D23 2017 highlights

D23’s 2017 Year in Review

By D23 Team It’s been an exciting year to be a Disney fan, and an even more awesome year to be a D23 Member! Take a look at a few 2017 D23 highlights below––we’ll see you in the new year with even more magic! January: Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men After taking D23 Gold Members …

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2018 D23 Gold Member Gift - Mickey Mouse

Celebrate Mickey Mouse with D23’s 2018 Gold Member Gift

By D23 Team After honoring Walt Disney and Walt’s “Nine Old Men” in D23’s 2016 and 2017 Gold Member Gifts, D23 Gold and Gold Family Members will enjoy a gift inspired by the one who started it all––Mickey Mouse! This fascinating collection, available exclusively to D23 Gold and Gold Family Members who join in or …

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Ward Kimball

Jiminy Cricket and the Nine Old Men

By Jim Fanning The Yuletide season encompasses many an enchanting tradition, and, as no less an authority than Jiminy Cricket pointed out in the beloved Disney TV episode “From All of Us to All of You,” originally telecast in 1958, “one of the nicest things that can happen this time of the year is to …

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D23 2017 Gold Member Gift: Walt Disney's Nine Old Men

Animation Artifacts: The Nine Old Men Take the Spotlight

By Jim Fanning Stars. They are meant to shine. And even when these bright lights are not necessarily noticed or significantly celebrated, their brilliance continues to sparkle. So it is with the true luminaries of animation as produced by Walt Disney, his top team of elite animators he affectionately nicknamed the Nine Old Men. This …

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Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, and Bambi

Get to Know the Animators Behind Your Favorite Disney Films

Celebrate some of the most legendary artists behind classic Disney animated films with this year’s D23 Member Gift. By Greg Ehrbar The first “nine old men” were Supreme Court justices—all more than 90 years old—who were trying to block President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” in the mid-1930s. When Walt Disney selected his first-string supervising animators, …

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Flowers and Trees trade ad D23 gold member gift

This Member Gift Honors A Film that Was Ahead of its Time

By Steven Vagnini With its breathtaking introduction of color to animated films, Flowers and Trees (1932) brought a sense of renewal to the cartoon industry. Walt Disney’s Studio had done it again, pushing established boundaries in the service of creative storytelling—this time in glorious, new Technicolor. As reflected in this trade ad taken out by …

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Favorite Memories from Walt and Lillian’s 30th Anniversary Party

By Steven Vagnini In July 1955, construction on a 160-acre site in Anaheim was picking up at a hurried pace. Disneyland would soon premiere with a grand invitational preview, as national attention was drawn to this first-of-its-kind amusement enterprise. Yet amid the oversight and coordination of tireless designers, carpenters, painters, and landscapers, a restless Walt …

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