the Art of
!
"
from Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms
CHRISTOPHER FINCH
NEW CONCISE EDITION
IT n
Walt Disney's
rise to
can success story. west, he
made
his
A
fame is a classic Ameripoor boy from the Midto the top with a
way
com-
bination of hard work, practical know-how,
and ingenuity. What makes
enterprise,
success story different from fact that his
the rest
this
is
the
unique imagination touched off a
shock of recognition of people
all
all
in
the minds of millions
over the world. The characters
Disney brought to the screen— Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy, the Seven Dwarfs. Jiminy Cricket, Dumbo, and the others— have a universal appeal. Movies as diverse in idiom as Fantasia and
Mary Poppins
illustrate the
range of his inven-
and he has also left us, beyond his film successes, two extraordinary entertainment complexes— Disneyland and Walt Disney tions,
World. At the beginning of
his career,
Disney took a
humble branch of the motion picture mdustry— the animated cartoon and, within a do/en years, transformed it into a new art form capable of sustaining complex and sub-
—
tle ideas.
The
first
cartoon with synchronized
color, and the first animated feature were all produced by Walt Disney. His genius and sure intuition created a framework that supported the talents of many
sound, the
first in full
gifted
individuals,
cussed
in
many of whom are Above all, however,
these pages.
disthis
one man's imagination. This account of Disney's career benefits from free access to the Walt Disney archives. The author conducted dozens of interviews with past and present Disney employees and selected a great number of previously unpublished drawings, paintings, and photographs is
a record of
for
inclusion
in
this
book. The basic tech-
niques of animation are explained, and vari-
ous examples of story sketches, layouts, anidrawings, and background paintings—all the elements that go into the making
mation
of an animated
film— are
illustrated.
Many
and documentary photographs enrich the story, and we learn how film-making skills were adapted to aid in the design of the parks, bringing to life unexpected combinafilm
stills
and electronics. Christopher Finch, the author, was formerly on the curatorial staff of the Walker Art
tions of nostalgia
Center
in
Minneapolis. His previous books
in-
clude studies of Pop Art and contemporary English painting.
251 illustrations, including
Copyright k> 1988 by Wall Disney
1
Company
70 plates in full color
THE ART OF WALT DISNEY
For Sarah and Justin, for
Nai Y. Chang, Inns
I
Vice-President, Design
Hochmann,
Margaret
L.
Jenny and Emily, and for Felix and Georgia
and Production
Executive Editor
Kaplan. Managing Editor
Barbara Lyons,
Director,
Photo Department Rights and Reproduct
Michael Sonino, Abridgment
Librur\ of Congress Cataloging
in
Publication Data
Finch. Christopher
The
art
of Walt Disnc\
This 1988 edition published by Portland House, a division of dilithium Press, Ltd.,
Bibliography: p I.
distributed by
Disney. Walt. 1901
Productions.
1.
1966.
2.
Disney (Walt)
New
Title.
NC1766.U52D533
1975
Crown
Publisher. Inc.
225 Park Avenue South York.
NY
10003
79l\092'4 74-8435
By arrangement with Harry N. Abrams,
Inc.
Produced by Twin Books 15
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 74-8435
Copyright
©
1988 by Walt Disney
All righls reserved.
No
CT 06830
Printed and
bound
Company
part of the contents of this
book may be reproduced without the written permission of
Sherwood Place
Greenwich.
WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Burbank. California
ISBN
0-517-66474-7
hgfedeba
in the
United States of America
Contents
Introduction
PART
I
A NEW ART FORM Early Enterprises
19
2
Mickey Mouse and
Silly
3
Six Cartoon Classics
4
Hyperion Days
1
PART
II
III
27
54
•
5
Snow White: The
6
Pinocchio
7
Fantasia:
8
Dumbo
9
Interruptions and Innovations
First Feature
69
79
The Great Experiment
and Bambi
Later Animation
•
92
103 109
118
LIVE ACTION FILMS 11
12
PART IV
Symphonies
43
FEATURE ANIMATION
10
PART
11
Actors and Animals
127
Davy Crockett. Other Heroes, and Mary Poppins
135
THE MAGIC KINGDOMS 13
Beyond Film: Disneyland and Walt Disney World
145
Introduction By the time he was thirty years old, Walt Disney had become a As the creator of Mickey Mouse, his remarks— both
public figure.
casual and considered— were translated into dozens of languages
and
could
likeness
his
be
newspapers and magazines.
found on the pages of countless
A
trim mustache and a ready smile
gave him a Clark Gable-ish charm which was shared by
young Americans of
was
the period (as
many other
his taste for sporty jackets
and boldly patterned sweaters). What distinguished him from the rest, and made his face memorable, was a sense of determination and purpose which was apparent even later years
in his
most relaxed poses. In
he entered our living rooms and addressed us from the
television screen. By that time his face and frame had broadened and he had begun to favor conservatively cut suits and sober neckties. The mustache and the smile remained, however, as did
the evident purpose
By
some of Disney's
after talking with sible to
there
and determination.
definition, public figures are
to
everyone;
escape the conclusion that nobody really
was some aspect of
He was
a
abilities,
project
known
closest associates,
his personality that
man who believed absolutely artist who would go to any
knew him. Always
own
had conceived
surrounded himself with talents of every kind, but
was
in
complete control. The master plan was
head and remained unknowable
instincts
and
lengths to ensure that a
he
as
even
impos-
was just out of reach.
in his
an
was carried out exactly
yet, is
it
until, piece
in
at all
it.
He
times he
Walt Disney's
by piece,
it
was given
concrete form and grafted onto the mythology of our century.
At the outset of his career Disney was often underestimated by his rivals.
They were aware of
the caliber of the talents he
surrounded himself with and assumed that lured away, the Disney Studio
apparent that the one
would at
collapse.
any
had
these talents could be It
soon became
man who made Walt Disney
uniquely successful was not available In later years
if
Productions
price.
Disney has been underestimated
in
other ways.
Since the values expressed in his movies are essentially the simple values of the cartoon and the fairy story,
many
people have been
tempted into presenting simplistic pictures of Disney the man, and of what he stood
for.
Some have chosen
to portray
him
as a naive
genius, while others— dazzled by the success of his varied enter-
11
prises— prefer to see him as just another business tycoon. These versions of Disney bear
relationship to any aseertainable
little
Everyone who worked closely with him admits that money
truth.
was important
to
better movies,
improve
the future.
cheap
Disney only insofar as
He was
it
enabled him
to
produce
his parks, or (in later years) plan the city
of
and perfection did not come
a perfectionist
these fields.
in
The notion
that
Disney was a naive genius
movies, right
ing. In his
is
right
and wrong
is
is
equally mislead-
wrong, but— given
background and the audience he knew himself
be
to
his
touch
in
with— this should not surprise anyone and. although he remained faithful to uncomplicated values, he was by no means a simple man. There was much more intuition.
He knew
implemented, and that analysis the
to his success
that for intuition to this
demanded
than a blind faith
mean anything a
with
whom
had
in
be
to
combination of stringent
and sheer hard work, backed up by the
artists
it
practical talents of
he surrounded himself. Improving the
product seems to have occupied his mind night and day. After hours and on weekends he would prowl the studio— familiarizing himself with the development of every project.
source of expertise, and there
sometimes mulled over ideas to
is
He
subjected each
upon every available
decision to intensive discussion, drawing
ample evidence
he
to suggest that
for years before they
were permitted
reach this stage.
Having received to great lengths to
relatively
little
formal schooling. Disney went
educate himself and his
artists (at times, the
old
Avenue must have seemed more like the art department of some progressive university than a productive component of the motion picture industry). Disney started in the studio on Hyperion
field
of animated films determined to be better than anyone
Achieving "plus*"
his
this rather quickly,
else.
he embarked on a lifelong quest to
own accomplishments
("plus." used as a verb,
is
a
word with old hands at the Studio). Throughout the thirties and into the forties, amazing progress was made in the development of the animated film. The Disney Studio gave to the world favorite
painted characters
who
moved but seemed
not only
to think for
themselves. By the time of Pinocchio and Fantasia. Disney had
brought
to a spectacular
maturity an art form that had been
in its
infancy just a dozen years earlier.
Disney himself was not pretended to be one.
He was
a
great draftsman,
always the
about 1926, he did not contribute
first to
a single
and he never
admit
drawing
to
that, after
any of
his
cartoons. His great abilities lay in the area of ideas— conceiving
them, developing them, and seeing them through to a successful conclusion. Ideas were commodities that he was never short of
he ever had a problem with ideas
many
12
to give
them
all
it
was
that he
(if
sometimes had too
the attention that they deserved).
A
superb
story editor,
Disney worked with
movie
ing the structure of a
phrasing and rephras-
his artists,
every minute action, each
until
nuance of character contributed
last
development of the plot. This was a skill that he acquired while making the short cartoons of the early and middle thirties, cartoons which— since they ran from minutes each— demanded the greatest economy of
just six to eight
When
action.
to the
he
turned
making
to
feature
principles were applied, so that nothing that
of the story ever found
telling
way onto
its
same
the
films,
was not
essential to the
the screen.
It
was
Disney's intense involvement with plot development and character,
along with his uncanny grasp of technical possibilities, that gave his best movies the tightness of structure that has enabled
survive so well in our collective
He was failures
of course,
a few that
were the ones
The point by
not,
and even
films
is
his best
He
infallible.
were outright
any other
work and he was,
and innovative film-makers
Animated movies depend on movement
did produce mediocre
failures (usually the worst
artist,
at his best,
deserves to be judged
one of the most vigorous of the cinema.
in the entire history
are difficult to illustrate adequately.
nately, the final setup that
link in
model
shot by the camera
is
making of an animated
film.
not the only art in fact, the
It is,
an elaborate chain that includes character studies,
sheets, story continuity sketches, layouts,
produced
Fortu-
lifeless.
is
background paint-
animation drawings, color models, and the
ings,
who
in the
They
achieve their effect, and a single image
to
taken from a cartoon will often seem static and
last
to
that did not sustain his personal interest).
that Disney, like
work involved
them
memory.
at various
of these stages
is
The work The artists
like.
often very lively.
are concerned with story
and layout, for example, have to sell and the producer (in most instances they would be dealing with Walt Disney himself) and attempt to get into their ideas to their director
their
drawings the "feel" of what
Mickey should receive chair, the story artist
single
event,
take the
appear on screen. Thus,
him
as a
same
book
illustrator
would
is
do).
if
his
fall in
The
a
layout
map
out the entire action. Either of
more of
a sense of
eventually seen on screen than does a single frame from the
movie. Happily,
we
from
scene, provide a detailed context for the
and diagrammatically
these representations does, in most cases, give
what
to fall
must suggest both the shock and the
drawing (much
artist will
will
a shock that causes
many
are able to use
of these drawings have been preserved and
them
here.
Not only do they
effectively
convey
the "feel" of what eventually appeared on screen; they are often
very beautiful in their
own
right.
Some
appeal because of their
spontaneity, others because of their attention to detail; and, that,
they
tell
us
much about
the
way
in
beyond
which an animated film
is
conceived and executed.
Each of these drawings contains some clues
to the secret
of
13
Disney's success, since every one of them was touched by his influence.
Each drawing
aware that
it
reflects his taste, for the artist
was subject
uncritical). Literally
to his scrutiny
hundreds of
was always
(which was far from
artists figure in this story,
but
all
of them functioned within the governing structure elaborated by Disney's imagination. In later years he less
control
became
his reputation rests,
was complete.
14
was unavoidable.
so diversified that this
on which
may perhaps have
exercised
over some aspects of the operation— his interests In the productions
however, Walt Disney's involvement
i
m fr
_
*
" ^
1.
A new (Wit fawn.
1
Early Enterprises
Walter Elias Disney was born into a modest Chicago household on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was Canadian born
and of Anglo-Irish descent. Elias was a building contractor, and we may judge the success of that operation by the fact that Walt later
mother sometimes went out to the building site with the men, sawing and hammering planks. At the time of Walt's birth, there were already three children in the family-Herbert, Raymond, and Roy. Walt was to develop an especially close relationship with Roy, who was nearest to him in age, a relationship
described
was
that
how
his
be of great importance
to
daughter-Ruth-was added
to
"in 1906, Elias Disney decided to pull
and moved
both of them. Later a
to the family.
his family to a forty-eight-acre
up his roots once again farm outside Marceline,
Missouri. Small farms, then as now, did not offer an easy route to prosperity. Herbert and Raymond, both in their teens, had devellife and soon returned to Chicago. Walt and expected to help their parents with the farm course, of Roy were, later chores. It was an extremely hard life, but one which Walt
oped
a taste for city
remembered with considerable affection. We may be sure It was on the farm that he began to draw. make the this was not encouraged by his parents, but he did tentative steps toward
operation was
his eventual career.
first
Meanwhile, the farm
1910, Elias sold the
in trouble. In
that
farm with
all its
livestock and moved the family once again-this time to Kansas newspaper City, ninety-five miles southwest. There Elias bought a
Roy were co-opted into and found themselves getting up at 3:30 Star. Despite in the morning to meet the trucks of the Kansas City as did a this hard work, Walt's interest in drawing persisted,
delivery business. Naturally, Walt and
contributing their services
growing
taste
theatrical
for
expression.
In
a
rare
gesture
of
indulgence, Elias Disney allowed Walt to enroll for Saturday morning classes at the Kansas City Art Institute (the elder Disney justified this al").
Thus,
formal
on the grounds
at the
that the classes
would be "education-
age of fourteen, Walt acquired a smattering of
art training.
In
1917, Elias decided
returned to factory.
upon another move. This time he
Chicago, where he purchased a part share
Walt remained
in
Kansas City
in a small
to finish out his school year
19
(Roy was
there,
still
summer as
working
bank
as a
teller):
then he spent the
news butcher on the Santa Fe Railroad (news butchers
a
hawked newspapers, enabled him
candy, and soft drinks), a job which more of the country while feeding his trains— an enthusiasm which would provide him fruit,
to see a little
enthusiasm for
with an important outlet later in
life.
In the
fall,
he joined the
McKinley High School. Here he school paper and managed to get some
family in Chicago and enrolled at
contributed drawings to the
newspaper cartoonist named Leroy and on June 22, 1917. Roy the Navy. Walt had dreams of enlisting too, but
further art instruction from a
Gossett.
World War
Disney enlisted
in
He
he was under age.
I
was
in progress
discovered that one had to be only seventeen
become a Red Cross ambulance driver and, though still sixteen, managed to join up (his mother, probably relieved that he would be driving an ambulance rather than handling a rifle, allowed him to to
date on the application). He was sent to a staging Sound Beach, Connecticut, but the Armistice was signed before he got any further. There was still, however, a need for drivers in Europe and he eventually found himself in France, assigned to a military canteen in Neufchateau, where he soon falsify his birth
post at
Walt Disney's birthplace at 1249 Tripp Avenue. Chicago, built by his father. Elias Disney
established himself as the unit's unofficial
artist,
earning a few
medals onto
extra francs with such enterprises as painting fake
leather jackets
and camouflaging captured German helmets so
that
they could be passed off as snipers' helmets.
Disney returned
United States
to the
in 1919.
job waiting for him. but Walt was determined
He headed local studio where he made "Ub" Iwerks, a young man
commercial
the
art.
for
and
it
His father had a
make
a career in
Kansas City and found work
friends with another employee.
of Dutch descent
most important associate of
talented draftsman,
to
who was
his early career.
soon occurred
to
to
at a
Ubbe
become
Iwerks was a
them
to
get
into
They acquired desk space at the offices of Restaurant News and immediately achieved
business for themselves. a publication called
some modest success. But then Disney saw a newspaper advertisement for a job with an organization called Kansas City Slide Company (soon changed to Kansas City Film Ad). This company made what we would now call commercials for display in local movie theaters. They were, in fact, producing crude animated films. This new medium and the salary offered— forty dollars a
week— appealed
to
Disney.
He
applied for the job and got
it.
Iwerks
took over the business they had started, but within a few months he, too,
joined Kansas City Film Ad.
The animation produced at Kansas City Film Ad consisted mainly of stop-action photography of jointed cardboard figures-a technique that precluded any serious effort toward naturalism. Nonetheless,
it
provided Disney,
still
just eighteen years old,
and
Iwerks with the basic training they needed. Before long. Disney
20
borrowed result
a
was a
camera and little
reel
tried
some animation on
of topical gags— reminiscent
newspaper cartoons— which he managed Theater, a local movie house.
and
illustrated
shorter skirts
for the theater.
character of
to sell to the
A number
Newman
of short "commercials"
jokes— known collectively as the
o-Grams— were made
own. The
his in
They
Newman
Laugh-
dealt with such topics as
and police corruption. Technically they were very
competent by the standards of the day, and, encouraged by Disney managed
this
enough capital to leave Kansas City Film Ad and set up on his own, retaining Laugho-Grams as the company's name. It might be assumed that a young man just emerging from his teens would have been content to stick initial success,
with
familiar material,
to raise
least
at
a
for
while,
but Disney was
ambitious and immediately started work on a series of updated fairy tales. Six Elias
and Flora Disnev
in
1913
of Bremen,
of these were made: Cinderella, The Four Musicians
Goldie Locks and the
Beanstalk, Little
Three Bears, Jack and the
Red Riding Hood, and Puss
The Disney
in Boots.
archives have prints of The Four Musicians of Bremen and Puss in
and they provide clear evidence
Boots,
overestimating his ability tender age. Puss
in Boots, for
example,
the story displays a nice sense of is
updated so
that,
for
that
Disney was not
when he entered production is
humor
instance,
the
at
rather well animated,
atmosphere
(the fairy-tale
King
around
rides
this
and in
a
chauffeur-driven convertible). In the course of to build
up an able
producing these short cartoons, Disney began staff
which soon included, besides Iwerks,
Hugh and Walker Harman. Carmen "Max" Maxwell, and Red Lyon. Unfortunately, the Laugh-o-Grams were not selling (one sale was made but the purchaser went bankrupt after making a Rudolf
Ising,
$100 deposit), and the Disney production team was always looking income. They worked on a live-action short Martha and, sponsored by a local dentist, even made a film on dental hygiene which combined live action and animation to get its didactic message across. Max Fleischer had been using this same combination in his Out of the Inkwell series, and it had the advantage that the live-action sections of the movies were relatively inexpensive to produce. At some time in 1923, Disney decided to try to save his Laugh-o-Grams venture by making just such a movie, in which a human heroine could cavort with cartoon for alternate sources of
called Walt Disney
at
nine months
characters. Rather than simply imitating Fleischer's technique,
Disney
hit
live action
The
on the idea of reversing the basic principle would be introduced into the cartoon.
effect
of blending the
real
Alice
characters was achieved by photographing a
with little
so that the
the girl
cartoon
named
Virginia Davis against a white background and then combining this film,
in
the printing process, with another strip
on which the
animation was shot. The technique worked well, but Alice's
Walt Disney
at the
age of twelve
21
Poster for an Alice
Comedy
with
the original Alice. Virginia Davis
Wonderland exhausted Disney's remaining credit and he was forced to close the studio.
He was
not,
however, the type
to
be put off by a setback of this
and immediately planned to restart his career. In the summer of 1923 Walt Disney, aged twenty-one, took a train to California, carrying Alice 's Wonderland with him as a sample. His brother Roy was already in the West, recuperating in a Veteran's hospital from a kind,
bout with tuberculosis.
On
moved
in
with his uncle
4406 Kingswell Avenue. Walt began
look for a
at
job and,
spare time, used his uncle's garage to build a stand
for the
22
arriving in Los Angeles, Disney
Robert Disney in his
animation camera that he had purchased
(this
to
would have
A
later Alice,
Margie Gay, seen
here with animated friends and with director
Walt Disney
been a conventional movie camera converted
to
shoot stop-ac-
tion).
to be made to accommodate the success made in Hollywood, and one new employee was an Idaho girl named Lillian Bounds. She often worked nights, and Walt would sometimes drive her home in his car. A romance blossomed and, in July, 1925, the pair were married. Roy Disney had meanwhile married Edna Francis, his Kansas City sweet-
Additions
to the staff
new
Alice films
of six
had
heart.
became evident that they had to find a replacement Comedies if the Studio was to remain in a healthy economic state. They were by then approaching their sixtieth episode in the series, and evidently could not keep it going much By
1927,
it
for the Alice
longer.
