Disney’s latest Goofy short, How To Hook Up Your Home Theater System, isn’t new — it was released in 2007, but largely went under the radar — but it’s significant, not just because it’s a fantastic update with an equally absurd modern focus of the formula pioneered in Jack Kinney post-war classics like Goofy Gymnastics, but because it’s one of the only cartoons I’ve seen from Disney in recent memory that is actually animated, not digitally squirted out by Pixar.
The central gags will be chuckled over and understood by any gadget blog reader (I love Goofy’s chainsaw solution to hiding his cables), but for a thoughtful review on the short from an animation perspective, check out this fantastic review over at Cartoon Brew. This really is a love letter by contemporary animators to some of Disney’s greats.
[via Giz]
Previously • Video: Tex Avery’s Television of Tomorrow (1953)
It’s amazing – from the classic title cards to the pacing and gags. Sadly it hasn’t been released on DVD/Blu-ray yet (I thought for sure it would’ve been a bonus on the National Treasure 2 disc, as they were shown together in theaters). BUT it’s on iTunes for $1.99 if you must see it (and you should!). I wish for many more shorts in the coming years – this is what Disney is all about.
Remind me to find and scan an article from MAD Magazine about hooking up a home theater, because when I first read it I busted up laughing. The diagrams were HILARIOUS.
Found a direct link to an flv, grab it before the Mouse takes it down:
Goofy’s Guide…
I have no words to describe how incredibly, insanely good this cartoon is… I instantly forgave Disney for all the decades of crap they have thrown upon us since the 70′s.
#12: Please do.
In other news, the video seems to have been pulled ..?
What the fuck are you guys talking about? I didn’t say anything critical of Pixar, but it sure as hell ain’t the same as traditional animation, and shouldn’t supplant it. This is one of the few traditionally animated cartoons to have been released in recent memory: stating that traditional animation shouldn’t go away in the CGI age is hardly blasphemy, just an appreciation of another form.
Too late, Brownlee. Please report to Reconditioning. Bring a notebook and your pipe: You’ll be watching 72 hours straight of Cars.
(P.S. I love Pixar. Real love. A sexual love, if you must know. Except for Cars.)
Watch the special features on the Ratatouille DVD. The bit about making the little animated short is a great insight into how actually *into* the process of animation pixar is.
“Digitally squirted out”? Come on man, it might lack some of the cosy warmth of traditional animation but Pixar’s stuff is still animated, by animators. The tools are just different.
Here’s a widescreen version (link goes to extra-tasty MP4-format view option). Get it while it lasts.
I second that. I’d like to see what kind of CGI John Brownlee could slap together using his own proprietary, custom coded software if it’s supposedly such an easy process.
very nice! and outside of the silly tech, not plagued by dumb pop culture references that will go stale in a month or so.
yessss.. not squirted out. who is this maverick john lasseter in the credits? they should keep an eye on him!
Arrgh, I wouldn’t go that far! I can’t imagine any CGI created by Mr Brownlee being anything less than utterly terrifying.
I think the “fuck” that these guys are on about referes to this comment.
“I’ve seen from Disney in recent memory that is actually animated, not digitally squirted out by Pixar.”
Perhaps you meant “… that is actually hand drawn animation…” ?
Digital animation is still animation that takes just as much love and time to make as 2D animation.
I know what your trying to say, but as an animator myself, I got upset reading your segment.
But yeah its great to see 2D on the comeback. Check out the Princess and the Frog coming up too.
Pixar might make some good stuff, but it’s not the same to me as a 2d cartoon. Why all animation suddenly has to be 3d is beyond me.
“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by The Walt Disney Company”
Damn, sounded good.
#9: Forget keeping their brand in the hearts and minds of people, Disney says “We own this shit! Keep off!”
Are you sure there is no cgi in the Styrofoam peanuts scene?