28th Mar 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#49 The Princess and the Frog (2009)

BACKGROUND

Every decade or so, Disney Animation either grabs the public and the critics’ attentions, or it does the opposite. In the 1990s, Disney Animation potentially had its most fruitful decade of them all, churning out hit after hit for a number of years, from The Little Mermaid in 1989, to The Lion King in 1994, and ending on Tarzan in 1999.

In the 2000s, Disney went away from making its fairy-tale or musical movie and went full force into making non-musical comedy movies. Some of these worked and others did not. And after the box-office failure of Treasure Planet in 2002, Disney swore off making any more 2D hand-drawn animated movies and went straight into computer animation in a bid to compete with other studios like Pixar and DreamWorks.

After a change of management, and the acquisition of Pixar in 2006, finally in 2009, we got a proper fairy-tale animated musical from Disney. The Princess and the Frog was meant to herald a much-anticipated return to Disney’s typical 2D hand-drawn animation style, after the box-office bomb in 2004 of its “final” 2D animation film Home on the Range, and a run of disappointing CGI-reliant movies.

Sadly, The Princess and the Frog didn’t quite do enough to cement the future of hand-drawn animation and after the remake of Winnie the Pooh in 2011, the Walt Disney Company have not yet returned to this medium for a full-length feature film. Though The Princess and the Frog made a decent profit at the box-office, it wasn’t anything compared to the big Disney hits of the 1990s and it also drew a fair amount of criticism.

I personally love The Princess and the Frog, and went back to the cinema to see Disney films again from this point. My family had watched Brother Bear in 2003, skipped Home on the Range in 2004, saw Chicken Little in 2005, and then missed the remainder. When we heard that Disney were ditching their recent CGI format and returning to a hand-drawn animated fairy tale, emulating the hits of the “Disney Renaissance” period in the 1990s, we were all on board – and we weren’t disappointed.

But apparently, we were in the minority and in some way, The Princess and the Frog has been somewhat under-appreciated by many, being compared less favourably to the Disney hit animated films that came after it, such as Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013), which went back to the musical fairy-tale format, but only used computers.

However, thanks to its catchy soundtrack and lovable characters, plus the reveal of Disney’s first Black princess, The Princess and the Frog has still managed to claim a place in Disney Animation history, and continues to be referenced within the Disney theme parks, something that many of Disney’s earlier animated films have actually not managed to do.

PLOT

The Princess and the Frog follows the story of Tiana, who we first see as she sits in a beautiful pink bedroom with her mother, Eudora, and her friend, Charlotte, or Lottie. Eudora is making Charlotte a brand-new dress as she reads the story The Frog Prince to them. This is Charlotte’s house, well, her father’s mansion. “Big Daddy” La Bouff dotes over his daughter, and Eudora is hired to make her princess dresses. Then, it’s time for Tiana and Eudora to go home, where Tiana’s father, James, has got home from work. Him and Tiana get to work on making gumbo for dinner and decide to share it with all their neighbours. Tiana and her father want to own a restaurant together so they can always make food for others and share their gift. But Eudora and James both tell Tiana that wishing on stars is great, but that it can only take her part of the way, and that hard work will make that dream come true. Tiana wishes on the evening star – and then sees a frog and runs away terrified!

Many years later, Tiana is now all grown up, but her father has since died, and Tiana is working flat out to save up enough money to buy her restaurant so she can see the dream through that her father now unfortunately cannot be a part of. This means that she has forgone all the normalities of a teenage life, like going out with friends, or flirting with boys. Charlotte barrels into the diner that Tiana works out and tells her father that at their ball that evening, she wants to try to convince Prince Naveen of Maldonia, a prince visiting New Orleans to find a rich bride, to marry her because she’s always wanted to be a princess. Lottie wants to pay Tiana to supply them with plenty of her “man-catching beignets”, and now Tiana finally has enough money for a deposit to buy the old mill where she plans to set up her restaurant. She plans to sign the papers with the Fenner Brothers, real estate agents, at Lottie’s ball that evening.

However, just as she is ready to sign the paperwork, she finds she was outbid for the property. Devasted, and after a mishap at the buffet table that sees her costume ruined, Tiana finds herself in Lottie’s room in one of Lottie’s ballgowns feeling absolutely lost. Desperate, she finds herself wishing on the evening star to make things turn out right. At this point, she sees a frog next to her. It wasn’t her wish at all, so Tiana jokingly asks it if it wants a kiss – as per the story of The Frog Prince – but shockingly, he answers her, saying “kissing would be nice”. Again, Tiana runs away afraid and starts throwing things at the talking frog, who claims to be the visiting Prince Naveen of Maldonia. Tiana doesn’t think that can be true as she just saw Lottie dancing with the human Prince Naveen. The frog can’t explain that but says, in exchange for a kiss, he can give her untold riches, whatever she wants. Tiana then decides to kiss him out of desperation, but as she is not a princess, just dressed as one, the spell backfires and Tiana becomes a frog too.

The two frogs end up in the bayou after causing a stir at the party, and must find their way back so they can get the spell reversed, as Naveen has got himself into this mess by talking to the “shadow man” and getting cursed with his voodoo magic. The “shadow man”, Dr. Facilier, has actually turned Naveen’s valet, Lawrence, into Naveen in a bid to take all of Big Daddy’s fortune, by ensuring the marriage to Lottie goes ahead. And once it has, Dr. Facilier will kill Big Daddy with a voodoo doll. It’s all quite sinister! But as they need Naveen’s blood to ensure the spell continues to hide Lawrence’s true identity, they need that frog back, so Dr. Facilier sends his shadowy “friends on the other side” to go and retrieve him.

Soon, the frogs meet a trumpet-playing alligator called Louis, who means to take them to Mama Odie, the bayou’s voodoo priestess, to get the curse reversed. He also wants to be human so he can play with the bands of New Orleans and hopes Mama Odie can do this for him. But on their way there, the trio meet Ray, a firefly, he tells them they are going the wrong way. Ray takes them to Mama Odie instead, using all of his family and friends’ lights to lead the way in the night. After dodging frog hunters together, and learning about each other’s backgrounds, Naveen and Tiana start to get along. Tiana thought he was just a spoilt brat of a prince who has never had to do anything for himself, and Naveen called Tiana “a stick in the mud”, but they put their differences aside to get to Mama Odie. They also learn about Ray’s true love, Evangeline. She is the Evening Star, but no-one lets on to Ray, who believes she is a firefly that is just very far away.

When they finally reach Mama Odie, who defeats the “friends on the other side” who have found Naveen in the bayou and plan to drag him back to Dr. Facilier, she tries to encourage them to think about what they need, and not what they want, but they don’t really listen, only wanting to not be frogs anymore. Mama Odie informs them that Lottie will be the Princess of Mardi Gras today, but only for the day, so if she can kiss Naveen before midnight, then they will both turn back into humans. Sadly, Mama Odie cannot do anything about Louis’ situation, so he stays an alligator…

They set off back to New Orleans on a riverboat, where Louis gets to play with a local band as they believe he is simply dressed as a gator for Mardi Gras. Despite Naveen’s newfound love for Tiana, and hers for him, he plans to marry Lottie as planned, to get Tiana the money for her restaurant, something she desperately wants. But he is captured on the riverboat by the shadows, and the others cannot find him when they dock in New Orleans. Then, they see him – on top of one of the Mardi Gras parade floats with Lottie, where the two are about to get married. Tiana is heartbroken and runs off. Ray tries to tell her about Naveen’s love for her, but she won’t listen and angrily tells Ray to stop thinking about Evangeline, because she is just a star and the two can never be together. Ray refuses to believe this and goes to figure out what is going on. Ray soon returns to Tiana to explain that he has figured out that Naveen on the float is not the real Naveen at all, and that Naveen is still a frog, hence why Tiana is also still a frog. Ray finds that a talisman is controlling the spell and tries to help Tiana destroy it – but he is squished by Dr. Facilier; one of the worst sounds I’ve ever heard in film…

Despite Facilier almost tricking Tiana into believing he will help her get her restaurant if she returns the talisman to him, Tiana does destroy it, saying that her father may not have got what he wanted, but that he had what he needed – love – and that she won’t sell her soul to get her dream. As the talisman shatters, Dr. Facilier is dragged to the underworld by his “friends on the other side” as payment for his plan failing. He is defeated. Tiana then runs to Naveen who is telling Lottie the full story of how he and Tiana became frogs, as they see Lawrence being arrested for his trickery on Lottie. But the story is a lot to take in, and Lottie wants to check the plan – that she will give Tiana the money for her restaurant, if Naveen agrees to marry her. Tiana comes in to say she’d rather be with Naveen than have her restaurant. Charlotte is so moved by the story that she says she’ll kiss Naveen for Tiana, “no marriage required”. All this has taken too long though, and the clock strikes midnight. Lottie tries to kiss Naveen, but it does not work. Tiana and Naveen don’t mind too much as they have each other. Louis comes over to them to show them that Ray is dying. With his last breath, he says he is glad the two are staying together as frogs. The trio then lay Ray to rest. In one of the most touching moments in any Disney movie, we find that Ray has become a star, a star that appears right next to the love of his life, Evangeline.

Tiana and Naveen decide to get married, and the ceremony is officiated by none other than Mama Odie. As Tiana becomes a princess by marrying Naveen, their first kiss as a married couple breaks the spell, and they two have a real human wedding back in New Orleans. Using their new friend Louis, the Fenner Brothers then allow Tiana to buy the mill with her original deposit and Tiana and Naveen renovate the whole place. Tiana’s Palace then opens and everyone lives happily ever after down in New Orleans.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Tiana is a hard-working woman, determined to open up a restaurant. Despite the others in town thinking she can’t do it, a restaurant being too much for “a woman of [her] background”, she works harder than anyone can possibly imagine to make sure she gets her dream, for her and her father. Unlike most fairy tales, that tell us that wishing on stars can make all your dreams come true, The Princess and the Frog doesn’t tell us that – and Tiana’s parents are the ones to say that actually wishing is fine, but if not for hard work and determination, then those dreams can’t come true. From this point, Tiana’s sole focus is on getting her restaurant, and making something of herself. Tiana is therefore a very different Disney princess. She is proactive, and is almost cynical about love and magic. Even the 90s princesses of Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine are not like this, although they are more progressive than Disney’s earlier princesses, like Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. Mark Henn was the supervising animator for Tiana, as he had been for Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine, but it is clear how proud he was to animate such a strong, female character like Tiana, knowing that Disney Princesses were being brought into the modern age. Tiana sets the standard for the Disney movies to come, because, from this point on, all the female lead characters have more on their minds than just love, and are quite independent. Just look at Rapunzel, or Anna, or Elsa, or Moana, or Mirabel. Tiana is also the first Black Disney princess, showing Disney’s attempt at including more diverse representation in their films, and she is the first Disney Princess to have a paying job, and to then become a business owner. She is a great role model for children watching this film, for all kinds of reasons.

Anika Noni Rose was selected to voice Tiana, and she was incredibly enthusiastic about the character, even wanting Tiana to be left-handed, like her. Mark Henn agreed to do this. The animators were very pleased with her voice work, as she brought warmth and humour to the character. Her singing is another highlight of her casting[1]. Anika Noni Rose is perhaps most known for her performance as Lorell in the movie musical Dreamgirls (2006), alongside Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé Knowles. I recently saw this film and it was amazing, all three leads were stunning. Outside of this though, Anika Noni Rose has starred in Broadway productions such as Caroline, or Change from 2003 to 2004, where she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun in 2014, where she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Anika won the Black Reel Award for Best Voice Performance in 2010 for her role as Tiana, and she continues to return to voice the character for Disney.

Then, there’s Naveen, the handsome, charming Prince of Maldonia. Naveen doesn’t have much else on his mind apart from women and music! And that’s why his parents have cut him off and he’s been forced to come to New Orleans to marry Miss Charlotte La Bouff so he can be rich again. Naveen seems to not care about being useful to society, and he has no idea how to look after himself, having had servants do everything for him his whole life. It’s quite sad when he mentions this to Tiana, when they are cooking gumbo in the bayou and Naveen has been given the task of “mincing the mushrooms”. But Tiana helps him learn how to do normal tasks, and he in turn teaches her how to have some fun every once in a while. Naveen is very funny though, and he doesn’t have any idea that he’s not being useful at times. I love the part when Tiana has fashioned them a raft, seemingly out of nothing, to get their frog selves back to New Orleans, and she asks him for a little help, so Naveen decides to just play his twig ukulele a bit louder. He’s one of a kind, and it’s good that Disney have made it so the princess saves the prince, instead of the other way around by making him a bit of a useless figure, who needs saving quite often! He is one of my favourite Disney Princes. Brazilian actor Bruno Campos voices Naveen. He had previously starred in the sitcom Jesse (1998-2000), alongside Christina Applegate, as Diego Vasquez, and in the medical drama Nip/Tuck (2003-10) from 2004 to 2005 as Quentin Costa. Campos also returns to Disney to reprise his voice role as Naveen when required.

Next, there are the two animal sidekicks: trumpet-playing alligator, Louis, and Cajun firefly, Ray. You’re made to love them as the four set off through the bayou to break Tiana and Naveen’s frog spell; they’re just so likeable. Louis has dreams of playing in bands with other humans, and Ray longs to be with his love, Evangeline. They are funny sidekicks, who have some great moments, like Ray having to pick out all those pricker bush spikes out of Louis’ body – nice. They are also confidants to Tiana and Naveen, as they try to figure out their feelings for each other. I like Louis, because he’s bubbly, and a very talented trumpet player. He is voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley. Wooley has continued to do voice work for television shows, like Trolls: TrollsTopia (2020-22) as Lownote Jones, and video games, like Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Grand Theft Auto V (2013), as well as reprising the role of Louis when needed. Michael-Leon Wooley also has numerous stage credits, appearing in Broadway shows such as the revival of The Music Man in 2000 as Olin Britt and as the voice of the man-eating plant Audrey II in the 2003 revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

But of these two sidekicks, Ray is my favourite, because he’s so sweet and he’s very loyal to the group. Ray unfortunately has one of the most tragic endings to any sidekick, as he is squished under Dr. Facilier’s foot – deliberately, I might add – and the sound it makes is awful. However, though he does die, we see near to the end of the film, that he comes back as a star, appearing right next to his love, Evangeline. Can I have a tissue, please? Ray is voiced by Jim Cummings, the man behind many beloved Disney characters, including Winnie the Pooh since 1988 and Tigger since 1989.

Then, there is Dr. Facilier. Finally, Disney made a good villain again, after so many years of waiting and not getting one! And then didn’t make many more after that… Anyway, Dr. Facilier, also known as “the shadow man”, is a witch doctor, specialising in voodoo. As we see in the opening of the film, he spends his time conning members of the public. He uses his magic, in exchange for cash, only for it to backfire on them. Specifically, there is a bald man he sees: Facilier uses a magic powder on him, his hair grows, but then as he tries to talk to a pretty girl, he ends up with hair all over his body and she flees. Dr. Facilier wants more than he’s currently getting though, so he concocts a plan to get Mr. La Bouff’s riches. He will get someone to impersonate Prince Naveen and marry La Bouff’s daughter, and then they will split the takings. This is why he lures Naveen into his shop, so he can turn him into a frog, and get his long-underappreciated valet, Lawrence, to take his place. Dr. Facilier is evil for evil’s sake, and I like that; he doesn’t need an emotional backstory. He’s just greedy and tired of being considered lesser than the rich sugar barons of New Orleans. He’s also very stylish with his top hat and tails, and, as Naveen says, Facilier is very charismatic. Facilier also gets a great villain’s song in “Friends on the Other Side”. His demise is good too, as his “friends on the other side” come to claim him and drag him underground for not fulfilling the plan with their magic. One of the best villain demises, I think. Keith David, voice of Dr. Facilier, did a great job getting that deep, sinister voice that is perfect for a Disney villain. He also referred to his character as “a delicious bad guy”[2].

Keith David has starred in numerous roles on stage and screen. On stage, he has performed in Broadway revivals of plays like Hedda Gabler in 1994, and the Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, and Macbeth in the 1986. On screen, David has appeared in numerous films, including Armageddon (1998) as General Kimsey; Cloud Atlas (2012); Nope (2022) as Otis Haywood Sr., and in American Fiction (2023) as Willy the Wonker. David also has had a long career in voice acting. The voice of Apollo in Disney’s Hercules (1997) and The President in Rick and Morty (2015-present) are just two examples.

Opposite to Dr. Facilier is the voodoo priestess Mama Odie, who uses her powers for good, not evil. Despite seeming to be a doddery old, blind woman, Mama Odie is the wisest character in The Princess and the Frog, and ultimately resolves the curse of Tiana and Naveen, albeit not in the way they had expected! She’s caring, but also a straight talker, getting to the point quickly. Jenifer Lewis voices Mama Odie. Lewis has starred in numerous movies such as Beaches (1988) as Diva, and Sister Act (1992) and its 1993 sequel as Michelle. In television, Lewis appeared in the recurring role of Aunt Helen in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96), and as Ruby Johnson in the hugely successful sitcom Black-ish (2014-22). Lewis also provides the voice of Flo in the Cars franchise (2006-22).

Finally, there are a few minor characters to talk about. Firstly, Eudora, Tiana’s mother, who is kind and encouraging of Tiana’s dreams, but is also aware that she works too hard, and is starting to lose her sense of what’s important: family and love. Eudora is voiced by actress and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. She had been brought onto the project as a consultant initially, but was then pitched the character of Eudora, and agreed to voice her[3]. Then, there is “Big Daddy” La Bouff, a rich sugar mill owner, who is a complete pushover as a father, but very generous, and kind to everyone. He is voiced by John Goodman, but, like Eudora, does not have a big role in the movie, unfortunately. John Goodman had previously voiced other Disney and Pixar characters such as Pacha in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) and James P. Sullivan, “Sully”, in the Monsters Inc. franchise (2001-present). Another of my favourite characters is Lottie. She is like the typical Disney princess in that she longs to be married to a prince regardless of who they are! She’s a bit naïve, a bit chaotic, but she’s hilarious, and she cares about her friendship with Tiana. Her voice work by Jennifer Cody is great; I can see why she won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in 2009 for this role. Cody began her career on stage, in musicals like Gypsy and Cats.

PRODUCTION

The inspiration for The Princess and the Frog’s story came from The Frog Princess novel, by E.D. Baker and first published in 2002, which itself was based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Frog Prince. In The Frog Prince, a princess loses a golden ball down a well and the Frog Prince retrieves it for her, providing she’ll be his friend and take him to the palace. She does not and her father shames her into keeping her promise. The frog has followed her to the palace anyway, but soon the princess becomes irritated with the frog and throws it against the wall. Her grief breaks the curse and the frog becomes a prince.

In The Frog Princess novel, Princess Emma of Greater Greensward is betrothed to Prince Jorge of East Aradia, who she despises. She runs away to avoid this marriage, and ends up in the swamp where she meets Prince Eadric from Upper Montevista, but he has been turned into a frog by the witch Mudine. Emma kisses the frog to try to reverse the spell but turns into a frog herself. As they try to find the witch Mudine to reverse the spell, they find that the reason Emma turned into a frog was because she was not wearing a curse-reversal bracelet that was gifted to her by her aunt to ward off evil curses. It was randomly stolen by an otter so they go off to find it. Once the bracelet is retrieved, the two kiss again and become human. It’s quite a random story, but you can see the storyline that Disney was using as a basis for their own plot, although they made many changes, one of the biggest being that the princesses in both versions of the original story are not likeable and are very spoilt, whereas Tiana is the complete opposite[4].

