1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Lewis Carroll’s original story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, has been adapted for screen and stage numerous times over the years, however, despite seeming like a simple film to make, given the ample source material, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland actually took a number of years to develop and produce.

With all these adaptations over the decades, you’d think it would be difficult for a studio to make their mark with this story, yet Alice in Wonderland is likely to be the most memorable adaptation of Carroll’s famous stories, and for many, their first introduction to the story. This might lead viewers to believe that it was always a popular film, but in fact, it was not. When Alice in Wonderland was first released in 1951, its reviews were not kind, and it underperformed at the box-office.

I have always liked Alice in Wonderland, though it is not one that I revisit too often, but it does have a short enough running time – just 75 minutes – to make it easy to sit and watch whenever I have a spare hour. It is the best adaptation in my opinion as well. The 1999 made-for-television film Alice in Wonderland does stick in my mind, as it did feature an all-star cast, with actors like Martin Short, Miranda Richardson, Whoopi Goldberg and Gene Wilder, but it was just bizarre and not overly pleasing to the eye.

PLOT

Disney’s Alice in Wonderland begins with Alice, a little blonde girl, being read a history book by her sister in the park. Alice is not paying any attention to her lesson, and is distracted by her cat, Dinah, who is a very cute cat and doesn’t get nearly enough screen time, and everything else in the garden. Alice says she can’t possibly pay attention to a book with no pictures in it, and starts to imagine her own world, where everything would be backwards and not make sense. Soon, she sees a white rabbit with a watch and a waistcoat running nearby, shouting about being late for something. Curious, Alice follows the White Rabbit, wanting to know why he’s late. She crawls into a hole and tumbles down, leaving her cat and the world she knows behind.

Alice doesn’t fall, but floats downwards, passing by floating furniture, before turning upside down. Eventually, she hits solid ground, where she sees the Rabbit going through a door. Alice opens lots of tiny doors and steps into a hall, where she finds a door on the opposite side. She tries to turn it, but is surprised to find the doorknob can talk! The Doorknob tells Alice she is too big to get through the door and tells her to drink the bottle that’s on the table. Sure enough, she becomes small enough to fit through the door, but the Doorknob forgot to tell her that he’s locked, with the key up on the table that Alice can no longer reach. A box of “Eat Me” biscuits appears in front of her, which then makes her too big again. Alice cries, with huge tears falling down her cheeks, flooding the entire room. The Doorknob tells Alice to drink from the bottle again, which makes Alice too small and she falls inside the bottle. Luckily, as she floats down her sea of tears, the Doorknob swallows a bunch of it through the keyhole, including the bottle, and she gets through to the other side.

There, she sees a dodo, birds and lobsters swimming in the water. She soon hits dry land, tumbling out of the bottle, where these creatures are running around in a circle, called a “Caucus Race”, trying to dry themselves. Alice is told by the Dodo to join in, despite Alice’s protestations that they can’t possibly get dry this way as waves keep crashing on to them. She soon sees the Rabbit again, and follows him into the nearby woods, where she meets Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The twins introduce themselves to Alice, and want her to stay and talk to them for a while. Alice doesn’t, saying she is curious by the White Rabbit. This reminds the two of a story called “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, which features curious oysters. Alice sits down to hear it. The story goes that a walrus and a carpenter were walking along the beach, and sees loads of oysters in the sea. Thinking they’d be perfect for their dinner, the Walrus coaxes the young oysters out of the sea and leads them to a makeshift restaurant that the Carpenter has put together. As the Carpenter is told to get condiments and bread, the Walrus shocks the oysters by eating them all. The Carpenter returns to find the Walrus has eaten every last oyster and chases him down the beach. Alice decides as she’s not an oyster, she doesn’t need to worry about being curious and leaves.

Alice reaches a cottage, which turns out to be the White Rabbit’s. The Rabbit sends Alice in to find his gloves, but as she does so, she eats a biscuit which makes her grow so large that she fills the entire house and is stuck. The White Rabbit asks the Dodo and Bill, a lizard with a ladder, to help. The Dodo tells Bill to go down the chimney and pull the monster (Alice) out. As Bill falls down the chimney, soot flies into the air, making Alice sneeze and sends Bill shooting back out of the chimney. The Dodo then decides to burn the house down, “to smoke the monster out”, and starts to break up all of Rabbit’s furniture. Alice sees a bed of carrots nearby and pulls one out to eat. As she takes a bite, she shrinks down to a tiny size again, and rushes out of the house to follow the Rabbit again. This time, she finds herself in a garden, where the flowers talk and sing to her. They decide that Alice must be a weed, as she can’t say what type of flower she is, and chase her out of the garden.

Next, Alice meets a smoking caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. He wants to know who she is, but she can’t explain as she’s changed so much since she got to Wonderland. The Caterpillar insults Alice as she tries to recite, making her so angry she leaves. She is soon called back by the Caterpillar, and told to control her temper. He wants to know what is wrong with her. She says she wants to be taller, as being three inches high is a “wretched height”. It turns out the Caterpillar is this exact height. Furious, he suddenly turns into a butterfly, and tells Alice that the mushroom near her can change her size; one side will make her taller, the other shorter. After some trial and error, involving a bird and her nest of eggs, Alice gets back to her normal size and carries on. Alice goes back into the woods, but is confused by the poor signage. The Cheshire Cat materialises in front of her, and Alice asks him for directions. He tells her to talk to the Mad Hatter or the March Hare, telling Alice that “most everyone’s mad here”, annoying Alice who doesn’t want to talk to mad people. 

