Q : I am in my mid 50s. I remember seeing Disney educational films when I was in middle and high school. One had Goofy in it, and it was about safe driving. Another taught about colors and the mixing of colors. I’ve been trying to locate the color one for years because I teach art in my classroom. Do you know anything about these films?
Lori, Woodland Hills, California
A: The Goofy cartoon is Motor Mania. Ludwig Von Drake gave a comic lesson on color in the 1961 Disney television show, entitled An Adventure in Color/Mathmagic Land, in which the color segment was combined with Donald in Mathmagic Land. The TV show, which was Disney’s first aired in color, was released on videocassette in 1986, but it is no longer available for sale. Donald in Mathmagic Land is still available: http://movies.disney.com/donald-in-mathmagic-land.
Q : It’s great to see more and more of the older Disney animated shorts available online. I was watching Ye Olden Days, which was in black and white, and assumed that the original drawings must have been done in color, but were filmed in black and white. Is that the way it was done, and if so, are the color drawings/cells preserved such that you could go back and film them in color if there was a desire to?
Jim, Cape Canaveral, Florida
A: The early Disney shorts were not animated in color; usually only the movie poster was in color. It was only in the days after the Disney cartoons began being released in color that the artwork (backgrounds and cels) were prepared in color.
Q : I was curious to know if any props or artifacts from my favorite Disney film, Something Wicked This Way Comes, survive in the Archives? Also, does anything remain from the former 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea attraction at Walt Disney World? Thank you so much for your patience, and I look forward to a reply from you.
Jordan, Salt Lake City, Utah
A: The Archives does not have any props from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction in Florida, but one of the Nautilus ride vehicles is submerged at Castaway Cay’s Snorkeling Lagoon.  We do have a carousel horse and a couple casts of Jason Robards’ face from Something Wicked This Way Comes. There are also matte paintings, carnival flyers, and lightning rods from the film.
Q : Is there any way to see the entire font collection for Aladdin? I am planning on getting a tattoo of A Diamond in the Rough, and I want it to be in the same font, but I can only find fake fonts and the original title’s few letters.
Jocilyn, Levittown, Pennsylvania
A: No full-alphabet fonts exist for most movie title treatments.  Unless there is some need (marketing, advertising, etc.), the creative artists who come up with individual title fonts don’t bother creating alphabet letters that aren’t used in the title.
Q : I have a question about the Alice Comedies. How exactly did they pull off having a live-action girl in a land of animated characters, because green screens, I think, didn’t exist way back then.
Lauren, Austin, Texas
A: There is a device called an optical printer that allows filmmakers to combine two separate pieces of film—for the Alice Comedies, it would be one featuring the live-action girl and one the animated film—onto a single new strip of film, by use of two projectors and a camera. The Alice live-action bits were filmed in front of a plain white sheet which would then “disappear” when combined with the pencil drawings (also done on white paper).