Eyvind Earle
A documentary on the life and career of Disney artist Eyvind Earle.
The most mischievous characters to ever come out of Disney studios, Chip ‘N’ Dale are cute, cuddly and always in the centre of trouble. Here is a special collection of their adventures that will have you and your family laughing again and again. Donald Duck goes nuts when he finds himself "Out On A Limb" as he tries to prune Chip ‘N’ Dale’s tree home! In "Corn Chips", Donald convinces them to shovel his snowy sidewalk but ends up shovelling popcorn! Next, it’s Christmas and Chip ‘N’ Dale fight with Donald over the goodies under his tree in "Toy Tinkers". Guess who invite themselves over for Donald’s pancakes in "Three For Breakfast"?
Four Disney artists paint their own interpretations of a tree, and explain their techniques and methods.
A retelling of the classic Canadian / American tall tale of the enormous lumberjack and his loyal companion, an equally huge blue ox.
We learn the true stories behind various nursery rhymes. Little Jack Horner: a servant to a city official was delivering a present to King Henry VIII, baked, as was the custom of the time, in a pie. The present was the deed to a valuable estate, which Horner stole. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: Mary Stuart brought "quite contrary" French style to the Scottish court. After a series of disastrous romances, she was jailed; the jailer's son, captivated by her, helped her escape. After a brief but disastrous attempted coup, she fled to England, where her sister, Queen Elizabeth, soon grew jealous and had her imprisoned. London Bridge: The bridge, finished in 1209, was soon lined by shops with luxury apartments upstairs, turning into a popular commercial and cultural zone. The Great Fire that broke out in 1666 spread to the bridge, but the houses were rebuilt. Over the ages, things decayed. In 1823, things finally got bad enough that the bridge was demolished and replaced.
Two stylized nursery rhymes are shown. First is "The House That Jack Built" as told with a variety of characters composed of letters that spell out their names (Example: the cow is made up of an intertwined C, O, and W). Next is "Old MacDonald Had a Band" (no, not farm) in which Old MacDonald and his band give way with a hot jazz number (even his animals play instruments). The piece comes to an end when Old MacDonald's wife is tired of doing all the housework and gives him a swift whack on his head with her rolling pin.
Flannery, a railway agent does everything by the book. He gets into a scrape with a customer, McMorehouse, who wants to pay 44 cents freight for two guinea pigs which he considers pets. Flannery, however, considers them pigs (freight 48 cents), a decision he begins to regret when the animals begin to reproduce.
Ranger Woodlore is interpreting Grand Canyon for the tourists; Donald is of course making more trouble than everyone else put together.
In this short subject (which mostly represents a departure from Disney's traditional approach to animation), a stuffy owl teacher lectures his feathered flock on the origins of Western musical instruments. Starting with cavepeople, whose crude implements could only "toot, whistle, plunk and boom," the owl explains how these beginnings led to the development of the four basic types of Western musical instruments: brass, woodwinds, strings, and percussion.
Chip 'n Dale live next door to a zoo and spot the elephant's stash of peanuts. They go after them, but both the elephant and his keeper, Donald, are too clever. Then the boys realized the visitors throw peanuts, so they put on a song-and-dance act. Then they paint themselves white and pose as albino chipmunks.
An owl teaches his class full of birds about melody. It's all around in nature. Only birds and man can sing; man "sings" even when he speaks. We see a quick survey of the stages of life, as captured by songs: the alphabet song for primary school, Here Comes the Bride, The Old Gray Mare, etc. Some inspirations for song are outlined in song: love, sailing, trains, the West, motherhood, etc., but "we never sing about brains." Finally, an example of how a simple melody can be expanded into a symphony: an elaborate version of the simple tune that opened the lesson
A small house has to try to compete with progress and the encroaching press of the big city.
