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Monday, July 6, 2015

Pixar's Next Animated Short:"Sanjay's Super Team"; Disney Animator and Legend Blaine Gibson Dies

Pixar's Next Animated Short: "Sanjay's Super Team":


In a USA Today article, director Sanjay Patel gave a sneak peek of Pixar's next animated short to be shown before "The Good Dinosaur" this November. It will be called "Sanjay's Super Team." The short will be much like Patel's own upbringing in San Bernardino, California. The short will begin with young Sanjay glued to the television and his Father ringing the bell for morning meditation. In remember Patel remembers his father doing the same thing saying, "I knew exactly what that meant: 'Turn of the TV, and get your tail over here. We're going to chant and count mala beads for half an hour." Patel continued laughing, "And I'm like, I don't really want to do that, I really want to watch Voltron."


The short brings young Sanjay bringing three Hindu deities (Durga, Vishnu, and Hanuman) become the Super Team to help get rid of a pesky monster. Hanuman is the monkey-like goddess of power and protection, Durga the goddess of victory, and Vishnu the god of preservation. There is no dialogue in the short so Patel enlisted the help of Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) for a fittingly non-Western soundtrack. Right as Sajay meets the deities, Danna uses a bansuri, a South Asian flute and spiritual instrument that is associated with Vishnu. 

Sanjay Patel was an animator for Pixar movies Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc.

Disney Animator and Legend Blaine Gibson Dies at 97:


It is with great sadness that we have to report that Disney Animator and Legend Blaine Gibson has died at the age of 97. Gibson is known as the man who sculpted the world of Disney. Gibson joined Disney Studios back in 1939 and worked on many projects and feature-length films such as Fantasia, Bambi, Song of the South, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, and 101 Dalmatians.

In 1954 as Walt began assembling his imagineers for the Disneyland project, he asked Gibson to help out the fledgling WED Enterprises after being impressed with his animal sculptures. In 1961, Walt Disney named Gibson the head of the Imagineering sculpture department. Many of the well-known audio animatronics that we know and love today were sculpted by Gibson. Some of these animatronics include President Abraham Lincoln, the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, and all the presidents in the Hall of Presidents except for current president Barack Obama. 

Gibson retired in 1983 but continued to mentor younger imagineers and consult on projects with Disney. But Gibson's most famous photographed sculpture he worked on is the famed "Partners" statue that debuted in 1993 in Disneyland and is now in every Disney Theme Park. We give our sincere sympathy to the Gibson family in this very hard time. All Disney fans along with It All Started With a Mouse will miss Blaine Gibson and appreciate all that he did for the Walt Disney Company. May he rest in peace. 




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