The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999)

Director:

Leslie Iwerks

Writer:

Leslie Iwerks (writer)

Release Date:

17 December 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Documentary | Family

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood Sign | Character Name In Title

Cast

Kelsey Grammer	...	Himself / Narrator (voice)
Mark Kausler	...	Himself
John Lasseter	...	Himself
Russell Merritt	...	Himself
Roy Edward Disney	...	Himself
Chuck Jones	...	Himself
Ollie Johnston	...	Himself
Don Iwerks	...	Himself
Dave Smith	...	Himself
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself
Virginia Davis	...	Herself
Bob Broughton	...	Himself
John Hench	...	Himself
Joseph Adamson	...	Himself (as Joe Adamson)
Ed Friedman	...	Himself

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:G

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Movie Connections:

Edited from Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

An Absolute Must See

The story of the real man behind Mickey Mouse is must see viewing for anyone who wants to know where Mickey Mouse, Warner Brothers or any of the other classic cartoons came from.

Iwerks was Disney's "go to" guy who could figure out how to do anything, first with animation,later with work behind the scenes that brought Iwerks and the Disney Studios several Oscars.

Using dozens of clips and interviews this documentary makes the work and life of Iwerks wonderfully alive. We see how he went from the "simple" doodles of the 20's with Disney to the more complicated spectacles of the 30's at his own studio. We also see how the task of running a studio began to make his work suffer. And we see what magic he worked when he went back to Disney.

The joy of this film is seeing the mostly long forgotten cartoons and realizing where many of the gags that we take for granted came from. (Although if you want to see the magic in all its glory there are two DVDs worth of Iwerks non-Disney output available cheaply and they make for a great couple of evenings of viewing)

In some ways this film is more satisfying than the companion book, which often sent me scurrying to my video collection to see the cartoons they were talking about. Here what you see is what they are talking about.

This is simply one of the best films on animation and our cultural history. It fills a need that needed filling.

10 out of 10 for the gee whiz factor alone.

A personal comment. Despite the fact the Disney Studio financed and released this film, it was only released on VHS tape (granted DVD was coming in as this was first released) and has only been occasionally run on the Disney Channel. Its a grave injustice since this film deserves to be seen many more people. Search it out on tape or cable, its worth the effort.