Fantasia Will Amaze Ya

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Growing up, the family had several big fat Disney books on the shelf. One of them was The Art of Animation, published in 1959 in conjuction with the release of Sleeping Beauty, also a large and battered tome entitled Fantasia, bound in linen with thick, heavy pages. Disney, apparently, gave the book out to all his employees when the picture was released. Today, this book would be categorized as a "coffee table book." In 1940, when it was published, I don't know what it was called.

But the picture above and the ones that follow are from that book (color studies, obviously). I liked them when I stumbled across them as a ten-year-old, and I like them now (and all -- here and below -- are copyrighted 1940 by Walt Disney Productions)...

Here's Mickey doing his thing...

And the 'shrooms and spirits doing theirs...

It all began as a search for a starring vehicle for Mickey Mouse. Although still as much of a public idol as he had ever been, the famous star was beginning to show his years a bit...

His manager, Walt Disney, decided that the thing to do was to provide Mickey with a story that would offer the widest scope for his talents... Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice offered itself as the ideal medium. It was enchanting music, written around a story that provided comedy and thriss alike. Only one doubt remained. The Dukas work was the most ambitious piece of music that Disney had ever undertaken to use in one of his shorts. It would have to be superlatively conducted, played, and rcorded...

At that moment -- this was the spring of 1938 -- Fate, in the person of Leopold Stokowski, walked into the Disney studios. He had long been saying that one o the things he desired to do above all others was to work with Walt Disney. When the Mickey Mouse-Paul Dukas project was explained to him, he eagerly agreed to take charge of the musical end of the production. He rehearsed the music and recorded it, and the studio went to work on the animation.

And then the idea began to grow... Why not make a feature film, present an entire concert by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Disney pictures to accompany, and perhaps enhance, the music?

In the fall of 1938 the three of us (Deems Taylor, Leopod Stokowski, and Walt Disney), abetted by the heads of the art and music departments of the Disney studio, started picking the program. For three weeks we sat, every day, listening to recordings of various orchestral works and discussing their musical qualities and pictorial possiblities....The outcome of our labors was the program that made up Fantasia and the seven chapters of this book...

--Deems Taylor, Fantasia (the book)

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Handicapping Animated Features in '07

It's always flattering when reporters call and ask you for your predictions for the top-grossing animated features of 2007, and last week, two ink-stained wretches actually did. And I bloviated at length.

And it's always challenging, because essentially I have only a little more idea about which picture will rake in the big bucks and which won't than a two-week-old baby. But since I enjoy pulling predictions out of my large intestine and sharing them with a waiting, breathless world, here are my very insightful prognostications:

The top animated feature for 2007 will be....(drum roll)...Shrek III. The picture will make $300 million at the domestic box office. Minimum.

Beyond that, I haven't a clue. The second biggest feature could be one of several:

Maybe it will be the wide-screen, hand-drawn Simpsons Movie, since it will have a huge, built-in audience, and with all the rewrites and polishes of the script, it's bound to be funny, yes? On the other hand, maybe a lot of people will stay home, figuring they can get a lot of the same diet for free on the television version.

Maybe it will be Meet the Robinsons, since the studio buzz has been good and the silent clips that play endlessly in the front hallway of the hat building as you walk in look interesting. Or maybe it will open at the same level as Chicken Little did and go on to gross something around $130-150 million (which is what I think will happen.)

Then there is Surf's Up from Sony Pictures Animation, which had a solid two-base hit with Open Season and is now in the ballgame. And, hell, nobody has gone wrong yet with penguins have they?...

Or perhaps the big #2 will be Ratatouille, which looks zesty from the sequence Disney showed at the stockholder's meeting and does have Brad Bird at the helm...

Or perhaps Jerry Seinfeld will have the magic touch with The Bee Movie next Fall. Could be the sleeper hit, couldn't it?

In short, beyond Shrek there could be any number of viable pretenders to the throne. We'll just have to wait and see.

-- S.R. Hulett Click here to read entire post

Dreams In Work

FRIDAY, I finished up the shortened work-week at DreamWorks Animation, offering final chances to enroll in the 401(k) Plan (which was my major mission as the quarterly window closed). Long discussion with an artist about how much it costs to live in L.A. today. We both agree that it isn't cheap. (The days of $180/month apartments in mid-Valley are O-ver.) Elsewhere...