Apart from anything
else, the
use of live action placed
them and Walt was anxious to get back to full animation. They began work on a new series which was to be based on the adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
severe restrictions on
Most business
crises are
brought on by incompetence. The near
catastrophe that the Disneys faced in 1927 resulted from the very
The new cartoon series turned out to be very successful, making Oswald the Lucky Rabbit a desirable property. There was just one snag. Disney had signed a one-year contract with Charles Mintz, who had married the distributor of
opposite.
Disney Films, Margaret Winkler,
now
in
1924 (their distribution outlet
tied in with Universal Pictures).
The
advertising
announced
"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, created by Walt Disney," but-and proved
to
belonged the
first
to
be the
fatal
the
in
contract— Oswald's
Mintz (who had, apparently, picked
year of the series
Disney and
flaw
his wife
moved
embarked
for
it
this
name
out of a hat).
to a successful conclusion,
New York, where
As
Walt
he expected to
23
of cartoons Disney built around Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was successful enough to attract merchandising tie-ins. The model sheet below shows that Oswald anticipated some of the physical characteristics of Mickey Mouse. The page of story continuity sketches, on the right, illustrates how cartoon stories were worked out in this period
The
series
€* &TJ®
ft renegotiate the contract with provisions for a modest increase of
income. He had kept in close contact with his distributor through George Winkler, Margaret's brother, who had made several visits to California, and there was no reason to suspect that anything was amiss.
When
Disney arrived
reasons for Winkler's
visits
in
New
became
Instead of offering an
York, however, the true
painfully obvious.
improved contract, Mintz actually
proposed one which would entail
of income for the Oswald had been very profitable. Obviously. Disney could not accept such a deal, and the reality of the situation became apparent. Mintz had decided to repossess Oswald. The character's name belonged to him. and his Studio. This
was
a reduction
clearly absurd, since
brother-in-law had persuaded several of Disney's best animators to take over production of the
Oswald
series.
The motive was. of
course, reduction of costs to the distributor. Mintz
many people hire
to
underestimate Disney.
away Disney's
best
He
was the
figured that
if
of
men, he would be getting the same product
reduced outlay.
for a
Disney was shocked and hurt by trusted
Mintz and he had trusted
his
this
revelation.
employees.
It is
as he
and
Lillian waited out the long,
He had
not hard to
imagine the kinds of thoughts that must have run through
24
first
he could
his
head
slow train ride back
to
Original art by
Hugh Harman and Carmen Maxwell
for
an Oswald poster
Margie Gav poses with. Ham Hamilton.
left to right.
Rov Disnev. Hugh Harman. Walt Disney. Rudy Ising. Ub Iwerks, and Walker Harman
California.
He was disgusted
but not, as the next few months would
prove, discouraged. His team was depleted but 1
it
still
included his
two most important associates— his brother Roy and
Ub
Iwerks
(who was, by then, a partner in the business). More important still. Walt Disney had faith in his own abilities. He had reached the age of twenty-six after touching
come
many
of the bases of hardship that had
seem archetypal of America in the first quarter of century. His personal creed must have included the notion to
success does not
come
easilv.
this
that
Mouse and
2 Mickey Silly
Symphonies that the birth of
Mickey Mouse— a creature of
mythic stature— should be shrouded
in legend. What we can be Mouse who made his debut in
It
seems appropriate
reasonably sure of is that the Mickey This photo of the production staff was taken
in 1932, after
Disney had won
an Academy Award-his first— for the creation of
Mickey Mouse
New York City in 1928 resulted from a collaborative effort between Disney and Ub Iwerks. It seems probable that Iwerks. easily the best animator of the day,
was largely responsible
for defining
Mickey's physical characteristics. Mickey did bear a family resemblance to Oswald, but Iwerks— either on his Disney's suggestion— made the figure
own
initiative or at
more compact. He was
constructed from two large circles, one for the trunk and one for the
head, to which were appended two smaller circles, representing
and rubber-hose arms and
ears,
hands (ungloved stability.
He was
legs
at this early stage)
also
which terminated
and large
feet
aft.
The
plump
tail
and short
circular
head was
equipped with a long, skinny
pants decorated with buttons fore and
in
which gave him
by the addition of a mischievous snout, a plum-shaped nose, and button eyes. He was designed for maximum ease of animation (it had been discovered that circular forms
made
expressive
to animate effectively) but, beyond that, Mickey's had a dimension which was quite new in cartoons. The gift of personality was probably Disney's own contribu-
were simpler identity
tion to
in
made
Mickey. Iwerks
skill as a
draftsman, but
it
the whole thing possible through his was Disney's control over the situations
which the Mouse found himself that allowed
this personality to
develop. Even at this early date, Disney had grasped the notion that
cartoon characters should seem to think for themselves. In some ways he may even have viewed Mickey as his alter ego. Certainly he
always maintained a special affection for the Mouse, a fact which suggests that he was intimately involved in every stage of
its
cre-
ation.
The Disney brothers had managed to save enough money to go first Mickey Mouse cartoons even without a distributor, and work began almost at once. This was carried out in secret at first, since the Oswald contract had not yet completely ahead with the
expired.
On
October
23,
1927, a
bombshell had
hit the
motion
Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer and the became a reality. Lee DeForest had developed a
picture industry.
sound era practical
sound system
at least
four years earlier, but the Hol-
27
lywood production chiefs had fought sin of
Now
they had to confront
As was
the
this
new development.
it.
Mouse cartoons went into production, the industry One Disney cartoon. Plane Crazy, had been
first
in chaos.
still
completed, and another Gallopin^ Gaucho, was on the drawing
made— perhaps the most important He wanted Mickey to have real
boards before the decision was
decision that Disney ever made.
impact, and he saw that the future lay with sound.
mind was
a cartoon in
which music,
effects,
What he had
and action would
all
in
be
synchronized.
Wedding sound
animated drawings was
to
not. he realized,
something that could be approached casually. Where
live actors
might be enough
hear them
were concerned,
it
speak— that seemed fact that
just
audience
to
miracle after the decades of silence (the
sound pictures were quickly labeled "talkies" indicates public's interest lay)— but Disney did not have the
where the
ready-made had
like a
for the
stars to
whom
he could return the
gift
of speech.
come up with a more imaginative solution. Les Clark, who was party to these early experiments,
He
to
the system that
was devised
"We worked single
describes
as follows:
with an exposure sheet on which every line was a
We
frame of action.
could break
down
the
sound
effects so
frames we'd have an accent, or every sixteen
that every eight
frames, or every twelve frames. [Sound film runs through the projector at twenty-four frames a second.]
And on
that twelfth
drawing, say, we'd accent whatever was happening— a
head or a footstep or whatever In
Steamboat
Willie,
to feature a full) track.
1928, the
first
cartoon
sound
Micke) and Minnie transform
t
he-
cargo of a riverboat- including livestock
would
metronome
setting a
to
improvised his
to the
animation.
One
accompaniment could be
legendary evening. Disney and
co-workers presented a short sequence from Steamboat Wil-
lie—such was the
and
on the
correspond with the accents thus
established in the action, a rough sound
into an orchestra
hit
be. to synchronize to the
effect or the music."
By
synchronized sound
it
girlfriends.
window
(to
title of the new cartoon— to an audience of wives Roy Disney projected the film from outside a
eliminate motor noise), while his brother, along with
Iwcrks. Jackson, Clark,
and
accompaniment,
live,
in
carefully
beat
of the
to
the
a
few others, improvised their sound
another room-all of them
working
metronome. Jackson played
his
harmonica (the tune was probably "Steamboat Bill") while the others provided sound effects with cowbells, slide whistles, tin pans, and the like. This
audience by way of
The wives and
a
accompaniment was transmitted to the set up by Iwerks.
crude loudspeaker system
girlfriends
were only mildly impressed, but the
performers were convinced that they had
Disney went
to
New
York.
28
chain, to provide a
now found
the answer.
hired Carl Edouwards,
who had
Broadway Strand and worked for the band and conduct the recording session.
led the pit orchestra at the
Roxy
He
',
11
1
D.M 90a
I
t
sat.
fsiloi
•HIBlo
•nl of th» lltlo
•
oiM a
n "
flr»t
.
The
page of the Steamboat Willie continuity script. Disney kept this first
souvenir of his
first
major breakthrough
cono
1.
Toot of blue
in vcoloil
his office
';.'
-
•
;
I
;
on
.
loxithli
1
hit
On September
Walt wrote
14,
to
Roy and Ub: "'We are using a drummers and
seventeen-piece orchestra and three of the best trap effect
men
in
town.
will take three
today." Later in thirty-five
At
all
They
get ten dollars an hour for this work. It do it, plus the time the effect men put in the same letter he says that there would be about
hours
men on
events, the
to
the job. but this
team had developed
may have
included technicians.
recording session was a disaster. Disney's
first
a system of indicating-probably by flashes
on which the orchestra should play. Thus the film could be projected and serve the same function as a metrothe screen— the
tempo
nome. Unfortunately
to
system was a
little crude, and Edouwards tempo determined by such a coarse mechanical device. Disney was forced to cable California for more money and to try again. Roy sent out enough money to proceed
this
did not feel inclined to have his
with a second session.
One improvement was flashing device that had
that instead of sticking with the crude
been used
at the first session,
Disney had
had the film reprinted with the addition of a bouncing
ball system,
making it much easier for Fewer musicians were used at the second
to indicate the accents as well as the beat,
Edouwards
to follow.
29
session,
and everything went
now had
sound
a
oft" without a hitch. Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse was ready tor his
traek
debut.
Finding a distributor was not easy, however.
Disney took
his
Still in
sound cartoon from screening room
room, but the industry remained
in a state
New York.
to screening
of confusion and the
response he met was discouraging. Eventually, Harry Reichenbach. then managing Manhattan's Colony Theater, saw Steamboat Willie
and offered Disney a two-week run.
The Mickey Mouse who
movie houses
hit the
in the late twenties
was not quite the well-behaved character most of us are familiar with
today.
He was mischievous,
to
say
the
and even
least,
displayed a streak of cruelty (which soon disappeared), but from
A
germ of
the very beginning he
had
that
have remarked on, and
this
prevented him from seeming
little
real personality
we
scene from The Karnival Kid. 1929 to
be just
another callously cruel cartoon animal. At times— when confronted
by Pegleg Pete (the perennial
who
villain
co-starred
Steamboat Willie and Gallopin' Gauclw). or when forced
in
both
defend
to
Minnie's honor— he was even capable of heroic behavior. His heroism, however, was usually the heroism of the
little
man;
it
resembled the intermittent nobility of Charlie Chaplin's tramp.
undoubtedly provided Disney with one of
Chaplin
may
important models, and we
his
most
say that Mickey and his gang
provided for the sound era the kind of entertainment that Chaplin
and the Mack Sennett comedians had provided
for an earlier
generation. Since this was the sound era. Mickey had to have a voice.
Several people, mostly from the Studio, had a shot at
immortality as the Mouse's voice, but Disney was not satisfied with
A
scene from The Fire Fighters, 1930
any of them. He knew just the kind of squeaky should have, and the
Mouse
it
(he continued to
fill
after
Mickey
twenty years).
this role for
Minnie was with Mickey from the very Willie,
falsetto
soon became clear that only he could speak for
Pete has chased
riverboat on which he
is
Mickey from
employed
as a
In
first.
Steamboat
bridge of the
the
deck hand. Minnie
is
The ship is already moving downstream when Mickey manages to snag Minnie's discovered on shore, about to miss the boat.
patched panties with a boat hook and haul her aboard. Later, on the deck, they cavort with the cargo of livestock, using the various
animals as musical instruments on which
to
improvise "Turkey
in
the Straw."
This sequence it
is
by
contains the seeds of
a kind of
far the
much
humor Disney was
most interesting
that
was
later to
Mickey, for example, stretches a
to
come.
in
the
It is
30
misuse of its anatomy.
in that
marked by
abandon on grounds of taste. it becomes a
cat's tail so that
stringed instrument; the cat gives vocal expression to at this
movie
also
A good
its
displeasure
deal of music and laughter
is
An
Mickey Mouse model sheet which shows the basic simplicity of his design
early
^^9
s~^8sff~;
,^^
CH^>~^
g,.
^
m-*1
tj^3»1tf *£*£l
4>
Mickey Mouse
T-Js*
model n?i
milked out of a cow's udder
^.
vlT'
Hays Office was to insist that it was actively suggested form of apparel). Minnie cranks a
(later, the
Disney cows be udderless and, indeed,
some
that they find
goat's
tail,
suitable
transforming the unfortunate beast into a hurdy-gurdy,
while Mickey plays xylophone
riffs
was a much-used instrument
in the
shorts, providing
more
on
good opportunities
a cow's teeth (the
xylophone
sound tracks of these early for visual puns;
almost any
or less regular group of solid objects— the rib cage of a
skeleton, for
A number sporting
example— could double
of new Mickey
titles
Mouse
as a xylophone).
cartoons appeared in
1929,
such as The Karniva! Kid, Mickey's Choo Choo, and
The Jazz Fool
(this last a take-off
on Al Jolson). Mickey acquired,
within the space of a few months, gloves, shoes, and a
more
endearing manner. There were other developments too. The sound tracks
became
increasingly sophisticated,
and
in
most cases they
were now recorded before the animators began work. That once a story action;
it
line
was established,
a score
was prepared
was recorded and the animators worked
and accents contained
in the
sound
track. This
to the
is
to
to say, fit
the
rhythms
system allowed for
greater flexibility.
To handle
the music side of the business, Disney called in an
old acquaintance from Kansas City, Carl Stalling. Stalling had had
years of experience in the theater
pit,
providing music for silent
31
' |
|
.poloon.
statu*
'ilw
•a head and ahouldoru. a on
In his early films
as an entertainer.
This story sketch for The Grocery Boy shows how the scene
Mickey often appeared
The scene shown
here
out of scene ulth tur
is
be
to
is
laid out.
Different stages of the action are indicated in a single drawing
from Blue Rhythm, 1931
movies— a background which left him well equipped for his new Already the Disney team was becoming extremely adept at synchronizing sound and action, and several of the earliest Mickey
career.
Mouse pictures— The Opry House, for instance, and The Jazz as the main substance of the plot. This emphasis on music led in the same year, 1929, to quite a new kind of animated film-the Silly Symphonies. These were to be Fool— took music
not
merely
illustrated
songs,
animation were combined
name
Silly
on the
first
to
but
films
Symphonies was selected
for the series,
cats,
howling
disturbed at midnight by four skeletons
The
skeletons go through
sequences and then,
The whole
which
new
music and
experience.
The
and work began
of them. The Skeleton Dance.
The Skeleton Dance opens as graves.
in
provide a totally
thing
is
at
some
dawn, scurry back
set to suitable
in a
cemetery, are
who emerge from fairly
their
elaborate dance
to their resting places.
sepulchral music, a composition
of Stalling's which utilized elements from Grieg's "March of the
Dwarfs" (many film historians have erroneously reported that the music used is Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre"). Despite the success
of the Mickey
Mouse
the reception that
shorts, theater
owners were
would be accorded
this
entertainment, and so The Skeleton Dance and released under the byline Silly
a little
nervous of
new kind of cartoon its
successors were
"Mickey Mouse Presents
a
Walt Disney
Symphony." These first Symphonies were received well enough
series to continue. Certainly they
now seem
were original
in
rather less interesting than the early
Mickey gave
his pictures a central core
for the
concept, but they
Mouse
shorts.
around which the action
could develop. The Symphonies had no such core. Each of them
•» yf->
In 1929.
he called
Disnev launched a new Silly Symphonies. The
Skeleton Dance
series of cartoons first
which
of these was The
the Silly Symphonies touched a wide and moods. Examples illustrated here are from The Merry Dwarfs, 1929, and Winter. 1930
From
the very
first,
variety of subjects
33
This
camera— adapted
twenties to shoot
in the late
animation— is in use
I
still
today
was constructed around a rather generalized theme— The Merrv Dwarfs, Winter, and Spring are typical early titles— which had to be stated before
it
could be explored; with the techniques available
1929 and 1930. this was quite a challenge. In a
however, you had only exactly
more
what
to catch
and
this
one glimpse of Mickey
allowed the animators
in
cartoon, to
to take
know much
for granted.
For the
no
to expect,
Mouse
first
real focus.
year or two of their existence, the Symphonies had
But we must emphasize just
how
significant
Disney instituted them and then persisted with them when
it is it
that
would
far easier to exploit Mickey for all he was worth. Before Symphonies would have an invaluable role to play in the development of the art of animation. We should lay to rest, too, the idea that the classical music content of these cartoons showed
have been long, the
Disney displaying pretensions toward high culture the evidence suggests that he
in this series. All
saw himself as making motion picture
entertainment for the general public.
By
the
celebrity.
end of 1930, Mickey had become an international
Known
in Italy as
Mouse continued
the tion
by
fire
Topolino and as Miki Kuchi
his adventures,
and worse, confronting Pete
and performing
to
in
Japan,
saving Minnie from immolain
various exotic situations,
audiences of exuberant animals whose taste in
music ranged from ragtime
to violin concertos.
bloodhound made an appearance
in
a
A
simple-minded
1930 picture called The
Chain Gang and developed, before long, into Mickey's faithful companion Pluto. As Mickey's career unfolded in the thirties, other characters such as Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow began to
enjoy the status of co-stars, but their personalities offered
relatively
34
little
for the
animators to work with and. as the pictures
^
mas
Silly
Symphony
posters, 1932
became more
sophisticated, their roles
eventually vanished entirely.
And
became less significant and Mickey was important
in 1931,
for Time magazine to devote a feature article to him. By the end of 1931, Disney's demand for constant improve-
enough
ment had driven
the cost of a single cartoon to about $13,000.
The
Studio was barely breaking even and in 1932 another innovation
drove costs
Symphony
still
called
higher.
In
that year,
Flowers and Trees.
sensation in the industry.
It
was
Disney released a
Silly
This cartoon caused
a
in full color.
Technicolor had introduced a two-color system as early as
had been used sparingly by the major studios which, it had little more than novelty value (its chief limitation was that the color values were somewhat distorted). 1929, but
it
with good reason, thought
By
1932, however, Technicolor
had a
three-strip system ready
more accurate color reproduction, and Disney at once saw its advantages. Flowers and Trees had been partly made as a black-and-white fdm. This footage was scrapped and the whole thing was done again in color. It was premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood along with Irving Thalberg's which offered
far
production of Strange Interlude.
35
Flowers and Trees
X -J?^ This 1932 cartoon has a special place Ihe history of animation as the
made Sillv
in full color.
From
this
point on.
Symphonies were produced
Technicolor
in
first to
in
he all
By today's standards. Flowers and Trees is a strange mixture of charm and absurdity. A romance between two young trees is disrupted by a crabby tree stump who initiates a fire that threatens the
whole
forest. Birds
puncture clouds so that rain
and douses
falls
The stump is destroyed and the two young lovers are married, with a glowworm for a wedding ring, while neighboring flowers celebrate their nuptials. Whatever weaknesses or strengths the
fire.
this
cartoon
was
in color.
on,
all
may have had were overshadowed by the fact that it Color made it a valuable property and, from that point Symphonies were fully chromatic. Disney made an
Silly
advantageous deal with Technicolor which gave him exclusive rights to the three-color process, as far as
two
for the next
cartoons continued to
enough not
animation was concerned,
For the time being, the Mickey Mouse be in black and white— they were successful
years.
need the extra boost— but the Symphonies took
to
advantage of the new
full
Almost at once they became more inventive. Flowers and Trees was followed by King Neptune and Babes in the Woods, both of which display tighter structure and livelier action
One
than anything previously seen in this series.
factor
addition to the
which contributed
staff, in 1932,
he had learned the
From
possibilities.
art
to their inventiveness
of Albert Hurter.
of animation
at the
A
artist,
New
York.
Barre studio in
the very beginning of this association Hurter
special position at the Studio,
was the
Swiss-born
Disney realizing that
had a very was
his gift
for
producing what became known as "inspirational drawings." This to say that
projects
he spent
his
and improvising on themes which might
imaginations of story
men
imbued with dimension
He was
trained in
in
Babes
in the
Europe and
his
the spirit of the gothic fairy tale. This
to the native
American vigor of
the
Woods
reflect
drawings were
added another As more
the Disney product.
the Studio continued to evolve. Hurter's influence
and more
trigger
or animators. Neptune's court in King
Neptune and the gingerbread house his influence.
is
time developing visual ideas for future
was
felt
strongly.