Another inspiration for The Princess and the Frog was an actual New Orleans chef named Leah Chase. She was born in 1923, and one of her first jobs in New Orleans was as a waitress in the 1940s, in a restaurant in the 1940s. It was almost unheard of at this time for a young, Black woman to be working in the French Quarter area of the city, but she loved her job and getting to see the full workings of a restaurant. Leah met her husband, Dooky, in 1944, and his parents ran a sandwich shop. Leah helped to grow the business into Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. She became the head chef of the restaurant, and was given the title the “Queen of Creole Cuisine”. The Dooky Chase restaurant on the 6^th Ward of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Leah and her husband spent more than a year living in a trailer across the street, and the restaurant did not reopen until 2007. The team working on The Princess and the Frog wanted to hear all about Leah’s life so they spoke with her during their research trip to New Orleans. To begin with, Leah wasn’t sure about why Disney wanted details of her life, but she was happy to talk to them anyway. On hearing about the characters within the film, and of Disney finally debuting their first Black princess, Leah was thrilled to have been a part of it[5]. Sadly, Leah Chase died in June 2019 at the age of 96, but during her life, she received numerous honorary degrees and recognition for her culinary talent, even being inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2010. She also received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and has fed many celebrities at Dooky Chase, including the likes of presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

So, these two stories contributed to the plot of The Princess and the Frog, but how did the film actually get made? Well, the history of The Princess and the Frog began with a change in management. It would be Michael Eisner who was to be ousted as Disney CEO in 2005, after twenty-one years of employment, with countless movie releases and seven Disney theme park openings during that tenure. Many people are not fans of Michael Eisner, but I think he did great things for Disney, and he has been unfairly ridiculed in my opinion. But that’s beside the point. The reason for his departure was in part because of concerns, particularly from Roy E. Disney, that the animation department had gone into decline, and they were no longer breaking boundaries or box-office records as they had been in the 1990s. Also, around this time, it was becoming clear that former Disney Animation president, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had left the Disney company in 1994, was now doing wonders at DreamWorks, with their movies outperforming many of Disney’s in the 2000s. Bob Iger replaced Eisner and set about acquiring Pixar in 2006.

This brought in John Lasseter as the Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation. John Lasseter, though well-known for his CG work at Pixar, insisted that they go back to 2D animation, even though Disney had themselves vowed never to return to this medium after the release of Home on the Range (2004), thanks to the financial failure of Treasure Planet (2002). Pixar had actually started early work on a film set in New Orleans that was to be named The Spirit of New Orleans: A Pixar Ghost Story, which came about because of Lasseter’s liking of the city. Some of that early work was incorporated into The Princess and the Frog. Many animators had left Disney when the traditional animation departments were dissolved. Lasseter had two specific people in mind to direct this hailed return to hand-drawn animation and they were Ron Clements and John Musker, the two behind the über-successful Disney Renaissance movies, The Little Mermaid (1989) and Aladdin (1992). Let’s ignore the fact they also directed Treasure Planet…Luckily, Clements and Musker agreed to direct the movie, and many other animators, like Mark Henn and Andreas Deja, came back to the Disney Studios to work on this movie. Deja animated Mama Odie here, and had been the supervising animator for some of the best Disney villains, such as Jafar, Gaston, and Scar, Graduates of CalArts were also able to join the Disney Studios to actually do what they had studied, instead of being pushed into the computer animation department, although some elements of computer animation were used such as for the fireflies, and some vehicle wheels and doors[6].

Once the man-power was back on board, they decided to twist the typical fairy-tale style Disney were known for to make it feel new and fresh. They made the prince a ladies’ man; Mama Odie, the strange voodoo priestess who lives in a boat in a tree in the bayou, became the fairy godmother; “Big Daddy” was the king of the kingdom; and Dr. Facilier was the evil witch. They wanted to bring back the movie style that they had done so well in the 1990s, as well as the 1950s. Disney also decided that, instead of the typical mystical European setting, they wanted this fairy-tale to be set in America. Clements and Musker spent around ten days in New Orleans researching, paying attention to the diverse architecture, as they felt they had a responsibility to get the settings and locations just right, to be authentic to what is still there. The beauty is in the simplicity and subtlety of the animation, and because of that the settings are quite impressionistic, capturing the feel of a place instead of being rooted in realism, much like Disney did with the forest in Bambi (1942). It was difficult for the animators to figure out how to animate the frogs, as sometimes they came out “too frog-like”. Though they used real-life frogs as reference points, it was decided that the frogs didn’t need to look realistic to the animal, but to just have suggestions of the animal, much like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940)[7]. The animators were clearly very happy to be back working on a traditionally hand-drawn animated feature film, as that was the whole basis of the legacy that Walt Disney had built.

MUSIC

Every great Disney film also needs great music, and they did not disappoint there, because this was not just a return to traditional animation, but it was a return to the animated musical. Due to the specific time and location setting for this fairy tale, they had to be careful to ensure that the musical stylings of New Orleans were respected. With this in mind, they hired Randy Newman as the composer, since he is a jazz musician and had grown up in New Orleans, making him a good fit for the film. Newman described the music of The Princess and the Frog as being like gumbo, because of all the musical styles that were mixed in, such as the classic love ballad with a Cajun twist, gospel, blues, and jazz[8]. Newman was already a frequent collaborator at Pixar, having scoring the movies Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Cars (2006). Randy Newman also voiced the character of Cousin Randy, one of Ray’s huge firefly family.

The Princess and the Frog’s soundtrack consists of eight original songs; all except one were written by Randy Newman. R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo actually wrote and performed the End Credits song, “Never Knew I Needed”. It hit number 56 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and did the best in Japan, reaching number 13 on the Japan Hot 100. I don’t personally like this song very much, finding that it doesn’t fit well in the soundtrack. It’s just such a different style to the rest of the music.

Moving on, we have the much more upbeat, and much more fitting song, “Down in New Orleans”. It is a perfectly jazzy number to properly open the film, as Tiana rushes to get to work on time. I really love it, and it is my favourite song in the soundtrack. It was performed by Dr. John, a popular musician from New Orleans, who passed away in June 2019. The song also appears in two other forms in the movie; firstly, as a brief prologue from Anika Noni Rose as Tiana, as she sings about the magic of the Evening Star, and then as a fun-filled finale, again performed by Tiana, as she finally opens her restaurant. I like all three versions, but the main one by Dr. John is the best for me.

Next, Tiana gets her own solo, “Almost There”. This is Tiana singing about her dream of opening up her restaurant as she is so close to seeing it come true. It’s a very hopeful, positive song, and I think it is great for motivating anyone to finish something! This scene is quite different to the rest of The Princess and the Frog in terms of animation style, and that is because we move into an Art Deco fantasy of Tiana’s restaurant, which is almost like going into a storybook. Eric Golberg, the animator behind characters like Genie, Phil in Hercules (1997) and Louis the alligator here, was the supervising animator of this scene, basing it on the art of Harlem Renaissance painter, Aaron Douglas[9].

Then, we finally got a big Disney villain song, after years of waiting for another good one to follow Frollo’s “Hellfire” in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). I did say good, so that’s not counting Alameda Slim’s “villain” song from Home on the Range (2004), which is alright, but not at all scary! “Friends on the Other Side” is a big song, full of evil trickery and spookiness, thanks to the charismatic Dr. Facilier, and his brilliant voice actor Keith David. Within this scene as well, of Dr. Facilier turning Naveen into a frog with the help of Naveen’s valet Lawrence, it transitions from normal animation to suddenly crazy colours, voodoo dolls, and psychedelic imagery, to show the magical transformation.

Let’s get back to the happier songs. “When We’re Human”, performed by Louis, Naveen, and Tiana, as they travel across the bayou, is another upbeat song that just makes you want to dance. I particularly like some of Naveen’s lines in this song as he has decided that he’s going to go back to being a womaniser once he’s human – men are such dreamers… And then Tiana calls him out for being lazy and irresponsible: “your modesty becomes you, and your sense of responsibility”; who knew Tiana could be so sarcastic?

This song is soon followed by Ray singing “Gonna Take You There”, a song reminiscent of music from southern Louisiana, complete with accordion, as him and his firefly family lead the way to Mama Odie. Then to slow things down, Ray performs “Ma Belle Evangeline”, a Cajun waltz of sorts, as the customary love ballad for this animated musical. It’s a very sweet song, partly because of Ray’s innocence, and partly for the scenes of Tiana and Naveen dancing together and gazing into each other’s eyes under the starlight…Aww.

And finally, we get to Mama Odie’s song, “Dig a Little Deeper”, performed by Jenifer Lewis and the Pinnacle Gospel Chorus. This song is a huge gospel number, which also appeared as the big finale in Harmonious, Epcot’s short-lived fireworks show. Mama Odie is trying to tell Tiana and Naveen to look inside themselves and figure out what they actually want in life. To animate this scene, the Disney team used live-action reference material, which featured dancers performing as the characters that would feature in the sequence. Shari Butler performed as Mama Odie, and the spoonbills that accompany her in the movie were performed by dancers wearing baseball caps with cardboard attached to them to look like a bill. The live-action material helped the animators to animate this big number, and Andreas Deja even used Shari’s shimmy when animating Mama Odie into the scene[10].

Within the instrumental score, also by Newman, the piece that really stands out to me is “This Is Gonna Be Good”, because it features the music that plays during Ray’s funeral. It starts off very sombre and melancholic, but then it builds to the happy moment where we see Ray reunited with his Evangeline. It’s supposed to make you cry and it certainly makes me cry buckets! It is then topped off by the wedding of Naveen and Tiana in the bayou and their return to their human forms, which ties up the storyline of the movie.

“Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans” were both nominated in the Best Original Song category at the Academy Awards in 2010, but unfortunately lost out to “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart (2009). “Down in New Orleans” was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 2011, again losing to “The Weary Kind”. “Almost There” did however win the Black Reel Award for Best Song in 2009. The Princess and the Frog soundtrack didn’t hit people in the same way as some other Disney movie soundtracks that came later, like Frozen (2013) and Encanto (2021), but I still like it a lot, and think it is one of Disney’s better soundtracks.

RECEPTION

The Princess and the Frog, even before its release, was struggling with critiques after details during development were announced in the years prior to its scheduled release. These included comments over whether the setting of New Orleans, where Black communities were devasted by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was such a good idea for this Disneyfied American fairy-tale. There was also concern over the original name for the character of Tiana, which was supposed to be “Maddy”. This is not a traditionally Black name, and the other issue was that she was originally going to be a maid. These comments led to Disney changing the name to Tiana, and giving her the job of a waitress. There were also discussions surrounding Ray the firefly’s Southern accent, which was seen as stereotypical by some, for making him sound like an “uneducated hick”. Another discussion was around Prince Naveen’s skin tone, as although Tiana was to become Disney’s first Black princess, Naveen was not going to be the first Black prince. This caused some to think that Disney did not feel that a Black man was “good enough” to represent a prince and the princess’ love interest[11].

Remember that these comments were all made several months before The Princess and the Frog made its debut to the public, however, only concerns around Tiana’s original name and occupation were actually addressed. The issues surrounding Ray, Naveen, and the central setting of New Orleans were not changed, so I can only presume that anyone who was concerned by these points did not change their opinion after the movie’s release.

There were other concerns as well, this time around the use of voodoo in the movie, which came to light after the movie’s release. Christian groups criticised the use of “unholy” voodoo, and others found that voodoo had been misrepresented as magic, and not as a religion. The Princess and the Frog was also criticised by some for avoiding talk of segregation and racial injustice that would have been enforced during the movie’s time period of 1920s New Orleans. I can only guess that Disney felt that this was a difficult subject to include in their movie, and felt it better to avoid the discussions, instead making Tiana’s difficulties come from her lack of wealth and the fact that she is a single woman in a white male-dominated society. Interracial marriage was also illegal at this time; therefore, Charlotte would not have been allowed to marry Prince Naveen, and Charlotte and Tiana’s friendship would have been unusual. Although I understand that segregation was not properly referenced in The Princess and the Frog, I did feel that some of the dialogue, such as the Fenner Brothers saying that a woman of Tiana’s “background” could not run an establishment like her restaurant, got the point across that she was being discriminated against for her skin colour – or at least, that’s how I understood it. Had The Princess and the Frog been made today, it would have benefited from having a majority African-American writing and directing team, and some of these concerns could have been avoided.

The Princess and the Frog went on to gross just over $104 million in the US and Canada, and $271 million worldwide, making it profit-making and a box-office success, as well as far outgrossing many of Disney Animation’s movies of the 2000s, but when compared to Disney’s heyday of 1990s hand-drawn animated movies, The Princess and the Frog was seen to have failed. Perhaps because of the controversy swirling around the movie before its release, and because of the film being marketed as a “girls’ film”, a musical fairy-tale, these factors may have also contributed. Something to consider as well is that The Princess and the Frog, was released only one week before the smash hit that was Avatar (2009), so it couldn’t help but be overshadowed[12].

Despite this, the movie was nominated for multiple awards, such as Best Animated Feature at the 27^th Annie Awards, the 67^th Golden Globes, and at the 82^nd Academy Awards. The Princess and the Frog did win some awards, mostly for voice work and music, but it was not the “big winner” at the Oscars or Golden Globes, being beaten out by Pixar’s Up (2009).

Many audiences did like The Princess and the Frog, enjoying the return to hand-drawn animation and finding the movie charming and pleasant, but it was not described as sensational or anything particularly special either. Disney were concerned that some audiences felt that the 2D animation style was “old-fashioned”, and that was perhaps why less people than expected had gone to see it in theatres. After this, Disney decided to revert back to making CGI movies, thinking that people did not prefer traditional 2D animation as first thought, which is disappointing because I much prefer 2D animation to CGI.

LEGACY

As part of the marketing push for The Princess and the Frog, in a manner similar to the promotional movie parades of the 1990s, a whole show was developed around The Princess and the Frog for the US Disney Parks. It was called Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee and it debuted at both Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on 25th October 2009, and at Disneyland on 5th November 2009. It involved the characters of Louis, Princess Tiana, and Prince Naveen, and some dancers performing a mini-parade as they walked to the theme parks’ respective riverboats, so the Liberty Belle Riverboat in Magic Kingdom, and the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland, where the show continued. They performed songs from the movie, and Dr. Facilier even arrived on board to get his moment in the spotlight. This show only ran for few months, ending sometime in early 2010, around the time that The Princess and the Frog stopped running in cinemas. At Disneyland, though, the Showboat Jubilee show did seem to become a smaller show titled Princess Tiana’s Mardi Gras Celebration. It was just on a stage by the Rivers of America, instead of being on the riverboat. It is unclear for exactly how long this show ran, but it seemed to reappear around Mardi Gras for a couple of years, until 2013.

Furthermore, Tiana was formally inducted into the official Disney Princess line-up in October 2009, before The Princess and the Frog was even released in theatres. There was a ceremony to welcome her at Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, making Tiana the first official Disney Princess to join the royal list since Mulan in 1998[13].

And that’s not all. As Princess Tiana is an official Disney Princess, she makes numerous appearances at the Disney Parks around the world. Princess Tiana can be available as a makeover package at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique locations that exist across the six Disney Parks, and she has a chance of appearing at any Princess Character Dining experience, such as Auberge de Cendrillon at Disneyland Paris or Cinderella’s Royal Table at Walt Disney World. Princess Tiana has also been confirmed as being one of the characters that will be meeting guests at 1900 Park Fare at Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World, when the restaurant reopens in April 2024. She will be wearing her outfit from the upcoming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction. Plus, one of the menu items here will be Tiana’s Gumbo. The Princess and the Frog also has a catchy soundtrack, so extracts are included in some parts of fireworks shows, such as Happily Ever After at Walt Disney World and Disney Dreams! at Disneyland Paris, and the characters appear in parades like Magic Happens in Disneyland, and the Festival of Fantasy at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Specifically, at Walt Disney World Resort, Tiana currently has a permanent meet-and-greet spot at Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom. Tiana has been seen with Naveen before at Special Events here, such as Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and the two made an unexpected appearance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2023. Louis and Dr. Facilier were both a part of Long Lost Friends Week in Summer 2013, but these two are rarer characters to meet. However, Dr. Facilier, being a Disney Villain, is generally a part of the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events, appearing in the Boo To You Parade and in the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular Show. At the Port Orleans Resort, at both the French Quarter and Riverside areas, The Princess and the Frog is quite a common theming element, due to New Orleans being the location of the movie and the big event of Mardi Gras. At the Port Orleans annual Mardi Gras parade in 2024, Princess Tiana was featured in a horse-drawn carriage for example. At the Port Orleans Riverside, you can also stay in the specially themed “Royal Guest Rooms”. Amongst images of other Disney Princesses, these rooms feature headboards with The Princess and the Frog-themed artwork and a huge portrait of Princess Tiana on the wall.

But the biggest and most exciting reference to The Princess and the Frog at Walt Disney World Resort has only recently been experienced. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a log flume attraction taking over the area that housed Splash Mountain in Frontierland, opened on 28th June 2024 to take guests on a musical adventure with Tiana, Louis, and Mama Odie as they prepare for their New Orleans Mardi Gras performance. It uses the existing infrastructure of Splash Mountain; however, the exterior Briar Patch has been transformed into a giant tree. Numerous new animatronics have been included in the ride, as well as music from the film, with a new song featuring at the end of the ride[14].

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is also being constructed at Disneyland in the New Orleans Square area of the park; again, taking over the existing infrastructure of their Splash Mountain attraction, however, it will debut sometime in “late” 2024; no date has yet been given The New Orleans Square area of Disneyland though continues to reference Tiana and The Princess and the Frog. There is a quick-service dining location named Tiana’s Palace, which serves up Southern Creole and Cajun dishes, such as gumbo, shrimp and grits, and those “man-catching” beignets. There is also a shop, Eudora’s Chic Boutique, named after Tiana’s mother. Tiana’s Place, not Palace, is also a restaurant on the Disney Wonder cruise ship. This is a good reference to the movie, where Tiana’s original dream is to open “Tiana’s Place”, but when her restaurant is finally revealed at the end of the film, it is named “Tiana’s Palace”, possibly because of her royal marriage.

For meet-and-greets at Disneyland, Princess Tiana is not a regularly scheduled meet-and-greet character, however, she does sometimes appear at Royal Hall or just in New Orleans Square. Naveen and Tiana were both spotted at Disneyland After Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite in 2024. Dr. Facilier is again most likely to be seen during Halloween, at the Oogie Boogie Bash. He has had a special location on the Treat Trail before, most recently in 2022. Facilier is also a part of the Frightfully Fun Parade.

At Disneyland Paris, you may be lucky enough to see some of The Princess and the Frog characters, though they are more likely to appear at Special Events. For example, Louis, Naveen, Tiana, and Dr. Facilier were all together as part of the Disney Loves Jazz event at Disneyland Paris in 2018. Tiana was seen in Frontierland around 2023.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, Tiana sings her song “Almost There” during the Mickey and the Wondrous Book show that opened in 2015. Tiana was also spotted with the other Disney Princess in 2022 and 2023 for World Princess Week, but she has met guests by the Castle of Dreams before too. Dr. Facilier has been part of Hong Kong’s Halloween events, such as the Let’s Get Wicked show. Mickey’s Storybook Adventure, an identical show to Mickey and the Wondrous Book, opened at Shanghai Disneyland in 2021, therefore, Tiana also sings in this show. But at both Shanghai Disneyland and at Tokyo Disneyland, it is unclear whether Tiana or any of The Princess and the Frog characters have been available for meet-and-greets in recent years, though it is always possible that Tiana will appear at any princess area, such as a restaurant or by the parks’ respective castles, and that Dr. Facilier could be a part of any Halloween event. Others may appear at Special Events.

