Ub Iwerks published the first Color-Sound cartoon 84 years ago [yesterday], starring Flip the Frog. But chances are, you’re much more likely to know him for his other cartoon creation: Mickey Mouse. ...
Old Ub was Walt's right-hand man until he left the company in 1930, turning in his ownership share of Walt Disney Productions, which totaled 20%. (If he'd hung on to it, his nut would be worth around $28,500,000,000 today. Ah well ...)
Ub returned to Disney in 1940, working as a special effects technician rather than an animator. He passed away in '71 at the age of seventy, and his two sons (don and Dave) continued his legacy.
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First "TWO STRIP" color film--featuring only red and green. Many shorts (live and cartoon) were made in this process. But Disney got the third--and thus full color--process (Three Strip) exclusively (exclusively for both live and animation!) for 5 years (although he relented for Live Action after 3 years--but not for animation)
Roy found out the Fleischers had talked Herbert Kalmus (inventor of Technicolor) into using the process for a short that would not be released unil Disney's contract ran out...but Roy shut it down.
Walter Lantz did a two-strip piece of animation for a specialty feature with the Paul Whiteman orchestra in 1930. And the Fleischers did a Betty Boop "Cinderella" short in glowing, two-strip color in the mid thirties.
And the first color Mickey Mouse animation-three strip--from 1932. Specially made for the Oscars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOOIITxZMk
3 years before The Band Concert. But same year as Flowers and Trees.
Iwerks used a two-strip process called HarrisColor (not two-strip Technicolor) for the Flip the Frog cartoon 'Fiddlesticks' (1930).
Concurrent with Disney signing the exclusive contract to use three-strip Technicolor , independent producer Ted Eshabaugh had completed or nearly completed a three-strip Technicolor short based on "The Wizard of Oz", but the Disney-Technicolor deal sunk Eshabaugh's film into obscurity. (Technicolor's Herbert Kalmus had started working with Eshabaugh before Disney, but once Kalmus landed the better-known Disney to showcase his three-strip color process he broke off with Eshabaugh)
Eshabaugh's 'Wizard of Oz' Technicolor cartoon has recently been restored and released on a BluRay volume entitled 'Technicolor Dreams and Black and White Nightmares'
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/eshbaugh-a-sneak-peak-at-technicolor-dreams-and-black-white-nightmares/
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/technicolor-dreams-and-black-and-white-nightmares/
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