John Lasseter and Dumbo

The UCLA Film&Television Archive held a special event Monday in a series entitled "The movie that inspired me." John Lasseter was on hand to show a newly struck print of Dumbo made especially for this screening. It was a beautiful print to see up on the big screen. I had grown up only seeing VHS or DVD versions, so seeing the resolution of projected film was a unique experience. Afterwards, John talked about the film and why it was truly his favorite film of all time. Although he mostly talked about the "Baby Mine," "Roustabouts," and final climax of the film, he did mention the Casey Jr. sequences.

"I was always inspired by Dumbo with that perfect, beautiful combination of the cartoony world but everything is done so exquisitely. That scene with Casey Jr. making it over the hill, 'I think I can,' and then those last shots of him going across with the reflection, there's something so beautiful about these little moments. Ken O'Conner, one of the great layout artists at Disney and an instructor of mine at CalArts, brought in layouts on a number of the scenes he had worked on. You dont realize the sophistication of the staging of a lot of things in this film. Its so appealing. The film making aspect of this film is very, very special. Its not just a cartoon. There's really some dramatic staging in this film that sets up the storytelling so beautifully."

"Its so satisfying at the end when they get that really cool private rail car, I always loved that. Even the subtlety of that, Ward Kimball worked that scene and he was such a train nut, he even got the bounce of all the train cars except their car is just perfectly still. Its the little touches like that you just know that he made it."