Mouse House

Last week, I was fortunate enough to meet Don Hahn. Don't know who he is? WHAT?!? Wiki him! Or click HERE...

Charles Solomon, the professor I TA for, screened "Waking Sleeping Beauty" during class and Don dropped by for a Q&A session once the film was over. Don couldn't have been nicer, and his directorial debut (a documentary) was incredibly entertaining. A wonderful compliment to "The Pixar Story" - another animation-focused documentary - that even folks who don't give a flying fudge about animation would enjoy. One of the highlights of "Waking Sleeping Beauty" was when animator Randy Cartwright shared old home footage of him touring the Disney animation building. Cartwright sports a Justin Bieber-esque bowl cut, and Tim Burton... OMIGOSH... Tim Burton. (Click HERE to see a set of Flick photos posted by Randy of a young Tim Burton! Hehe. Animators.)

Randy will be honored at this year's Festival of Animation. Yes, he'll be there! He's an alumni from the UCLA Animation Workshop :) Yet another reason to stop on by on June 5th...

Photo: Disneyland during the 70s plucked from Randy Cartwright's Flickr account

Professor Solomon

Alongside my two animating gal pals, Alexis and Natalie, I will be a teaching assistant for Charles Solomon starting Monday. For those of you not in the know *pssssh* Professor Solomon is an internationally respected historian and critic of animation. *mmm-hmm* He's "besties" with Pete Doctor and some of the other mad-geniuses at Pixar, and that makes him one super cool cat.

Alexis is building the class website, and well, I'll be providing some doodles to spice up the otherwise business-as-usual site. See my interpretation of Professor Solomon going "Oh hey guys!" and ourselves staring back at him intently. *teehee*