Video

Hand Behind the Mouse: Ub Iwerks Story [Import]

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In this 1999 documentary, Leslie Iwerks offers viewers a look at the work of her grandfather, one of the unsung giants of animation and film technology. Ub Iwerks (1901-1971) was a teenager in Kansas City when he and his friend Walt Disney taught themselves animation. In 1928, Iwerks designed Mickey Mouse's physical appearance and animated the first three Mickey shorts almost single-handedly. He left Disney in 1930 to start his own studio, but his cartoons failed to attract audiences. In 1940, he returned to the Disney Studio, where he won Oscars for his work on optical printing and traveling-matte technology. He also revolutionized the animation process by modifying a Xerox machine to print the animators' drawings directly onto cels. Leslie Iwerks has assembled an impressive array of photographs, film clips, and interviews, including young Walt and Ub clowning for the camera in the '20s. But the viewer feels closest to the artist when his loose, vivid drawings of Mickey, Oswald Rabbit, and other characters are on screen. Hand falters when the filmmaker suggests the Hays Code and a shift in national mood were responsible for the failure of the Iwerks studio. Ub Iwerks was one of the great animators of the silent and early sound eras, but he was not an effective director. If the public failed to respond to his Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper characters, it was because they never developed real personalities, a weakness the reissues of the shorts confirms. Suitable for all ages, this 90-minute documentary is often cut in half when it plays on TV. --Charles Solomon

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NTSC, Import

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Documentary
All Disney Titles
Classics
Comedy
Family Films
Musicals
General
Classic Comedies
10-12 Years

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