Ed Catmull appeared along with Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton and others for a panel talk on the history of computer animation that was held at The Computer History Museum 6 years ago. It runs for one hour and forty minutes. Ed Catmull was Co-Founder and President, Pixar Animation Studios. Brad Bird was writer/director on The Incredibles at Pixar Animation Studios. Other speakers; Alvy Ray Smith, Co-Founder of four centers of computer graphics excellence (Altamira, Pixar, Lucasfilm, New York Tech) and a Microsoft Fellow, Andrew Stanton, Writer/ Director, Finding Nemo, Pixar Animation Studios, and Michael Rubin, Moderator, Author of Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution.

Mickey tries to emulate his hero, Charles Lindberg, and woo Minnie with his own, homemade airplane. Directed by Walt Disney.

This was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be made. A silent version was previewed in Los Angeles, but failed to impress audiences, so did not go on general release. A second cartoon, The Gallopin’ Gaucho, was also put on hold.

After the success of the the sound film, Steamboat Willie, Disney released Plane Crazy with sound in 1929. This leads to some ambiguity as to which is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, as Plane Crazy was the first to be produced while Steamboat Willie was the first to be released.

An RKO newsreel looks at the making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “We take you behind the closed doors of the famed Walt Disney studios in Hollywood” enthuses the newsreel commentator. “Doors usually barred to all visitors. In the past three years the studio staff has grown from less than 300 to more that 700 artists and musicians. They worked in shifts, night and day to complete this unique entertainment…”

Felix the Cat cartoons are all magic – beautifully simple, they are entirely visual and do not need sound, writes Godfrey Jones in Animator mag.

An amazing, imaginative piece of animation – no story, just the instruction “watch us move”; and so we do. The first “real” animated film, and still the best, writes Godfrey Jones in Animator mag.

If you’ve got skeletons like this in your cupboard then I’d hate to be your next door neighbour! Ub Iwerks takes the stage, with pencil in hand, to bring life to the dead in this classic Disney short. The first Silly Symphony chose dancing skeletons to combine sound and vision, opening new doors for the wonderful world of animation, writes Paul Thomas in Animator mag.

Walt was good at firsts and he produced the first cartoon talkie. As a very young Mr – Mickey Mouse smashes, bashes and crashes every thing in sight. To a musical ding-dong he crash, bang, walloped his way into movie history, writes Paul Thomas in Animator mag.

Introduced by Haley Mills, this is a behind the scenes view of the Walt Disney studio. It is in 5 parts on a playlist.

This is a documentary on Disney animator Ollie Johnston, one of Walt’s famous “Nine Old Men”. Disney Family Album is a half hour documentary series that aired on the Disney Channel during the 1980s. It is in three parts on a playlist.

This video has been removed from YouTube

Ollie Johnston recounts his memory of Freddie Moore’s magic from the documentary “Frank and Ollie”. Ollie was an animator at Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1978, and became a directing animator beginning with Pinocchio. He contributed to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia and Bambi.

Here is an alternative:

Don Bluth and Fred Moore

Don Bluth speaks about Fred Moore and his influence on the Disney studio.