Lost Sleeping Beauty Art Comes Home

"A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mislaid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago.

Disney said that the art — cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches — was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed to the opening of the film 'Sleeping Beauty.' The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and traveled to 16 other stores throughout Japan."

To read the rest of Charles Solomon's article, click here.

Disney Establishes Core Production Overseas?

REUTERS.COM: Disney to make animated films in Japan, paper says
Wed Mar 5, 2008 6:41pm EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co. plans to make animated films in Japan to cater to Asian tastes, as it moves core production outside the United States for the first time, a business daily reported on Thursday.

Disney would team up with Toei Animation and other Japanese studios to tap talent and computer graphics technology, the Nikkei newspaper said.

A short animated film about a robot had already been made with Toei and was due to be aired in May, with two other projects in the works, the paper said.

While Disney sought partners it did not plan acquisitions at this point, it added.

(Reporting by Edwina Gibbs; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

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Disney's had a lot of satellite production houses in other countries before, so I'm assuming 'core production' is the key phrase here. Even so, is it true that Disney's never made a feature completely outside of Burbank? I think so, but with all of those other studios in the '90s, it makes me less certain.

When Toys, Manga & Anime Aren't Enough

BLOG@NEWSARAMA.COM: Life-sized Gigantor memorial to be erected
Monday June 25, 2007, 8:33 am
Posted by Stephanie Chan

Kobe, Japan will be the home of a life-sized Gigantor statue.

The 18 meter high, 70 ton Ironman-28 will carry the price tag of 135 million yen. The project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2008.

Debuting in 1958, Tetsujin 28-gō was the first “giant robot” series, which became a staple in Japanese pop culture.

The statue will serve as a double memorial, marking both the birthplace of creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who passed away in 2004 in an apartment fire, as well as celebrate the revitilization of the area, which was devastated in the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

From Asahi.com