In 1933,
Hurter designed the settings and main characters for
what turned out
to
be the greatest Disney success up to that
time— the famous Three
Little
Pigs.
It
is
hardly necessary to
recapitulate here either the plot or the success of
Frank Churchill's Bad Wolf?" The movie was a smash. Theaters retained it week after week and its impact reflects the fact that it went far beyond any of the earlier Symphonies in hit tune.
"Who's Afraid of
the Big
terms of plot and character development.
The following year. 1934. saw the production of several Symphonies including The Tortoise and the Hare, The Grasshopper and the Ants, and The Wise Little Hen— all of which were moral fables and showed just how proficient the Studio had become at structuring a story and establishing character. The excellent Silly
37
Three Little Pigs
In 1932,
Walt Disney
produced The Three Little Pigs— a cartoon which had an extraordinary impact on the
American public. "Who's Afraid of
Wolf" swept
Its hit
tune.
the Big
the nation
Bad
^x\\;
/i
1
111
It*
1
i ,
:
f
?y IV a-
if
* t
From
X *
1932 to 1934. the Silly Symphonies
evolved a
new range of subtleties. Shown
here are scenes from,
left
top to bottom.
Father Noah's Ark. The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Grasshopper and the A nts. Lullaby Land, 1933. top right, presents a
dream adventures in a landscape metamorphosed from the patchwork quilt
child's
that covers his bed.
Spring,
*,;'-
Below: The Goddess of from the following year
and
Tortoise
the
Hare put Aesop
into
modern
dress as the rakish
hare loses his race to the tortoise against a milky landscape that is typical of those early color cartoons. This milkiness resulted from the fact that Emil Flohri, the Studio's top a great deal of white
way
pigment with
artist,
mixed
rather than by thinning his paint with water. In The Grasshop-
per and the Ants, the grasshopper character (his theme song to
background
his colors, lightening tones this
the
voice
clown— was
talent
had had
his
fame
first
is
a particularly well-established
"The World Owes
Me a
Living") keyed
of Pinto Colvig.
Colvig— a former circus
member
of the gag team, but his
a musician
greatest claim to
is
is
and
a
that he provided the voice of Goofy,
supporting role
in
a
who
1932 cartoon, Mickey's
Rente.
39
Jk
This layout drawing for The Wise Little
Hen. 1934,
illustrates the
Donald Duck made
scene in which
his debut.
He
is
discovered dancing a hornpipe on the
deck of a somewhat decrepit barge,
When him,
Wise
the
left,
Little
he feigns a
Hen
tummy
establishing himself as a
right.
asks a favor of ache,
The Wise
Little
the very outset of his career
new
voice talent and a
was, within a year, to challenge Mickey as Disney's
star attraction.
This character was, of course, Donald Duck, and the
somewhat
unreliable and disreputable character from
Hen introduced another
who
character
man who Until
provided him with a voice was Clarence "Ducky" Nash.
Disney discovered him. Nash had worked
company, entertaining children with
his
for
animal imitations.
a
milk
One
of
these imitations evolved into Donald's ill-tempered quack and
made
his voice
known
Donald Duck had
all
over the world.
a relatively
modest
role in his first screen
He debuts as a miserable creature, living on a ramshackle houseboat, who feigns a bellyache every time the Wise Little Hen asks him for assistance (in this first incarnation he was drawn by Art Babbitt and by Dick Huemer. who had joined the appearance.
Disney
staff of animators).
today, but he had the
same
Donald's voice, the
bill
was
same
a little longer than
sailor suit,
it is
and the same
temperament. He quickly made the jump to co-starring Mickey Mouse pictures such as Orphan's Benefit, irritating
irascible rules in
everyone on the screen but endearing himself animators found the Duck difficult
star.
40
to
work
audiences. with,
Many
but two
in
Lundy and Fred Spencer— had a way with him must be given much of the credit for developing him into a
particular— Dick
and they
to
-TT
r
h
i
M
mm
-•^»iii Walt looks on as Mary Moder. Pinto Colvig. and Dorothy
Compton
rehearse
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" Composer Frank Churchill is at the piano
A
theater
A
group photograph taken
at the
Studio
in
the mid-thirties, about the time that staff
expansion was picking up
momentum
marquee advertising Mickey Mouse
41
In Orphan's Benefit, 1934,
came a
into his
own. His
Donald Duck
efforts to entertain
group of children are frustrated by the
malicious behavior of the audience, which causes him to dissolve into helpless rage
jt
Mickey, meanwhile, had become virtually a national symbol,
and
as such he
was expected
to
behave properly
at all times. If
he
number of letters would arrive and organizations who felt that the
occasionally stepped out of line, any at
the Studio
from citizens
nation's moral well-being
harder and harder not give offense in
to find
some
into the role of straight
eroded the core of
was
in
their hands.
comic situations
for
quarter. Eventually he
42
was becoming that
would
would be pressured
man. but the gradual change had not yet
his personality,
and the Mouse cartoons of the
mid-thirties were consistently inventive while ingly sophisticated.
It
Mickey
becoming
increas-
3 Six Cartoon Classics Once Hollywood had come the industry
began
terms with the challenge of sound,
to
to explore the
avenues that had been opened up.
The filmed musical, for instance, offered possibilities that had been totally beyond the grasp of silent cinema, and this new genre presented the theater-goer with varied and novel experiences.
There were,
example, the Warner Brothers' musicals— tinseled
for
and Foot light Parade—with Busby
epics like Forty-Second Street
Berkeley's spectacular choreographic symmetries punctuating the
show-business careers of such stars as James Cagney, Joan
fictional
and Ruby Keeler. Maurice Chevalier sang in Rouben Mamoulian's quasi-
Blondell, Dick Powell, his
way
into
French high society
Me
operatic Love
Tonight;
the
movie fan could
indulge
also
himself, by proxy, in the silk-hat sophistication of Fred Astaire. all
helped keep the Depression
What
is
incredible
eminence— matching a
that, in this
is
in the
motion
to reach a position
of high
time of plenty
Walt Disney was able
picture industry,
It
at bay.
and producers— with none of which ran for longer
that of the greatest stars
modest output of animated
films,
than eight minutes!
Nowhere apparent than a simple it.
And
is
Disney's talent as a great story editor
in the shorts
of the mid-thirties.
gag situation and squeeze every
then he would find a
last
way of topping
even funnier than the one preceding
more
He knew how to take drop of humor out of that with a situation
it.
For practical reasons, an animated cartoon is usually broken into very short segments (different animators being assigned each of these), so that the effect, on the screen, is of very rapid
down to
cuts
from one character
advantage of
men,
to another.
Disney learned how
this as a storytelling device.
his layout
men, and
tion that every cut
had
to
his
He badgered
to take
his story
animation directors into the realiza-
be meaningful, that each short segment of
must contribute to its overall pace. No decision was implemented without his approval, and he was constantly on hand with fresh ideas to spur flagging imaginations. Each cartoon was the film
planned down
to the last detail.
Dozens of people might be involved in this, but the entire process was controlled by Disney himself. By the time segments of action were assigned to individual animators, Disney had an almost
43
complete knowledge of how the screen. itself.
The one
Here he had
him and, by During
to rely
product would look on the
on the
talents he
was the animation
had gathered around
were quite considerable.
1935, they
1935.
Disney released eighteen cartoons. At
of them are gems. survived from
final
factor that he could not control
A
good deal of valuable
this period,
and
this
chapter
continuity drawings and other art
work
is
least half
visual material has illustrated with story
relating to six of these
movies. Four of them (The Cookie Carnival, Music Land,
Who
Cock Robin? and Broken Toys) are Silly Symphonies. Mickey's Service Station was the last Mouse cartoon to be produced in black and white; The Band Concert was the first to be made in Killed
color.
WIio Killed Cock Robin? Disney gives the old nursery rhyme a new twist. Robin, it turns out. is not dead, but has merely been
wounded bv Cupid's
arrow.
The triumph of the cartoon is Jenny Wren, the object of Robin's passion, who is
a thinly disguised caricature of
I
44
1
Mae West
/
Broken Toys
—£2.
^sSL
r
The main
plot of this cartoon involves a
sailor doll
who performs an emergency
operation to restore the sight of a dainty little
creature
who
neatly constructed
has
lost
little
her eyes.
film,
it
is
of Disney productions during the mid-thirties
46
A
typica
Music Land
on the
In this twist
of Jazz
falls in
Romeo and
Juliet story, the
love with the daughter of the
Symphony. There
son of the King of the
Queen of
the
Isle
Land of
bad feeling between the two monarchs. and while on a sweetheart, the Prince of Jazz is captured and imprisoned. War breaks out and the Prince escapes and takes to the Sea of Discord, accompanied by his love. When both monarchs realize that their offspring are in danger of drowning, thev call a cease-fire and set off to the rescue. All ends happily. The Prince and Princess are soon joined in a double wedding. A Bridge of Harmony unites the reconciled kingdoms.
clandestine
is
visit to his
In this cartoon the characters speak with the voices of musical
instruments.
The Land of Symphony
Overture, blowing holes in the rococo
blasts
its
rival
with Tchaikovsky's 1812
saxophone skyscrapers
(see also overleaf)
A -~»«
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Mickey's Service Station This was the be
made
in
last
Mickey Mouse cartoon
to
black-and-white. Pegleg Pete,
the perennial villain, brings his car in for a
check-up because he has been hearing a squeak. Mickey. Donald, and Goofy rip the car apart looking for the source of the
offending noise.
It
turns out to be a cricket
which has concealed
itself in the vehicle,
but our heroes do not discover this until the car has been reduced to wreckage
r
51
The Band Concert
One
of the classics of Disney animation. The Band Concert was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be made in Technicolor. Mickey is discovered the park of a small Midwestern town, directing an orchestra in a spirited
in
rendition of the William Tell Overture, but several factors conspire to
A
disrupt the performance.
worse
still,
Donald Duck,
roving bee creates an irritating distraction, and.
in the
guise of a street vendor, again and again
leads the orchestra astray bv playing
succession of
fifes
"Turkev
in the
Straw" on an unending
concealed about his person.
As the orchestra approaches the storm section of the Overture,
a
tornado approaches the town. The twister picks up the entire orchestra— along with Donald, a farm house, and assorted vegetation.
Mickey doggedly continues
to
are tossed about like leaves. will
conduct
He
his musicians,
power, and the piece comes to a rousing finale, with musicians hanging
from
trees
and anything
ruined, however,
when
else that has
a file
been
left
standing. Mickey's triumph
appears from a fallen tuba and the film ends
on Donald's impertinent rendition of "Turkey
52
even as he and they
holds the performance together b\ sheer
in the
Straw"
is
C2
-W^**'*^
.
'
J
\
53
4 Hyperion Days On
January
12, 1936.
The
headlined "H.G. Wells
New
York Times published an interview-
Close Up." The author of The Invisible
in
Man and The History of Mr. Polly had a few comments to make about the film industry. "Many do not realize that all Hollywood studios are so busy that they keep very
much
to
themselves.
Consequently, Chaplin never visited the Disney studios. Imagine. Charlie and Walt Disney, those two geniuses, never met!
I
took
Charlie there. Disney has the most marvelous machinery and does the
most interesting experiments. Like Chaplin he
good
a
is
psychologist and both do the only thing in film today that remains international."
Four days
after the
reported by the
movies
figures in the
Disney. "The reason interference.
They
attend to their
Times
New York
own
at that is,"
story,
on January
16,
Rene
Clair was
Journal as saying that the outstanding time were Charlie Chaplin and Walt
he explained, "that they have no outside
act as their stories
own
producer, director, and even
and musical
scores. Their artistry
is
sub-
lime."
On May
25, the
New York
Journal carried some outspoken
opinions expressed by the composer Jerome Kern. "Cartoonist
Walt Disney," said Kern, "has made the 20th century's only important contribution to music. Disney has language.
In
made
use of music as
synchronization of humorous episodes with
the
humorous music, he has unquestionably given us the outstanding I would go so far as to say it is the
contribution of our time. In fact
only real contribution."
Harper's Bazaar, dated
an
article
titled
known
(better
"Boom as
November
of that same year, printed
"Genet"— Paris correspondent
that studio exclusively
devoted
for
the
New
Hollywood," she observed,
Yorker). "Certainly the sanest spot in "is
1
Shot of Hollywood" by Janet Flanner
to
the creation of delicate
deliriums and lovely lunacies— the fun factory of Mickey Mouse,
Miss Minnie and Mr. Walt Disney, Incorporated. Visitors are rarely admitted.
Withdrawn
to a safe distance
movie maelstrom, the Disney plant
is
from the
remotely located
rest
of the
in
one of
those endless suburban settings of Barcelona bungalows, pink roses
and red esque.
54
filling stations that
The
makes southern California
so pictur-
studio looks like a small municipal kindergarten with
Thru the Mirror, 1936,
is
a witty
improvisation on one of the Lewis Carroll
themes that had fascinated Disney since the time of the Alice Comedies
green grass for the children to keep off of and. on the roof, a
—
gigantic glorious figure of Mickey to show them the best way With hysteria the seeming law for movie making, it's a wonder Mickey and Silly Symphonies succeed in this world at all, since the place where they're made is as sensible as a post office. Law and
order reign there, without seeming unattractive, side by side with
Minnie.
Clara Cluck, Donald Duck and Elmer the Rabelaisian in spots but solidly moral at heart,
Madam
Elephant who,
all
are doubtless easier to get along with than the other big stars in the
movie game." Disney, then, did not lack for influential admirers, and the list could easily be extended. Toscanini, for example, saw The Band
producer
to visit Italy. Sergei
Eisenstein, the greatest of Soviet directors,
pronounced Mickey
Concert six times and invited
Mouse America's most
its
original contribution to culture.
still a star, was rapidly becoming a symbol, some concept of comedy that was to all appearances In 1934 Harold Butcher, New York correspondent for
Mickey, though representing universal.
the
Herald, had written, "After a quick trip around
London Daily
the world ...
have returned
I
Mouse has been and China,
at
with
me most
to
New York On
of the way.
to
say that Mickey
the Pacific, in Japan
Manchouli-suspended precariously between Siberia
and Manchukuo.
." .
.
From England,
in 1935,
came
the report that the
Queen and
as gifts the Duchess of York had selected Mickey Mouse chinaware cartoons for six hundred children. That same year, Mickey Mouse were used to test RCA's television system and the League of
Nations voted
its
approval of Mickey.
55
'
•
H
—
1
1
r:
..".
.'
C_
J._
(
y^H>')
Moving Day, 1936, provides Goof) with
some of
moments, pitting him mind of its own. This sequence, animated by Art Babbitt. is a sustained and inspired piece of Ins finest
against a piano with a
nonsense
Donald was by now seriously challenging Mickey's preeminence
when
and.
the Studio
announced
Times devoted a serious editorial
his first birthday, the to the
New
York
growing popularity of the
wondering if he might not replace Mickey in our Dozens of other papers echoed the question. As for Disney himself, he was learning to field the questions that come with fame. Always he was suitably modest. "I do not draw, write music or contribute most of the gags and ideas seen in our pictures today." he told the Times. "My work is largely to irascible duck,
affections.
and shape material,
supervise, to select efforts
of our
Another reporter asked Disney how feels fine."
coordinate and direct the
to
staff." it
felt to
be a celebrity.
"It
he replied, "when being a celebrity helps get a choice
reservation for a football game. ...
As
far as
I
can remember, being
me make a good picture, or a good shot command the obedience of my daughter, or
a celebrity has never helped
polo game, or
in a
impress
my
wife.
It
doesn't even
seem
to
help keep fleas off our
being a celebrity won't give one an advantage over a
dogs and.
if
couple of
fleas,
then
I
guess there can't be that
much
in
being a
celebrity after all."
So much
How
for
Disney the public
figure, but
what of Disney the man?
did his colleagues see him?
Jack Cutting,
who
joined the organization in 1929. recalls that
Disney seemed mature beyond
"The people who worked
stimulated by his enthusiasm. creative
mood and
his years and. at times, very serious.
best with .
.
.
Walt were those who were
More than
once,
when he was
ideas were popping out like skyrockets.
suddenly seen him look as
if
he had been
hit in the face
I
in a
have
with a
bucket of cold water. The eyebrow would go up and suddenly reality
was the mood
tune with the creative
was
56
difficult to
in the spirit
room. Someone
in
the group
was out of
he was generating. Then he would say
work with so-and-so."
it
*-k
*
Moose Hunters,
1937, presents Mickey, Donald,
and Goofy
in a series
of typically disastrous confrontations with wildlife
Mickey's Amateurs, 1937. offers a blend of entertainment and near catastrophe
MCO&«)S
&£-«
F&P-
f^S^CCJ? ATTAeJf.
These creative moods were often exercised sessions
which were so
projection
rooms
at
at the
"sweatbox"
essential a part of the Studio routine (the
Hyperion Avenue were not air-conditioned—
hence the name sweatbox). As soon as a sequence was animated
and shot
as a pencil test,
men, the
director,
would be run
it
rooms. Disney would be
in
one of these projection
attendance along with animators, story
in
and anyone
else directly
concerned (sometimes
people from outside the production team would be invited give a layman's opinion).
be subjected to an intensive analysis in an effort to see
improved
in
in to
The sequence under consideration would
any way before
it
was sent off
if
painting department. Sometimes, instead of pencil
could be
it
inking and
to the
tests,
it
would
be a "Leica reel" that would be under consideration. The Leica reel (another Disney innovation) provided a
way of
projecting story
continuity drawings in synchronization with whatever part of the
sound track had been prerecorded, thus giving of
how
the final
at least a
movie might look and sound.
In
rough idea
any case, Disney
would always lead these discussions and generally had valuable contributions to make.
Marc Davis emphasized
his
is
one of the many Disney
artists
who
has
employer's readiness to gamble everything on an
idea as one of the key factors in the growth of the Studio.
Young
artists
joining the Studio usually started by learning to
do in-between drawings. Ward Kimball remembers that the Studio was still in a small place in those days. "The in-betweening We called it the department was down in the semibasement. .
A
scene from
For
.
.
A Gentleman's Gentleman.
a brief period
was given ears
during the early
that
worked
1941.
forties.
in perspective
Mickey
., # Studying penguins as an aid to animation: standing, left to right, Walt Disney, Albert Hurter, Leigh Harline. Frenchy
de Tremaudan. Clyde Geronimi. Paul Hopkins (behind Geronimi).
Hugh Hennesy, Ferguson, and
Dick
Art Babbitt,
Bill
Norm
Roberts. Seated,
Huemer and Wilfred Jackson
A
pastel
A
scene from Cock of the Walk, 1935. a Silly
drawing
for
Water Babies, 1935
Symphony which
includes clever parodies of
Hollywood dance routines
A background
painting for
Mickey's Fire Brigade, 1935
analyses of the personalities of Mickey. Donald, Goofy, and Pluto.
The
following, written by Sears,
"Mickey
is
is
a typical
not a clown ... he
is
example:
neither
silly
nor dumb.
"His comedy depends entirely upon the situation he
is
placed
in.
"His age varies with the situation is
that of a
young boy, and
picture, he appears quite
"Mickey
.
.
grown
up.
.
most amusing when
When Mickey
working under
is
.
.
.
sometimes
his character
other times, as in the adventure type of .
in a serious
accomplish some purpose under
to .
is
at
predicament trying
difficulties, or against time.
difficulties, the
the climax of each small incident or action.
laughs occur at
They depend
largely
upon Mickey's expression, position, attitude, state of mind, etc., and the graphic way that these things are shown." Moore added some suggestions to be kept in mind when drawing Minnie:
"Minnie seems cuter with her
skirts
high on her
body— show-
ing a large expanse of her lace panties. This skirt should be starched
and not hang
loose.
.
.
.
and maybe never open
Her mouth could be smaller than Mickey's into so
wide
a smile, take, expression, etc.
61
Layout drawings for Mickey's Garden,
left,
and from Thru the Mirror,
Her
eyelids
right
and eyelashes could help very much
feminine as well as the
skirt
keeping her
in
swaying from the body on different
poses, displaying pants. Carrying the
little
finger in an extended
position also helps."
The following aimed
at
animators
are extracts from
who worked on
some of Disney's comments Symphony. Cock of
a 1935 Silly
the Walk. "I
would suggest
that
you concentrate more on
caricature, with
merely the drawing of a character
not
action;
to
look
like
something, but giving your character the movements and action of the person
you are trying
to put over.
Remember, every
should be based on what that character represents.
"Something was striving for. This
unable
to do.
