19th Apr 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#26 The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

BACKGROUND

The 1980s were a difficult time for Disney Animation. New management from “outside studios” had come in and didn’t understand the concept of making an animated movie, nor did they particularly understand the animators. This caused a few years of conflict and misunderstandings between the two opposing sides.

On top of that, 1985 brought the Walt Disney Company one of their worst ever financial flops with the release of The Black Cauldron, a movie quite unlike anything that Disney Animation had ever produced before; it took years, and cost a fortune, to make. By pushing the boundaries with this film, they pushed many of their core audience anyway, who were not expecting this mish-mash of fantasy, adventure, and even light horror.

The pressure was on. Disney’s next movie had to change all that, and bring those families back to the theatres to experience a charming movie, reminiscent of those made during Walt Disney’s time in charge of the Disney Studios. It also had to be convincing enough for new management to believe animation was still worth it.

Luckily, The Great Mouse Detective, released in 1986, just a year after The Black Cauldron, did make positive steps towards a renewed animation department. It is yet another adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories to sit alongside those movies and television series of earlier decades, like Basil Rathbone’s series of films, released between 1939 and 1946, and those of more contemporary times, like the BBC series Sherlock (2010-17), starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the man himself, and the 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, with Robert Downey Jr. portraying the famous detective.

The Great Mouse Detective wasn’t a huge hit, nor was it a particularly smooth process getting the movie made, but overall, it was certainly a move in the right direction, getting back to Disney’s basics of good story-telling, likeable characters, and being progressive with their use of technology.

Sadly, The Great Mouse Detective has not been referenced at the Disney Parks for many years, and it isn’t generally remembered even amongst Disney fans, unless they had a love for the film as a child. It’s been surpassed by the amazing movies of the “Disney Renaissance”, as well as some of the more contemporary blockbuster hits like Frozen (2013) and Encanto (2021), which seem to have more “star quality” than poor Basil.

I personally really like The Great Mouse Detective. My family never owned it on VHS for some reason, but I remember always watching it at friends’ houses, or borrowing their VHS tape, so this was a film that I did not grow up with, like many of the “Disney Renaissance” films, but one that I gradually came to enjoy. It has an easy-to-follow plot, unlike some adaptations of Sherlock Holmes that can be difficult to keep up with. The Great Mouse Detective also benefits from strong characters and good music, in my opinion.

PLOT

The story of The Great Mouse Detective follows Basil, a mouse detective – funny about that – who is basically the Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world, living underneath that famous apartment, 221B Baker Street in London in 1897. He is asked to investigate a case brought to him by a young mouse, Olivia, whose father has been captured. Olivia was brought to Basil by Dr David Q. Dawson, a surgeon who has returned to England after being in Afghanistan for military service. Basil cleverly deduces this purely from the clothes Dawson is wearing – how very “Sherlock” of him. Basil is initially reluctant to help Olivia, not caring much that she has lost her father. But when she mentions that he was taken by a bat with a pegleg, Basil is immediately intrigued, as this bat is the henchman of Basil’s most troublesome nemesis, the evil Professor Ratigan.

Ratigan has ordered the capture of Olivia’s father, Hiram, as he is an accomplished toy maker. Ratigan wants a model robot of the current Queen, Queen Moustoria – like Queen Victoria, get it? – and he expects Hiram to do it. Ratigan plans to use this robot so that it looks like Queen Moustoria herself is giving the order for Ratigan to be the “Supreme Ruler of all Mousedom”, because naturally, a Disney villain’s ultimate goal is always for world domination. Under the threat of his daughter being kidnapped, Hiram gets to work.

Meanwhile, Basil, Dawson, and Olivia set out to find her father, with the help of Basil’s dog Toby, who can get them to places much quicker than a little mouse can, after seeing Fidget, the bat with the pegleg appear at his window. Basil orders Toby to follow his scent and they find themselves at a toy store. Here, Fidget has been told by Ratigan to collect gears, uniforms, and Olivia, so that the plan can be carried out correctly. He takes gears and uniforms from the toys in the shop, and then proceeds to take Olivia whilst Basil and Dawson are distracted by all the toys coming alive.

Basil is annoyed at himself for letting this happen. But Dawson finds a clue – Fidget’s checklist. Back at his apartment, Basil uses his lab equipment and discovers that this piece of paper came from the “Rat Trap”, a tavern by the sewers. Disguised as sailors, Basil and Dawson head over there to try and get some information on the whereabouts of Ratigan. On mentioning Ratigan’s name, the bar maid and locals become suspicious of the two, and Dawson accidentally drinks the drugged beer that was served to them. After he starts a bar fight, during the performance of a bar singer, Basil ushers Dawson out of the tavern, as he has seen Fidget heading to supposedly Ratigan’s headquarters; they follow the bat.

But when they reach the headquarters, they discover it was all a trap and they have been captured too. They also see Olivia is there, trapped inside a bottle. Ratigan believes he’s won, and ties Basil and Dawson to a mouse trap. And, much like the board game Mouse Trap, he has rigged the mouse trap to be squashed after a series of contraptions have been set off, which will all begin once Ratigan’s song, saying farewell to Basil, finishes on the record player. Basil seems to have lost all hope, but Dawson inspires him to work out how to escape this trap. He manages to do so with some quick-thinking, simultaneously freeing Olivia from her bottle prison. The three quickly head to Buckingham Palace.

At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan and his henchmen have successfully supplanted the Queen with their robotic figure, and the real Queen is set to be fed to Ratigan’s Persian cat, Felicia. However, Basil and the others arrive just in time to save her. Toby chases Felicia away, and Basil ties up Fidget and the henchmen. Meanwhile, Ratigan has been named the Supreme Ruler and is detailing his list of rules to those in the palace. Basil manages to take control of the robot and announces that this was all a ruse by Ratigan.

Angry at Basil for ruining yet another of his great plans, Ratigan and Fidget escape on his dirigible, and take Olivia hostage. With Olivia’s father, Basil and Dawson create a rudimentary airship, using a matchbox, balloons, and a flag, and set off after Ratigan. Basil jumps onto Ratigan’s ship, and the ship crashes into Big Ben. Ratigan, Basil, and Olivia are thrown into the clock. Inside, Basil tries to rescue Olivia from being squished by one of the mechanisms, whilst also dodging Ratigan’s pursuit of him. Basil manages to hand over Olivia to her father on the makeshift airship, but Basil is attacked by Ratigan on the hands of Big Ben. Soon, the clock strikes 10, with the noise causing Ratigan to fall seemingly to his death – but not before he grabs Basil to take him down with him. Dawson, Hiram, and Olivia look on helplessly, believing their friend to be gone for good.

However, this is Basil we’re talking about, and we soon see that in the process of him falling, he grabbed some of Ratigan’s broken airship and managed to create some contraption that brings him back up to Big Ben. He boards the airship and they head home.

Olivia and her father leave for their home, thanking Basil and Dawson for all their help. Despite Basil’s initial dislike for Olivia, and children in general, it is quite a tearful goodbye for him. Dawson is about to leave Basil as well, when a new client arrives needing Basil’s help. Basil introduces Dawson as his investigative partner, so Dawson decides not to leave, and the two continue to work together solving further cases for the mice of London.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Though The Great Mouse Detective may appear to just be a loose adaptation of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in actual fact, the movie is inspired by a children’s book series, a five-part series titled Basil of Baker Street, written by Eve Titus. The books were published between 1971 and 1982. This series was clearly based on the Sherlock Holmes stories, with the characters of Basil and Dawson being based on Sherlock and Dr. Watson, and Ratigan being inspired by Moriarity. The Disney film bears little resemblance to Titus’ books though, except for the location and time setting of Victorian England, and the three main characters of Basil, Dawson, and Ratigan, with some differences. Dawson, for one thing, is actually an intelligent resource in the books, whereas in The Great Mouse Detective, Dawson is a bit of a bumbler. Ratigan in the books is meant to be a big mouse who is frequently mistaken for a rat, whereas in the film, Ratigan is actually a rat, who insists on being referred to as a mouse. Only, one of his henchmen forgets this rule when he gets drunk and ends up being eaten by Ratigan’s cat, Felicia… “Oh, my dear Bartholomew. I’m afraid that you have gone and upset me.”

But Basil of Baker Street still remains as the key figure of the story, the professional detective who never gets anything wrong. Most of the time. Originally, Basil was going to be like the Sherlock Holmes of the novel world; a cold, detached man, albeit one of unmatched intelligence, who reacts abnormally to social situations. In the BBC series, Sherlock (2010-17), Holmes even refers to himself as “a high-functioning sociopath”, rightly or wrongly. When Disney tried this approach with the character of Basil, it didn’t work, nor did their attempts to make him more like Bing Crosby. In the end, the basis for Basil’s character actually came from actor Leslie Howard’s portrayal of the strict, arrogant Professor Henry Higgins in the film Pygmalion (1938), along with the voice performance of Barrie Ingham[1]. Basil of Baker Street is quite egocentric and unfeeling at the start of the movie, ignoring Olivia’s pleas for help, being too busy with his deductions and experiments to notice that this young girl is completely lost without her father. As the story progresses though, Basil becomes more caring. He saves Olivia’s life in the clockwork of Big Ben; is visibly pleased to see her returned to her father and heading home, even though he still doesn’t know or can’t pronounce her surname, a recurring joke in the movie; and he clearly values the friendship of Dawson because he quickly gives him a job as his assistant to stop him from leaving. Basil goes through a lot of character development and personal growth in the film.

As I’ve just mentioned, Basil was voiced by English actor Barrie Ingham. Before The Great Mouse Detective, Ingham had performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, as well as performing in musicals, such as in the 1973 London production of Gypsy alongside Angela Lansbury, and in the 1981 revival of Camelot with Richard Harris as King Arthur; Ingham played King Pellinore. After The Great Mouse Detective, Ingham starred in the Josh Kirby… Time Warrior! Series of films from 1995 to 1996, and in Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical (2001) as Sir Danvers Carew, after appearing in the Broadway musical of the show from 1997 to the 2001 closing. Ingham was also in the final cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Aspects of Love on Broadway, from 1990 to 1991, as Sir George Dillingham, alongside Sarah Brightman. Ingham passed away in January 2015, with his final screen role being in the sci-fi miniseries The Triangle (2005).

Despite Basil not being quite like Sherlock Holmes, you will hear Sherlock Holmes in this movie. He is seen in his apartment, 221B, and the lines are from an actual recording of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in a 1966 telling of “The Red-Headed League”. Rathbone was most known for playing the character of Sherlock Holmes in film. There were originally financial disagreements over using the recording in the movie but a last-minute deal was made to keep it in. Basil of Baker Street is named after Basil Rathbone[2].

You can’t have Sherlock Holmes without Dr. Watson, so in this case, you can’t have Basil without Dr. Dawson. Major Dr. David Q. Dawson has returned to England after serving in the Queen’s 66^th Regiment in Afghanistan, something that Basil deduces immediately on seeing Dawson for the first time. Although Dawson can be a bit of a fool, getting him and Basil into more scrapes than necessary by being clumsy and overly trusting, he is very warm and caring, being very protective of young Olivia when Basil gets too caught up in the thrill of the chase. Dawson is very different to Dr. Watson, who generally doesn’t cause Sherlock problems by tripping over things, or drinking drugged beer! He is a good opposite to Basil though, and the two complement each other more so than they disrupt each other. The appearance of Dawson was modelled, in both appearance and behaviour, after animator Eric Larson, one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”, who worked at the studios from 1933 until his retirement in 1986. Larson had trained many of the animators working on The Great Mouse Detective, and was the animation consultant on this film, his final role with the company before his retirement. Larson died two years later in 1988[3].

Val Bettin provided the voice for Dawson. After appearing in a few movies in the 1980s and voicing Dawson for The Great Mouse Detective, Bettin became a voice actor, taking over the voice role of the Sultan from Douglas Seale for the direct-to-video sequels Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), as well as the television series Aladdin (1994-95). Bettin also voiced characters in the television series’ Mighty Ducks (1996-97) and Hercules (1998-99), as well as voicing Professor Porter in the 1999 Tarzan video game. Despite being American, Bettin was adept at British accents.

We also have the two Flavershams: Olivia and Hiram; the ones whose case the whole plot revolves around. Hiram is an only parent after the death of Olivia’s mother and he clearly adores his daughter, and working as a toymaker, he makes her numerous special gifts, like a dancing ballerina mouse. The opening of The Great Mouse Detective is similar to Pinocchio (1940) in that he has a workshop just like Geppetto, filled with puppets, which I don’t like much… There’s also that scene in the toy store, which I do not like either – though there is a short Dumbo cameo, which is nice. Hiram is kidnapped in quite a violent fashion from his shop by Ratigan’s bat henchman, Fidget, as Olivia hides in a cupboard. She is found wandering the streets by Dawson as she tries to find Basil of Baker Street to help her. Olivia is quite sweet as a character, and it is very sad seeing her so distraught at losing her father. It’s great that she is reunited with him and all that, but I can’t ignore just how annoying she can be at times, not doing as she’s told and then getting kidnapped herself as a result. Why can’t anyone just do as they’re told in the movies? I would. Basil is not overly kind or sympathetic to Olivia at times, but she either isn’t bothered or doesn’t seem to notice, as she has Dawson, as well as Basil’s faithful sidekick Toby, the lovable, energetic Basset Hound.

There were hundreds of applicants for the role of Olivia, but in the end, Susanne Pollatschek, was chosen; a girl from Glasgow who had no formal training. Olivia’s father Hiram is voiced by the same actor who voiced Scrooge McDuck for over 40 years, Alan Young. He was chosen for the specific Scottish accent that he could replicate. Young began voicing Scrooge in the 1974 Disneyland Records album An Adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, and voiced the character again for the short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), which was nominated for Best Short Film at the Academy Awards, reprising the role for Disney until his death in 2016. Before this, Young had his own sketch show The Alan Young Show during the 1940s and 50s, and appeared in movies like The Time Machine (1960).

Moving on to easily the best character in the whole movie, the villain Professor Ratigan. Although he is not referenced often within the Disney Villain franchise, I think Ratigan is one of Disney’s best villains. He’s a completely over-the-top, charismatic showman, yet he’s also evil and ruthless at the same time, not caring one bit about feeding someone to his big white Persian cat, Felicia – reminiscent of Bond villain Blofeld’s cat – or about taking someone hostage. He has a group of loyal henchmen, which includes Felicia, and a crew of mice – and one lizard, which is a bit odd. It also includes Fidget, the bat with a peg leg, voiced by Candy Candido in his final role, and supposedly his favourite one. Candido had also voiced the Indian Chief in Peter Pan (1953), one of Maleficent’s goons in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and the Captain of the Guard in Robin Hood (1973) for Disney Animation. He was known for his deep bass voice.

Animator Glen Keane, who would go on to animate characters like Ariel and Beast, designed Ratigan. Originally, Ratigan was going to be a very skinny, weaselly-looking rat, but that made him look too similar to Basil, so they had to make him bigger. The character just wasn’t working, until Keane heard the actor Vincent Price in the 1950 film Champagne for Caeser, where Price played corporate chieftain Burnbridge Waters. Keane loved the sharp speed of his lines. Suddenly, Ratigan became a huge rat instead. Supposedly, the stature of Ratigan was based on that of then-Disney president Ron Miller, Walt’s son-in-law, who was 6ft 6in, an ex-football player, and physically intimidating. Luckily, Ron Miller did not recognise anything of himself in the character when the designs were shown to him and he allowed them to go ahead! Vincent Price was 75 years old when he was cast for the film and he generally enjoyed recording for the character, saying in interviews that he “adored” Ratigan. Price made sure to be larger-than-life in his sessions and wanted to put some fun into the evil. He also noticed that his expressive eyebrow movements were put into the character[4]. Ratigan is just an overall great character; devious but also funny.

Vincent Price was an incredible character actor, with numerous credits to his name. Just some of these include appearing in adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe works, such as The House of Usher (1960) and The Haunted Palace (1963). Price also appeared in The Three Musketeers (1948) as Richelieu, and as Baka in the religious epic The Ten Commandments (1956). In popular culture, Price is the voice speaking at the end of the Michael Jackson song “Thriller” and is The Inventor in Tim Burton’s movie Edward Scissorhands (1990). It just so happened that Tim Burton’s lifelong idol was Vincent Price; therefore, Price also narrated the short film Vincent (1982) by Burton. Price died in October 1993, with one of his final film credits being the voice of Zigzag the Grand Vizier in the unfinished animated film The Thief and the Cobbler; a version of which was released in September 1993. Price has received many lifetime achievement awards for his contributions to cinema from organisations such as the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films; the Bram Stoker Awards; and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Comedic actor Bill Hader used to impersonate Vincent Price during his tenure on Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, as did actors Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean during their stints on the show. Well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

MUSIC

In what was surely not what he was most known for, Vincent Price actually sings two of the three original songs that were written for The Great Mouse Detective. Yes, the villain got two songs in this Disney movie! And they are both great, in my opinion. The first is “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” and this is Ratigan’s big showpiece that reveals his devious plan to supplant the Queen and make himself “The Supreme Ruler of All Mousedom”. It’s incredibly flashy, full of champagne and jewels, that I can only assume were stolen. Ratigan even has a top hat, cane, and huge cape to fully ensure he is the centre of attention. He even plays the harp at one point as he goes through his sad backstory of being hounded by Basil. The song is briefly halted by Felicia the cat being called, but the rest of the mice soon get back in line and sing about how wonderful Ratigan is again. It’s a very funny, camp song.

His other song is called “Goodbye, So Soon”. It’s such an upbeat song, considering it is telling Basil that he and his friends are about to be eliminated for good. It shows Ratigan’s extreme over-confidence, as it is playing on a record to Basil and Dawson as they are tied to a mouse trap, awaiting their death, because once the record stops playing, there is a very elaborate trigger of mechanisms to eventually release an iron to squish them. Getting this carried away with the overall performance proves to be Ratigan’s undoing, as the song’s length gives Basil enough time to calculate a plan to free all of them, but it’s hilarious. “Goodbye, So Soon” also reappears during the End Credits, as a goodbye to the audience, but don’t worry; this version sounds a lot less threatening than Ratigan’s. You wouldn’t want to traumatise the kids at this stage.

Both songs were written by Henry Mancini, Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh. Grossman and Fitzhugh had written the 1985 musical Grind together, with their score being nominated for Best Original Score at the Tony Awards that years. Grossman later composed the scores for Disney’s movies such as Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) and The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) for Disney. Fitzhugh wrote the lyrics for the songs in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1997).

Henry Mancini won numerous accolades during his career as a composer, winning four Academy Awards, two of which were for his work on Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and another for his score for Victor/Victoria (1982). Mancini is also known for composing “The Pink Panther Theme”; “Theme from Love Story”, the 1970 film; and the theme for the Peter Gunn television series (1958-61), just to name a few. Mancini died in June 1994; he received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. As well as writing the music for the two songs, Mancini composed the score for The Great Mouse Detective, with this being his first time working on an animated feature. I particularly like the “Main Title” of the film, especially its opening section, which sets you up for a high-paced adventure. “Big Ben Chase” is also a good piece of music, especially as the Big Ben fight scene has barely any dialogue, so the music has to tell the story, and increase the sense of peril, which it does.

The other song in the movie is “Let Me Be Good to You”, which is performed by a mouse bar dancer, which Basil and Dawson hear when they are trying to find their way to Ratigan’s lair. After a quiet introduction, the song changes tone quite quickly, moving into a full-on showgirl number, even down to the point where the mouse pulls off her skirt and starts dancing in a leotard with a feathery tail…And the mice men sure are loving it… I mean, it’s not really risqué, but it is a bit surprising to see in a Disney film.