Kung Fu Panda is well into work, with animation in progress and a crew working on sequences.

The Bee Movie is barreling along, with more than a third of the picture complete and the crew accelerating work. (Jerry Seinfeld, I'm told, likes the way the flick is going.)

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Oscar Watch

Who will hold the coveted statuette this year?

Word is that, despite the apparent flood of animated features in 2006, only 15 films met the criteria for Academy consideration for Best Animated Feature (Arthur and the Invisibles was submitted but lacked sufficient animation to be considered an animated film). As a result, there'll be only three nominees, and frankly, I think that's a bit of ashame. Some will point out (correctly) that last year wasn't exactly the strongest in terms of film quality, that there weren't any truly great animated films, so it doesn't matter which ones get nominated...

I would argue that that's all the more reason why there should be five nominees. It would be one thing if there were one or two clear frontrunners, as there usually has been in the past. In that case, what's the point of arguing about which films are the fourth and fifth best? But an Oscar nomination is a pretty decent honor in and of itself, and in 2006 there wasn't that one standout film, but instead there were a handful that were pretty much in a critical dead heat.

Take a look at the "fresh" ratings from Rottentomatoes.com for the best reviewed animated features of '06:

Happy Feet 77%

Flushed Away 76%

Cars 76%

Over the Hedge 74%

Monster House 73%

I'm hard pressed to look at that grouping and separate out the three most deserving of nomination. Of course, reviews aren't everything. For example, the ASIFA judges included Open Season (which ranked 49% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) at the expense of Flushed Away in their nominations for the Annies. For all I know, the Academy voters will have their own criteria, and might make Curious George (70% fresh), A Scanner Darkly (65% fresh) and Ice Age: The Meltdown (56% fresh) their three nominees.

I've had lots of conversations with people both inside and outside the industry, as well as with a couple of reporters who will be doing Oscar stories, and it appears that there is much less consensus about which films should get nominated than ever before. At the end of the day, though, I guess it really doesn't matter too much. Given the way these things go, I think there are only two films that have a chance to win the little gold guy, regardless of how many are nominated. And in the long run, no one really remembers the nominees that don't win.

Oh, and in case you're curious, the ill-fated Arthur and the Invisibles, which was denied it's chance at Oscar glory, scored a snappy 5% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes.

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The Weekend Ticket Derby

Night at the Museum, despite some lacklustre reviews, continues to shake, rattle and roll at the box office. The foreign-produced, cg-animated fairy tale Happily N'Ever After debuts on 2,381 screens but fails to ignite...

Museum has run up $147 million through Friday...

While Ever After lands with a muffled thud (and $802 per theater) for a total of $2 million.

Charlotte's Web (at #9) now totals $62.9 million...

And the long-in-release Happy Feet appears to be running low on petrol as it declines to #15 with a $182.4 million cume.

Sunday Update: The weekend estimates are in, and Happily N'Ever After clocked in at sixth with an estimated $6.8 million, which projects out to a final tally of around $20 million domestic. Which isn't too surprising, since the first weekend of the new year is a traditionally horrible time to release a film, especially one with scathing reviews. Night at the Museum continued it's surprising success, with $24 million and a $164 million total.

Happy Feet tied for 13th place with $4 million, and is now up to a healthy $185.4 megabucks.

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Sponge Bob Adds Episodes

This week I ricochet from studio to studio with my bag of 401(k) booklets and my happy smile. I also pick up a few factoids from hither and yon:

At Nick, the Bobster adds an additional thirteen episodes as Nick/Viacom greenlights a new season (with perhaps more episodes to follow)...

At DisneyToons, the long-gestating Tinkerbell separates its Burbank-based cgi animation staff from service as the DVD feature returns to the drawing board. Most of the animation was being done at the Indian Studio Prana, but a small animation group was housed on the Burbank lot.

A chunk of animation was completed prior to the film's return to Square One. Where that footage ultimately ends up? Anyone's guess, I suppose. I won't hazard any.

