WARD KIMBALL, Genius!

Ward Kimball holding court at his
"Grizzly Flats" next to Chloe

March 4, 1914 gave us one of the most talented, one of the biggest cutups and one of the most beloved artists in the Walt Disney Studio stable- Ward Kimball. Ward was so many things it’s hard to put a label on him- jazz trombonist, fine artist, toy collector, imagineer, train buff, animator… well let’s just use the moniker that Walt Disney himself bestowed on Ward- GENIUS! 

One of Ward's endless model sheet spoofs

As with many of the Disney “old timers” (Now that my dark hair has for some reason gone gray, I'm not sure I like that phrase). I first met Ward at Cal Arts back when I was enrolled in the Disney Animation program back in the mid 1970s.  He made quite an impression on me and others in the brief time he was there but what I noticed was that he really stood out from the other fellows, not just because of his owlish oversized spectacles but his big grin and voice to match it. Ken O'Connor, who was our Basic Drawing and Perspective teacher was a close friend of Ward's and had worked in the Kimball Unit on many of his popular projects at Walt Disney Studio and was able to help set up the visits.

For those who might be unfamiliar with Ward's work he brought to life with his magic pencil many famous delightful Disney characters including Jimminy Cricket, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat and oodles more. He was an inspiring director and was responsible for the Academy Award winning short, "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" and a series of shows about outer space working with other Disney legends like Ken O'Connor that helped Americans understand our "race into space."

I was quite the practical joker at Disney and probably spent too much time planning out gags to play on my co-workers (The soap bubbles incident, re-arranging rest room labels, setting a For Lease sign in front of the studio, etc.) when I suddenly found myself loaned out  to WED. (they did that frequently, I should have developed an inferiority complex). On one of those “loan outs” I was assigned to work on EPCOT with Ward on “World of Motion” with GM as the sponsor. If they thought it would quiet me down management was mistaken because it was more akin to pouring gasoline on a fire. 

Walt and Ward

Ward was patient as I was trying to get my head around the job and he made the time fly by giving some of the “suits” the business, one fellow in particular was an ongoing target for Ward’s humor. The ride was a send up of the history of transportation and with Ward in charge it was a funny one to be sure. I did a few gag sketches on Leonardo Da Vinci attempting flight and quite a few doodles and a pastel for the turn of the century traffic jam. Ward was turning out stunning train sketches that were not only amazing, but the guy wasn't using any reference!

We had a song, "It's Fun to Be Free" written by X Atencio with music by Buddy Baker. Ward would half hum and half sing, "It's Fun to be Me..." while doodling madly at his desk. Unfortunately I can't print his memorable version of the lyrics here. Within our sketches and even the models, Mickey would wind up pounded by a caveman, flattened as a traffic jam victim or tied to a train track with a steam loco on its way. Moments before a presentation there would be a hilarious sign or two added amidst the "official" traffic signs and let me tell ya they wasn’t there to clear up any traffic jam sister!  While adding his hijinks to the process, we still turned out a ton of work, maybe even because of it. Ward just made it a joy rather than a job.

Ward at his desk in the animation
building long before we met

They would usually limit my time on these WED excursions to two to three weeks per project and sure enough one day when I came in Ward told me I had been reassigned to the American Adventure pavilion. I was a bit upset about it but Ward tried to cheer me up and presented me with a cut out cardboard folder rendered like a traveling suitcase covered with his ridiculous made up stickers he had applied including with names including World of Notion, World of Potion, World of Lotion, well you get the idea. 

After a while you realized there
was no one on the other end

I opened that case to find a cel of a funky looking red bird from one of Ward’s Academy Award winning projects,”It’s Tough to Be a Bird”. He dedicated it,” From one bird brain to another! best wishes Mike, Ward Kimball”. I treasure that creepy little "boyd".

I really wish I could have worked with Ward at the animation studio on a feature but at this stage in his career he had moved on and spent most of his time for the company hanging out at at WED although he had just recently produced a show called “The Mouse Factory” in the early 1970s. Sadly that although I would run into Ward a couple of times later on (when they would get the Disney veterans together for photo shoots or publicity interviews at Grizzly Flats ) that brief team up at WED was to be the only time I would have the chance to work with that lovable legendary loonytoon. On a sour note I was ticked off that because of the animation strike I wasn't able to attend the wrap party for the ride. Ward, Dave Michener, Ed Hansen and Dick Lucas did sent me materials like booklets, pins and other souvenirs but it's not the same as being there. Then again I really didn't contribute much to the WOM ride when all is said and done outside of a few charcoal gag drawings and some pastels. It was Ward's baby from start to finish, and what he came up with was entertaining even if the mechanical side of the attraction had a nasty habit of breaking down.

