Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of: <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2014/12/11/disneyland-celebrates-christmas-shorts/" target="_blank"><b>12/11/14: Disneyland Celebrates Christmas Shorts</b></a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I know it wouldn't exactly be period appropriate, but swapping out the shorts in the Main Street Cinema for these would make for a nice and easy holiday bonus. Given the number of shorts available, they could probably have several different seasonal variations (at the very least Christmas, Halloween, and spring/Easter) while keeping some of the black & white ones too. Given that Mickey wasn't around until after Main Street's supposed era, I don't think that these would be too anachronous
Originally Posted By Dabob2 They could certainly show "The Night Before Christmas" and "Santa's Workshop" (b&w Silly Symphonies) in there and be right in theme with the b&w Mickeys. It would be a nice surprise to walk into the MS Cinema and see some b&w Chrismas-themed cartoons in there.
Originally Posted By Bellella "The Night Before Christmas" and "Santa's Workshop" are color Silly Symphonies. They were made after "Flowers and Trees". I love the Christmas cartoons they did. One of my favorites is "Donald's Snow Fight." LOL. A lot.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Ah, okay. But they still look very 30's in the character design. I wonder if there's a way to "un-colorize" them?
Originally Posted By Bellella Maybe digitally create a b/w version? I don't know. Whenever you see something color that's been turned to black and white, it just looks like a huge loss. And whenever you see something that has been "colorized", i.e. "It's a Wonderful Life", it just looks God-awful.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I hate colorization. My digital camera can create some pretty nice looking black and white shots, though, even though it "shoots" in color. Of course, there it's all digital, no film involved. Maybe if they digitized the old shorts? And then made them b&w? Would that b&w look as good as doing it to stills? I don't know either. But even the old 30's color looks "period" (albeit 30's and not 1900's - but the same is true of most the early Mickeys they show) and maybe they could just show them as is as a little holiday "bonus." They'd presumably be showing them without sound in the MS Cinema, so they're altered already. (And it always struck me as sort of funny that they always show Steamboat Willie as a silent in there, when its big claim to fame - and the thing that vaulted Disney into the big time - was it being the first sound cartoon.)
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>And whenever you see something that has been "colorized", i.e. "It's a Wonderful Life", it just looks God-awful.<< I agree. I was excited recently to see the I Love Lucy Christmas episode on TV along with the chocolate factory one. Imagine my displeasure when I started watching and they had been colorized. If we're going with the assumption that "kids today" don't like B&W films, I really don't think that a colorized is any better; it certainly isn't fooling anybody into thinking that it's a recent film or was originally made in color >>(And it always struck me as sort of funny that they always show Steamboat Willie as a silent in there, when its big claim to fame - and the thing that vaulted Disney into the big time - was it being the first sound cartoon.)<< That's also struck me as odd. Really, the whole 6-screen setup is very strange, since you really can't watch any one of them without the sound, and there are so many screens that it's easy to get distracted. Although it's pretty rare that I go in there, I find it difficult to spend any more than about a minute in there, since I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking at And when you consider that the shorts really don't fit with the era of Main Street, it makes the whole experience even more strange. I know that it originally showed some era-appropriate films, but it's been Mickey shorts for so long that everybody just takes it for granted
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I really think they ought to show one or two early Disney cartoons (they have the rights to Oswald back, right?) at any time, and then vintage silent shorts by the likes of the Keystone Cops, Laurel and Hardy, Ben Turpin, et al. They used to, so presumably they either have the rights, or it's long since public domain. Given Steamboat Willie's historic importance, I understand showing it there pretty much constantly, even if the thing that made it historic is missing (!) I'm glad there's a place in the parks where you can see the old Disney shorts. But it would fit MS better, IMO, if they presented a mix, like they did back in the day. In the 70's, as I remember, it was a mix of old cartoons and old live-action non-Disney films, and it was interesting enough that I didn't mind spending a B ticket for it.
Originally Posted By Bellella When the park was in its early days, they actually showed Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera". Can you believe it?!!! If they're going to show the historic "Steamboat Willie" they have to show it with sound. That's what made it and keeps it famous. They've got Oswald back, so they could definitely show his films in the Main Street Cinema. Or how about the "Alice" comedies from even before Oswald? At the very least they could show naturally silent cartoons like those. Seeing silent films from other studios (Chaplin!!!!) would be pretty cool, if they didn't have to worry about copyright headaches.