 She stumbles upon the Mad Hatter’s tea party and hears of him and the March Hare singing about their “unbirthday”. Alice finds it’s her “unbirthday” too! They celebrate with a cake, and invite her to join them for tea. Alice doesn’t manage to drink a drop of it, as the two question her, constantly move seats, and call her mad. She also scares the Dormouse, who sleeps in the teapot, by mentioning her cat, Dinah. The White Rabbit runs past, shouting about being late, so the Mad Hatter takes a look at his watch. The watch is two days slow apparently, but the Mad Hatter can fix it! He spreads butter, jam, tea, and lemon into the mechanics of the watch and closes it up. The watch goes crazy and starts to jump and snap all over the place. There’s no option but to break it with a mallet. The White Rabbit is upset, but the Mad Hatter and March Hare cheer him up with their “Unbirthday Song” and throw him back into the woods. Alice leaves shortly after, deciding she wants to go home.

She walks through Tulgey Wood, where she encounters many strange creatures, but finds herself hopelessly lost. The Cheshire Cat returns to her and tells her she must meet the Queen who rules this land before she leaves. He shows her a shortcut to the Queen’s castle and Alice goes in. She sees a pack of cards painting roses red, and asks why they are doing that. It turns out they planted white roses, and knowing that would anger the Queen, must paint them red, the colour she wanted, before she finds out. But she does find out, because the Queen and her Cards enter the gardens. The Queen of Hearts sees paint dripping from the roses and questions the cards, eventually sending them off to have their heads cut off. Alice is invited to play croquet with the Queen. The Queen wins by cheating, which upsets Alice. The Cheshire Cat reappears, this time on the Queen herself, and starts to talk to Alice. Alice looks rude and insulting as she responds to the Cat as nobody else can see it since the Cat disappears without warning. The Cheshire Cat manages to flip up the Queen’s skirts, exposing her underwear to everyone. Alice is blamed for this and the Queen begins to shout “off with her head”, when the King asks for a trial instead.

Alice is taken to the Court Room, where they hear pointless evidence from the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse, none of whom were even there. They celebrate the Queen’s “unbirthday” and gift her a crown, except the crown is actually the Cheshire Cat. Alice tries to get everyone to see him, but he vanishes. The Dormouse freaks out again at the word “cat”, which leads to the Queen having jam thrown in her face. The Queen is furious and thinks it was Alice who did it, and starts to shout “off with her head” again, when Alice finds the mushroom from earlier in her pocket. She eats both halves and grows tall again. This gives her the confidence to call the Queen a “fat, old tyrant”, but shrinks down to her normal size just as she finishes. Alice runs away, and is chased by hundreds of the Queen’s Card Soldiers. She is chased all through Wonderland, where she sees characters from her earlier adventures, who all try to stop her. She finally gets to the Doorknob from the start of the day and asks him to let her through. He shows Alice that she is already through; Alice is asleep by the river in the park, where she was before she fell down the Rabbit Hole. It turns out it was all a dream. Alice shouts at herself to wake up, and we are taken back to the park, where Alice’s sister is telling her to wake up. Alice wakes up confused, and starts reciting the Caterpillar’s earlier phrases, explaining her visit to Wonderland. Exasperated, her sister simply says they should get home for tea.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Alice is a precocious little girl, who is easily angered and annoyed, having multiple arguments with Wonderland’s residents, including the Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts! She doesn’t seem to know when she should and shouldn’t talk. Most of the film seems to be about teaching Alice how to be courteous and polite, as she is taught how to speak “correctly” by the Caterpillar; how to sing sweetly by the Flowers; warned of the dangers of being too curious by Tweedledee and Tweedledum; and taught to address royalty by the Queen. Unfortunately, these lessons fall on deaf ears for the most part as Alice is so confident and headstrong that she keeps barrelling in to more difficult situations, getting to the point where she ends up on trial for angering the Queen. It’s not good, is it? If I was stuck in Wonderland with no idea about their rules of society, I’d spend my time trying to work out how to behave correctly so I could keep my head on my shoulders. But not Alice; she does the complete opposite. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I’ll let you decide! Kathryn Beaumont voices Alice, and also provided the live-action reference material for the character. Beaumont would go on to voice Wendy Darling in the next Disney animated feature film, Peter Pan (1953). She would also reprise both these roles on occasion for Disney projects. Kathryn Beaumont was named a Disney Legend in 1998.

The real-life inspiration for Alice was a five-year-old girl called Alice Liddell. She met mathematician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who would later be known under his penname Lewis Carroll, at that age, as her father was Dean at Christ Church College at the University of Oxford where Dodgson was a maths tutor. He would soon become a friend of the Liddell family. The stories were created on 4^th July 1862 by Dodgson. He improvised the stories as a way of entertaining Alice and her sisters, Lorina and Edith. The first written manuscript of the story was given to Alice Liddell in November 1864, with illustrations also being provided by Dodgson; the book was titled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. The story was then published widely in 1865, with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel, under the name Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. A sequel titled Alice Through the Looking Glass was later published in 1871. The books were a hit.