The Princess and the Frog has not been lined up for a theatrically released sequel, although it is possible that a live-action remake is in the works – what a surprise… But for Disney+, a series titled Tiana has been in development for a few years now, originally planned to be released in 2022, but it has now been delayed to 2024. A writer and director, Joyce Sherri, for the series was announced in October 2023; that is the most recent update.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s a shame that The Princess and the Frog wasn’t the ground-breaking return to traditional animation it was hoped to be, but I love it, for its characters, its music, and the return to fantasy and magic. It remains within the Disney Animation Classics list to be loved by many a generation to come. It deserves its place in Disney history and, although short-lived, was a much welcome return to what Disney Animation does best.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “The Princess and the Animator”, from The Princess and the Frog (2009) Blu-Ray (2010).

[2] Credit: Disney, “Conjuring the Villain”, from The Princess and the Frog (2009) Blu-Ray (2010).

[3] Credit: Disney D23, 5 Facts Every Fan of The Princess and the Frog Should Know, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, uploaded 25^th March 2020.

[4] Credit: Kayleena Pierce-Bohen, ‘Princess & The Frog: 10 Biggest Differences Disney Made To The Original Story’, ScreenRant.com, 6^th June 2020.

[5] Credit: Rachel Bertsche, ‘The Woman Behind Disney’s Landmark Princess’, Oprah.com, 24^th March 2010.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Princess and the Frog’, CartoonResearch.com, 5^th August 2022.

[7] Credit: Disney, “Magic in the Bayou: The Making of a Princess”, from The Princess and the Frog (2009) Blu-Ray (2010).

[8] Credit: Disney, “A Return to the Animated Musical”, from The Princess and the Frog (2009) Blu-Ray (2010).

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Princess and the Frog’, pp. 145-147.

[10] Credit: Disney, “Bringing Life to Animation”, from The Princess and the Frog (2009) Blu-Ray (2010).

[11] Credit: Brooks Barnes, ‘Her Prince Has Come. Critics, Too’, The New York Times (online), 29^th May 2009.

[12] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Princess and the Frog’, CartoonResearch.com, 5^th August 2022.

[13] Credit: Blake Taylor, ‘A look back at ‘The Princess and the Frog’ in Disney parks’, Attractions Magazine (online), 4^th March 2023.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Fridays with Jim Korkis: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

22nd Mar 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#39 Dinosaur (2000)

BACKGROUND

In the year 2000, the world celebrated a new millennium.

After the panic of the “Millennium Bug” and the impact that might have had on computers and technology – but didn’t – we saw the year 2000 as a chance for a more hopeful future, and a fresh start. Sadly, that wasn’t exactly the case for Disney with their first release of the millennium: Dinosaur.

It’s not like Dinosaur has been labelled as a terrible film, because it actually did quite well at the box-office with critics praising the visuals of the film, but it did not commence a new era of brilliant movies. Instead, Dinosaur began Disney’s “Post-Renaissance Era”. Not a particularly exciting name to match a not particularly exciting era of Disney’s films, basically saying that anything released during this time period does not measure up to the wonders of those Disney movies of the 1990s.

Not only that, but Dinosaur is not considered a beloved Disney animated classic. I personally don’t know many people who have seen the movie, and I only hear it mentioned in the context of the theme park attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

I hadn’t watched Dinosaur in years, having filed it away in my mind as “one of those boring Disney films I can say I’ve seen but never want to watch again”. I was ready to hate Dinosaur again after re-watching it, since I’m not a massive fan of dinosaurs, though I do quite like the Jurassic Park films, but that’s mostly because of the scenes of dinosaurs chasing and eating people, and not for a fascination with dinosaurs themselves.

I remember the opening sequence of Dinosaur only too well, where we follow a dinosaur egg being flown all across the world and being fought over by multiple species of animal. This sequence was used as the trailer for the movie on so many VHS tapes. At least that’s what it felt like. Maybe it wasn’t on all of them, but it was at least run as the trailer before Toy Story 2’s theatrical release in 1999, and on the Tarzan VHS tape[1].

Anyway, the point is I had always found that sequence long and boring. It is around five-minutes long with no dialogue, though I will say the music is good and the visuals are impressive, but I don’t want to see a nature documentary at the best of times. Because of that, and memories of dusty, desert landscapes and many scenes of dinosaurs walking with seemingly no result, I’d never been interested in watching Dinosaur again, and I was not excited to watch it. But once again, shockingly – or not shockingly, because this seems to happen a lot with me – I actually quite liked it…Luckily, where the critics raged in fury around the story and anthropomorphised dinosaurs, they are the reason I liked the movie.

PLOT

Dinosaur follows an Iguanodon called Aladar, whose story starts when he is still an egg. His mother is keeping her nest of eggs safe when a Carnotaurus starts to attack the herd of dinosaurs; Aladar’s egg is the only one not crushed by the Carnotaurus. However, this then sparks a fight over the egg between different dinosaurs. The egg travels through water and over cliffs whilst in the mouth of a flying dinosaur – probably a pterodactyl or something, but I’m no dino expert so I’m not sure exactly what species. Eventually, the egg falls onto Lemur Island and promptly hatches, where the lemurs, after some discussion, decide to raise the baby dinosaur as their own.

One night, several years later, the lemurs and Aladar witness a meteor shower, which destroys their island. Aladar manages to swim across to the mainland with the lemurs on his back, where they see that the mainland has become a deserted wasteland, full of rocks and sand. After an attack by some Velociraptors, Aladar and the lemurs stumble upon a herd of dinosaurs, on their way to the hallowed Nesting Grounds. The herd is being led by Kron, and his second-in-command, Bruton. They do not care about the safety of the other dinosaurs, and push them to continue walking in relentless heat without water, deciding that those who do not survive deserve to perish for being weaker than the others. Deciding there’s more safety in numbers against hungry dinosaurs, Aladar and the lemurs join the trek, where they befriend the older female dinosaurs, who are left at the back of the herd, struggling to keep up with the rest of the group.

They keep pushing until they reach a lake, however, it has dried up. Kron orders the others to keep walking. Aladar and the older dinosaurs, Baylene, a Brachiosaurus, and Eema, a Styracosaurus, stay put and manage to extract water from the dried-up lake, by pressing their hooves into it firmly, bringing the water up to the surface. Kron, annoyed at Aladar’s clear leadership skill and intellect, reluctantly allows the group to stay for water, after he selfishly gets plenty for himself first! Also, at this time, Aladar becomes close to Neera, a fellow Iguanodon, and sister of Kron.

While resting at the lake, Bruton informs Kron that two Carnotaurus are following the herd after his scouting party was attacked. Kron immediately orders everyone to leave quickly. Aladar tries to push Baylene and Eema to move faster but they cannot. Reluctantly, Aladar slows down with them, losing sight of the herd ahead. They take shelter in a cave one night, finding an injured Bruton who has been left to die by Kron. After some persuasion by Aladar to join them in the cave, instead of lying out in the rain, Bruton relents. Unfortunately, the Carnotaurus find them and start to attack. Aladar ushers out Baylene and Eema, and finds that Bruton has sacrificed himself to the Carnotaurus to start a rock slide in the cave, which separates the Carnotaurus away from the others. The rock slide kills Bruton and one of the two Carnotaurus, leaving the remaining Carnotaurus to retreat.

Aladar and the others continue walking through the cave, but come to a dead end. Baylene and Eema, with a sudden burst of energy, not wanting to have come all this way for nothing, smash through the wall, and the group find they are at the Nesting Grounds; the first ones there. They discover that the entrance to the grounds, where the rest of the herd will be trying to enter, has been completely blocked off by a landslide. Aladar quickly goes back to warn the others, where he finds that Kron is instructing the group to climb up the dangerous wall of rocks. Aladar tells him there is another way to get there, but having spent too much time arguing with Kron, the remaining Carnotaurus arrives. Aladar encourages the group to stand together and roar at the dinosaur. The Carnotaurus seems to back off, until he sees Kron, alone, pulling himself over the rocks. The Carnotaurus rushes to attack Kron, with Aladar and Neera running to help him. Aladar successfully pushes the Carnotaurus off the ledge, and it falls to its death. Unfortunately, Kron does not survive the attack…Aladar leads the rest of the group to the Nesting Grounds.

The film then flashes forward a few years to a happy Nesting Grounds, where all different species of dinosaur are living together, as well as some more lemurs. They are celebrating a new generation of dinosaurs about to hatch from their eggs, including Aladar and Neera’s future children, with one of them hatching right at the end of the movie.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Clearly, Aladar is the main character of Dinosaur. Aladar is voiced by D.B Sweeney, who would go on to voice the character of Sitka in Brother Bear (2003) for Disney. He has since appeared in various television series, such as having a recurring role as Larry in Two and a Half Men from 2013 to 2014, and voicing the character of Avatar Aang in The Legend of Korra (2012-14). Currently, Sweeney narrates the reality series Mountain Men (2012-present) on the History Channel.

Aladar is an Iguanodon who is raised by a family of lemurs, which is a strange concept, but no different to Mowgli in The Jungle Book, and much like Mowgli, Aladar never considers that his family aren’t like him and that he isn’t like them, despite having no fur and being much bigger than all of them. Luckily, Iguanodons were herbivores so there was no fear of Aladar developing a taste for lemur as he got older – that would have been a very different film! But the point is, it doesn’t matter to Aladar; the lemurs are his family, no matter what. Everything is peaceful and there are no questions in Aladar’s mind, until the meteor shower hits and Aladar meets other dinosaurs for the first time on the mainland. Despite this, he is still incredibly caring towards his lemur family, and never leaves them behind to start a new life with the dinosaurs. Aladar is very kind towards the older members of the dinosaur herd, Baylene and Eema. He wants everyone to get to the Nesting Grounds, regardless of their age or strength, and Aladar puts himself in danger multiple times to ensure this happens. He’s incredibly selfless.

Unlike Kron. Kron is also an Iguanodon, and the leader of the herd, however, he is not a compassionate leader. Kron believes that only those who deserve to survive will survive the journey, so there is no point slowing everyone else down just to help those who are too old or weak to make it. The overall theme of Dinosaur is about “the survival of the fittest”. Kron believes wholeheartedly in that, whereas Aladar doesn’t, thinking that of course everyone deserves to survive, whether they seem weak, or struggle at times. Aladar doesn’t want anyone to be cast aside for that, unlike Kron. I suppose in nature “survival of the fittest” generally wins out, but that wouldn’t be very happy for a Disney movie, so instead they have turned that idea on its head, by showing that it’s better to be kind and sympathetic to everyone, regardless of their appearance or circumstances.

Dinosaur also shows that being united against a common threat or enemy is better than being divided against it, as we see at the end with the Carnotaurus attack which is prevented by Aladar’s quick-thinking. Kron recognises the intellect and leadership qualities in Aladar and feels threatened by him, especially when Aladar openly challenges Kron’s plans and orders. Samuel E. Wright, the voice of Kron, said that he believed Kron is misunderstood as he is trying to do the right thing, by following what previous generations of his kind had done by getting to the Nesting Grounds at the same time each year[2]. I agree with this, however, Kron needn’t have been so aggressive every time his authority was questioned. It’s a real shame that we don’t get to see Kron change his ways. As he is killed by the Carnotaurus, he doesn’t get a chance at redemption. Samuel E. Wright voiced Sebastian in The Little Mermaid (1989), and many of the franchise’s spin-offs, like the television series and the two direct-to-video sequels. Wright starred as the original Mufasa in The Lion King Broadway musical cast in 1997. He sadly passed away in May 2021.

Neera, Kron’s sister, finds herself torn between her sibling loyalty to Kron and her increasing interest in Aladar. When Aladar and Neera first meet, she doesn’t think much of him, and thanks to an embarrassing encounter with Zini, one of Aladar’s overly enthusiastic, and sometimes inappropriate, lemur family, Neera thinks Aladar is a “jerkosaurus”, as she believes Aladar is wolf-whistling at her, when actually it was Zini. In the end, though, Neera likes how Aladar is looking out for the older dinosaurs, as she looks out for the younger ones. She doesn’t understand to begin with why Aladar believes everyone can survive the journey, but she soon realises it’s in Aladar’s nature to be caring. Some say that Aladar and Neera remind them of Simba and Nala in The Lion King (1994), but to me, they remind me more of Flik and Atta in A Bug’s Life (1998), because Aladar’s awkwardness reminds me of Flik and Neera has quite a royal sort of presence so that makes me think of Atta. Regardless of who they remind you of, Neera and Aladar make a cute couple.

Neera is voiced by American actress Julianna Margulies who has recently appeared in TV series such as The Morning Show (2021-present) on AppleTV+ and The Good Wife (2009-2016). She also starred as Carol Hathaway in the medical drama series ER (1994-2009), for which she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Primetime Emmy. For her role as Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife, Margulies won a Critics’ Choice Television Award, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Primetime Emmys.

For Aladar’s lemur family, they are an eclectic bunch! Zini is the awkward, unkempt, teenage member of the lemur group, who thinks he’s a bit of a ladies’ man. He’s not throughout most of the movie, though he does find some ladies who are interested in him when they meet other lemurs at the Nesting Grounds. Zini is funny, and definitely the comic relief of the film, though sometimes he is a bit too much! Zini is voiced by American actor Max Casella who has starred in the likes of Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1993) and The Sopranos (2001-2007). Then, there is Suri, the sweet, fun-loving little sister of the group, voiced by a young Hayden Panettiere, who would’ve just recently voiced Dot in A Bug’s Life (1998) at the time of production on Dinosaur, and went on to appear in teen comedy films such as Ice Princess (2005) and Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006) before having lead roles as Claire Bennet in Heroes (2006-10) and Juliette Barnes in Nashville (2012-18).

Rounding out the lemur group are Plio, the mother of Suri and sister of Zini, and Yar, Plio and Zini’s father. Plio is a devoted mother, and is the one to fight to keep Aladar, when Yar believes he will grow up to be a monster and they must get rid of him. Fortunately, Yar doesn’t have the heart to do that and he grows to like Aladar and see him as a member of the family. Yar is voiced by Ossie Davis, who appeared on stage and screen from the 1940s up until his death in 2005. Davis starred as Martin Luther King Sr. in the NBC miniseries King (1978), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Davis won a Tony Award for his role in the musical Jamaica (1958). He even appeared as Grandpa Dolittle in Dr. Dolittle (1998) alongside Eddie Murphy. Alfre Woodward voiced Plio. Woodward has appeared in numerous films and television series, such as 12 Years a Slave (2013) and voicing Sarabi in The Lion King (2019) remake. Woodward also appeared as Betty Applewhite in Desperate Housewives (2004-12) in the first two seasons, and as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the last three series of St. Elsewhere (1982-88). More recently, Alfre Woodward has starred as Mariah Stokes-Dillard in the Marvel Netflix series Luke Cage (2016-18).

Finally, the other main characters are Baylene, an elderly Brachiosaurus, and Eema, an elderly Styracosaurus, who also has a pet Ankylosaurus called Url, who acts like a dog. I don’t quite know why Url was necessary in this movie; I didn’t find the character useful to the story in any way, and found it was a strange addition to have a dinosaur with a “pet”. But Eema and Baylene are good characters. They seem quite weak at the start, slowing Aladar down all the time, and making him work harder, constantly having to pick them back up when they’re too exhausted to go on, and keep their spirits up when they see the herd moving further away from them, passing other dinosaurs collapsed in the dust from exhaustion. It must have been difficult for them to carry on, but luckily, they had Aladar to help them. In return for that favour, both Baylene and Eema summon up the strength to knock down that rock wall in the cave, providing the hope to the group just when Aladar and the others need it most. They ultimately are the two to get everyone to the Nesting Grounds by finding the way there, so we could say they are the heroines of the movie!

Baylene is voiced by English actress Joan Plowright, who performed in multiple stage productions early in her career before moving into film. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in the play A Taste of Honey in 1961, and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress in the film Enchanted April (1991) and in the television film Stalin (1992). Eema is voiced by American singer and actress Della Reese, who played Tess in the TV drama Touched by an Angel (1994-2003) and went on to guest star in numerous television series including That’s So Raven in 2006 and The Young and the Restless in 2009. Reese passed away in November 2017.

MUSIC

The music for Dinosaur was created by James Newton Howard, who composed the score for the movie, and Lebo M., who provided the vocals for the score; there are no songs in Dinosaur, making this the third Disney animated feature film to do this, after The Black Cauldron (1985) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990). I think singing dinosaurs would’ve been a step too far anyway, don’t you think? Lebo M. had previously worked with Disney on the African choir that performs on the superb soundtrack for The Lion King (1994). Dinosaur was the first Disney animated movie that James Newton Howard had worked on, but he would then go on to write the score for other non-traditional Disney animated classics, the adventure films Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002). He also composed the score for Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

Within the Dinosaur score, there are some particularly memorable pieces of music. The piece “The Egg Travels” showcases the talents of both James Newton Howard and Lebo M. and his choir. It is the most remembered instrumental from the score, as it accompanies the long opening sequence of Dinosaur, and it actually makes you feel like you’re flying along with the dinosaur egg. The other instrumental I like is “The Courtship”, which plays during the lemurs “courting” scene in the trees of Lemur Island. I like this piece as it is as close as you’re going to get to a “dance number” in Dinosaur! It’s an upbeat piece of music to match one of the few happy moments in the film. These are my two favourite pieces from the score, but generally, the whole score is great. It does well to guide the viewer’s emotions through the various scenes, whether they are scenes of adventure, peril, wonder, or tenderness[3].

PRODUCTION

The first idea for Dinosaur as a movie actually didn’t come from anyone at Disney. It came from Visual Effects animator Phil Tippett, whilst working on the set of the movie RoboCop (1987) in 1986. Tippett was telling others working on the movie that he had an idea for a movie about dinosaurs. It would’ve been quite gory, detailing violent attacks and fights between dinosaurs, as well as the death of the species. Paul Verhoeven, director of RoboCop, liked Tippett’s idea, so they decided to pitch the idea to Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Disney studios. Their plan was to make the movie using stop-motion, and that there would be no dialogue in the movie; it was simply to be a journey through the Cretaceous period. Katzenberg was happy enough with the idea, so allowed them to hire a writer and start work on the specifics, like story and medium. Then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation Thomas Schumacher was on a trip to Eastern Europe in 1990 after the release of The Rescuers Down Under (1990) to look for traditional animators, but Schumacher also ended up meeting people to talk about this stop-motion dinosaur film.

It was from this point that the movie started to become more “Disney” and less and less like Tippett’s original idea. Disney firstly looked at making Dinosaur without dialogue, to set it apart from Don Bluth’s successful film The Land Before Time (1988), but this evolved into wanting some dialogue, but only to express what the dinosaur characters were thinking, then this turned into the dinosaurs talking and being anthropomorphised, which made them more like people, and less like real animals. The original team boycotted a meeting with Katzenberg and removed themselves from the project. Tippett even claims this event led to him being banned from the Disney lot by Katzenberg, until Katzenberg left the company in 1994. Verhoeven encouraged Tippett to forget this dinosaur movie and go work on Jurassic Park (1993), where Tippett went on to win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and will forever be linked to one of the best and biggest “dinosaur movies” of all time. What a good move! But it meant progress stalled for Disney, as they felt, with the success of Jurassic Park, they had to do this film digitally.