There was always going to be a song at this point in the film, but it wasn’t that easy for the team to settle on what the song should sound like. Very early on in production, then-CEO of the Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner suggested that perhaps Michael Jackson or Madonna could perform the song here. Henry Mancini had written a song for the scene, called “Are You the One Who Loves Me?”, which was a parody of a Victorian Music Hall tune. It was even recorded by Shani Wallis, who played Nancy in the movie Oliver! (1968). Jeffrey Katzenberg, then-Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios said the tune wasn’t contemporary enough and wanted to bring in Melissa Manchester. She was a Grammy award winner in 1982 for her recording of the song “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”, and two movie themes that she had performed were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980; “Through the Eyes of Love” from Ice Castles (1978) and “I’ll Never Say Goodbye” from The Promise (1979)[5]. Manchester was a big name at the time, so you can see why Katzenberg hired her. She wrote and performed “Let Me Be Good To You” for the film. Manchester would return to Disney to write the songs for Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure (2001).

PRODUCTION

The Great Mouse Detective gets the honour of being the first Disney animated film to be officially approved by the new Disney management of Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner, President and Chief Operating Officer Frank Wells, and Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg, who came into the company in 1984. However, the first time that an animal version of Sherlock Holmes had been considered at Disney Animation was actually during production on The Rescuers (1977). Eve Titus’ books Basil of Baker Street were mentioned as a possible basis for this Sherlock Holmes-inspired movie. Since this animal detective movie would end up being quite similar to The Rescuers, it was decided the project would have to wait a while.

It’s a good thing too, because Disney’s story for Basil of Baker Street took years to figure out, as it was discussed in the early 1980s with former CEO Ron Miller. Originally, Olivia was going to be older and a potential love interest for Basil, however, Miller suggested making her a little girl instead to gain audience sympathy. Other ideas such as a seedy informant of Basil’s were removed, and a whole instrumental scene around lamplighters, written by Henry Mancini, was also cut. Burny Mattinson and John Musker were named as the directors of the film, but when Ron Miller was ousted from the Walt Disney Company in 1984, Roy E. Disney wanted Mattinson to be both producer and director. Eventually, it was decided this was too much work, and another director, Ron Clements, was brought in; Clements had always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Over three years of work had been done on the movie by the time the new management came in, yet in order to proceed, the entire film had to be re-pitched.

So, the storyboards were laid out and the team went through the whole movie. The pitch took around three hours, and by the end of it, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg were very confused and couldn’t even remember most of what they’d been told. It was decided that as the animators were being paid whether they made this particular movie or not, the movie was indeed approved – but with two caveats. The first was that the movie’s release date was being brought forward to July 1986, instead of the original date of Christmas 1987, giving the animators only a year and a half to animate the full movie. The second caveat was that the budget was going to be less than half of the budget of The Black Cauldron (1985), which ended up at around $44 million when it was released in July 1985.

The Black Cauldron was a huge failure at the box-office, something that would not be forgotten quickly by the new management, who did not have sufficient time to “fix” the movie before its release date. To make matters worse, in Christmas 1985, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) was re-released in theatres and made $33 million, making it the most successful re-release in Disney history. Disney Animation were already concerned for their jobs, as they had been moved out of the original animation building in Burbank, over to a building in Glendale, which was an uninspiring place to say the least. The whole department were just waiting to be fired, as rumours had also been circulating that management planned to simply re-issue all the previous Disney animated films as there were plenty “in the vault”, and didn’t want to make any more. To celebrate what they believed to be “the end of Disney Animation”, the animators acted out a full-scale re-enactment of Apocalypse Now (1979) in their dingy office space. Finally, the two warring sides of Jeffrey Katzenberg and the animators had to settle their differences; Katzenberg told them he wanted to learn about animation, as he had never worked on animated movies before, having come from Paramount with Michael Eisner, but that they had to make good movies that were financially viable. It was decided by the animators that it was best to get on board and see where this wild ride took them, so work on Basil of Baker Street continued[6].

The animators were inexperienced and unproven, although some of these did become very big names in the Disney world: Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Rob Minkoff, Mark Dindal, and Ruben Aquino. The directing team of Musker and Clements were also inexperienced, and they were not given much time to animate the movie. The runtime was cut from 90 minutes to around 75 minutes to save money, using a smaller cast of characters and a tight, fast-paced story. However, a lower budget didn’t mean that the team wanted to forget about technological innovation.

Although The Black Cauldron contains the first ever use of computer-assisted animation in a Disney film, it was never marketed that way, whereas the two-minute computer-assisted scene in what became known as The Great Mouse Detective was; this was the first time hand-drawn characters had been added to a computer-generated background and it can all be seen in the final battle between Ratigan and Basil. The finale was first going to be a fight scene on the hands of Big Ben’s clock, but layout artist Mike Pereza asked if it could be restaged inside the clock, because he had been inspired by a similar scene in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movie Castle of Cagliostro (1979)[7]. Peraza was even allowed inside Big Ben for research purposes, even though public tours were not allowed. He noticed how the entire tower would vibrate every time the bells chimed, which I think is recreated well in the movie. Peraza also made sure to capture any photographs from ground height so they were at “mouse level” to replicate how the mice characters would see and interact with everything. Whilst in London, other popular sites were photographed in this way, such as Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge[8]. Having the mice navigate the perilous clockwork and gears made for an exciting finale, and the scene recreates 54 moving gears, winches, ratchets, beams and pulleys. I particularly like the part where Olivia is trapped within a cog about to be squashed by its counterpart, when Basil grabs a rope which takes him up to pull her out of there just in time. The computer allowed Disney to play about with camera angles to suit the action of the scene, instead of being limited to panning into artwork. This paved the way for further use of computer animated sequences within animated films, for example, the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast (1991)[9].

Although the movie was originally titled Basil of Baker Street, as per the book series, the marketing department changed the movie to The Great Mouse Detective, which angered some of those who’d worked on the film. Disney said that test audiences did not like how “British” the title sounded, but to others, it felt that they were “dumbing down” the title for no good reason. One artist even sent out a fake memo, in the name of Peter Schneider, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, saying that all previous titles of Disney animated movies were to be renamed. Some examples of these included “Seven Little Men Help a Girl” for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and “The Girl with the See-Through Shoes” for Cinderella (1950). This was another case of animators clashing with the new management team, and the joke soon spiralled out of control to the point where Peter Schneider called all of the animators to a meeting. But instead of telling everyone who wasn’t happy to get out, Schneider said he wanted to make great movies here and that settled the animators down to some extent. The memo was so infamous that it even ended up as a category on Jeopardy! in January 1987[10]. It is worth noting though that in some countries, including the UK, the film was released under the name Basil the Great Mouse Detective, so this title is kind of the best of both names.

RECEPTION

The Great Mouse Detective was released on 2^nd July 1986, and brought in a total of $24 million against a budget of $12 million. The film was accompanied by the short Clock Cleaners (1937) which starred Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. The Great Mouse Detective received fairly positive reviews from critics and audiences. Some said that this was Disney Animation being as creative and free as they had been in the earliest days of Disney Animation. The use of computer animation was praised, as well as the interesting backgrounds. Many enjoyed the villain of Ratigan and the quick pacing. It was seen as a fun, enjoyable Disney movie, though some do not feel it ranked highly against others in the Disney catalogue. This was all very positive and a good step forward for Disney Animation.

However, the shine of their success faded four months later in November 1986, when the movie An American Tail (1986), another “mouse movie”, which was a collaboration between Universal Studios, Steven Spielberg, and Don Bluth – the animator who had worked at the Disney Studios up until 1979 when he left the Studios taking half the animators with him – would do even better at the box-office, beating out The Great Mouse Detective by $22 million. At the time, An American Tail became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated movie in history. This was a bit of a blow to the Disney Studios, but it is worth noting that many critics felt An American Tail was depressing, and compared it less favourably to The Great Mouse Detective. The Great Mouse Detective was later re-released in theatres in 1992 under the name The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, before being brought out on VHS and Laserdisc.

LEGACY

Even with this legacy of setting Disney Animation back on the path to greatness, The Great Mouse Detective is not generally remembered by a large proportion of Disney fans, nor is it referenced at the Disney Parks. After that fake memo by an unnamed Disney animator, as retaliation, marketing funds were apparently pulled from the movie prior to its release. Roy E. Disney personally funded the creation of “meet-and-greet” characters for the parks, which is why costumes for only Basil and Ratigan existed[11]. These two were seen at the Disney Parks, at least the two US parks – it is unclear if they were ever at Tokyo Disneyland, the only other Disney Park to be open in 1986 – around the time of the film’s release but gradually became rarer and rarer to see, before apparently being officially retired in 2004. I have not been able to find evidence of Basil or Ratigan being seen since then, even at Special Events, but perhaps their time to return will come. But with all Disney animated movies, including the forgotten ones, you can see a tiny clip of The Great Mouse Detective within the finale of the Wonderful World of Disney Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Around the movie’s milestone anniversaries, you are most likely to find merchandise, though you might be lucky and be able to find a pin or two of the characters. In 2021, for the film’s 35^th anniversary, a MagicBand and Christmas ornament were released. As part of the Disney100, different decade collections were released. Disappointingly, The Great Mouse Detective was not included in the 80s Decade Collection line, which instead chose to focus on Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989-90), Oliver & Company (1988), and Roger Rabbit. Even The Black Cauldron (1985) got a new MagicBand+ here!

The animated characters did make appearances in some episodes of House of Mouse (2001-03) and in the short film Once Upon a Studio (2023) alongside pretty much every character in Disney Animation history. In recent years, there have also been Funko Pop’s in the form of Ratigan and Basil, and Ratigan was included in the Disney Villainous board game, alongside Scar from The Lion King (1994) and Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) in the Evil Comes Prepared expansion pack.

Another thing to mention is that in 2002, there was going to be a Mickey Mouse short in honour of his 75^th anniversary that would have featured Basil of Baker Street helping Minnie Mouse find Mickey who has been “mousenapped”. It was to be called The Search for Mickey Mouse and would’ve featured multiple cameos from Disney characters, but was cancelled due to struggles writing an interesting story idea. A live-action remake of The Great Mouse Detective was also rumoured in 2019, however, it was never announced by Disney as being in development, and no progress has been made on it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If it weren’t for The Great Mouse Detective, it’s possible the Disney Animation department would have ceased to exist. After all, it’s not like Disney weren’t aware that they had a huge list of titles that could simply be re-released over and over again, especially as the VHS tape was becoming popular in the 1980s. The directors had a huge part to play in saving Disney animation as Ron Clements and John Musker would be the two to pitch the story and then direct The Little Mermaid (1989), the film that began Disney’s “Renaissance”.

I really like The Great Mouse Detective. It’s one of those Disney films that I watch over and over again, and never tire of. It shows a big turning point in Disney animation after several years of trouble, and it’s a good watch. It’s definitely one of those underrated classics that deserves more attention than it gets. It will always be one of my favourites regardless.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘The Great Mouse Detective (1986)’, pp. 76-78.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In Their Own Words: Glen Keane and Vincent Price on Ratigan’, CartoonResearch.com, 22^nd October 2021.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

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

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘The Great Mouse Detective (1986)’, pp. 76-78.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[9] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? Unravel 8 Sneaky Facts from The Great Mouse Detective’, D23 (online), 30th June 2016.

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

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

12th Apr 202428th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#62 Wish (2023)

BACKGROUND

Firstly, here is a spoiler warning.

As Wish was only released on Disney+ recently, and apparently not many people went to see it in theatres, here’s your chance to check it out for yourself now.

2023 was a big year for the Walt Disney Company. They were celebrating their 100^th anniversary and Wish was going to be the only Disney animated film release of the year. It had to be something good; it had to be something special.

Disney Animation chose to go back to their roots, by making a fairy-tale musical. The movie also includes many references and Easter eggs pointing to some of their previous animated movie releases, giving die-hard Disney fans plenty to look out for.

Although Disney have had many fairy-tale successes, going all the way back to their first ever full-length animated feature of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Wish did not hit fans of today in the same way. Many critics did not like the storyline, and the animation style was not favoured by many. Others were more positive, saying that they enjoyed the throwbacks to Disney’s earlier films, and liked the return of the Disney villain.

Now I have seen Wish for myself, I’m ready to commit to one side of the debate.

I am here to defend Wish.

I had every intention of not liking Wish, though I didn’t think I’d dislike it. I’d watched the trailer and didn’t like the art styling; I’d listened to the preview of the villain’s song and hated it; I didn’t like Valentino the goat’s voice. It didn’t look at all special to me, and when I read reviews of the film, some of which were brutal, I didn’t think I’d missed out on anything by not going to the cinema to watch it, instead choosing to wait for its release on Disney+.

I was pleasantly surprised, finding that, although a bit jarring at first, I got used to the animation style for the most part as the movie progressed; the villain was actually very good, in my opinion, despite the song still not living up to the character; and I teared up at many of the songs, culminating in a full breakdown during the final showdown between the villain and everyone else. It was great, and I can’t stop thinking about Wish.

But I am clearly in the minority here, as many reviews called the film many things, like: “a rip-off”, “aggressive Disney propaganda”, “forgettable”, “a cop-out”, “a confused mess”, “personality free”. We must have been watching very different movies – or I’m just a naïve dreamer. You’re free to think that if you want, but I would disagree; I’m just looking at Wish from an entirely emotive stance, and not from one of suspicion and pessimism. Yes, Disney is not perfect, and nor is Wish, but come on, you’ve got to give it more of a chance than this. Just because it was released as part of Disney’s 100^th anniversary doesn’t mean it had to be the best film ever; it just had to have heart – and I think Wish has plenty of that.

PLOT

Wish begins with a typical storybook opening, where we are told that there once was a man who believed in the importance of wishes, those wishes that drive your heart, however, he soon learnt that those wishes can easily be destroyed, so he studied magic to learn how to protect and grant wishes for others. He moved with his wife to a Mediterranean island where he built a kingdom for all, the Kingdom of Rosas. Many people flocked to the city on hearing about this newly built community by this man, King Magnifico. Every citizen, on their 18^th birthday, willing gives up their wish to the king so that it can be protected. Although this means forgetting their wish, ultimately, they trust that Magnifico, when the time is right, might choose their wish to be granted during the monthly wish granting ceremony.

The narrator telling us this story turns out to be a 17-year-old girl called Asha, who lives with her grandfather, Sabino, her mother, Sakina, and three-week-old baby goat, Valentino, in the Kingdom of Rosas. They learn that a wish granting ceremony has been called for today, and believe it is no coincidence that the day also just happens to be Sabino’s 100^th birthday; his wish will be granted today. Also on this day, after Asha completes her daily duties as a tour guide, welcoming people to Rosas, Asha has an interview with King Magnifico to become his new apprentice. She’s nervous, but she loves Rosas, and believes in Magnifico’s mission. Queen Amaya, Magnifico’s wife, calls Asha to her interview, telling her how she hopes Asha will be the new apprentice, but warns her not to ask to see the wishes – which makes Magnifico’s hoarding of wishes seem very suspicious to me.

As Asha waits for Magnifico in the King’s chamber, she becomes fascinated with a “big book” that is housed behind a glass cabinet. King Magnifico arrives, and sees Asha looking at the book. After a slight mishap with the spell protecting this book, the interview then begins. Asha honestly tells Magnifico that she “can’t do much” – please, no-one take job interview advice from Asha – but does say that her father taught her how to draw, and taught her all about the stars, that they are there to guide and inspire. Asha’s father died when she was just twelve years old. Magnifico then tells Asha how his family’s lands were destroyed by thieves, and that after that, he built Rosas to keep others safe from harm.

Magnifico decides to show Asha all of the wishes, and she is completely in awe. She soon finds her grandfather’s wish and asks for it to be granted, at which point, Magnifico’s whole demeanour changes. He is offended, but asks to see the wish. He tells Asha that actually her grandfather’s wish is too dangerous and too vague. Sabino wants to create something to inspire the next generation, and Magnifico claims that “something” could destroy Rosas for all they know. To be fair to Magnifico, inexact, vague wishes have been known to cause all kinds of trouble in stories like this! King Magnifico says he will continue to protect the wish, but will likely never grant it. Asha says that if he doesn’t intend to grant the wishes, then they should be returned. King Magnifico is infuriated by this idea, and tells Asha that she will not be his apprentice and that none of her family’s wishes will ever be granted. At which point, the queen arrives to tell Magnifico it is time for the wish granting ceremony; Asha is told to sit with the queen for the ceremony.

At the ceremony, Asha sees her grandfather and mother in the crowd waiting expectantly. However, as promised, Magnifico does not grant the grandfather’s wish, instead granting a citizen named Sonya her wish, which was to be a dressmaker. Back home, Asha is disheartened, as are her grandfather and mother. Asha tells her grandfather that Magnifico deemed his wish too dangerous, which shocks Sabino, as he doesn’t know what his wish is anymore, but he understands Magnifico’s decision. Asha does not, and says the king should not be keeping these wishes for other people, but her family do not believe this, accepting that King Magnifico is a benevolent ruler and that Rosas is perfect as it is. Asha angrily runs into the forest, with Valentino the goat following her. As Asha walks through the town, she remembers citizens’ wishes and becomes even more annoyed. She runs to the “wishing tree”, where her and her father used to sit, and wishes on a star, for the people of Rosas to have “something more than this”. The whole town feels the magic, and they believe King Magnifico has done something great. Magnifico knows it was not him, and feels threatened. He cannot find anything in any of his spell books about what has happened, and wants to open the “big book”, which is full of forbidden magic. The queen tells him not to go there.

In the forest, Asha learns that the star she wished on has come to life. It begins to make all the animals around her talk, including Valentino, where they all proceed to tell her that she is in fact a star, as is everyone, and that they have the power to make their own wishes come true. But Star cannot grant wishes, so Asha decides to take the wishes back from Magnifico and return them to their rightful owners, so that they can make their own wishes come true, or at least try to, as none of them can remember their wish after it’s been given away. In the castle, Asha goes to her friend, Dahlia, who works as the royal baker. She conceals Star and the talking Valentino in a closet while she talks to Dahlia, saying how she challenged the king. Dahlia, as well as the other six “teens”, who seem to either just hang around in the royal kitchen or all work for the king, who knows, become suspicious of Asha’s behaviour, so Asha shows them Star and Valentino – the closet is also now full of dancing, singing chickens, thanks to Star’s power! Dahlia tells Asha that the dumb waiter can be used to get into the king’s study where the wishes are kept. An assembly is called by Magnifico and Asha asks Dahlia to stall him while she retrieves the wishes.

At the assembly, King Magnifico tells the people of Rosas that there is a traitor amongst them, using magic to put the kingdom at risk, and that they will be punished. Whoever identifies the traitor will have their wish granted; whoever helps them will never. Dahlia attempts to stall Magnifico, but it doesn’t work for long, and he returns to his study, angry that someone would dare challenge him, believing his grip on the citizens is weakening. Asha, meanwhile, is in the study with Valentino and Star, having obtained her grandfather’s wish. They make a quick escape home.

At home, Asha returns her wish to her grandfather, but as Asha tells her mother she plans to go back in for hers, King Magnifico arrives – and he wants Star. Magnifico crushes Asha’s mother wish, which they discover hurts her, but gives Magnifico more power. Asha knocks the king out and they all rush away on horses to the shore. Asha puts them all on boat, and they head for the island opposite them. Asha then realises that she can’t just run away, and that she needs to stop Magnifico once and for all. She tells her grandfather and mother to wait on the island, and she swims back to Rosas with Valentino and Star.

Back in the castle, Magnifico has fully given in to dark magic, fashioning himself a magical staff by using the power of others’ wishes. The queen is devastated to find he has done this to himself. King Magnifico calls another assembly, where he reveals that Asha’s friend Simon has revealed that the traitor is Asha, and that she planned to destroy all their wishes. Simon’s wish is then granted, which was to become a knight of the kingdom, however, at the same time, he comes under the control of Magnifico. Asha tries to rally Dahlia and the other five teens at a secret hideout, where she calls for all of them to fight Magnifico with her. Queen Amaya says she will also join. A plan is concocted.

Queen Amaya tells Magnifico that Asha is in the forest and that he should capture her. Asha plans to lead the king away from the wishes so that Star and the teens can set them all free. Dahlia tries to find a way to defeat the king, but there is no way to do this; once someone has given in to the darkness, they are corrupted for all eternity. Asha is captured in the forest, but although she believed it was Magnifico pursuing her, it was in fact Simon in disguise. The forest animals subdue Simon, and Asha rushes back to Rosas to protect Star.