I
is
started in this scene
doing things
mean
the pullet
juggling from side to side, but
it
in the
on the
which
.
is
.
action
.
what we are
dance which humans are rooster's muscles
and the
was passed over before we had
a
up into anything funny." Seen today. Cock of the Walk, with its brilliant parodies of Busby Berkeley dance routines, seems one of the best cartoons of its period. In view of this, the severity of Disney's remarks seems extraordinary, but we must keep in mind the fact that he was trying
chance
to
to build
it
make each one of
pushing
his
these films into a
little
jewel.
He
animators as far as he would push himself.
note, too, that he
was by 1935 deeply involved
in
believed in
We
should
planning Snow
White and was. therefore, very concerned with establishing the standards that would be required to
animated feature.
62
make
a success of his first
Clock Cleaners
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy worked against
this
type of spectacular background in a 1937 short. Clock Cleaners
63
i
hi
ro right: background paintings for a 1937
cartoon Pluto's Quinpupleis, for a 1939 release
Donald's Lucky Day. and for Pluto's
Dream House, 1940
Three Blind Mouseketeers
\
/
Pan shots— takes in which the action moves across a panoramic background— necessitated elongated paintings for Three Blind Mouseketeers, 1936
like this
one
,..,22.
(
I
Goofy
Some
idea of the complexity of
making an animated
in
Mickey's Amateurs, 1937
film
can be gathered from these "bar sheets." which govern the entire
sound track of a movie, showing exactly where fall. At different times they have
every accent should
taken different forms, but
this
example
is
quite
representative.
Above each
bar. the film footage
a convenient general reference.
staves— El, E2,
E3— are devoted
The
is
noted, providing
three upper
to instructions for the
below these— Dl and words to be spoken on the
three effects tracks. Immediately
D2— are
staves carrying the
two dialogue tracks. A description of the action that will be seen on screen occupies the center section, along with scene numbers and other material, while the music transcribed onto the lower half of each bar sheet
66
After a cartoon was completed, drawings
were stapled into books. This group from Fire Chief, 1940, gives a marvelous sense of
movement is
2. Feotune cuiimatton
• • •
SnowWhite:
5
The First Feature The
success of
initial
Mickey Mouse and
the Silly
Symphonies did
not satisfy Disney for long, and as early as 1934 he began to think
about making a feature-length animated
seriously
important considerations prompted him to
was
a question of simple economics,
namely
that
often
did— but
One
no matter how
make
successful the short cartoons were, they could never
much money. They might
Two
film.
of thought.
this line
very
share billing with the main feature— they
was determined by running time, not would always be
film rental
popularity, so the revenue from these shorts
limited. Beyond this. Disney was anxious for an opportunity to work within an expanded format— a structure that would allow for more elaborate and leisurely character development, that would
give
him
chance
a
naturalism.
to
evolve more complex plot ideas and greater
He had no
intention of merely extending his estab-
lished gag routines into a larger format; he fairy story
that
and bring
it
to the
As everyone knows,
the story Disney chose for his
project as the "Feature Silly
important part
structure. But
in
its
by the summer of 1934 into production,
his ideas
it
extent
was
it
No
about Snow White, but
were beginning
of the suggestions they made. As ideas
previously suggested possibilities): Sleepy,
model sheets were prepared
some
to take
concrete
form.
artists
to clarify,
feature
was much more besides.
to think
tics
began
to
first
he referred to his
concept, music playing an
were asked how thev thought the dwarfs might look and behave. These sketches are representative Disney
first
Symphony." and
Symphony
an extension of the
one can say just when Disney began As Snow While went
to take a
was beyond the reach of live-action movies.
was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At
new
was planning
screen with a kind of magical realism
An
early manuscript outlines
some of the
dwarfs' characteris-
and gives them names (narrowed down from some forty-odd
Hoppy-Jumpy,
Bashful,
Happy, Sneezy-Wheezy— Gaspy, Biggy-Wiggy— Biggo-Ego, and Awful. These concepts and names were probably dictated by Disney. Early manuscripts also the film— including that a
"Some Day
list
a
number of
possible songs for
My Prince Will Come"— indicating
good deal of thought had already been devoted
to this aspect
of the subject. Early outlines differ from the final version
number of ways
so that, for example.
Snow White
is
in a
envisaged
passing through a whole sequence of enchanted places before the woodland animals lead her to the dwarfs' cottage. These include the Morass of Monsters and the Valley of the Dragons, which are
69
Upsidedownland or Backwardland
self-explanatory, as well as
(where birds
fly tail first
and
Sleepy Valley ("vast poppy
soughing through the
have
trees
fields,
their roots in the air)
and
slumbrous music from the wind
The Queen is described as being way of a Benda mask." We are told that Only in her emotional climaxes does she
trees").
"stately, beautiful in the
she
cool and serene.
is
erupt to
An
fury (a note in parentheses urges study of Charles
full
Laughton
The Barretts of Wimpole
in
outline, this
breakdown of
one dated October
Street).
22, 1934, includes a
the cast of characters.
We
complete
this how "snow white: Janet Doug Fairbanks type— 18
can see from
quickly things were beginning to develop:
Gaynor type— 14 years
old.
the prince:
years old. the queen:
A mixture of Lady
Wolf— Her beauty
sinister,
is
Macbeth and the Big Bad
mature, plenty of curves— She be-
comes ugly and menacing when scheming and mixing her poisons—Magic fluids transform her into an old witchlike hag— Her dialogue and action are overdramatic, verging on the ridiculous.
the huntsman:
A minor
old— The Queen's
trusted
an innocent
girl.
.
.
.
character— Big and tough— 40 years
henchman but
hasn't the heart to
murder
prince's horse: This gallant white charger
Tom Mix's horse Tony— The magic mirror: The Queen's unwilling slave— Its appears when invoked— It speaks in weird voice."
understands but cannot talk— like Prince's pal.
masklike face
This outline also includes another set of descriptions of the
names have
dwarfs— not dissimilar
to the earlier
become more
Already they include Happy. Sleepy, Doc,
Bashful,
settled.
that the
and Grumpy. Sneezy has been temporarily ousted by
Jumpy, and Dopey has yet By the
fall
be christened.
to
of 1934. then, the cast was already pretty well
established in Disney's mind.
we may presume to
one except
that Albert
A
story
team was being
built up,
and
Hurter and Joe Grant were beginning
work on character design. Very soon more detailed outlines
began
to
circulate— mimeographed sheets that dealt with specific
scenes and situations. These kept everyone in touch with progress
and doubled
submit ideas and gags that would
as invitations to
contribute to the development of the plot; within a matter of three or four months. stage
deal
Snow White had developed from
and was beginning
to take
the
embryonic
shape as a viable endeavor.
The story at least was taking form. There was, however, a great more than story involved in a pioneering project of this kind.
The Disney
artists
would be dealing with problems
that neither
they nor anyone else had confronted before.
There were,
to start off with, several purely technical
up
lems. All animation drawings sheets of paper measuring 9
grounds also being geared
70
1
/:
to this point
by
to these
12
prob-
had been made on
inches— layouts and back-
dimensions. The drawings were
Albert Hurler's studies— as in this one of the
Queen
after she has
herself into a
transformed
hag— were
vital to the
concept of the story that began to emerge
then traced and painted onto "eels"— celluloid sheets of the same
size— and sent to the camera department, along with the appropriate backgrounds.
The camera could be adjusted
the entire setup — minus the
margins— or
to
photograph
a small part of
it
if a
The area to be photographed was designated as the "field" (rectangles drawn on many of the layouts illustrated in this book are indications of field size). The size of the close-up effect were required.
animation paper determined the largest possible
was known
as "five field."
underway,
it
quate for
became evident
much
White was
extremely a
that this field size
A
which
White got
would be inade-
scene in which
seven dwarfs, or with
fifty
Snow
animals,
paper— mean that each making the animator's if not impossible. To overcome this size— "six-and-a-half— was introduced,
stuck with the old animation
character had to be
problem,
all
field size,
as production of Snow
of the animation involved.
appear with
to
would— if they task
As soon
drawn on
difficult,
new
field
a
minute
which meant that a complete new sliding eel boards, checking boards,
scale,
series
of animation boards,
and inking and painting boards
71
feu
I
The Wicked Queen consults her Magic Mirror
Snow White
is
introduced
in
one of the
film's
The Huntsman
falls to his
knees before
opening scenes scrubbing the courtyard of her stepmother's palac
Snow White
^^^^25
had
to
had
to
be designed, be adapted
trucking shots the screen at
inadequate
to
built,
and
shoot this
to
installed;
new
and animation cameras
field size.
Even
long
so, certain
demanded characters who would appear so small on some point that even this modification would be the animator's needs. To get around this, a method of
reducing drawings photographically was devised— a mechanical
work on a convenient
solution that allowed the artist to
Another limitation produce
inability to
into a setup flat
that
of depth.
a real illusion
which consisted of a painted
eel held tightly against a
background, scale distortions were inevitable. Take, for ex-
mountains
in the
creatures lead
Snow White wood
background. In
meadow
in a
become
remain about the same
because they are so far away.
in
on
size
and the mountains
the character
bigger, but the
a flat representation
mountains
will
When
the
of the same scene, both
appear
will
with
one approaches that
reality, as
character he will appear to
camera moves The woodland
its
When a camera moved
ample, a situation where a character stands
dwarfs' cottase in a clearing in the
scale.
animation had run up against was
to increase in size at
to the
same rate. In the short cartoons this had not presented a serious problem because such situations seldom arose, and when a little distortion did creep in it was not really noticeable in the exactly the
context of quick-fire gags that were sweeping the audience along:
much
but feature films required a Flat
backgrounds might
still
greater regard for naturalism.
be adequate for most scenes, but from
time to time a real illusion of depth would be necessary. William Garity. head of the
camera department, was given
the job of
developing a multiplane camera— one that could shoot simultaneously several layers of action and background, layers that were
way
separated in such a
as to
produce an accurate sense of depth.
Layout also presented new problems and the layout team,
headed by Hugh Hennesy and Charles determine the spaces
in
found
Philippi.
confronted with a considerable challenge. Layout
artists
itself
not only
which an animator must work, they are also
deciding how the film will look when it They take on many of the tasks which in a movie would be handled by the art director, the director
in a sense responsible for
reaches the screen. live-action
of photography, and the film editor. effect,
be edited
cannot afford
determined
to
at
An animated
advance, since animation
in
film must, in
so costly that
one
shoot a single bit of extra footage. Every cut layout stage (with
the
determined
Camera
in layout, as are final
the character of the setting in art direction aspect
is
the collaboration of the
director and, sometimes, the story team). lighting are also
is
which the action
was especially important
is
in
angles and
decisions about
to take place.
Snow
This
White, where
was necessary to maintain an atmosphere of fairy-tale quaintness. Most of the preliminary work to this end was done by Albert
it
Hurter
the
stance—but
74
bizarre it
furnishings in
was the layout
artists'
the dwarfs' cottage,
responsibility to
for in-
make
these
inventions work within the final context of the film. Color was an
important consideration. In the interiors, it was keyed down to give them an aged look (Gustaf Tenggren's elegant watercolor studies had an important influence on their eventual appearance). Everything had to be carefully designed so that the characters would read clearly against their backgrounds.
By
Snow White was
the spring of 1936, production of
in full swing.
Story conferences were being held almost every day and each scene
was discussed and analyzed down
to the last detail. Live actors
were
The problem with animating that everyone instinctively knows how a man or a woman that the least inaccuracy in the way they are drawn is
also filmed as an aid to animation.
humans
is
moves, so
Nobody
immediately apparent.
Mouse, or even the Prince
Years
Max
known
results as a
(the
method of filming
guide for
his animators.
live
This
and mannerisms
as rotoscoping, yielded gestures
that could never be invented.
Avenue fame as
a different kind of challenge.
Fleischer had devised a
and using the
system,
has ever seen a real-life Mickey Dopey. Snow White, however— as well as
and the Queen— presented
earlier.
actors
a real-life
Now actors were brought to Hyperion
young lady cast as Snow White went on to achieve Marge Champion), and they would act out a
the dancer
piece of "business"
in
front of the
cameras— often under the would then be
direction of the animators themselves. This action
transferred to a series of photostats which the animator could use for reference.
figures
The
artist
could, in fact, have simply traced the
from the photostats, but
this
was seldom done because
the
characters had to be adapted in order to be consistent with the
remainder of the animation. Instead, a kind of gentle caricature was employed, so that gestures and poses became
slightly exaggerated.
This system served the animators well, and they continued to use The animals help Snow White appalling disorder
in
to clean
up the
the dwarfs' cottage
in later
it
movies.
Although much of the production work on Snow White was
jammed
into the final ten or twelve
more than
months,
was the
it
result
of
three years of concentrated effort by Disney himself—
three years in which he faced
new problems almost
daily.
whole venture was an enormous gamble from the very industry was convinced that he had bitten off
first.
more than he could
chew, and hints of impending disaster were commonplace the trade papers
and
the national press.
The The
During
in
both
this period, the
many of whom Some names have
Studio staff expanded to more than one thousand,
were directly involved been mentioned, but cians were
involved
backgrounds
make
in the feature project.
literally in
all
hundreds of other
to devising special effects.
a painted
stream look
artists
and techni-
kinds of capacities, from painting
(How,
for
like a stream, or a rain
example, do you storm look
like a
rain storm?)
75
Finally, at a cost of close to $1,500,000.
Backgrounds were painted in to emphasize the
completed. Four days before Christmas. 1937.
antique character of the cottage.
the
low-keyed colors
Snow White was the only feature which transparent colors were employed for the background paintings. Later,
in
gouache became
studded with celebrities.
justifying all of Disney's
that the
Queen (who has
used magic to transform herself into
an old hag) has reached her victim, the dwarfs set off to the rescue.
They
are too late to save
White,
who
Snow
has already bitten the
poisoned apple, but they pursue the
Queen up
into the mountains,
a storm
raging
is
where
was premiered
at
Hollywood. The audience was
was the kind of opening of which Disney
itself
hopes
for
it.
was an overnight success-
on the imagination of the Western world.
Snow White is distinguished by two seemingly opposed characeconomy of construction and extravagance of invention. As we have already observed, Disney's training in the field of cartoon shorts had taught him how to tell a story without wasting a single foot of film. There is nothing in Snow White that does not contribute either to developing character or to moving plot. (Two scenes— the dwarfs eating soup and building a bed for Snow White— were deleted at the last moment.) Yet this does not lead to a feeling of spareness, because crammed into this framework is a teristics:
Warned
It
in
Snow While was
had always dreamed. The reviews were sensational. Snow White, impressing
medium
the usual
Carthay Circle Theater
it
The dwarfs
body of Snow White and sadly place it She remains there through a full cycle of the seasons
return to the lifeless
in a crystal casket. until, finally, the
Prince arrives to
wake her with
a kiss
is almost overwhelming. The fruits of three work by hundreds of talents are compressed into eighty-three
profusion of detail that years'
minutes of action, imagery, music, and dialogue.
The songs are memorable and, like everything else, contribute movement of the storv. As for the animation, the character of each dwarf is firmly established— each is a distinct individual. The development of the Queen is excellent, both before and after her transformation into the witchlike crone. The Huntsman is effective and the birds and animals function well as a kind of Greek chorus. Snow White occasionally seems a little too much like a twentiethcentury co-ed, but she has great charm and easily wins our sympathy. The only real failure is the Prince, who seems wooden and lacks character (Snow White deserves a better consort). Above all, the entire movie manages to sustain the ambiance of timelessto the
ness which
78
is
so essential to the fairy-tale senre.
6 Pinocchio Snow White may have provided Disney with Pinocchio that
is
made
probably
the
his greatest film.
It
his finest
shares in
moment, but the qualities
and adds
feature such a success,
first
all
to
them
a
been surpassed. stunningly effective shot— the camera
technical brilliance which has never
Pinocchio opens with a
pulling back from a large white star, panning across the tiled roofs
of a sleepy European village, then closing of Geppetto's cottage.
It is
in
on the lighted window
the kind of shot that has
become
familiar
movies since the advent of power-operated zoom lenses, but taken within the context of its own period, and within the history of animation, it is innovative and spectacular.
enough
in live-action
Nor is
just a piece of flashy
it
showmanship.
It
serves to capture our
imagination and draw us into the atmosphere of the story before a single
word has been spoken.
Disney's early success had resulted from his grasp of the potentials of the
Many models were made
to
auide the animators
sound
film.
By the time of these
first
feature films,
he had evolved a method of storytelling which relied primarily on visual
means. Next
ed his team with
make
to
animation
itself,
camera movements provid-
chief narrative devices. Disney continued to
its
expert use of music and sound, but his greatest achievement
was the creation of and extremely
a visual
language that was
totally
convincing
flexible.
As we have seen, Snow White developed gradually. Now to have felt that with the experience of one feature
Disney seems
behind him, he need not be quite so cautious, and production of Pinocchio was put into top gear. Things did not work out according however, and after six months he called a halt to the project and put everyone on new assignments until the problems had been to plan,
ironed out.
The primary dilemma centered on
the character of Pinocchio
himself. Should he be treated as a puppet or as a small boy? Until this issue
was
settled,
the story tended to
very
little
could be done. Book illustrations of
show Pinocchio
as essentially puppet-like,
and
have influenced the animators' first efforts. Frank Thomas. Milt Kahl. and Ollie Johnston were assigned to the character, and they animated about 150 feet of film, using the this
seems
to
speeded-up voice of Ted Sears as a sound
happy with the
results.
track.
Disney was not
After further experimentation, they went
74
This panoramic
background was painted for the opening of Pinocchio
One of Gustav Tenggren's watercolor studies for Pinocchio
Geppetto's workshop
ahead with a more boylike version of Pinocchio (except in the animated by Thomas, where he is still on strings), and found
scenes,
a child's voice
which
fitted
with this interpretation.
A
further snag
was Jiminy Cricket's personality, which became more and more important as the story developed, until he had usurped
many
of the
functions intended for Pinocchio.
Jiminy Cricket, animated by Ward Kimball. Woolie Reitherman, and Don Towsley, presented another kind of challenge. Being a very small character (his physical size contrasts with the impor-
made him
tance of his role in the film)
The animators
in close-ups.
difficult to deal with except
rose to the challenge,
expansive a character that he seems larger than the Cricket stands
one of the
villains
gesture this
is
who
a threat. Tytla
was an
fills
this
was an exceptionally
Fox and
It is
is
an enormous,
gifted animator,
and
probable that no one else
same point of menace.
character to the
camp nonetheless, who are slyly determined to lead Pinocchio fast buck. Animated by Norm Ferguson and
Perhaps more likable, but are the
Tytla,
Bill
the screen with his infamy. His every
ideal assignment for him.
could have built
In contrast to
of the piece, the puppet master
Stromboli. Stromboli. animated by
muscular presence
making him so
life.
in the villains'
the Cat,
astray for the sake of a
John Lounsbery, these characters— like Stromboli— seem constant motion, but
it
is
motion
to
be
in
governed by rage. The
less
cunning of the Fox and the stupidity of the Cat turn them into
a
kind of vaudeville team that keeps moving to hold the attention of
The Fox knows just when
the audience.
and the Cat
is
to
throw a knowing glance
a malicious innocent with an instinct for mischief.
Geppetto. handled largely by Art Babbitt, ing of the
main
characters.
He
is
asked
fundamentally sentimental emotional
animator with very
^
little
is
the least interest-
to function
Moore was
challenge. Fred
on
a single,
thus presenting the
level,
luckier in his
assignment, treating Lampwick, the cocky street kid, as something
of a self-caricature. Monstro the whale
suitably fearsome
is
and two
smaller creatures, Figaro the kitten and Cleo the goldfish, add a Geppelto, delighted with his new son, sends Pinocchio off to school. Before he gets there, however, Pinocchio
touch of charm to the proceedings. Live-action footage was shot as
an
assist to the
who
Fairy,
whose
Once
persuade him that the theater offers more
glamour
animation of several characters, notably the Blue
is
sidetracked by the Fox and the Cat,
both
in
brief appearances are very effective.
again, Hurter's influence
felt
is
terms of character design and
throughout the
in the
film,
profusion of quaint
crowds the background of almost every scene. Gustav Tenggren contributed many line-and-wash studies which greatly affect the look of the movie. The multiplane camera and the visual detail that
complexity of the film as a whole presented the layout team with great opportunities which they eagerly seized.
of Charles Philippi and tions
by Ken Anderson, the
of inventiveness.
