El Capitan Pinocchio Panel!

The Announcement reads: Hollywood’s legendary El Capitan Theater celebrates the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” with a special limited engagement of Walt Disney’s legendary masterpiece, digitally restored with enhanced picture and sound, from January 23rd through February 12th. There will also be a special Panel Discussion before the film on January 22nd at 7:00pm.

Hosted by the inimitable Don Hahn, the panel discussion included Sherri Vandoli from Ink and Paint, Eric Goldberg, legendary animator, and yours truly. It was like a mini-studio on stage, as we each contributed in showing our roles in the process of making an animated film. A wonderful surprise to all of us was the guest of the evening, Dick Jones, the voice of Pinocchio! who told some wonderful stories and shared his memories about the making of the film.

I explained and showed some of the process of making maquettes for Animated Features. As an example I was sculpting a head shot of Jiminy, as you can see in the pics above.

The movie looks wonderful and I encourage all to go see it while you can... it's animation at its best -- great story, great craftsmanship, and overall great movie, proving hand drawn animation is simply one of the best art forms around if it's done right!