Atop the castle’s tower, Magnifico absorbs all of the wishes and Star, making him all powerful. He blocks out the sky and immobilises all of the citizens in a floor of thorns. Asha rushes to the high tower and tries to battle Magnifico, but his magic is too powerful. Asha is tortured by the dark magic but encourages everyone to wish to defeat the king. Although they cannot look up at the night sky to do this, their collective wish overpowers Magnifico, sucking him into his staff, and Star and the wishes are released.

Asha is thrilled to see that her mother’s wish has returned, even though it had been destroyed by Magnifico. Simon, now free of his curse, apologies to Asha for revealing her as the traitor and he is forgiven. Queen Amaya is left to be the sole ruler of Rosas, and helps everyone pursue their wishes together. As for Magnifico, well, he becomes trapped in a shard of mirror; Queen Amaya orders him to be kept on the wall of the dungeons. Star will soon have to return to the sky, but first, Star gifts Asha a magic wand and she becomes the Fairy Godmother of the kingdom, the one who will inspire everyone else to keep believing in their wishes. A short but sweet end credits scene shows Sabino playing “When You Wish Upon a Star” on his guitar by a lake, just to really get that message to sink in!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Asha is the 17-year-old lead character in Wish. She has a clear love for the kingdom of Rosas, and for her community, and shares her love for the area with the tourists that come to see this magical kingdom. She believes wholeheartedly in King Magnifico’s dream for the citizens, and honestly thinks he will grant her grandfather’s wish on his 100^th birthday. It’s not until that fateful interview that she realises Magnifico is not the king she thought he was, and from that point on, she decides to go up against him to retrieve these wishes. She wants to make things right again, and refuses to just accept that this is the way things have always been. Asha is a warm, empathic character, who cares more about others than she does about herself, as we see by the fact she puts himself in danger for her grandfather’s happiness, then her mother’s, and then the whole kingdom’s. At the end of the movie, these characteristics are fully realised when Star basically names her as the Fairy Godmother of Rosas. This idea is foreshadowed in some of Asha’s clothing, as her dress is blue and purple, like the Fairy Godmother’s cloak in Cinderella (1950); Asha even wears a very similar cloak when she is being chased by Magnifico in the forest. It also turns out that purple is the colour of hope in North African culture, which is handy as Asha’s mother is from North Africa, and her father was from Southern Spain. There are also pumpkin seeds sewn into Asha’s dress and on her anklet as another reference to Cinderella[1].

Ariana DeBose voices Asha. DeBose has starred in stage musical productions since 2011, after appearing as a contestant on Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance in 2009. On stage, she played Nautica in Bring It On from 2011 to 2012, and was a part of the ensemble in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original Broadway production of Hamilton. From 2017 to 2018, DeBose played Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Since then, Ariana DeBose has been featured on the silver screen, in movies like The Prom (2020), where she was cast as Alyssa Greene, and in West Side Story (2021) where she starred as Anita. For this role, she won the Academy Award, the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, and the SAG award, amongst others, in the category of Best Supporting Actress. In 2024, she appeared in the spy comedy film Argylle and has many more film projects coming out soon.

As for Asha’s family, Sabino, her grandfather, and Sakina, her mother, they are very trusting of the kingdom of Rosas and of Magnifico. They both gave up their wishes at the age of 18 and handed them over to Magnifico, to await the day they may be granted. They are protective of Asha, however, as older generations tend to be, they are reluctant to see the need for change. Their community has always been the way it has been, and Sabino, although saddened by the decision, seems to accept Magnifico’s choice to not grant his wish. The two finally come to Asha’s way of thinking after Magnifico crushes Sakina’s wish right in front of them, and stand up for Asha as she is trying to defeat Magnifico, knowing they need to be brave and stand up for what is right too.

Sakina is voiced by Natasha Rothwell, who is an actress and a writer. Her writing credits include work on the sketch show Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2015, and the television series Insecure from 2016 to 2021. As an actress, Rothwell appeared in the teen romcom Love, Simon (2018) as Ms. Albright, and in the comedy film Like a Boss (2020), where she played Jill. In recent years, Rothwell starred as Belinda, the spa manager, in Season 1 of The White Lotus (2021-present), for which she received a Primetime Emmy award nomination. It seems that she will be returning to the role for Season 3 of the series. She also appears as Rachel in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of films.

Sabino is voiced by Victor Garber. Garber has appeared in numerous stage musicals, starring as Jesus in Godspell from 1972 to 1975, and appearing in the 1973 film version of it – this stage production featured other big names like Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, and Martin Short – before going on to the 1979 Sweeney Tood: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; the 1983 Noises Off; the 2007 Follies; and the 2018 Hello, Dolly! Broadway musical shows. On screen, Garber has featured in many films of all different genres, including Titanic (1997) as Thomas Andrews; Legally Blonde (2001), as Professor Callahan; Milk (2008) as Mayor George Moscone; Argo (2012) as Ken Taylor; and Sicario (2015) as Dave Jennings. On television, Victor Garber also had roles in Cinderella (1997) as King Maximillian; Annie (1999) as Oliver Warbucks; The Orville (2017-22) as Admiral Halsey; and in the series Family Law (2021-present) as Harry Svensson.

Then, we come to Asha’s sidekicks. First, we have Valentino, her little pet goat. He’s quite cute when he’s not talking, but when he does start, I find him a little bit irritating! It was obviously meant to be funny to hear this goat have a deep voice, when you’re expecting it to have a cute, little voice, but I don’t personally like his voice much at all. Luckily, he didn’t have all that much to do with the story, just saying the odd like quip or stupid thing – I did like him counting the teens down when they’re trying to open the roof of Magnifico’s tower, I’ll give him that, because obviously he’s a goat and never learnt to count. Valentino also talks about how his wish is “for a utopia where all animals are equal. And wear clothes”, which is a clear reference to Zootopia (2016), that’s kind of funny too. Disney “good luck charm” Alan Tudyk voices Valentino. His Disney voice roles include: King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Duke of Weselton in Frozen (2013), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), KnowsMore in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and even Iago in the 2019 Aladdin live-action remake. Outside of voice acting, Tudyk was the voice and motion capture for Sonny the robot in I, Robot (2004), and also appeared in the films Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), as Steve the Pirate, and Trumbo (2015), as Ian McLellan Hunter.

Star…the star was originally going to be a talking human shape-shifter, not just a cute little star with a face. There were so many options for the character since it was coming from another world. But it was felt the human shape-shifter idea was too close to Maui in Moana (2016) or even the Genie from Aladdin (1992), so new ideas were pitched. These consisted of things like abstract shapes, and hybrid animals, with one of those even being some sort of space platypus. It was storyboard artist Dan Abraham who pitched the idea of a cluster of stardust with a face. It was so simple, but it captured the essence of what they wanted. This idea morphed into more of a physical star shape, with the five points, and then it was given a heart-shaped face mask. This is in homage to Mickey Mouse, who has the same shape on his face. Star trails a constant sparkle to reference Tinker Bell’s pixie dust and Fairy Godmother’s magic in Peter Pan (1953) and Cinderella (1950) respectively. The sparkly dots were created to be imperfect as though they were hand-drawn. Star is non-verbal so the visual expressions make it obvious what Star is thinking and how it is feeling[2].

The others who guide Asha on her journey are the “Seven Teens”, in a clear reference to Snow White’s seven dwarfs. Each of them is based on a specific dwarf, with their personalities, clothing colours, and the first letter of their name giving a clue as to which dwarf each teen represents. Firstly, there is Dahlia, based on Doc, who is the royal baker and arguably Asha’s closest friend since she gets the most screen-time of the seven. The team working on the film said that they felt Dahlia was like Ethel in the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-57), and that Asha was Lucy, as she always drags Dahlia into situations she doesn’t want to be in. She does have a disability, as Dahlia uses a crutch to help her walk, but she doesn’t let it define her, and she is a very capable and successful woman. It’s a very small reference that I didn’t even notice until about halfway through the film, but I’m not always the most observant person! Dahlia is voiced by Jennifer Kumiyama.

Then, we have Gabo, who is the cynical, uncertain one in the group. He takes a bit more persuading to believe that Asha deserves their help, and is reluctant to get involved in the scheme to defeat Magnifico initially. Gabo is therefore based on Grumpy. He is voiced by Harvey Guillén, who appears as Guillermo in the comedy horror mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows (2019-present). Guillén has also voiced characters for series such as Human Resources (2022-23) and Harley Quinn (2019-present). There is also Hal, the “Happy” one of the group, who is voiced by Niko Vargas. For Bashful, we have Bazeema, the shy, quiet one, voiced by Della Saba. Saba voiced Young Judy in Zootopia (2016).

For the final three, let’s start with Simon, the one who betrays Asha. Before he becomes a traitor and unwillingly becomes a minion for Magnifico, he spends a lot of his time sleeping in the palace kitchens – one guess which dwarf he’s based on. But it’s not his fault. He used to be athletic and full of energy, and when his wish was handed over to Magnifico, he suddenly became very sleepy, as some sort of weird side-effect. Having his wish granted is the primary motivation for Simon betraying Asha, and although wrong to sell out your friends, I can kind of see why he’d do it; Simon wouldn’t have known just how evil and crazy Magnifico would get I suppose – and luckily, he sees the errors of his ways once the spell wears off and his friends forgive him, so it’s all good. Evan Peters is the voice actor for Simon. He played Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). Peters has also recently appeared in the American Horror Story anthology series (2011-present) in a variety of roles, and starred as Jeffrey Dahmer in the miniseries Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022), for which he won a Golden Globe award, amongst others, in the Best Actor category. He also won a Primetime Emmy for his supporting role as Detective Colin Zabel in crime miniseries Mare of Easttown (2021).

Safi is the teen who has multiple allergies – including one to chickens, despite apparently really liking chickens… Safi is based on Sneezy, obviously. Actor, writer, comedian, and director Ramy Youssef voices the character. Youssef created and starred in the comedy-drama series Ramy (2019-22), winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Youssef has also appeared as Samar Swailem in Season 3 of Mr. Robot (2015-19). More recently, he was cast as Max McCandles in the critically acclaimed movie Poor Things (2023). Finally, we have Dopey, I mean Dario, who is the “least bright” one of the teen group. He even has the wiggly ears that are an iconic trait of Dopey. He is voiced by Jon Rudnitsky, who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live for 2015 to 2016, and played McWatt in the miniseries Catch-22 (2019)[3].

One criticism I do have of Wish is that there are too many supporting characters, many of which we don’t learn much about. This is particularly obvious with the “7 Teens”, as only Dahlia seemed to come across as a friend to Asha, and Simon had his whole traitor thing going on, but other than that, I don’t think most of the teens were necessary to the story, though I understand what Disney were trying to do with their seven dwarfs reference.

Let’s move on to the royalty in Wish, and start with Queen Amaya. She is a kind, caring queen, dedicated to the kingdom of Rosas. She is also a loyal wife to King Magnifico, and tries her best to stop him succumbing to the power of dark magic – to no avail. At this turning point, Queen Amaya knows she must do what is best for Rosas and fights against her husband, which is very brave when he’s become a complete psychopath! Angelique Cabral voices Queen Amaya. Cabral has had main roles in recent television series such as Life in Pieces (2015-19), playing Colleen Short, and Undone (2019-22) as Becca Winograd-Diaz. She also voiced the recurring role of Hazel Gonzalez in DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021-23).

And last, but certainly not least, we have King Magnifico. At first glance, Magnifico seems like a well-meaning king, with his wish to create a safe community for others seeming like quite a noble aspiration to have. Sure, he takes people’s wishes from them when they are 18-years-old, but he protects them and plans to grant them at a later date, which doesn’t seem like an issue initially. However, we soon learn that Magnifico likes to have power over his choice of which wishes are granted, and which are not. The king can decide whether a wish is “too dangerous” or not – and that’s a problem for Asha, who doesn’t like Magnifico hoarding all these wishes, for no purpose other than to have control over the citizens of Rosas. When Magnifico is confronted by Asha, he feels threatened and his mood instantly switches, and from that point on, he descends into darkness, madness, and insanity. Disney had not created a classic villain in quite a few years. I’d probably consider the last good villain to be Yokai in Big Hero 6 (2014), but if we’re talking menacing and evil for their own purposes, I’m thinking Mother Gothel in Tangled (2010) – or maybe Prince Hans in Frozen (2013), but I’ve never been a big fan of his. Is anyone, actually?

King Magnifico had to be a true villain, a completely unredeemable one. Early on in the story, there were plans for Magnifico to be showing his evil side straight away, with one idea being him smashing Asha’s grandfather’s guitar to pieces right at the start, which would’ve been awful to see! It was then decided that there would need to be too much explanation about why anyone would give up their wishes to that kind of person, so King Magnifico got an origin story, about his family’s lands being destroyed, and he became quite a charming character to begin with, albeit a tad narcissistic, always playing with his hair and looking in mirrors, because King Magnifico is quite handsome for a villain.

The team working on Wish loved Chris Pine’s voice performance, finding that he was able to find the hidden depths to Magnifico, and was able to be as menacing as they expected this classic Disney villain to be, commenting that the quieter his voice gets, the more dangerous Magnifico is, which is something I also noticed and particularly liked[4]. I was very impressed with Pine’s acting here, as after hearing the villain’s song, I was sure this villain was not going to be a good one, just a silly, overly confident one, but I was completely wrong. Magnifico, I think, is a truly scary classic Disney villain but with some humour to him as well. I will admit that I may be biased though, since I have been a fan of Chris Pine since he first rose to fame in the movies The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) and Just My Luck (2006). Pine then became Captain Kirk in the rebooted Star Trek trilogy of films (2009-16). He also portrayed Jack Ryan in the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014). For Disney, Pine appeared in A Wrinkle in Time (2018) as Dr. Alexander Murry, and played the self-obsessed Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods (2014) before becoming the self-obsessed King Magnifico in Wish – I think that’s called career progression. More recently, Chris Pine starred in the controversy-hit thriller film Don’t Worry Darling (2022) alongside Florence Pugh, which I actually really liked, and he recently made his directorial debut with the movie Poolman (2023).

MUSIC

Speaking of Chris Pine and King Magnifico, he actually gets to sing twice in this film. His biggest song is obviously “his” song “This is the Thanks I Get?!”. This is Magnifico saying how he thinks the people of Rosas are really ungrateful for everything he’s done for them – and then he decides to get rid of wishing altogether by using dark magic. I did not like this initially when I heard it, nor when I heard it in the film, however, I have found myself thinking that it’s not actually that bad and fits Magnifico’s character well, because at this point in the movie he is slowly becoming a madman, too obsessed with his plan, and that comes through in this song. My issue with this “villain’s song” is that it doesn’t sound very sinister or evil, and those are always the best kind. I had hoped to hear something more on the lines of “Hellfire” or “Be Prepared” since Magnifico is meant to be an amalgamation of all the best parts of the Disney villains – and character-wise he is – but hearing a comedic, pop-rock song threw me a bit, but maybe I’m stuck in the 90s and need to move on. “This is the Thanks I Get?!” has started to grow on me, but it’s nowhere near my favourite song here.

That accolade goes to “At All Costs”, a sweet song performed by Pine and DeBose as Magnifico and Asha, when they are looking at all the wishes Magnifico protects. It’s a quiet, calm song, and I love it. I also think Pine gets to show his singing talents here, whereas he doesn’t exactly get to in the villain’s song. Taken out of context of the film, because Asha and Magnifico are not singing to each other and definitely are not an item, it’s quite a romantic love ballad. I could see someone choreographing a great contemporary dance to this song actually… I just love it; I think it’s beautiful. It is likely this song was meant to be a love song in an early version of the story, between Asha and the human version of Star, as written in the official book of the film, The Art of Wish (2023).

Moving on to the signature song of Wish, “This Wish”. It is initially performed by Asha solo as she wishes to the star to give the people of Rosas something better than the life that Magnifico has given for them all. Her wish is so strong that it brings the wishing star to her. It is a very powerful song, and was actually the first song written for the film, written before the script had even been completed, so “This Wish” helped with the story development. As lovely as this song is, the reprise of “This Wish”, sung by Asha and then the people of Rosas as they collectively wish to defeat the evil King Magnifico is even more powerful, and this is my second favourite in the soundtrack. The whole showdown between Asha, Magnifico, and the citizens is just amazing, and with this song going at the same time, it just makes it even better. I’ve always loved a good ensemble number.

Another song I like is “I’m a Star” performed by the forest animals, and Valentino, as they tell Asha that we are all made of stars, so we don’t need stars to make wishes. This song is quite sappy, but it is a nice song to listen to if you’re having a particularly bad day; it’s nice to hear random voices saying “you’re a star” to you sometimes…

Rounding out the main movie soundtrack are two numbers I didn’t particularly enjoy. The first is “Welcome to Rosas”, which is just Asha leading a tour and showing us the wonders of living in the city of Rosas. I quite like the vaguely Bollywood-vibe to the song, but other than, I didn’t take all that much from it. It was just a quick round-up of the backstory of Rosas and Magnifico, kind of like “The Family Madrigal” in Encanto (2021); too much information to really understand the first time you’re hearing it as it’s so quick. The other song that I really didn’t like was “Knowing What I Know Now”, which is Asha calling all her friends to help her fight against Magnifico. I just didn’t like it; it sounded too serious for this film, and more like a song you’d hear in Mulan (1998) as they are actually headed into a physical war, not a magical one like Asha and her friends.

The End Credits song of “A Wish Worth Making” is quite nice though, another slow song full of feeling. It is performed by Julia Michaels, who co-wrote the songs for the movie. I might have liked this song more because the credits featured a lot of Disney characters from Disney Animation history, with Quasimodo making an appearance to my delight. I will just say not every animated film was referenced here though, with some exceptions being many of the “package features” of the 1940s, The Rescuers (1977), and The Black Cauldron (1985). It is odd that Disney couldn’t find room in the credits to include a character from each movie, although I can understand ignoring sequel films.

Singer songwriter Julia Michaels and record producer Benjamin Rice wrote all the songs for Wish, with Canadian musician JP Saxe also being credited for the song “This Wish”. Michaels has a background in writing pop songs, having written songs for the likes of Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Olivia Rodrigo, so this gave a contemporary feel to the soundtrack. Dave Metzger composed the score for Wish. He had previously worked for Disney Animation many times, arranging and orchestrating the music for Tarzan (1999) and Frozen (2013) for example, but hadn’t composed a score for them before[5]. Of the instrumental pieces, I like the pieces that play during the finale scenes the best. Overall, I think this is a good Disney soundtrack, not the best, but I do count “This Wish (Reprise)” and “At All Costs” as two new favourite Disney songs of mine, which is much more than I expected when I first sat down to watch Wish.

PRODUCTION

Wish began production in 2018, although it was not announced until January 2022 that Chief Creative Officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios Jennifer Lee was writing this next movie. In September 2022, at the D23 Expo, the title and further details were announced about the movie. In 2018 when Lee began developing the story, it was known that this film would be released during the Disney100 celebrations, so it had to be a tribute to all of Disney Animation, as well as be a new addition to their movie catalogue. Initially, some of the animators wondered if they’d be making a movie like Fantasia (1940). Pictures were lined up of every Disney animated feature that had been released, like a timeline of their history, and they discussed how they feel watching Disney films and what Disney magic is to them. As well as the fact that Disney animation looks at an ordinary hero fighting their way through extraordinary circumstances to achieve something big, another factor that kept being mentioned was about wishing. Having a whole movie about wishing would fit well with the themes of many other Disney animated movies, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); Pinocchio (1940), where we first heard “When You Wish Upon a Star”, the “theme song” of the Walt Disney Company; Cinderella (1950); Aladdin (1992); and The Princess and the Frog (2009), just to name a few. Looking through Walt Disney’s history as well, they found that even Walt Disney had a “wishing tree” on his parents’ farm in Missouri. This is why Asha and her father have a wishing tree in the movie[6].

With this in mind, the initial concept of Wish was for it to tell the origin story of the wishing star, that star that Gepetto and Tiana wish on in their respective movies. But, much like The Princess and the Frog, Wish tells the viewer that although wishes may be powerful, just wishing on a star won’t make it come true; you have to take responsibility for pursuing it yourself, or get help and support from others. It also reminds us that no matter how long it’s been, whether you’ve had that wish on hold or its strength has wavered, whether you’ve hit a problem and don’t think it’ll ever happen, you can always feel inspired to get back to it, just like Asha’s grandfather; he’s 100 and he still wants to see his wish come true! Unlike previous fairy tale movies from Disney, Wish is an original fairy tale from Disney[7].