After many years of research and development into digital techniques throughout the 1990s, and with the directors Ralph Zondag, who had worked on The Land Before Time (1988), and Eric Leighton, who had previously worked with Phil Tippett, finally being confirmed, the movie could move forward. Eventually, Disney found that the best result came from doing something that had never been done before: blending computer-generated characters into live-action backgrounds. It was a crazy idea at the time but the team at Disney felt they could do it. A group went on a research trip to find locations that looked “prehistoric” to fit the scenes. They used a 3D workbook as the guide to shooting these real-life backgrounds; the workbook basically contained a mock-up of each individual scene. The locations chosen were Canaima National Park and Angel Falls in Venezuela, as well as areas such as those in Hawaii and Tahiti. The backgrounds had to be filmed as though the characters were already there, so lots of cranes and red screens were used to simulate the movements and sizes of the dinosaurs that would be put in. The locations were then created into full 3D images. They also had a “Dino Cam”, a camera on a rig about 50 feet high, which filmed the aerial shots.

While this was happening, Disney animators were sketching out the design for the characters, which were then computer-animated. After that, the voice actors came in, and they used a facial animation system on the characters so they could fully express emotions, as it was decided that the animals would talk – Michael Eisner’s decision – with some of the voice actors own facial expressions being used. Finally, they developed an intricate software to provide the characters’ muscle and skins. Then, they had to blend it altogether[4]. Specifically, for the character design, lemurs were easier to design than dinosaurs as they still exist so there were reference points, whereas thoughts on how dinosaurs looked have been improved and changed over time based on further research. But the biggest issue with lemurs was their fur, as it had to react to wind and weather, look different in different lighting, and be dusty and messed up, so Disney had to create a fur tool to make it look as realistic as possible. They then used this same tool for any grass in scenes, as it had to have the same range of motion, especially when heavy dinosaurs step on it in the Nesting Grounds scenes, so it needed to flatten and then come back up again, and be able to move in the wind, just like fur. Palaeontology experts were consulted on the dinosaurs’ designs, as well as author and artist James Gurney who had written the Dinotopia books, amongst others.

For the special effects, like the meteor shower, many of these scenes were filmed by using real explosives in real settings as part of the live-action 3D imaging of the backgrounds. They even made a miniature version of Lemur Island to blow it up and film it; it sounds like the team had a lot of fun doing that! They really managed to capture the intensity of the meteor shower with this scene, and made sure to show the explosions from ground-level, so the viewer could experience it as the animals would have. It’s certainly a very intense scene for a Disney movie. The Disney team also made some fun decisions for the sound effects, for example, the Carnotaurus vocalisations came from leopards growling and snarling, and a yappy, angry chihuahua provided the snarls of the Velociraptors. The team also found that wet shammy cloths provided a lot of useful noises for the film[5]!

After Disney-MGM Studios theme park opened at Walt Disney World in 1989, Michael Eisner wanted to build a new theme park – something around animals. This original theme was expanded to include mythological creatures – and dinosaurs. A chance for synergy was afoot.

On 22^nd April 1998, the Countdown to Extinction ride opened on the same day as the rest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. It had the same ride layout and vehicle as the Indiana Jones Adventure ride in Disneyland but the ride took guests back in time to the Cretaceous period on their “time rovers” to see dinosaurs close up and save the last Iguanodon from a meteor shower. The Discovery River Boats, another opening day attraction where guests were taken on a boat ride around the lakes of Animal Kingdom Park, passed by an animatronic of Aladar the Iguanodon. On 29^th October 1999, Disney announced that their newly built digital studio would be called “The Secret Lab”, and that Dinosaur would be its first movie, using a combination of computer animation and live-action backgrounds. It was actually a merger between the award-winning company Dream Quest Images, founded in 1979, who had done some work on movies like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) before moving on to work on The Abyss (1989) and Total Recall (1990), which both won Oscars for Best Visual Effects, and Disney’s in-house computer graphics unit. It was dissolved in 2001 when it was deemed more cost-effective to outsource the work[6].

RECEPTION

Dinosaur was released on 19^th May 2000, sitting between the releases of Tarzan (1999) and The Emperor’s New Groove (2000). Dinosaur became only the second Disney animated feature to be rated PG after The Black Cauldron (1985), for its violent scenes. Dinosaur was completely different and was a turning point for animation, especially in its visuals and special effects. The reported budget for Dinosaur was $127.5 million, which made it the most expensive computer-animated film of all time and the most expensive film of 2000. It beat out Gladiator (2000) in its opening weekend and brought in $350 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing movie of the year, and Disney’s best grossing film of 2000. In 2001, Dinosaur made another $200 million in VHS sales[7].

Dinosaur was also nominated for many Annie Awards in 2001, including for Individual Achievement for Music for James Newton Howard, Achievement for Directing for Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton, and Individual Achievement for Effects Animation for Simon O’Connor, losing to Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999) in all categories. Della Reese was also nominated for her voice acting; Tim Allen won instead for his voice part of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2. At the 27^th Saturn Awards, Dinosaur was nominated for Best Fantasy Film, but lost to the film Frequency (2000) and James Newton Howard was once again nominated for Best Music, losing out to James Horner’s music for How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

Given these numbers, it would look like Dinosaur did incredibly well. So, what happened? Well, around 60% of the worldwide gross figure actually came from foreign markets, not the domestic market of North America, where, due to its high budget, Dinosaur was seen to have been somewhat of a failure. A documentary series produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel, Walking with Dinosaurs, had also just been released in 1999, which also used CGI. This may have caused families to be less interested in Disney’s Dinosaur, given the fact that Walking with Dinosaurs was more scientifically accurate.

The scientific element was where most of the criticism from audiences was aimed. The visuals of Dinosaur were praised, along with the opening prologue to the movie, which many critics felt was the best part of the movie. But critics were not impressed by the story, and felt that it did not match up to the look of the film. Some did not like that the animals talked, as it took away from the realism, and that overall, the movie was dull. There were also criticisms around the timelines used in the movies, as lemurs didn’t exist at the same time as dinosaurs, and many of the dinosaur species included in Dinosaur would not have co-existed, with some even long dead at the time of the film. Disney’s response to this critique was that they never set out to make a historical documentary and that they veered away from scientific fact for storytelling purposes[8]. I think the teaser prologue that was released before the movie potentially set Dinosaur up to be a documentary-style movie, and it ended up as a “typical Disney film”. I don’t think anyone should’ve been surprised by that; I think the critics were too harsh here and missed the point, that children have always been Disney’s target audience with their animated movies, and they need to be kept interested.

LEGACY

After Dinosaur was released in 2000, the ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom changed name from Countdown to Extinction to DINOSAUR, with the ride logo being changed to match the movie, and the original statue of a Styracosaurus at the entrance to the ride was replaced with a statue of Aladar. It is also clear that the last Iguanodon you are trying to save is in fact Aladar. At the same time as this rebranding, the vehicle movement was made less intense and the soundtrack less frightening for younger rides who would be excited to go on the ride having seen the movie first. A few years later, these changes would revert back to the original ones to make DINOSAUR a real thrill ride. The imagineers involved in the creation of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, including legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde, worked closely with the Walt Disney Pictures team to ensure that the ride experience would resemble the movie[9]. DINOSAUR the ride may still remain a popular thrill ride at Walt Disney World Resort, although you’re less likely to experience a long wait anymore, but I am not sure how many people these days know that it is based on a Disney movie. Unfortunately, it looks likely that the area that DINOSAUR resides in, DinoLand, U.S.A. will soon be re-themed to Encanto and Indiana Jones, so the fate of the ride is currently in limbo.

Though no “walkaround” characters from Dinosaur have ever appeared at the Disney theme parks, there was originally a plan to have an audio-animatronics dinosaur parade down Main Street at Disneyland in an effort to publicise the film. This dinosaur may have missed out on being able to publicise the film Dinosaur in 2000, but one was developed, a dinosaur named Lucky. It took five years for Lucky the dinosaur to be fully developed. Its first appearance was at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles on 28^th August 2003, and then went to Disney’s California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort a few days later. Lucky later returned to Walt Disney Imagineering and made some appearances at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and at Hong Kong Disneyland around 2005. Lucky has made some brief appearances at special events before but nothing too recently[10].

FINAL THOUGHTS

I thought Dinosaur was a boring movie, something I’d never watch again, but having rewatched it, I found that I did like most of Dinosaur, and though I still found some parts boring, because there are a lot of walking scenes where not much happens, apart from seeing these dinosaurs becoming exhausted and fed up, generally, I liked the film much more than I’d expected to, and I was surprised at how much I cared about these dinosaur characters. I didn’t know that Dinosaur had in fact done very well at the box office on its release; I just knew that the critical reception was not particularly good.

But everyone can agree on the fact that it is visually stunning and miles ahead of what computer animation was seen to be capable of at that time. Disney put a lot of work into developing new software and using different techniques to make Dinosaur, and the result is brilliant. Unfortunately, as Dinosaur looks so much like a nature documentary, and the fact that the backgrounds look so realistic, some viewers felt that having the animals speak was the wrong move, as it took the audience out of the that world.

There are some people who love Dinosaur. I found many comments online saying that Dinosaur was one of their favourite movies growing up and that they are disappointed that more people don’t know it or remember it. It is an underrated movie in many ways.

I hope that others who hadn’t heard of Dinosaur before, or those who, like me, remember it from years ago but didn’t think they liked it, will try again, even if just to look at the amazing backgrounds and special effects that came out of a studio at the start of the new millennium. You might be surprised by your thoughts on it.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘How Dinosaur, A Movie You’ve Forgotten Existed, Shaped The Disney Landscape Forever’, Syfy.com, 19^th May 2020.

[2] Credit: Disney, The Making of Dinosaur the Movie (2000).

[3] Credit: Disney, Dinosaur: Larger Than Life (2000).

[4] Credit: Disney, Dinosaur: Larger Than Life (2000).

[5] Credit: Disney, The Making of Dinosaur the Movie (2000).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Dinosaur (2000)’, pp. 115-117.

[7] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘How Dinosaur, A Movie You’ve Forgotten Existed, Shaped The Disney Landscape Forever’, Syfy.com, 19^th May 2020.

[8] Credit: Charles Arthur, ‘Dinosaur film wrong by a few million years’, The Independent (online), 30^th July 2000.

[9] Credit: Dave Shute, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: DINOSAUR and Lucky the Dinosaur’, YourFirstVisit.Net (online), date unknown.

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: DINOSAUR and Lucky the Dinosaur’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

15th Mar 202428th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#43 Treasure Planet (2002)

BACKGROUND

Ah, Treasure Planet. A futuristic coming-of-age story, complete with space pirates, space whales, hidden treasure, and a new cool sport: solar surfing – all the teens are doing it.

It was a project two decades in the making with two directors who had proven their worth throughout the Disney “Renaissance Era”. Plus, it combined all the magic of Disney’s traditional 2D animation style with all the amazement of technological advancements. It had all the ingredients to be the next big hit. And yet, Treasure Planet became one of Disney’s worst ever financial flops…So, what went wrong?

Well, in my mind, Treasure Planet is actually a very enjoyable film, with lots of heart and plenty of great art. I think it was a victim of bad timing and changing audience tastes.

After a whole decade of amazing movies that shaped an entire generation of children, with many of those still enjoying watching them as adults, Disney began to struggle in the 2000s. They were competing with the likes of Pixar, Blue Sky Studios, who released their first Ice Age movie in 2002, and DreamWorks, who were making full-length computer-animated films that weren’t just funny, but hilarious for children and adults alike. Disney, on the other hand, weren’t entirely sure what they were doing, and in changing their tried-and-tested formula of the musical fairy tale, they took some big risks that mostly didn’t work out.

However, in 2002, there was Lilo & Stitch, released in June, just five months before Treasure Planet. It was an original story and a non-musical, and it did exceptionally well, so that must’ve given the team working on Treasure Planet hope that their film would do well also. Yet it did not and Treasure Planet was left to struggle at the box-office. It was then forgotten for many years afterwards.

I remember when I first watched Treasure Planet. Not in the cinema, but once it had been released on DVD. Though we had watched a lot of the “Renaissance Era” films at the cinema, this must have been around the time where we weren’t that determined to watch Disney films as soon as they came out – because they were not as good as they used to be. I didn’t like Treasure Planet when I first watched it. My sister did, but I thought it was boring – and where were the princesses, and the songs? So, I never wanted to watch it again. It’s a science-fiction film, an action film, and a fantasy film all at once, and none of those genres used to appeal to me. It wasn’t until years later that I decided to re-watch and see what I thought of it. And you know what? I actually really liked it – I’ll happily admit that I was wrong and when I was younger, I’d completely missed the whole emotional grip of the film. If you re-watch Treasure Planet as an adult, you’ll also see that the film is full of brilliant quotes, and hilarious one-liners.

PLOT

For anyone not familiar with the plot of this or Treasure Island, as it sticks fairly closely to the original story, just with the obvious change of it being set in space, the film starts off with a young Jim Hawkins listening to his holographic, pop-up, audio storybook that tells the story of Captain Nathaniel Flint, a notorious space pirate who has been storing all of his treasure in a mysterious place called “Treasure Planet” that nobody else has found. The film then jumps to Jim as a wayward teenager, getting in trouble with the police, generally not having a plan in life, and spending a lot of time “solar surfing”, which is like a mix of hoverboarding and skateboarding. His mother runs an inn called the Benbow Inn, and is at her wit’s end trying to figure out what to do about Jim. Later, a pirate called Billy Bones crash-lands outside the inn and gives Jim a small golden sphere to keep hold of just as he dies. The inn is then broken into by a cyborg and his crew who Bones had warned was following him. Jim, his mother, and their family friend, Dr. Delbert Doppler, manage to escape; however, the inn is set on fire and completely destroyed.

At Dr. Doppler’s home, Jim discovers that this sphere is actually a map to Treasure Planet. Jim and Dr. Doppler decide to set off on a voyage to find this planet, with Dr. Doppler financing the trip. They board the RLS Legacy with feline Captain Amelia, her first mate Mr. Arrow, and a crew of ruffians. Jim is put to work on the ship, which I think is really unfair, because he was given the map and figured out what it was after all, why should he have to work when this is all happening because of him? Anyway, Jim is ordered to work under the supervision of John Silver, the cyborg cook, who Jim is suspicious of right from the start as Billy Bones had told him in his dying breath: “beware the cyborg”. Jim does, however, like Silver’s shape-shifting pink glob pet, Morph.

The RLS Legacy sets sail, though Captain Amelia remains concerned about some of the crew on board, not liking this crew that Dr. Doppler hired. The voyage is not without struggles, like the ship almost being sucked into a supernova and black hole which threatens to consume all of them. Jim and Silver have become close during their time working together after their initial dislike for one another, but in the chaos of the black hole, Jim is blamed for the death of Mr. Arrow. Jim is devastated, believing he checked all of the crew’s ropes that kept them attached to the ship, their “lifelines”. Little does Jim know that indeed some of this crew is dodgy, because the spider-like Scroop deliberately cut Mr. Arrow’s lifeline rope and sent him spiralling into deep space.

The dodgy crew becomes more dodgy shortly after the RLS Legacy begins to approach Treasure Planet. It soon becomes clear that Silver is actually running this crew and he is after the treasure. Him and the crew commandeer the ship, leaving Amelia, Doppler and Jim to escape quickly, grabbing the spherical map to ensure Silver can’t get it, and they crash onto a strange planet. Amelia is injured in the escape. Jim meets a crazy robot called B.E.N. who helps him figure out that this planet is actually Treasure Planet. Jim then works out that the map is actually Morph, who shape-shifted into the map during the chaotic escape. Jim realises that the real map is still on the ship. Jim, Morph and B.E.N. watch as Silver and his crew land on Treasure Planet and they steal a small boat to get back onto the RLS Legacy to look for the map. Jim is attacked by Scroop as he does so, but through some quick-thinking and some mis-steps by B.E.N. that cause him to disable the artificial gravity, Jim manages to push Scroop out into deep space.

On returning to Amelia and Dr. Doppler, Jim, B.E.N. and Morph see that the two have been captured by Silver and his crew, and Jim is forced to give up the map. They discover that the map is actually full of portals, with one of the portals allowing them to get to the centre of Treasure Planet. In the centre, they find the whole area covered in treasure and Silver’s crew begin to collect it up. For some reason, B.E.N. is reminded of something but as he does not have his memory, he can’t recall what is troubling him. Jim discovers the skeleton of Captain Flint, the hoarder of the treasure, holding B.E.N.’s memory circuit. Jim reinstalls it, which allows B.E.N. to remember everything. He tells the others that Captain Flint rigged the planet to explode if ever his treasure was discovered, and that his memory was pulled out of him so that this secret would never be revealed.

Everyone quickly tries to escape the centre of the planet as it begins to explode. Silver abandons his treasure to help Jim, who almost falls to his death, and they get everyone back on board the RLS Legacy again to leave the planet. However, the ship has been damaged and will not be able to outrun the explosion. Jim figures out that they can use the map’s portals to simply exit to a different location. He quickly builds a mini solar surfing board and makes his way to the map to change portal destinations as Dr. Doppler steers the RLS Legacy towards it. They succeed, returning to Montressor, as the whole planet explodes behind them. Later on, Jim sees Silver trying to leave without being seen. Despite Silver holding him hostage on Treasure Planet and tricking him into believing he was one of the good guys, Jim allows him to go, although it is clear that he will miss his newfound friend. Silver offers for Jim to go along with him, but Jim doesn’t want to, realising that Silver taught him to “chart his own course”. Silver heads away, but leaves Jim with Morph and half of the treasure he managed to steal, so that Jim’s mother can rebuild the Benbow Inn – that Silver just so happened to destroy… Silver also tells Jim that he is something special.

Back home in Montressor, the Benbow Inn has been rebuilt and B.E.N. is now a waiter; Dr. Doppler and Amelia have four children; and Jim has become a cadet at the Interstellar Academy. As the party at the Benbow goes on, Jim looks up to the sky and sees an image of Silver in the clouds, showing that Silver will always be watching over him.

CHARACTERS & CAST

In my opinion, all the characters in Treasure Planet are well-developed and all of them serve a purpose to the overall story. Jim is a typical teenager at the start of the film, albeit not one you really want to root for. He’s a trouble-maker, who gives his mother constant reason for worry, even though it’s clear Jim doesn’t mean to be a problem; he just doesn’t know what he wants to be or how to be himself. He represents a lot of teenagers, not knowing what to do or how to feel, struggling to deal with past trauma, and generally feeling quite confused and lost. Jim Hawkins was made to be slightly older in Treasure Planet than he seems to be in the book Treasure Island, and that was to widen the appeal of the movie to teenagers, as Disney is predominantly known for making “kids’ movies”, something that instantly uninterests most teens. Jim goes on an emotional “coming-of-age” journey throughout the film, with his relationship with Silver having much to do with that. Despite initial friction between the two, Silver ends up being a mentor and father-figure to Jim, something that he very much needs after his own father ran out on him and his mother.

Silver and Jim have some very touching moments during Treasure Planet, such as when they say goodbye at the end of the film and when Jim is blamed for Mr. Arrow’s death; he feels hopeless again after having gained some confidence, until Silver comes over and tells him that the incident wasn’t his fault, and “you’ve got the makings of greatness in you”. It’s a sweet and heart-warming scene – especially when you realise that Silver is actually the bad guy here! John Silver is a great “villain” in Treasure Planet, because he has hidden depths to his character. He’s torn between carrying out his mission, and obsession of finally getting his hands on the treasure, but he also ends up caring about Jim and doesn’t want him to get hurt, or get caught up in the middle of his scheme. Silver is also very funny at times, with his crazy cyborg mechanics and some great lines of dialogue.

