In honor of the 50^th anniversary of the release of the beloved Disney classic, “Sleeping Beauty”, and for the magnificent new blu-ray & dvd release of the film this Tuesday, October 7^th, Disney held several virtual conferences tied with the release; seminars attended by Burny Mattinson, assistant animator to Marc Davis, one of the legendary “Nine Old Men”. Mattinson’s history with Disney is long and storied.

Presented here are transcripts from the conference.

Michael Stailey: How much of Maleficent’s onscreen personality comes from Eleanor Audley’s rich performance and how much is classic Marc Davis?

Burny Mattinson: I’d say 60% of it was Eleanor’s and Marc followed up with the rest of it!  He was highly influenced by her – she set the tone for how the character should act.

Fiona Wright: What design features make Maleficient a great villain?

Burny Mattinson: The head-dress certainly made a strong statement…her being tall and overpowering the frame and her bombastic acting where she kept everything controlled and would explode suddenly – that created a strong character.

Alon Rosenblum: when you create a character there are a lot of designs, can you tell us about the “elimination” process, how do you get to the pick the final design, who has “the last word” etc…..?

Burny Mattinson: In this case, Walt had the last word on the design and as it passes between different designers and Marc Davis, it afforded them a chance to take a little bit of everybody’s design and mix it together, but Walt made the last decision on each character – and on every aspect of the picture.  He wouldn’t let everything go unless he saw it and that’s why it took so long to make this picture as he wanted to pass on everything, since at the time he was so involved with Disneyland.

Brian Gallagher: When you were working on this film, did you have any sort of idea that it would be as timeless and remain so popular 50 years later?

Burny Mattinson: No!  We were pleasantly surprised when everybody saw the final print and I think we all felt we made something classic.  But at the time, we didn’t realize that this would become such a beloved classic – we were too close to the working problems of it…just getting the work done, but then, when it was all together and we saw it for the first time, we realized we had something!

David Barrios: What made Maleficient so different from villains previously made by Disney?

Burny Mattinson: One thing that got me was the fact that her reaction at not being invited to the party was a bit over the top – which is pretty darn cruel for no reason…

Henrique Sampaio: Malificent is one of the most famous villains in the animation history. She became even more notorious with the successful game “Kingdom Hearts”. What do you think it made her so famous?

Burny Mattinson: She was in such a classic picture that she stood out probably more strongly than other characters.  Her thinking process is very quiet and cunning and you’re anticipating the next moment and then suddenly she blows…she comes on so sweetly and then suddenly you have this evilness bursting out of her – it resulted in such a strong, memorable character.  For me it was a joy working with Marc – he made everything so fun and easy – he was such a strong designer.  I learned so much from him.  Everything was so well worked out with Marc.  He was such a calm fellow and really knew his craft and it was easily conveyed in his work.  So no wonder she was such a memorable character.

Reg Seeton: What is your favorite Disney animation that you didn’t work on?

Burny Mattinson: Pinocchio – I wasn’t able to work on it since I was just a little kid, but it had the biggest impact on me because it’s why I wanted to work here at Disney.

Natalia Soares: You’ve worked in many unforgettable movies. Which one is your favorite?

Burny Mattinson: I have a very strong feeling for THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, beyond that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was one of my favorites to work on.  LADY AND THE TRAMP was my first film with the studio, and, of course, SLEEPING BEAUTY has a very soft spot in my heart.

Alon Rosenblum: why did you decide to film SLEEPING BEAUTY on 70mm?

Burny Mattinson: Cinemascope was the new wave at the time and we had just done LADY AND THE TRAMP which was originally to be done in standard 35mm frame.  Walt said ‘let’s capitalize on Cinemascope’ and we added the wider aspect into the designs.  So, when it came to SLEEPING BEAUTY he wanted to make it bigger and better and said ‘let’s go with 70mm’ because he was trying to make a true classic.  In fact he asked that we design this design as a moving tapestry.

Alejandra Alvarez: How was working with one of the legendary nine old men of animation?

Burny Mattinson: It was wonderful!  Marc was an absolute gentleman with total confidence in what he did.  He took an interest in a very naive, young aspiring artists (me).  He took me under his wing and taught me practically everything I know in animation.  In fact, he looked at my work early on and he said I should go down to Chaunard’s Art School and he’d let me sit in his classes.  He taught me how to draw the human figure.

Michael Stailey: How many animated features did Walt have in development at any given time? Were there any that didn’t get made you would have loved to be a part of?

