Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 101 Hollywood

"Sir, if you go to the restaurant, you can report my name... Girls are the same, use my name to get a discount..."

When the taxi arrived in Hollywood, Colin pressed his hat with his left hand, picked up the suitcase with one hand and got out of the car.

On the other side, the driver poked his head out from the driver's seat, and still reminded him somewhat unwillingly.

"If I have time."

He nodded to the 'enthusiastic' taxi driver.

Colin quickened his pace and entered Hollywood along the San Pedro Bay.

Looking up, you can vaguely see a line of large white characters "HOLLYWOOD LAND" standing on the hillside in the distance.

In fact, this is an advertising billboard set up by a construction company to promote a newly built residential community. However, with the occurrence of the Great Depression and the bankruptcy of the construction company, this billboard that was erected was left unattended and gradually fell into disrepair. .Until later, it was valued by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and the four letters at the back were removed and the letters above were repaired.

It became the "HOLLYWOOD" logo that was later known to the public and was protected by the trademark.

That is to say, "HOLLYWOOD LAND" in this period is completely unattended.

I don't know, what will happen if I buy this logo?
Looking back from the white letters on the hillside, Ke Lin silently flashed such a thought.

Converging the thoughts in his mind, he continued to walk inside.

Soon, I arrived at the destination of my trip, in front of the Walt Disney Studios.

"Welcome, Mr. Colin Looper."

In front of the studio, Roy Disney, who had been waiting early, welcomed him and introduced to Colin his younger brother, the famous Walt Disney family.

"Mr. Looper, I am very impressed with your Superman."

Stepping forward to shake hands with Colin, Walt smiled and explained his shock at the idea of ​​Superman.

"I feel the same way about your Steamboat Willie, Mr. Walter."

Although, for Colin who travels between positive and negative worlds, the Disney animation that has just started in this period is far from the exquisiteness of later generations.

But as a pioneer of sound animation, "Steamboat Willie" had a milestone impact on Disney's creation.

After exchanging a few simple greetings, Colin entered the studio under the leadership of the two Disney brothers.

During this period, Disney has just started, although it has already earned income through some peripheral licensing.

However, most of its revenue was invested in the production of the latest animated films. As for the theme park, there was no shadow of it. Therefore, Disney paid special attention to this cooperation with Colin.

In the studio, Colin saw some fragments of Disney's first color animation "Flowers and Trees" created by Walt using the latest film shooting technology invented by Technicolor.

To be honest, from Colin's point of view.

This kind of color animation technology is still very rough. In terms of animation performance, in order to cover up technical problems, Walt used a symphony to distract the audience's attention to the maximum, so that they don't care about the details of the animation.

However, during the period of the Great Depression, Colin still had some special feelings in his heart when he could see a touch of color in many black-and-white movies, especially in the narrow screening room of the studio. By the time the Walt Disney brothers were in a hurry to end the screening.

In Colin's heart, a feeling of witnessing history arises spontaneously.

"It's a wonderful animation. I can already imagine the audience's cheers and exclamations after the movie was released."

Raising his hands and applauding gently, Colin praised Walt Disney who made this animation without hesitation.

"You are changing the history of animation, Mr. Walt Disney."

"I'm just doing what I have to do."

Facing Colin's compliment, Walter smiled shyly.

……

After watching the latest colorful animation produced by Disney, Colin, Walt and others began to enter the topic of the meeting.

"...No, Mickey can't do that..."

In the studio of the studio, Colin and Walt had a heated discussion about the appearance of Mickey Mouse in the "Superman" comics.

"That's a good idea, a good idea, Colin..."

"Bluto, it's a pet dog I keep for Mickey..."

"To be honest, Mickey's prototype is a mouse, but Pluto is a dog. Don't you think it's a bit strange?"

"No, I don't think there's anything strange about it. Although the image of Mickey comes from a mouse, it represents human beings in my world. It belongs to the world of fairy tales. Why use common sense to make judgments? For fairy tales Common sense is the last thing you need because that just destroys kids' dreams?"

"Speaking of dreams, what do you think of the black Snow White idea?"

"Black? Snow White!"

"Are you kidding me, Colin, if it's a joke, then all I can tell you is it's not funny at all. Negroes might have their own princess, but it won't be Snow White, Snow White, The skin is as white as snow, which is the description of Snow White in fairy tales."

Disney has always planned to make the story of "Snow White" into an animated film, so they are so surprised by Colin's weird idea.

If you know the changes of Disney princesses in later generations, you may have different opinions.

Silently complaining in his heart, Colin didn't have a long debate on the color of Snow White, and their topic also changed from Mickey's appearance in "Superman" to animation production.

That's right, Disney agreed to make a Superman animated short for Colin, which is actually why he came to Los Angeles.

"I think that the scene of the story can be moved to the metropolis, so that Superman's appearance will not appear too abrupt..."

"As for the Superman transformation scene, I have a pretty good idea."

After "Flowers and Trees", Walt intends to develop Disney's animation from black and white to color.

And "Mickey and Superman" will also be Disney's second color work after "Flowers and Trees", and it will also be a joint animation.

Click!

Just as Colin and Walter were discussing the content of making an animated short film.

Suddenly, a shutter click sounded.

Hearing this voice, the two people in the studio subconsciously stopped their movements and looked up.

"Feel sorry……"

I saw that the female employee of the studio, Walt's wife Lillian, said with a smile while holding the camera.

"I just think that this scene in front of me is very memorable."

(End of this chapter)