84
Hugh Hennesy.
Many
art
Under
the direction
with important contribu-
of layout was carried to new heights
of the layout drawings are extremely
in a wooden The Blue Fairy rescues him, but not
Stromboli shuts Pinocchio cage.
before he
tells
her a series of lies— only to
discover that, with each
lie,
his
nose grows
longer and longer, eventually sprouting
branches and leaves
Chastened by sets
his experiences.
out to find
takes
Pinocchio
Geppetto— a search which
him under
the sea. LEFT: Pinocchio
being swallowed by Monstro the whale.
below: Jiminy Cricket and Monstro's eye. right: eventually Pinocchio and Geppetto are reunited in Monstro's belly- Escaping
from the whale, who gives furious chase. Pinocchio is washed ashore, seemingly dead. But he recovers, and. having proved himself brave, truthful, and unselfish. is
soon changed into a
real
boy by
the
Blue Fairv. Joyfully, Figaro the kitten dives into the fishbowl and kisses Cleo the goldfish
beautiful,
and the same can be said of the background paintings.
For Snow White, backgrounds had been painted mainly with transparent washes, but in the case of Pinocchio, while something that looks like a classic watercolor technique
pigment came into general
use.
bottom layer was painted onto
is
adhered
For multiplane
glass,
and
oil
shots,
to.
opaque
all
but the
paint was used for this
purpose.
Many
some fashioned from clay and some animators. The artist could refer to these models, turning them so that they could see at a moment's notice just how Jiminy Cricket, for example, would look character models,
from wood, were made
The layout drawings
for Pinocchio
were made with «reat attention
to assist the
to detail
i*^=fcv^-
-
The atmosphere of Pinocchio owed a great deal to the effectiveness of the background paintings, some of which are reproduced above and on the following pages
from such an angle
(in this respect the
similar to that of the live-action footage,
characters in
who
could not be shot in
models served a purpose and they could be used
live action).
The
for
special effects
Pinocchio are particularly striking. Live-action rain
is
incor-
porated into one scene, for example, and one cannot overlook the
impact of the musical score, highlighted by such songs as "Give a Little
Whistle" and
"When You Wish upon a Star"-both comlyrics by Ned Washington.
posed by Leigh Harline with
The suitable
plot of Pinocchio required extensive adaptation to for
necessary for
the
screen-far more
Snow
White. Disney
radical
make
it
changes than were
was charged with frightening
89
compared with Collodi's
children, but
Pinocchio
is
horror to
make
quite restrained.
He
original,
his
the story effective— certainly the scene in which
Pinocchio's nose grows longer as a result of each of his
deep response,
version of
kept just enough of the element of
as
does the sequence
in
lies triggers a
which he and Lampwick are
transformed into donkeys.
Although the reviewers welcomed
with enthusiasm. Pin-
it
occhio was not an immediate box-office success. released in February. 1940, five
Europe, and
it
may be
months
that the public
The
film
was
after the outbreak of war in
was not
in the
mood
for a
Not that Pinocchio was a frivolous movie. On the despite the happy ending, it presents the blackest vision of
fable of this sort.
contrary,
any Disney feature. But perhaps the
90
reality
of world events had
has never reached the
To this day. Pinocchio numbers oi' people who have seen some other
Disney
unfortunate, for
made
the fabulous temporarily redundant.
films. This
is
it
is
Disney's masterpiece.
Operating the multiplane camera crane. The technician at the upper is Card Walker, now president of Walt Disney Productions
left
91
Fantasia:
7
The Great Experiment The new emphasis on Disney had
was losing ground
to
Donald and
plan a comeback for him.
The
that
Mickey Mouse, but Mickey prompted Disney, in 1938. to
this
vehicle he chose for this purpose was
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, an ancient had used
mean
feature film production did not
lost his special affection for
in a
fairy-tale
motif which Goethe
very popular poem; Disney's immediate inspiration
was Paul Dukas's orchestral work of the same
title,
This popular piece of program music seemed with the perfect score for his project.
Its
to
written in 1897.
provide Disney
running time made
for a
film about twice the length of the average cartoon short, thus
allowing for leisurely storytelling and substantive character devel-
opment. Disney, anxious as possible,
to
Stokowski. Stokowski,
much
lend this production as
was fortunate enough
to obtain the services
who conducted
the Philadelphia Orchestra, to
make
he involved himself so intensely
in the
had long admired Disney's work and was delighted himself available. In project that
it
fact,
soon began
prestige
of Leopold
to
develop into something
far
more am-
bitious.
The
idea that evolved was for a full-length feature film which
would take the form of a concert of orchestral pieces conducted bv Stokowski and illustrated by the Disney artists. It had been decided that a narrator film,
would be needed
and Deems Taylor, known
to link the various
to millions as
episodes of the
music commentator
on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, was chosen \BOVl
shooting
live action fur
Kiiciw: Stokowski
in
role
and
the
first
for this
of selection.
Eventually, the field was narrowed
Fantasia:
the Dimu'v paint
to assist in the process
down
to
seven main parts,
being an introduction which culminated
in
Stokowski's
laboratory
orchestral arrangement of Bach's Toccata
and Fugue
in
D
Minor.
Next came excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite; then came The Sorcerer's Apprentice, followed by Stravinsky's Rite of
The fifth piece was Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the Then came "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's opera La Giaconda. The final selection combined Moussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain with Schubert's "Ave Maria." Spring.
"Pastoral."
The concert character of Stokowski and
the
movie
Deems Taylor were
as well as the fact that
associated with
it
expectations, and Disney went to great lengths to live
He planned
92
the
movie
for a
special
raised high
up
to these.
wide screen, but had
to
Toccata and Fugue abandon Hundreds of pastel studies were made the Toccata and Fugue segment of Fantasia and for the "sound track" interlude, both of which used abstract forms
to illustrate
musical ideas
for
this
He
scheme
for financial reasons.
utilizing
seven tracks and thirty speakers, which not
sound system
only anticipated stereophonic sound but was,
also
in
developed a
fact,
far
more
ambitious than anything that has been used since. Stokowski
handled the sound mixing personally, and the results were,
to judge
by contemporary accounts, quite spectacular. Unhappily, the system was prohibitively expensive and was installed only first-run theaters.
The
version of Fantasia that
we
few
in a
are familiar with
today has been remixed for more conventional equipment.
The
film opens with a brief introductory section in
Taylor this
segment provided a
field
(as did a later interlude
character).
When
which Deems
then the Toccata and Fugue begins. Visually,
sets the scene;
day
for the
Disney
effects
department
which introduced the sound track
Fantasia was in production,
more than
as a sixty
people worked for the effects department, and they were given the task of interpreting the patterns of Bach's
music
in
terms of abstract
and semiabstract forms. This was a new area of experiment
them and,
in the
opening section of the movie does
was
a
for
circumstances, they did a creditable job, since this
command
one's attention and
bold attempt to do something that had not been done be-
fore.
The Nutcracker
Suite
the section of film
sequence. The
first
is
it
ballet music,
and Disney's
artists treated
underpins as a kind of animated dance
two movements of the
suite
were dropped and
the order of the others rearranged so that a continuous story could
be constructed.
A technical tour de
force, the
Nutcracker Suite section features
some extraordinary animation and that
had colored so many of the
picks up on the romantic flavor
Silly
Symphonies, transforming
93
Nutcracker Suite Disney artists transformed Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suiie into a nature ballet featuring spectacular effects animation
and delicate airbrush work
that sensibility into
something substantial enough
bravura performances by
for
all
to
provide a base
concerned.
Disney had planned The Sorcerer's Apprentice as a spectacular
showcase
Mickey and
for
it
became
exactly that, the whole project
being developed with great care and attention Algar's direction, nothing
made on
in full color
assignment
this
Mickey
leaves
the
in
Wizard has directs
a
it
Mickey has been ordered
powers,
to
fill
the large
magic hat behind and Mickey decides
Donning
the hat, he brings a
pail with water,
broom
The broom marches
to carry the water.
wooden
own
with his
but the ambitious apprentice discovers that
left his
take advantage of this.
fills
moment
for the
charge of the subterranean cavern where he
in the cavern,
and
Under Jim
for ten years).
practices his sinister craft.
water vat
to detail.
chance. Story sketches were
portrayed as a young magician, the disciple of a
is
Wizard who, bored
great
left to
and some of the Studio's top animators were put (Bill Tytla, for example, and Les Clark, who had
been drawing Mickey
Mickey
was
and
on
starts
its
to
to life
to the well,
appointed
task.
Mickey settles down in the take a snooze. Soon he is dreaming that he is high
Satisfied with the success of his spell,
Wizard's chair to
above the earth,
far out in space.
His powers have become so great
can control the paths of
that he
and
stars
planets,
and comets
Next he is standing on top of a towering crag, conducting the waves of the ocean. With a gesture worthy of Stokowski, he beckons to the breakers to smash against change
their course at his bidding.
the base of the rock.
He
repeats the gesture and the waves break
over the top of the crag, drenching the dreaming apprentice and startling
him from
He wakens
his reverie.
to find that the
cavern
awash. The broom
is
is
following his instructions with too great a zeal and has already
brought thousands of gallons of water from the well and threatens to
cause a disastrous flood. Mickey orders
it
to stop
but his magic
powers have vanished and the broom mechanically continues its task. In desperation, Mickey attacks it with an axe, only to see the broom split into many brooms, all of which continue with dogged perseverance, sweeping him aside and
swamping
water gets deeper and deeper. Furniture safety
on a gigantic book of
iridescent whirlpool.
spells,
which
is is
The Mickey seeks
the cavern.
afloat.
soon sucked into an
The apprentice seems on
the point of losing
when, suddenly, the Wizard appears at the top of the stairway. A single gesture from him and the waters subside. Everything returns to normal. Mickey, chastened, is left to clean up his life
the mess.
Although
told in
an amusing way. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
presents psychological ideas that are very basic to the
human
condition. Technically, like everything else in Fantasia, the seg-
ment
is
superb.
95
The
Sorcerer's
Apprentice
The Sorcerer's Apprentice The Sorcerer's Apprentice presents Mickey as a neophyte magician dabbling with spells
he cannot control
Rite of Spring In Fantasia, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
is
used to underscore the story of the earth's prehistory, including the age of the giant reptiles
The Rite of Spring heralds an abrupt change of mood. Disney saw Stravinsky's ballet music as providing the score for nothing less
than a portrayal of the creation of the world (and certainly the insistent
rhythms are suggestive of primeval
visions of a time
when
the earth
was
still
forces).
It
begins with
molten mass, and
a
carries the story of evolution to the point at
it
which the dinosaurs
disappeared from the face of the planet. Millions of years are telescoped into a few minutes.
We see
mountain ranges thrown up
by gigantic volcanic convulsions; then primitive forms of marine life emerge from the oceans and learn to live on dry land. Later, huge
reptiles
roam
the surface of the earth
battles to the death. Eventually, a
and engage
in titanic
massive drought turns whole
continents into deserts.
The next segment, judge objectively.
seems
to
It
have very
set to the
"Pastoral"
Symphony,
has considerable charm, yet little to
do with
its
is
difficult to
visual character
the real nature of Beethoven's
music.
This segment owes a great deal to the stylized decorative and idioms of the thirties-it passes before the viewer like an
illustrative
99
Dance of the "Dance of the
Disney
Hows
the Hours." as interpreted by artists,
became
animated mural
for
some fashionable
Parisian restaurant.
The
backgrounds are extremely elegant and pleasing, combining gently curving forms with an innovative use of color.
a hilarious
Good comic
parody of classical ballet
Bacchus and
his
interludes are provided by Ward Kimball's drunken unicorn-mule; toward the end, Zeus,
aided by Vulcan, stages a thunderstorm for his
Night
falls
from the bow of
starfire
It is
and Artemis appears
difficult to give
"Dance of possibly
the
own amusement.
sky to launch an arrow of
formed by the crescent moon.
an adequate idea of Disney's interpretation of
the Hours," but
we might begin bv saying
best— and certainly the
who
movie. The animators, Swift,
light
in the
that
it
is
funniest— segment of the
included John Lounsbery.
Howard
and Hugh Frazier, were given the task of developing
a
parody of classical ballet featuring hippos, elephants, ostriches, and alligators.
The
result
is
hilarious.
pirouettes as though she
A
hippo
in a negligible tutu
weighed no more than
swoop down from behind
pillars,
the inherent
species amplified by choreographic fantasy
does
a feather. Alligators
menace of
their
and clever camera
angles. Elephants hide timidly behind flimsy architectural ele-
ments and ostriches perform entrechats with an inspired absence of grace. Gravity
Directed by T.
Hours"
is
and reason are denied
Hee and
a classic
laid out
in a
triumph of
insanity.
by Ken O'Connor. "Dance of the
of comic animation.
Fantasia concludes with Night on Bald Mountain and "Ave Maria." As technical achievements they are extraordinary, but emotionally they are unsatisfying. The concept of this segment is a simple
101
Night on Bald Mountain left: the tormented spirits swirl about the crags of Bald Mountain.
right: The Devil raises his arms
in a
triumphant gesture
contrast of
good and
To Moussorgsky's dramatic
evil.
music,
witches ride and tormented spirits rise from the grave to join the Devil on top of a jagged, rocky peak.
sequences are excellent and
enormous
vigor.
The
Bill Tytla's
At dawn, the ghosts return
and, to the strains of
"Ave Maria,"
Fantasia
a film with great merits
is
little
to
is
realized with
to their resting places
a procession
toward a Gothic-cathedral forest of huge
owes very
special effects in these
Devil
moves slowly
trees.
and great
anything that preceded
it
faults. Structurally
in the history
it
of the
cinema (Snow White and Pinocchio were basically conventional narratives),
and Disney deserves great
with precedent. His
artists
credit for breaking so boldly
deserve credit for some of the finest
animation that has ever reached the screen. Fantasia
is
an amazing
piece of film-making, one that will continue to fascinate audiences.
102
Dumbo and Bambi
8
Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia were blockThe two features that followed- Dumbo and Bambi-were a
Cinematically, busters. little
different in character.
Like Pinocchio, Fantasia did not have a great financial success at the
time of its
release,
first
recouping some of the cost of the at least
were kept with the learns to fly
many
to theirs.
releases, yet
its
as a
way of
for only a fraction of the
earning potential would be
Multiplane shots and other expensive effects
story
minimum was
that
told as simply
respects this represented a shift back to the spirit of the
cartoon shorts. After the
was
was made
would assure good production and directly as possible, emphasis placed on humorous character development. In to the bare
and the
values,
Dumbo
two preceding
equal
Dumbo was conceived
and
losses. It
demands of the
practically a vacation for the
enjoyed
themselves on
this
first
Disney
project.
three features,
Dumbo
and they
clearly
artists,
It
probably the most
is
spontaneous animated feature that the Studio has ever produced.
Audiences responded well
to
needed revenue (only the
fact
Harbor by
and the film brought
it
that
than two months prevented
less
in
much-
release antedated Pearl
its
it
from having an even
greater impact).
Dumbo,
as everyone knows,
discovers that he can
is
Adapted
baby elephant who
the story of a
by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, the film has a number of highlights. The circus fly.
parade and the scenes with
for the screen
Dumbo
and
the clowns have a splashy
vigor spiced with the kind of knockabout greatly
elephants, caricatured as gossipy Bill
humor
that benefited
from the expertise of the veteran animators. The older
women,
feature fine animation by
Tytla and John Lounsbery. Perhaps the most original sequence
in the
Mouse
movie get
the one in which
is
Dumbo
and
scenes in which
prompted by
Dumbo
the
learns that he can
fly,
Timothy
his friend
drunk and see pink elephants. This leads
directly to the
a discovery
raucous encouragement of
Ward
which
is
Kimball's
quartet of hipster crows.
Disney had begun preparatory work on Bambi as early as 1937. before the release of
Snow
White, but for various reasons
reach movie theaters until 1942. (until the climax, at least)
is
The
prevailing
one of lyricism.
mood
Humor is
of
it
did not
this film
blended with
103
swJjS
.
Preparatory work for Bambi included elaborate studies of animals in action
the lyricism, but
interrupt the
is
it
humor of
mood. The
forest
a very gentle variety
becomes
every bit as important as any of the animals. (as in the
shots)
and
raindrop sequence with to
Much of the credit
Dumbo
Its
response to weather
effective use of multiplane
season (as in the autumn montage)
is
happen
Dumbo
follows the career of a
young
is
stork at the winter quarters
of the circus
the
day he learns he can
fly
delivered by
and
"arrival" as a national celebrity
to his
to
a part of
styling. in the
making of
classes-an extension of the existing training
Bambi. Special
art
program— were
instituted so that
animators
much
to
Great emphasis was placed on naturalism
elephant from the night he
as
Bambi and his friends. for this should go to Tyrus Wong, who keyed the
the story as any of the things that
background
its
and does not
a character in the movie,
in the finer points
Rico LeBrun could instruct the
of drawing animals. Real deer were
lot as models for the artists. Books of photographic and innumerable model sheets were compiled, along with analyses of animal action and thousands of feet of live-action
kept on the studies
material to be used for reference.
Bambi has a great deal to commend it. Much into it and we might single out the contributions of the art direction team, headed by Tom Codrick, and the animation of Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, Eric Larson, and Retta Scott. But. for all the effort and skill. Bambi is Technically.
patient
work went
ultimately unsatisfying-especially by the standards Disney had set for himself in his earlier features.
problem
lies
The
artists
cannot be faulted. The
with the interpretation, perhaps with the script
itself.
Disney films-both shorts and features-the fact that animals take on human characteristics and have human voices is not disturbing, since they exist in a world of their own which is In earlier
governed by
cat,
its
own
rules.
We are not surprised,
for instance,
when
seduced from the straight and narrow by a fox and a for they are clearly caricatures of human types and the story
Pinocchio
is
105
Bambi In
Bambi, Disney
artists
aimed
for a
degree of naturalism quite unprecedented in the
history of the
animated film
unfolds in a fantastic dimension which
we
recognize as a metaphor
for reality rather than as a naturalistic portrayal.
and birds
Snow White do
in
Even
behavior. Within the framework of the fairy tale acceptable,
them— they
and only
the animals
not disturb us by their intelligent
relatively
small
demands
it
seems quite
are
made on
are not even asked to speak. Prior to Bambi, Disney's
use of humanized animals had always been within the limits of established idioms.
Bambi, however,
is
for a kind of naturalism
and
something quite
which
fairy tale— it presents
to believe in
different. This film
aims
outside the borders of fantasy
an owl on friendly terms with baby
rabbits who. in the real forest,
asked
falls
would be
his victims,
and we are
deer that speak the language and share the
emotions of the humans
who are supposed
to
be their enemies.
It is
very difficult to reconcile these contradictions.
107
Background treatments conceived to sustain a
The most sympathetic
for
Bambi were
lyrical
mood
characters are those, like
rabbit
and Flower the skunk, who are used mostly
relief.
They seem
to
belong
to the
Thumper
the
humorous Disney mainstream and work for
well in those terms.
Yet despite its shortcomings, Bambi is an important movie. Along with the four preceding feature films and the short cartoons of the
thirties,
it
gave the Studio a tremendous reservoir of idioms
and techniques. The Disney
artists
could
now handle
from the broad stylization of Mickey or Goofy Bambi's mother. They had learned
how
to the
to create
everything,
naturalism of
any atmosphere
they might need, and the multiplane camera allowed them to use
space
in
new and complicated ways. The Disnev
had developed hundreds of new colors animation
108
in still
another way.
to
paint laboratory
extend the possibilities of
9 Interruptions and Innovations America's entry into the war had an almost immediate effect on
Disney Productions. In December, 1941, part of the Studio was
commandeered by the military authorities as quarters for seven hundred members of an antiaircraft unit. They took over the sound stage for use as a repair shop
and stayed
Before very long, someone in the
for several
Navy realized
months.
that animation
could be of great value in the presentation of training material. The Studio soon received a series of contracts from military and
government agencies and commenced production of short
The
tional films.
some of
listing
Aircraft Carrier
these wartime
Food Will Win
The 1942
subjects included
War. and a number of
the
Among later efforts were
aircraft-identification films. British
titles.
Landing Signals. Aircraft Production Processes,
Battle of Britain.