If you’ve seen Wish, you’ll probably have noticed that the art style is quite unique. Well, that is because the team wanted to pay homage to the past, by referencing the romantic fairy-tale feel to the artwork that was seen in the earliest of Disney animated movies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, with their use of watercolour backgrounds and traditional hand-drawn characters. The team working on Wish wanted to mimic that hand-drawn look, despite using CG. This was quite difficult to do as computer-animated characters do not have any line work around them, since they aren’t drawn, and the backgrounds normally blur so that the foreground can be the primary focus. In 2D animation, everything is visible all at once, which meant making backgrounds less detailed to avoid detraction from the main focal points. For example, in the crowd scenes, the characters at the far back of the crowd will not have a face, and the further forward you go, the more detail has been added. Once all these details had been worked through, the team did a test shot of Asha walking through a painted background from Pinocchio to see if she would fit in that world[8].

Since Wish is a fairy tale and most classic fairy tales take place in medieval times and usually in Europe, the kingdom of Rosas had to be reminiscent of this setting. Disney looked at setting Wish in a warmer climate, so looked at areas like Southern Spain for inspiration. Rosas became a melting pot of cultures, with many people from other countries flocking to the kingdom because of the promise of their wish coming true, so that was factored in to all of the citizens. Wish also has a king, and what king would be complete without his castle – and what Disney fairy tale would be complete without an iconic castle. Looking at the architecture of Spain, Magnifico’s castle includes many decorative and ornate details such as pillars, spires, elaborate window designs, and even bridges[9]. To me, Rosas looks quite similar to the kingdom of Corona in Tangled (2010), which makes sense as they are both island kingdoms in similar climates.

Because of the need to pay tribute to Disney Animation as a whole, there are numerous references and Easter eggs to Disney’s animated history. Some are more obvious, like the various Hidden Mickeys, including one made of fireworks right at the end of the film in typical Disney fashion, and some are more subtle, such as the fact that Magnifico has 1,923 wishes, which is a reference to the Disney Studios beginning in 1923, and that Magnifico’s “secret lab” has a skull and an apple like Snow White’s Evil Queen does. There are plenty to look out for, and you’ll never catch them all just viewing the film once.

RECEPTION

After all that time and effort, Wish was released on 22^nd November 2023 in the United States – to fairly negative reviews for the most part and disappointing box-office figures. The general consensus from critics seemed to be that the story was not well thought-out and lacked Disney’s usual story-telling magic, saying that it seemed that the movie was too busy referencing previous Disney animated movies to have an actual plot. Some were even bold enough to claim that parts of Wish had been written by AI, which is frankly offensive to the creators. Many did enjoy Chris Pine and Ariana DeBose’s performances as King Magnifico and Asha, but responses to the soundtrack were mixed.

Sadly, Wish did not do nearly as well as it was predicted to make at the box-office, despite being released the week before the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. During that weekend, it only made $31.7 million, and in its opening weekend, it grossed $19.5 million domestically. In total, Wish grossed only $64 million in the US and Canada, and made a worldwide total of just over $250 million, not much more than its predicted budget of $200 million, making it a box-office disappointment. Wish failed to outgross The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) or Napoleon (2023), both of which were released at similar times. Wish did, however, do better at the box-office than Disney’s previous movie release of Strange World (2022), probably because it is more universally appealing than Strange World, which was…strange, but not bad[10].

To make matters worse, Wish was not included in the Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, nor did any of the songs end up nominated for Best Song there or at the Grammys. It did receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature though, losing to Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron (2023), and “This Wish” was nominated at a few awards, like the Astra Film Awards, and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

Reading all of this negativity surrounding Wish has been disappointing for me. In all fairness, I am not a film critic; I don’t need to be overly critical about what I’m watching, I just watch it and see how it makes me feel. For me, that’s all I want from anything I watch; it just has to make me feel something. If it can make me cry, or shock me, or make me sad, angry, happy, hopeful, then I’m quite easily satisfied. And with Wish, that’s what happened. Some of the songs really hit me emotionally and that kept me interested, and I did like Asha’s relationship with her family. King Magnifico being a “real villain” also helped, and generally I liked the story, even if it was a typical fairy tale with very few surprises.

I know that we aren’t all going to have the same opinion and as much as it upsets me, all those critics who wrote mean things about Wish had every right too. I just think it is unfair to criticise Wish for its lack of story when I believe that Encanto (2021), although it was very heart-warming and endearing, has even less of a story than Wish. This was never meant to be a film that was action-packed or super thrilling; I believe it was made to make viewers feel hopeful and positive, and yes, it was a tribute to Disney Animation, but I didn’t get sucked in to all the hype around the Disney100, so I just saw Wish as another addition to Disney Animation history. I didn’t have high expectations of it, but maybe others did.

I think many people were avoiding going to the cinema to watch it, in part because of the negative reviews, but more so perhaps because of this: why pay to see Wish twice? If you are already paying for Disney+, you might as well wait for it to come out there. That was my thinking on it, especially as I wasn’t expecting to like it much. Disney had been adding their theatrically released movies to the platform around three months after their theatrical run, but in this case, we had to wait around five months for it. Maybe this was punishment from the Disney company for not going to movie theatres to see it… Thankfully, Wish was finally released on Disney+ on 3^rd April 2024. It has recently been stated that Wish had 13.2 million views in its first five days on Disney+, making it the third most-viewed streaming premiere for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film, after Encanto (2021) and Frozen II (2019). It did not, however, reach the heights of Elemental (2023), Pixar’s movie, when it was released on the platform as that received 26.4 million views[11]. I am hoping that Wish can finally find its audience now – if viewers are willing to ignore all the bad buzz.

LEGACY

As promotion for the upcoming movie, Wish started to appear at the Disney Parks from the start of November 2023. At Walt Disney World, Asha began meeting guests in Epcot from 1^st November, and she still continues to meet guests daily at World Showcase Plaza in Epcot. Also at Epcot, there was a light show on Spaceship Earth, the park’s icon, from 22^nd November that used the song “I’m a Star”. There was also a preview of the film being shown at Walt Disney Presents at Disney’s Hollywood Studios from 11^th November; this had stopped by 2024. There were numerous treats themed to Wish debuting that month too, including the Star Cookie, which was the “completer cookie” for 2023’s Festival of the Holidays Cookie Stroll. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there were limited time animation classes to draw some of the characters from Wish, like Valentino, at the Animation Experience in Conservation Station at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. In 2024, a Wish topiary of Asha, Valentino, and Star, did debut at the entrance to Epcot for the 2024 International Flower and Garden Festival in February.

Similar offerings were available at Disneyland, such as Asha meeting guests outside Royal Hall in Fantasyland, in an area made to look like Rosas. This area was removed in early 2024, however, Asha has still been seen roaming the area. There was a Wish pre-show prior to the World of Color – Season of Light nighttime show at Disney’s California Adventure from 20^th November for a limited time; this used the song “This Wish”. Animation classes were also held at the Animation Academy at Disney’s California Adventure Park. Additional merchandise such as a Valentino popcorn bucket and Star sipper were available.

At Disneyland Paris, Ariana DeBose performed “This Wish” in front of their castle as part of The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration, which aired on ABC on 26^th November. Asha met with guests from 29^th November to 7^th January at Animation Celebration at Walt Disney Studios Park. There were also limited time animation classes at the Animation Academy here. At the reopening of the Disneyland Hotel Royal Banquet restaurant on 25^th January 2024, it was discovered that a portrait of King Magnifico was hanging on the wall alongside other villainous royals.

Shanghai Disneyland held the China premiere of Wish on 17^th November, which featured a Wish-themed projection show as well, however, other than that and some merchandise lines available to purchase at the Disney Store Asia from December 2023, neither Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, or Hong Kong Disneyland appeared to have any special offerings or events to celebrate Wish, nor does Asha seem to have made an appearance at these parks. For the merchandise, figurines, dolls, plush toys, kids’ clothing, pins, MagicBands, and even a Dooney and Bourke bag collection have been sold over recent months. Some of these items differ between Asia and the US and Europe.

Finally, Asha made her Disney on Ice debut in winter 2023, skating to her signature song “This Wish”. It remains to be seen whether she continues to feature in this show, whether the storyline is expanded, or if Wish is cut altogether in the coming years. It also remains to be seen whether Wish, its songs, or its characters will be featured in new parades, or new nighttime and daytime shows at the Disney Parks – I hope it does.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I can understand that over recent years, there has been some distrust and dissatisfaction directed towards the Walt Disney Company. The corporate side of the company has been laying off jobs at an alarming rate, cost-cutting, threatening to sell off portions of the company, and finding seemingly endless ways of taking as much money from consumers as possible – thank you, Genie+. But that is not Disney Animation.

If you watch the animators who worked on Wish discuss the film, you’ll see that they wanted to make the best film possible, to celebrate the legacy of Disney Animation that they feel lucky enough to have been a part of. They didn’t just make Wish because they had to, because it was part of their production schedule. The amount of effort, time, and creative thinking that went into Wish shows how much it meant to the animators to make a movie reminiscent of the fairy tales that Disney have made over the decades, but that had all the contemporary, modern touches to appeal to today’s audience; they never once have just “phoned it in”, so for viewers to think that Wish was a plain rip-off and lacklustre addition to the Disney Animation canon makes me feel very sad for those who worked on it.

Wish deserves to be celebrated for its references to Disney history, its salute to the famous art stylings of Walt Disney’s era of animated movies, as well as for its unique characters, emotive soundtrack, and touching message, about never giving up on your wishes and dreams, no matter how long it’s been.

It’s unfair for Wish to be tarnished as a mediocre fairy-tale musical, not worthy of having been released during the Disney100. Don’t just take the critics’ word for it; watch it and decide for yourself.

Which side will you be on: the dreamers, or the non-believers?

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “Asha Means Wish”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[2] Credit: Disney, “Star Is Born”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[3] Credit: Disney, “Those Who Stand Beside Me”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[4] Credit: Disney, “The Return of the Disney Villain”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[5] Credit: Disney, “The Wish Equation”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[6] Credit: Disney, “What Makes Disney, Disney”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[7] Credit: Disney, “The Wish Equation”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[8] Credit: Disney, “Looking Backward to Go Forward”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[9] Credit: Disney, “Where Dreams and Reality Collide”, from Wish (2023) Disney+ (2024).

[10] Credit: Conor Murray, ‘Wish Had One of Disney’s Worst Openings Ever For An Animated Movie – Here’s Why’, Forbes (online), 27^th November 202.

[11] Credit: Selome Hailu, ‘’Wish’ Hits 13.2 Million Views on Disney+ in Five Days’, Variety (online), 8^th April 2024.

5th Apr 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#55 Zootopia (2016)

BACKGROUND

The 2010s saw Disney Animation release hit after hit.

Well, for the most part. We don’t need to mention that 2011 Winnie the Pooh remake, a minor speed bump on the road to success.

Now that Disney Animation was fully immersed in the world of computer animation, they were doing well. And not even just with fairy tale musicals, like Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013), which, obviously became a huge phenomenon all of its own, but with non-musicals too, that were based on video games and superheroes – I’m looking at you, Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Big Hero 6 (2014). It was great to see Disney branching out and doing something different. All of those films did well both financially and critically.

Disney just needed to keep that momentum going, and they did just that in 2016, with Zootopia, a movie about a city full of anthropomorphised animals. It dealt with issues such as prejudice, discrimination, and unconscious bias – all topics that have been discussed amongst the human population for a few years now, but 2016 was a big year for these types of debates. Disney managed to get their own message in at the perfect time.

Although this message about not judging others by what they look like, which in Zootopia’s case is masked behind the metaphorical city of Zootopia and its war between predators and prey, may not be fully explored in the movie, it certainly caught the attentions of the public, with many praising this effort to weigh in on the topical discussions. Some, however, felt Zootopia was a bit preachy at times, and that the message itself could be confused, not standing up to scrutiny and dissection if it’s thought about for long.

But generally, Zootopia was a hit, with critics and audiences alike. I watched Zootopia at the cinema when it was first released, and I really liked it then. It was funny; the design of the city was clever, colourful, and engaging; and the characters were flawed like any person but still remained likeable. I also enjoyed the movie’s theme song, “Try Everything”, with its message of not giving up and keeping going, even though you might fail.

However, nowadays, I don’t find myself liking Zootopia. At the time, I found the message touching, and that it hit quite close to home, in terms of our own prejudices against others who might be seen as “different” to ourselves. The moment in the film on the train, where prey animals are moving their children away from predator animals was a surprisingly moving one for me. I’m not really sure why but now, I don’t find myself ever thinking about watching the film. It could just be that I’ve over-watched it, as Zootopia has been on television over the festive period here in the UK pretty much every year since its release, or it could be that it is just too long a movie, as it stands at close to two hours. Or perhaps, I find the overall message of Zootopia to be a bit simplistic now, like it is trying to solve all the problems of the world – even though I know Disney weren’t trying to succeed in achieving world peace with their film. It’s probably a combination of all three, but many people like Zootopia, and I feel that children in particular will get a lot out of it.

PLOT

The movie begins with a brief backstory of the world, told via a school play, where it shows that there once was a time when predators attacked prey, and prey had to protect themselves or risk death. In present day, though, predators and prey have lived alongside each other peacefully for centuries. Judy Hopps, a young rabbit, has just performed in this play and has always dreamed of being a police officer. Despite the fact that others, including her parents, and a bullying fox, tell her that it’s not possible for a small rabbit to do anything great, she is determined to see this through. She enrols at Zootopia Police Academy, and although she begins training as the weakest recruit, she soon learns how to make the most of what she’s got and graduates, getting a job at the Zootopia Police District, in the thriving city of Zootopia, which is split into districts of differing ecosystems and environments, like the rainforest and the tundra. She leaves her town of Bunnyburrow, with her parents still believing she will ultimately fail and have to return home. Great parenting there…

Once at the city, Judy reports to the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD) station, where she meets Benjamin Clawhauser, the bubbly desk sergeant, and the hard-to-read, hard-to-get-close-to Chief Bogo. Whilst Bogo hands out missing resident cases to the larger, predator species of police officers, Judy is tasked with traffic offences, basically being a “meter maid”. Judy is determined to be the best she can be, so sets out giving tickets to any resident who has wrongfully parked – which doesn’t make her very popular…One day she goes into the local ice cream shop, which is run by elephants. They have a sign up saying that they have the right to refuse custom to anyone they want, so when a fox and his young son comes into the store wanting a jumbo pop, a huge ice pop meant for elephants, the elephant refuses to sell one to him. That is until Judy comes over and says it’s unlawful for him to do that and that she’ll have someone over there to shut the shop down if he still doesn’t sell the kid a jumbo pop. The elephant relents and Judy feels happy knowing she’s already made a difference – albeit a small one – in Zootopia.

However, Judy soon realises that she has been conned, as the same fox and his “son”, actually not his son or even a child, are spotted melting down the jumbo pop in the hot sun, and taking the liquid to Tundra Town to freeze into smaller popsicles. Judy then follows the two back to the city where the popsicles are being sold to lemmings who seemingly work in finance at the Lemming Brothers Bank – I would’ve thought health and safety was a better profession for lemmings. Judy confronts the fox, Nick, who tells her that he has all the permits needed to make this enterprise legal and that the “dumb bunny” can’t do anything about it. Feeling emboldened after this put-down by Nick, Judy sets about looking for crime. She sees a weasel, Duke Weaselton, robbing a florist and chases him through the city, all the way to Little Rodentia. Luckily, no-one is hurt in the chase, though it comes very close. Big doughnut models speeding towards tiny little animals isn’t a nice image…

Back at the station, Judy is being reprimanded by Chief Bogo for her little escapade when an otter comes in, enquiring about her husband’s case; Emmitt Otterton is one of the 14 missing animals in the city. Chief Bogo is about to fob Mrs. Otterton off with some excuse when Judy hastily volunteers to look for Emmitt. The mayor’s assistant, Dawn Bellwether, a sheep, is only too glad to hear this and so Bogo gives Judy 48 hours to solve the case or she will have to resign. Judy believes she can do it, even though the case file contains just one piece of evidence: a photograph of Emmitt’s last known location. But within the photo, she sees Nick, so he is her first port of call. Nick is blackmailed into helping Judy, as she recorded their conversation earlier when he was bragging about his cons being legal. It turns out he hasn’t been paying tax on any of that “income” – big shocker there – and that is tax evasion, so Nick begrudgingly agrees to help Judy.

After a meeting with a chilled-out hippie yak, who remembers the license plate of the car Emmitt got into that day he disappeared, and a stressful wait at the DMV run by sloths, where Judy waits for an excruciatingly long time to find out where that car is, they finally are led to a limousine in Tundra Town. It turns out this limo is owned by Mr. Big, a tiny shrew that sounds an awful lot like the Godfather. He is feared by many residents of Zootopia, but luckily, just as he is about to “ice” Judy and Nick for trespassing – and because Nick once sold him a “skunk butt rug”, which he’s understandably not happy about, Mr. Big’s daughter comes in and announces that Judy was the one who saved her from the rolling doughnut during the chase earlier at Little Rodentia. They are instead invited to the daughter’s wedding, where Mr. Big tells them to talk to the chauffeur that drove Emmitt that day; he is called Manchas, a black jaguar who lives in the Rainforest District.

Nick and Judy go over to the Rainforest District, and find that Manchas is quite injured. He tells them that Emmitt said something about “night howlers” and then went savage, attacking Manchas in the car, before running into the night. Suddenly, Manchas then goes savage and chases after Nick and Judy. The two manage to tie up Manchas and call for police back-up. Chief Bogo and other officers arrive to find that Manchas has gone. Bogo orders Judy to resign, as she is an embarrassment to the force, but Nick says they still have ten hours left to solve the case. The two continue on their journey, where Judy learns that Nick has been struggling with self-doubt for years as he was bullied by other prey animals as a child. As a young fox all Nick wanted was to join the Junior Ranger Scouts; he would be the only predator in the group, but he didn’t think it mattered. Unfortunately, the other members of the troop were not so forward-thinking and during Nick’s “initiation ceremony”, the kids pinned him down and tied a muzzle to him, saying they would never trust a predator. This is why Nick doesn’t see any point in trying to be a better fox, because if the world is only going to see him as a bad guy, he may as well be one.

Nick and Judy decide they need to see the traffic cameras from the area that night to figure out where Manchas went. Dawn Bellwether shows them at the mayor’s office, where they discover that wolves took him. Judy believes these must be the “night howlers”. Judy and Nick follow the wolves to an abandoned building. Breaking inside, they discover that all of the missing residents are being housed there – and it turns out Mayor Lionheart was behind it, though he claims he was only keeping them there to find out what turned them savage. He is arrested for false imprisonment and Bellwether becomes the new mayor. At a press conference, Judy is given the spotlight to explain the solved case. She accidentally seems to imply that the predators are going savage because they are giving in to their natural instincts, which both alienates Nick, who himself is a predator, and makes all the prey suspicious of all the predators in the city, igniting a war between them. Judy soon quits her job as a police officer, believing this mess to be her fault, and returns to Bunnyburrow.

Back home, Judy is managing her parents’ vegetable stand, when an old foe from her past comes to the stand. It is the fox who bullied her as a child, Gideon, but he is just a hard-working farmer now. At the same time, Judy’s parents tell their children not to go near the Midnicampum flowers. Gideon says that’s a fancy name for them and that he used to call them “night howlers”. Judy asks for more information on them. Her father says that her mother’s brother ate one once and went crazy, biting Judy’s mother. Judy realises that this flower is actually causing the animals to go savage, and that it can happen to prey too.

