Congratulations to our friend Holly Sedillos, who's screen credit in Steven Spielberg's new film "Disclosure Day" is: Vocal Soloist.
We couldn't be happier. Holly is terrific in all of her vocal performances! In film and on stage!
Holly sang "Mushka's Lullaby" in my animated film MUSHKA. Check out this music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ast84XT6-KI&list=RDast84XT6-KI&start_radio=1
Here are just a few examples of production designs by the extraordinary Peter Moehle. Previoudly I had worked with Peter at Disney's Orlando Studio on Lilo and Stitch. On that film Peter created concept art as well as finished background paintings in watercolor.
For MUSHKA I wanted rough suggestions for several of the film's locations. He nailed the style immediately, and Background supervisor Natalie Franscioni-Karp used his ideas in her settings to great effect.
I had the honor of being a guest on the popular German NDR Talkshow. We taped it a week and a half ago in Hamburg, and it has been aired three times over the past few days. Other guests included actors, breast cancer survivors, journalists and an olympian athlete.
I talked about my career at Disney as well as my animated film MUSHKA, which will be available for streaming sometime before the holidays (More on that later.)
My Interview can be viewed here ( until Jan, 24):
We had a wonderful Christmas Party at my house. Special guests were the voices of BAMBI:
Here we have me, Donnie Dunagan (Bambi), Holly Sedillos (singer of MUSHKA's Lullaby) and film composer extraordinaire John Powell.
I will post pics of Thumper and Flower ASAP.
We made a music video featuring Richard Sherman's "Mushka's Lullaby".
The wonderful Holly Sedillos is featured during her actual recording. The amazing Synchron Stage Orchestra Vienna is playing the music.
Have a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAuegQPcmT0
The song was arranged by the great Fabrizio Mancinelli, who also provided the film's score.
Negotiations regarding MUSHKA's distribution have only just begun.
Can't tell you how happy I am about MUSHKA's musical success. Richard M. Sherman kicked off our musical journey years ago by contributing the film's melodious theme as well as a beautiful song.
Richard is the most inspirational, generous, down to earth genius you could ever meet.
The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mushka
I just found out by accident that my friend Patrick Mate posted this illustration on his blog in November of last year. At that time we had a nice chat after the MUSHKA screening at CTN.
He added:
I absolutely love it! Patrick is such an amazing artist. Always full of ideas, and he is comfortable in just about any graphic style. Here is a link to his gorgeous art:
https://patrickmate.blogspot.com
It is just in retrospect that myself and all the other trainees from way back realize just how important Eric was to all of us. He of course taught us the proper mechanics of animation, but even more importantly the Disney philosophy for entertainment and how to communicate with an audience. How to search for that extra sparkle that makes a character come off as unique and interesting.
Eric is the godfather of Sybil Byrnes, Milt Kahl's daughter.
These are key animation drawings from individual scenes, arranged for model sheets.
Fabrizio wrote the score for MUSHKA. It is a magnificent score! Here you see him with Richard M Sherman during a musical "brainstorm", a few years ago. This pic was taken at my home. I do own a piano, but I don't play myself. So it is always a special occasion when Richard or Fabrizio (or both) stop by to fill the house with beautiful music.
It was magic witnessing these two magnificent talents coming together to produce the emotional musical landscape for our film. Richard started out by writing a beautiful lullaby (Mushka's lullaby). Fabrizio picked up this theme and incorporated it throughout the overall score.
I remember when Fabrizio had finished writing his first piece of music for a montage sequence. He sent the file to Richard to listen to and to get his input. It turned out that Richard left a phone message full of praise and affection. It was beautiful! Now everyone was on the same page as far as the musical direction.
Fabrizio has written scores for numerous feature films as well as shorts. Go to his website to find out more about his many accomplishments:
https://fabriziomancinelli.us/
I love this photo of him with Diane Disney Miller, who was very fond of Fabrizio and his passion for Disney.
Fabrizio with the one and only Ennio Morricone.
With MUSHKA singer Holly Sedillos after recently winning the Hollywood Music in Media Award for best song in a short film (Mushka's Lullaby).
I encourage you all to listen to Mushka's Lullaby (featuring Holly Sedillos) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhncKYpRAg
I cannot overstate how grateful I am to this young composer who contributed so much to our film with a musical score that exceeded my wildest expectations. Thank you, Fabi!
Take a look at a conversation between Fabrizio and Richard Sherman here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAA6HwV6FkY
The San Jose International Short Film Festival will screen MUSHKA this Saturday 10/14 at 11 am. If you are in the area, get your tickets here:
https://sjsff.com/2023-screening-schedule-at-a-glance/
I loved animating these scenes. The tiger is being pushed from a cliff into a river. By Sarah and Alex. I won't give you the story context here, but this moment is part of the MUSHKA trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnTL5h3GC6g&t=4s
It is extremely comforting when you realize that you can animate such a scene without any reference. These are actually poses for the storyboard, but I also used them as a guide for the animation. After drawing tigers at the local zoo, studying footage of them frame by frame, you get to a point where you just wing it. Gut feeling, intuition. Of course Daniel Ernesto's beautiful water splash animation sure helped to make this a convincing scene.
At Disney I hardly ever had the chance to do action scenes. I needed to focus on personality shots. But on MUSHKA I was able to do both, and I loved it. Figuring out the proper pacing for an action sequence was absolutely thrilling. You try to escalate the danger before things come to a halt. And then the resolve.
Woolie Reitherman talked about this in several interviews. And I definitely kept that in mind.
A beautiful color model cel currently being offered by Heritage Auctions. Milt Kahl drew this pose of Sir Ector from the 1963 film The Sword in the Stone. What a beautiful spontaneous sketch.
In the film Richard Reitherman provided the voice of Wart, England's future king. His father Woolie Reitherman of course directed the movie. Richard stopped by my house last Sunday with one of his daughters Daniella. We watched the Woolie episode from The Disney Family Album series. Followed by a screening of MUSHKA.
I am happy to say that both of them got teary eyed at the film's ending. Because that's the ultimate reaction to MUSHKA.
