As Disney enters the Oscar home stretch with the acclaimed DESTINO, the studio will soon unveil its next animated short, LORENZO, at Florida Film Festival 2004 in Orlando. This five-minute black comedy about a fat and sassy cat terrorized by its own tail into a fit of ballroom dancing will have its world premiere March 6 at 12:00 noon at the Enzian Theater. LORENZO will screen again on March 10 at 7:00 pm and March 12 at 9:15 pm.

Based on an original idea by 95-year-old legend Joe Grant, LORENZO was written, designed and directed by Mike Gabriel (POCAHONTAS and THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER). Roy Disney and Baker Bloodworth, who collaborated on DESTINO, once again serve as exec producer and producer, with veteran Don Hahn (LION KING) joining as exec producer.

Gifted artist Gabriel hand painted all of the backgrounds for this 2D/3D hybrid in a bold color pallet, according to Bloodworth, using Tempera paints on black construction paper. He was aided by Sable, a painterly renderer for expressive 3D brush strokes, created by Daniel Teece.

Traditional animation and cleanup was performed at Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris (DESTINO), which has since been shuttered, while all painting, digital technology and post were done at Walt Disney Feature Animation Burbank.