Walt named him a genius so
who am I to argue?

Ward also founded the legendary Dixieland band, “Firehouse Five Plus Two” where he played one outspoken trombone. The reach he had with that elongated instrument among his fellow musicians like Disney animator Frank Thomas and Art Director/Imagineer Harper Goff was hilarious. Fire helmets would accidentally get knocked sideways at times as he would swing around. I want to be clear on something, as silly as he would act up there, he could really play that trombone as good as anyone and they performed a couple of lunchtime concerts for us at the old studio which were unforgettable. That band of his released no fewer than 13 LP records and toured clubs and jazz festivals with Walt's OK, as long as it didn't interfere with the animation production. Being a Naw'lins native and lover of Dixieland jazz, I have two of those records and scratch them up on my record player regularly.

One of Ward's "Art Afterpieces"

He also illustrated a famous series of paintings poking fun at famous masterpieces called “Art Afterpieces” which have been copied by some cheesy artists over recent years who pretended they came up with the idea (ironic ain’t it, copying a copy?). Those copies however never equaled Ward’s brilliance. 

In addition a lot of people don’t realize what a fine artist Ward was which evidenced in his life drawings, stills and paintings. He just rather enjoyed doing more comically inclined cartoon designs over realism. He married his best gal Betty and raised 3 talented kids, Kelly, Johnny and Chloe. I worked with John Kimball over in TVA while doing DuckTales and other series for the mouse. Betty by the way worked in Ink and  Paint in the 1930s and among her contributions to the Disney Studio was to develop the "dry brush" technique used on cels for a soft feathered rendered look used to great effect in "Fantasia". They married in 1936 and Betty left three years later to raise a family and manage the full size backyard train set of Ward's called "Grizzly Flats" which had to be seen to be believed and even then it was unbelievable!

One of the important lessons I learned from Ward was to be a chameleon and don't get pegged with one style. Another important thing he taught me was when I was working on a time machine design for a project. I was hitting a dead end creatively and happened by for a visit. He told me to collect every time machine photo and drawing I could find, pin them all up, ... then do something different! I did just that, and based mine on an Aztec Calendar of stone which when parts were rotated, stone segments rose to seat the time traveller. The other machines that had been designed for films were almost entirely of Victorian design and what we might call Steampunk these days so I opted for something much more ancient. The project was eventually shelved but the time machine design I came up with really impressed everyone at the meeting with its originality. I owe you for that one Ward, thank you!

Happy Birthday to a crazy and wonderful genius, Ward Kimball!

Patty, Queen of the Pixie Dust!

November is a very special month for most of us with the holiday season just peeking around the corner but for me it holds even more significance. My beautiful and talented wife Patty was born on November 10. 

I snapped this pic during one of our
visits to UCLA

I met Patty while in line at the CalArts bookstore purchasing some supplies for the first day of Character Animation classes back in the 1970s. She was a sweet thoughtful but determined young lady whose talent had already achieved a full scholarship at the school. She was the FIRST female to be hired by the Walt Disney Studios out of the new Disney Animation Program. Patty was hired in the Effects Department and never complained as she was often given the "worst" scenes to animate. By "worst " I mean scenes with lots of pencil milage and detail that other animators would purposely avoid to keep their footage looking good. Patty made up for it by taking those scenes home at night and over weekends in order to instill the quality she was demanding. Her effects creations can be found in Fox and Hound, Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Black Cauldron, Basil of Baker Street (Great Mouse), Beauty and the Beast, and numerous films for EPCOT, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and even TV shows such as Duck Tales.

Patty in her office with a view of the
Ink and Paint building from her windows.