She rushes back to Zootopia and apologises to Nick, who seems uninterested at first but soon forgives her, especially as she calls herself a “dumb bunny”, which makes Nick laugh. The two need to speak to Duke Weaselton, who has been stealing these flower bulbs, and, using Mr. Big, they get him to admit that a ram named Doug told him to steal them. They follow Doug into the subway, into a disused train, where a whole lab has been set up to manufacture the night howlers’ poison into pellets that can be shot at animals, turning them savage. Judy and Nick attempt to take the train all the way to the police station as evidence, but the whole train explodes and they are left with just the loaded dart gun. They try to get to the police station on foot, but are followed to the Natural History Museum by the rams. Their leader is also with them – and it’s Dawn Bellwether! Judy and Nick become trapped in an exhibit and Bellwether shoots Nick with the gun. Bellwether reveals that this was all her plan, wanting the predators to be shut away so that the prey can dominate the city. Nick is seen to go savage, but actually it is all an act; the two swapped out the night howler pellets for regular blueberries from Judy’s parents’ farm.

They also recorded Bellwether’s confession and luckily, the police soon arrive to arrest Bellwether and her accomplices. The predators are cured and go back to their normal ways, living peacefully in the town. Judy also gets her job back and encourages Nick to go through police training too. He graduates and becomes the first fox police officer, joining Judy as partners. They also seem to be a couple now, so whether or not their relationship can last whilst working together remains to be seen! The movie ends with all the characters attending pop star Gazelle’s big concert.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Zootopia takes place within a city built by animals where they all live “in harmony” together, living as humans do by wearing clothes, talking, and walking around on two legs. Zootopia has strong characters to get behind. Judy Hopps is a great character, as she is so positive and determined to be taken seriously that you can’t help but like her, even if she does come across as naïve at times. She is shown to have the same unconscious biases as all the other animals do – and humans do – by fearing Nick at times just because he is a fox, a rabbit’s natural enemy. The fox deterrent she takes to Zootopia to please her parents ends up being a safety tool for her, even though she doesn’t always realise it. Judy is a great role model, as she doesn’t let life get her down for very long, and she is eager to move forward at every chance she gets.

Ginnifer Goodwin voices Judy Hopps. She has appeared in television series such as Big Love (2006-11), where she played Margene Heffman, and she starred as Snow White / Mary Margaret in the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18). Goodwin has also been seen in romantic comedy movies such as He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) with an all-star cast, and Something Borrowed (2011). She voiced the character of Fawn for another Disney movie: Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014). As Judy Hopps, Ginnifer Goodwin won Best Animated Female at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists awards, where she tied with Auli’I Cravalho, the voice of Moana, from Disney’s Moana, their other 2016 movie release. An interesting fact is that Josh Dallas, Goodwin’s real-life husband, as well as her on-screen husband, as he portrayed Prince Charming / David in Once Upon a Time gets a cameo voice role as “The Frantic Pig”, the unnamed owner of Flora & Fauna which is robbed by Duke Weaselton.

Nick Wilde is my favourite character as he is just a lot more fun, and some of the things he says are patronising, but funny: “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart” – though that comes back to bite him a couple of times in the movie! He’s a con-artist, but he’s not actually harming anyone by what he’s doing. He’s sort of a lovable rogue, I suppose, and he does have a sensitive side; it’s quite emotional to hear how Nick became that cynical from his experiences as a child. It was because of this that Nick learned he would never let anyone know that they’d got to him, and that if the world was only ever going to see him as one thing, then what was the point in trying to be something else. It’s horrible to think about, but it’s all too real. Kids can be cruel, as can adults, and it just shows how discrimination and fear of others can start at a young age, and how people feel they have to change how they act either to fit the rhetoric surrounding them, or change themselves to fit in.

Nick Wilde is voiced by Jason Bateman, who won the Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting for this character. Alongside Ginnifer Goodwin, the two also won the Favorite Frenemies award at the Kids’ Choice Awards. Outside of Zootopia, Jason Bateman has appeared in numerous screen projects. He starred as Michael Bluth in the series Arrested Development (2003-19), where he won Golden Globe and Satellite awards for his performance in 2005. He also starred as Marty Byrde in the series Ozark (2017-22), this time winning three Screen Actors Guild awards for his acting, and a Primetime Emmy award for his directing. Bateman has also appeared in movies such as Horrible Bosses (2011) and its 2014 sequel as Nick Hendricks, and recently acted alongside Matt Damon in Air (2023).

So that’s the two main characters, but we can’t forget our villain, Dawn Bellwether. As a sheep, the audience doesn’t believe that she could ever be evil – that shows how we judge everyone based on appearance. Bellwether seems over-worked and under-appreciated by Mayor Lionheart, who disrespects her frequently. The viewers feel sorry for her, so when she does finally became Mayor, because Lionheart has seemingly been behind the whole missing predator scandal, it feels like a victory for the “underdogs”, showing that you can get somewhere in life even if you seem small and helpless. But it turns out that is not the case, as Bellwether had her own plot to have prey dominate society by turning them against predators, and forcing predators to go savage. I have always liked surprise villain twists, and this is one of the good ones. I personally didn’t see it coming, but then again, I’ve never been particularly good at guessing movie plots; I get too absorbed in the story to think ahead. Although Bellwether isn’t the most fearsome or evil villain, it shows how one person can force their ideas and opinions onto more people, especially when they are in a position of power. Judy and Nick manage to out-think her in the museum though, and their little scene of pretending that Nick has gone savage and is about to kill Judy is a very clever throwback to the first scene in the movie, of Judy in her school play.

Dawn Bellwether is voiced by Jenny Slate, who has a long career of voice acting. For example, she voiced Gidget the Pomeranian in The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and its 2019 sequel. She has also voiced characters in these series: Big Mouth (2017-present); The Great North (2021-present); and Bob’s Burgers (2012-present), and its 2022 movie. Slate recently appeared in the romantic comedy I Want You Back (2022) for Amazon Prime. Slate was also a cast member on Saturday Night Live for one season between 2009 and 2010.

There are plenty more characters to mention in Zootopia after these three, so here are some of my favourites. Chief Bogo is a buffalo and police chief at the ZPD. He’s brusque and grumpy, but he does have one of the best lines in the film, a very deadpan “Let it go”, when he’s telling Judy that life isn’t about singing a song and all your dreams coming true; obviously a reference to one of the most common Disney tropes and to one of the most famous Disney songs of all time. Idris Elba voices Chief Bogo. Elba also voiced two other characters for Disney’s 2016 movie releases: Shere Khan for The Jungle Book live-action remake, and Fluke the sea lion in Finding Dory (2016) for Pixar. Elba has recently voiced the character of Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) and is set to reprise the role for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) and the Paramount+ series Knuckles. On television, Idris Elba appeared as Stringer Bell in The Wire (2002-04), and starred as DCI John Luther in the BBC series Luther (2010-19), for which he won a Critics’ Choice Television award, a Golden Globe award, and a SAG award. Elba portrays Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Also, there is Flash, the “fastest” sloth at the DMV. This whole scene is just a mickey-take of how slow administration workers can be, which I think many people can relate to! Flash speaks and does everything annoyingly slowly; I really feel Judy’s pain when she’s waiting for him to type a few simple letters into the computer, and then Nick decides to tell a joke to Flash mid-typing so he takes even longer to finish the task. It’s a good scene, probably my favourite one in Zootopia. It’s also hilarious to find at the end of the movie that the speeding car Judy and Nick have seen and followed is actually being driven by Flash, who would’ve thought it? Raymond S. Persi voices Flash. Persi has directed episodes of The Simpsons (1989-present) and won a Primetime Emmy award for the episode “The Seemingly Never-Ending Story”. For Disney, Persi has also provided the voices for other characters, including Gene, the Mayor of Niceland, in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). There is another voice cameo here too. Kristen Bell voices Priscilla, one of Flash’s colleagues. Apparently, she got the role because of her love of sloths. Kristen Bell is obviously well-known for her voice role of Anna in the Frozen franchise.

Some other great voice castings include Bonnie Hunt as the voice of Judy’s mother, and she has voiced a few characters for Pixar movies, including Sally in the Cars franchise (2006-2022), and Dolly in the Toy Story franchise since 2010. She also voiced Rosie the spider in A Bug’s Life (1998). Octavia Spencer provides the voice of Mrs. Otterton, wife of the missing Emmitt Otterton. Spencer won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and the BAFTA, for her role as Minny Jackson in The Help (2011). Most recently, Spencer played Poppy Parnell in the AppleTV+ series Truth Be Told (2019-23), and was cast in other notable movies such as The Shape of Water (2017) and Hidden Figures (2017).

Rounding out some of the voice cast, we have Disney’s “good luck charm” Alan Tudyk, who has voiced numerous characters for Disney films. Here he voices Duke Weaselton, which is another Frozen reference, but this time to Tudyk’s character the Duke of Weselton in that film. Other voice roles of his include King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), Hei Hei in Moana (2016), and Valentino in Wish (2023).

I also particularly like Benjamin Clawhauser, a cheetah who is the desk sergeant at the Zootopia Police Department. He is clearly meant to be the stereotypical lazy police officer who spends all day eating doughnuts! He’s funny, and obsessed with Gazelle, a famous pop star – and gazelle. He spends most of the movie talking about her and playing with some sort of app that puts his face on one of her dancers. Nate Torrence voiced Benjamin Clawhauser. He played the part of Lloyd in the comedy-action film Get Smart (2008) and its direct-to-video sequel. He also appeared in the film She’s Out of My League (2010) and the sitcom Hello Ladies (2013-14). Speaking of Gazelle, she is voiced by Colombian pop sensation Shakira. Gazelle is part of an important scene during the “species war” as she is leading a peace rally, stating the dangers of becoming so divided. It’s not a big role but she makes an impact.

MUSIC

Shakira gets to sing the only song in the film “Try Everything”, and luckily, it’s a good one! The movie ends with a huge dance party, and this song being sung at Gazelle’s big concert. Everyone starts dancing to it, even Chief Bogo, who we see is actually a closet Gazelle fan, something that Clawhauser is ecstatic to find out! “Try Everything” also plays during the amazing train journey that Judy takes from Bunnyburrow to the city centre, as she goes through all the other districts that make up Zootopia, experiencing all the different plant life and weather cycles that go with it. We are hearing “Try Everything” at this point through Judy’s iPod. At the Disney Parks, the song has also been performed during shows like Tokyo Disneyland’s Mickey’s Magical Music World stage show, and at Mickey’s Storybook Adventure at Shanghai Disneyland. “Try Everything” was written by superstar singer Sia with Stargate’s Tor E. Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen, and was nominated for Best Song at both the Teen Choice Awards and the Grammys, however, it lost out to “I’m in Love with a Monster” from Hotel Transylvania 2 (2016) at the Teen Choice Awards, which I don’t understand because I’ve watched Hotel Transylvania 2 many times and can’t even remember that song, and to “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from Trolls (2016) at the Grammys, which is kind of understandable.

Along with that, Michael Giacchino composed the score for Zootopia. Giacchino had previously composed the score for Pixar’s film Up (2010), for which he won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Score. Giacchino has composed numerous scores for Pixar movies, beginning with The Incredibles (2004), and its 2018 sequel, Ratatouille (2007), and Inside Out (2015). Outside of Pixar, he has composed music for the most recent Spider-Man films, the three latest Jurassic World movies, and for the series of Disney television Christmas specials, Prep & Landing (2009-11). Giacchino was also nominated for Primetime Emmy awards for his work on the series Lost (2004-10), winning one for his underscore of its pilot episode. For the Zootopia soundtrack, Michael Giacchino made sure to include many different percussion instruments from around the globe to create a “world music” feel, to enhance the diversity message of the movie[1]. I particularly like the pieces “Ticket to Write”, which plays as Judy is working as a traffic warden, for its upbeat, dance music feel, and “The Naturalist”, from the yoga retreat, though all of the score is placed well in the film.

PRODUCTION

Zootopia is an original story from Disney. It was first pitched as an idea to John Lasseter in the early 2010s, by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, who were the directors of Tangled (2010). They pitched six different ideas for new film plots, with many of them involving anthropomorphic animals, i.e., animals that act like humans. John Lasseter liked the sound of Disney making another animal movie, as Robin Hood (1973) was one of the last ones to do that. Once the “animal movie” had been agreed upon, the team did over a year of research looking into animals and their behaviours. Part of this research was done close to home, at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Park, where they spent time talking to the animal care staff. More research was completed on a trip to Africa. During this visit, they found themselves watching the animals at the watering hole, where they discovered that actually, although natural enemies, the lions drank next to the zebras with no issues; they just drank their water and left. This gave the team the idea of cooperation and understanding despite differences, so that became the central core of Zootopia, where animals co-exist together, regardless of the fact they have different behaviours and instincts. This idea grew into becoming a story about bias and discrimination, but moving it into the animal world made it more of a fable or metaphor, so that it wouldn’t become preachy[2].

The movie plot ultimately moved away from one of the ideas they’d worked on for quite a while. Though they knew that they wanted to make a movie about animals, specifically mammals and the divide between predator and prey because of what they had encountered in Africa, they had a very different angle to begin with. Nick Wilde, that sleazy con-man, or con-fox, I guess, was going to be the main protagonist of Zootopia. The idea was that all predators would receive on their fifth birthdays a “tame collar”, which is basically like a shock collar, so it would emit a shock to the predator whenever they became too emotional or angry, and this was because even though prey outnumber predators 10:1, the prey only felt safe around predators if they were wearing these collars. I watched one of the deleted scenes from this original story, of a polar bear giving his son his “tame collar” on his birthday; the father obviously feeling sad about it as it is the first step to his son losing his freedom, but the son happy about it because it means he is all grown up. He receives his first shock soon after… It’s quite an emotional scene considering it wasn’t even fully animated, just storyboard images. This version of the movie did not do well in internal screenings as it felt very negative and cynical through Nick’s eyes so the idea was scrapped, and they decided to tell the same predator vs. prey story and convey the same message as they had originally intended but from Judy the rabbit’s point of view.

Zootopia’s overall message is one that hits quite close to home, even seven years later, because there has been so much division not just between different countries, but between residents of those countries; there are less and less people willing to see the other side’s point of view, turning us into “black-and-white thinkers”, so co-operation is at an all-time low around the world, where suspicion and tension are rife. The scene where Judy has inadvertently started a war between prey and predator is not nice to watch, as it feels very real even in our lives, where we are striving for inclusion and equality, yet can’t see past our differences or even see our similarities. It feels like a very relevant take on life today. I hate the brief scene where there is a tiger getting on a train, and the mother moves her child away from it, even though the tiger isn’t doing anything, and doesn’t look dangerous, all because the media have got to the prey animals, making them think these predators will attack them seemingly for no reason. Sometimes it just feels all too real, and it is saddening.

But Zootopia isn’t meant to make us feel “doom and gloom”, as there are plenty of positive points to focus on, and one of those is the look of the film. To make the world of Zootopia look realistic, Disney decided early on that they needed to create the animals to scale in the real world, so that an elephant would be much bigger than Judy and Nick, as they would in real-life. Judy and Nick also have quite a height difference as would be natural for them. The other challenge was that the animals would be walking on two legs, like humans, however, their body shapes and structures did not make tailoring clothes to them easy, or even just having them stand up look natural! It took a lot of modifications to allow these characters to work. There was an impressive number of hairs that needed to be added to each character, and across 60 different species of animal. Nick and Judy have over two million hairs each, and one giraffe has over nine million! This required an upgrade to the technology as their computer system had mostly been used for human hair. Now the fur had to be specific to each animal, i.e., coarse, soft, dark, or light. Disney even went into enough detail to add different shades of colour to the fur so that it was darker closer to the skin[3]. To ensure that the animals didn’t act too much like humans, the animators exaggerated some of their natural instinctive movements that are obvious at times, for example, Judy’s ears go up and her nose twitches when she hears something or feels scared, as rabbits do[4].

The animals also got to wear clothes, including trousers, unlike many other Disney characters, including those in Robin Hood (1973) and even Donald Duck himself! Though it wouldn’t be a real world if we didn’t have naturist animals, as we see during the scene at the yoga retreat. Judy gets really freaked out seeing all these animals not wearing clothes and contorting their bodies into unnatural positions, and her reactions are brilliant! To be fair, many of us wouldn’t probably feel the same should we ever be faced with naked people when we aren’t expecting it!

Disney went into very specific detail when creating the city of Zootopia itself. It is split into several districts, with some of these that we see in the movie being: Sahara Square, Tundratown, Rainforest District, and Little Rodentia, as well as Downtown. We also see Judy’s hometown of Bunnyburrow, but it is a rural neighbourhood miles away from Zootopia. When Judy is travelling to the centre of Zootopia, the train goes through all these districts, and we see how they are situated next to each other and their specific climates. The animators spent a lot of time figuring out how the animals would move around the city, as they were all different sizes. I like the train with its three separate doors, with the tiny one at the bottom being for rodents; it shows the level of detail that went into this film[5].

RECEPTION

Before Zootopia’s official release, attendees of the 2015 D23 convention got to see a panel about upcoming film releases from Disney. Directors Byron Howard, who had pitched the initial idea, and Rich Moore, who came on as director later in production and had previously co-directed Wreck-It Ralph (2012) told the crowd about their research in Kenya where they studied animals in the savannah, and explained the different neighbourhoods of Zootopia. The panel released a few exclusive clips, like the one of Nick and Judy at the DMV, and another of Judy making sure Nick got to buy his “jumbo pop”. This pre-release footage increased excitement for the movie and many attendees seemed to think it was going to be a high-quality, comedic film[6].

Zootopia was widely released in March 2016, after being shown at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium in February of that year. Due to trademark reasons, Zootopia was released under a different title in some countries. In some European countries, including the UK, as well as parts of the Middle East and Africa, the movie is called Zootropolis, referencing the term “metropolis” instead of “utopia”. In Germany, the film was actually named Zoomania, as a children’s book called Zootropolis was published in 2010 in over there; it was written by author Kay Fischer. Despite the change of title in some countries, generally the movie is the same in any country – apart from one thing. The animal newscasters are tailored to the country they are reporting from in some cases. The news anchor on the left is always a snow leopard but the anchor on the right changes. Mostly, the right anchor is a moose, including in Europe and the US, however, in Australia and New Zealand, it is a koala; China has a panda; and Japan has a raccoon dog[7].

Zootopia did incredibly well at the box-office, becoming the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2016, behind Pixar’s Finding Dory, and the-second-highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film at the time, after Frozen. It was the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2016, with Finding Dory at #3 and The Jungle Book live-action remake at #5. Zootopia currently stands at #11 in the highest-grossing animated films list – if you include The Lion King (2019) remake as an animated movie, which you should, because it really is.

The movie made over a $1 billion worldwide, making $73.7 million in its opening weekend in just the US and Canada; this was even more than Frozen (2013) made in its opening weekend, which was $67.4 million. Zootopia benefitted from very favourable reviews, as well as a lack of competition in theatres at that time of year especially in the children’s entertainment sector[8]. Normally, Disney and Pixar release their movies either in summer or during the festive period.

Although Zootopia did get many positive reviews, which credited the state-of-the-art animation, the humour, the mystery element to the plot, and the overall inclusivity message, it did not escape criticism of its overall theme. Zootopia tells us not to judge others based on pre-conceived ideas, however, many of the gags within the film involve just those types of stereotypes, such as jokes around sloths being slow, and rabbits multiplying. The city also claims to live in a peaceful time of co-existence between all species, yet because there once was a time when predators and prey did not live in harmony, then the fear remains that life could revert back to these original biological instincts. So, if you think about it for too long and start to question the message, then it doesn’t hold up under this intense examination[9]. But I think Disney were just trying to simplify the message and say that you shouldn’t judge others by their appearance and that anyone can be anything they want, regardless of their circumstances. It’s supposed to be motivating for the children of today, and is unlikely to hit adults in quite the same way.

Zootopia went on to win numerous awards, including in the Best Animated Feature category at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, Annie Awards, and the Academy Awards. It did not win the BAFTA in this same category, though, losing to Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Zootopia also won other awards, including many at the Annie Awards in Character Design, Directing, Storyboarding and Writing.

