A whole lot to pack into 13 minutes! (Thoughts on "Once Upon a Studio")

     Friends, I know I've been writing about Disney a lot recently, in fact, the past 3 posts have been about different aspects of the company in one way or another. However, this is the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney company, and as such, I feel like I haven't talked enough about the House of Mouse this year before this point. This week, I have to talk about the latest short from Disney, "Once Upon a Studio." Now, I will say that this short is only about 13 minutes long, so it's entirely possible that it will actually take more time for you to read this than it will for you to go on Disney Plus or Hulu and just watch it for yourself. I would be remiss if I didn't talk about it for some time today. With that out of the way, let's get ready, because it's almost picture time for the cartoons!

What are Cartoons to do at night?

    Once Upon a Studio begins with the ending of a workday at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, and everyone is leaving for the day. Disney Legend Burny Mattinson (who worked for the studios for 70 years and just passed away in February of this year) says, "if these walls could talk..." and then it's off to the races. Mickey and Minnie check in with Tinker Bell to see if everyone is gone for the day, and then they give the signal. It's time for a group photo commemorating 100 years of Disney animation. I could go through this short and give a breakdown of every character and interaction that we see, but that would really be doing a disservice to the short in itself. I will however, give a few highlights of my favorite interactions. Olaf is drawing a picture in one of the offices and Timon, Pumbaa, and a flying Lost Boy all come by and tell him that it's picture time, and then the Genie from Aladdin comes out of the paper that Olaf is drawing on. I should say that Genie's audio is Robin Williams, but it comes from unused audio from the movie instead of opting to use AI or something like that. Tiana is the first one out of her painting and helps Pinocchio out of his, then Judy and Nick from Zootopia come out of theirs. Nick is then scared by the appearance of Louis, the trumpet-playing gator from Princess and the Frog. Moana comes out of her painting in a splash of water from upstairs and catches Flounder (The Little Mermaid) who needs water. She rushes over to the cafeteria where Merlin is busy serving The Mad Hatter and the March Hare (Alice in Wonderland), despite Cogsworth's urging that now isn't the time for tea. Moana tells Merlin about the situation with Flounder and he fills the Mad Hatter's hat with water which Flounder is put down into. Of course, there are many other fun and great interactions here, but I want to talk a bit about the serious and sweet moments in this incredible feat.

I'm not crying, you are!

    There's a moment while Mickey is running around and trying to get everyone together for the picture where he just stops, and he looks at something off screen. We're shown a moment later that what he's looking at is a picture of Walt. Mickey smiles at the picture while "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins plays, a beautiful touch since Walt loved that song so much that he would have Richard Sherman come into his office every week to play it for him. It really touched Walt and got him to the core of what his mission was, and it's only fitting that Mr. Sherman himself rerecorded himself playing it for this short. Minnie calls to Mickey and tells him that everyone is ready for the picture, and Mickey just says, "Gotta go, but thanks." I can confidently say that any Disney fan was crying at that moment, and rightly so, leading into the finale of this incredibly ambitious crossover. I don't want to spoil how this ends, but the ending of the short also is a real tear-jerker moment, just a very sweet ending to this lovingly crafted short. I also have to bring in one last shout out to a certain lucky rabbit, who takes center stage with Mickey and Minnie as the picture is about to be taken, without ever saying a word, just as he originally was.

    If you've read my writings before, you probably know that I'm a big fan of crossovers, and I'm also a big fan of Disney. This is an excellent example of both a fun Disney short and a crossover on a massive scale, so there's no wonder why I loved this so much. The worst part about it is that there isn't much of it, as I said, it's only 13 minutes long, though I wish it could have kept going. I know it wouldn't be as special if it was just padded out for no good reason, but I can't help but want more of this sort of thing. In the same way that I wanted more shorts like "Get A Horse" from 2013 and the new Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short that was put out a few months ago, I love these old nostalgic things. I loved every second that was spent with these old and new characters, and I have to tell you that I'll be watching this short again and again quite a few times in the coming days. I hope you'll join me in honoring and remembering the wide scope and scale of all of these characters and stories that were created, well, "Once Upon A Studio."

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! Did you like this short if you've seen it? I'm sure that I've asked this question many times before, but I have to ask, who is your favorite Disney character? I know it's a big question that is pretty difficult to answer, but I'm always curious! It's a hard question for me too, but I think I may have to say Genie from Aladdin, just because I've always been a huge Robin Williams fan, and he really steals the show in that movie. Thanks so much for all the kind words of support from you all over the years, I hope you all have a great week, and I'm super excited that by the time that this comes out, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will already be out! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Dreamer, and remember, when you wish upon a star, sometimes your dreams come true. See ya real soon, everybody!