Keskustelujen arkisto

Hello all,

Sorry to bring this off-topic subject to the Disney list, but I am once
again in need of help with some translations for an Alan Moore project,
the next League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book. I have five English
sentences that need to be translated into Dutch. I should add that the
content of at least one is of an adult nature. If any Dutch members of
the list would be willing to help me, please email me off-list. Thanks!

Todd Klein

On Sep 14, 2005, at 6:01 AM, dcml-request at stp.lingfil.uu.se wrote:

> Is this the one-shot Alan Moore is doing for DC or the volume 3 he's
> writing for Top Shelf (I think)?

It's the one for DC.

Todd

> From: "KUR" <ggk at wp.pl>
> Subject: The Starstruck Duck!
> I herd in one of 'Hall of Fames" contains a "Starstruck Duck"
> story witch as I found out is some sort of a story-board
> script!
> Why this story was never drawn?
> I suspect it probably was explain in the "Hall of Fame". but
> since we won't get a "Don Rosa's Hall of Fame" here

The easiest way to answer that is copy over the original text that I sent to
Egmont for inclusion in that ROSA HALL OF FAME II volume:

THE STAR-STRUCK DUCK

Late in 1988 I was asked by Gladstone to create a very special story! The
Disney-MGM Studio themepark was nearing completion and Disney had asked
Gladstone Comics to create a Donald Duck story to promote the new park, an
assignment the editors passed to me. This was especially interesting because
I was then invited to have a special VIP tour of the unfinished park! I
stopped by DisneyWorld for that purpose while returning from a Christmas
vacation in Key West, and I was given a private tour of the entire place. I
made various notes and sketches that I would use in writing a Donald Duck
story set in the Park.
When I was growing up in the mid 1950's, Dell's Disney comics sometimes also
featured similar special stories where Donald or Mickey or other Disney
characters were shown visiting the brand new Disneyland amusement park in
California, promo stories surely requested by Disney then just as they had
requested a Disney-MGM Studio promo story from Gladstone. The way in which
those old Dell stories worked was that we would see Donald taking his
Nephews to Disneyland, then after about a page he would say "y'know, this
reminds me of the time that." and the story would switch from involving
Disneyland to a flashback tale of something else altogether. Well, I wanted
to do something better than that! I would actually have my entire story take
place in the new Disney-MGM Studio Park. I would have Donald interact with
every attraction in the new park, even with geographic accuracy. I would
have lots of funny references to old Disney films and history. And I would
even use Mickey Mouse in the story! Now, a few of you may know that in my
personal view of Donald Duck's "Universe" Mickey Mouse does not really
exist. at least not as a chum that Donald might sometimes interact with. But
I thought it would be an amusing situation if I used Mickey Mouse as being a
famous "movie star" in Donald's world, and having the action involve a
Keystone Kops chase through the Park that results when Donald is trying to
get the famous Mouse's autograph. And I thought I did a really magnificent
job accomplishing all that! I spent most of January creating a masterpiece
of promotion spotlighting every square meter of that new theme park.
But the story was never produced. Disney rejected my script when Gladstone
showed it to them.
You might think that the reason for rejection was the bizarre manner in
which I use Mickey Mouse within my own personal vision of the Duck Universe.
You might think it's because I made too many references to old movies or
other characters that only film buffs like me would understand. You might
think it was because I based the closing gag on an old expression that might
no longer be understood (and which you Europeans might not know?): "I can't
remember his name, but his face sure rings a bell". But no, none of those.
The reason I was given for Disney's rejection was that they thought my story
was "too commercial". BOING! Huh? Wasn't that the whole idea?!
Anyway, this is the only Duckstory I ever wrote that was rejected and that I
never completed with finished art. But I naturally saved my
storyboard-script and Egmont asked to use it in its chronological place here
in this volume, for it's first printing anywhere! (And I'll finally get
paid for that lost month of work I did 'way back in January, 1989! Hoo-Hah!)

L. Schulte wrote:

> The discussion about detective stories reminded me of the animated
> Disney movie in the middle 1980's The Great Mouse Detective, which
> used the voice of the great Vincent Price for Rattigan, the villain in
> the story. I have always thought this movie was underrated and
> under-appreciated. The finale, in the gears of the clock Big Ben, has
> even been copied by Jackie Chan in Shanghai Knights. If you do not
> know this movie, made before The Lion King, you are missing a very
> fine and funny piece of work.

Agreed. For some mind-boggling reason, this great movie seems to have
been forgotten by everyone. It's not perfect, and the animation is too
limited -- but in story content and in its ability to involve the
audience it was a *giant* step up from "The Fox and the Hound". ("The
Black Cauldron" was never shown in Danish movie theatres, so I've never
seen it and can't comment on it.) Disney should have made a "Great Mouse
Detective" TV series spin-off, like they did with "Aladdin" etc.

Lars

The thing that especially excited me about The Great Mouse Detective and
The Flight of the Navigator before it, was that it demonstrated that the
Disney animators understood that to recreate reality using computers,
one must start with recreating light, or precisely, the effects of light.

In the Flight of the Navigator, the steps which led from the flight
machine were computer created and correctly showed the planing of light.

In The Great Mouse Detective, the opening of the movie was entirely in
fog, tendrils of which floated toward one with almost three dimensional
impact because of the computer rendered highlights edging of the forms.

This was all in profound contrast to Tron, which had a kind of cheesy
rotoscoping cum 8-bit processing quality to it, no matter that it is
considered a cult-favorite today.

Let there be light!

--
* Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci's greatest works were destroyed?
* That he had an adopted son nicknamed Salai, the "little Devil"?

"CHIAROSCURO: The Private Lives of Leonardo da Vinci"

A graphic novel by Dave Rawson, Pat McGreal & Chaz Truog.
ISBN 1-4012-0498-8 (Available everywhere late October 2005)

BOB:

> with those the crude graphics of the time.

Although that time's computer graphics may appear crude compared to today's
standards, TRON's graphics were anything but the crude graphics *of the time*.
Disney's animators used something like 9000 hours of computer time on a Cray
XMP supercomputer, one of the fastest computers of the time, to produce
relatively realistic images that had nothing in common with the jaggy,
low-resolution, 16-color-at-best images that personal computers of the time
could produce. I remember that my initial reaction to the film was that it did
not look to me at all like it was computer-generated; I wanted to see jagged
edges and individual pixels!

However, I feel that the biggest flaw of the movie was summarized by the
professor teaching a computer graphics course that I took back in 1984 or so:
they spent most of their budget on buying computer time, instead of a script!

Kriton.
-----
"When do I get to meet some monsters?"
"Never, hopefully."
-----

Kriton,

I'm in agreement on all your points, except calling the Disney
animators. I thought they were mainly Lisberger's team. How many
Disney animators participated?

The light flickering flaws were due to the manual glow processing,
not the computer graphics. Still, they reminded me of the flickering
quality of the era's CRTs and made a fine substitute for jaggies.

BTW, if TRON were made today, we'd have to avoid one moviegoer's
criticism of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within": she walked out
because the actors were too wooden!

And one final point before we turn this list BACK to Disney Comics: A
useful CGI timeline: <http://www.answers.com/main/
ntquery;jsessionid=2j2q7scqjddng?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Timeline+of
+CGI+in+movies&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc01a&linktext=Timeline%20of%
20CGI%20in%20movies>

Does anyone out there know where I might find a copy of Set 10 for sale? Outside of waiting for a set to show up on eBay I don't know where to find one. Thanks.

--
david.skoglund at att.net