After the publications, Alice Liddell lived a life without fame. She married Reginald Hargreaves, who was a pupil of Dodgson’s, on 15^th September 1880. They had three sons and lived in Hampshire. It wasn’t until financial problems many years later, forcing her to sell Dodgson’s original manuscript to an American collector, that Alice Liddell would find fame. She visited the USA for Carroll’s centenary celebrations at Columbia University, and later received an Honorary degree from there for services to literature. She also consulted on Paramount’s 1933 film, Alice in Wonderland. Liddell died in November 1934. A few years later, in 1948, the original manuscript of the story was returned to the UK[1].

There are multiple other characters in Alice in Wonderland, so I won’t discuss all of them, but I will mention some of the more important ones. First, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse feature in two separate sequences: the Tea Party and the Trial. It’s quite clear that, although the Mad Hatter and the March Hare are bizarre and odd, they are harmless and mean well generally. They just want to celebrate, have a good time, and seem to quite enjoy meeting new people. The Dormouse doesn’t feature too much; he’s mostly just sleeping in his tea pot, so he’s definitely harmless and not mad at all really. The Dormouse’s voice was provided by Disney Sound Effects Head, Jimmy MacDonald. MacDonald created contraptions to make the sounds for many characters in Disney movies, such as the Crocodile’s “tick-tock” in Peter Pan (1953); Dragon Maleficent’s snapping jaws in Sleeping Beauty (1959), where castanets were used; and the buzzing of Evinrude the dragonfly in The Rescuers (1977). MacDonald was also the official second voice artist to voice Mickey Mouse, after Walt Disney, and the original voice of Chip, from the duo of Chip ‘n’ Dale. 

Musician, comedian and actor Jerry Colonna voices the March Hare. He had previously narrated the segment “Casey at the Bat”, which features within the package feature Make Mine Music (1946) for Disney. Colonna was also one of Bob Hope’s sidekicks in Hope’s radio shows and films during the 1940s and 1950s. The Mad Hatter’s voice is provided by Ed Wynn, who began his career in radio shows before moving into film. He hosted his own variety show, The Ed Wynn Show (1949-50) for which he won the Emmy Award for Best Live Show. Ed Wynn also appears as giggling Uncle Albert in the Disney film, Mary Poppins (1964). I really like the March Hare and the Mad Hatter as characters, with the Tea Party being one of the funniest scenes in the film. During the live-action reference shoot for this scene, Ed Wynn ad-libbed many of his lines. When it came time for Wynn to record his lines clean in the studio, the team found they weren’t coming across funny enough, so they went back to the live-action tape and used those lines in the film instead[2].

The Cheshire Cat is the most lovable of the characters in my opinion, but that’s probably just because he’s a big, fluffy, pink and purple cat! He’s a bit tricky to deal with though, not answering questions directly, vanishing at random, and seeming to want to get Alice into trouble with the Queen! I still like him though; he’s fun and the choice of voice actor probably helps with his likeability too. Sterling Holloway voices the Cheshire Cat, with Holloway having provided the voices for numerous characters for the Walt Disney Company throughout his career. Some of these include Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941), Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967) and the original voice of Winnie the Pooh. Holloway has a kind, warm voice, so you can see why Disney hired him so often.

Another prolific Disney voice actor credited in Alice in Wonderland is Verna Felton who voices the menacing Queen of Hearts. It’s clear from the Queen of Hearts’ first entrance that she is difficult to please, high maintenance, and easy to anger, as she immediately sends three of her Cards to be beheaded from the first moment we meet her! She’s certainly not easy to get along with, though her voice may come across as sweet and kind when she wants to, just to lure you into a false sense of security. Verna Felton has provided the voices of characters such as Mrs. Jumbo and the Elephant Matriarch in Dumbo (1941), the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950), Flora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Winifred the Elephant in The Jungle Book (1967).

But that’s not all because there are a few more actors who appear in Alice in Wonderland and many other Disney movies. English actor and singer J. Pat O’ Malley, who was born in Burnley, which explains the Northern accents in this film, voices the characters of Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Walrus, the Carpenter and Mother Oyster, so basically all the voices in that sequence, except for Alice. I always liked watching “The Walrus and the Carpenter” story when I was younger, rewinding the VHS tape to see it over and over. I find Tweedledee and Tweedledum a bit annoying though! O’Malley also voiced Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967); Cyril Proudbottom, the horse in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949); and Jasper and Colonel in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

Bill Thompson, who voiced Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953), Jock in Lady and the Tramp (1955), King Hubert in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Uncle Waldo in The Aristocats (1970), voices both the White Rabbit and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland. The Dodo acts like he is incredibly intelligent, but in actual fact, his ideas and plans don’t make any sense and don’t really work. The White Rabbit is the catalyst for Alice even coming to Wonderland, so he’s important for the story, but he is quite high-strung; he needs to relax and stop running around so much! I like both these two characters.