China.
instruc-
variety of material treated can be suggested by
The Battle of
Torpedo Plane Tactics, Air Masses and Fronts,
Defense Against Invasion, Rules of the Nautical Road, Automotive Electricity for
Military
Map
Basic
Vehicles,
Reading,
Transmitters, Fundamentals of Artillery Weapons,
Scourge (which concerned
itself
not with the Luftwaffe but with
economy was
malaria-bearing mosquitoes). Since these productions, extensive
animation (limited
that
in
devices were substituted for
more ambitious
project
Tuning
and The Winged at a
premium
in
and clever use was made of limited
camera movements and other basic full animation wherever possible). A
was Victory Through Air Power,
length film presenting the strategic
bombing
a feature-
theories of
Major
Alexander de Seversky.
The two most important commercial
releases of this period—
Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros—were themselves indiVictory
Through Air Power. 1943. argued
the virtues
rect
products of the war. Europe had been in turmoil since
of strategic bombing. Der
Fuehrer's Face, released that
same
year,
September. 1939, which meant that Hollywood's chief overseas
Great Britain and some small Department down,
took the form of a nightmare in which
market was wiped
Donald Duck found himself working
neutral countries. Everybody, from the State
Nazi munitions factory
in a
was anxious
that other
target for this stars like
1941,
out, except for
markets be expanded, and the most obvious
expansion was Latin America
Carmen Miranda
rose to
(it
was no accident
prominence
that
at this time). In
Nelson Rockefeller, then Coordinator for Latin American Department, invited Disney to make a good-will
Affairs at the State trip to
Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Brazil. Disney was not interested
109
in
simple hand-shaking tour but suggested instead that
a
combined with
a film project.
The
State
it
be
Department agreed
to
underwrite four short films to the extent of $50,000 each.
Disney and
Saludos Amigos
his wife,
along with a group of Studio
and came back with
the trip
a
onto other ideas that had been developed separate shorts were produced, but
advantageous
which
first
Four would be
at the Studio.
was decided
it
that
it
release them as a single package. They were some documentary footage that had been shot on
and released under the
The
made
to
dovetailed into the tour
artists,
mass of material which was grafted
title
Saludos Amigos.
of the four animated segments
illustrates
the adventures of
is "Lake Donald Duck in
Titicaca."
the
High
some good moments but is no better than any of half-a-dozen Duck cartoons from this period. The second segment. "Pedro." is more interesting, telling the story of a little mail plane Andes.
has
It
which must carry
A
weather.
its
cargo across the mountains despite foul
remarkable sense of space and depth was achieved
the flying sequences,
for
and both backgrounds and animation are
The third segment. "Aquarela do Brasil," is the most memorable, featuring Jose Carioca, an energetic parrot who
excellent.
introduces Donald
samba. The action
Duck
is
effects animation, but fact that
to
it
to Rio's
lively
and
is
Copacabana Beach and
what makes "Aquarela" so
has a real Latin flavor and heralds a
Disney movies. The
final
to the
helped along by some imaginative distinctive
mood
animated segment
Goofy." starring the Goof as a displaced cowboy.
is
It is
is
the
that
was new
"El
Gaucho
amusing but
by no means innovative. Saludos Amigos was released later.
also
in
February. 1943.
The Three CabaUeros appeared. In many respects was aimed
at
the
Latin
Two
years
a sequel,
American market and.
like
it
its
predecessor, featured a combination of live action and animation. it is a disappointing movie— patchy and with no compare with the best things in Saludos Amigos. Donald and Carioca have some lively moments and are joined by a Mexican rooster called Panchito. who sports a large sombrero and an itchy trigger finger. Their energy is not enough to offset the lackluster character of segments such as "The Cold-blooded Penguin" and "The Flying Gauchito." The package film was not an ideal format for Disney artists to work with, but it did have an economic advantage which remained a major factor as the war came to an end. Reorganization was necessary, and it was important that the Studio have feature-length
Taken
as a whole,
highlights to
The 1943 package
film Saludos
Amigos
included the story of Pedro the mail plane
and introduced Donald's friend Jose Carioca
productions in the theaters to bring grams.
A
true
in
revenues for future pro-
animated feature would have taken too long
and would have eaten up too much of the reserves
to
make
at this point, so
other solutions had to be found. Saludos Amigos and The Three
CabaUeros had shown Disney that the package movie was one
The animated portions of Song of the South, 1946, brought the animals of the
Uncle
stories to life
Music: "After You've Gone" one of the segments from this 1946 package film
Make Mine is
Remus
in 1949. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad combined screen
Released
adaptations of two famous stories
and three more were produced— Make Mine Music 1946). Fun and Fancy Free (1947). and Melodv Time (1948). In 1946 Disney released The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. This picture falls somewhere between being a package film and a true feature, consisting of two distinct and separate stories which are linked only by the fact that the hero of each segment is prone to disaster. The "Toad" episode is based on Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and is enlivened by good character animation and some lively art direction. Unfortunately, the story is too compressed for any of the personalities to be fully solution,
(
explored. All the action original
(it
is
there, but not the leisurely
seems that Disney had intended the story
feature-length film but
was forced
to settle for this
pace of the to furnish a
compromise
version).
The
tale
of Ichabod. based on Washington Irving's The Legend
of Sleepy Hollow,
is
narrated by Bing Crosby. The Adventures of
Ichabod and Mr. Toadis not a great movie, but toward regaining past
The Studio was
still
it
was
a definite step
glories.
producing short cartoons on
a regular basis. (It
continued to do so until 1956.) Donald and Goofy were
now
the
Formulas had been devised for them which made them easy to write for (Donald's bad temper and the Goofs ineptness provided endless gag possibilities). Mickey still made biggest stars.
occasional appearances, but he was
now used almost
exclusively as
man. Important newcomers were Chip and Dale, a pair of highly competitive and occasionally pugnacious chipmunks who were often pitted against Donald, driving him to distraction (he had a straight
several other antagonists, including a musical bee
and an
athletic
beetle).
On
112
occasion, short subjects were accorded
rather special
treatment, as was the case with Toot,
Whistle, Plank,
and Boom
Cinemascope cartoon. Devised by Ward Kimball, it is a highly stylized history of music which makes use of a novel sound track— very simplified and lacking the lush orchestration that
(1953), the first
had become standard.
Its
widened format, gave top: the 1950 short Motor
Mania
is
one of
several that take an ironic look at the
American driver. center: Two Chips and a Miss, 1952, a tvpical outing for Chip and Dale. bottom: Tool, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom.
subject from the as
same
an experiment
in
it
use of limited animation, along with the a very distinctive character.
A
year. Adventures in Music: Melody,
3D
similar
was used
animation.
habits of the
1953.
is
an experimental short
made
in
Meanwhile,
in 1950.
since 1942. This
and
office
Cinemascope
Disney released
was Cinderella, and
his first true it
was
animated feature
a success both at the
box
as a piece of film-making.
In spirit
it
harks back to
Snow
White, though with added
An
surface glamour and with a greater reliance on gag routines.
human
charac-
ters.
Cinderella, her stepmother, and the Prince are treated
less
naturalistically.
more or God-
interesting variety of treatments
mother,
the
is
brought
to the
while the ugly stepsisters, the Fairy
and the Duke are essentially caricatures. work very well together. The animal characters Lucifer the cat is a splendid villain and the mice
King,
Surprisingly, they
are excellent.
(who, thanks to the vocal talents of Jim MacDonald, speak a kind of pidgin Latin) are consistently entertaining.
The backgrounds
Cinderella are less distinctive than those which
Snow White and Pinocchio earlier
and
his influence
for
added so much
(Albert Hurter had died
some
to
years
was greatly missed), but they are more
than adequate, establishing a kind of French Provincial look
in the
early scenes.
of
Cinderella succeeds because
it
remains faithful
the original while embroidering
it
with the kind of business that
to the spirit
Disney understood better than anyone else. The next feature, Alice in Wonderland, failed because it did not capture the sophisticated atmosphere of Lewis Carroll's book and also lacks, except in a few isolated scenes, the authority of the
talked of animating
Disney touch. Disney had
A lice while Snow White was
(his interest in the subject
it
in
first
production
goes back even further, of course, to
Kansas City and A lice's Wonderland). He worked off for years before
still
finally
at the idea
reached the screen
in
on and
1951. but for
some reason he never came completely to grips with it. Translating Carroll's highly intellectual verbal humor into visual terms was no easy thing, and Alice
is
perhaps the weakest of Disney's animated
features. Occasionally there
invention, tea party,
Wynn and
is
a sharp piece of Surrealistic visual
and there is one excellent sequence— the which is greatly enlivened by the voice
Hatter's
talents of
Ed
Jerry Colonna.
Disney blamed the failure of the film on the lacked "heart." Whatever the reasons for
much
Mad
to the
amazement of
its
fact that Alice
failure,
about 1971.
the Disney front office, requests for
113
Cinderella
Cinderella
was Disney's
first
true
animated
feature since Bambi. Released in 1950.
recaptured features,
much of
it
the spirit of the early
modified by a new lightness of
touch and an emphasis on surface glamour
Alice in Released
some
Wonder/and
in 1951.
Alice in Wonderland had
brilliant visual
touches but failed to
capture the flavor of Lewis Carroll's story
Peter
Pan
Disney's version of Peler Pan, 1953,
is
a
generally entertaining interpretation of Sir
James
Barrie's stage classic
115
Lady and
the
Tramp 16mm
rentals of the
print of Alice
The demand was
the country.
began
to
pour
from
in
from college film
chiefly
all
over
societies,
but private individuals accounted for a respectable proportion of the rentals. in
At the Lincoln Center Disney Film Retrospective held
New York
during the
showings of Alice were the
summer of
two scheduled
1973, the
performances
first
to sell out.
and three
additional ones were immediately added. This indisputable evi-
dence of the
film's
new appeal provided
the
needed impetus, and
Alice was rereleased in theaters throughout the country
in
the
spring of 1974.
Peter Pan, released in 1953.
is
an altogether more satisfactory
With the exception of Nana, the St. Bernard, and the crocodile, all the main characters are human or have human picture.
characteristics (as
We
is
the case with Tinker Bell and the Mermaids).
have discussed the special problems involved
human
form, but this movie shows just
had become
at
handling them. As
how in
in
animating the
expert Disney's
Cinderella,
artists
they mixed
naturalism and caricature without allowing them to clash.
The year first
1955 saw the release of Lady and the Tramp, Disney's
animated feature
innovative in another
make use of the Cinemascope format. It is way too. Set in the recent past, Ladv and the
to
Tramp deals with
a kind of subject matter that
encountered
at the
Studio before, taking us for the
world which
is
not far removed from our own.
but
set in the present,
its
circus milieu
atmosphere of the Big Top setting
it
makes
had not been first
Dumbo, it
time into a it is
true,
is
a special case, the
apart from the everyday world.
Ladv and the Tramp is set largely in the suburbs of a medium-size American city in the early years of the century, an environment compounded from a vernacular that is still familiar today. Considering the problems of layout, space, and depth inherent in
the
wide-screen medium. Lady and the Tramp turned out
remarkably
well.
The animators did a good job of grafting human main characters without losing the nuances
personalities onto the
of dog behavior that were necessarv dled and there are the rat
is
one
the dogcatcher's
humor the
is
some well-executed
that springs to
wagon
the
if
convincing. Interaction between dogs and
story
humans
action scenes
is
was
to
be
neatly han-
(Tramp
killing
mind, and Jock and Trusty intercepting
at the
climax of the movie). The film's
low-keyed— outright gag routines would have destroyed
atmosphere— and
it
features
some agreeable
songs.
Ladv and the Tramp was followed by another wide-screen featureone Released the (
first
in 1955.
Lady and the Tramp was
animated feature made
Cinemascope.
More
in
significantly,
it
broke
new ground in terms of subject matter, setting a more informal tone for future Disney movies
that
began with high hopes and ended
in disaster.
Sleeping Beauty was conceived as the most spectacular of the
postwar productions. Eyvind Earle devised background stylings
based on Early Renaissance paintings, and the characters were designed
to
blend with these settings.
Much
care was lavished on
*A
Six years in the making. Sleeping 1959.
marked
a
temporary return
world of the fairy
tale
Beamy, to the
10 Later Animation As far as animation was concerned, new formats like Cinemascope and Technirama 70 proved to be more trouble than they were worth. The next feature. One Hundred and One Dalmatians, made use of a technical innovation which was to make a more lasting impact. During the fifties Ub Iwerks. now in charge of special processes at the Studio, had been experimenting with Xerox photography as an aid to animation. By 1959 he had modified a Xerox camera to transfer animators' drawings directly to eels, thus eliminating the inking process and preserving much of the spontaneity of the drawings. As a time (and money) saver, this was of enormous importance to the Studio, and it had a major effect on the way future Disney animation would look, since the distinctive character of the Xerox eels would influence the art direction. The Xerox line would now.be employed for most backgrounds, too. so that there would be no stylistic clash between character and setting. This has meant that recent Disney films have had a more linear and graphic look— quite different from the tonal renderings that were so typical of the earlier features.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians technical innovation.
made real
It
is
the artists' task easier
and
represents
more than
good movie. The new process
a very left
them
free to concentrate
on the
substance of the film— character development and story. Set in
London and the surrounding The opening sequences, in which true love
the present, the plot unfolds in
English countryside. finds a way, are a villainess of the
little
weak, but the
never flags again. The treatment action
is
and
loose
and laughs, and the viewer
sympathy
moment
Cruella de Vil— the
piece— enters the picture, the pace picks up and
is
witty, with plenty
o\~
given no chance to lose
for the heroes as the story builds steadilv to a fitting cli-
max.
One Hundred and One
The dogs and other animals
human
Dalmatians
are. as in
Lady and
interesting animation in the film, however,
humans. They are drawn with
This film provides fast-moving entertainment ;ind
many good
touches,
including "quotations" from old Disney
cartoons (seen on television), and Cruella
who
perhaps the best villainess
de
Vil,
in
Disney's postwar movies
is
the Tramp.
surrogates and work very well as such. Perhaps the most
features,
a looseness
no attempt being made
is
reserved for the
which was new
to imitate
to
Disney
photographic
reality.
Elbows and knees are not always where they should be according to anatomy books, but everything works. Roger and Anita, the owners of the Dalmatians, are believable
if
not memorable, while Horace
77??
Jungle Book
Voice talents
including those of George
Sanders, Phil Harris, Lotus Prima. Sterling
Holloway, and Sebastian Cabot— played an important part
in this film
The Aristocats A
moonlit night
in Paris,
production, and one of sketches for The
from the finished
Ken Anderson's
A ristocais
that he
was suffering from advanced cancer of the lung. One lung
was removed, but
room
from the Studio.
weeks
six
at St. Joseph's
later,
on December
He was
sixty-five years old.
film that he
he died
in his
The Jungle Book was
not quite finished, and the Disney artists were task of completing
15.
Hospital in Burbank, directly across the street
it
left
with the painful
without him. Happily. The Jungle Book
would have been proud
of. It
is
a
takes great liberties with
Kipling's original, but these are justified by the end result.
The Jungle Book was the said that the voice talents
first
feature film of which
were more than
it
can be
just appropriate. Phil
George Sanders, Sterling Holloway. Louis Prima, Verna and Sebastian Cabot were chosen to speak for the animals of Kipling's jungle— all of them actors whose voices had distinct personalities that would to a large extent dictate the approach the animators would have to take. We have remarked Harris,
Felton. Pat O'Malley.
121
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery
Day before that animators think of themselves as actors, and
own
took on the challenging task of matching their
performances of the
now
they
skills to the
live actors.
had— on the strength of a board of Ken Anderson— given the go-ahead for the next
Before he died, Walt Disney
drawings by
feature project, which appeared in 1970 as The Aristocats. This film
blends the vernacular style of
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
with The Jungle Book's, developments in voice characterization,
and the
result
comedy
a delightful
is
that has enjoyed great
popu-
larity.
An
aristocratic cat
kittens
become
butler.
Stranded
named Duchess (Eva Gabor) and
her three
the objects of the evil designs of their mistress's in the
French countryside, they are befriended by
an alley cat called O'Malley (Phil Harris again). The film follows their adventures as they
make
way back
their
only to be
to Paris,
confronted once more by the black-hearted butler. This time the
and Duchess and O'Malley
villain gets his just deserts
ever after (the story line
is
live
happily
reminiscent of Lady and the Tramp).
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) and Winnie the
Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) are
made during
this
same
a pair of admirable featurettes
period. Apart from Americanizing
some of
A. A. Milne's characters, the Disney artists dealt very capably with the difficult task of translating the
screen.
The second
film
is
atmosphere of the original with
especially good,
to the
imaginative
itself (wind and rain threaten to blow or wash the words from the pages). Most of the characters are well
animation of the book
conceived, with Tigger perhaps the outstanding success.
At
five
least
of the postwar features— Cinderella, Lady and the
Tramp, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, and
The Aristocats— are
excellent, each of
informal kind of entertainment. features
first five
If
them moving toward
we put
a
more
these together with the
and the best shorts of the
thirties
and
forties,
we
have an extraordinary body of work. Walt Disney's achievement can hardly be overstated.
He
took a marginal branch of the
entertainment industry, transformed
went on
to
make
a
it
into
major contribution
an
and then
art form,
to the history
of the cin-
ema.
What makes
this all the
more remarkable
is
the fact that
it
represents only one aspect of his career.
There
is
a degree of overlap in the production of Disney
features. Before Featuring Tiggcr, Eeyore, and. of course,
Pooh Bear. Winnie Blustery Day, 1968,
Pooh an J the a charming
the is
adaptation of an A. A. Milne
si,. is
one
is
finished, the next
is
already
advanced stage of planning. Several possible investigated
everyone
and one selected
will
be involved
Reitherman. and
his top
as the
most
in this process,
animators very
animated
in
stories
likely candidate.
a fairly will
be
Almost
with the director. Woolie
much
to the fore.
But the
Robin
Hood
Like many other Disney films. Robin Hood uses animals to caricature human types
man who
has the greatest responsibility at this stage
Anderson, whose wide experience design,
and
art direction
of developing
new
in
layout,
story,
makes him an excellent choice While The Aristocats was
projects.
is
Ken
character for the task still
on the
boards, Anderson was exploring possibilities for the next film.
Studio executives favored a "classic" subject for the upcoming Ken Anderson suggested a new treatment of the Robin
movie.
Hood legend, and everyone was enthusiastic. Once an overall approach and the broad had been decided on, the Studio began
to
outlines of the story
look around for voice
123
talent to
fit
and
the characters,
notable array of acting abilit\ was
a
assembled. Peter Ustinov was signed
and insecure
who
lion
Terry-Thomas was
is
cast as the
to play Prince
pathetic
the
villain
John,
a vain
of the
piece.
snake Sir Hiss. Prince John's constant
and obsequious companion. Robin Hood, portrayed
as a fox.
is
played by Brian Bedford, and Phil Harris was featured once again, this
time as the voice of Little John. Other talents concerned
include those of
Andy Devine.
Pat Buttram. and countrv and
western singer Roger Miller.
The
first
animator
to
work
in earnest
on Robin Hood was, Ollie
Johnston. While the remainder of the staff was
another project, Johnston began
to
still
engaged on
develop the character of Prince
John, building on Ustinov's voice track and
Ken Anderson's
character sketches. (Anderson had turned, for inspiration, to the
cartoon segments of Song of the South— recalling that everyone had
enjoyed working on that picture and theorizing that "the kind of thing
decadent
lion,
we do
it
represented
best.") In delineating the personality of the
Johnston was very
interpretation of the character— so
much guided by much so, in fact,
Ustinov's that
it
is
impossible to watch Prince John's scenes without seeing a strong
of the actor's features under the animal's shaggy mane.
hint
Johnston added touches of his own, rounding the character out; then the other animators joined him. making their tions.
No one
person
is
own
totally responsible for the overall
Prince John. His character
is
contribu-
concept of
blended from the contributions of a
dozen different people. Further projects are already being planned. In one important respect, then, this discussion of
incomplete, since
much
we
Disnev animation must remain
are talking about a going concern. Just
of a future there
is
for
how
animated features depends on the
extent to which younger artists can be attracted to a craft which
demands
a long and exacting apprenticeship.
The
present dynasty
of animators can carry the weight of production for a time, but there
is
an urgent need for reinforcements.
For the time being, however, the organization that Walt Disney
built continues to
picture industry.
124
occupy
its
unique position
in the
motion
3.
Uv€~actian fttnu
• • •
Actors and Animals
11
Walt Disney's greatest contribution to the motion picture industry was the genius he brought to the art of animation. Since World War II, however, his Studio has become equally well known for
movies and
live-action
its
its
television shows.
