PJ DOLAND

While re-watching The Incredibles this evening with my family, I couldn’t help but fixate on the communication device Mirage sends to Robert Parr (Mr. Incredible) so she can make initial contact to offer him a job disabling the Omnidroid. It’s shocking just how much the device resembles an Apple iPad:

Despite the resemblance, I think it’s probably safe to assume that the next version of Apple’s iPad will not include a 3D display, facial recognition, 360° location scanning, or a self-destruct capability.

To whom it may concern, I enjoy watching Dinosaur Train every morning with my son. At first, I found the premise of the show to be thoroughly preposterous. Over time, however, I came to recognize the brilliance of your fine program. So much so, that I’ve decided to pursue a new career in childrens’ television programming. I’ve written a number of Dinosaur Train story treatments, which I would like to pitch to your producers:

1. The pteranodon family accidentally travels through the wrong time tunnel and beholds the horror of their own impending extinction.
2. Buddy learns a valuable lesson about rail-yard safety when he loses his tail in a train coupling accident.
3. Tiny, Don, and Buddy learn about the hobo code when they encounter a hobosaurus riding the rails by boxcar.
4. The pteranodon family travels back in time six-thousand years to witness God’s six-day creation of the earth.
5. The pteranodon family travels forward in time to witness the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Summit as the Transcontinental Railroad is completed on May 10, 1868 AD. Buddy eats Leland Stanford.

Please let me know if you are interested in developing any of these treatments. Sincerely, PJ Doland P.S. I also have a series of stories that involve mammoths traveling via cable car, if you’re looking for a new direction.

1. Victory Through Air Power (1943, directed by Perce Pearce, James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, and H.C. Potter)
2. “Four Methods of Flush Riveting” (1942, directed by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation)
3. “Reason and Emotion” (1943, directed by Bill Roberts)
4. “Seven Wise Dwarfs” (1941, directed by Ford L. Beebe)
5. “The Thrifty Pig” (1941, directed by Ford L. Beebe)

These films are included on Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines

When turned upside-down, the Dodge Viper emblem looks a lot like Daffy Duck:

Don McLean on the incorrect use of the term “cover”:

Back in the days of black radio stations and white radio stations (i.e. segregation), if a black act had a hot record the white kids would find out and want to hear it on “their” radio station. This would prompt the record company to bring a white act into the recording studio and cut an exact, but white, version of the song to give to the white radio stations to play and thus keep the black act where it belonged, on black radio. A “cover” version of a song is a racist tool. Many examples can be found from “Sha Boom” to “Good Lovin’” It is NOT a term intended to be used to describe a valid interpretation of an old song. In that case every pop singer is nothing more than a cover artist (a derogatory description if ever there was one). I am not a “cover” artist and I do not do “covers”. The Crewcuts were cover artists.

1. “Big Top Bunny” (1951, directed by Robert McKimson)
2. “My Bunny Lies Over the Sea” (1948, directed by Chuck Jones)
3. “Wabbit Twouble” (1941, directed by Bob Clampett)
4. “The Prince and the Pauper” (1990, directed by George Scribner)
5. “The Truth About Mother Goose” (1957, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and Bill Justice)

The first three shorts listed above are included on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1. “The Prince and the Pauper” appears on Walt Disney’s Timeless Tales: Volume 1. “The Truth About Mother Goose” is included on the second disc of Walt Disney Tresures: Disney Rarities, Celebrated Shorts: 1920s–1960s.

1. Peter Pan (1953, directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske)

This full-length animated feature is available on DVD.

I find it more than a little bit strange that Disney will go to extreme lengths to remove depictions of cigarette smoking from the “Pecos Bill” segment in the Region 1 DVD release of Melody Time, yet choose to leave this bizarre COCKFIGHTING dance sequence intact as part of the “Baía” segment on The Three Caballeros DVD. To be clear, I’m not saying they should have removed this from the DVD release. I just think Disney’s standards for editing questionable content seem incomprehensible.

1. The Three Caballeros (1944, directed by Norman Ferguson)

This film is available on DVD, bundled along with Saludos Amigos.

On the occasions in which Yosemite Sam would fall victim to either electrocution or an explosion, he would usually lose his trademark facial hair for the remainder of the gag. I recently mentioned this to a friend and I had wanted to show him a picture, but I couldn’t find one anywhere online. I finally got around to taking some stills, which you can see below. I find that a hairless Yosemite Sam looks a bit like a much younger and premyopic version of Quincy Magoo.

Yosemite Sam in “Ballot Box Bunny”

Yosemite Sam in “Big House Bunny”

1. “Big House Bunny” (1950, directed by Friz Freleng)
2. “Rabbit’s Kin” (1952, directed by Robert McKimson)

These shorts are included on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1.

1. “Bully for Bugs” (1953, directed by Chuck Jones)
2. “What’s Up Doc?” (1950, directed by Robert McKimson)

These shorts are included on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1.

1. “The Wise Little Hen” (1934, directed by Wilfred Jackson)
2. “The Golden Touch” (1935, directed by Walt Disney)
3. “Ben and Me” (1953, directed by Hamilton Luske)

These shorts are all included on Walt Disney’s Timeless Tales: Volume 3.

1. “Baseball Bugs” (1946, directed by Friz Freleng)
2. “Long-Haired Hare” (1949, directed by Chuck Jones)
3. “High Diving Hare” (1949, directed by Friz Freleng)
4. “Rabbit Seasoning” (1952, directed by Chuck Jones)

These shorts are included on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1.

Don Bluth is currently in the process of producing a three-minute short using classical animation techniques as a collaborative educational exercise to help give the students of his online animation school some actual hands-on experience. I’ve been keeping an eye on the school’s forums to follow the progress of the students working on the project and it’s been fascinating to watch. Here’s short a student pencil test from the project:

1. “The Country Cousin” (1936, directed by Wilfred Jackson)
2. “Ferdinand the Bull” (1938, directed by Dick Rickard)
3. “The Ugly Duckling” (1939, directed by Jack Cutting)

These shorts are included on Walt Disney’s Timeless Tales: Volume 2.

1. Superman: Doomsday (2007, directed by Bruce Timm, Lauren Montgomery, and Brandon Vietti)

This full-length animated feature is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Simon’s Cat is a brilliant series of animated shorts produced in Flash by Simon Tofield and distributed on YouTube. The newest short, titled “Fly Guy” was released today. I particularly like the rhythm and pacing of Tofield’s shorts. The cat, it should be said, has perfect comedic timing.

1. “Three Little Pigs” (1933, directed by Burton Gillett)
2. “The Pied Piper” (1933, directed by Wilfred Jackson)
3. “The Grasshopper and the Ants” (1934, directed by Wilfred Jackson)
4. “Tortoise and the Hare” (1935, directed by Wilfred Jackson)

These shorts are all included on Walt Disney’s Timeless Tales: Volume 1.