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2006 DVD sales chart

Via Animated-News.com, from the Houston Cronicle, comes word that (surprise, surprise) the top selling DVDs of last year were animated. The chart covers the period from Dec. 3, 2005, through Nov. 25, 2006 (one assumes to take into account the natural sales cycle of DVDs), and finds DreamWorks' Madagascar at the top of the heap . . .

Chicken Little was third, the re-release of The Little Mermaid was fourth, the re-release of Lady and the Tramp seventh, and Over the Hedge eighth. Oh, and the fullscreen version of Madagascar was counted separately, and ranked at number six.

So six of the top eight DVD sellers were fully animated. And two of those were old classics (what studio accounts refer to as "the gifts that keep on giving -- to the company bottom line.").

The figures, from Billboard magazine, don't include actual sales numbers, but we trust it was a nice chunk of change for the good folks at DreamWorks and Disney.

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Studio Politics (Again)

You remember the stock spiel I give to disgruntled studio employees? Usually after they're laid off after some argument or altercation with some higher up? And they're ticked about it? The spiel goes something like this:

"Don't ever get the idea you don't do the political thing. If you're breathing, you're playing. And you're either playing well, or so-so, or badly. But you're playing."

This struck me yesterday (again) when I was over at the Diz Feature Animation hat building. I was walking around doing my usual last minute hand out of 401(k) forms. A few of the people who hadn't survived the December 11 and 12 cuts were lamenting how they had rubbed some administration person or supervisor the wrong way, and how maybe that was why they were getting their walking papers now.

And I said how there wasn't really any way to know, since nobody was going to tell them. ("Yeah, you aced yourself when you argued with Stanley six months ago. We put a black mark next to your name right then and there. We knew you were finished.") I said that it was a safe bet that staff wasn't culled strictly on the merits; I've heard too much testimony to the contrary.

And while I told them this, I thought back to one of the moments when I didn't play it right at the House of Mouse: I was in a meeting in a second-floor story room of the old animation building, working on Oliver & Company with Pete Young and George Scribner. Pete asked me to take notes about what was being discussed.

Pete Young at the time of the stress and trouble...

Like everybody else at Disney Animation in mid-'eighty-five, I was under stress. I was working on two features just then, running from Glendale to Burbank. And like everybody else I didn't know if the new management team of Eisner-Katzenberg was even going to keep animation going. And I did something really stupid.

I looked at Pete and snapped: "I'm not a secretary."

It was a bad thing to say. The wrong thing to say. And Pete went rigid and glared at me and from that moment on froze me out. Because I wasn't a team player. Helping him when he needed help and had asked for help.

I didn't know it then, but it was the first nail in my professional coffin at Disney (more were to follow).

So when people over the last few weeks have talked to me about stupid moves they've made under yet another new management team at Walt Disney Feature Animation, I know exactly what they are talking about. But's not within most people's power to know how some stupid crack they make will be received, or whether last month's argument with the production coordinator will result in a negative report that ends up in some studio file or data base.

And most people would go crazy trying to puzzle all of that out. ("Did I say??"... "Should I have said?"...) We are the bundle of talent and personality that we are, and we have to go through life using them as best we can.

I guess what I've decided after ricocheting around this crazed and crazy business for thirty years is, you have to be aware of studio politics, but you can't wrap your existence around them. Trying to calculate all the bank shots will just make you nuts. Better to do the best job you can, work to avoid unnecessary fights, and leave it at that.

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401(k) Admin Costs

One more narrowcast, asked for by TAG members concerned about the costs of TAG's 401(k) Plan...

The big question: How does a participant know what the plan's administrative costs are? There's a simple answer. The plan's expenses are broken out in the Mass Mutual retirement book, on the "investment profile" pages.

On each page, in the lower left-hand corner, is a header titled operations. Directly under it is the expense ratio, which varies for each fund. (.20%, .68%, .89%, etc.)

One example is PIMCO's "Total Return" bond fund. The expense ratio (cost) is .68% (68 basis points). So, if you had a thousand dollars in the fund, you'd be paying $6.80 per $1000 of assets.

Simple.

And if you were in, say, "Select Indexed Equity" (this one a relatively low-cost index stock fund), you would be paying .20% (20 basis points). "SIE" is a large-company fund that shadows the Russell 1000; if you had a thousand bucks in it, you'd be paying $2 per $1000 of assets.