The Mellomen, a singing quartet founded by Thurl Ravenscroft, the original voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, featured as singers for large groups of characters in Disney animated features, such as the Pirates and the Indians in Peter Pan (1953), the dogs in the pound in Lady and the Tramp (1955) and the Dawn Patrol in The Jungle Book (1967). In Alice in Wonderland, the Mellomen are the singing Card Painters.

A couple of other actors to mention are Richard Haydn and Heather Angel who provide the voices for the exacting Caterpillar and Alice’s frustrated sister respectively. Haydn would later play the role of Max Detweller in The Sound of Music (1965) and Angel would voice the part of Mrs. Darling, Wendy’s mother, in Peter Pan (1953).

PRODUCTION

Walt Disney’s fascination with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland goes back to his time at school, where he loved reading Carroll’s original stories. In 1923, as part of Walt’s original studios, Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Missouri, him and his staff made a short film titled Alice’s Wonderland, which involved a live-action little girl dreaming of Cartoonland, an animated world, where she interacted with various animated animals, before being chased off a cliff by hungry lions. It was a silent, black-and-white short film, which combined animation and live-action, lasting about ten minutes. After the film was completed, the Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt and shut down, leading Walt to go to Los Angeles and set up a new studio over there. Walt and his new studio then produced 56 more shorts like this from 1923 to 1927, which became known as the Alice Comedies. In 1933, Walt Disney considered making a feature-length movie based on the Carroll stories as an animation/live-action hybrid like his Alice Comedies, with Hollywood actress Mary Pickford in the starring role. However, partly due to Paramount’s own adaptation being released that year, nothing further happened with the idea and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the Disney Studios first feature-length movie release.

In 1936, a Disney short was released, titled Thru the Mirror, which involved Mickey Mouse stepping through a mirror, after Mickey falls asleep reading Alice Through the Looking Glass. In the mirror, Mickey eats nuts to make him grow tall and then small. Whilst small, he skips with a phone cord, dances with a pair of gloves, and then marches alongside a pack of cards. Mickey dances with the Queen of Hearts card, angering the King, who sword-fights Mickey and orders the cards to attack him. Mickey gets away, and races over the Globe in the room. He falls through the Globe, but returns to the surface, normal-sized again, so he can return in time for Mickey to be woken by his alarm clock[3].

This shows that the Alice stories were still very much on Walt Disney’s mind. Though it wasn’t until 1938 that Walt moved forward with the idea of producing a movie again, when he formally registered the title with the Motion Picture Association of America and bought the rights to the story and Tenniel’s illustrations. Story man Al Perkins produced a 161-page analysis of the book and analysed each chapter, thinking about how it would work in animation. In June 1939, British art director David Hall spent three months producing around 400 paintings, drawings and sketches using Perkins’ book analysis as a guide. A film reel of these concept drawings was filmed in November 1939 and shown to Walt, who was not pleased. He felt that the animators were not understanding the spirit of the story correctly, making it too dark, and that Hall’s sketches were too close to Tenniel’s illustrations and therefore would be difficult to animate. Although the film later went in a different direction, some suggestions of Perkins’ were used in the final film, such as the White Rabbit wearing glasses, something Carroll had envisioned but did not translate into Tenniel’s illustrations, as well as the watch being fixed by the Mad Hatter belonging to the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat appearing more.

In April 1941, the movie was considered again with a live-action girl. This time, actress Gloria Jean was considered for the main role. America’s involvement in World War II in this year then halted production on the movie. After the war had ended, the idea of Alice in Wonderland was returned to. This time, Ginger Rogers was considered for another live-action/animated hybrid film, and later Luana Patten, who starred in Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948) for Disney[4]. In 1945, Aldous Huxley, who wrote the novel Brave New World, was hired to write the script for the movie, but Walt found it too close to Carroll’s novel, as well as too difficult to understand. From this point, Walt decided to make Alice in Wonderland a fully animated movie, with production moving forward in 1949.

As the original stories involve over eighty characters, many characters and sequences were cut from the final film. These include the White Knight, who Walt Disney was fond of, but felt that by cutting the character, Alice would be able to figure things out for herself in Wonderland instead of relying on the White Knight to help her. Another scene titled “Pig and Pepper” involving the Duchess, her cook and a screaming baby that transforms into a pig when Alice tries to rescue it from the mad house, was also cut, with this scene later being available to view with David Hall’s original artwork on home releases. Another was an early version of Alice daydreaming of a world of her own. Alice would have laid on the grass, watching birds fly, and seeing animal shapes in the clouds and moving trees blowing before the White Rabbit appeared[5]. There was a planned segment on the Jabberwocky, with Stan Freberg, who would voice the Beaver in Lady and the Tramp (1955) for Disney, being chosen for the character. Some animation was completed for the segment, but it was removed as Walt felt the scene would be too scary for children. Original pressbooks from 1951 credited Freberg with voicing the Jabberwocky despite this edit. Concept art of the sequence by Tom Oreb was released in 1992[6].

