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What Do The Original ‘Lion King’ Animators Think Of The New, Heavily CGI Version?

One animator said, “I will only get myself in trouble if I comment on the ‘other’ version,” so there’s that point of view. Another: “I think some of my colleagues forget that when you work on a Disney movie, you don’t own it. They own it. You get paid to work there, which is a great privilege. It’s an amazing company. You get to work on this great stuff. But when you walk away, it’s their movie and they can do what they want with it.” – HuffPost

It’s Time To Let ‘Miss Saigon’ Go – Forever

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen: “Fantasy cannot be dismissed as mere entertainment, especially when we keep repeating the fantasy. Fantasy — and our enjoyment of it — speaks to something we deeply want to believe. The enjoyment of this show is based on the privilege that the audience feels, the privilege of not being that Asian woman who kills herself, the privilege of seeing the world from the viewpoint of the powerful white male savior who can both be so attractive that a woman would kill herself over him and be so paternal that he can adopt the mixed-race child who will stand in for childlike Asia, in need of Western benevolent guidance.” – The New York Times

Participatory Theatre At Its European Roots

During a conference on “Bürgerböhne” – or participatory theatre for citizens – “it became clear to me that not all countries—or even communities—have the same ideas about how participatory theatre projects work or ‘should’ work, and, on top of this, what the role of the artist, within these communities, is.” What’s the same, and what changes in different theatres across the world? – Howlround

D.A. Pennebaker, Documentary Filmmaker And Bob Dylan Mythmaker, Has Died At 94

Pennebaker’s documentary filmmaking stretched across more than six decades, and in that time, he “chronicled a who’s who of other pop music and entertainment world figures and icons over the course of his long career, including John Lennon, David Bowie, Jane Fonda, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and the Monterey Pop Festival.” Then there’s Dont Look Back. – Los Angeles Times

More Than A Year After 40 Artists Withdrew From A London Museum, They’re Still Demanding Answers

The timeline: Last August, “more than 40 artists removed their work from the exhibition Hope to Nope at the Design Museum in London after the museum housed an event hosted by the arms manufacturer Leonardo. At the time, the museum assured the protesting artists, who organized in a group named Nope to Arms, that it will review its due diligence policy related to commercial and fundraising activities.” Or … not, apparently. – Hyperallergic

Oh, Hello, 80 Percent Of Books Published Between 1924 And 1963 Are In The Public Domain

Wow, thanks for your data mining project, New York Public Library! Why, though? Because “until the 1976 Copyright Act, US works were not copyrighted unless they were registered, and then they quickly became public domain unless that registration was renewed.” And most people – and publishers – did not renew that registration. – Boing Boing

Vivian Paley, Pioneering Educator And Author Who Believed In The Power Of Story, Has Died At 90

Paley won a MacArthur “Genius” Grant for her work. Her methods met with resistance during the era of quantification and textbook standardization, but “in addition to teaching children, she mentored a generation of teachers, held workshops and lectured about her experiences in the classroom” – and wrote 13 well-regarded books about the educational rewards of storytelling as a pedagogical practice. – The New York Times