Jim Hill
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So what did you think of the Walt Disney documentary that was on the "Wonderful World of Disney" this past Sunday night?

Myself? For a Disney family authorized project, I thought that "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth" was surprisingly good. Sure, the film's executive producer -- Walter Elias Disney Miller -- wanted to put his grandfather in the best possible light. But that didn't mean that Miller or "Walt" 's director -- Jean-Pierre Isbouts -- shied away from the less savory aspects of Disney's career.

So there they were -- right in the front window for the whole world to see: the infamous 1941 strike at the studio as well as Walt's appearance before the House Committee on Un-american Activities in 1947. Not to mention addressing head-on the claims that Walt was anti-Semitic and/or racist.

It was this particular section of the documentary that personally gave me the biggest kick of the evening. For I was finally able to put a voice and a face to someone's work that I've enjoyed for almost a decade now: Floyd Norman.

And who -- you might ask -- is Floyd Norman? Quite simply, Floyd is a legend in animation circles. Since his career started out back in the late 1950s at Walt Disney Studios, Norman is now be considered one of the true veterans of the modern toon biz. Over the past five decades, he's worked for nearly every major player in animation. Which means Floyd has had some pretty amazing adventures. Some of which were actually chronicled in his wonderful 1992 book, "Faster! Cheaper!"

This unfortunately-out-of-print volume casts an incredibly caustic eye at the times Norman spent toiling at Disney, Hanna Barbera as well as the infamous Tom Carter Productions. Floyd's biting wit spared no one: whether it was Walt himself, Don Bluth or Bill Hanna. Norman even manages to take a few good natured pokes at his own reputation -- one of the first African Americans to make a name for himself in animation circles. (One of the more outrageous toons in all of "Faster! Cheaper!" was evidently drawn in the early 1960s. It shows a very bemused looking Floyd seated at his drawing board, as a paunchy Walt Disney drags a reluctant visitor into Norman's office, points to the artist and says "See! We've got one!")

These hilarious gag drawings of Floyd's have naturally become quite prized in animation circles. Even today, the artists who've been working side by side with this veteran on Disney's still-in-production animated feature, "Sweating Bullets," and Pixar's soon-to-be-released "Monsters, Inc." are thrilled when they find themselves on the receiving end of Norman's pointed pencil.

But how can you -- the average Disneyana fan -- get to sample some of Floyd's extremely funny stuff? Well, as I mentioned earlier, Norman's only book to date -- "Faster! Cheaper!" -- is unfortunately out of print right now. But the latest issue of "Animation Blast" has five whole pages of gag drawings by this toon legend.

So what's an "Animation Blast"? Arguably one of the best toon related magazines currently on the market today. Publisher / editor Amid Amidi does an amazing job with this nifty little magazine. He makes a point of covering both the latest trends in Toontown (The one that's out for sale now -- Issue #7 -- has a killer article about the Cartoon Network's new hit series, "Samurai Jack") as well as cobbling together some amazing animation history pieces (Issue #6 had a flat out wonderful story about Tom Oreb, the little-known designer of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" as well as the company's Academy Award winning short, "Toot Plunk Whistle Boom"). If you're a real animation fan, this is one magazine that you want to seriously think about about subscribing to.

In addition to those wonderful Floyd Norman cartoons, the latest issue of "Animation Blast" also includes an article about Disney "Nine Old Men" member Ward Kimball's memorable 1954 appearance on Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life." Not to mention Greg Duffel's just plain bizarre feature about the time that Warner Brothers legend Chuck Jones created illustrations for a square dancing magazine (Trust me, folks. This one's a lot funnier than it sounds.) For more information on this wonderful publication, why not check out the "Animation Blast" website at http://www.animationblast.com/?

Anyway ... Getting back to those great Floyd Norman cartoons: A few of the gag drawings featured in this issue of "Animation Blast" seem to date from 1994, particularly around the time when Disney CEO Michael Eisner was having his heart problems. Among the funnier gags is one where a healthy Eisner is back at his desk saying "I want profit sharing for all employees! I want free day care! I want stock options for all!" Standing in the shadows behind Michael, two Disney executives look shocked at the sight of their suddenly generous CEO. "Oh, My God!," one suit blithers to the other, "They put in the wrong heart!"

Well ... Given the stories that have been coming out of Anaheim &Orlando these past ten days, it has become all too apparent that Disney's CEO actually does have a heart. And a pretty big one at that. Between stories about all the free food & drink that were provided to guests who were stranded at the resorts last week to the Mouse allowing would-be Disney & WDW visitors to cancel their vacations -- no questions asked, Eisner's shown that -- as greedy as he might sometimes appear to be -- he can still put people above profits.