One thing that was definite in production of the movie was that Mary Blair’s concept art would be used as the overall animation style for the movie; because of her work, Walt finally believed that they could make Alice in Wonderland and do the original stories justice. Blair’s art style influenced Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Cinderella (1950), and later Peter Pan (1953), as well as Alice in Wonderland. The Tea Party and the March of the Cards sequences are the most obvious examples of Mary Blair’s art styling making its way into the film, with her concept art being perfectly mimicked in the scenes[7].

The March of the Cards is similar to the hallucinogenic “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo (1941), as it uses bold, bright colours, which quickly change. It was seen as the big spectacular scene in the movie, making the Cards appear as soldiers and the villain’s minions. Walt was inspired by Carroll’s depiction of the Playing Cards in the original stories here. Sammy Fain, who was involved with composing many of the songs for the movie’s soundtrack, was playing a two-bar intro one day that Walt happened to hear. Walt asked for it to be considered for this particular scene of the cards marching[8]. I think it’s a mesmerising scene to watch and I like the music that plays with it.

MUSIC

Alice in Wonderland features the most songs of any Disney animated feature, with a total of sixteen original songs, though some of these are more sung-through dialogue, used for narration purposes. Alongside Sammy Fain, Bob Hilliard contributed lyrics to the majority of the Alice in Wonderland songs, the first of which is the title song, “Alice in Wonderland”, which plays during the Opening Credits. It is a quiet, calming song, performed by the Jud Conlon Chorus. After that, the movie characters sing the rest of the soundtrack. As Alice, Kathryn Beaumont sung two solos, both written by Fain and Hilliard, which are “In a World of My Own”, sung by the riverbank as Alice dreams of her very own “Wonderland”, and “Very Good Advice”, which she sings when she is lost in Tulgey Wood and can’t find her way home. I’m not a big fan of either of these songs; they’re nice enough, but not particularly memorable. Alice also sings part of the song “All in the Golden Afternoon”, with the chorus of flowers. This song is my favourite of all the Alice in Wonderland songs, probably because it sounds like a real musical performance, and not just story narration.

Other Fain and Hilliard songs include “I’m Late”, which is more of a ditty, performed by Bill Thompson as the White Rabbit, and “The Caucus Race”, also performed by Bill Thompson but as the Dodo this time, alongside the Jud Conlon Chorus. I really like “The Caucus Race”, even though it’s not a long song, and doesn’t mean much; it just sounds fun and upbeat! For J. Pat O’Malley as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Fain and Hilliard wrote “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. This is a sung-through story, more so than an actual song, but again I very much like this “song”, and the sequence that goes with it. The final songs they contribute to are “Painting the Roses Red” and the reprise of sorts “Who’s Been Painting My Roses Red”, with the first song being performed by Kathryn Beaumont as Alice and The Mellomen as the Card Painters, and the second by Verna Felton as the Queen of Hearts. These are quite catchy tunes, and probably one of the more recognisable songs from the soundtrack. In some versions of the soundtrack, “Painting the Roses Red” is combined with “The March of the Cards” instrumental, which I mentioned earlier.

Long-time Disney composer Oliver Wallace, who had composed the scores for films such as Dumbo (1941), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, alongside Frank Churchill; The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949); and Cinderella (1950), contributed to Alice in Wonderland’s soundtrack, alongside Ted Sears, who was the first head of Disney’s story department, where he also contributed song lyrics for films like Peter Pan (1953) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). These songs are “Old Father William”, performed by Tweedledee and Tweedledum, albeit briefly; “We’ll Smoke the Blighter Out”, another quick tune, performed by Bill Thompson as the Dodo; and the song “A-E-I-O-U (The Caterpillar Song”, sung by Richard Haydn as the Caterpillar. No lyrics as such feature in the song; the Caterpillar just sings the five letters in different variations, but nevertheless, it’s a fitting introduction to the Caterpillar, and sounds very mysterious as Alice figures out who or what is making the strange sounds.

Don Raye, known for writing songs for singers The Andrews Sisters with hits such as “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, and songwriter Gene de Paul, who had collaborated with Raye to write the songs for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” section of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, wrote one of the final two songs to mention in the soundtrack. This was “’Twas Brillig”, a musical recitation of the poem “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, which is performed by Sterling Holloway as the Cheshire Cat. I love this song; again, it’s catchy and memorable. It was actually a late addition to the movie, as there was a plan as late as 1950 to have the Jabberwocky as a character, with a whole scene and song called “Beware the Jabberwock”. When it was cut, they decided to at least reference the Jabberwocky, by giving a song, reciting parts of the original poem, to the Cheshire Cat, which meant removing the Cat’s own song “I’m Odd”, which was written in 1949[9]. I’ve heard the re-recording of the original song, and it’s catchy, but I prefer “’Twas Brillig”.

The final song to mention is potentially the most well-known from the film: “The Unbirthday Song”. It is performed by Alice, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare and explains exactly what an “unbirthday” is. It’s a fun, upbeat song, perfect at this point in the movie when Alice is becoming more and more confused and irritated by the people of Wonderland! It was written by Mack David, All Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, who collaborated on the songs for Cinderella (1950), Disney’s previous animated release. Parts of this soundtrack can be heard within certain attractions at the Disney Parks where the characters of Alice in Wonderland appear. Oliver Wallace was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Alice in Wonderland but lost to An American in Paris (1951).