So. The easiest way to find out what you're paying (and this applies to any 401(k) plan) is to scope out the expense ratio for each fund in which you're investing, then do the math for each one (.60 x $1500 = $9) plus (.20 x $2000 = $4) equals $13. And so on.

These costs come out of plan assets, and in 401(k)-land, the plan participants pay them.

For our plan, there are the admin costs charged by Mass Mutual and two small, supplemental administrators (the smaller administrators cost a total of about ten basis points); there's the fund's basic cost; there's also a plan lawyer who bills the TAG 401(k) Plan for services rendered a few times each year. Six plan trustees, three from participating companies and three from the guild, oversee the operation of the plan without compensation. All the directors are covered by insurance for performing their fiduciary duties (and the insurance is billed to plan assets.)

All these costs are borne by plan participants, and are reflected in the percentages shown under Operations.

This is pretty much how every 401(k) Plan in the country runs. The Animation Guild's operation is relatively low-cost. Administration fees run from 20 basis points (.2% of assets) up to 161 basis points (1.61% of assets.) Costs are similar to charges on retail mutual funds like Fidelity or Franklin.

Most of the offered funds are managed funds, reviewed quarterly by plan trustees for superior performance. (If a fund falls behind similar funds in its category, the trustees replace it with one that flies higher.)

Larger 401(k) Plans with built-in safeguards work pretty well. (Obviously, they're tethered to the various markets they track, but that's a different story than how they work.) No plan is perfect, and no plan is cost-free. But they're a pretty good way to build up retirement savings, and that's why TAG fought to get one a dozen years ago, and works hard to keep the one we've got growing and expanding now.

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The New Simpson Models?

And this isn't one. It's just a semi-relevant illustration from the internets.

After a week off, I got back into harness and traipsed around Starz Media where "The Simpsons" series moves along on the third floor with fewer artists. More of the Simpsons' pencil-wielding troops are being redeployed to the first floor (how many times have I noted this?)...

Questions about the 401(k) Plan (see below) predominated, but as I looked at a model sheet of Homer Simpson, an artist pointed out to me that this was the old Homer Simpson model, even though it said "Homer Model - Feature". I asked if there were newer Simpson models. He immediately showed me Bart the Old and Bart the New. "See the more subtle lines? The characters more tied down now."

I made grunting noises like I totally got the more subtle lines and the new, more "tied down" Bart model. Truth to tell, the old Bart and the new Bart looked pretty damn alike to me. But that's the trouble with showing artwork to a union rep/cartoon writer. It's kind of like displaying a Monet to a cow. Pretty much a pointless exercise.

Addendum:

Another project in the building is Turok, Son of Stone, a property that's seen service as a Gold Key comic and video game. Well, it's now boing to be a 70-minute DVD produced for Classic Media being supervised by animation veteran Tad Stones.

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401(k) Year Starts

This is a narrow-cast to TAGers wanting to jump into the TAG 401(k) Pension Plan at the beginning of '07 (all others, avert your eyes)...

We've extended the enrollment deadline for new 401(k) enrollees and participants wanting to change their contribution percentages out to Friday, January 5th, 2007.

So. If you want to sock money away in '07, the door hasn't yet slammed on the first quarter of the new year. The contribution cap for the 2007 is $15,500 for anyone under fifty, and $20,500 for anyone who turns fifty (or is -- shudder! -- even older) this year.

Happy Investing.

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'Toon Year in Review -- Part V

Finally, a quick recap of the final two months of '06, and some of the events that impacted the animation biz...

November '06

Simpsons feature continues ramping up.

Per the trades, DreamWorks and Aardman teeter on the brink of divorce.

The plug is officially pulled on the VHS format (rest in peace, ye olde video cassettes...)

DreamWorks announces "write down" of Flushed Away.

Happy Feet rakes in $42 million on its opening weekend. MSM rethinks its "too many cgi critter features" storyline (not).

WGAw declines early negotiations with the AMPTP for a new contract.

Three-year anniversary of Roy E. Disney becoming publically displeased with Diz chairman Michael Eisner. (Moral: Avoid getting on Roy E. Disney's bad side.)

Disney/TSL contract ratified by 100% of voting members. (Doesn't happen very often -- like hardly at all -- but there it is. Unanimity.)

December '06

Joe Barbera, last of the animation giants, dies at 95.

Animation scribe Chris Hayward (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairy Tales) dies at 86.

TAG's 401(k) plan reaches $100 million in assets.

Disney Features lays off 117 TAG-repped employees (out of 160 total). Chris Sanders exits the director's chair on American Dog.

DisneyToons Tinkerbell goes back into the development machine shop for a major tune-up.

** May Your New Year Be Profitable and Happy **

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'Toon Year in Review -- Part IV

Now on to September and October...

September '06

Everyone's Hero is stillborn, collecting $13.2 million after three weeks and a domestic final total of $14.5 million.

But Open Season collects $23 million in its first three days, gladdening the hearts of Sony execs. (Season ends up north of $84 million for its domestic box office tally, proving once again the effectiveness of the Koch box office multiplier(c).)

Hulett predicts the next monster hit animated feature will be Shrek III, proving Hulett is no psychic. Happy Feet turns out to be the next big wowser.

Universal Cartoon Studios has The Land Before Time franchise going full blast, with feature #13 and series in production simultaneously. Curious George picked up for a second season on PBS.

DisneyToons Brother Bear 2 tops DVD sales charts.

Roy Brewer, fierce anti-communist, friend of Ronald Reagan, and IATSE union rep, dies on September 16th.

IATSE District 2 Convention (that's a gathering of IATSE local unions from California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada) meets in Las Vegas, Nevada.

IA/TSL/Disney contract negotiations, after many delays, are finally set for October 12 and 13.

October '06

Nickelodeon and DreamWorks announce television alliance, with Nick bringing DreamWorks theatrical productions to the small screen as series.

Screenwriting Expos 5 showcases Pixar's story wizards, President Koch in attendance and blogging away...

Warner Bros. Animation tells TAG it will be moving from Sherman Oaks (its home for the past seventeen years) back to Burbank, move to take place in '07.

Mid-month, 4 of the 8 top-selling DVD are animated features -- two from the 1980s.

TAG hosts "See Jane" panel at Burbank Library. A full house watches panelists Dean de Blois, Jenny Lerew, Geena Davis, moderator Kevin Koch, Brenda Chapman, Jill Culton and Fred Seibert discuss women in all aspects of animation.

Agreement is reached by the IA, TAG and Disney Feature Animation on a new TSL contract. Disney employees' negotiating committee gives unanimous approval.

The New York Times worries about too many animal cgi features spoiling the 'toon party, citing declining grosses. Happy Feet takes flight two months later.

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The Last Day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

(c) by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

And so we come to the last of the Hulett Christmas cards, with Santa Claus burying himself under beach sand, being politically incorrect. (Santa is no doubt here because he grows weary of Blitzen blowing smoke rings in his face.)

** Happy New Year **

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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The Last Boxoffice Weekend of the year . . .

And the live-action cartoon, Night at the Museum, had a huge Friday boxoffice with over $13 million (bigger than its opening Friday and about double the second place Happyness) to start things off. Happy Feet, after finishing 9th last weekend, is in eighth place with another $3 million. Updates to follow . . .

Sunday update: Night at the Museum was the resounding winner, with $36.7 million, and is already at $116 million. Happy Feet took another ninth place, with just under $8 million, for a domestic cume of $176 million. And as proof that people aren't in the mood for counter-programming during the holidays, Black Christmas opened in 13th place with a meager $3.7 million.

Hope you all have a Happy New Year's eve, and drive safely.

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'Toon Year in Review -- Part III

And yet more backward glances at the year gone by. This time we look at the summer months...

June '06

Pixar/Disney's Cars enjoys a $63 million opening on its way to a $244,082,982 domestic theatrical gross. It ends up the #2 Disney release (and #2 film of the year) after Pirates. But its opening falls below "analysts" expectations.

Fox announces that prime-time series Futurama will go back into production. This makes the third Fox nighttime series to return from the dead (Family Guy and King of the Hill being the predecessors to perform the Lazarus miracle.)

There are press reports of a government probe of the WGAw and DGA failing to pay European residuals to directors and writers.

July '06

Animation's overseas ticket sales: A commenter points out that foreign box office has Ice Age 2 as the top animated flick of the year, then Over the Hedge, then Cars. (This is all before Happy Feet becomes December's animation sweetheart.

Monster House debuts at #2 ($22 million) then drops far faster than other recent animation releases (the L.A. TIMES speculates the fall off is caused by bad word-of-mouth from parents who think the flick is too intense.)

Ant Bully arrives D.O.A. (#5, $8.4 million) on its way to a lacklustre total of $28 million.

Comicon unfolds in San Diego, bigger and more crowded than ever.

Pinky and the Brain debuts on DVD.

The Animation Guild is informed by Disney that the studio wide-cutbacks announced by the company will not include feature animation employees (this turns out to be not quite correct.)

August '06

SIGGRAPH opens in Boston. TAG President Kevin Koch takes it all in.

Barnyard, the long-in-production, San Clemente-based 'toon, opens with a $16 million gross, double most predictions.

Animation legend Ed Benedict, the father/designer of Fred, Wilma, Boo Boo and many others, passes away on August 28th.

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Ralph Hulett's Christmas, day XXXV

(c) by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Another New England snow scene -- an early card of the prototypical New England bridge over a frozen stream. As you can see, the styles vary a lot.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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The Wisdom of DAILY VARIETY

I just caught up with VARIETY's insightful front page story from a couple of days ago. It seems the trade paper has come across an amazing slice of reality:

Surveying the most crowded year in history for animated features, there's no escaping the fact that the right release date helps. A lot.

Successful toons tend to have very strong legs, dropping just 20%-30% each week. Those legs can get cut off, however, when another animated feature for families opens.

DreamWorks' "Over the Hedge," for instance, had a decent $38 million bow and declined less than 30% in its second and third weekends. In its fourth frame, however, "Cars" opened, and "Hedge" took a 50% hit, putting a big dent in its B.O. momentum.

It's good to know that when two high-profile animated family films collide in the marketplace, one or the other suffers. I guess this is sort of like when two horror films come out close together, or two spy adventures debut within a week of each other, that the first film in release usually takes a hit.

I never realized this before, so it's fine that a knowlegable show biz trade paper puts it on the front page. Next week, VARIETY will clue us that the sun rises in the east.

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'Toon Year in Review -- Part II

As the year (and this blog) rolled on, animation continued to heat up. (It couldn't have been otherwise, with all the animated productions in work and soon to be in release). But we digress. On to the months of April and May...

April '06

The month of many rain showers starts with a bang as Ice Age 2: the Meltdown collects $70.5 million on its opening weekend and stays strong throughout the four-week period.

Production ramps up on The Simpsons feature. Hulett reports on blog that the film is being made in Cinemascope (tm) and is called on the carpet by a production manager for revealing the screen shape.

Cartoon Network continues its winning streak with Ben 10, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Camp Lazlo, Class of 3000, Foster's home for Imaginary Friends. A shorts program is also up and running.

IDT Entertainment (swallowed up by STARZ Media the following month) negotiates a three-year deal with TAG (IDTE is not in the regular animation bargaining unit.) TAG's voting members ratify the new three-year pacts by 94%.

The Screen Actors Guild Board approves a new animation (voice actors) contract.

May '06

Digital storyboards accelerate their expansion through the animation industry.

Over the Hedge opens with $38.5 million, $1.5 million below analysts' estimates. (Picture goes on to a worldwide gross of $330 million and the 130th slot on "Alltime Worldwide Box Office list." Still, those analysts did think it underperformed.)

At WDFA, word circulates that Clements and Musker will direct a new hand-drawn feature...Word also goes around that Personal Service Contracts, initiated by Eisner-Katzenberg in the early '90s, will come to an end under Lasseter-Catmull. And do, in fact, come to a finish by late summer.

Warner Bros. Animation has Scooby and Shaggy, Batman, Loonatic, Legion of Superheros and other direct to video projects in production.

Sixty-fifth anniversary of the Disney strike.

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Ralph Hulett's Christmas, day XXXIV

(c) by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

An earlier card featuring white doves of peace and a distant mission.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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