Disney working to save original film cels!

[Mickeyfan1990]

Thought I spread the word around:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/dis ... -and-more/

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Imagine how much that has been lost during the early days:

Not knowing that original animation cels would someday be worth a lot of money, artists weren’t too careful with preserving their art. In fact, it was just the opposite: while animators were working on movies like Fantasia and Dumbo, they’d take the finished slippery cels and use them to skate down hallways.

Georges Méliès may not have anything to do with Disney, but the way they treated irreplaceable material back then reflects the same mentality:

Méliès made over 500 films, acting, financing, directing, photographing, and designing the stage and costume for each one of them. However, the brutal realities of the great war of 1914 made the public lose interest in his fantasy films and Méliès was driven out of business. In 1917, the French army turned the main studio building at his Montreuil property into a hospital for wounded soldiers, confiscated over four hundred of original prints of Méliès Star Films company, melted them down to recover silver and celluloid to make heels for the army’s shoes. Méliès himself in rage and despair had burned many of his negatives, sets and costumes.