Patty 1979

While waiting for "Black Cauldron" to ramp up into production, Patty worked on short films for the various Disney Parks. These projects could be anything from the cartoons guests enjoyed while waiting in line or even effects within the attraction itself.  Patty got word from her Assistant Director that they were screening some of her full color scenes for a Tokyo Disneyland attraction called "Meet the World" in the 3rd floor sweatbox and when she snuck in to watch she was horrified to see only two figures sitting in the entire theater. As her eyes got accustomed to the dim light, she recognized Ron Miller sitting next to her director Dave Michener. Her scenes came on with earthquakes, volcanoes erupting spewing lava, steam gysers and floods of water. Ron asked Dave if McManus had animated the scenes and he said no it was Patty Peraza. "Is she an animator?" he asked. When Dave told him no, Ron replied, "She is now!" As Walt had done many times at this magical studio over the years, Ron Miller was giving opportunities to those willing to work hard to earn them.

Patty's pastel and charcoal story sketches for "Black Cauldron"
were featured in "American Cinematographer Magazine"

So Patty became the first female Effects Animator in history at Walt Disney Studios. Volcanoes weren't the only things erupting as management soon realized Patty was the ONLY female animator at Disney Studios when during taping of "Good Morning America" that fact was brought up by GMA reporter Joan Lunden while interviewing Patty live from her room at Disney Studio.  The interview went fine but there seemed to be a slight underlying theme that they were trying to elevate about women not being treated equally at Disney Studios. Patty avoided that can of worms by concentrating her answers on current films in production and explaining how she accomplished the effects she was creating. Let's face it, Patty's promotion was itself proof that Disney was very interested in bringing about more equality between the guys and gals of Disney animation. We still have the VHS copy of that interview that the studio was gracious enough to give her.

After the interview Ron Miller and Ed Hansen (who was head of Animation Management) spoke to Patty and requested names of other females she thought deserved the promotion to further demonstrate the studio's goals. So less than 2 weeks after her promotion, 2 other ladies also were made full animators (one was a name she had even submitted). Of course Disney hasn't stopped there and continues this day to give responsibility to anyone willing to work hard and earn the right which is evident in the latest Disney film soon to be released this month, "FROZEN", with a talented young lady named Jennifer Lee as a Director.

The honor of being the first female animator at Disney Studios of course belongs to Retta Scott who opened the door, albeit all too briefly, for women in animation at Disney and through her talent was credited as animator on films such as the Disney classic "Bambi" when Walt saw her amazing story sketches and assigned her to animating the ferocious dogs chasing Faline. Until Retta came on the scene, women in those days were employed only in the nunnery... er... Ink and Paint Department whereas the Animation Department was the sole domain of men. Hey don't send me any letters, I'm just the messenger here ladies.

Art Stevens

My room during Black Cauldron was a corner one between directors Art Stevens and Ted Berman. Long story but Art "retired" during that project and it was one of those awkward events where no one had planned anything to celebrate his long tenure at the studio. I told Patty who rushed to the local grocery store to pick up bottles of Champagne, cups, cheeses, coldcuts and threw a retirement party for Art. We got quite a crowd, mainly of the Disney veterans who were still there to attend. Afterwards, Art found out Patty had put it together and thanked her with tears in his eyes. That's my Patty, always trying to make everyone happy!

"Black Cauldron" producer Joe Hale
and Patty at the wrap party

Patty went on to be hired as  "Project Lead" for a new animated film titled, "Beauty and the Beast" directed by Dick Purdum and I was now working for my wife doing a little early concept work on that picture. By the way, the studio planned it as non-musical at that point! Of course that was before "Little Mermaid" was released and became a hit thus providing a "blue print" or" formula" as to constructions of many of the future animated features.

When our daughter Kim was born, Patty decided she wanted to spend more time being a mother and after a lot of thought, sadly turned down the request from Disney Studios to move to London for pre-production on Beauty opting for work that was closer to home. Today she concentrates on volunteering her services to a variety of community projects, speaking on film and animation panels and attending Disney fan events. She is currently a Disney Master Artist designing art pieces that are shown and sold in Disney Galleries located in Disneyland and around the world. She is also a proud Legacy member of Women in Animation where she is a mentor to the younger generation of up and coming ladies. Happy Birthday to my favorite Disney gal, Patty!

"Tools of the Trade"

I like to sharing trivia about various mediums we used at the Walt Disney Studios before the digital age came upon us so here are a few you might be interested in.