Jim Hawkins is voiced Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Gordon-Levitt began his career as a child actor, starring in movies such as A River Runs Through It (1992) and Angels in the Outfield (1994), and in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) as Tommy. He later appeared in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), before working on Treasure Planet. In more recent years, he has starred in movies such as 500 Days of Summer (2009), Lincoln (2012), Snowden (2016), in the title role, and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).

John Silver is voiced by Brian Murray, a South African actor, who had roles on stage, screen, and in radio throughout his career. He received three Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performances in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1968, The Little Foxes in 1997, and The Crucible in 2002. Murray directed stage productions as well, such as Blithe Spirit in 1987. On screen, Murray appeared in The League of Gentleman (1960). Murray was also nominated for an Annie Award for his voice acting as Silver in Treasure Planet in 2002. He passed away in August 2018.

Let’s not forget Silver’s little sidekick, the lovable Morph. Morph is the shape-shifting blob who doesn’t talk but fills the screen with such cheeky personality it’s impossible not to like him and laugh at the silly things he does to annoy or entertain Jim and Silver. Morph is so adorable and even though he doesn’t say anything, he really lights up the screen. Morph is meant to be like Silver’s pet parrot in the original Treasure Island novel. Morph ended up being a completely hand-drawn character, by animator Mike Show, as it was too difficult to transform Morph into all the objects and people he turns into using CGI. The character’s design was inspired by how water moves in zero-gravity. Morph is voiced Sound Editor Dane Davis, who won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing in 2000 for The Matrix (1999).

Then, there is the odd couple of Captain Amelia and Dr. Doppler, who have a funny dynamic, but they are very likeable as a couple and as characters here. They start off hating each other, and end up falling in love. They both have some of the best lines, like Amelia saying “Cup of tea, and I’ll be right as rain” after she gets shot, which is so typically British, and “You can’t help people with a doctorate, you just sit there, and you’re useless.” Dr. Doppler is a bit square and awkward, a dog-like astronomer, so kind of nerdy as well, whereas Captain Amelia is the stoic and straight-talking feline captain of the RLS Legacy. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly – and one of those fools just happens to be Dr. Doppler at the start – and she is not afraid to use her authority to get things done right. If there had to be a love story within Treasure Planet, I’m glad it was between these two completely different personalities. It just shows that opposites do attract! Supposedly, there was actually a line cut from the final edit of the film that would’ve stated that Doppler had actually given birth to their four children; it was decided this was probably too much information for the kids!

Captain Amelia is voiced by Dame Emma Thompson, who made Amelia such a great character by voicing her lines with so much dry humour and sarcasm. Again, very British. She was very enthusiastic about voicing the character. Thompson was made a Dame in 2018 by Queen Elizabeth II, many years after her very successful career in acting began. Thompson has had numerous roles on stage and screen, both serious, dramatic and comedic roles. She was actually a member of the Cambridge Footlights, a comedy troupe, whilst at Cambridge University so began her on-screen career as a comedian. She was part of the comedy group at the same time as other well-known actors and comedians, such as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Following on from this, she starred in numerous adaptations of Shakespeare plays, and period dramas, such as Howards End (1992), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Remains of the Day (1993). Just a couple of years later, she wrote the screenplay for and starred as Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. From then on, Dame Emma Thompson has continued to light up our screens, with roles like Professor Trelawny in the Harry Potter film series; Nanny McPhee in Nanny McPhee (2005) and its 2010 sequel; and as one of the ensemble cast in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually (2003). For Disney and Pixar, Thompson voiced the character of Queen Elinor in Brave (2012), gave a heart-wrenching performance as P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks (2013), and became the snobby, and “cruel”, Baroness von Hellman for Cruella (2021).

David Hyde Pierce voiced Dr. Doppler. He continues to be most well-known for his role as Dr. Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier (1993-2004), for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, along with two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series, and one as part of the Ensemble Cast award. In a way, Dr. Doppler is a bit like Niles! David Hyde Pierce was asked to voice Dr. Doppler whilst he was working on Pixar’s A Bug’s Life (1998), in which he voiced the stick insect, Slim. He loved the character of Doppler and was very happy to voice him. He has continued to work on screen and stage, in productions such as Spamalot from 2004 to 2006, where he played Sir Robin, and as Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway from 2017 to 2018. Most recently, he appeared in the series Julia (2022-23) as Julia Child’s husband, Paul, and on stage is set to play the role of Major General in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway in 2025.

The final main character to mention is B.E.N., the nervy, crazy robot. His name stands for Bio Electronic Navigator, but it’s just easier to call him B.E.N. He’s absolutely hilarious because he has no idea how to talk to anyone, having been isolated on Treasure Planet for so long, so he has no concept of how to behave in a social setting, and ends up talking super-loudly, even when Jim tries to shut him up, and is desperate for Jim to like him and be his friend. B.E.N. is an entirely CGI character.

B.E.N. is voiced by comedic actor Martin Short, who got his big break appearing alongside Steve Martin and Chevy Chase in the comedy film ¡Three Amigos! (1986), after starring in sketch comedy shows such as SCTV (Second City Television) from 1982 to 1983, and then in Saturday Night Live from 1984 to 1985. In the 1990s, he teamed up with Steve Martin again to be a complete scene-sealer as Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride (1991) and its 1995 sequel, and its 2020 short film. Short has also portrayed roles in numerous Disney projects, like for theme park attractions such as CinéMagique for Disneyland Paris, which ran from 2002 to 2017; The Making of Me for the Wonders of Life pavilion in Epcot – the less said about that, the better – which lasted from 1989 to 2007; and O Canada!, running from 2007 to 2019 for the Canada pavilion in Epcot; and in Disney’s films, like a voice part in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure, as Jack Frost in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), and as Lumière in Beauty and the Beast: A 30^th Celebration (2022). Short also continues to voice characters for animated children’s films that aren’t Disney, such as Stefano in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012) for DreamWorks and Father Willoughby in The Willoughbys (2020) for Netflix. Currently, Martin Short continues to perform shows with his long-time friend and comedy sparring partner Steve Martin, as well as act with him and Selena Gomez in the popular comedy-mystery series Only Murders in the Building (2021-present). Can you tell I’m a big fan of his?

There are a few other supporting characters to mention as well. One of these is Scroop, the “spider psycho” as Jim and Morph like to call him! He is a very scary character, with his deep, gravelly voice having a lot to do with that, as well as his spider-like characteristics, like huge eyes, fangs and claws. Michael Wincott voices the character, and some of his credits include Guy of Gisbourne in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); Ed Gein in Hitchcock (2012); and hacker Adrian Cross on the TV miniseries 24: Live Another Day (2014). The secretive, dying pirate Billy Bones, who Jim Hawkins meets at the start of the movie and receives the map from, was voiced by Patrick McGoohan in his final film role. McGoohan had appeared in the British television series Danger Man (1960-68), for which he won a BAFTA award for Best Actor; Escape from Alcatraz (1979) as Warden Arthur Dollison; and as King Edward Longshanks in Braveheart (1995). Supposedly, McGoohan had a cold when it came time for him to record lines for Billy Bones. The animators weren’t concerned as Bones had to sound like he was unwell, so it worked for them[1]!

A few more actors to mention are the voices of Jim’s mother, Mr. Arrow, and the narrator of Jim’s bedtime story. Jim’s kind, but exasperated, mother is voiced by Laurie Metcalfe, known as the voice of Andy’s mother in the Toy Story franchise of films to Disney fans. The strait-laced Mr. Arrow is voiced by Roscoe Lee Browne, who had voiced Francis in Oliver & Company (1988) for Disney, and Tony Jay is the narrator of the bedtime story. He had voiced Monsieur D’Arque in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) before Treasure Planet. There are so many brilliant actors credited in Treasure Plant, I wonder whether many of them even remember doing this film, and if they do, whether they are proud of it…. I hope so. The script is so full of humour that it’s easy to stay interested and involved in the story, and I think the actors have a lot to do with that.

MUSIC

Moving on to the music. Treasure Planet, like most of the other Disney animated movies released in the 2000s, is not a musical, unlike the movies of the Disney “Renaissance”. Although it does include some songs, they are not sung by any of the characters. There are only two songs in the movie, both written by John Rzeznik, founder and frontman of the rock band The Goo Goo Dolls, who had hits with songs like “Iris”, “Slide”, and “Better Days”.

Rzeznik wrote the song “I’m Still Here”, which is also known as “Jim’s Theme”. It plays during the sequence where Silver is teaching Jim how to be a real space sailor and learn some responsibility, but we also see some backstory of Jim’s father leaving him and his mother without even saying goodbye to Jim. This shows the hurt that Jim has kept inside him for all those years and why he acts out, getting himself in trouble. This is Jim saying how lost he feels and wondering why no-one seems to see anything of worth in him. This is my favourite of the two songs, so there wasn’t much to choose from, but it is a very underrated song from a Disney animated movie, because there is so much emotion running through it. The lyrics actually mean something outside of the film. It’s a beautiful song and scene.

The other song written for the film which plays during the End Credits is “Always Know Where You Are”. It’s quite an upbeat song that ends the film nicely, as it shows that Jim is happy to be back home, and feeling more settled with an actual career path ahead of him. It is performed by the British band BBMak, who released the popular singles “Back Here” and “Still On Your Side”. It’s a perfect “walking-out-of-the-cinema-after-seeing-a-really-great-movie” sort of song, if that makes sense. Sadly, it doesn’t sound like too many people experienced Treasure Planet at the theatres, so it was perhaps a bit of a waste…

The score for Treasure Planet was composed by James Newton Howard, in his third for Disney Feature Animation. He had previously composed the scores for Dinosaur (2000) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). James Newton Howard has composed scores for various film including The Hunger Games series of films, and the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, as well as Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) and Jungle Cruise (2021) for Disney.

Treasure Planet’s score combines the futuristic elements of the story with traditional instrumentals. I particularly like the piece “Silver Leaves”, which plays during that moving moment when Silver and Jim are saying goodbye, possibly forever. I also like “Silver Comforts Jim”, after Jim believes that he was to blame for Mr. Arrow’s death during the chaos of the black hole. Any piece of music playing during a scene with Silver and Jim is amazing. In terms of the more action-filled scenes, James Newton Howard’s score compliments those moments too, with that feeling of adventure and bravery. These moments sound quite similar to the instrumental pieces in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), I think, albeit Treasure Planet does sound more “piratey”, with a frequent use of pipes.

PRODUCTION

Looking at the animation for Treasure Planet, it is clear that the backgrounds are absolutely stunning. Disney wanted a “storybook” feeling to the artistic style of Treasure Planet. They ended up replicating an illustration style called the Brandywine School which had been taught by Howard Pyle to artists such as N.C. Wyeth’s, who created the original illustrations for the 1911 edition of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The style followed ideas like choosing warm colour palettes, making the scenes appear to be bathed in light, and not making everything so crisp in detail. They wanted to put that same type of illustration into this new modern, space adaptation. The space backgrounds feel really magical, and I think overall the film looks impressive.

The Disney team could also take advantage of technological improvements when designing Treasure Planet. Firstly, they were able to hand draw characters and place them onto 3D backgrounds, and they could make fully computer-generated characters, such as B.E.N. They created hybrid characters too, and one of these is John Silver. John Silver is a hand-drawn character by animator Glen Keane, with a computer-generated arm, leg, and headpiece animated by Eric Daniels. To see how the two different animation styles would work together, the team used Captain Hook for inspiration. They relayed a digital arm onto previous footage from Peter Pan (1953) so they could see just how it would look on screen.

They also took advantage of previous technological advancements at the Disney Studios by using their Deep Canvas technology. It had been used in Tarzan (1999) and won a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 2003. This technology allowed for CGI backgrounds to be produced that looked like traditional paintings. It was used to create about 75% of the environments in Treasure Planet. The Disney team also used Virtual Sets, which allowed for 3D, 360-degree sets to be created so that sequences could be staged and shot from different angles. One of these was the RLS Legacy ship, named RLS after Robert Louis Stevenson[2]. The Disney studios made the entire film using the “70/30 law”, which meant ensuring that not only the art styling and the characters, but also the sound and music, were 70% traditional and 30% science-fiction, though it could be argued the film is more science fantasy, as it is based in an alternative version of the future. The movie is not set in space as we would know it; in fact, it takes place in “the etherium”, an atmosphere that is more like a space ocean with breathable air and life. This meant that characters wouldn’t need oxygen tanks or spacesuits, and could freely move around space[3].

So, that’s all the good stuff about Treasure Planet. Now, let’s see what went wrong. Well, to begin with, it’s actually a very nice story. Ron Clements and John Musker first met during production on The Fox and the Hound (1981). The two then teamed up as story artists on The Black Cauldron (1985) during early stages of development, but were later removed from the project along with many others. Clements then pitched the idea of an animated picture based on the stories of Sherlock Holmes; this became The Great Mouse Detective, which both Clements and Musker directed, and was the next feature film to be released after The Black Cauldron. The Great Mouse Detective was a successful film.

This all took place during the difficulties that Disney Animation faced in the mid-1980s, when new executives were brought in from outside studios to manage the Walt Disney Company. Michael Eisner, the new CEO, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the new Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, brought in a new way of pitching ideas, something they called “the gong show”, where anyone could pitch ideas for new projects that Eisner and Katzenberg would either approve, or “gong”, i.e., reject. Musker had an idea for an edgy retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and Clements put forward both The Little Mermaid and Treasure Island in Space during the “gong show” in 1985. Katzenberg hated both of Clements’ proposals, but specifically disliked Treasure Island in Space because he said Disney didn’t want to make a science-fiction or pirate film, and that a story following a teenage boy without a love interest would not be a good sell to potential audiences.

Katzenberg did eventually approve The Little Mermaid (1989), which was directed by Clements and Musker and was a massive hit, signalling the start of Disney’s “Renaissance Era”, a time when Disney Animation was booming. However, Clements did not want to let his idea of Treasure Island in Space be forgotten, so, along with Musker, they re-worked the proposal to become Treasure Planet. It was pitched to the executives again, and was rejected – again. Instead, the two directed Aladdin (1992), which was also hugely popular and a box-office smash. But the pair just couldn’t let go of Treasure Planet.

In 1993, the two pitched the idea again and it was, once again, rejected, but this time, Roy E. Disney said that he did actually like the idea, and brought it up with Michael Eisner. Eisner was more receptive to the idea, but Katzenberg was not, and was annoyed at Roy E. Disney seemingly going behind his back about it. In the end, Katzenberg made a deal with Clements and Musker, based on the fact that the two had directed some major movies for Disney Animation. The two had to make one more Disney animated movie and then they could work on Treasure Planet. They set to work on Hercules (1997). Katzenberg left Disney in October 1994, so to ensure Clements and Musker were still allowed to make Treasure Planet, the two signed a seven-year-contract with the specific stipulation that after directing Hercules, they were free to work on Treasure Planet or another project of their choice. So once Hercules was done and released, Clements and Musker got to work – finally – on their “passion project”. They didn’t mind the long wait to this point particularly, though, as it meant that technology had advanced significantly in that time.

The reason that setting Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island in space was so important to Clements and Musker was because they wanted it to be new, fresh, and exciting to a younger generation. It was first written as a serial story within the children’s magazine Young Folks in 1881 and 1882. It was first published as a book in November 1883. It has since been adapted in many media formats, including as a 1934 film, starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper as Silver and Jim respectively, and Disney’s own live-action film in 1950, which starred Bobby Driscoll, who went on to voice the title role in Peter Pan (1953), as Jim Hawkins. It has also been adapted as a television series, with one being released in 2012 on Sky, with Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver. Let’s also not forget Muppet Treasure Island, released in 1996, where the Muppets were joined by real-life actors like Tim Curry and Billy Connolly, who played Silver and Billy Bones.

Apart from the change of setting and making the story more futuristic, the basic plot of Treasure Planet is similar to the original novel. The story was written by Clements and Musker, and Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, who had all written Aladdin (1992) together. Rossio and Elliott had also co-written Shrek (2001) for DreamWorks, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production. Rossio and Elliott also wrote the screenplays for some of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The screenplay was written by Clements and Musker, as well as Rob Edwards. The trio later worked on The Princess and the Frog (2009) together[4].

RECEPTION

After four and a half years of production, a reported $140 million budget, many delays, and a huge push in new animation developments, it was time for Treasure Planet to be released, in November 2002. It premiered in Paris on 6^th November, before having its US premiere on 17^th November; it was widely released on 27^th November, at both IMAX theatres and regular cinemas simultaneously. But unfortunately, even with all that money, plus a supposed $40 million marketing budget, and merchandise tie-ins with Hasbro and McDonald’s Happy Meals, Treasure Planet did not do as well as was expected. That might actually be a huge understatement.

It was deemed funny “enough” with some good supporting characters, but many did not like this futuristic take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story. Some also considered it to be “gimmicky”, whilst others did praise the animation, so reviews were mixed, but not terrible. The problem was how little money Treasure Planet brought in, despite being released at the optimal time of the holiday season. It grossed only $16.6 million in its first five-days, becoming one of the biggest financial flops in Disney Animation. It would seem that two decades later, with the release of Strange World (2022), that Strange World might now be considered the worst flop, but back in 2002, Treasure Planet was considered to be Disney’s biggest financial failure, so yes, even worse than The Black Cauldron (1985).

To be fair to Treasure Planet, it was released at the same time as movies like The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). My family did actually see Harry Potter at the cinema when it came out, but not Treasure Planet; we waited for the DVD…Great, now I have guilt…Die Another Day (2002), the new James Bond film, had also been released just a few days before, so it was likely to struggle with that competition. Disney executives reiterated that Treasure Planet was received well by test audiences, but this was not what the Walt Disney Company needed, especially as the tragic events of 9/11 had meant less footfall at their theme parks. The surprisingly positive response to Lilo & Stitch (2002) in June of that year may have given them some false hope about how Treasure Planet would be received.

Some like to say that the fact Clements and Musker’s dream project had been rejected so many times meant that it was doomed to fail from the start. Some Disney executives blame their marketing for not focusing enough on the fun elements of the story. However, some executives claimed to have foreseen issues months before its release but alas, it was too late to change anything as their release date was locked in with promotional tie-ins[5]. Another reason for its failure was that CGI had started to become immensely popular as an animation technique, as it was quicker and cheaper, and could achieve much more than hand-drawn animation. There were other studios using CGI brilliantly, like Pixar and DreamWorks, so it was hard for Disney to compete. Some would say that Disney did not understand the new and changing tastes of their audience, as Disney knew they had to move away from their “Broadway-style” as more animated features flooded the market, but were unsure where to go, and where to focus their attentions.

Surprisingly to everyone, Treasure Planet was deemed “good enough” to be nominated in the second ever Best Animated Feature Film category at the 2002 Academy Awards, along with Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, however, both lost to Spirited Away (2002). To be fair, these movies are completely different, and Spirited Away in particular has a unique style all of its own, that it’s not easy to compare them, and perhaps they shouldn’t be.

LEGACY

So, what happened next? Well, a follow-up film was actually being written before Treasure Planet was even released, so there could have been a time when a Treasure Planet 2 would have existed. It is said that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emma Thompson, and Martin Short were already attached to the film to reprise their roles, and that the story would have followed on from the first movie, and looked at Jim’s time at the Intergalactic Academy and his work role after that. A new villain, called Ironbeard, was also dreamed up with Willem Defoe allegedly lined up to voice the character. There were also rumours of a spin-off television series around this time[6].