Burny Mattinson: About 1940, Walt was starting to do four features at one time (Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia and Dumbo) and they were all in work status.  At the same time he had stories that were in development like Cinderella and Peter Pan in which development hit a wall so they were put on the shelf and revisited later.   Walt was disappointed in Pinocchio and Fantasia not doing as well as they should because of the overseas market disappearing during World War II, that he was going to go on a long vacation.  Someone sent a little series of pictures of an elephant character and he gave it to Joe Grant and said ‘See what you can do with it.’  So, Joe and Dick Humor developed the story of Dumbo while Walt was away which was done very fast because it was so simple and it was very successful.

Reg Seeton: How has animation at Disney changed since you first worked on Sleeping Beauty?

Burny Mattinson: When we first worked on SLEEPING BEAUTY we were trying to do a more classic approach to our animation. We were trying to be more exacting in the design aspects – that was strongly influenced.  We were trying to learn our ‘straights’ against ‘curves’ to fit within Eyvind Earle’s stylized backgrounds.  This was a slow process.  Later on we went to a looser approach on 101 DALAMTAINS, where we could speed up the process but we were also trying to get back into the classic style of animation.  Even today, we still try to keep a classic approach – perhaps not as designed as on SLEEPING BEAUTY, but we still try to keep a classic approach to our contemporary titles.

Edward Liu: What’s the one thing you think nobody notices in Sleeping Beauty that they should pay attention to?

Burny Mattinson: Watch the beautiful backgrounds – the animation is so well done, especially the fairies when they’re little miniature fairies.  The restored aspect ratio now includes so much more imagery that has never been seen before and the forest sequences are fantastic in Blu-ray.

In honor of the 50^th anniversary of the release of the beloved Disney classic, “Sleeping Beauty”, and for the magnificent new blu-ray & dvd release of the film this Tuesday, October 7^th, Disney held several virtual confrences tied with the release; seminars attended by Burny Mattinson, assistant animator to Marc Davis, one of the legendary “Nine Old Men”. Mattinson’s history with Disney is long and storied.

Presented here are transcripts from the conference.

Michael Stailey: How much of Maleficent’s onscreen personality comes from Eleanor Audley’s rich performance and how much is classic Marc Davis?

Burny Mattinson: I’d say 60% of it was Eleanor’s and Marc followed up with the rest of it!  He was highly influenced by her – she set the tone for how the character should act.

Fiona Wright: What design features make Maleficient a great villain?

Burny Mattinson: The head-dress certainly made a strong statement…her being tall and overpowering the frame and her bombastic acting where she kept everything controlled and would explode suddenly – that created a strong character.

Alon Rosenblum: when you create a character there are a lot of designs, can you tell us about the “elimination” process, how do you get to the pick the final design, who has “the last word” etc…..?

Burny Mattinson: In this case, Walt had the last word on the design and as it passes between different designers and Marc Davis, it afforded them a chance to take a little bit of everybody’s design and mix it together, but Walt made the last decision on each character – and on every aspect of the picture.  He wouldn’t let everything go unless he saw it and that’s why it took so long to make this picture as he wanted to pass on everything, since at the time he was so involved with Disneyland.

THE AV INTERVIEW #136

Conducted by: Troy Anderson

Owner/Editor-Chief of AndersonVision (www.andersonvision.com)

Subject:

Charlie Boswell

(author GLOBAL NERDING AND THE AUTISTIC PLANET)

 Global Nerding and the Autistic Planet © – 2007 Charles R. Boswell Jr.

The mind should be able to soar high like a bird without any frameworks.  This graphic from the book is intended to illustrate the end result of Global Nerding if left unchecked.   Our minds will behave like blind birds in wheel chairs no longer able to fly or even walk.   The planet will reach nerd equilibrium…..The Autistic Planet is a world where social intelligence is endangered and Global Nerding is the system depleting that resource.

For more on Charlie Boswell check out his blog at http://blogs.amd.com/boswell/default.aspx

1.       What caused you to discover “Global Nerding”?

Some context…My background and career experience have had a lot to do with shaping my views.  I dropped out of music school to become an engineer so I entered the technology world with a purely artistic bent.    I grew up in a farming community in North Missouri which was actually the boyhood home of Walt Disney.   Self entertainment was a necessity.  My mother was a Barrelhouse piano player and my father was military and an engineer.  So I’m a bit of a hybrid.   I’ve been a musician and film maker since my teens.  I became an engineer probably to prove something to my father.    During the latter half of my 25 years in the tech industry I began to become interested in why it’s crowning creation, the PC, is so arcane and non-intuitive.  I’ve struggled with this question.  “If we technologists are such mental wizards, then why is the industry incapable of designing technical solutions people resonate with…on a more regular basis”.     I’m troubled when society generally accepts the fact PC technology “solutions” are non-intuitive.   It’s always fascinated me that whenever some high-tech device comes along that’s actually easy for people to use, the media hails it as miraculous..  Comparatively speaking, they are right.   Why are these devices the exception and not the rule?   Why have most user experiences with the PC been only tolerable?  Why is the PC sullied by pundits incessantly? 

