Tag: documentary

The Hand Behind The Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999)

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

One of the greatest stories seldom told, required viewing for fans of Disney, animation and filmmaking. Underappreciated genius no more…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Hand Behind The Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story:

Written and directed by documentarian Leslie Iwerks, granddaughter of the groundbreaking filmmaker, The Hand Behind The Mouse is clearly a labor of love. One can imagine why Ub’s family might hope to reflect a little of Walt Disney’s spotlight back on his less famous partner, but all of the individuals interviewed seem simply overjoyed to have the opportunity to pay their respects to the man. It seems that this piece is long overdue – the principals involved are so eager for everyone to know Ub’s marvelous story and his place in cinema history.

Produced in 1999, The Hand Behind The Mouse was the first feature documentary from Iwerks and was later included on DVD in the 2007 Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit DVD set. A book of the same name by Iwerks and John Kenworthy was released in 2001.

The story of Ub Iwerks is so closely intertwined with that of fellow Missouri native Walt Elias Disney that it is rather remarkable that it isn’t common knowledge. Theirs was one of those lightning in a bottle partnerships that are such a fascinating part of the human experience. They quite truly completed each other as well as complementing each other. I’m sure both men could have made contributions to the world without each other – they were both geniuses after all – but nothing like the output and impact achieved by their pairing.

The story seems destined for a biopic akin to Saving Mr. Banks. The 2015 film Walt Before Mickey also covers some of this ground; it’s my next review.

The film itself is very well made. It looks dated in a way you might not expect from a 1999 picture, but that is simply a reflection of the huge strides in production values that have come in recent years.

Narrated by Kelsey Grammer, the doc is packed with a who’s who of animation legends, all very happy to acknowledge the art form’s debt to Iwerks. It’s filled with lots of rare clips of Ub’s work that would make it worthwhile even without the interesting narrative.

I loved this film. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is my favorite animated character, and I thought I knew the story of the man behind Oswald and Mickey, but there is so much more to Ub Iwerks. It is impossible to overstate his importance not only to animation, but to film itself. This is a man who not only created the most iconic cartoon character of all time, he created a visual style that essentially defined the medium and brought it to the mainstream. His studio launched the careers of many luminaries and inspired many more. When he felt he had mastered cartooning, he turned to groundbreaking effects work in live-action. He even designed many of the effects at Disneyland. He designed the multi-plane camera and the technique for animation/live action traveling mattes. The man was a genius.

Rather than go on and on about the man’s accomplishments, I’d recommend you make time to watch The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story. Since it’s a little harder to find, I’m including a link here.

Better yet, start by just watching some of Ub’s most famous works:

The first Mickey cartoon: Plane Crazy (1928)

Steamboat Willie (1928 – first fully synchronized sound cartoon)

Silly Symphonies: The Skeleton Dance

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

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The Representation Test Score: n/a

[schema type=”movie” url=”https://www.disneymoviesanywhere.com/movie/hand-behind-the-mouse-the-ub-iwerks-story” name=”The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story” description=”Ub Iwerks was considered by many to be Walt Disney’s oldest friend, and spent most of his career with Disney. The two met in 1919 while working for the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio in Kansas City. ‘Hand Behind The Mouse’ is the story of Ub Iwerks and his contributions to Disney and to animation. Narrated by Kelsey Grammer and written and produced by his daughter, Leslie Iwerks. The Documentary is a loving and insightful look into the life of one of the great innovators and animators of our time, and the creator of the Mickey Mouse character.” director=”Leslie Iwerks” ]

Main Cast	Kelsey Grammer Himself/Narrator (voice) Mark Kausler Himself John Lasseter Himself Russell Merritt Himself
Rating	G
Release Date	Wed 17 Dec 2008 UTC
Director	Leslie Iwerks
Genres	Documentary
Plot	A documentary on the life of the under-appreciated animator Ub Iwerks, who played a major role in the creation of Mickey Mouse.
Poster
Runtime	90
Tagline
Writers	Leslie Iwerks (written by)
Year	1999

March 14, 2016

Back in Time (2015)

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Professional & obviously loving documentary about the film phenomenon. Nothing eye-opening here, but fun stuff well-crafted by caring hands.

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Back in Time:

Today is October 30, 2015; we are over one week into the future. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you may as well stop reading now, because this one is strictly for Back to the Future geeks…

It was very easy to get caught up in the media saturation last week as we finally caught up with the date in the future into which the characters of Back to the Future Part II traveled. It was a great story that had something for everyone. It did get a bit much for some, I’m sure. Even as someone who was guiltier than most of spreading the #BTTF30 & #BackToTheFutureDay stories around, I became a bit weary at a certain point. It didn’t do to look too closely at the second film, after all. (This is a point of disagreement in my house; BTTF2 is my daughter’s favorite of the trilogy.)

So the Kickstarter-funded documentary Back in Time had to wait a little bit to be reviewed, even though I watched it on when it was released on #BackToTheFutureDay.

Back in Time is structured around two parts, focusing on the film and the fans, respectively. This approach not only makes for a logical structure, it also keeps the film fresh after the one hour mark. Because for all of the positive elements of the film, the first half of the picture really is pretty standard behind the scenes content. Back in Time would not be out of place on a box set bonus disc; in fact, that’s where it probably should exist. The filmmakers made a great feature on the film and have better than usual access to the talent involved. Pretty much everyone you would want to hear from was included. Universal should have hired them to create supplements for the 30th anniversary edition that just came out. (Not that I’m disparaging the content that is on the set – it’s great stuff.)

But Back to the Future is actually pretty well documented already. Possibly because it came after the big Spielberg/Lucas blockbusters that fueled so much public interest, it was understood that the public would be interested in knowing more about the film. So there’s a ton of behind the scenes footage, EPKs, books, articles, you name it. So while I enjoyed the first half of Back in Time, there was a certain familiarity to much of the stories and information.

No, it is in the second half where Back in Time really shines. This is where they introduce you to super-fans with unique stories to tell, like:

Joe Walser, who led the efforts to restore the “hero A” car
Massachusetts resident Bill Shea, who owns several screen used vehicles
Stephen Clark, founder of BTTF.com
Terry & Oliver Holler, who travel the world in their homemade DeLorean time machine to raise funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation

This is where the film becomes something more than a simple retrospective. The focus on individual stories ironically is more effective at reminding you why you care about this franchise than the more traditional clips and talking head approach.

Back in Time is an easy recommendation for fans of the Back to the Future series. While you likely won’t learn anything new, the access to the cast and filmmakers alone make it worth your time, and the focus on the fans provide the most compelling reason to watch both the doc and the film series.