There were plans for Treasure Planet to be used as new story material for the Submarine Voyage ride in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. There had been similar plans for this to be done with Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), a previous Disney movie release, but despite mock-ups and some light promotional work, this idea was abandoned due to Atlantis’ poor reception. Disney hoped the same would not happen with Treasure Planet, but it sadly did. Submarine Voyage would finally be rethemed in 2007, to Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003)[7].

Because of Treasure Planet’s disappointing box-office results, Disney announced that Home on the Range (2004) would be their final traditionally 2D animated film, moving into computer animation from that point onwards. Ron Clements and John Musker left Disney in September 2005, but after the acquisition of Pixar and the naming of John Lasseter as the new Chief Creative Officer at the company, Clements and Musker were invited back to Disney to direct The Princess and the Frog (2009), a movie that went back to Disney’s roots of 2D animation. Musker and Clements then directed Moana (2016), this being their first fully computer-animated film[8].

At the Disney Parks, Jim Hawkins was seen as a walkaround character at Walt Disney World Resort’s Tomorrowland in 2020 and at the Disneyland Paris FanDaze event in 2019. He was also seen as part of Disneyland Paris’ 25^th anniversary parade along with B.E.N., and even Kida and Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire. These are the most recent sightings of Treasure Planet characters that I could find. It is likely that Jim and B.E.N. did appear as meet-and-greet characters at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, at least around the time of the movie’s release in 2002. Generally, there is very little reference to Treasure Planet at any of the Disney Parks, however, for the Disney100 celebrations, there was a small amount of dialogue and footage from Treasure Planet that featured in Disneyland’s Wondrous Journeys fireworks show in 2023; it closed in August 2023. A brief glimpse of a scene from Treasure Planet can currently be found towards the end of the Wonderful World of Animation show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. Other than a few pieces of merchandise, such as ornaments and pins that were released by Disney in 2022 for the movie’s 20^th anniversary, Treasure Planet is not normally recognised by the Walt Disney Company. A live-action remake has not even been officially announced – huh? Disney, are you ok? – though it is clear that fans of the movie want it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The fact is Treasure Planet was a risk, a risk that did not pay off at the box-office, and was not received well at the time. However, it has since gained a reputation as a “cult classic”, especially popular with fans of science fantasy and those who were children around the time of its release. I think for my family there were too many choices at the time to make Treasure Planet seem like a worthy cinema choice, but times have changed. People change. I know I gave Treasure Planet another chance, and found I loved it, and there were so many things to like about it, and so much to praise here.

Treasure Planet has enough heart, humour, adventure, and artistic styling to prove popular for many years to come, and if anyone has not watched it since it came out, then please, give it another chance.

You might find it’s your new favourite.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol 8: Outer Space Edition (2019), ‘The Strange Voyage to Treasure Planet (2002), pp. 158-175.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol 8: Outer Space Edition (2019), ‘The Strange Voyage to Treasure Planet (2002), pp. 158-175.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Treasure Planet (2002)’, pp. 127-129.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol 8: Outer Space Edition (2019), ‘The Strange Voyage to Treasure Planet (2002), pp. 158-175.

[5] Credit: Richard Verrier and Claudia Eller, ‘Disney’s ‘Treasure Planet’ an Adventure in Losing Money’, Los Angeles Times (online), 6^th December 2002.

[6] Credit: Zach Gass, ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Canceled Treasure Planet 2’, ScreenRant.com, 29^th February 2020.

[7] Credit: Kayleigh Donaldson, ‘The History Of Treasure Planet, Disney Animation’s Biggest Ever Flop’, SlashFilm.com, 27^th November 2022.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol 8: Outer Space Edition (2019), ‘The Strange Voyage to Treasure Planet (2002), pp. 158-175.

8th Mar 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#29 The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

BACKGROUND

Thirteen years after the surprise success of The Rescuers in 1977 came Disney’s first theatrically-released animated full-length sequel, The Rescuers Down Under.

In that time, there had been only five other animated movies made and released by Disney Animation. The Rescuers Down Under was “lucky enough” to be sandwiched between two major successes within Disney’s “Renaissance Era”: The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991).

The late 1980s and 1990s were an exciting time for the Disney company. Their theme park division was going strong, the new management that came in to the company in the mid-1980s were settling in, and after The Little Mermaid, it seemed like the Disney animation department was finally back on track.

Or was it?

The Rescuers Down Under didn’t end up being a huge success and sadly it was seen as a bit of a zit on the face of the Disney “Renaissance Era”. And one that couldn’t be covered up easily and forgotten, because it was a hugely expensive movie to make, because it was the first Disney feature film to be made entirely using CAPS – Computer Animation Production System – which was quite a feat, because not only was the technology in its infancy at this time, but that no more than a few short sequences had been made using CAPS before, nothing even close to a full-length film.

Despite pushing boundaries in this way, the risk ultimately did not pay off. The movie did not make money at the time of its release. Just because it was a sequel to The Rescuers, its success should never have been guaranteed. Although many enjoyed some of the sequences within the film, which are indeed very impressive, for multiple reasons, it did not make the impact that was hoped for.

I didn’t think I liked The Rescuers Down Under. I hadn’t watched it in years, but as a child I must have preferred The Rescuers Down Under to the original, because on re-watching it, the scenes all felt very familiar, so we must have watched the video many times! I am pleased to say that, actually, I do still like The Rescuers Down Under, though not as much as The Rescuers. Having said that, it’s not fair to compare them as the films are very different and The Rescuers Down Under could almost stand-alone without its predecessor.

PLOT

Much like The Rescuers, The Rescuers Down Under follows the same idea: that the Rescue Aid Society receives a call for help about a child, and their mice agents are sent to rescue them from whatever danger they are in. This, however, doesn’t happen until about fifteen minutes in to the movie, unlike The Rescuers where we are introduced to the society almost right away. Instead, The Rescuers Down Under starts with an impressive opening sequence, following a boy called Cody, living in the Australian Outback with his mother. Cody spends much of his time outside with the wildlife. He is told by a kangaroo – he can communicate with animals, just go with it – that a golden eagle is trapped up on a mountain, caught in a poacher’s net.

Cody climbs the mountain ridge and frees the eagle, who then takes Cody on a glorious flight through the clouds, over rivers, and through the forest, before showing him her nest of three eggs. Cody understands the importance of keeping the eagle, called Marahute, safe from poachers. On his way home, Cody goes to save a mouse from another trap – Disney theme park fans might recognise this mouse’s voice; it is Billy Barty, voice of Figment in the Journey into Imagination attraction – but ends up falling into a hidden pit, dug by a poacher. The poacher, Percival C. McLeach, comes to retrieve his find, only to find a boy. He helps the boy out, who threatens to tell the rangers about his poaching activities, but he is about to let Cody go, when his sidekick, Joanna, a goanna, finds an eagle feather in Cody’s backpack. McLeach, having already killed the mate, wants to find this eagle, and kidnaps Cody, because he refuses to tell McLeach of her location, throwing his backpack into the nearby crocodile pit, so that the rangers will think he fell in and was presumably eaten alive.

Only now, thanks to the mouse that Cody saved, do we get to see the Rescue Aid Society again. An SOS signal is relayed across multiple countries until it finds its way to New York City, where an emergency meeting is held by the Rescue Aid Society. The two agents the Chairman wants to send, Bernard and Bianca, are out at dinner, at a fancy restaurant, where Bernard is trying to propose to Bianca. But before he can, the two are summoned to the society headquarters and immediately sent to Australia. They find that Wilbur has taken over Albatross Air from his brother Orville, who took them to Devil’s Bayou in the previous film, and convinces him to fly them to Australia, despite there being a snow storm in New York. Eventually, they get to the Australian Outback. All three have to transfer to a “bigger bird” at one point, actually a commercial jet where they hide in the cargo hold, only to dive out of it at Sydney and continue their flight to Mugwomp Flats. There, they meet Jake, a hopping mouse and a regional agent for the Rescue Aid Society who volunteers to be their guide and to help on their mission. Meanwhile, Wilbur is taken to a dodgy-looking mouse hospital, with an overzealous surgeon, after he hurts his back during landing.

From this point on, Bernard, Bianca and Jake traverse the Australian landscape, riding on snakes, and fireflies, on their way to find Cody. Jake flirts with Bianca right in front of Bernard, halting all of his attempts at proposing. Cody’s mother is told by rangers that he is presumed dead, but in reality, McLeach has locked Cody in a cage with his other animal finds, waiting for Cody to reveal the location of the eagle. Instead, Cody tries to free the animals but after a few attempts are thwarted by Joanna, McLeach has his own plan and “releases” Cody, telling him that the eagle has been killed by another poacher, so he has no use for Cody anymore. This is a trick by McLeach, as he knows Cody will go straight to the nest, as he believes the eggs have no mother now, so McLeach can follow him to the location. Bernard, Bianca, and Jake manage to find Cody at McLeach’s hideout just in time to hitch a ride on McLeach’s truck as he follows Cody to the eagle. The mice try to warn Cody, but it’s too late, and they are captured, including Marahute – except Bernard, who ends up separated from the group.

Wilbur manages to escape his medical team and finds Bernard, who instructs Wilbur to sit on the eagle eggs to keep them warm. The eggs were about to be eaten by Joanna, however, Bernard’s quick thinking meant he swapped the real eggs out for rocks. Bernard goes after McLeach, riding on a pig to get there quickly. Cody is being dangled over the crocodile pit, about to be dropped into the water, when Bernard cuts the power to the crane Cody is dangling from. McLeach resorts to shooting through the rope with his gun. Luckily, Bernard tricks Joanna into pushing McLeach into the water, and they both fall in, McLeach fighting off the crocodiles but ultimately falling to his death down the waterfall. Joanna swims to a rock and is unharmed.

Cody, at this point, has also fallen in as the rope has snapped, so Bernard goes in after him. Fortunately, Jake and Bianca have managed to free Marahute, and the eagle catches the two of them on her back as they cascade down the waterfall, saving them, and reuniting the whole team for a night-time flight over Australia, with Bernard finally proposing to Bianca to top off the happy ending. A final scene shows Wilbur still left on the nest, and the eggs hatch just as he is about to fly off.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Although Cody’s rescue is the central point of The Rescuers Down Under, surprisingly, Cody doesn’t need all that much help from Bianca and Bernard. He’s independent, and clearly knows his way around the Australian Outback. He’s not scared of anyone, so compared to Penny from the first film, he is much less likely to need, or want, help from Bernard and Bianca like she did. He is also a few years older than Penny. Cody is very brave, and clearly cares a lot about animals and conservation, judging by the number of times he risks his life to save others. Originally, the team working on the film were inspired by the aboriginal culture in Australia and wanted Cody to be an aboriginal. Jeffrey Katzenberg did not agree to this idea, as he was concerned it would decrease their chances at the box office. There was meant to be a dream sequence themed around aboriginal cave paintings too, but this idea was also abandoned. Funny thing about the cave painting idea is that the DreamWorks film worked on by Jeffrey Katzenberg, The Prince of Egypt (1998), uses a similar concept but with hieroglyphics instead. Pure coincidence, perhaps? Cody is voiced by child actor Adam Ryen here. It’s worth mentioning that Cody doesn’t sound remotely Australian, despite supposedly being from there. Nor does McLeach come to think of it…

Percival C. McLeach is an incredibly evil villain, much worse than Madame Medusa, as he is quite capable of killing anything he wants, whether that be a golden eagle, or a young boy. He keeps animals captive, he throws knives at Cody to try and scare him into giving away the eagle’s location, locks him in a cage. He’s just nasty, but like all Disney villains, he gets his comeuppance in the end, joining the club of those who fell to their deaths. Though it may’ve been more satisfying for us if McLeach had been arrested and thrown in prison for the rest of his life for his illegal poaching… McLeach is voiced by American actor George C. Scott, best known for being in movies such as Dr. Strangelove (1964), Patton (1970), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor but declined it, and A Christmas Carol (1984). Scott also received three other Oscar nominations throughout his career, for his roles in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Hustler (1961), and The Hospital (1971). He later won two Primetime Emmy Awards for some of his television work, in 12 Angry Men (1997), and Hallmark Hall of Fame, Episode: “The Price” (1997).

Some of Scott’s recording sessions for The Rescuers Down Under did not go particularly well. He was reluctant to give the big performances necessary to deliver voice-over lines, and in one case did not want to come in for a session as he’d been injured working on another film. Disney convinced him to anyway, and, unsurprisingly, he read every line once, and once only, before leaving the studio – oops! But there were other times when Scott went above and beyond for the role. During McLeach’s death scene, where he is in the river about to go over a waterfall, Scott got a bucket filled with water and dunked his head into it between lines to give the true feeling that McLeach was sort of drowning! Scott drew the line at singing though, so those scenes of McLeach singing a weird poacher version of “Home on the Range” were actually sung by Frank Welker, who also “voiced” Marahute the eagle, and McLeach’s sidekick, Joanna[1].

Speaking of Joanna, she is a goanna, who is very obedient to McLeach, despite the fact he doesn’t care much about her, if at all, and frequently scolds her. Joanna is like the security guard, making sure every one of McLeach’s captives stays in line, alerting McLeach to any trouble-makers. She actually reminds me a lot of the lizard in Toy Story of Terror (2013) that collects all the toys from the motel so the manager can sell them online, in both look and behaviour. Goannas are Australian monitor lizards that can grow to huge sizes. The Disney artists studied these animals at the San Diego Zoo, as well as other Australian creatures, like koalas and kangaroos, and some were brought to the studio for further study.

Those are the new main characters that appear in The Rescuers Down Under. But obviously, Bernard and Bianca make a comeback, though Bianca isn’t as strong and independent as she was in The Rescuers, potentially due to the fact that she doesn’t know Australia or its wildlife well, so is happy to let Jake, their guide, lead the way. The CAPS technology did allow Bianca to look as glamorous as she did in the first film though, even being able to apply her perfect make-up, with details like eyeshadow and rouge that would’ve been difficult to achieve perfectly in every frame with hand-drawn animation[2]. Bernard becomes more heroic in this film, more-or-less single-handedly saving Cody from his grisly almost-death at the crocodile pits, protecting Marahute’s eggs, and tricking Joanna into pushing McLeach off the cliff into the crocodile pits. He has the majority of the action scenes, plus, we spend the whole movie rooting for him to finally propose to Bianca, which he finally succeeds in doing at the very end.

Bernard is voiced by American actor and comedian Bob Newhart, reprising his role from The Rescuers. Newhart starred in his own comedy variety show The Bob Newhart Show (1961-62), for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star, and went on to star in the sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), a huge hit at the time. He won three Grammy awards in 1961 for his comedy albums. Modern audiences may remember him as Papa Elf in Elf (2003) and as Professor Proton, a recurring guest role, in The Big Bang Theory (2007-19) for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, and its spin-off show Young Sheldon (2017-24). Bianca is voiced by Hungarian-American actress Eva Gabor, also reprising her role from the first film. Gabor appeared in stage productions, television series, and films throughout her career from the 1940s until her death in 1995. Some of her credits include portraying Liane d’Exelmans in Gigi (1958), which won all nine of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the Oscars ceremony in 1959, and Lisa Douglas in the sitcom Green Acres (1965-71). She had previously voiced the also glamourous and beautiful Duchess in The Aristocats (1970) for Disney before The Rescuers.

The other important mouse in The Rescuers Down Under is Aussie hopping mouse, Jake, who instantly falls for Bianca and spends most of the movie either flirting with her, or trying to impress her with his skills at navigation and neutralising animal threats. He makes Bernard immediately jealous, and though Jake isn’t openly trying to steal Bianca away, or being rude or mean to Bernard, you have to feel for Bernard at this point, and you just want Jake to leave the two of them alone. Jake doesn’t seem to be too well-developed as a character because we don’t get to see much of him, which is a shame. There could’ve been a lot more made of that love triangle dynamic, I think, but he gives another comedic element to the movie. Jake is voiced by Australian-American actor, Tristan Rogers, potentially best known for his recurring role as Robert Scorpio since 1980 in the ABC soap opera General Hospital (1963-present).

Then there is Wilbur, who flies Bernard and Bianca to Australia after they look for his brother, Orville, who flew them in the first film, however, Jim Jordan, voice of Orville in The Rescuers, passed away in April 1988, so the new character of Wilbur was created. These two albatrosses are named after the aviation pioneers, the Wright Brothers. Wilbur is voiced by John Candy and you can tell he had a lot of fun working on this film! He improvised many of the vocals for Wilbur. Candy provides much of the comical side of The Rescuers Down Under, something that was lacking in the original The Rescuers. I love John Candy, so I love Wilbur as a character, even though I don’t think many of his plot points were necessary, like his strange, held-against-his-will back surgery…But he’s a fun character nonetheless. Candy rose to fame in the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television (SCTV) in the 1970s, alongside many other famous Canadian comedians such as Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short. He then began to appear in various comedy films, specifically in the 1980s, like The Blue Brothers (1980), Splash (1984), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), and Uncle Buck (1989). For Disney, he also starred in Cool Runnings (1993). John Candy sadly passed away in March 1994 at the age of 43. Gone much too soon…

There is also a collection of supporting characters of animals, such as Krebbs the Koala, a prisoner of McLeach who is incredibly pessimistic and a bit of a downer really, voiced by Douglas Seale, who went on to voice the Sultan in Aladdin (1992), and highly-strung, neurotic frill-necked lizard, Frank, another prisoner of McLeach, voiced by Wayne Robson. Their subplot is a bit thin too, so we don’t get to see too much of them, other than them trying to escape with Cody’s help, and then having no idea what happens to them in the end! Do they get released, or do they stay there forever?

Another supporting but very important animal character in this film is Marahute. Cody has a special connection with the golden eagle throughout the movie, after he rescues her from a trap at the start. The whole introductory sequence of Cody helping Marahute, and then him seeing her nest was always planned, however, originally, Marahute was going to speak, like the majority of the other animals in The Rescuers Down Under – Joanna is the only other one who doesn’t, which is a bit strange. Surely, they should all talk, or they all shouldn’t? Why are some more special? Anyway, that’s beside the point! The original scene included dialogue from Marahute, but it was then changed to see how it would look being wordless instead, and the animators found that the scene worked much better without the eagle talking, and I definitely agree[3]. How weird would that have been if Marahute had talked? Glen Keane was the animator for Marahute, who had animated Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989) before this film, and went on to animate The Beast afterwards.

MUSIC

Luckily, the team working on The Rescuers Down Under decided to let the music do the talking in that scene. Like The Black Cauldron (1985), The Rescuers Down Under does not include any songs, making this only the second Disney animated film to do so. Instead, it relies heavily on its score, composed by Bruce Broughton. This was Broughton’s first score for an animated film, but he went on to compose other scores for Disney movies such as Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and its 1996 sequel, and Bambi II (2006). He also composed music for other well-known movies such as Miracle on 34^th Street (1994) and Silverado (1985); the score for Silverado was nominated at the Academy Awards. Broughton has also won Emmy Awards for his musical compositions for television, such as those for Dallas (1978-91), winning two in 1983 and 1984.

I have a few favourite pieces within the score that I’d like to mention. The first is the “Main Title”, which features as the camera is rushing forward towards Ayers Rock, or Uluru, and Cody’s home. When I was younger it felt like this scene went on for so long, but it actually only takes about a minute. Another is “Message Montage”, which plays as the call for help is being relayed all over the world to get from Australia to New York City, and we get to follow the map as the message travels across the Earth.