First, here's an interesting ad from the Saturday Evening Post published around the release of BAMBI,  showcasing Walt Disney and a vintage Everlast pen and pencil set. As fine a quality as these were, they were only used for writing and not drawing at the old studio. The fellows in animation production who sometimes used pens like Ken Anderson definitely favored the Montblanc brand with sketching nibs. 

With the "ONE-TWO " punch of a strike and war, Walt had to embrace even these little opportunities when they came along to put something back in the dwindling studio reserves. The set pictured was most likely used by Walt for a short time any way and I'm assuming as is the custom of many companies trying to sell their items, some free sets were probably given to the studio to be used as publicly as possible. More likely by writers though than by artists.

Just a note to anyone still using the old KOH-I-NOOR pencil holders like the ones we used to use for story sketches and roughs at Disney Studios. The various quality leads are becoming hard to find and lately I've picked up some very inferior ones at local art stores loaded with filler and binding material that fracture and break off in tiny specs while drawing.

However, I just received a pack from GIOCONDA 6 that are actually made for KOH-I-NOOR/HARTMUTH from the Czech Republic in SEPIA that exhibits no filler problem, goes onto paper in smooth soft strokes and the leads really hold up to hard use. I hoarded a couple of boxes from the old studio that date back to the 30s and these really match them for handling and appearance.

I should add that a number of manufacturers make various versions of these pencil holders that work pretty well if you can't find a KOH-I-,OOR the lead is the most important element of the two. 

The holder pictured here is a vintage 5649 that dates to 1937 and was given to me by Ken O'Connor.

The Making of a Mermaid!

John Musker and Mike Peraza, Basil wrap party

The night of the wrap party for "Basil of Baker Street," er... I mean "Great Mouse Detective", John Musker asked if I would be interested in Art Directing the new film he and Ron Clements were developing for Disney features. That new film was to be called, "The Little Mermaid".  As strange as it may sound, I was apprehensive and didn't jump on it right away. The reason being that I had grown up reading original versions of fairy tales from around the world and that the original versions in many cases can be quite gruesome. Case in point that in Hans Christian Anderson's original telling of his tale, the mermaid is instructed by the sea witch to thrust a knife into her prince while he is asleep in what amounts to,"... it's either his life or yours dear!" If she performs that deadly deed, his blood will run over her feet, her fins and tail will grow back and she can return to her sisters in the Mer-kingdom.

Well, being that she kind of has a thing for this handsome prince, she can't go through with it and as tosses the knife away, (fortunately missing the prince) as the sun sets she slowly dissolves into the foam we see on the wave crests. Yeah, not the happy ending one would expect in a fairy tale as told by Disney right? You might be surprised at how many of the original fairy tales have rather gruesome endings which would seem opposed to our current sanitised traditions and thoughts.

     When I asked John about the ending, he just replied, "Just read the script."  "But does she die at the end..." I asked again. "Just read it.." he kept saying. I did read it, and I was hooked (to use a term merpeople might not want to hear). So I called John back on Monday and told him, "Yes!! I was on board." I was further informed by John that Howard Ashman had been hired to write the songs. I said t, "That's fantastic!" John was taken back that I actually knew who Howard was until I told him I had seen and heard his and Alan Menken's work at the Westwood Playhouse when they exhibited, "The Little Shop of Horrors"a couple of years earlier. I had even worn out the audio cassette I had made of that extremely entertaining soundtrack record. You see, in those days after the play ended at Westwood, you could hang out with the cast backstage and were offered the opportunity to purchase the original cast recording which I eagerly jumped at. Back then it was on vinyl records, not cassettes, CDs or DVDs; and the sound was richer and much better in my opinion.

A close up of one of my charcoal Roger Rabbit concept pieces

I had been on loan to Amblin by Disney Studios to work on preliminary concepts for Roger Rabitt" with Bob Zemekis. I would show up at Amblin by 8:00 in the morning and go right to Bob's conference room. Mark Kausler and Joe Raft were also there to do early story boards. I had never met Mark before but was impressed with his knowledge of animation history. Of course I knew Joe from CalArts and the studio and as always, he was a joy to be around.

