Slow Stories Don't Have to Be Boring

A still from Panda! Go, Panda! – The Rainy-Day Circus (1973)Welcome! This is another Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, and here’s the slate:1. On the art of pacing.2. Animation newsbits.3. The last word.With that, let’s go!1. Going for popcornDuring the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Jeffrey Katzenberg had immense creative pull at Disney. He was behind The Little Mermaid’s over-the-top ending, for example. “Die Hard had been a box-office hit,” recalled director John Musker. “So he came into the office saying, ‘We need The Little Mermaid to be more Die Hard.’ That’s how we got the second action sequence, with an Ursula who is as big as … Nakatomi Plaza.”1Disney movies of that time reflected Katzenberg’s taste — his crews struggled to get around it. And there was one note, in particular, for which he became notorious. “I’m going for popcorn,” he said, often. In other words: the film was slow, and the audience was tuning out.2Pacing was a fixation of Katzenberg’s. He wanted to…