But probably the most well-known instrumental within the score is “Cody’s Flight”. It is played during the most popular and iconic scene in The Rescuers Down Under. It’s a visually stunning scene, thanks to the computer animation, as the landscapes look so lifelike. You can see the wind blowing through Cody’s hair, and the eagle has such fine details, down to the feathers and the eyes, that couldn’t have been sustained if it had been hand-drawn. So many of the landscapes look so real, and the animals so life-like, it is breath-taking in places. Wilbur flying over the sights of Australia, like the Sydney Opera House, is another highlight. The music here is called “Bianca’s Kiss/Arrival Down Under”.

PRODUCTION

The latest advances in technology helped Disney create a majestic Australian setting, like the sequences above, where you can feel how big the area is both generally, and for the mice detectives. As I’ve already mentioned, The Rescuers Down Under was not hand-drawn. It was made with the most important development to be used by Disney at the time: the use of CAPS. Not only did CAPS keep costs down, but it meant that shots that were not possible before could be made now[4]. Disney had only used this technology occasionally in the 1980s, but that all changed with The Rescuers Down Under. CAPS allowed the digitalisation of inking and colouring animated cels, eliminating the need for this process to be done by hand. It also allowed for zoom effects, tracking shots, and multiplane camera shots. CAPS had been developed by Pixar who had spent much of the 1980s doing small but interesting pieces with it, such as the Luxo Jr. and Tin Toy shorts, which are remembered to this day. Pixar had originally been a part of Lucasfilm computer division only to become its own corporation in 1986, with financial backing from Steve Jobs. This would be Pixar and Disney collaborating to make a full-length feature film using the technology, something that hadn’t been done before, and that Pixar would not achieve on their own until 1995 with Toy Story. There was immense pressure to make a full film using this very new system, but Disney wanted to explore what CAPS could do for their animation business[5].

Off the back of the disaster that was The Black Cauldron in 1985, Disney Animation President Peter Schneider was approached with an opportunity: to use CAPS to benefit the Animation Department. He was told that it would be able to capture more complicated shots, and could give as much depth and fluidity of movement as a live-action film. Schneider discussed the possibility of using CAPS with Roy E. Disney around 1985, who championed the idea and pushed it forward. However, the cost of implementing it would be around $10 million, so Disney had to try to sell it to the executives of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and, most especially, the Chief Financial Officer Frank Wells. Eventually, Wells agreed to sign the cheque to use the technology, although there is some debate around whether it was Eisner or Roy E. Disney who managed to convince Wells to do this!

One of the first examples of Disney using CAPS was in the opening sequence of an episode of The Magical World of Disney, which aired in September 1988. This sequence involved Tinker Bell flying towards Florida, with the camera then swooping around Spaceship Earth. Animated Sorcerer Mickey was on top of Spaceship Earth at Epcot, where he then shot magic out of his fingertips which materialised mouse ears on top of the water tower, dubbed the “Earffel Tower”, which was the original icon of the soon-to-be-opened Disney-MGM Studios theme park. The Disney Feature Animation Florida Studio that resided within the grounds of Disney-MGM Studios contributed around ten minutes of footage to The Rescuers Down Under, as well as ten minutes of the Mickey Mouse featurette that was released alongside it in theatres, The Prince and the Pauper (1990)[6].

After a few other small uses, it was boldly decided that CAPS should be used to make a full-feature. Peter Schneider brought in Thomas Schumacher, a theatrical producer who had worked on the 1984 Olympics, as a producer and asked Mike Gabriel and Hendel Butoy, who had just finished working on Oliver & Company (1988), to direct it. Gabriel was initially reluctant to accept. Though he was a fan of the original The Rescuers, he couldn’t understand why it would get a sequel and didn’t really believe it would work. Schneider simply said it was chosen because The Rescuers was Disney’s highest grossing film of the past ten years, bringing in around $200 million against a $7.5 million budget. Despite his concerns, Gabriel did eventually agree to direct The Rescuers Down Under. After some discussion, a research trip was greenlit for production to go to Australia for two weeks, where Gabriel and Butoy were joined by story artist Joe Ranft and animator Pixote Hunt. Research trips were not a common part of the production process at the time, so it was quite a big deal, especially to go to the other side of the world! Five members of production took a research trip to the Australian Outback, going on a 4,000-mile expedition to look at the landscapes and natural environments, such as Ayers Rock, to study them for use in the film.

The CAPS system was being built alongside the film being made, so there were a lot of setbacks and problems, like work having to start again, bigger computers being needed. It was a lot of stress and pressure to get it finished on time. In the end, it cost Disney more like $30 million instead of the $10 million that Wells had agreed to. This wouldn’t have been a concern had Disney known that the making of The Rescuers Down Under would lead to CAPS being used for bigger movies like The Lion King (1994), but they didn’t, so naturally, the executives were nervous.

RECEPTION

To offset any potential loss, The Rescuers Down Under was released with the 25-minute Mickey Mouse featurette, The Prince and the Pauper, which was the final Disney piece to use the traditional ink-and-paint process, as well as being the first animated short to be produced by Disney to accompany a feature film release. The twin-feature was released in November 1990 in the US, being warmly but not rapturously received[7].

The animation was praised, particularly the flight scenes, and some of the comedic scenes were enjoyed, but there are many more reasons why The Rescuers Down Under may not have done as well as hoped. Australia was believed to be the choice of location for the sequel to The Rescuers as there had been an increase in interest in Australian culture in the United States in the 1980s, perhaps in part due to the film Crocodile Dundee (1986) which was hugely popular in America, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of the year there. Paul Hogan, who played the titular character, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. As well as Crocodile Dundee, the 1980s also saw the rise of Australian actors like Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman, and the start of the Mad Max franchise. However, the interest in “Aussie culture” was not sustained into the 1990s, so The Rescuers Down Under may have just missed its mark[8].

Another reason was that The Rescuers Down Under was released at the same time as smash Christmas hit Home Alone (1990). This is incredibly unfortunate and cannot be predicted, much like The Princess and the Frog (2009) being overshadowed by Avatar (2009) at the box office. There were also comments over the lack of songs, as The Little Mermaid (1989) had just revitalised the Disney standard for making Broadway-style animated fairy-tale movies. The Rescuers Down Under was only the second Disney film at the time, after The Black Cauldron (1985), to not include any songs; a “mistake” Disney would not make again for many years! The Rescuers Down Under is also quite dark, with a particularly evil, real, villain. There are many threats to life in this movie, which I was surprised about when re-watching, though I didn’t notice it much when I was younger.

For whatever reason, The Rescuers Down Under did not do well at the box office. Mike Gabriel received a call from Jeffrey Katzenberg during its opening weekend. The results were not good. Gabriel was told it made $5 million, but that it was ok, and they would move on to a new idea. That weekend, all advertising was pulled for the movie. Gabriel was devastated[9]. Bob Newhart, voice of Bernard, apparently wrote a note to Mike Gabriel saying not to worry about the box office result and that he was proud of the film regardless. Not long after this disappointment, Gabriel did have a new idea – to base a new animated feature on the historical figure Pocahontas[10].

LEGACY

There is very little reference to The Rescuers Down Under in the Disney theme parks, and in the media. Bernard and Bianca were available as walkaround characters in the Disney theme parks in the 1970s after the release of The Rescuers in 1977 and the two reappeared in promotional events for The Rescuers Down Under, but they are much rarer to see now. For example, Bernard and Bianca have only been spotted at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland within the last few years; Bernard and Bianca appeared at the Disneyland after Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite in both 2022 and 2023, but did not return in 2024. No new characters from The Rescuers Down Under ever appeared. In 2020, The Rescuers Down Under celebrated its 30^th anniversary so new merchandise lines, such as pins and ornaments were released then.

There were plans for a third movie, but after John Candy’s death in 1994 and Eva Gabor’s in 1995, it was cancelled. Given the financial failure of The Rescuers Down Under, and the fact that this put off many Disney executives from ever releasing a sequel theatrically, this would probably have been a direct-to-video sequel[11].

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Rescuers Down Under is more action-packed, with more peril and life-threatening moments than The Rescuers. But it is also much more comical than the oftentimes depressing The Rescuers. I do like both plots; they are just incredibly different. There are a few unanswered questions by the end of The Rescuers Down Under though. One being does Wilbur get back to Bernard and Bianca, getting them all home to New York, or is he forever stuck on Marahute’s nest? Another being, does Marahute get back to her nest? As her eggs have just hatched, she really ought to be there! What happened to the animals that were being held captive at McLeach’s hideout? I can only assume Cody told the rangers that there were animals there, and the rangers released them. We also don’t get to see the reunion between Cody and his mother, which I think would’ve been a nice ending to really tie up some of the loose ends.

Despite the critiques of The Rescuers Down Under, I quite enjoyed watching it, especially for the beautiful landscapes, and daring scenes. Disney didn’t want to detract from the story or the imagery by making it a musical, and I still think The Rescuers Down Under has a place in the hearts of many children who grew up in the 1990s, many who would not have seen The Rescuers initially, showing it could stand-alone.

The strangest thing about The Rescuers Down Under is that it sits right in the middle of two major Disney successes: The Little Mermaid in 1989 and Beauty and the Beast in 1991. The Rescuers Down Under may not feel like it should be a part of the Disney “Renaissance Era” to some, but to me, it does. This wasn’t meant to be a time when Disney used a tried-and-tested formula and just repeated that. Find a book, stick in a song here and there, and you’ve got a hit Disney animated feature film? That’s not how it works.

They had to try new ideas, they had to try new technologies to fit in with the times, and that’s exactly what The Rescuers Down Under did. It was the very first digital film to be produced in Hollywood. If it weren’t for The Rescuers Down Under, half of the sequences that people love in the later movies of The Lion King (1994) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) may not have existed, because they tried something new; they took risks. Without that, no company can ever progress. They pushed the boundaries of computer animation with this movie – the first company to really do so.

And Disney should get plenty of credit for that.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘’The Rescuers Down Under’: The Untold Story of How the Sequel Changed Disney Forever’, Collider (online), 16^th December 2020.

[2] Credit: Disney, The Making of The Rescuers Down Under (2003).

[3] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘’The Rescuers Down Under’: The Untold Story of How the Sequel Changed Disney Forever’, Collider (online), 16^th December 2020.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Rescuers Down Under (1990)’, pp. 85-87.

[5] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: When Disney’s Hollywood Studios was a Studio’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[7] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘’The Rescuers Down Under’: The Untold Story of How the Sequel Changed Disney Forever’, Collider (online), 16^th December 2020.

[8] Credit: Josh Spiegel, ‘’The Rescuers Down Under’ Remains The Weird Speed Bump Between Two Disney Masterpieces’, SlashFilm (online), 18^th June 2019.

[9] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[10] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘’The Rescuers Down Under’: The Untold Story of How the Sequel Changed Disney Forever’, Collider (online), 16^th December 2020.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Rescuers Down Under (1990)’, pp. 85-87.

1st Mar 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#23 The Rescuers (1977)

BACKGROUND

The 1970s saw Disney Animation go into a bit of a slump.

Though The Jungle Book (1967) was praised by the majority of critics and viewers, this was at least partly down to the fact that Walt Disney himself ensured his full involvement in the story and development of the animated feature. The popularity of The Jungle Book was likely not because of a growing interest and appreciation for Disney animated films, since the 1960s were not a great time for Disney Animation either.

Sadly, after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, it was clear that the Disney Animation department was struggling and declining at the beginning of the 1970s. Their following two releases of The Aristocats (1970) and Robin Hood (1973) were considered to be “mediocre” and “low-quality” by many.

However, in 1977, the release of The Rescuers would change the direction of Disney’s Animation department. With its touching story and easy-to-follow plot, not to mention its humour and great voice cast, it was received very well by audiences.

Yet, although The Rescuers has been labelled one of the movies that “saved” Disney Animation – something that seems to have been needed every decade or so ever since Disney Animation began – The Rescuers is not a film that many people speak highly of, or speak about at all. It’s one of those Disney films that doesn’t have a huge fan base and is therefore forgotten about by those who don’t love it, becoming just one in a long list of Disney movies, good or bad.

I quite like The Rescuers. It’s not one of my favourites, but it is one that I revisit fairly often, although if The Rescuers was a full hour-and-a-half feature, as became Disney’s standard from their “Renaissance Era” in the 1990s, I probably wouldn’t like it as much. It’s a film that is good partly because it’s not particularly long, only about 75 minutes in total. I could say this about many other Disney films that I like, for example, Cinderella (1950), Fantasia 2000 (1999), and Alice in Wonderland (1951). In this case, it was a good idea for The Rescuers’ storyline not be pushed to fit a standard viewing time, otherwise I think it would’ve been tedious to sit through.

The Rescuers is not the most artistically spectacular or the most clever Disney animated film, but it has charming characters, a fantastically flamboyant villain, and some pretty background scenes, as well as a soundtrack of melancholic but enchanting music.

PLOT

The Rescuers starts with a brief opening scene of a little girl on a riverboat in the bayou, dropping a bottle into a lake. We see this bottle’s journey through the lake and the sea during the opening credits. The bottle is found with a message inside by a group of mice, who take it to the Rescue Aid Society, a team of international mice delegates who answer children’s cries for help. The Rescue Aid Society headquarters is based within the United Nations headquarters in New York City, and the mice delegates travel to the meetings in the bags of the human UN delegates. The Rescue Aid Society has set up an emergency meeting in order to read the message and discuss which mouse or mice should take the assignment should someone need rescuing. There, they find that a girl called Penny, missing from Morningside Orphanage, needs help, however, her message is water-damaged, so that’s all the information they have. Bianca, the beautiful delegate from Hungary, begs to take the assignment, with the Chairman allowing her to choose a co-agent to go with her. She surprisingly chooses Bernard, the nervous janitor, and they set off to find out where Penny may have gone.

After taking some wrong turns on the way to Morningside Orphanage, where Bernard manages to upset a lion at the zoo, Bernard and Bianca make it to Penny’s orphanage. They speak to the resident cat, Rufus, who tells them that Penny would not run away, but that a strange woman who owns a nearby pawn shop had offered her a ride a few weeks before.

Bianca and Bernard go to the pawn shop to look for clues. They find Madame Medusa, a sharp-tongued, easily irritated, gaudily dressed woman. They overhear a phone call: Medusa is complaining that her partner, Snoops, hasn’t managed to get “the girl” to find the diamond, and that she’ll be coming to Devil’s Bayou tonight to remedy that. Realising this girl must be Penny, Bianca and Bernard try and follow her in her car, but she drives like such a maniac that they lose her. The next day, they book a flight to Devil’s Bayou with Fly Albatross Air Service, where they literally fly on the back of an albatross called Orville in a sardine tin – not the safest way to travel, and Bernard, a safety freak, is not happy about that! After a dodgy take-off through the streets of New York, and with some convincing from Bianca, he settles into the journey.

On arrival at Devil’s Bayou, Orville is spooked by fireworks coming from a nearby riverboat and they crash-land into the swamp. They are spotted by Ellie Mae, a muskrat living the swamp, and some of the other swamp creatures who help get Bernard and Bianca to safety. Orville flies off home. Evinrude, a dragonfly and “boat captain”, takes Bernard and Bianca over to the riverboat in his leaf boat. It turns out the fireworks were set off by Snoops and Medusa as Penny has tried to run away again. She is brought back by Medusa’s alligators, Nero and Brutus. As Penny is returned to her room, and just about to give up hope of getting home, Bianca and Bernard finally find her room, and get to talk to her, after some mishaps with Brutus and Nero; Penny’s “guards”.

Penny tells them she’s being forced into a cave to find a diamond, the “Devil’s Eye”, by Medusa, and that she won’t let her go home until she gets it. The three come up with a plan to escape, however, their plan is delayed by the low tide coming in and Penny being forced into the cave again. This time, though, the two mice work with Penny to finally get the diamond for Medusa. Medusa is thrilled but back at the riverboat, she holds Snoops and Penny at gunpoint, telling them she is about to leave with Penny’s teddy bear, much to Penny’s dismay, because the bear is concealing the diamond.

However, Bernard and Bianca trip Medusa with a wire, giving Penny the chance to grab her teddy bear and run. Ellie Mae, Luke, and the rest of the animals come to help, trapping Nero and Brutus in a disused elevator, and Penny runs to Medusa’s swamp boat to escape. It won’t start though, so Luke is told to tip his alcohol concoction into the engine to get it running. Instead of destroying the engine as you’d expect, the boat starts running! Fireworks are set off inside the boat as a further distraction to stop Medusa and Snoops coming after Penny and she rushes away. The riverboat blows up, freeing Nero and Brutus, who Medusa tries to use as water-skis to follow Penny in the boat. Snoops paddles down the bayou slowly, and laughs as Medusa slams into a pipe and is trapped up it, and her alligators start snapping at her. Her plan has well and truly failed.

Back home in New York, Bernard and Bianca, and the rest of the Rescue Aid Society, watch a news report showing that Penny has handed in the diamond to the police, and it is going to the Smithsonian Museum. She also has finally been adopted by a nice couple. Bernard and Bianca are pleased with the result of the case, but Bianca quickly volunteers them for a new case, even though Bernard just wants a break! The movie ends with the two flying away, again on Orville, in a terrible snowstorm, seemingly to start work.

CHARACTERS & CAST

These two mice detectives, Bernard and Bianca, couldn’t be more different from each other. The Rescuers has strong female leads, with the female characters having, frankly, quite incompetent male counterparts. This is true of Bianca and Bernard to some extent, as Bianca is the Hungarian delegate of the Rescue Aid Society, and she is the strong, solid one within her partnership with Bernard. Bianca isn’t afraid of what may happen to them during the course of this assignment, and is just willing to go with the flow and keep going because rescuing Penny is the most important goal for them. She takes curveballs in her stride, and has the ability to just go with it. Bianca is also incredibly glamourous, not even wanting to buckle her seatbelt tightly on their “plane” so that it doesn’t wrinkle her dress. Bianca is voiced by Hungarian-American actress Eva Gabor. Gabor appeared in stage productions, television series, and films throughout her career from the 1940s until her death in 1995. Some of her credits include portraying Liane d’Exelmans in Gigi (1958), which won all nine of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the Oscars ceremony in 1959, and Lisa Douglas in the sitcom Green Acres (1965-71). She had previously voiced the also glamourous and beautiful Duchess in The Aristocats (1970) for Disney before The Rescuers, which goes to show that you can even be typecast in animation!

Bernard, on the other hand, is the nervous, superstitious janitor of the Rescue Aid Society. He’s not thrilled at having to go on an assignment, though he is pleased to spend time with Miss Bianca. We see he’s superstitious multiple times during the film, mostly related to the number “13”, like there being thirteen steps on ladders, and the final scene of the film, where Bianca volunteers them both for another case, taking place on Friday 13^th January. Bernard is very lovable though, despite being quite anxious and jumpy, wanting to choose the safer route over the riskier, but necessary, ones. Having said that, he isn’t afraid to protect Bianca, and saves her from drowning and from being eaten by one of Medusa’s guard alligators. Bernard is voiced by American actor and comedian Bob Newhart, who starred in his own comedy variety show The Bob Newhart Show (1961-62), for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star, and went on to star in the sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), a huge hit at the time. He won three Grammy awards in 1961 for his comedy albums. Modern audiences may remember him as Papa Elf in Elf (2003) and as Professor Proton, a recurring guest role, in The Big Bang Theory (2007-19) for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, and its spin-off show Young Sheldon (2017-24).

