with AVATAR. To say more would be to spoil the fun but this little short almost steals the thunder from FROZEN...almost. It's not nearly as touching and beautiful as that film but incredibly clever and hilarious too.

Movie Tix Trump DVD Sales

Here's a little bit of encouraging news for the movie biz that came out this week:  in 2009, ticket sales surpassed DVD sales for the first time in nearly 7 years.  But it is something of a case of good news bad news.  


Though the 2009 domestic box office is up by roughly 10 percent over the previous year, the reason it really beat out DVD and Blu-Ray is that disc sales dropped more than 13 percent, continuing a downward trend that began a couple years ago. And that trend is not likely to stop anytime soon given the number of cheap rental options (Redbox's 1$ per day) and new download options (Netflix streaming movies on X-Box).  


Still, with Avatar packing them in, and grossing more than 1 billion worldwide, people seem to be going to the movies more.  The key is getting them to see movies that aren't in 3D or don't blow up the world.  That's the challenge for the indie sector which, despite all this good news, is still struggling with a lack of screens and an audience that waits for the films to appear on DVD.