LEGACY

Following on from the success of Zootopia, Disney released a series on Disney+ in November 2022 titled Zootopia+ which consisted of six short episodes looking at characters from the film that perhaps didn’t get enough screen time, such as Mr. Big’s daughter, Fru Fru, Duke Weaselton, and Clawhauser, with those voice actors returning to reprise their roles. The series also included some new characters. It was a relatively amusing series, and they were short episodes, making them easy to watch, but it wasn’t overly necessary in my opinion. Zootopia will also soon have its own sequel, with Zootopia 2 due to be released in November 2025, after Bob Iger announced it was in the works in February 2023. Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman are set to return to their roles of Judy and Nick respectively.

At the Disney Parks, Zootopia is slowly but surely being seen more and more. It started early with a limited time exhibit opening 29^th January 2016, just over a month before the movie’s theatrical release, within Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. This exhibit showed some of the research of animals that the team completed during production on Zootopia. A preview of the film was also shown at the Walt Disney Presents attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World from 21^st January 2016, and at the Bug’s Life Theater, which was closed in 2018 to make way for Avengers Campus, in Disney California Adventure at Disneyland from 22^nd January[10].

Also at Disneyland, Judy and Nick were added as character meet-and-greet opportunities at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in March 2016, as part of promotion for the new movie. Similarly, at Walt Disney World in Magic Kingdom, Judy and Nick were both added to the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! street parade. The two characters also debuted at Disneyland Paris in 2016, and were spotted on top one of the floats in the Disneyland Paris 30^th anniversary parade, Dream…and Shine Brighter, but have not found themselves permanently featured at these parks yet. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Judy and Nick continue to be listed as characters you can meet at the location Meet Disney Friends at Karibuni Marketplace in Adventureland.

Due to the continued interest in the movie, it is likely characters will continue to appear at Special Events, such as DVC After Hours events and Halloween parties. Judy and Nick were available for meet-and-greets for the Earth Day celebrations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2024, for example. They may be featured more as new attractions are made, and with the upcoming movie sequel. At Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, Zootopia was considered as a theme to replace the Dinoland, U.S.A, area, however at D23 2023, it was basically confirmed that this area would instead be themed to Encanto and Indiana Jones. It was confirmed, though, that a 3D show based on Zootopia will replace the It’s Tough to be a Bug! show that is housed within the Tree of Life. No expected opening dates have yet been given.

Currently, at Tokyo Disneyland, there is a float section dedicated to Zootopia within the Harmony in Color Parade that debuted in April 2023 for Tokyo’s 40^th anniversary. It features Judy, Nick, and Clawhauser, as well as a sculpture of Flash sitting in a doughnut atop the float/ There was also a castle stage show here, titled Judy and Nick’s Jumpin’ Splash that only ran during Summer 2019. It took some inspiration from Shanghai Disneyland’s Summer Blast show of 2017, which also featured the song “Try Everything” and Judy and Nick in its opening section.

But the most exciting Zootopia-themed attraction is at Shanghai Disneyland, where a whole new land opened on 20^th December 2023. The city of Zootopia has been re-created with as much fun and colour as the movie. You can even see animatronic characters from the film who will interact with each other from the windows on the street in the atmosphere show Disney Zootopia Comes Alive, which operates throughout the day. At Jumbeaux’s Café, you can purchase the famous paw-shaped popsicle and Clawhauser’s favourite doughnuts. There is also a shop called Fashions by Fru Fru. Judy and Nick also feature as meet-and-greet characters in their police uniforms. There is a trackless dark ride, Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, which sees you go on a police chase through the various neighbourhoods of Zootopia as you try to save Gazelle from Dawn Bellwether, who has kidnapped her on the day of her big performance at the Zootopia Day Concert. The queue and pre-show have very impressive animatronics of Officer Clawhauser and Chief Bogo. Finally, at Shanghai Disneyland, at their Garden of the Twelve Friends, Judy Hopps replaced Thumper from Bambi (1942) as the icon for Year of the Rabbit from 2023.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Although I don’t particularly enjoy Zootopia, I do find it very clever and funny. Sadly, I just can’t love it. I think it makes me feel too uncomfortable and emotional watching it, because it’s clear to see how our world is divided; we seem to be getting further away from living in any sort of harmony. It’s a scary time at the moment. If I’m watching a Disney movie, I’d rather be escaping from the troubles of today than have them portrayed as some sort of fable. But Zootopia is certainly a good movie for children, who don’t necessarily need to know about the realities and cynicism of life quite yet, but need to know how important it is to be kind to others, and strive to be whoever they want to be.

Zootopia is probably the most powerful and hard-hitting film to come out of Disney so far, because of its message, which it cushions with a colourful, bright, fun city, full of interesting characters and habitats. I can certainly see why Disney are increasingly including the film in their Disney Parks, and why many people love the film, even if I don’t myself.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Zoology: The Roundtables (2016).

[2] Credit: Ed Gross, ‘Zootopia: a final behind the scenes look’, Empire (online), 14^th June 2016.

[3] Credit: Jeremy Kay, ‘’Zootopia’: the painstaking journey behind a billion dollar hit’, Screen Daily.com, date unknown.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Research: A True Life Adventure”, from Zootopia (2016) Blu-Ray (2016).

[5] Credit: Disney, Zoology: The Roundtables (2016).

[6] Credit: Mark Hughes, ‘Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ Earns Big Laughs At D23’, Forbes (online), 15^th August 2015.

[7] Credit: Trent Moore, ‘The Untold Truth of Zootopia’, Looper.com, updated 3^rd April 2018.

[8] Credit: Frank Pallotta, ‘’Zootopia’ roars to biggest opening in Disney Animation history’, CNN.com, 6^th March 2016.

[9] Credit: Emily St. James, ‘Zootopia wants to teach kids about prejudice. Is it accidentally sending the wrong message?’, Vox.com, 7^th March 2016.

[10] Credit: Shawn Slater, ‘Discover the Real World Research Behind Walt Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Zootopia’ in a New Exhibit Coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom’, Disney Parks Blog, 20^th January 2016.

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.

23rd Feb 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#25 The Black Cauldron (1985)

BACKGROUND

The Black Cauldron is potentially Disney’s most controversial film.

It was barely referenced in the Disney theme parks, even back in the 1980s, was locked up tight in the “Disney Vault” for years, and it was one of those films that Disney would rather you just didn’t know ever existed – and if you were born after 1985, chances are many of you didn’t know it existed until many years later.

For those who were around in 1985, either you watched The Black Cauldron or you didn’t, and if you did, you may not have liked it so much. Then again, you may have liked it back then, and still like it today. Either way, I’m not judging but I think the Walt Disney Company would probably rather you just forgot all about it, because it is not their proudest or finest moment.

Opinions have always been split over The Black Cauldron and its strange concept. The mostly negative reviews of the film are down to two key reasons. The first is that this was the first Disney animated movie to be given a PG rating, meaning that it is much darker and more intense than the types of movies Disney had been releasing at the time, and therefore may have put parents off letting their children watch it – or they did let them watch it and potentially traumatised them.

The other reason is that The Black Cauldron was developed within a particularly difficult time for the Disney Animation department. In the 1980s, there was a huge shift in the management as people from other film studios came in to shake up the company, especially the animation department, which had been struggling with its movies even before then.

More on those difficulties later, but nowadays The Black Cauldron has gained a cult following, especially amongst those who are fans of light horror and fantasy. I am not one of those, which is probably why it doesn’t appeal to me so much, but even though I don’t particularly like it, I have still seen The Black Cauldron a handful of times. It wasn’t for years after its release though, and was actually in the late 2010s when the UK and some of Europe had access to an early version of Disney+, an app called DisneyLife that had many of Disney’s animated and live-action movies available to watch.

To be honest, I find The Black Cauldron kind of boring in places and I think it looks quite grotesque, which isn’t something that appeals to me. I struggle with the look of Pinocchio (1940) and this is much worse for me! However, I do like the lovable little sidekick Gurgi, and find the ending of the film quite moving, so even I can find some positives here.

PLOT

The Black Cauldron follows Taran, an assistant pig-keeper – that’s his actual job title – who works for a man called Dallben, looking after his clairvoyant pig Hen Wen. Dallben is trying to hide Hen Wen’s powers from The Horned King, who wants to use Hen Wen’s visions to find the long-lost Black Cauldron and use it to raise an army of undead soldiers, to make him an invincible ruler. Dallben sends Taran off with Hen Wen to go into hiding.

Taran, annoyed at his lesser state in life, with dreams of being a warrior, spends too much time daydreaming on this journey, and Hen Wen runs off alone. As Taran searches for Hen Wen in the forest, he meets Gurgi, a strange fluffy greedy creature who, in exchange for an apple, will tell Taran where Hen Wen went. Unfortunately, we see that Hen Wen is being chased by dragons, minions of the Horned King, and Gurgi runs away frightened, leaving Taran to retrieve her himself. He fails, but follows the dragons to a run-down castle, the home of The Horned King. Taran enters the castle and saves Hen Wen before she can reveal the location of the Cauldron to The Horned King. Taran throws Hen Wen into the castle moat so she can swim to safety, but Taran is captured and thrown in the dungeon.

Here, Taran meets Princess Eilonwy, a fellow prisoner, captured for her magical bauble which The Horned King thought would help him find the Black Cauldron; needless to say, it didn’t. As the two team up to escape the castle, Taran finds a magical sword which can vanquish any opponent, including the Horned King’s guards, and they find Fflewddur Fflam, a minstrel who is also being held captive by the Horned King.

They all manage to escape the castle into the forest, where we see Gurgi again. And he runs away – again – when Hen Wen’s tracks lead them to a vortex in a lake. Instead of taking them somewhere awful as Gurgi expected, it actually takes them to the kingdom of the Fair Folk, who are fairies living underground. It turns out they have rescued Hen Wen, and will return her home to Dallben. They also tell Taran that the Black Cauldron is in Morva, with a trio of witches, as Taran and the others seek to destroy it once and for all. The Fair Folk take Taran and his friends to Morva.

At the home of the three witches, Taran, Eilonwy, and Fflewddur Fflam find that these witches don’t like humans and like to turn them into frogs, however, Fflewddur has captured the attentions of one of the witches, so he is safe. The witches listen to Taran speak of the Black Cauldron, but they never give anything away, so they allow Taran to try to bargain for the Cauldron. They spot the magical sword that Taran possesses and want that in exchange for the Black Cauldron. Reluctantly, Taran gives up the sword and the deal is done; they have the Cauldron and the witches have the sword, except they forgot to tell Taran that the Cauldron cannot be destroyed, and that its dark powers can only be stopped if someone sacrifices themselves to it, which will kill them.

All look’s lost for the humans, as they find that their bargain didn’t get them any further, and worse still, The Horned King’s dragons have found them and take they back to the castle along with the Black Cauldron. Now, the Horned King can enact his plan. He casts a spell over the Cauldron, which allows him to raise an army of the undead. Taran, Eilonwy, and Fflewddur Fflam can do nothing but watch, horrified, as The Horned King wins.

Except, luckily, Gurgi returns to save the day, freeing the three of them from their shackles, but the Black Cauldron’s powers have not stopped. Taran decides that he must be the one to sacrifice himself, and tells the others to leave. However, Gurgi sees this and does not want his friend to die; Gurgi throws himself into the Cauldron instead, saying that “Taran has many friends, Gurgi has no friends” in a truly sad moment for the film… The army of the undead begin to die right in front of The Horned King’s eyes. He blames his henchman, Creeper, and goes to see what is happening by the Cauldron.

Instead of running out of the castle, Taran tries to retrieve Gurgi from the Cauldron, telling the others to run, but the spell is too powerful and Taran struggles against it. The Horned King, and his henchman Creeper, find Taran by the Cauldron and The Horned King plans to throw Taran into the Cauldron to finally defeat the boy so he can try the spell again. But The Horned King ends up being pulled into the Cauldron and is destroyed forever. But Creeper is free to not be tortured and tormented for the rest of his life, so a small win for him!

As the three finally leave The Horned King’s castle via a boat, the Black Cauldron reappears in the water in front of them. The witches of Morva plan to take it back as it has no use for the humans anymore. Fflewddur Fflam reminds them that they always like a trade. The magical sword is returned to Taran, but Taran doesn’t want it anymore and would rather have Gurgi back. The witches take the sword and the Cauldron back, but don’t seem to want to return Gurgi. After Fflewddur Fflam claims they don’t have the power to do it, they leave Gurgi in the Cauldron’s place and vanish in a cloud of smoke. It seems that Gurgi isn’t alive, but when Taran picks him up, he is revived, wanting some more “munchies and crunchies”. Typical Gurgi! Everyone is thrilled to see him alive again and in a final moment of annoyance from Gurgi, he pushes Taran and Eilonwy’s heads together so that they kiss. The film ends with the four heading home through the forest as heroes, with Dallben seeing this through one of Hen Wen’s visions, saying Taran did well on his quest.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Taran is the “hero” of the story, though I find him to be arrogant at times, and unfeeling towards others. Throughout the movie, he constantly moans about how he is just an assistant pig-keeper and wants to be a brave warrior, so he is overjoyed to find this magical sword that seems to have infinite powers, but he isn’t bothered by friendship at this point. In fact, he is rude to Princess Eilonwy when they first meet and he is cruel to Gurgi, calling him a thief and a coward almost every time he sees him. But eventually, Taran does seem to understand the value of Eilonwy, Fflewddur, and Gurgi’s friendship and it is quite a touching moment when Taran tries to stop Gurgi from throwing himself into the Black Cauldron and then when he bargains for Gurgi’s return. I guess Taran did learn a lot on his journey. He also finally understands why Hen Wen needs to be looked after by him, because she has powers that can be abused by evil people, so again, he learns that too! Speaking of Hen Wen, the name means “Old White” in Welsh, and is a character in Welsh mythology, however, in the myth, Hen Wen, or Henwen, is an enchanted pig whose offspring were meant to cause devastation to Britain. Obviously, that is not mentioned in the Black Cauldron but she is still enchanted. Taran was voiced by Grant Bardsley here, who was a child actor in the 1970s and 1980s, and appeared in the BBC television adaptation of Wuthering Heights (1978) and in a couple of episodes of The Famous Five television series (1978-79).

Of all the human characters in The Black Cauldron, Princess Eilonwy is generally the most likable, as she is confident, kind, and smart. She is the one who manages to get Taran out of the Horned King’s dungeon, with the help of her magical bauble, and she is kind to both Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam when Taran isn’t. Although her introductory line of “I’m Princess Eilonwy” sounds just a bit precocious. Eilonwy was voiced by Susan Sheridan, who voiced the characters of Noddy, Tessie Bear, and Dinah Doll in the British children’s series Noddy’s Toyland Adventures (1992-94), and voiced Trillian in the radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 1978. Sheridan continued to do voice work up until her death in 2015. In a behind-the-scenes documentary at the Disney Studios in 1981, Hayley Mills, who starred in the Disney live-action films The Parent Trap (1961) and Pollyanna (1960) as a child, stated that she was back at Disney to read for the part of the Princess Eilonwy in The Black Cauldron[1]. It is unclear why she did not end up voicing the part.

Fflewddur Fflam is the minstrel who is captured by The Horned King and seems to just be tagging along with Eilonwy and Taran for the ride, instead of escaping when he has the chance! He is a little bit annoying and kind of bumbling, so he needs to be saved much of the time by either Eilonwy and Taran, but in general, he doesn’t come across badly – he does help convince the Witches of Morva to do the right thing for example – but Fflewddur is just sort of there! Unfortunately, Fflewddur Fflam seems to have been unlucky with his portrayal in The Black Cauldron, as Fflewddur Fflam seems to have had a significant number of his lines cut from the movie, therefore, we don’t get to see, or hear, too much of him[2]. Fflewddur Fflam was voiced by English actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, best known to Disney fans as the voice of Professor Porter in Tarzan (1999). He also starred in the British sitcoms Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980-88) as Sir Humphrey Appleby, and won a BAFTA for Best Actor for his portrayal of King George III in the movie The Madness of King George (1994). Sir Nigel Hawthorne died in December 2001.

Then the final hero to talk about is Gurgi. Gurgi is my favourite character of them all, but again, he doesn’t appear all that much in the film, though he is the one who saves the day, and I’m glad he is revived at the end by the witches. We don’t really know what sort of creature he is, just some sort of fluffy thing! He runs away a lot, yes, but all he wants is a friend, because he seems so lonely out in the forest on his own. That’s why he’s hungry and steals food from people. Taran is just heartless for being mean to him; Gurgi is the best character in the whole film. John Byner voiced Gurgi, saying that he added child-like inflection to his lines because he is supposed to be fun and greedy, wanting to eat anything he can get his hands on! Byner is a comedian, actor, and impressionist, who voiced characters in the cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark (1969-71). He went on to appear as a guest in many television series including the sitcom Soap (1977-81).

The Horned King is a terrifying villain. He looks terrible, with glowing red eyes, and a strange skeletal form. I’m not sure if he’s meant to be human or not – I think he is in some way, but he’s also very demonic. He’s the main reason for this movie being too scary for children. The Horned King was voiced by legendary actor, Sir John Hurt. Hurt stated that to get the voice of The Horned King he dredged the voice “from the bowels of the Earth” to get that really deep, evil sound[3]. Hurt played Ollivander in the Harry Potter film series and starred in major movies such as Alien (1979); The Elephant Man (1980), for which he was nominated at the Academy Awards in the Best Actor category and won the BAFTA for; and The Midnight Express (1978), where he was nominated at the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, and won it at the BAFTAs. Hurt was no stranger to voice acting at the time of The Black Cauldron either, having voiced Hazel in Watership Down (1978) and Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (1978). Later in his career, he also voiced The Great Dragon in the BBC series Merlin (2008-12). Sir John Hurt sadly passed away in January 2017.

The Horned King has many scary-looking henchmen, but then he also has his goblin sidekick, Creeper, who’s always being mistreated for his incompetence. I think Creeper is meant to be the comic relief in the film, because he is always getting things wrong and letting people escape. When The Horned King gets sucked into the Black Cauldron, Creeper realises he is now free, and at the end of the film, he flies away on the back of The Horned King’s dragons, knowing he no longer has to serve him and risk his wrath whenever he does something wrong! Creeper was an original character for the film and did not appear in the original books that the film is very loosely based on. Phil Fondacaro voiced Creeper in one of his earlier screen roles. Fondacaro went on to appear in the film Willow (1988) as Vohnkar, as well as appear in the television movie Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (1993), alongside Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Later in the 1990s and early 2000s, Fondacaro had a recurring role as Roland in the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Those are the characters who get the most screen-time, however, there are a few others to mention. Dallben is Taran’s employer and we only really see him at the start, when he is scared about Hen Wen’s powers being used by The Horned King. He doesn’t seem to think much of Taran at the start of the film, but sees that he did a good job on his quest by the end. Dallben was voiced by Freddie Jones who appeared alongside John Hurt in The Elephant Man (1980) and played Sandy Thomas in the soap Emmerdale from 2005 to 2018 in his final appearance before his death in 2019.

Then there are the trio of witches. In the original book series, the three witches resembled the Fates of Greek mythology. They used a loom to control the destinies of everyone living, but they were not good or evil. In the film, the witches appear only for a short amount of time, unlike the book series where there was more time to establish the characters, therefore making the film’s witches not particularly memorable characters. Yet the witches are involved in the two most important moments of the film, trading Taran’s sword for the Black Cauldron so it can be destroyed, and returning Gurgi to the group after the task has been completed. The Witches of Morva are named Orddu, the leader of the group; Orgoch who is the most disagreeable; and Orwen, the curvaceous, flirty one, who is in love with Fflewddur Fflam. The witches were voiced by Eda Reiss Merin, Billie Hayes, and Adele Malis-Morey. Hayes went on to voice characters in many animated series such as TaleSpin (1990-91), Rugrats (1991-2004), and Johnny Bravo (1997-2004); The Black Cauldron was her first voice role[4]. Hayes passed away in April 2021.

PRODUCTION

The really fascinating thing about The Black Cauldron isn’t the movie itself, but the production and making of it. It had so many difficulties and complications it’s a wonder it was even made at all. The troubles go back to the 1970s, when the Disney Animation department was still struggling after the death of Walt Disney in 1966. The lack of guidance was sorely missed, and as a result, the films of the 1970s, like Robin Hood (1973) and The Aristocats (1970) were criticised for missing the original charm of Disney’s earlier films. Therefore, Disney knew they needed to take a risk to try to get back on top.