It was during this time that Urusla had a revelation. She of course was the sea witch from the original story and in various versions of the current tale was described as Triton's sister. Apparently she had been banished for trying to take over the kingdom, something not appreciated by the current king. As such she was a mermaid herself and was drawn in that direction. Patty and I had been watching a Jacques Cousteau special presented by National Geographic on TV and that night it was all about the octopus.We watched transfixed as the creature skulked along the ocean floor. Later in a laboratory we were really amazed as the octopus unscrewed a lid to a jar to get some food and then climb out of her aquarium, drop onto the floor and attempt an escape.

I got on the phone and called Musker.

Unfortunately I couldn't be around long as I had to leave by noon everyday  and head over to Disney Television to work on Ducktales,  then leave to go home at 5:00 to work on Mermaid concepts at home.

DuckTales concept art

Those were incredibly full days and to top it off, my wife Patty was pregnant. This lasted for a few weeks until I was called by Peter Snyder who was a new management person at Features. He told me I had to choose a film project to work on because they needed a full time Art Director on Little Mermaid. Patty and I left on a trip to unwind before the beginning of another big film. As she was 8 months pregnant, we also wanted to get out one more time before the birth of our first child. We planned stops at places like the Monterey Bay Aquarium to gather some reference along the way. Nothing was planned, we just got in our 4-wheel drive and blew out of Burbank early one dark morning.

The original development team on Little Mermaid

I went over to the Ink and Paint building to check in. Many of the familiar faces I had know before were now gone. The current administration seemed to like to hire management heads that had no artistic background or animation experience. Disney paints at this time were actually milled, yes milled, in the Ink and Paint building. You could call up and order, " I'm running low on Witmer Red." and they would send some over or you could go over and pick it up yourself. That hue by the way was named in honor of a wonderful and gracious background painter by the name of Thelma Witmer.

They hired a new guy to head up Ink and Paint who had a background in chemistry. His first act to modernize was to get rid of the agent Disney Studios had used since they began to stabilize the paint. The agent was formaldehyde bcause it was now labeled a toxic substance. I asked, "But you still have the pigments, right?" There was a quiet pause. His face kind of scrunched up slowly as he realized he had needlessly thrown out decades of Disney pigments collected from around the world along with the paint. I went back to John Musker and told him about the paint issues. We wound up ordering paint from Cartoon Colour for our cel paints instead of using our own for the first time in studio history. Ironically about the only cels were ever painted using true Disney paint from the old formula and those were concept setups or color models I did at the beginning with my own set at home. Mermaid was also the last feature done by Disney to use hand painted cels as from Beauty onward the process became a digital one.

Alan and Howard

My daughter Kim was born during the beginning of the pre-production phase and she was a flaming, and I mean flaming redhead. That fact definitely contributed to Ariel's red follicles as it was mentioned by quite a few of the crew at the time. Unfortunately the leading contender for hair color was a blonde version based on Jeffrey's favorite super model Christie Brinkley. I argued to John and Ron (and eventually Jeff) that since so much of the film was going to have Ariel against blue and turquoise, that we needed to contrast it so our main star would stand out. I then showed the guys some pastels, watercolors and even cel mockups that my wife Patty (who was hoping to be color model) painted and they were both supportive of the visuals and my spiel. We had a meeting with Jeffrey when we moved back across the street from the trailers and he was not exactly sold on the red hair but my argument and visuals made sense so he said OK. Glen Keane took the idea and really ran.. or swam, with it creating some really beautiful designs with our rough versions of Ariel donning red hair that now led the way.

Meanwhile, "Oliver and Company" was being groomed as the-hit for Disney Animated Features and they had pretty much taken over the main warehouse space on Flower Street in Glendale where management had relocated animation to from the old main lot. Roger Rabbit had part of their American crew working across the street in another warehouse. We had our offices across the street in a group of trailers that were arranged in a bug connecting square.

One major thing we had in our favor with Mermaid is that with the other two big budget animated films in production, our little film was flying under the radar. That really gave all of our creative juices a chance to flow like the old days. We had a real music room for the first time in ages during "Mermaid".

My room was across from the room Howard and Alan used whenever they were in town. It was exciting to hear them working out new songs while tweaking the ones they had already written. Howard would ask me to come in and listen to their latest tune and then give  me a cassette of the performance to take back to my room to enjoy. My room was adorned with undersea souvenirs from Nautilus shells to huge conch shells to starfish, even a huge collection of coral and (plastic) seaweed. I set up a light that played over a revolving core of aluminum foil that projected an underwater feel onto the walls when the room was darkened.  An old live-action film gimmick that I had learned from my old friend and former teacher Ken O'Connor.