Disney had had
limited experience in live-action production stretching back to his
Kansas City days
(the Alice
number of juvenile
Comedies had involved
the filming of a
performers), but the release in 1941 of The
Reluctant Dragon can be seen as a significant departure from the
mainstream of the Studio's productions. At one
documentary about Disney animation, but
it
that as the result of a linking narrative device visiting
selling
movie idea (he performs
a
prompted by
main
gate,
his
he
domineering
is
wife).
this
When
guide,
the intention of
Benchley arrives
given a pass and a uniformed escort
he finds himself involved
in
all
at the
who to
is
to
elude
kinds of Studio
activities— story conferences, art classes, recording sessions, like.
a
chore under duress,
conduct him into the presence of Mr. Disney. Managing his
is
which has Robert
Burbank premises with
Benchley
the
level this film
becomes more than
and the
Friendly animators show him the secrets of their craft while a
charming young lady introduces him
to the
magic of the paint
laboratory and the multiplane camera, also demonstrating to
how sound
effects are
him
produced. Eventually Benchley does reach
Disney, only to discover that the idea he
is
trying to sell has already
been made into a movie. These incidents are punctuated by short cartoon inserts, including one called "The Reluctant Dragon," and all
kinds of tricks are introduced to help the narrative along
(at
one
point the movie changes from black-and-white to Technicolor).
The Reluctant Dragon
and charming,
it
is
something of
account of the Disney Studio during
Segments of
a curiosity.
gives us an interesting
live-action footage
its
if
Unpretentious
somewhat
fictionalized
golden age.
began
to find their
way
into
package films such as The Three Caballeros and Fun and Fancy Free, but the real breakthrough
released in 1946. the
first
of professional actors to
came
with Song of the South,
Disney film that used a tell
full
an entirely fictional
complement story.
It
also
on the reputation of Disney animation by including three cartoon episodes, but from the point of view of future developments it was more significant that the live-action sequences capitalized
127
were well conceived and executed. Song of the South displays the confident professionalism one expects from Hollywood movies of that period.
A
little
more than two years
Mr Heart,
released So Dear to
Bobby
Driscoll
and Luana Patten
A
America.
rural
later, in
January, 1949. Disney
which, like Song of the South, starred as children in nineteenth-century
minimal amount of animation was used
film; for all practical
purposes
it is
in this
a live-action production telling
boy and his pet sheep. Lacking a central figure as James Baskett's Uncle Remus, the film is less memorable than Song of the South, but it is another well-made movie with a the story of a
strong as
to recommend it. The next phase in the development of Disney live-action production came about largely as the result of a historical accident. Because of postwar monetary restrictions, a sizable amount of
good deal
Disney
product of accrued royalties, was frozen
capital, the
in the
United Kingdom. This meant that funds which were not available to the
company
On
Isles.
in the
United States could be used
the advice of his brother Roy,
these funds to
make
in the British
Walt Disney decided
live-action films in England.
The
to use
of
fruits
this
dramas— Treasure Island, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, The Sword and the Rose, and Rob Row the Highland Rogue—which were released between 1950 and
venture were four costume
1954.
All four of these films can be described as unpretentious, well-told, satisfying adventure stories. Treasure Island, the
Although
it
includes segments of
animation. Song of (he South, released in 1946. is primarily a live-action costume
drama. Set stars
in the
Deep South,
James Baskett
as
the film
Uncle Remus
probably the best of the
and
son's classic novel
series, is
is
first
and
based on Robert Louis Steven-
highlighted by Robert Newton's mes-
merizing performance as Long John Silver— although even without
Newton its
the
success.
movie would have had enough good
The screenplay
is
qualities to ensure
simple but effective. Byron Haskin's
is clean and straightforward, the acting is good throughand the action sequences are handled with vigor and style. The same general virtues are to be found in the other British
direction out,
adventure
stories.
These
films,
which featured performers such
as
Richard Todd. Jack Hawkins, James Robertson Justice, and Glynis Johns, introduced Disney to the reservoir of acting talent that was available in London, one he
would draw upon often
in future proj-
ects.
At some point soon the idea of
making
after the war.
a film
Disney seems
about the pioneer
to
spirit.
have conceived
He
realized that
the last frontier within the political orbit of the United States
Alaska.
The conventional Hollywood approach
the last frontier
would have involved
a
to a subject
couple of major
director with a reputation for handling epic subjects,
budget, but Disney was not
128
bound by convention and
his
was
such as stars, a
and
a big
approach
Treasure Island
Starring Robert
Newton and Bobby was the costume dramas made
Driscoll, Treasure Island, 1949. first in
a series of
the British Isles
in
The Living Desert One of
the
most successful of the True
Life Adventures, The Living Desert. 1953. is
a feature-length production
for the last frontier,
Disney had discovered a new frontier— na-
ture.
marked by
1950 and
Between
spectacular nature photography
more than
1960,
dozen True Life
a
Adventures were produced by the Studio. The two-reel format introduced by Seal Island was used for most subjects— titles include
Beaver Vallev. Nature's Half Acre, The Olympic Elk, Bear Country, Prowlers of the Everglades, and Water Birds. Six feature-length films were also
made— The
Living Desert, The Vanishing Prairie,
The African Lion, White Wilderness, Secrets of
Life,
and Jungle
Cat.
The
many
Milottes were involved in several of these productions but
other
cameramen
also contributed to the
tures—most of them trained
was used
the
for all
films.
naturalists.
A
True Life Adven-
The same
basic formula
subject was chosen
and crews
dispatched to the appropriate locations to gather footage (films
demanded
such as Secrets of Life
laboratory filming rather than to Hollywood and James Algar, Winston
outdoor work). The raw material was sent back edited into usable form by a team headed by Hibler,
and Ben Sharpsteen. The producers
on the audi-
relied
ence's tendency to identify with the animals at an emotional level, so animal behavior
was interpreted
in
human
terms.
The
structure
of each movie and the commentary that accompanies conceived with
The True
this
Life
this subjectivity,
end
much chance
we must
to is
it
were
mind.
Adventures have sometimes been
and
Certainly the material
given
in
some
presented in such a
to interpret
criticized for
extent this criticism
it
way
that
is
justified.
we
are not
At the same time, these films were not
for ourselves.
take into consideration the fact that
131
The Vanishing Prairie
«*&/
A
The African Lion
specially constructed
camera truck
allowed Al and Elma Milotte to shoot extraordinary wildlife footage for The African Lion, released
in
1955
intended
to
be scientific documents— they were designed for the
enjoyment of a mass audience that was not yet prepared this
to accept
kind of material without a measure of sweetening. Spin-offs from the True Life Adventures include the People
and Places films
series and,
more
significantly, the
many
later
Disney
which blend animal footage with conventional live-action
dramas.
Perri, released in
1957,
was the story of
a squirrel;
its
material was similar to that used in the True Life Adventures, but
was organized
in
such a way that
narrative on which the film
134
it
corresponded with the
was based.
fictional
Davy Crockett,
12
Other Heroes,
and Mary Poppins As
early as the 1930s,
Walt Disney had been aware of the potential
importance of television— perhaps because Mickey Mouse cartoons
were used
of transmitting equipment— and he was
in early tests
careful to retain television rights to the other
all his films.
By
the late 1940s,
major studios were seriously worried about the impact the
new medium was having on theater attendance, and some of their losses by selling the home-screen
rights to their
backlog of productions. Disney was almost alone
in
tried to
recoup
holding out
against the short-term advantages of this course of action.
Having retained Starring Fess Parker
Daw
and Buddy Ehsen.
Crocked was the great success of
Disney's
first
television season
television rights to all his films,
great reservoir of past productions to fresh material
was prepared
draw on, but
a
Disney had a
good deal of
for the initial season in
1954.
The
programs were presented by the American Broadcasting Company. Disney, although not entirely enthusiastic about television, was anxious to go ahead with the plans for building Disneyland, and return for the prestige of a Disney series,
major investment
in the park.
priately, titled Disneyland. Bill
almost
The new
agreed
make
to
series was, quite
Walsh, series producer,
once they came up with a
at
ABC
hit
in
a
appro-
recalls
how
of quite stunning
"We were planning to do a series on American folk heroes— like Johnny Appleseed. Daniel Boone, and Big Foot Wallace-and the first one we picked out, by dumb luck, was Davy magnitude:
Crockett. At that time he was considered just one
We
more
frontiers-
down in Tennessee and when we got the film back to the Studio, we found we didn't have quite enough footage for three sixty-minute shows. So Walt said, 'Why don't you take some man.
shot
drawings and
it
stick
them
all
show's going to be about.' So
of Davy's
we can
life,
and Walt
together and give an idea of what the
we put the drawings
" get a song to go with them.'
Ballad of
together, sketches
said, 'Well, that looks kind of dull.
Maybe
The song was. of course. "The
Davy Crockett." which-like
the
television
episodes
themselves— enjoyed enormous success.
The production was shown in three parts: "Davy Crockett, "Davy Crockett Goes to Congress." and "Davy Crockett at the Alamo." Although they were transmitted in Indian Fighter,"
135
20,000 Leagues Under (he Sea
black and white, they were filmed in color, which meant that the footage could advantageously be re-edited for theater release.
Seeing
this slightly shorter
version today, one must observe that
same kind of basic costume dramas. The story is told with
it
stands up remarkably well, having the
strengths
as Disney's British
crispness
and
a
minimum
The landscape
of fuss. Acting and action sequences are excellent.
used to create atmosphere and the result
is
is
a
well-constructed, fast-moving adventure story. As biography the plot
may be
to the spirit
The nights
a bit oversimplified, but
it
remains essentially
faithful
of the legend.
original Disneyland series
and continued
was broadcast on Wednesday
that time slot for four years.
in
For the
name was changed to Walt Disney Presents and program was moved to Friday evenings. During the 1960-61
1958-59 season the the
season Walt Disney Presents was shown on Sunday evenings; in the fall
of 1961, the program
made
a
major switch, moving
to the
NBC
Sunday evening time slot. After the move to NBC. all Disney television shows were transmitted in color and the name was changed once again— to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. The title was later altered to television network,
where
it
has kept
its
Wonderful World of Disney, but these changes are irrelevant to the which is that the sixty-minute weekly format which
central point,
Disney developed
in
1954 has remained immensely popular— ad-
ding up to one of television's all-time success
stories.
Another hugely popular Disney show was The Mickey Mouse Club, which was launched on October
weekday afternoon
1955,
3,
and televised each
until 1959.
The show developed children could identify.
a pleasant, informal format with
The
talents of the
which
Mouseketeers were
combined with old Disney cartoons and many other kinds of material. Dramatic serials, such as "Spin and Marty," became a popular feature of the program.
Other series such as Zorro and The Mouse Factory enabled the Disney Studio
Over stable
to retain
the years,
it
area of the
gradual
shifts
an important share of the television market.
has continued to aim
its
programing
at the
most
market— the family audience— allowing
of taste rather than attempting to
make
for
radical
changes.
In 1954, the year in Released the Sea
in 1954,
20.000 Leagues Under
was the Studio's most lavish up to that point. It
live-action film
featured elaborate
sets,
exotic locations,
and spectacular scenes shot water tank
in a special
which the Disneyland television
series
was
launched, the Studio released 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, easily its
most ambitious live-action picture up
to that point
modest predecessors, 20,000 Leagues was planned as a big-budget movie using major Hollywood stars (Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre) and Far removed from
its
spectacular special effects.
137
Swiss Family Robinson Adapted from Johann Wyss's
classic
novel, Swiss Family Robinson. 1960. starred
John Mills and featured a
spectacular tree house which later formed the basis for a popular attraction at both
Disneyland and Walt Disney World
The
project
demanded
Much
photography.
one of the Disney sound outdoor tank
at the
elaborate sets and a great deal of trick
of the action was shot
Fox
in a large
water tank on
were filmed
stages; other scenes
and location work was done
lot,
and off San Diego. One high spot of the action
is
in
in
an
Jamaica
a violent fight
between the crew of the submarine Nautilus and a giant squid— sequence that called for all the ingenuity the Studio could muster.
The Jules Verne original provided a marvelous basis for a film combining fantasy and adventure. Script and direction were excellent and production values outstanding. James Mason was Captain
cast as
Nemo— half villain,
icy rage to the sinister
half
commander of
hero— bringing
a sense of
the Nautilus. Paul
Lukas
played an eminent scientist who, along with his apprentice, Peter
captured by
Lorre,
is
Verne
tradition, are a
Nemo. little
All three characters, in the best Jules
out of the ordinary. Their eccentricity
is
balanced by the down-to-earth figure of the whaler, played by Kirk Douglas. The whaler
of course brave and strong and handy with a
is
harpoon. More important, his viewpoint
uncomplicated by
is
making him the character with whom most audience would identify. So far as the protagonists
intellectual aspirations,
of the potential
are concerned, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea deals in terms of grips our imagination because
simplifications, but
it
as a battle of ideas
and emotions.
Swiss Family Robinson
from a
the starring role, this
on a
tropical island.
is
convincing
yet another major production taken
is
adventure story. Released
classic
it is
in 1960,
with John Mills in
the story of an emigrant family shipwrecked
We
how they learn to cope with their how they deal with a band of Oriental
see
unfamiliar environment and pirates.
The Shaggy Dog, released zany comedies.
It
starred
other similar vehicles for
Minded actress this
Professor,
1961,
in 1959,
it
of the Studio's
was followed by
in several
Disney films during
including costume pieces such as Pollyanna and
contemporary comedies
like
The Parent Trap.
The Studio was now enjoying live-action
first
MacMurray's talents, notably The Absent and Son of Flubber, 1963. The British
Hayley Mills was featured
period,
was the
Fred MacMurray, and
success with a wide variety of
productions, and animation was also thriving.
outlook for Disney was very bright, a fact
remarkable because
at
this
made
all
the
The more
time other major studios were ex-
periencing a sharp decline in their fortunes.
In 1964
Disney released Mary Poppins, a film which became one of
the greatest hits in the history of the
Adapted from
P. L.
motion picture industry.
Traverses children's stories, the movie provided
139
Andrews with
Julie
spectacular screen debut and smashed
a
home and
box-office records at
abroad.
Mary Poppins is a unique movie, imaginative and entertaining. Those who expected a direct adaptation of Mrs. Travers's stories may have been a little disappointed, but it could not have been Her
otherwise.
delicate fantasies
considerable change. the
work beautifully
words, but
in
does not translate into film without undergoing a
literary artifice
movie with
Bill
Walsh and Don DaGradi had to provide and they could only do this by altering
a structure,
to some extent. Andrews is certainly a more glamorous and youthful version of Mary Poppins than the one we meet in Mrs. Travers's stories. She brings to the character a charm and spark of her own.
the
raw material Julie
Her singing voice and dancing ability her performance
some kind of marvelous
perpetually on the verge of
Primness
Mary Poppins's
is
that
self-discipline
fragile
are great assets, but the key to
her ability to seem prim and proper yet
is
modicum of form on
solitary link with
manages,
just
insanity.
everyday reality—
barely,
impose a
to
the tides of fantasy that flow just below the
surface.
Edwardian London
is
reconstructed with a good feeling for
atmosphere, clever use being
and of simple
effects
made both
of remarkable special
would not seem out of place on Throughout the film, the real and
sets that
the
the Broadway theater. imaginary are combined in inventive and believable ways, notably, of course, in the scenes that combine live action with animation. In
stage of a
the production of
pooled
to
Mary
Poppins,
all
of the Studio's resources were
produce a motion picture that probably could not have
been made anywhere
else.
The sound track is dotted with memorable songs, "Chim Chim Cher-ee." "Jolly Holiday." "The Life Spoonful Mary
Pnppins, released in 1964, used
combining
live
all
Disney Studio, action with animation and
the resources of the
featuring startling special effects
of
Sugar,"
and
Lead."
I
"A
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
is at least one dance routine in the best tradition of the Hollywood musical. Mary Poppins is. in fact, an extravaganza of the sort that had been fairly plentiful in the thirties and forties, but
There
which seemed Since
Mary
to
1967,
be a
lost art in
the sixties.
Poppins, Disney has released a
live-action films,
number of
good examples being The Happiest
The Love Bug,
1969,
was The Island
at the
type of adventure.
mention the have
made
Top of the World,
a
One cannot pretend
lesser productions that
in
interesting
Millionaire,
Bedknobs and Broomsticks,
The WOrhl's Creates! Athlete. 1973. Released
1971.
December
and 1974
spectacular Jules Verne that these films, not to
have emerged from the Studio.
a vital contribution to the history
of the cinema, but they
do deserve to be treated with more respect than accorded them
140
in particular.
is
generally
One
of the most spectacular sequences in Mary Poppins chimney sweeps' dance, set on the rooftops of London
is
the
Walt Disney's position
in the
pantheon of movie greats
almost entirely from the imagination and art
vitality
of animation. But he was also a very practical
that the kind of operation he ran required a
results
he brought to the
man who knew
sound financial base.
Live-action production has been vital to the fiscal health of the organization. Without these films there might have been no later
animated features— perhaps no Disneyland and no Walt Disney World.
142
4.
The Magic Kingdom*...
Beyond Film: Disneyland
13
and Walt Disney World Disneyland grew from an idea that had beem maturing in Disney's head for fifteen or twenty years before it became a physical reality.
When
his
daughters were young, he would take them
amusement parks and playgrounds, and he
to local
said later that those
often unsatisfying visits triggered the notion that a park could be
devised which would be as entertaining for adults as for their children.
Shortly after the war. Disney's doctor suggested that he find
some
leisure activity that
would give him
pressures of running the Studio,
if
a
chance
to
escape the
only for an hour or two a day.
Disney had always loved railroads, and this interest was now fanned by the discovery that two of his top animators were already serious railway buffs.
remembers "I told
One
of these was Ollie Johnston,
who
the beginnings of Disney's enthusiasm:
him
I
was building
a steam engine.
He
said,
'You are?
always wanted a backyard railroad myself.' So he came out
where we were building mine,
in
his.
They
started building
it
He came out two how he was going to
Santa Monica.
or three times and he started to get ideas on build
I
to
here in the shop, several months
He had this keen setup around his yard with about half a mile of track. He had a real nice thing with a tunnel— it went under his wife's flower garden and he made her sign a contract that said he could put the track there. He had all kinds of bridges and things for later.
it
too.
"We'd work on one of my 'Hey,
I
it
here at the Studio sometimes. I'd be working
and he'd say. found out where they keep the hardwood.' So he'd where I could find some nice scraps of lumber. He built a
think
show me
at
cars, out there in the carpenter's shop,
I
beautiful, old-fashioned headlight for his engine,
and he built all and boxcars. Walt was good with his hands. Roger Brodie was head of the shop then and he kind of guided Walt the cars— cattle cars
along.
overleaf:
at
Walt Disney World,
Florida, Cinderella's Castle
centerpiece of the Magic
is
the
Kingdom
in
"The next thing you know. Walt was thinking about putting a around here, at the Studio. There was a guy in Los Gatos who had some engines that were used in the 1915 Pan American Fair in San Francisco, and Walt was thinking of buying those. Then he got to thinking there wasn't enough room here and before long there was a Disneyland." railroad
145
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iiras
-*«Si£> "'-'m&i
When 1955.
Disneyland opened
in
was surrounded
it
by orange groves
It's
a
Small World:
one of the most
popular
attractions at both Disneyland
and Walt Disney World
In
1952,
initials
of his
Disney
set
own name)
WED consisted, at
first,
WED
up an organization called to
begin planning the park
of a handful of designers, mostly co-opted
men who
from the Disney animation department. They were understood
(the
in earnest.
how Disney worked and
they were well equipped to
and models were made for an as yet and part of the impact of Disneyland may well
interpret his ideas. Plans
unchosen
site,
was planned
derive from the fact that
it
dream interpreted by
own
his
this
way— with
Walt's
and no attention paid to As the park began to take
artists
potential topographical limitations.
shape on paper, the Stanford Research Institute was called find a site within the greater Los Angeles area.
acres of orange groves in
Anaheim,
to the
They
settled
in to
on 160
south of Los Angeles,
which seemed suitable for a number of reasons. Disney's overall concept for the park has
which has proved extremely
defining the perimeter of the park, with right at the entrance. to pass
down Main
Once
its
its
main
station situated
would have
Street— a reproduction of the heart of a small
Midwestern town such
148
kind of logic,
past the station, the visitor
as
Disney himself might have known
boy. Entered from a small square on which a station
own
effective. His plan called for a railroad
town
were situated. Main Street was calculated
hall to
and
as a
a fire
correspond
with one of the archetypes of the American imagination.
provide an operating base for than that,
it
would
would be put than
less
many
establish the right
in a receptive state
to
life-size,
It
was
to
of the concessions, but. more
ambiance, so that
visitors
would be
slightly
of mind.
scale
Its
enhance the sense of friendliness and would be available— trams and horse-
intimacy. Transportation
drawn streetcars— but people on by the imposing edifice
Street
Castle— the
likes
foot at
would be drawn down Main far
its
end— Sleeping
Beauty's
of which has seldom been seen in any Midwestern
town.
would be important
It
keep people moving
to
Disney had an expression which voiced
his
regard: "You've got to have a wienie at the
in the park,
philosophy
end of every
in
and this
street."
