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The Hand Behind the Mouse - The Ub Iwerks Story
Price: $39.95 Prices subject to change.
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Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0786936166804
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Label: Walt Disney Video
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: September 11, 2001
Running Time: 90 minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: November 18, 1928
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Editorial Review:
In this 1999 documentary, Leslie Iwerks offers viewers a look at the work of her grandfather, one of the unsung giants of animation and film technology. Ub Iwerks (1901-1971) was a teenager in Kansas City when he and his friend Walt Disney taught themselves animation. In 1928, Iwerks designed Mickey Mouse's physical appearance and animated the first three Mickey shorts almost single-handedly. He left Disney in 1930 to start his own studio, but his cartoons failed to attract audiences. In 1940, he returned to the Disney Studio, where he won Oscars for his work on optical printing and traveling-matte technology. He also revolutionized the animation process by modifying a Xerox machine to print the animators' drawings directly onto cels. Leslie Iwerks has assembled an impressive array of photographs, film clips, and interviews, including young Walt and Ub clowning for the camera in the '20s. But the viewer feels closest to the artist when his loose, vivid drawings of Mickey, Oswald Rabbit, and other characters are on screen. Hand falters when the filmmaker suggests the Hays Code and a shift in national mood were responsible for the failure of the Iwerks studio. Ub Iwerks was one of the great animators of the silent and early sound eras, but he was not an effective director. If the public failed to respond to his Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper characters, it was because they never developed real personalities, a weakness the reissues of the shorts confirms. Suitable for all ages, this 90-minute documentary is often cut in half when it plays on TV. --Charles Solomon
"The Hand Behind the Mouse" is the story of the man Walt Disney called "the greatest animator in the world." There's not a person in the world who wouldn't recognize Mickey Mouse. But until now, not many knew the man who originally gave shape, movement and personality to the world's most beloved icon. "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story" takes you behind the scenes to meet Walt Disney's best friend and chief animator. Called a modern day "Da Vinci," a technical genius who brought the unimaginable to the screen, Ub's triumphs reign among the greatest of success stories. This documentary traces the exciting and challenging path he led in shaping the film and animation industry into what it is today. Narrated by Kelsey Grammer and written, directed and produced Ub Iwerk's granddaughter Leslie Iwerks, "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story" includes never before seen archival footage, previously censored cartoon clips from the 1920's and '30s and interviews with Roy Disney, director John Lasseter ("Toy Story," "A Bug's Life"), veteran Disney animators, actress Tippi Hedren ("The Birds"), film historian Leonard Maltin and more. Also includes two Ub Iwerks-animated Mickey Mouse cartoons, "Plane Crazy," Mickey's first cartoon and "Steamboat Willie," the first synchronized sound cartoon. This version is the unedited, full-length documentary (90 min. runtime). An edited, 44-minute version of this documentary aired on Bravo.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A wonderful biography!
This is a well written and brilliantly produced biography, directed bu Ub's granddaughter, Leslie Iwerks. It shows the important role that Iwerks had in launching the Disney Studios. It also shows why the Disney Studios became the pinnacle of the animation world: they had Walt Disney. It is inevitable to make a direct comparison between the cartoons produced by Iwerks after he left Disney and the films made at the Disney Studios during the same period. Iwerks was a brilliant animator and his cartoons ... Read More
Rating: - Now Available on DVD from Amazon
This is now available on DVD. This award-winning documentary is one of the extra features offered on "The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" One of the Disney Treasures series.
Rating: - An eye-opener
As a citizen of the UK I have had no chance (I believe) to see this documentary on TV; thus I ordered and bought it from Amazon. It is an eye-opener, filling in much I had only half discovered from books. To appreciate an Iwerks cartoon it has to be seen; every frame positively vibrates with life.
The downside is that one wants to see full examples of the Iwerks films, not easy if you want to see good copies. I have a few on tape but they tend to be from public domain originals in low cost anthologies. ... Read More
Rating:  - Perfect companion piece for the book
Ub Iwerks. By rights, that very unusual name should have been equal to that of Walt Disney. And for a brief time, it was.
Yet Ub is little remembered today, despite the fact that he was the true creator of Mickey Mouse. He was certainly a far better draftsman than Walt, a technical genius who succeeded in every endeavor he ever tried--animation, archery, even bowling. Everything, that is, except one--escaping the imposing shadow of his old friend and onetime partner Walt Disney.
Directed ... Read More
Rating:  - More on Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is also available on "The Spirit of Mickey," which is a collection of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons including "The Band Concert" (first color cartoon) and "Lend a Paw" (Academy Award winner featuring Pluto's shoulder angel and devil).
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