While working as an engineer at AMD I was asked by our CEO to help evangelize our technology to the creative content market.   This opportunity happened purely by accident in 2000 after I caught his attention by writing a film score for a low budget movie in Austin in the late 1999.    Over the past 8 years I’ve worked with some top directors and rock stars and their teams.   All of which use technology in their creative pursuits.   In my discussions and interactions with many artists, they have all shared their stories of struggling with technology.   I’ve witnessed the struggle first hand as my team and I work directly with them to provide solutions.  Their experience is roughly the same as many non-technical people.    It was during this period of observation I began to organize my treatise on Global Nerding.  

Global Nerding is a planetary trend in which mankind is systematically adapting his behavior to technology and its frameworks.   The geek culture has flourished under Global Nerding while non-technical mainstream society has accepted a very non-optimal user experience…as stated specifically from the average user’s point of view.  

If you’re an industry executive, it’s hard to look smart if the numbers don’t support your glorious plans.   The nerd market has almost reached a saturation point and now corporations are competing for more typical users and new user markets.  The average non user segment of society says, “I’m just not a computer person” as they struggle and doubt their own intelligence.   I’ve never liked that for many reasons.   It doesn’t make good business sense either. 

The personal computer, along with its macro economics, is the most tangible agent of Global Nerding because it has become the ubiquitous hub for productivity, communication, commerce, and “creation” in our daily lives.    There is no escape from getting jacked full-into the MATRIX now.   

Pervasive high technology along with its culture and macroeconomic systems began shifting mankind steadily toward a nerd utopian society or a society where individuals with autistic attributes are favored, in fact cultivated.     This is helping melt the social mind of the planet.

Impacts of Global Nerding are manifold…culture, language, and art.   The economic success of the nerd culture has established an infrastructure that encourages us to all to behave like nerds or worse,  conditions us to accept a less than stunning user experience .…in addition, is there a secondary effect of Global Nerding where the nerd gene pool has been cultivated?   Does the autism explosion signal the tipping point in Global Nerding? Is life beginning to imitate technology?    I’m simply asking questions. 

Watching many artists invite technology and the nerd culture into their creative environments, I began to notice some similarity to what I observed watching regular non-technical people use technology.  The artist desires to create at the speed of thought while the consumer desires to become immersed in those creations without becoming an IT professional.    The experiences of both groups are far from optimal.  Who cares?  I care and anyone else who cares about art and commerce.   I have witnessed an almost chronic lack of empathy for most non-tech savvy end users by the high-tech sector.  

Why Does Boswell make reference to Autism?

I sit on the board of advisors for a team of researchers and physicians who treat autistic children.  I met this organization at a movie premier through the director Robert Rodriguez.  Their website is www.thoughtfulhouse.org.   When I met the staff at Thoughtful House, I was not just a dabbler in the topic as I had been doing my own research.   I had become interested in autism after reading an article on an airplane describing the autistic as suffering from a chronic lack of empathy for other minds.  This lack of empathy is exhibited by many individuals diagnosed with either autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.  Asperger’s Syndrome is used to describe the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum where one of the most disabling characteristics in a sometimes brilliant or gifted individual is a lack of empathy with others. In many instances the autistic person is literally medically incapable of empathy with another mind.   This condition is called Mind Blindness and is common in all forms of autism.  The severity depends upon where the person is within the spectrum.  I saw a similar lack of empathy within the high tech industry…lack of empathy for the end user that is.   I also noticed the language of corporate America to be very machine like.   High-tech language is very “bare-message” oriented.   Autistic minds cannot deal with ostensive forms of communication and rely upon bare message styles.  Metaphor and analogy are completely out of reach for many of these individuals.  Overtime I became more involved with some researchers in the field of autism here in Austin and I began support their research and their work with the families of autistic children.    My personal mission is to help raise awareness on the plight of autistic children and their families and also increase the level of empathy for end users of technology.   This is my cause celeb.