Many more songs were recorded as demos, but did not make it into the final cut of the film, mostly because those characters or scenes were removed from the storyline, and therefore could not be used. These original song demos appeared within the Bonus Features on the 60^th Anniversary home release of Alice in Wonderland. Some of these include: “If You’ll Believe In Me”, written for the Lion and the Unicorn; “Everything Has a Useness”, originally meant for the Caterpillar; and “Beautiful Soup”, written for the Mock Turtle, which was to be set to the tune of “The Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss II[10].

Another interesting point to mention on the music is that “Second Star to the Right” from Peter Pan (1953) uses the melody of a song originally planned for Alice in Wonderland (1951). This song would’ve been called “Beyond the Laughing Sky”, to be sung by Alice in place of “In a World of My Own”. It was a slow ballad, and wasn’t seen to fit the tone of the movie particularly well. The music was written by Sammy Fain. As he worked on both films, he simply used his melody with new lyrics by Sammy Cahn for Peter Pan instead[11].

RECEPTION

As an early way of promoting the movie, a one-hour Christmas special by Walt Disney Productions, titled One Hour in Wonderland, aired on Christmas Day 1950. A few clips of the movie were shown, such as a brief clip of Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the full sequence of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. In June 1951, a short documentary titled Operation Wonderland featured further looks at the movie, including parts of “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, “All in the Golden Afternoon”, and the Mad Hatter fixing the White Rabbit’s watch. Other short clips and concept art were shown.

On 26^th July 1951, Alice in Wonderland held its premiere in London, which was attended by Kathryn Beaumont and Walt Disney himself. Two days later, on 28^th July 1951, the movie hit US theatres. Unfortunately, despite hopes that Alice in Wonderland would be as popular as Cinderella (1950) was during its first release, it received mostly negative reviews upon its general release, particularly in the UK, where audiences disliked the “Americanisation” of the Lewis Carroll story. It lost almost $1 million at the box office, against its $3 million budget, during its initial theatrical run. Reviews from the time stated that there was very little story, with lots of different sequences simply being thrown together. Disney did take the poem of the “Jabberwocky” and the characters of Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Alice Through the Looking Glass and put them into Alice in Wonderland, despite the fact the two Carroll novels have very different plots. Much of the main storyline of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was used in the film, with a few omissions, but by taking bits and pieces from both stories, the essence of the original stories was likely lost, which would have annoyed fans of the novels. Critics also did not like the characters, feeling that they lacked warmth and heart. Some did not like how much Disney deviated from the well-known Tenniel illustrations. It was generally agreed upon, though, that the film would be entertaining enough for children and anyone unfamiliar with Carroll’s original story. Many critics did think the music and colourful animation was pleasant.

LEGACY

Over the years that followed, particularly in the 1960s and the 1970s, Alice in Wonderland began to profit from its re-releases. The 60s and 70s were big for Alice in Wonderland due to its psychedelic artwork and music becoming part of pop culture at the time[12]. Since this point, Alice in Wonderland has become more and more popular, now being considered one of the best Disney animated feature films, which is evident from the number of references to it within the Disney Parks, as well as spin-offs to it on screen. Alice and its characters also appear in Disney video games, like Kingdom Hearts and Disney Infinity.

On screen, Alice in Wonderland was one of the first Disney animated films to receive not one but two live-action adaptations, though it is not right to call them “remakes” as the films feel completely different to the animated film and do not bear much resemblance to it. The first live-action film, titled Alice in Wonderland, released in 2010, was directed by Tim Burton. It follows a nineteen-year-old Alice returning to Wonderland, where she must restore the White Queen’s throne by fighting against the Red Queen. Even from this very brief plot description, it is obvious that this version of Alice in Wonderland involves different characters to those in the animated film, with many more characters from Carroll’s original stories being used. It features an all-star cast including Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar. I watched this film once for a university project and I found the story much too dark, and Tim Burton’s artistic style didn’t appeal to me! But it did well at the box-office and won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. In 2016, the sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, was released, with much of the cast from the first film returning to reprise their roles. This time, the film was directed by James Bobin. The story follows a 22-year-old Alice travelling through time to help the Mad Hatter find his family. Alice Through the Looking Glass received mostly negative reviews for its plot, and did not do well at the box-office. It was Alan Rickman’s final film performance, as he died in January 2016, five months before the movie’s release.

On television, a computer-animated series titled Alice’s Wonderland Bakery (2022-present) is currently airing on Disney Junior. Its first season aired in February 2022; its second began airing in June 2023. It follows the great-granddaughter of the original Alice working at the Wonderland Bakery, exploring the kingdom on numerous adventures with creatures the same or similar to those from the original Alice in Wonderland film. A spin-off of the popular ABC television series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) took place in Wonderland with Alice and the characters of Wonderland. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland only aired for one thirteen-episode series, from October 2013 to April 2014, before being cancelled. Its reviews were mixed, as some disliked the confusing plot. One character from this spin-off, Will Scarlet / The Knave of Hearts, did later appear in the actual series.

