A lot of aspiring film students applying to our program try to curry favour by telling us about all the making-of special dvd features they’ve watched. We show our disapproval by out dismissive body language, and then we reject them.
Don’t waste your time on how they scaled Frodo and Gandalf! Read books! And watch movies too. Actually, the features on those Loony Tunes collections are mostly really fine. The Popeye set has some helpful material too, but some of them demonstrate frequent shortcomings of the entire genre.
This one is dire. For one thing, it’s a promotional doc. If you think of it—and you should think of it—that’s kind of a moral oxymoron. The music never stops, and the narrator is so cheerful as to inspire hatred. He also says chirpy (always pro-Jack Mercer) things that contradict what those nice, faithful animation stalwarts have just been saying. Give Billy Costello some credit!