By: debbie lynn elias
Opening for FROZEN is the latest animated short from Disney and this is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. And yes, just hand director Lauren MacMullan (who holds the title of being the first female director to direct a film for WDAS solo) now for GET A HORSE!.
A perfect hybrid of hand-drawn 2D animation and CG, set to a 3D format, this is the stuff for which 3D (and Disney dreams) was made. Working off original 1928 black & white renderings of Mickey Mouse and company, MacMullan and her artisans treat us to a seamless blend of mediums (more often than not within the same frame) that celebrates the best of the past (all 2D images are here actually drawn on paper) with the technology of the future, set to an uproarious, laugh-out-loud funny tale that is oh-so-Mickey!
This go-round, Mickey, Minnie and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow are enjoying a musical hayride sing-a-long when their day of fun and frolic is unceremoniously interrupted by that notorious Peg-Leg Pete who tries to run them off the road! While Horace struggles to keep the wagon on the road, Mickey is thrown clear off the wagon and through the movie screen, finding himself in 2013, sitting on a full color stage (actually feels like in our laps the effect is so good) in glorious color-filled 3D. Can Mickey get back into the 2D frame or is he destined to hang out on an empty stage? Blending the simplicity of 1928 with hayrides, Milk Duds and popcorn with 2013 touchstones like a Smartphone and Captain America shirt, the story is as timely as it is timeless.
As stellar as are the visuals, the crown jewel in GET A HORSE is the voicing. Thanks to technology, and patience, Mickey Mouse is voiced by Walt Disney himself who, as we all know, was/is the voice behind Mickey. Combing through thousands of hours of audio, MacMullen and company “cut and pasted” every word together, often requiring the melding of individual letter or syllable pronunciations to get a complete word or sentence of Disney’s voice. Also in the mix is Marcellite Garner as the voice of Minnie and Billy Bletcher as Peg-Leg Pete.
We ain’t talkin’ hay here! GET A HORSE is gonna get some Oscar gold!
Directed by Lauren MacMullen
Voicing: Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner, Billy Bletcher
