Ub Iwerks: The ComiColor Cartoon Collection (DVD)

Ub Iwerks (1901-1970) met Walt Disney while both men were working in the commercial art field. Deciding to get into animation, the two soon found great success with their creation Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as well as The Alice Comedies, a series of shorts inspired by the work of Lewis Carroll. Iwerks was almost entirely responsible for the look of the early Disney cartoons. He redesigned Walt's initial sketch of Mickey Mouse into the character we know today, and provided most of the animation for classics such as Steamboat Willie (1928) and The Skeleton Dance (1929). Feeling he was not getting enough credit, Iwerks started his own studio in 1930. His new character, Flip the Frog, quickly became a hit at MGM. To further compete with Disney, Ub began releasing "ComiColor Cartoons" independently as early as 1933. All of them were shot in Cinecolor (an early process which produced particularly vibrant colors) and were based on popular fairy tales and children's stories. Incredibly creative and inventive, the ComiColor Cartoons were animated by legends such as Shamus Culhane, Grim Natwick, and Al Eugster, and featured music by Looney Tunes luminary Carl Stalling. Rarely collected together on DVD, these films are a testament to the genius of Ub Iwerks, an often overlooked figure in animation history.

• The Brementown Musicians (1935)
• Mary's Little Lamb (1935)
• Sinbad the Sailor (1935)
• The Three Bears (1935)
• Balloon Land (1935)
• Simple Simon (1935)
• Ali Baba (1936)
• Tom Thumb (1936)
• The Big Bad Wolf (1936)
• Happy Days (1936)

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