DISNEY TREASURES COLLECTION: DROPPING IN

Rob Kaz

MEDIUM: Giclée on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
SIZE: 24" x 8"
EDITION SIZE: 1500
ARTIST: Rob Kaz
SKU: DFA-T-DROPPING IN

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Cleo looks concerned as Jiminy Cricket descends towards her bowl in this work by Rob Kaz. Inspired by Walt Disney's classic Pinocchio.

ABOUT THE MEDIUM:  Each Treasure On Canvas Collection Features stunning Limited-Edition artwork by many of your favorite artists. All titles are released in limited editions of 1500 and arrive beautifully gallery-wrapped and come complete with a Certificate of Authenticity. Officially Licensed artwork by Disney

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Rob Kaz, following graduation from UCF, began working for a number of small animation studios. Because Disney had recently relocated their animation studios to California and left many animators in Central Florida who chose not to uproot, Rob found himself working" alongside, quite possibly, the most talented artists I've ever known right there in those small studios." Their influence was invaluable.

While at the studios, Rob had the opportunity to work in many areas of film. In particular, the time spent in character creation and environments heavily influenced his painting style.

For some time, Rob worked as a character artist for Electronic Arts (EA Tiburon) creating human likenesses in games such as Madden and NCAA football.  

When Rob paints, he imagines places he'd rather be and he imagines friends along the way. Those two categories, Places I'd Rather Be and Friends Along the Way, occurred naturally as Rob began building a body of work. In most cases, his paintings easily fall into one or the other (and sometimes both).  

When his last contract ended with EA, Rob took a leap of faith and began painting full-time. Today, Rob's work is a mirror of his background in animation and video game art.

ABOUT THE FILM: Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It was the second animated feature film produced by Disney, made after the first animated success Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

The plot involves an old woodcarver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio. The puppet is brought to life by a blue fairy, who informs him that he can become a real boy if he proves himself to be "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Pinocchio's efforts to become a real boy involve encounters with a host of unsavory characters. The key character of Jiminy Cricket does not appear in the original book, though a 100-year "wise, old" cricket does. The cricket warns Pinocchio of his impudence when they meet only to be killed in return shortly after. The film was adapted by several screenwriters from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts. Pinocchio was a groundbreaking achievement in effects animation, giving realistic movement to vehicles, machinery, and natural elements such as rain, lightning, smoke, shadows, and water. The film was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940.

Although it became the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award-winning two for Best Music, Original Score and for Best Music, Original Song for "When You Wish Upon a Star" — it was initially a box office bomb, mainly due to World War II cutting off the European and Asian markets overseas. It eventually made a profit in its 1945 reissue and is considered one of the greatest animated films ever made, with a 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The film and characters are still prevalent in popular culture, featuring at various Disney parks, and are often impulsive and mischievous. When he tells a lie, his nose grows longer, and when he tells the truth, his nose resumes its normal size.