Animation Comes Alive at the Mall

Four-year-old Brieanna Poteracke yanked hard on a rope dangling from the tower of a cathedral that had appeared overnight in The Oaks mall, about midway between Macy’s and The Gap.

Bells pealed in the 24-foot tower above her. A man in a purple mask and fake-fur goatee announced that a festival had begun, as a mob of children screamed their high-pitched approval.

Brieanna, her baby brother and her mother had come to the Thousand Oaks shopping center to see Walt Disney Studios’ transformation of the mall into a mini-amusement park--and a three-dimensional promotion for the company’s latest film.

With an animated version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” set to hit theaters Friday, Disney was at the mall in force, staging puppet shows and animation displays to whet the public’s appetite for the movie.

“The kids love it,” said Dina Poteracke, as Brieanna pleaded with her to go watch the puppets. “It’s something for them to do. And it’s good advertising.”

Indeed. During the last five months, Disney has taken its miniature Notre Dame Cathedral and video screen displays to 21 malls nationwide, drawing about 4 million people, said the tour’s project manager, Melissa Radke. The Oaks display, which ends today, is the show’s last stop.

Although the displays all tie into Disney’s new release, Radke said the traveling show is not just an advertisement for the film. The show’s purpose, she said, is to satisfy public curiosity about how animated movies are made and give participants an experience they can’t get in theaters.

“It’s really a good way for us to bring a little bit of Disney to the people,” she said.

Many of the technical questions about animation go to Mark Walton, a Disney storyboard artist. About 30 children gathered around Walton’s small stage Wednesday as he sketched Donald Duck sitting on a boat, fishing. A storyboard artist, he explained, sketches different scenes from a movie, giving the director an idea of how each scene will appear.

Although exhausted by the tour, Walton said he still enjoyed fielding questions from kids interested in doing his job. “It’s amazing how many say they want to be animators,” he said. “They want to know how do you get in, how good do you have to be.”

Not all of those watching the displays Wednesday were children or their parents.

“I’m a big Disney fan--I like the animation,” said Cal Lutheran University sophomore Adele Margolis. Although she wondered how well Victor Hugo’s literary classic would fare as a cartoon movie, she was still curious about the film.

“I think Hugo would turn over in his grave, but what I’ve seen of the animation is very good.”