As a follow up to his 2017 Society of Animation Studies Keynote speech at Padova University (Destino, and the Fate of Assembling Plastic Truths into a Greater Whole), Ron Barbagallo, the Director of The Research Library at Animation Art Conservation, offers a full analysis of his Destino Animatic in a peer reviewed essay in the SAS Journal for Animation History and Theory...

Diamond mine drawing by Maurice Noble made for Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but not used.

If there is a thread that runs through working at the Walt Disney Studio, it’s an inability of management to think long term about talent that doesn’t fit into the rigid theme of “do what you’re told” corporate ideologies. The particulars of these stories vary but the underscore is always the same: Some politician at the studio with an inflated impression of their power sent someone with unique talent to another company where they would prove their worth. In an educational lecture, Ron Barbagallo, the Director of The Research Library at Animation Art Conservation, will focus one such discarded Disney treasure: Production designer, background artist and layout designer Maurice Noble.

ARTICLE A BLADE OF GRASS By Ron Barbagallo - 2003

Featuring background paintings from Steamboat Willie, Flowers and Trees, Mickey's Mellerdrammer, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi, this article is an aesthetic tour of the evolution that took place within 2D background painting at the Disney Studio from 1928 through 1942. It shows how one can make an impact on an entire genre by thinking outside the box, even if that impact starts with something as small as A Blade of Grass. READ MORE

ARTICLE DISCOVERING HELEN NERBOVIG By Ron Barbagallo - 1997

REVIEW RICHARD PRINCE • COWBOYS By Ron Barbagallo - 2013

But Fine Art is more than working within a theme of social commentary. It’s execution and, the use of color here is no small feat. It can be as bold as simple interplay or as unusual as a light blue smattering in a field of red/orange. It can overwhelm or cause you to pull back. But within the application, it is brittle with electricity, stoicism, and peppered with sadness - like a painted photograph of a family member you never met or a handwritten note from your long departed Dad. READ MORE

Discovering Helen Nerbovig is the second of two matching pieces which give long overdue credit to Guthrie Sayle Courvoisier and Helen Gertrude Nerbovig. Two visionaries: Helen who is sometimes credited with the creation of the first cel setup, and Guthrie, who conducted the first wide scale distribution of animation art. Courvoisier and Nerbovig’s efforts overlapped and eventually intersected. This article chronicles Helen’s individual contribution and life journey. READ MORE

REVIEW BEHIND THE PHANTOM THREADS By Ron Barbagallo - 2018

Because at its very heart, the dress that Phantom Thread wears has nothing to do with the time period its set, or its beautiful couture. For all its alluring coloring and formal design, the film is an exotic bit of window dressing used to set a stage so PT Anderson can talk about something else - OBSESSION. Not just the obsession a woman has when she's trying to gain emotional completion from a man but the obsession a man can have for the bandage that is his work — and in ways that become less veiled where these obsessions collide and how they inspire. READ MORE

REVIEW WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE By Ron Barbagallo - 2009

But the pains of childhood and balancing act of single-parenting have many jagged edges and the story really opens up when Max runs away from home and encounters the Wild Things in the land where they live. Within short form we learn that the Wild Things are not waiting for Max to be his perfect playmates and that Max has not landed in some stuffed-toyed nirvana. Instead the Wild Things are fully realized characters -- charming and happy from first appearances but, like all of us, complex and vulnerable just under the surface. READ MORE

ARTICLE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND THE FIVE STAGES OF LOS ANGELES By Ron Barbagallo - 2018

Frank Lloyd Wright first visited Los Angeles in January 1915, less than six months after the tragedy at Taliesin, and he would move there full time in early 1923. Still reeling from the loss of his home and family, Wright would within this time frame build five houses in LA that are linked by their concrete uniqueness and their ironic inability to be a home fit for anyone or anyone's family. READ MORE

ART CONSERVATION PRESERVATION HERO

To see a recent example of Ron Barbagallo's efforts in the partial repair and preservation of Animation Art, please check this link: READ MORE

COMMENTARY FOR ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD By Ron Barbagallo - 2018

All the Money in the World is director Ridley Scott's new biopic about J. Paul Getty and the relationship Getty had with his family versus the relationship he preferred to have with money and the empire he built. It warns on the perils of addiction. Not just the addiction to drugs, or the addiction to power and money. All the Money in the World also warns on — the addiction to oneself. READ MORE

INTERVIEW TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE FROM CONCEPT ART TO FINISHED PUPPETS By Ron Barbagallo - 2005

Graham G. Maiden goes into detail describing his role as Puppet Fabrication Supervisor Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Maiden's interview uses exclusive art and images from the film's production to narrate the many stages that went into making stop motion puppets for this film. READ MORE

STRING OF ARTICLES STATE OF THE ANIMATION ART MARKET By Ron Barbagallo - 2003/2001/2000/1999/1997/1996