The Wizard of Oz

Oz the Great and Powerful will be released in theaters in March. And there are other productions (like Wicked) in the works that deal with Oz. One look at these productions should convince you that they owe just as much to Frank Baum's original story as to Victor Fleming's 1939 version.The Wizard of Oz travels through time unhindered, and still remains a holiday classic favorite. There are aspects of the film that you may not know.Much as been said...

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Kingdom of the Sun

The Disneystudios often found inspiration in Japanese anime. So much so that their hit The Lion King is an obvious remake of Osamu Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion, down to the name of the protagonist. Soon afterwards, the universe of The Mysterious Cities of Goldmay have inspired director Roger Allers for a project launched in 1997 called Kingdom of the Sun.The genesis and eventual demise of the film was told in a rather obscure 2002 documentary called...

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Queen of Sheba

Queen of Sheba, like many early Fox successes, has been lost for ages in a fire of the Fox vaults. Originally released in 1921, it starred Betty Blythe. When you come across her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, chances are you won't remember who she was. She achieved stardom thanks to this film and her willingness to appear semi-nude in front of the camera.As a matter of fact, she used to joke that all of her 28 costumes for the...

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Destino

Early in 1946, Walt Disney started a collaboration with famous surrealist painter Salvador Dali, fresh out of his first collaboration with Hollywood: the design of a dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound.Somewhat frustrated by the fact that a good portion of  the dream had been cut out, Dali embarked on what he thought would be a more appropriate medium for his art: animation.Walt Disney teamed him up...

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