Ron Miller, then-Disney president, and husband of Walt Disney’s daughter Diane, was looking for an idea for a new film. He believed that The Chronicles of Prydain, a five-part book series written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published between 1964 and 1968, had the potential to be the Snow White of their generation. The rights were bought around 1973 by Disney. The book series is a fantasy series based on creatures and characters from Welsh mythology. Despite having fantasy elements that could have rivalled those of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis’ books, The Chronicles of Prydain have only been adapted once for the screen, with Disney’s The Black Cauldron. Due to the amount of material and the complexity of the plotlines within the five books, story man Mel Shaw was tasked with reading all the stories and condensing the storylines and characters into a workable story for a screen adaptation. He made close to 250 coloured pastel sketches of key moments from the books and put them into a twenty-minute presentation to pitch his version of the story[5].

The original stories had over 30 main characters with the storyline encompassing many years. Producer Joe Hale planned to combine the story elements of only the first two books of The Chronicles of Prydain: The Book of Three (1964) and The Black Cauldron (1965) to deal with this. The originally minor character of The Horned King was made into the main villain of the story.

Despite the rights being purchased in 1973 and the early work of Mel Shaw, not much more happened with The Black Cauldron for many years due to issues around management and the differing generations of animators. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were three different generations of animators. The youngest artists were overzealous and full of energy, wanting to get started and make their mark on Disney Animation. The older veteran artists were due to retire shortly, and the second generation felt they were underutilised and underappreciated, showing a lack of harmony between the three sets.

Ron Miller wanted a new style of animation for The Black Cauldron, but felt that the younger artists weren’t ready to tackle it yet, so they were assigned to The Rescuers (1977). They were then put back onto The Black Cauldron, with a release date of 1980 being chosen. But it was put on hold again in 1978, to then be released in 1984, because Miller felt the artists were still not ready for this assignment so they were put on The Fox and the Hound (1981), during which production the remaining members of Walt’s original animators retired. Don Bluth, one of the second generation of artists, was fed up waiting to be given his opportunity to show what he was capable of, and ended up leaving the Walt Disney Company, taking half of the animators with him. This pushed back The Fox and the Hound by six months[6]. Don Bluth would later go on to produce and direct such films as An American Tail, which would beat out Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective at the box office in 1986; The Land Before Time (1988); Thumbelina (1994); and Anastasia (1997). He also made his directorial debut with The Secret of NIMH (1982) during Disney’s production on The Black Cauldron; it was well-received, putting more pressure on the Disney artists.

The Black Cauldron was finally officially put into production in 1980, with a $15 million budget assigned to it, but the troubles were still not over as there were constant changes in the artists and directors working on the movie, due to clashes over “artistic differences”, delaying progress. John Musker was one of these people who left to make the (more successful) movie The Great Mouse Detective (1986). Another was Tim Burton whose character designs were considered too “out there” for Disney, so he left the company altogether. He seems to be doing well, from what I’ve heard…

Eventually, the movie seemed to be getting somewhere, though the budget had grown to $40 million, and they wanted to now use CGI to push their designs further, after The Black Cauldron producer Joe Hale saw it being using in The Great Mouse Detective, which was in production at the same time. CGI was therefore used on scenes of the Black Cauldron itself, as well as Eilonwy’s magical bauble. They had also decided to shoot The Black Cauldron in Super Technirama 70mm, the first Disney film to do this since Sleeping Beauty (1959), and 6-track Dolby Stereo sound, as well as introducing the first in-theatre holographic effect in an animated film, during the sequence of the raising of the undead army. This scene just looks blurry when watching on a home release now.

Then, plot-twist, Ron Miller was removed as CEO in 1984, with Frank Wells, who had previously worked at Warner Bros., and Michael Eisner, coming from Paramount Pictures, taking over. They became the first people to have been brought in to Disney management from “the outside”. Eisner and Wells then employed Jeffrey Katzenberg, also from Paramount Pictures, to take over the Animation Department, however, his background was in live-action, not animation, so he didn’t understand the process or the artists themselves. This caused issues between him and the animators, especially when, on seeing the work on The Black Cauldron, Katzenberg was appalled by the film’s length and the graphic, violent scenes. He wanted to edit the movie, but the animators said this couldn’t be done at this stage, however, Katzenberg disagreed and showed them that this could be done, by cutting twelve full minutes of finished animation from the final movie cut. These cuts included a scene of The Horned King’s henchmen dissolving, and a man’s throat being slashed with the sword[7]. Some of the edits are actually quite obvious, as sometimes the characters’ mouths do not match with the words; some are still talking when there is no sound coming out; and some of the jumps to new scenes are a bit clumsy.

Despite these edits, The Black Cauldron could not escape being given a PG rating, making this the first Disney animated feature film to have a PG rating. It was also the last to have been made at the animation building at the Disney Studios in Burbank, as the Animation Department was then moved to Glendale in December 1983 as their building became used for live-action productions. Glendale was a less than inspiring place to work and the animators spent a few years fearing for their job security…

MUSIC

The Black Cauldron was also the first Disney animated film not to have any songs within the movie. The score was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Trading Places (1983), and at the Grammy Awards for his work on Ghostbusters (1984) whilst working on The Black Cauldron[8]. Sadly, I don’t recall much of Bernstein’s score, probably because I’m too stunned by just how grotesque some of the movie looks, but listening to the score separately, it does highlight the fantasy and mystery elements of the story well.

RECEPTION

After almost five full years of work, yet another delay to the release date, and at an official cost of $25 million, which may actually have been closer to $40 million, The Black Cauldron was finally released in the US on 24^th July 1985. However, The Black Cauldron only managed to gross $21 million at the US box-office. It was even beaten out by The Care Bears Movie, which had been released in March 1985, this being a huge blow to the team who worked on The Black Cauldron[9].

Not only that, but it received mixed reviews. Some heralded it as a return to Disney animation, enjoying the more gruesome and perilous elements of the story, whilst others called it mediocre and thought it was a missed opportunity given the potential of the book series. It generally considered too dark to be a family film. Some said the plot was convoluted and the characters were dull. Lloyd Alexander, author of The Chronicles of Prydain series, said in an interview with Scholastic Inc. before his death in 2007, that Disney’s The Black Cauldron bore little resemblance to his books, but that he had enjoyed the film, just watching it as a movie, without the context of the source material. Alexander also said that there was a possibility of Disney making more movies based on his works, such as Time Cat, but this never happened[10].

For a brief time around 1990, Disney re-released The Black Cauldron under the new title Taran and the Magic Cauldron, in an attempt to brand the movie more “family-friendly”. It avoided mentioning the evil Horned King and the dark powers of the Black Cauldron too much, and chose to focus on the magical elements of the story, like Taran’s sword, and the hero’s journey. This was reflected in both the trailer and the movie poster, where The Horned King was no longer overlooking the heroes walking through a scary looking forest and the Cauldron was no longer pouring out green smoke. Instead, the poster for Taran and the Magic Cauldron is light and bright, with sparkles coming from the Cauldron and the sword. The movie was re-released in this way in some cities in the US and some international markets, but it did not help change audience opinion on the movie. The Black Cauldron then was not released on VHS until 1998, thirteen years after the initial release, where it found a new audience and became a “cult classic”[11].

LEGACY

You’d think a movie like The Black Cauldron would not have been featured at all in the Disney theme parks, given its reputation, right? Wrong! At the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, what is now the food stand Friar’s Nook in Fantasyland used to be named Gurgi’s Munchies and Crunchies, from 1986 to 1993; “munchies and crunchies” is one of Gurgi’s catchphrases. Before being named after Gurgi, the outdoor quick-service location was named Lancer’s Inn, and after 1993, was named Lumière’s Kitchen, where it generally operated on a seasonal basis. It has been named Friar’s Nook since 2009.

There is photo evidence that walkaround characters of Princess Eilonwy, Taran, and Gurgi did exist at some point after The Black Cauldron’s release in 1985, however, it is unclear exactly what year, or years, they did so, and in which parks, however, given the dates, it would have to have been either Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or Tokyo Disneyland, as these were the only Disney theme parks open in the 1980s. It is unlikely that the characters appeared after this decade, given the financial flop of the film.

Speaking of Tokyo Disneyland, the biggest and most surprising reference to The Black Cauldron is actually the Tokyo Disneyland attraction the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, which ran from 1986 until April 2006. I had never heard of this attraction until I watched a video on YouTube and it is so interesting. The “tour” was a guided tour by a cast member through the basement area of Tokyo Disneyland’s Cinderella Castle. It started off with a speech about various Disney heroes and heroines like Pinocchio, Aurora, Snow White – and Taran. The group would then be interrupted by the Magic Mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)who would awaken the villains. The group would be led down tunnels, showing the Evil Queen’s lair, Maleficent’s goons, and a projection of Chernabog from Fantasia, before arriving at a tapestry about The Black Cauldron. At this point, the guide would have to recount the plot of The Black Cauldron because chances were not many of the guests had actually seen the film. A member of the group would also be chosen at this stage to hold the Sword of Light before going into the next room, to come face-to-face with a huge animatronic of The Horned King, standing over the Black Cauldron, saying how everybody in the room would be sacrificed to the Black Cauldron so he could raise his army of the undead. At this point, the Sword of Light would be pointed at The Horned King, shooting beams of light and defeating him, and then the tour group could leave the castle.

It sounds bizarre but also kind of cool, especially if you are a fan of Disney villains, like me. I’m surprised this was designed for a Disney theme park given The Black Cauldron’s reputation, but to then run for twenty years is impressive. It was quite popular too, at least at the beginning, and it clearly didn’t matter if you’d seen The Black Cauldron or not[12].

As The Black Cauldron had its 35^th anniversary in 2020, naturally, a MagicBand was released that year that featured The Horned King, Taran, and Gurgi. As part of the 1980s Disney100 Decades Collection, for the Disney100 celebrations, a new MagicBand+ with The Horned King and Gurgi was then released in 2023. There are also Funko POP figurines of The Horned King and Taran available, however, merchandise around the film or its characters continues to be hard to come by for any fans of the movie.

Outside of the theme parks, clips from The Black Cauldron were used for part of the plotline of the direct-to-video film Once Upon a Halloween, which was released in the UK in September 2005. It featured clips and songs from many of the Disney villains as the Evil Queen planned to conquer Halloween. It also featured other under-appreciated villains such as Alameda Slim from Home on the Range (2004), Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

On screen, there has been talk around whether The Black Cauldron will be remade as a live-action film, especially given how many remakes of animated films have been announced in recent years. It was said that Disney had re-acquired the rights to The Chronicles of Prydain in 2016 in order to look into developing a live-action series. There was then further talk around this in 2020, but no further news has been released since. Though many fans would like to see this remade, especially as fantasy films have been successful in recent years, like The Lord of the Rings franchise, and the fact that they could do so much more with the original stories for a modern audience, it is unlikely to happen because The Black Cauldron does not have a huge fanbase so would not be able to bring in the same number of viewers as big hits like Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994).

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Black Cauldron is just ok for me. I actually don’t mind the plot so much; it is generally quite fast-paced. My main issue is just how horrible it looks at times, especially when compared to the majority of Disney animated films. You probably only get about ten minutes total of lush landscape in The Black Cauldron, with the majority of the film being quite dark and eerie, with lots of brown, yellow, and green, with detailed animated scenes of skeletons rising from the dead, and The Horned King’s flesh being torn from his skeleton, and his bones being burnt to nothing… That is a bit too much for me.

As I said earlier, The Black Cauldron is a cult classic and there will be some people who are fierce fans of it, whether that is for the artistic qualities, the fantasy themes, or the darker elements of the movie. If you’re looking for a family-friendly film, full of humour, bright colours, and enchanting magic, this is not one to watch. It is not one of Disney’s best animated films and they certainly could’ve done more with the source material.

However, it is still worth giving The Black Cauldron a go if you want to understand a bit more about the history of Disney Animation. It took a lot of work and a lot of hassle to finish, and let’s not forget that by making these mistakes, the Disney animators learnt from the experience and managed to give us some of their best work just a few short years later.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (1981).

[2] Credit: Mark Davies, ‘The Troubled History of Disney’s “The Black Cauldron” & The Lost Cut Scenes’, Yesterworld YouTube Channel, uploaded 17^th May 2021.

[3] Credit: Disney, The Disney Family Album: Voice Actors (1985).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Black Cauldron’s Witches of Morva’, CartoonResearch.com, 10^th July 2020.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #265’, CartoonResearch.com, 3^rd June 2016.

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

[7] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Why For did Disney’s “The Black Cauldron” fail to connect with audiences back in 1985?’, JimHillMedia.com, 10^th September 2010.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Black Cauldron (1985)’, pp. 73-75.

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

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #144’, CartoonResearch.com, 3^rd June 2016.

[11] Credit: Mark Davies, ‘The Troubled History of Disney’s “The Black Cauldron” & The Lost Cut Scenes’, Yesterworld YouTube Channel, uploaded 17^th May 2021.

[12] Credit: Kevin Perjurer, ‘The History of Disney’s Scariest Attraction, Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour’, Defunctland YouTube Channel, uploaded 26^th October 2018.

16th Feb 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#5 Bambi (1942)

BACKGROUND

The release of Bambi in 1942 signalled the end of the Disney “Golden Age”.

After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, everyone was waiting to see just what else Walt Disney and his artists could do with the medium of animation; Snow White had them all captivated and they wanted more.

Sadly, in 1939, many countries were enduring the impact and horrors of World War II, which began in September of that year. The United States of America did not join the war until December 1941, but this still did not make it an easy time to own a film studio.

The next Disney releases to come after Snow White were Pinocchio and Fantasia, both released in 1940. Because European markets were closed off due to the war, these films did not do particularly well financially, and their production budgets were even higher than that of Snow White. Pinocchio was received well by critics, but Fantasia was not, because of its new concept of setting animated scenes to pieces of classical music, an artistic concert of sorts, which did not appeal to the masses.

Dumbo (1941) would do much better just a year later, both critically and financially, but if Walt Disney hoped for a similar response to his realistically animated nature film Bambi, he was disappointed, as not only had World War II caused problems, but the Disney Animators’ Strike of 1941 had sullied the Studios’ reputation and disrupted their film production for around four months, plus Bambi annoyed and angered some viewers because of its anti-hunting stance. Back in the 1940s, it was not considered the beautiful, environmentally conscious masterpiece it is seen as by many today.

I’m not sure I’m allowed to say I don’t like Bambi, but… I don’t like Bambi.

I am not a fan of nature documentaries, and this feels very much like one, albeit a slightly more fun one. It details the life of animals, and it doesn’t always end happily for them – and that is certainly the case for poor Bambi. I think that’s my reasoning for not liking the film much, although I am happy to admit that it does have an important lesson attached to it, of being respectful of nature because it is as much alive and full of feeling as we are, and that’s a very good lesson to teach people of any age.

PLOT

I’m sure many people first watched Bambi as a child and were mildly traumatised by it, so let’s relive that trauma with a plot summary. Bambi follows the life of a young male fawn, and his two friends, Thumper, a young rabbit, and Flower, a skunk, as they grow up. One day in the forest, all of the creatures, like mice, birds, and the creepy-looking Friend Owl with his huge eyes, who go to see “the new Prince of the Forest-to-be” as Bambi’s mother gives birth to the fawn, Bambi. Almost immediately, Bambi tries to walk, but he struggles, and Thumper tries to help teach him how, despite the fact rabbits walk in a very different way to deer. The next day, Bambi tries again and succeeds. Thumper then teaches Bambi how to talk, learning the words “bird” and “flower”, at which point, they see a skunk in a flower patch. Bambi mistakenly believes the skunk is a flower, so the skunk becomes a new friend called Flower. It soon begins to rain with the “drip, drip, drop” of an April shower and the three friends return home. The rain shower becomes a huge thunderstorm, which scares most of the younger forest inhabitants.

Some time later, Bambi goes out to the meadow with his mother, where Bambi is warned by his mother to be careful not to run into open spaces as they can be unsafe. Bambi’s mother checks it is clear and they come out into the open. He then meets Faline, one of his mother’s friend’s children and is very awkward around her! But he begins to learn more about his species from the other deer, instead of learning how to do everything from either his mother or Thumper. They then see a group of stags running through the forest, where Bambi meets The Great Prince of the Forest, his father. The Great Prince tells all the deer to leave the meadow. Bambi becomes separated from his mother, but is helped by The Great Prince. A gun shot is heard… But Bambi’s mother is ok…for now. This is where Bambi first hears about “Man”, as he is told “Man was in the forest”.

Autumn comes and then turns to winter, and Bambi sees snow and ice for the first time. Thumper teaches Bambi how to ice skate, though he isn’t exactly a natural at it! The two also go and visit Flower, who is hibernating and probably shouldn’t be woken up. After a while, Bambi becomes bored of winter and there not being enough food. Luckily, he soon sees the first signs of spring coming in the form of fresh grass, but as Bambi and his mother are about to settle down to eat, his mother hears something and tells Bambi to run to the thicket and not look back. Another gun shot is heard… But Bambi keeps running like he was told to do. Eventually, Bambi stops and is concerned that his mother has not followed him. Cue one of the most well-known and most heart-breaking moments in movie history. Bambi cries out for his mother, searching, but she is nowhere to be found. The Great Prince tells him “Your mother can’t be with you anymore”, and tells Bambi to “come, my son”, as he leads him away in the snow.

One year later, Bambi, Flower, and Thumper learn about “twitterpations”, or “falling in love” to us humans, as they see all the birds twittering around as they find mates, being told by Friend Owl that it makes you weak in the knees, puts your head in a whirl, makes you feel as light as a feather, like you’re walking on air. All three thinks this sounds awful, confirming that it won’t happen to them but they soon find love interests of their own. Flower first, as he tries to ignore a female skunk, but finds he’s powerless to do so. Then Thumper, and finally Bambi with childhood friend Faline, after he fights a stag competing for her affections. We then find that Man is back in the forest, but this time not from the sound of a gunshot. Instead, Bambi is woken by the smell of smoke and follows it to find a campfire in the distance. Going deeper into the forest, Bambi learns that this is a hunter camp. Bambi is separated from Faline as everyone flees after a bird is shot, with dogs trying to hunt down Faline. Bambi fights them off but is shot. Meanwhile, Man’s campfire has spread and caused a huge wildfire. The Great Prince tells Bambi to get up and move. The two jump down a waterfall to the safety of a riverbank, where Bambi is reunited with Faline and his friends.

The next spring, Faline gives birth to twins. Bambi and his father share a glance as they watch over the scene at the top of a hill. The Great Prince then walks away, silently signalling to Bambi that he is now The Great Prince of the Forest.

It’s not exactly the most thrilling plot, with quite a lot of the action taking place “behind the camera”. It’s more or less a coming-of-age story, watching Bambi grow, with notes about how humans need to take responsibility for their actions within natural environments or risk damaging consequences for nature and the animals that live within it.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Though the film has many supporting characters, other animals living in the forest, the plot follows Bambi, his mother and father, and Thumper and Flower, so it benefits from this focus on core characters only. It also benefits from only having around 950 words of dialogue in total, which allows for moments of silence during those tense scenes and a time for reflection on the beauty of nature, as well as the threats to it.

Bambi begins life as an awkward, gangly young fawn, who doesn’t have much idea of how to act or behave in the forest. As a newborn, unsurprisingly, he can’t walk or talk so has to be taught how to do these things, by his mother and randomly by a rabbit, but this is a Disney movie after all. Over time, Bambi learns more about what life is like for animals in the forest, and is taught to be careful of his surroundings and not to trust that everything is necessarily safe; that Man could be in the forest and something bad might happen if he is. Once his mother dies, Bambi has to grow up quickly, as his future is to be The Great Prince of the Forest. He starts to take responsibility for others and the security of the forest, being the one to find the hunter camp first and trying to get the rest of the animals to safety. By the end of the film, Bambi has fully transformed into The Great Prince of the Forest, and watches over everything as the new protector.

