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In the 1930s, animators spent hundreds of hours painstakingly drawing thousands of pictures on celluloid to create a single Mickey Mouse cartoon, only to have their work destroyed after the cartoon was filmed. Today, those same cels often bring tens of thousands of dollars at auction, where they have become a hot commodity among art collectors.
Last June, a collector paid $121,000 for a black and white Mickey Mouse cel from the 1934 cartoon "The Orphan's Benefit." It shows Mickey, hand to mouth, shouting across a stage. The image is among the most renowned in animation art.
Prices will be more reasonable Saturday night when Circle Gallery in Old Town opens sales on 200 original cels from "Oliver & Company," Walt Disney Pictures' 27th animated feature, released last November. A reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.
The film is an animated version...