Jon Mirsalis on PianoLittle Nemo: Winsor McCay was the earliest of the great cartoonanimators and his bizarre creations are definitely "ahead of theirtime." Little Nemo combines live action with cartoon animation to bringMcCay's popular newspaper cartoon character to the screen. (By WinsorMcCay, John Bunny, 1910, 11 mins, Silent) Alice'sTin Pony: Walt Disney's early Alice in Cartoonland series combined thelive-action antics of a little girl with cartoon backgrounds and props.Ub Iwerks worked on this series with Disney. (By Walt Disney, 1925, c. 5mins, Silent, Prints from Jan Wahl) The Thief ofBaghdad exists on the dream side of spectacle, with its elaboratemagical effects filmed on lavish, painted sets designed by WilliamCameron Menzies after the German superproductions which so impressedproducer Douglas Fairbanks. Its pace is graceful, natural, and its star,Fairbanks, is here less the all-American acrobat than the ballet dancerreminiscent of Nijinsky. The story of a thief who pretends to be aprince and then must act accordingly heroic has its humor built in, andyoung Raoul Walsh's direction plays right into the self-parodying anticsof Fairbanks. (Just as the Mongol Khan-played by the fascinatingSo-Jin-is about to escape with the Princess and apple of the Thief'seye, our dubious hero is languishing in a ticker-tape parade through thecity.) But more than anything, the "star" here is magic-the magic ofhumor and the magic of the cinema-which triumphs over the exotic evilsin which our lively imaginations are wont to dwell.