[...] Dragon for two reasons: it’s co-directed by Chris Sanders, who was responsible for my beloved Lilo and Stitch, and it stars (as key voices) Jay Baruchel and Craig Ferguson, whom I both like. But I [...]

[...] Symphonies series of shorts. It also serves as the inspiration for a sequence in the modern-day Lilo and Stitch (2002) movie, and thus it is a favorite of at least two members of our [...]

Also, do you know about Sanders’ on-hiatus webcomic Kiskaloo? It’s very well done and clever. You’ll need to click on the archives to read the strips…

Fully scripted and mostly animated, the original climatic chase/rescue of Lilo from Gantu’s space ship, was to show Stitch and company commandeering a 747 from a local airport and using that (instead of the substituted Jumba and Pleakly’s spaceship), with the chase between the two flyers taking place in a highly populated downtown city setting (rather than in the mountains in the final version). Then the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened – and the filmmakers – wisely – decided that airliners flying down urban city streets was probably not an image that anybody was particularly keen to see at that time – even in a cartoon.

It’s interesting to note that that the filmmakers themselves – not corporate Disney – made the decision to make the change and they discuss this fully in the documentary. The footage is both stunningly powerful and very funny. Interestingly, the sequence also was the focus of a major storytelling debate – also shown in the documentary – that had nothing to do with the 9/11 decision. It makes for fascinating Special Feature material.

Also, animation geeks will want to know that in the “footnotes” section, not mentioned anywhere on the packaging, are two 15-20 minute interviews with two of the great animators of the past including artist Maurice Noble (in one of his last interviews) and long-time Disney artist and writer Joe Grant (who passed away in 2005).

Thom, don’t you start! Although if this had been Blu-Ray, that might have converted me. :)

Greg, sometimes patience is a virtue, it’s true.