Alice in Wonderland is also a popular story to use for school productions. Disney condensed their story into a one-act stage show entitled Alice in Wonderland, Jr. but as of 2018, it is no longer available to license. I was in a strange adaptation of Alice in Wonderland at school, called Alice @ Wonderland.com. It was a “modern” version of the story from the early-2000s. As I can only find a couple of references to it anywhere, from people who were also in a school production of it, it must’ve been very short-lived; I can still remember some of the songs vaguely though. I was Crusty Crab, an incredibly minor part, but my dad made me a huge crab shell costume out of cardboard that fascinated my teachers! It was a non-Disney version, but just shows the number of adaptations of the story, which no doubt take elements from Disney’s animated film as well as the original Carroll stories.

At the Disney Parks, Alice in Wonderland is a basis for at least one attraction in all six of the Disney theme parks. Disneyland potentially has the most interesting attraction, a dark ride, unsurprisingly called Alice in Wonderland, that goes through the story of the film. It is two-storeys, with a zig-zagging outside track on the top floor. It looks great; I’m very jealous of Disneyland for having that because I love a good Fantasyland dark ride. But sadly, Disneyland is just that bit farther to travel than Walt Disney World, so I have not been on it before. The original version opened in June 1958. As well as this, the Storybook Land Canal Boats and the Casey Jr. Circus Train go past a miniature English village, based on the one from Alice in Wonderland. A doll of Alice and the White Rabbit appear within the UK section of the it’s a small world boat ride. Disneyland also has the Mad Tea Party, a spinning “tea cups” attraction, which is the only Disney one to be uncovered, in the open air. As for Alice in Wonderland character meet-and-greets, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit have been spotted recently, with the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat being seen in the Frightfully Fun Parade at the Oogie Boogie Bash for the 2023 Halloween Season. Tweedledee and Tweedledum have not been seen for a while. There is also a gift shop in Disneyland’s Fantasyland named The Mad Hatter, after the Alice in Wonderland character.

At Walt Disney World Resort, within Magic Kingdom, they have their own version of the Mad Tea Party tea cups attraction. This one is under cover due to the ever-changing Florida weather. It has a huge tea pot spinning in the centre of it; the Dormouse even pops his head out on occasion. At Epcot, Alice has a permanent meet-and-greet location at the UK pavilion. In terms of other characters, the Mad Hatter was the most recently seen but that was a few years ago. The White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat are even rarer at Walt Disney World, though you can find the Cheshire Cat Tail chocolate pastry at the Cheshire Café refreshment stand over by the Mad Tea Party. The Queen of Hearts is a regular at Walt Disney World’s Halloween and Villains Events, and is available as a meet-and-greet location at the 2023 Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. You may see Tweedledee and Tweedledum here too.  At the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, you used to be able to meet Alice and the Mad Hatter at the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast character meal at their restaurant, 1900 Park Fare. The Wonderland Tea Party was also available for children to attend where they would also be able to meet Alice and the Mad Hatter, however, 1900 Park Fare has not yet reopened since its closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Disneyland Paris, there are two Alice in Wonderland-themed attractions, with the first being another “tea cups” attraction, this time called Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups. It also has a cover, like the one at Walt Disney World. The second is Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. It is a literal maze, with models of characters from the movie, such as the Caterpillar, the Dodo and the Card Painters dotted on, around and within the hedges. There is also a large flower bed shaped like the Cheshire Cat and a multi-coloured castle in the centre to explore. I vaguely remember going through this maze when I was younger on my first visit to Disneyland Paris; I can’t remember if we finished though, as I’m pretty sure I freaked out about getting lost in it! I don’t think it helped that I kept thinking of a 1990s advert for Disneyland Paris, which I must’ve seen on some VHS tape, where the Queen of Hearts is chasing children through this maze and was worried it would happen to me! The Queen is a terrifying walk-around character…The Queen of Hearts and Tweedledee and Tweedledum were seen in 2023 at Disneyland Paris, with the Queen and the Cheshire Cat also being around for Halloween Season. Alice, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit have been less visible in recent years, but are likely to be available for meet-and-greets around their attractions at some point. An Alice in Wonderland-themed BMX show arrived at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris on 25th May 2024, in the area that used to house Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular, which ran from 2002 to 2020[13]. It has been named Alice & the Queen of Hearts: Back to Wonderland and is a BMX stunt show with musical performances by steampunk versions of the Disney characters. The show is currently listed as ending on 29th September 2024.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, Mad Hatter Tea Cups is the name of this park’s “tea cups” attraction and is another covered attraction. As for Alice in Wonderland characters, Alice and the White Rabbit were seen most recently, with the Queen of Hearts being available to meet throughout the 2023 Halloween Season.

At Tokyo Disneyland, their “tea cups” attraction is titled Alice’s Tea Party. It is also covered and has the tea pot with the Dormouse popping his head out, like at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Like at Disneyland, a doll of Alice and the White Rabbit appear within the UK section of Tokyo’s it’s a small world boat ride. As for character meet-and-greets, Alice and the Mad Hatter were seen previously, however, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat have not been spotted for a while. The Queen of Hearts also seems to be a no-show; however, Tokyo Disneyland does have a quick-service dining location named after her, Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, which appears to be quite popular with park guests. It is a cafeteria-style restaurant, with Card Soldiers and garden sets in place throughout the location. At the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, you can also choose to stay in one of their Alice in Wonderland rooms. They are designed with motifs from the film and its characters, as well as pictures of concept art and paintings from the movie on the walls. There is even a clever lamp shade that looks like the Mad Hatter’s hat!

