WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY

Here's a little known fact about me: I really, really wish I could draw because I've always secretly wanted to be an animator.

Bad news for me is that I couldn't draw a straight line if I had a ruler. The sketch book I bought when I was 19 sat empty for six years (save for one drawing that I threw away immediately after "finishing") before I started using it to write down the movies I saw in theaters. I spent hours as a kid trying to get better—asking for art supplies and drawing books to practice with. I'd sit around and try to emulate my favorite cartoon characters, and every once in a while I'd resort to tracing something and convince myself (and my parents, among others) that I drew it freehand. Eventually I just gave up and realized I was way better writing words than drawing pictures. Still doesn't change the fact that I wish I could draw.

I went to see Waking Sleeping Beauty last night because of my love of all things Disney and the fact that it was a story about the re-birth of the Disney animation department after it was nearly shut down back in the mid-80s.  It was mostly home video footage shot by various employees (most of which came from Pixar founder John Lassater) with audio interviews from past/present employees of the company in the background.

I really liked it and it just re-enforced my belief that making cartoons for a living would be the best job ever.

I want that job. Someone get it for me. I can draw one hell of a stick figure.