Translated into practical terms, this meant that his planners had to
provide a sequence of visual magnets that would keep drawing
on to the next attraction. Situated at the hub of the park, the would be the biggest of these magnets, and all paths would
visitors
castle
converge on the
A feature
traffic circle
visitor
who
would
find himself,
immediately
in front
of
it.
followed a clockwise route from first
of
all, in
Frontierland, then in Fantasyland, and finally in (other possibilities, such as Holiday
this central
Adventureland. next
Land and
in
Tomorrowland
Lilliputian Land,
were considered, then abandoned). Each of these areas would have a specific
atmosphere appropriate
and references
to
to
name. Disney characters
its
Disney movies would be found throughout the
park. It
was
a
good plan.
which was new An
aerial
view of Walt Disney World's Main Street
to this
It
had a sense of structure and continuity it capitalized fully on
kind of enterprise, and
the established Disney image. Everything
had been thoughtfully
considered and imaginatively developed.
Disneyland was opened on July
hand
to
17, 1955.
Television crews were on
record the opening ceremonies, and thirty thousand guests
thronged Main Street and explored the farthest reaches of the
complex. Millions more saw the opening on their entertainment
facility
had ever enjoyed
this
home screens. No
kind of publicity, and
Disneyland became a national phenomenon overnight. Crowds
came 18
flocking through the gate— more than a million between July
and September
complete
30,
and almost four million during
the
first
fiscal year.
Disneyland soon became a regular stopping-off place for
all
kinds of foreign dignitaries. Walt Disney had built the Versailles of the twentieth century— but
it
was
a Versailles designed for the
pleasure of the people. At the time of its inauguration course, quite the dense
complex
that
we
it
find today.
was not. of As yet. no
Monorail had been installed, no New Orleans Square divided Adventureland from Frontierland, and many of the most popular
150
rides
were not even
in the
planning stage.
What
existed
was an
unusual and agreeable environment suitable for further expansion but already providing novel entertainments for both children and adults.
Apart from the originality of
designed are the
The
like a
same
movie
lot.
skills that
difference
is
its
plan,
what makes Disneyland
from other amusement parks
radically different
The
went
that a set
skills that
into
may
Main
the fact that
it is
go into building film
sets
Street
is
and Frontierland. open onto
consist of facades that
nothing, whereas Disneyland's streets are punctuated by doors that give access to rides, entertainments, stores,
The
and restaurants.
success of Disneyland had persuaded Disney that a second
He wanted his new park to serve the Eastern and Florida offered the best environment. Its climate-like of southern California— would permit year-round operation,
park was desirable. states,
that
and the
state attracts
over twenty million tourists annually.
More
than three-quarters of these visitors travel by automobile, and as many pass through central Florida. And. because the vast majority
of Florida vacationers are from east of the Rockies, the two parks
would not be in direct competition. Disney was not the kind of man who could be satisfied with merely repeating himself, and he conceived his new project as far more than just another Disneyland. It would be a complete vacationland, cushioned from the outside world, providing hotel
accommodations and camp sites as well activities, from boating to birdwatching
as all kinds of recreational to golf.
The
project
would
also include an industrial park designed to showcase American
and a small community— Lake Buena Vista-which would homes and permanent residences. More ambitiously, EPCOT-an experimental prototype community of business,
Walt Disney World's Crystal Palace alass-and-steel structure
is
a spectacular
include both vacation
tomorrow— became said, "It will take
part of the plan. Speaking of
its
EPCOT
Disney
cue from the new ideas of new technologies
emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems." It would be, he said, a place where "people actually live a life
In
they can't find anywhere else in the world today." Disney representatives obtained control of a large
1964.
area straddling the line separating Orange and Osceola counties in Florida. Surveying his property from the air, Disney
central
decided that the shores of Bay Lake-its largest natural body of water-was the spot to begin Phase One of the development, and the practicality of this choice
was borne out by detailed
studies.
He
died six months before the earth-moving equipment arrived at the of Phase One down site, but he had already supervised the planning to the last detail
ment of
the
and
laid
down
general principles for the develop-
whole property.
151
As scheduled. Walt Disney World was opened bv Roy Disne) in
October. 1971.
Long before he began
to build
collector of mechanical possibility
Disneyland, Walt Disney had been a
and these suggested
toys,
him
to
of finding a three-dimensional equivalent for the
the
of
art
screen animation. In the mid-forties he began to experiment with
Ken Anderson worked secretly with him Then films were made of Buddv Ebsen dance routines, and Disney engineers (whom he later rebaptized "Imagineers") made a small model of Ebsen which mechanical puppets, and to devise
some
reproduced
theatrical settings.
movements with reasonable
his
was mounted beneath
figure
a
The
faithfulness.
proscenium arch above a large
console, giving the whole the appearance of a sinister
Punch and
Judy show, the kind of thing Boris Karloff might have toyed with
some
in
still
in
epic of the macabre. At this time, the electronics industry was its
vacuum
and the console had
infancy,
tubes as well as
many
to
house cumbersome
purely mechanical elements— fly
wheels and escape mechanisms— with which a clockmaker would be quite familiar.
The console was programed by something closely strip of paper, punched with
resembling a piano roll— a long From
a technological point of view, the
Hall of Presidents, in Walt Disney World. is
probably the most sophisticated
patterns of holes,
which looped through
required responses.
The Ebsen puppet worked, but
was too clumsy
to suggest
lay neglected, but
attraction Disney engineers have yet built.
years
Featuring
Walt Disney World. Later,
lifelike full-scale figures
every American president,
speech given by
its
of
highlight
is
a
it
in the
Abraham Lincoln
round
practical,
it
it
and triggered the machinery
the
any immediate application; has
now been
for
many
restored for an exhibit at
solid-state technology
made animation
and Disney engineers developed puppets
controlled by what they called "audio-animatronics."
The birds
first
audio-animatronic models
made were some
exotic
which eventually formed the basis of Disneyland's Tiki
Room. The birds, perched among tropical vegetation, put on a little show for visitors, singing and cracking jokes. It was not until 1964. at the
New
York World's
Fair, that the full potential of audio-ani-
matronics was revealed to the public. Disney contributed a
number
Motor Company's "Magic Skyway," General Electric's "Progressland," and Pepsi-Cola's "It's a Small World" (the last adapted for both Anaheim and Orlando). The most impressive exhibit, however, was "Great Moments with of attractions, including the
Ford
Mr. Lincoln," which Disney prepared for the Visitors
were confronted with a
the nation's sixteenth
president,
Illinois pavilion.
startlinglv lifelike facsimile of
who
rose from
his chair
and
addressed his latter-day countrymen. Lincoln not only talked, he
emphasized
his
thoughts with naturalistic gestures and his eyes
raked the audience as though challenging opponents to debate. shifted his weight
from one foot
to the
changed with the sense of his words. He almost seemed
The impact was
152
extraordinary.
He
other and his expression to breathe.
WED engineers
programing
Walt Disney World's Mickey Mouse Review
The complexity of
the
audio-animatronic figures can be judged from these
photographs taken
at
WED
during the preparation of characters for the Country
Bear Jamboree
This success was not easily won. Indeed, only a few months Lincoln it had seemed that The Lincoln figure was very complex problems. The President smashed his
before the opening of the pavilion
would never be ready
in time.
and posed serious control
chair and threw mechanical
men working on
fits
that threatened the safety of the
him. But Disney was determined that the figure be
ready in time, and eventually the power was harnessed.
Equally sophisticated audio-animatronic figures are
many
tured in
attractions at both Disneyland
now
fea-
and Walt Disney
World. Pirates of the Caribbean, the Mickey Mouse Review, and both Haunted Mansions offer good examples, but perhaps the most
Walt Disney World's Hall of
successful ones are to be found in
Presidents and at the Country Bear Jamboree, versions of which
have been installed
in
both parks.
Years of experience taught the Disney artists
sense of reality
is
in
the field of screen animation have
how
to use
movement
with economy.
often best transmitted by suppressing
A
move-
ment—for example, a character may express surprise more effectively by raising an eyebrow than by throwing up his hands. It is such knowledge that has made audio-animatronics so valuable an asset to the parks, for without
into these figures
Animation
is
it,
the engineering skill that goes
all
would be wasted.
the most completely controlled form of film-making
imaginable. As
we have seen
preplanned. Nothing
is
left to
in
earlier chapters, everything
temperament of
the
is
stars, to the
day-to-day inspirations of director and cameraman, or to the vagaries of light
and weather. Disneyland and Walt Disney World
conform to the princimaking his animated films. All the elements of a movie must be made to complement each other— and this criterion was adapted in designing the parks. The movie influence is most obvious within the context of individual attractions. The Haunted Mansion, for example, presents us with an example of a ride that unfolds in time in exactly the same way a motion picture does. A movie transports an audience from point A to point Z by means of a carefully structured sequence of visual devices— the camera following the action and the audience traveling with the camera. The camera is, in other words, a moving vehicle which carries the viewer through the plot. In the Haunted are controlled environments engineered to ples
Disney had developed
Mansion, as
in
many other
in
attractions at the parks, another kind of
vehicle— a car that runs on rails— is substituted for the camera. The visitor
is first
ushered into a gothic lobby where he finds himself,
along with a hundred other people, surrounded by sinister portraits.
A
disembodied voice
lights are
planned
154
issues a
few words of warning, then the
extinguished and the show begins with a teaser— a device to set the
atmosphere and
to
draw
the viewer into the
unfolding situation. The floor begins to drop and a body suddenly appears, hanging from the ceiling high above.
The sinking
immediately establishes a sense of insecurity, but
it
floor
has the added
down to a basement level them through the rest of the
practical purpose of bringing visitors
where they board the cars
that take
show. These cars carry the guests through a sequence of spooky
new kind of phenomenon (to describe these would be unfair to The cars, each wired for stereo sound, are built in
environments, each of which exposes them to a "supernatural" future riders).
such a way that the rider can see only what him. Each car
is
directly in front of
on a swivel so that it can be turned, by electronic signals, to face just what the designer wants it to face at any particular moment. In this sense, then, it is used exactly like a is
movie camera. The rider
is traveling through a programed show The choice of where to look is not his to has already been made by the designer, who determines
which unfolds
make— it what
will
in time.
be seen, just as a director determines what the movie
patron will see. This degree of control certain
rides,
is,
of course, limited to
but everything in the parks
is
touched by the
motion-picture expertise of the Disney organization. Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, with delicate wrought-ironwork,
is
its
designed
Just as the
"theme" parks deal
in
everything from nostalgia to
to
blend with the architecture of adjacent
space technology, so their transportation systems represent a wide
New
variety of types
Orleans Square
and
eras.
Main
Street
is
horse-drawn vehicles, yet a short walk
served by tram cars and
will take
you
to a stream-
The engines and rolling stock of the railroad circling the park conjure up the golden age of steam, but the People Mover that runs through Tomorrowland is a silent, electrically lined Monorail.
powered product
that belongs entirely to the second half of the
twentieth century. Other kinds of transport— from cable cars to
complex network made all the is so far removed from the mass-transit systems we are accustomed to in the "real" world. The investment made in each of the major attractions at the boats— abound, meshed into
river
more
satisfying
by the
a
fact that
it
parks exceeds the budget of any Broadway show. This possible by the fact that as forty to
so
one
thousand people
ride alone
in a single day.
many people— of
all
which has
its
own
The
made many
necessity of appealing
the character of the attractions. are
aimed
at a specific
segment of
well-defined needs and interests.
Disney designers do not have the luxury of trying tastes
is
be enjoyed by as
and from every imaginable
ages
background— clearly determines Most films or stage performances the population
may
to satisfy the
of only one group— their entertainments must appeal to
everyone, and this
means
that they
must work with universal con-
cepts.
Several attractions— Main Street, Frontierland,
New
Orleans
Square, and Liberty Square— capitalize on nostalgia, a sentiment to
which everyone responds
to
some degree.
Its
opposite, the concept
155
in Walt Disney World, reproduces the quiet
Liberty Square,
elegance of an American colonial town
The wrought
iron
and engraved
glass of Disneyland's
Orleans Square
New
illustrates the
great care taken in reproducing architectural styles for the parks
of progress,
embodied
is
Tomorrowland. The Jungle Ride, the
in
Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House, and Pirates of the Caribbean all
Haunted Mansion
exploit a yearning for the exotic, while the
and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attempt confront the unknown.
One
and explain
in
its
appeal
common
response
to
terms of some instinctive or emotional all
of
us.
"common
factor" does not encourage
the designers to indulge in intellectual subtleties, but for a fascinating series of archetypal experiences.
may broaden
them
it
A
does make
great film or
the horizons of thousands of people, introducing
to fresh ideas or
deepening
their
The Disney parks have
condition.
to
could take every feature of the parks
almost
This emphasis on the
play
our urge
to satisfy
understanding of the
a very different goal.
human
They
are
designed to satisfy the existing imaginative appetites of tens of millions of
men, women, and children.
For years, Disneyland was an object of scorn circles.
Many
vulgarity
people
and
its
who had never
in architectural
disregard of textbook precepts. Those
the trouble to experience
discover that Disneyland
at First
it
deplored
visited the park
who did
hand were often surprised
worked— worked
at the
its
take to
very basic level of
being a compact architectural complex which could efficiently
handle up At Walt Disney World, the streamlined
Monorail glides past Cinderella's Castle
to fifty
thousand people a day. While they paid grudging
and admitted
tribute to Disney's multilayer transportation system,
was rather innovative, the most
that the park
that the majority of
planners and architects were prepared to say was that Dis-
city
neyland was a happy accident.
Walt Disney World proved
less
easy to dismiss, and in fact
rapidly attracted a good deal of favorable interest. Taking advantage of the experience gained in developing the to
plan
entire
the
organization
complex from
came up with
start
to
first
park,
and able
the
finish,
Disney
solutions to urban-planning problems
to those that had been proposed in and publications around the world, but had never been put into practice. Disney and his assistants were in a position to implement them. Other planners, hobbled by more
that
were remarkably similar
architectural schools
conservative clients, watched with considerable envy.
The turning
first
difficulty the
swamps
Disney team had
to face
into building sites without falling
was
that of
back on the
expedient of draining the entire area— an unfortunate practice,
commonplace
in
Florida for
fifty
years or more, that had disastrous
on the equilibrium of nature. Disney insisted that his planners find a way of creating adequate sites without upsetting the
effects
ecological balance.
From
the outset one large
area— 7.500 acres-was
set aside as a
nature preserve. This tract of swamp and hardwood forest has been
kept it,
158
in its virgin state (only a
hunting for
alligators,
few poachers have ever ventured into
which are
plentiful enough),
and
it is
the
home
of a variety of rare native wildlife, including what are
believed to be the the public,
and
last
team of resident
surviving Florida black bears.
untouched character
its
scientists,
Audubon Society. Had Disney decided because the change
in
drainage was
practice and drain his would have been impossible, would have altered the terrain
water level
ground wherever possible. necessary, but
still
closed to
common
to follow
irrevocably. Instead, he listened to the best advice existing high
It is
carefully protected by a
aided by such organizations as the
property, such a preserve
entire
is
was kept
it
A
and made use of
certain
amount of
minimum and
to a
the
water table of the remainder of the forty-three square miles was protected by an elaborate system of levees and sluice gates.
Within
framework, extraordinary individual
this overall
feats
of engineering were undertaken. Without disturbing the surround-
pumped
ing landscape, a 200-acre lake was
enough white sand
dry,
bed was moved up to the shoreline to provide beautiful beaches, and islands were constructed and planted with palm trees. from
its
Then
was
the lake
with clear water free of the dense
refilled
concentration of tannic acid that had discolored the original water.
Thus, a murky Central Florida lake was transformed into some-
more
thing that looked The Monorail emerges from the vast lobby of Walt Disney World's
Another
like a
Micronesian lagoon.
lake, almost as large,
A-frame Contemporary Hotel vicinity of these bodies of
was
entirely
manmade;
in the
water the major architectural develop-
ments have been placed.
Magic Kingdom— the chief entertainment area World— may imagine they are walking on solid
Visitors to the
of Walt Disney
ground, but they are like the flight
Castle,
in fact
promenading on a
deck of an aircraft
and most of the major
Thirty feet below
is
carrier.
gigantic
Main
attractions are built
a kind of gigantic
deck— rather
Street, Cinderella's
on
this
basement— actually
deck.
the true
ground level— which consists of a vast network of corridors wide
enough
to drive trucks
through, offices, repair shops, kitchens,
restaurants for employees, the world's largest
ment, and a
hundred other
development, space for
all
things.
In
would have
these
wardrobe depart-
more conventional
a
to
be provided
surface level. At Walt Disney World, supplies can be
one spot
to
another without
visitors to the
at
moved from
park seeing a single
delivery vehicle. All along the corridors, at ceiling height, are tubes
which are part of a sophisticated garbage disposal system. Waste material, deposited at various terminals throughout the park, is sucked through these pipes and disposed of by a nonpolluting incinerator. Walt Disney World also has a very advanced sewage treatment plant;
it
makes use of
further purify waste water once
living trees
it
and other plants
to
has been treated mechanically
and chemically. Also
in the service
basement
is
a
computer center
that controls
159
almost
the mechanical
all
components of
the
Magic Kingdom.
from the most elaborate of the audio-animatronic exhibits
to the
tape recorders that provide music for the lobbies of the nearby hotels.
These
hotels,
A-frame "Contemporary," the
the dramatic
flashier "Polynesian."
and
a smaller hotel built alongside
one of the
golf courses, are assembled entirely from prefabricated steel-frame
manufactured near the
units
plant set
site in a
up by
the United
Each unit is slotted into place, fully wired and with all its plumbing and other services already
States Steel Corporation. for electricity installed.
The
The
sides.
Magic Kingdom by
hotels are linked to the
Monorail, which
Alweg all
Walt Disney World allowed Disney to indulge transportation systems more freely than was possible
scale of
his interest in
Disneyland, and their efficiency
in
the
providing spectacular views on
skirts the lakes,
is
startling— whether one rides
the Monorail, the futuristic-looking friction-drive People Mover, or a
paddle steamer out of the world of Mark Twain.
Each of the individual innovations at Walt Disney World if transplanted to a new housing development or shopping
would,
center,
provoke considerable interest and comment. More remarkhowever— more remarkable than the
able than any one thing,
whole catalogue of experiments— is the overall concept, the Disney master plan.
end of his life, Walt Disney— the man who started tell funny stories with animated rabbits and mice— began to think seriously about our environment and wondering what he could do to improve it. This seems to have been the
Toward
the
out by trying to
real
motivation behind Walt Disney World. Disney did not have an
overwhelming desire
to repeat
himself by building another enter-
end, devised to give Disney a chance to try out
mind. What he looked forward
their
way
into his
more than anything
else
was the planning of
been crowding
tal
Community of Tomorrow)— a
Prototype
be twenty-five years ahead of It
would be naive
an answer
to
to
old means to a new some ideas that had
Kingdom was an
tainment complex. The Magic
its
EPCOT
city that
to
(Experimen-
would always
time.
suppose that Walt Disney World provides
our problems.
It
is
not a real city— in the sense of
Chicago or even Orlando-but it is a valuable testing ground and many of the systems that have already been proven there could be used to improve the quality of our everyday life. Even if EPCOT is
Walt Disney World
never
built,
many
valuable pointers.
It
is
will
have given urban planners
too soon to pass any final historical
Disney World, but we can say that
it
judgment on Walt last and most
was the
audacious flowering of an extraordinary imagination.
160
Portland House Distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc. 225 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10003 America Jacket printed in the United States of
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ISBN 0-517-bbM7M-?