Early concept drawing

For relaxation breaks during Little Mermaid we had lots of choices. We had ping pong tables, radio controlled cars in the parking lot, lazer tag and bowling besides other treats. For lazer tag we turned off the main ceiling lights at the main complex across the street to get the cubicle area nice and dark, the we ran, jumped knocked over trash cans on our way to becoming action heroes of sorts.

We also had a full size bowling alley adjacent to our trailer compound and a few of us would sneak over to bowl a couple rounds before stealthily returning to our desks. Management wasn't keen on people away from their desks and if they had their way they some would have barred breaks of any kind but it was difficult for them to watch all of us, and we had the union protecting us. What they didn't realize then and a few never will is that it gives a chance to blow of a little steam besides promoting teamwork and a chance to unwind for a few minutes. One side note, if Rob Minkoff tells you he's not much of a bowler, don't believe him. "Gee, these bowling balls are heavy." "Is this how you hold it?" "Oh my, did I just bowl a perfect game?" Rob, you make me sick.

Pastel concept artwork for Disney's Little Mermaid by Art Director Mike Peraza

I wanted the beginning to look more sepia and umber so that when we transition to the magical underwater kingdom it would have more of an impact. I wanted the world of man while not to be one of smog and pollution yet to still be desaturated when compared to the world under the sea.

Eric's Castle concept Mike Peraza

Eric's castle was a mediteranean theme and I designed it as a thick broad collection of shapes with straights infused throughout. Again this was to contrast the undersea structures that I wanted to be whimsically thin and full of curves in an Art Noveau attitude. Ursula's domain was a big disappointment to me as I really wanted something that had more of a feeling of a skeletal remains of a sea dragon twined around a thin mountaintop until you reached its open mouth at the bottom. What we ended up with was a committee design monstrosity.  the interior however was one that I got to use without any changes.

Ursula's Domain concept designed by Mike Peraza

I showed John and Ron some charcoals and pastels I did usiung Portugese man of war tenacles as sort of curtain material and the polyps as a shag carpet.  I wanted her to live inside a shell budior where she could ooze out of it like some kind of slimey creature. John and Ron were supportive and let me run with it. This was to be amidst undersea volcanoes. As usual back in those days, asking for effects was a tough battle and I was usually on the losing end when arguing with the management of that day. 

Kelly Asbury had done some very nice studies of how the village married with water for example, waterwheels, Venice type canals. I put those and also ideas from Rowland Wilson into a shot that was to be a multiplane reminiscent of the magnitude of Pinocchio. We were watching dailies and when that rough black and white test came on the screen, it garnered applause, which was high praise coming from that audience. Before we could go further with it however, that section was cut drastically along with other sections from a decree from management to trim back. I don't think a film has to be one long nonstop chase or adventure and I like the lulls and breathing room that a few beauty shots can buy the film. Management stood firm. Luckily with John and Ron's eye, the cuts were made but the movie still worked.

Kay Nielson's stunning pastel & charcoal concept art for Little Mermaid 1930s

Disney had tried making "Little Mermaid" as far back as the late 1930 and we looked at what had been created from the Disney Morgue (Oops, they call it something like,"Animation Research" nowadays). Leroy brought out some pieces that illustrator Kay Nielson had drawn in charcoal and we were immediately drawn to a couple of pieces that showed a ship silhouetted again a lightning flash while cresting a huge wave. They were inspiring and we used his staging for that very scene in the film 50 years after the fact! The story department was solid with talented new additions Roger Allers, Tom Enriquez and Gary Trousdale along with veterans like Ed Gombert.


The Mermaid wrap party was a first rate bash with an Under the Sea theme at the Beverly Hills Hotel. As usual, it was nice seeing familiar faces again. We were greeted just outside the ballroom by Roy Disney and his charming wife Patty. Roy and I had a chuckle over our two Pattys and then we were off getting some seafood at the buffet. It always seemed ironic to me that here we were celebrating The Little Mermaid's completion by eating so many denizens of the deep from oysters to shrimp and yes even crab meat. If Sebastian only knew. Wonder what our crustacean friend would say... hey come to think of it, I didn't see him there! (Gulp)