Donnie Dunagan voiced young Bambi, when he was six-years-old, and he said that his lines were read by a voice coach and that he had to repeat them, with the same inflection to get the correct meaning across. He also stated that he was never told that Bambi’s mother was dead or that she was shot, only that she was injured and Bambi was trying to find her, when he was being given his “motivation” for the scene. Actor Hardie Albright then voiced Adolescent Bambi, with producer John Sutherland voicing Young Adult Bambi.

For Bambi’s mother and The Great Prince of the Forest, Bambi’s father, naturally Bambi’s mother takes on most of the parenting of Bambi. She is a caring mother, very protective of Bambi and very cautious when out in the open areas of the forest, as she is aware of the dangers of hunters. The death of Bambi’s mother is the most tragic moment of the film, especially when we hear Bambi calling for her, not realising how bad the situation is. Walt Disney’s daughter Diane was horrified to find that Walt had decided to keep the scene of Bambi’s mother being shot in his movie version of Bambi. She had read the original book, as Walt reminded her at the time, but she thought he would’ve changed it for his film as he had altered many elements of books and fairy-tales for his other film projects before[1]! Paula Winslowe voiced Bambi’s mother in this film, and she also voiced the Pheasant. She was married to John Sutherland, voice of Young Adult Bambi.

The Great Prince of the Forest is stoic and fairly emotionless, needing to keep himself calm in his role as the protector of the forest. He’s not exactly a great fatherly figure for Bambi though, not being particularly caring even when he tells Bambi that his mother “won’t be around anymore”. He also tells Bambi to get up and move after he’s just been shot in rather a harsh way, but I suppose he is just trying to keep him safe! Fred Shields voiced The Great Prince. Shields went on to narrate other Disney shorts, including those within the film Saludos Amigos (1942) and the segment “The Flying Gauchito” in its sequel film The Three Caballeros (1944).

Now to Thumper, who I personally find kind of annoying and overly energetic! Thumper was not an original character from the Bambi novel but was created for comic relief purposes. Animator Ollie Johnston liked the fact that Thumper is quite bossy when he’s trying to teach Bambi how to do things, and how he gets into trouble a lot. This is what I don’t like about Thumper but I’m ok disagreeing with Ollie on this one! Peter Behn voiced Young Thumper, and much like Donnie Dunagan, he had his lines recited to him and he just repeated the lines until he got them right. To be fair, Thumper does have some very good lines, such as him reciting his father’s talk about how good it is to eat your greens, though he thinks they taste awful, and “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”, which is actually a double-negative, but we get what Thumper means; he is just a kid! Tim Davis voiced Adolescent Thumper and Sam Edwards voiced Young Adult Thumper. Edwards later made a few appearances as banker Bill Anderson on Little House on the Prairie between 1978 and 1983, and also had supporting roles in some of Disney’s live-action films, such as The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Escape to Witch Mountain (1975).

Flower is the shy and soft-spoken skunk that I always used to think was a girl but that is most definitely not the case – oops, my bad. I think of the three “kids”, I like Flower the best, because he’s not running around all the time being crazy; he’s just sitting in his flower patch having a nice time. I also feel sorry for him when Bambi and Thumper are trying to wake him up during his hibernating time. Stan Alexander voiced Young Flower, with Tim Davis voicing Adolescent Flower also. Legendary Disney voice actor Sterling Holloway then voiced Young Adult Flower. Holloway voiced many well-known characters for Disney movies from the 1940s to the 1970s, including the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa the python in The Jungle Book (1967), and most notably, Winnie the Pooh.

One other voice actor I would like to mention is Cammie King, who voiced Young Faline in Bambi. She also portrayed Bonnie Blue Butler, Scarlett and Rhett’s daughter, in Gone with the Wind (1939).

MUSIC

All the songs in Bambi are played in the background, so none are sung by any characters, which is not unheard of in Disney animated films, but not particularly common. This was decided to be the best approach to the music due to the fact that, given its realistic subject and animation style, it would not be appropriate for the forest animals to burst into song, as it would disrupt the feel and mood of the film.

For the soundtrack, four original songs were written, with all lyrics being written by Larry Morey and all music for the film being composed by Frank Churchill. The two had previously collaborated together on the soundtrack for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Churchill had also contributed to the music on many other Disney projects from the time he joined the Studios in 1930, such as the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” for the Silly Symphony short The Three Little Pigs (1933); “Baby Mine” from Dumbo (1941), co-written with Ned Washington, and the score for Dumbo, co-written with Oliver Wallace, both of which received Oscar nominations; and the song “Never Smile at a Crocodile”, which is a deleted song from Peter Pan (1953) and was co-written with Jack Lawrence. Churchill sadly passed away from suicide in May 1942, just three months before the release of Bambi.

The first song is the main title song “Love is a Song”, playing over the Opening Credits, and also appears as the finale song. This song was actually nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards, where it lost out to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” from the film Holiday Inn (1942). The next number to appear in the film is “Little April Shower”, which is the most well-known song from Bambi and likely one that you’ve either sung yourself as it starts to rain outside, or someone else has sung it to you. The music slowly builds in volume and drama as the rain gets heavier and a storm begins. The animals are all scared of the storm and can’t wait for it to be over. Though I don’t generally mind the opening few lines, I really dislike the storm as the singers just wail like ghosts as a way of imitating wind and it doesn’t sound pleasant to my ears. Originally, an early song was meant to be sung from the point of view of the raindrops; it was called “The Rain Song”. It was an incredibly repetitive song, almost like the rain was chanting, so very weird too and I’m glad they didn’t use it! To animate the drops of rain, the artists studied slow-motion photography of drops of milk to show the detailed splash patterns, which would have vanished quickly in normal time. The animators drew many of these to create the shower[2].

Following on from that is “Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song”, which plays when the birds are finding their partners during the spring. It annoys Friend Owl a lot, who tries to get all the birds to fly away from him and leave him in peace. It is a bit cutesy and sweet, not to mention repetitive, so I can see where Owl is coming from!

Finally, we have “Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song)”, which is the love ballad for Bambi and Faline as they begin to fall in love with each other. It’s the customary love song that every film needs, but personally I don’t like any of the songs within Bambi. That is probably down to the fact they are not sung by the characters, and I can understand the reasoning for that, but it means I don’t end up connecting with the characters emotionally through their songs, unlike other Disney movies, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991) or The Little Mermaid (1989), something those Disney “Renaissance” movies are known for. The other reason is because all four songs are performed by a forty-voice choir, the Disney Studio Chorus, with Donald Novis, which gives the music that odd whispery sound that was particularly prominent in earlier Disney movies. I find it a bit creepy and haunting at times…

The score for Bambi was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, but lost to Max Steiner’s score for Now, Voyager (1942). The score does well to contribute to the atmosphere of the forest and the events surrounding the characters, without taking away focus from the central action. The instrumental that plays during Bambi and Thumper’s time in the snow and on the ice is probably the best of the score for me, though of course the scoring of the forest fire and Bambi’s mother do make those scenes seem more threatening and heartbreaking for the viewer.

PRODUCTION

Bambi took around five years to make, with development starting in 1937, when the film rights for Bambi, a Life in the Woods, a book written by Felix Salten, were passed over to Walt Disney after discussions with the original rights owner, Sidney Franklin. The original novel by Salten was first published in 1923. It is debated what the true meaning of the novel is as it has been lost in translations, however, some suspect that the novel is actually meant to be a parable about the inhumane treatment of Jewish people and other minorities. As Salten lived in Austria at the time of publication, around this time, the Nazi party was beginning to rise up within Germany and its influence would later spread outside of the country into Austria and surrounding areas. This threat of a more fascist world is seen by some as evidence that Bambi, a Life in the Woods was actually a political statement. Even more evidence of this is that in 1935, the book was banned by the Nazis, who saw the novel as a political allegory and copies of the book were burnt. Salten fled Austria in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria, and went to Switzerland. Salten had experienced discrimination and abuse as a Jewish person in Austria throughout his life. In a similar way to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, having the story be based around animals meant that the true meaning could be hidden within another layer of story. Salten later sold his film rights for $1,000 dollars to film producer and director Sidney Franklin[3].

The first English translation of the novel, by Whittaker Chambers, sold 650,000 copies between the years 1928, when it was first published, and 1942, when Disney’s Bambi was released. It was later translated again in 2022, when the original novel entered the public domain, and a new English translation was published under the name The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, by Jack Zipes. It’s been claimed that Chambers’ translation sanitised the novel and stripped it of its actual meaning.

There are many conflicting views on just what the original Bambi novel really means. It could have been political propaganda; it could have been anti-war in general; it could have been existentialist; or simply a coming-of-age story, or environmental story. Basically, it’s up to anyone who has read the original novel to decide what it means for them[4]. I have not read it, so I am not informed enough to discuss Salten’s novel, and nor do I need to because this is about Disney’s film. The only thing to be aware of is that Walt Disney and his children would have read Chambers’ original English translation of the novel.

Regardless of what Bambi was meant to mean, this translation remains bleak and gruesome at times, due to its references to injured animals, intense scenes of hunting, and general social commentary. It was up to Walt Disney and his story men to make the story more child-friendly and similar in tone to what audiences were expecting from the Disney Studios. Disney added in humour and lighter moments to tame the material, as well as new characters. Humans are referred to as “Man” and not “He”, as they are in the original story.

Bambi was intended to be the second Disney animated feature, to be released right after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), but in actual fact, it became the fifth full-length animated feature film from the studio. This was down to the need for the animators to be able to capture the forest and its animals truthfully, as well as spending time dealing with the story to make it “more Disney”. Walt had realised that Bambi would require a different type of sophistication in the artwork that they had not done before, and to do it justice, the animators needed time to create and perfect this new style. Sidney Franklin, who owned the film rights to Bambi, had hoped to make a live-action film with voice-overs. After watching Snow White, Franklin contacted Walt to see if he would like to collaborate on the movie. It was decided that this live-action movie wasn’t going anywhere and that Walt Disney could make a better film if it was fully animated, so the rights were sold to Walt, however, Franklin remained an active consultant on the film and ensured the authenticity of nature remained. A dedication to Franklin appears at the end of the opening titles.

Story men were first assigned to the picture in 1938. Early attempts at the story included a scene of two leaves talking about the end of their life together as they are about to fall from their tree. This is an interesting scene in the novel that Walt particularly liked, however, it didn’t work in the context of the film, so it was cut. There were many other characters who were created but never used, such as a grasshopper and a colony of ants, and a rabbit called Bobo, who eventually became Thumper. There was also a different version of the sequence of Bambi seeing snow for the first time, where Bambi and the rabbits were chasing each other. This scene was re-worked to show Thumper teaching Bambi how to walk on ice instead. Real-life human models were used as reference material for this scene. Another story idea that never came to light on screen was to have a charred corpse of “Man” be discovered by Bambi and The Great Prince. At a test audience, this scene was shown to the audience and they did not like it so naturally, it was cut. They also considered showing Bambi’s mother injured on the ground, but again, decided against it[5]. It’s interesting that Disney chose not to show the death of their “first parent” in Bambi, but quite happily did so in 1994 with Mufasa’s death in The Lion King, traumatising an entirely new generation of children!

To correctly capture the authenticity of the animals as well as the environment of the forest, artist Jake Day was sent to Maine for several months to photograph and sketch animals and their environments. Artists also sketched animals at the Los Angeles Zoo[6]. They studied deer and fawns closely. Two fawns, named Bambi and Faline, were imported from Maine and housed behind the studio for this purpose. However, as they eventually began to act like pets, footage of wild deer in their natural environment, exploring and going about their day, was used to get the authentic action shots required. There needed to be a big leap in how the deer were represented in Bambi to how they were in Snow White, where animator Eric Larson described them as being drawn like sacks of wheat. They weren’t bothered by the anatomy of deer then, but this time, they had to study it and get it just right.

However, once they had drawn the animal characters true to their real-life anatomy, they then needed to get them to develop of range of emotion, as a Disney character is not just muscles and fur. The amazing characterisation of the animals in Bambi is great, and that is mostly down to the work of Marc Davis, one of the Disney animators, who went to a lot of effort studying child psychology books and children’s expressions, to replicate those same emotions within two-dimensional drawings of animals. He then showed the rest of the Disney animators how best to show this emotion on their animated characters[7].

In terms of capturing the essence of the forest, firstly, Walt Disney sent photographers to the forests of Maine, Oregon, Washington, and California. Some film was taken too, which would go on to inspire Walt Disney to make his True-Life Adventures nature documentary series in later years[8]. The problem with having such detailed pictures to use as reference points was that the animators ended up drawing the forest with too much detail, so that the action and the animals would not be as sharp on the screen as they needed to be. Artist Tyrus Wong was the one to create simple, impressionistic paintings for the backgrounds, which would create and suggest an atmosphere instead of being precise depictions of real-life. This suited the picture well and helped the team move forward. The multi-plane camera was used extensively for Bambi to move through these backgrounds, deep into the forest[9].

RECEPTION

Bambi opened in August 1942 with a US premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The world premiere for Bambi had actually been held in London on 9^th August 1942, meaning this was the first Disney full-length animated feature to hold its world premiere outside of the US. The world premiere was meant to be held in Maine, however the State objected as they felt hunters would be offended by the film.

The State of Maine turned out to be right because when Bambi was first released, it received mixed reviews with some of those specifically about the hunting aspect of the movie. In a 1942 edition of Outdoor Life magazine, Bambi was denounced as “the worst insult ever offered in any form to American sportsmen”. It seemed as though the whole US hunting community had taken offence to Bambi, which was never Walt Disney’s intention; Bambi is not an anti-hunting film, but sought to show the dangers of irresponsible hunting.

Not only that but his depiction of animals in Bambi was blasted by some. In a story printed in the 22^nd March 1952 issue of the Saturday Evening post magazine it stated that Walt Disney had been confronted by a woman at a dinner party in Palm Springs. She claimed to be an expert on American wildlife and proceeded to tell Walt in great detail everything that was factually wrong in Bambi. Eventually, Walt was able to give his response: “How right you are. And do you know something else wrong with it? Deers don’t talk.”[10].

Other critics found the film was too dramatic and not as fantastical as Disney’s other fairy-tale stories, and felt that some of the scenes, such as the shooting of Bambi’s mother, were not suitable for children, hence why so many children over these last eighty years have remembered this scene as being one of Disney’s most traumatic and horrifying. Yet some enjoyed the fact that the Disney Studios had taken themselves away from their typical style of film, and the realistic animation was appreciated.

Alongside the Academy Award nominations for music, Bambi also received another nomination for Best Sound Recording, but did not win. Bambi underperformed at the box-office, which may have been partly due to the wartime era in which it was released. However, given the age of the movie, it has benefited from multiple re-releases both in theatres and on VHS or DVD and Blu-Ray over the years, which has boosted its overall takings in the US and worldwide. Bambi was the last Disney animated movie to be re-released during Walt Disney’s lifetime, in Spring 1966[11]. Nowadays, Bambi is considered a classic and one of Disney’s best films, both for its amazing animation, moving moments, and for being one of the first movies to have a message around environmental awareness.

LEGACY

As Bambi’s reputation as a film began to recover, it has been referenced in other Disney projects. One of these is its direct-to-video sequel, Bambi II (2006). This sequel takes place just after Bambi’s mother is shot, and shows Bambi being taken care of by The Great Prince of the Forest, Bambi’s father, during the spring that followed. Alexander Gould, voice of Nemo in Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003), voices Bambi here, and surprisingly, Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, amongst many other roles, voices The Great Prince. What a strange choice of role for Patrick Stewart; I hope he had fun with it! Like all other direct-to-video sequels by Disney it received a mediocre response from critics.

At the Disney theme parks, there aren’t too many nods to Bambi or its characters unfortunately. Bambi has never been a walkaround character, however, his friend Thumper is – as is his girlfriend or wife, I guess, Miss Bunny. Thumper and Miss Bunny have been spotted at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, as well as at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. As they are rabbits, they may appear around Easter at the US parks and in Paris, however, over the years, the two have been less frequently spotted, so they are very much rare characters and may only appear at Special Events now. Bambi’s other friend, Flower the skunk, was a walkaround character for a time, but has not been seen since the 1970s apparently.

Outside of character appearances, at Tokyo Disneyland, at the Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel, some of the main guest rooms are described as being decorated with characters from films such as Bambi on their website, however, I have not found anything concrete online that shows that. I assume it is small touches in their décor.

There are similar touches like this at woodland-themed Disney hotels such as the Sequoia Lodge at Disneyland Paris, Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort, and the Wilderness Lodge Resort at Walt Disney World. There probably would’ve been more Bambi theming in the Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge Resort at Walt Disney World that was planned as a new Disney Vacation Club Resort but was confirmed to be cancelled in 2022.

At the actual theme parks, within Hong Kong Disneyland’s version of it’s a small world, you can see figures of Bambi and Thumper skating on top of an icy mountain at the start of the attraction. At Shanghai Disneyland, within their Garden of the Twelve Friends walkthrough area, representing the Chinese Zodiac, Thumper used to be the representative for The Rabbit, however, in 2023, the Year of the Rabbit, Thumper was replaced with Judy Hopps from Zootopia (2016).

Elsewhere, at Walt Disney World, as part of the 50^th anniversary celebrations, fifty statues of different Disney characters were added to all four parks in a collection called the Fab 50. A statue of Thumper and Bambi, with a butterfly on his tail, was built and is currently situated at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The Fab 50 statues all still remain at the parks. Also at Disney World, but this time in Epcot, for the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival held in spring, there is normally a topiary scene of Bambi and his friends.

Alongside this, clips or music from Bambi may be included in other Disney shows, parades or fireworks shows. There is also lots of Bambi merchandise available to purchase, including plush toys, pins, bags, and clothing.

Outside of the parks, Bambi has continued to build its presence. Bambi and other characters from the film were used for the original poster for the “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” campaign in 1944 by the United States Forest Service. Walt Disney had allowed these characters to be used in their campaign for one year. As the forest fire prevention campaign had proved popular with these additions, this led to the Forest Service creating Smokey Bear, their own character, to head future campaigns. This shows that the general public did take notice of the film’s message.

Another thing taken from Bambi is the phrase “Man is in the forest”. This phrase was used by some of the Disney animators to alert others to the fact Walt Disney was walking around the studio! [12]

Bambi is a favourite film of many people, including Walt Disney himself, and Osamu Tezuka, creator of manga series such as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. Paul McCartney also said that the film Bambi had a major influence on his attitudes towards animal rights. Not only that but the film’s off-screen villain, Man, was placed at #20 on the Villains list of the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes & Villains list in 2003. Stephen King also named Bambi as the first horror movie he ever saw.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The message of Bambi, as well as some of its more controversial moments, have continued to stick with viewers for many years after the film was first released in 1942. It certainly should make people sit up and think about their attitudes to nature and how they can improve their own relationship with their surroundings.

As I said, Bambi is regrettably a Disney film that I just don’t like much. It’s not exciting enough for me, and I don’t feel I get as absorbed into the lives of the characters as I do with some of the other Animated Classics, though I do appreciate the meaning behind it.

But this was a key moment in the history of animation as they pushed even more boundaries with the release of Bambi. It is a favourite amongst nature-lovers – it’s just unfortunate that I am not one of them.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Bambi Fun Fawn Facts’, MousePlanet.com, 26^th July 2017.

[2] Credit: Disney, Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece (1997).

[3] Credit: Donna Ferguson, ‘Bambi’: cute, lovable, vulnerable…or a dark parable of antisemitic terror?’, The Guardian (online), 25^th December 2021.

[4] Credit: Kathryn Schulz, ‘“Bambi” Is Even Bleaker Than You Thought’, The New Yorker (online), 17^th January 2022.

[5] Credit: Disney, The Making of Bambi: A Prince is Born (1994).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Bambi Fun Fawn Facts’, MousePlanet.com, 26^th July 2017.

[7] Credit: Disney, Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece (1997).

[8] Credit: Jim Fanning, 10 Facts from Walt Disney’s Bambi, D23 (online), 6^th September 2012.

[9] Credit: Disney, Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece (1997).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney Animation Anecdotes’, MousePlanet.com, 14^th December 2022.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Bambi Fun Fawn Facts’, MousePlanet.com, 26^th July 2017.

[12] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bambi (1942)’, pp. 13-15.