The Newport Beach Film Festival not only provides an outlet for new emerging filmmakers, but they also honor the past as well. An Evening of Disney Animation Rarities with Roy E. Disney and Don Hahn presented rarely seen cartoons from the Disney vaults. The two men were joined by animator/producer Dave Bossert, and they all offered revealing details about the shorts that were screened.

After brief introductions, the evening began with a video tribute to the recently deceased Ollie Johnston, the last of Walt’s Nine Old Men. The newest short was “How To Hook Up Your Home Theater,” which had been paired with National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Starring Goofy, it was very funny and captured the essence of the “How To…” series from the 1940s and ‘50s.

“Oilspot & Lipstick” had been shown at the 1987 SIGGRAPH conference. The short demonstrated computer graphic character design. The main characters were dogs made out of junk. Although the story was weak, that wasn’t the purpose of the short.

Four of the shorts presented were to be part of a third Fantasia film that was unfortunately cancelled. “One By One” featured singer Lebo M., whose tenor voice will be familiar to fans of The Lion King, and the title song was cut from that film. It showed children in a South African town flying kites in vivid colors. It was released on The Lion King II: Simba's Pride Special Edition DVD.

“Destino” is the legendary unfinished collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney from 1945. In 1999 Roy wanted to use some of the artwork for a sequence in Fantasia 2000, but the lawyers explained the Disney Company didn’t own the rights because the film was never completed. Roy got the ball rolling to rectify that situation with the help of John Hench, who had worked on the project with Dali. The cartoon has some fabulous imagery. It screened with the films Calendar Girls and Triplets of Belleville, has been a part of Dali museum exhibits, and will be included as a special feature on a DVD of a documentary about Dali, Disney, and Surrealism.

Based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, “The Little Matchgirl” was a beautiful, touching piece of work. The short’s somber tone met with some resistance from former CEO Michael Eisner, which led Roy to point out that they “shot Old Yeller.” As the speakers talked about it, they were bittersweet as this farewell to hand-drawn animation was the last project by many talented artists who are no longer with the company. The cartoon is a special feature on the The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD.