Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection: Warms My Heart (but my feet are cold)

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I'm having my socks blown off right now.  For real.  I just hopped on the treadmill to get my five miles in on a rainy day.  I flipped the tv on, fired up Netflix and was presented with a new choice: Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection!  It's no secret that I'm a lover of animated movies, but they have to be really good to earn my heart.  Pixar is, of course, the gold standard, but even Pixar doesn't always live up to my high standards.  (I see The Toy Story trilogy, The Incredibles, Up,   Wall-e, and Ratatouille as high points in not only animation, but in filmmaking in general.  Cars2 not so much.)  I'm often less than impressed, so you can take my word for it when I tell you this is not your average collection of cartoons.  

Right off the bat, the first three shorts had me all but crying and in awe of their gorgeous art and story telling. John Henry told the familiar tale with gorgeous stylized art and real feeling, but I thought the cats doing the tango was the best I'd see.  The art and animation was so vibrant, creative and fun!

 

Then came a wordless, beautiful telling of The Little Match Girl.  It was so different from the dancing cats, but so pretty and poignant I had to like it even more.

Then my nostalgia got going with a new Goofy short that felt just like a Goofy short from my childhood, you know, the pre-Katzenberg era when Disney was creative and fun and well, goofy! 

Of course not every short in the collection is ground breaking artistically and some are definitely made for commercial appeal (the Tangled and Frozen sequel shorts are included) but each one tells a complete story and all are better than anything Dreamworks will ever crank out (How to Train Your Dragon excepted).  So here's to Disney!  They're not only furthering the possibilities of animation technically, but also raising the bar artistically.  Thanks for  always telling a great story and for making me smile. Thanks for twelve sweet tales that warmed my heart today.

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Develop Confidence! 3 Tips from TED-Ed

This video was in my Facebook feed yesterday.  I like it so much I want to always know where to find it, so I'm sharing it here.  It was created in partnership with the #LikeAGirl campaign, but it's great advice for everyone.  We can always use more confidence.

3 tips to boost your confidence
Happy #InternationalDayoftheGirl! To celebrate the occasion, check out this lesson on confidence we made in partnership with the Always #LikeAGirl campaign:
Posted by TED-Ed on Sunday, October 11, 2015

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