I went to see National Treasure 2 (which was pretty good for a Disney sequel) and was pleasantly surprised when they showed a short Goofy cartoon entitled "How to hook up your home theater." I knew that John Lassater was trying to bring back the "old" Disney, but I hadn't gone to the movie expecting to see a cartoon. I wonder if that is something you can expect from other Disney movies coming out.

I used to manage a Radioshack and this cartoon made my heart sing. It was universally applicable to people who knew nothing about technology and to people who knew all about the ins and outs of setting up a home theater system. The short is really about how complicated people make things and how people strive for that "real" experience from their television and end up getting much more then they thought they would need.

It appears as though more shorts are being planned by Disney, but not every film will have a short attached to it. The next short from what I can tell is a 3d short called Glago's Guest and is going to be released at the end of 2008. There are a few other shorts currently in the works at Disney including another 2d animation called "The Ballad of Nessie." These and other projects are testing grounds for new software techniques that allow animators to use computer programs largely instead of having to do all paper projects. I count the goofy short as a definite success for both the software and as a project in entertainment.

If you want to read more about this. The best article I found was
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3454&