Then there’s Madame Medusa, a strong female villain, and her clumsy fool of a sidekick, Mr. Snoops, who is so scared of Medusa he tries to do everything she says to keep her happy, which has varying levels of success! I kind of feel bad for Snoops at times when he is constantly being belittled and talked down to. Mr. Snoops was designed as a caricature of animation historian John Culhane, who was given the nickname “Snoops” for his investigative work around the Disney Studios[1]. He was tricked into posing for drawings, and had no idea he was being used as source material until the film was released. Luckily, he was thrilled with the outcome! Joe Flynn provided the voice of Mr. Snoops. In the 1960s, he was well-known for his portrayal of Captain Wallace Binghamton in ABC’s sitcom McHale’s Navy (1962-66), before going on to appear in a long-line of Disney live-action movies: Son of Flubber (1963), The Love Bug (1968), and as Dean Higgins in the Dexter Riley trilogy of films: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975), alongside Kurt Russell. Joe Flynn sadly passed away in July 1974, just after he had completed his voice work on The Rescuers.

If Medusa looks familiar, that’s because she is modelled after Cruella de Vil, at least partly. Even Medusa’s driving and her car look like Cruella de Vil’s. Originally, animator Ken Anderson had sketched Cruella in alligator-inspired clothing as early designs for Cruella to be the villain in The Rescuers, since she is a kidnapper and was already loved by Disney audiences after her appearance in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). In the end though, it was decided that The Rescuers should not look like a sequel to One Hundred and One Dalmatians, so instead Madame Medusa was merely based on Cruella de Vil.

Animator Milt Kahl designed the character, using his wife, Phyllis Bounds, as reference material, alongside Cruella. The two married in 1968 and would divorce in 1978; they had a bit of a tumultuous relationship. Madame Medusa is a good villainess, as she’s a greedy, selfish, vain woman, capable of kidnapping a little girl, telling the girl she’ll never get anywhere in life, forcing her into a cave where she almost drowns, and then threatening her at gunpoint – and with alligators! She’s a character you love-to-hate because she is funny to watch with her overly flamboyant nature and poor taste in clothes. She’s not magical or talented in any way; Medusa is simply truly evil and despicable. Kahl also used inspiration from the vocal performances of Medusa’s voice actor for the character, stage-and-screen actor Geraldine Page[2]. Page had many roles in screen productions, such as Interiors (1978), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress, and The Trip to Bountiful (1985), where she won the Oscar for Best Actress. Page also appeared in the live-action Disney musical film The Happiest Millionaire (1967). Geraldine Page performed on stage in numerous productions. At the time of her death in 1987, Page was performing as Madame Arcati in the Noël Coward play Blithe Spirit; she did not appear for her performance on 13^th June that year and was later found dead in her Manhattan townhouse.

The most important character in The Rescuers, though, is little Penny. She has most of the heart-breaking scenes in the film. The first scene of her putting a bottle into the sea as a cry for help is upsetting, even from the outset. We also see her at her orphanage, talking to Rufus, the cat, about how she wasn’t picked for adoption that day and that she never thinks she will be, but Rufus tells her to have faith. Penny must have been terrified, being ripped away from her home by Medusa and being taken to some rundown boat in the middle of the bayou. She is then forced to search for a diamond in a tiny, dark cave, where the tide can rush in. Despite her terror, she continues to do it against her will, and tries her hardest to get free from her captivity and get home. I think she would’ve eventually been able to escape on her own, because Penny is very smart, but it’s good that Bianca and Bernard were able to help her get out quickly. Penny was voiced by child actor Michelle Stacy.

After all that, you need a bit of comic relief! There are a few characters who provide this: firstly, Orville, the albatross, who provides a flight service for small animals. He’s a bit absent-minded, not a particularly good flyer, especially around take-offs, but he’s an, albeit brief, bit of comedy for the audience amongst the darker themes. I do like the scenes we get of him and the mice on their journey to Devil’s Bayou though, as the sunset and landscapes in particular look magical. Orville was voiced by Jim Jordan, who passed away in 1988.

Husband and wife, John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan, both voiced characters in The Rescuers: Rufus and Ellie Mae. Rufus is a very kind, cute cat, who is Penny’s friend when she needs one most, and helps Bernard and Bianca find her by telling them about Medusa and her pawn shop. Ellie Mae is the muskrat who is forever nagging Luke – her muskrat husband, I think? – to be useful. McIntire and Nolan would go on to voice characters for Disney’s next animation film, The Fox and the Hound (1981), where Nolan voiced Widow Tweed, and McIntire voiced the Badger.

The rest of the creatures in the swamp who help Bernard, Bianca, and Penny escape at the end are another element of comic relief, as they come to help in full force, not with much of a plan, hitting Medusa with various things, pulling her hair – they might not know how to help, but they definitely give it a go! Luke and Ellie Mae are funny too as they are constantly arguing because Luke is only really interested in his bottle of strong liquor, getting characters to drink it to boost their energy. Luke’s voice may sound familiar to Disney animated film fans as his voice actor was Pat Buttram. Buttram voiced the characters of Napoleon in The Aristocats (1970) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (1973) previous to The Rescuers. There is also Evinrude, the dragonfly, who drives a “leafboat” and even goes with Bernard and Bianca on their next assignment, having to right Orville’s failed take-off right at the end of the film. He is very much overworked, the poor fly. In an early draft of the film, the swamp critters were going to be part of the Rescue Aid Society, with their leader being a singing bullfrog voiced by Phil Harris, voice of Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967) and Little John in Robin Hood (1973), but this idea was cut.

PRODUCTION

Disney’s The Rescuers is loosely based on the novels The Rescuers and Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp, two of a nine book series, published between 1959 and 1978. Walt Disney optioned the two books that had been published in 1962, with development beginning shortly after. Originally, the first story idea was of two mice rescuing a Norwegian poet from an Eastern European prison after being wrongfully imprisoned, a similar plot to the first of Sharp’s books. The storyline was adapted again and would have followed the mice saving a poet from a Cuban prison, with their escape back to the United States involving an action-packed boat chase through the Bahamas in a hurricane. Walt did not like the political suggestions in either storyline, saying they were dark anyway, so the project was shelved.

A few years after Walt’s death, the idea was picked up again, but this time, it would have involved a penguin and a bear. A penguin ended up coming from the South Pole and being dumped in a zoo. At the zoo, the penguin would have met a performing bear named Willie. The penguin conned the bear out of escaping the zoo with him and going back to the South Pole. But back in the South Pole, the penguin set up a run-down entertainment venue and began to force the bear to perform for his paying penguin customers. The bear became unhappy and sent a message in a bottle, which was found by the mice and discovered to be a cry for help. There were a few issues with this story idea, with one being that a penguin doesn’t make an evil, believable villain. Trying telling that to Wallace and Gromit, and Aardman Animations! The Disney team struggled on this story for a year or two, changing the location back to America and just having it set in a zoo with this same bear, but according to animator Burny Mattinson, they couldn’t get the story to work.

Director Woolie Reitherman became exasperated with the issues around coming up with a decent story for The Rescuers, saying he just wanted a simple kidnap story like in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), so he looked at another of Margery Sharp’s books in the same series, Miss Bianca. There he discovered a new story idea, around an old lady who had kidnapped this young girl. The villain was the Diamond Duchess. The Disney team tried to keep the same bear character from earlier ideas, now naming him Louie with the aim to have Louis Prima voice him. The connection to the story would’ve been that the girl, named Patience in the book, had “befriended” the bear during her visits to the zoo, as it was to be near to her orphanage, and the bear would be able to give clues as to the girl’s whereabouts[3]. Louis Prima had recorded most of his dialogue for the film, as well as some songs, however, he became ill and never regained consciousness from brain surgery in 1975. Though the character of Louie the Bear did end up being scrapped, there is still a reference to the zoo in the final film, when Bernard and Bianca are trying to walk through it as a shortcut, but come across a “grumpy lion”, who scares them away.

One difference between the books and Disney’s The Rescuers is that the book series followed the organisation, the Prisoners’ Aid Society, not the Rescue Aid Society. Character names were changed as well, such as Patience becoming Penny, and Madame Medusa being the new name for the Diamond Duchess. Diamond Duchess also has an evil sidekick called Mandrake in the book, and Patience does not have to search for a diamond, instead being used as a slave. The alligators are bloodhounds called Tyrant and Torment in the novel, and Bernard and Bianca are not, and do not become, a couple in the novels, as they do in the movie. But even their relationship during the development of the film came out differently than planned. It was first thought that they had to be skilled sleuths, and that they would be married. It was soon discovered that with this idea, there would be little conflict and growth, so it was decided to make them unknown to each other before the case, and that they would also be amateurs. The setting is also different between the novel and film, as the novel is set within the “Diamond Palace”, a marvellous and majestic space, unlike the rundown bayou riverboat that Medusa occupies. For Medusa’s hideout, the Disney team thought of making it a pirate fortress, and then an Art Deco mansion, which would’ve more closely matched the story of Diamond Duchess and her palace. But in the end, the choice was for the hideout to be on a riverboat on the bayou[4].

The xerography process, where animators copied their drawings onto cels directly using a Xerox camera instead of having their work “cleaned up” and inked in by other artists, was used again in The Rescuers, despite being criticised by some for making the Disney movies of the 1960s and 70s look “cheap”, even by Walt Disney who was not a fan of the process. However, previously it had only been able to produce black outlines on characters. The Rescuers was the first Disney feature to use colour xerox, where the outlines could be grey instead. The xerography process gave the film a classic look, and looked less sketchy than some of the previous uses of this technology at Disney Animation.

Some animation sequences were reused from previous features, as was quite standard for Disney around this time. For example, the scene of Penny trying to escape through the swamp was reused from The Jungle Book (1967), where Mowgli is running through the forest[5]. Both these animation process choices would’ve kept the budget low, as was necessary to make a profit.

The Rescuers was the last Disney film to be worked on by the “Nine Old Men”, the term for Walt Disney’s original key team of artists, including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Eric Larson, and Milt Kahl. They spent much of their time on this movie training newer animators, like Glen Keane. Keane was assigned to Ollie Johnston, who had him work on Penny and her small scene at the start of the film. Johnston helped show Keane how to simplify his work and make it look cleaner. The structure for the Animation Department at this time was for there to be an “A Team”, and a “B Team”, with the “A Team” being the more seasoned artists, working on a more prestigious project, and for the “B Team” to work on a simpler film, to train up newer animators. After Robin Hood (1973), the “A Team” were starting work on adapting a book called Scruffy by Paul Gallico, about the monkeys of Gibraltar, set during World War II, and the ancient legend that if the apes die out, the British Empire will lose Gibraltar. When production failed to move this story forward, both teams combined to work on The Rescuers instead, and the newer artists were mentored by the veterans. The Rescuers ended up being considered as the film that changed Disney’s approach to animation and was a transition from the Old Guard to the New Guard[6].

MUSIC

The music in The Rescuers is quite different to the majority of animated films that came before it, and that is because it is quite sombre. There are no songs that have been included for comic relief purposes, and none that could be described as “cheerful”. Nevertheless, I like the soundtrack for The Rescuers, despite its melancholy. Only one song is performed by the movie’s characters.

Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins contributed to all four of the soundtrack’s original songs. The two had previously co-written the lyrics for the song “Gonna Fly Now” from the movie Rocky (1976) before working on the music for The Rescuers. Connors was also known as the lead singer of the pop trio The Teddy Bears in the late 1950s and sang their only major hit “To Know Him Is To Love Him”.

Connors and Robbins co-composed three of the songs here. The first one to mention is “The Journey”, which appears during the Opening Credits. It accompanies the scene of the bottle making its way across the ocean to make it to New York and the headquarters of the Rescue Aid Society. It is a very sad song as it continuously asks “who will rescue me?”, and sets up the tone of the events that follow. It was performed by singer Shelby Flint, whose biggest hits were in the 1960s with “Angel on My Shoulder” and “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”. She also sang on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s film Breezy (1973).

Another song is “Tomorrow Is Another Day”, my favourite song in the soundtrack, because, although it is not a bright and breezy kind of song, it does feel quite calming and almost dream-like. It plays during the scene of Bianca and Bernard flying on Orville the albatross over to Devil’s Bayou. After a panic-inducing take-off, the journey settles into a nice journey over pretty landscapes and a beautiful sunset. It also sees Bernard and Bianca begin to fall in love with each other; it’s a cute song. “Tomorrow Is Another Day” was again performed by Shelby Flint. There is also a brief reprise of the song at the end of the film.

The third song to mention is the theme song of the Rescue Aid Society, aptly named “Rescue Aid Society”. It is performed as a group number by the delegates of the society, but most notably we hear Bob Newhart singing as Bernard, and Robie Lester singing as Bianca, the only delegate running late for the meeting! Robie Lester had previously provided the singing voice for Duchess in The Aristocats (1970), another character that Eva Gabor had voiced for Disney. It’s quite an upbeat song and is also a song that will randomly get stuck in my head from time to time!

The fourth and final song is “Someone’s Waiting for You”. This time, the lyrics were written by Connors and Robbins but the music was composed by Sammy Fain. Sammy Fain had been hired as a lyricist on The Rescuers early on, and had written a couple of songs, but director Woolie Reitherman was looking for a more contemporary sound, so Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins were also approached. Fain had previously contributed to the music for Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song twice, once for “Secret Love” from Calamity Jane (1953) and again for “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” from the 1956 film of the same name. “Someone’s Waiting for You” is not completely sad and depressing, because it is meant to be giving Penny hope that she will be rescued soon and that she can be happy again. It’s very sweet and made even better by the fact that shortly after, Penny meets Bernard and Bianca who help her escape. This song was again performed by Shelby Flint.

The Rescuers received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, with “Someone’s Waiting for You”, but did not win, losing out to “You Light Up My Life” from the 1977 film of the same name. It was also up against “Candle on the Water” from Pete’s Dragon (1977), a live-action/animated hybrid film from Disney. This was the last time Disney would be nominated for any Oscar until the release of The Little Mermaid (1989).

The score was composed by Artie Butler. Within the score, I specifically like the instrumental pieces “The Swamp/Escape”, which plays when Penny has run away again and Medusa and Snoops are trying to bring her back; “In the Black Hole/It’s the Devil’s Eye”, because this is a particularly great moment in the film, as the mice and Penny search for this infamous huge diamond; and “Faster, Evinrude, Faster!”, the catchy theme for Evinrude the dragonfly as he is told to drive his leaf boat faster – over and over again…I did say he was overworked.

RECEPTION

The Rescuers was released widely in June 1977 in the United States, before being distributed out to other countries. It was received well by critics, who stated that The Rescuers seemed to signal a turning of the tide in Disney’s animation department, and felt that it was much more like the movies that Walt Disney had first produced in Disney’s “Golden Age”, in the late-1930s and early 1940s, unlike the animated movies that had preceded The Rescuers in the 1970s. Viewers liked its touching moments, simple story, and charming animation.

The Rescuers was also successful at the box office, despite being released just a month after the first Star Wars (1977) movie. It made around $48 million worldwide, against a budget of about $12 million, making it the first Disney animated success since 1967’s The Jungle Book. In some countries, such as France and Germany, The Rescuers actually outperformed Star Wars! The Rescuers even won a Special Citation Award in 1977 at the National Board of Review Awards for “restoring and upgrading the art of animation”.

The Rescuers would be re-released in theatres in both 1983 and 1989, before being released on video in 1992 – with an infamous VHS recall happening in 1999. Despite The Rescuers seeming to be a yet another harmless Disney movie, surprisingly, back in January 1999, it was discovered that 3.4 million copies of The Rescuers home video were recalled from the 1999 video re-release, due to two frames of footage containing an “objectionable background image”. This turned out to be a brief, blurry glimpse of a topless woman, which appears in the scene where Bianca and Bernard are flying through the streets of New York on the back of Orville the albatross; she appears in one of the windows. Disney made it clear that in ordinary viewing, these frames cannot be seen as the film runs too fast, however, with video allowing pausing, re-winding and fast-forwarding, this image was then discovered by viewers. Disney insisted on the recall to keep its promise to families of being a family entertainment brand that people can trust[7]. Clearly, some of these VHS tapes were not handed in by parents as part of the recall, as this unfortunate story has been revived again and again over the years, including in 2020.

This led to the Huffington Post interviewing former Disney animator, Tom Sito, to discuss some of these Disney “sexual messages”. The majority of these were hoaxes, or misheard dialogue, however, Sito was asked to discuss the “objectionable image” in The Rescuers. He claimed that all the animators knew about this image and that it had been added into the original 1977 cut as a joke. The executives who had been at Disney around the time of the first release of The Rescuers had left the company by the time the VHS re-release was planned. The new executives had no idea about the image, so used the 1977 negative for that, which is what caused the embarrassing error. Sito ended his comments by stating that the animators were not asked if there was anything in the original footage, otherwise they would have said[8].

LEGACY

But before all that happened, The Rescuers almost had a TV legacy, with a television series being proposed, however, the idea was replaced with Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989-90) because The Rescuers already had a sequel in production, The Rescuers Down Under (1990), which was the first Disney animated feature to get a theatrical sequel. There was brief talk of there being a live-action adaptation of the film around the late-2010s, however, this was quietly dropped from the Disney slate[9].

In terms of a franchise, the sequel is really the biggest thing to have come from The Rescuers, as there is very little reference to the film in the Disney theme parks, and in the media. Bernard and Bianca were available as walkaround characters in the Disney theme parks a few years after the film’s release, but they are much rarer to see now. For example, Bernard and Bianca have only been spotted at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland within the last few years. Bernard and Bianca appeared at the Disneyland after Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite in both 2022 and 2023, but did not return in 2024. Surprisingly, I have also seen pictures online of Orville the albatross and Evinrude the dragonfly as walkaround characters at Walt Disney World and at Disneyland, but these pictures must have been from just after the movie’s release and the two clearly did not last long. In 2022, The Rescuers celebrated its 45^th anniversary so new merchandise lines, such as pins and ornaments were released too.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Rescuers was a bright light within a difficult period for the Disney Animation department. Its success may not have lasted into the present day, but it still had a purpose and helped Disney eventually get to their “Renaissance Era”.

I like The Rescuers, and I know there are others out there who do too. This was Disney trying something a bit newer, an action-adventure film, and it did well, even with competition from the likes of Star Wars. It’s a bit darker and more melancholy than other Disney features, but it has a good message: that anyone, big or small, is capable of doing great things – as well as a lesson to not go near strange women!

But the biggest message is about having hope, even in the most difficult and dark situations. As Rufus, the Morningside Orphanage cat, says: “Faith is a bluebird, you see from afar. It’s for real, and as sure as the first evening star. You can’t touch it, or buy it, or wrap it up tight, but it’s there just the same, making things turn out right.”

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Rescuers (1977)’, pp. 67-69.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘“The Rescuers” That Almost Was’, CartoonResearch.com, 20^th May 2022.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com,19^th January 2022.

[5] Credit: Mari Ness, ‘Rescuing More than Just Small Girls and Teddy Bears: Disney’s The Rescuers’, Tor (online), 17^th September 2015.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.

[7] Credit: BBC, ‘Disney recalls video over ‘nude image’, BBC.co.uk/news, 9^th January 1999.

[8] Credit: Bill Bradley, ‘Finally, The Truth About Disney’s ‘Hidden Sexual Messages’ Revealed’, HuffPost.com, 17^th December 2020.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.