At Shanghai Disneyland, there is another maze, this time called the Alice in Wonderland Maze, but in this case themed after the live-action 2010 film, not the 1951 animated film, meaning it is slightly darker, with less bright colours than Alice’s Curious Labyrinth in Paris. The centre features an area themed to the Red Queen’s castle, with a huge model of her head watching you as you pass! Unlike the other five Disney Parks, Shanghai’s “tea cups” attraction is not themed to Alice in Wonderland, but instead uses honey pots for its vehicles as it is Winnie-the-Pooh themed. It is unclear if Alice in Wonderland characters are available for meet-and-greets at this park.

It looks very likely that the Alice in Wonderland characters will be available for meet-and-greets, random or permanent, for many years to come. They are also featured in parades and nighttime shows at the Disney Parks, be that as a walkaround character or through clips from the movie. For example, the Mad Hatter and Alice make an appearance at the Festival of Fantasy Parade at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, whilst Alice, Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear in Tokyo Disneyland’s Harmony in Color Parade. Previously, Alice featured in the now-defunct nighttime parade SpectroMagic and in the Main Street Electrical Parade, which occasionally comes back to Disneyland every now and again. In SpectroMagic, Alice and the White Rabbit were standing on one float, but in the Main Street Electrical Parade, there were many floats dedicated to the movie, with two huge mushroom floats being the main attention-grabbers; one had Alice and the Cheshire Cat, whilst the other one had the Caterpillar sat on top. As Alice in Wonderland is quite an old movie from the Disney Animation catalogue, the characters from the film are not likely to have starring roles in any current or upcoming shows or parades, but at least one character should still be there.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In recent years, Alice in Wonderland has become iconic. Walt Disney was disappointed with the initial reaction to his movie, but did state that he felt it would become a valuable property for the company – and that it did. Alice in Wonderland features prominently at the Disney Parks around the world, which might have seemed odd considering the film did not do well around the time Disneyland was being planned and when it first opened in 1955.

But it wouldn’t be too much later, during Alice in Wonderland’s re-releases, that it would become popular and generate big profits for the Disney Studios. It has stood the test of time, having celebrated its 70^th anniversary back in 2021, with adults and children alike finding admiration and love for the movie today.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘The real Alice in Wonderland’, VAM.ac.uk, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Disney, “Reflections on Alice”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 1-Disc 60^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[3] Credit: Disney, “Thru the Mirror (1936)”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 1-Disc 60^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Disney “Alice in Wonderland” Never Made’, CartoonResearch.com, 24^th July 2020.

[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scene: Pig and Pepper”, “Deleted Concept: Alice Daydreams in Park”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951), 60^th Anniversary DVD and Blu-Ray (2011).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes’, MousePlanet.com, 1^st October 2014.

[7] Credit: Disney, “Reflections on Alice”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 1-Disc 60^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Playing Card Characters in Alice in Wonderland’, MousePlanet.com, 14^th September 2016.

[9] Credit: Disney, “I’m Odd” Cheshire Cat Song”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 1-Disc 60^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[10] Credit: Disney, “Original Song Demos”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 60^th Anniversary Blu-Ray (2011).

[11] Credit: Disney, “From Wonderland to Neverland: The Evolution of Song”, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) 60^th Anniversary Blu-Ray (2011).

[12] Credit: Brittany DiCologero, ‘Today in Disney History, 1951: Alice in Wonderland Premiered in the U.K.’, WDW Magazine (online), 26^th July 2023.

[13] Brittani Tuttle, ‘BREAKING: Disneyland Paris Confirms Alice in Wonderland BMX Show, Announces New Drone Nighttime Show and Daytime Character State Show’, WDWNT.com, 28^th August 2023.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Aesthetically beautiful, yet financially disastrous. That was the legacy of Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty was created by those at the Disney Studios to be “a masterpiece”, to look like “a moving tapestry”. These were high bars for the animators to reach, but it is undeniable that they did succeed in making one of the most artistically stunning Disney animated features. But to achieve greatness like this costs money – and it cost them.

At $6 million, Sleeping Beauty cost double the amount of money to make than the previous Disney animated films of the 1950s, with production spanning the majority of the decade as well. Because of the already high spend, the movie was unable to recoup its costs, at least initially. This financial failing led to Disney Animation replacing their traditional Ink-and-Paint method with Xeroxing for their 1960s movies in order to lower their spending. It also meant that another fairytale-inspired Disney movie would not be made again until after Walt Disney’s death, that being The Little Mermaid (1989).

Sleeping Beauty has done well from subsequent re-releases, both theatrical and home, but now faces a different kind of criticism; that around the “passive princesses” of Disney’s oldest royalty, namely Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora. Many now dismiss this film, stating that Aurora is a bad role model, with some parents even going so far as to claim that they won’t let their children watch Sleeping Beauty because of this.

I’ve always liked Sleeping Beauty; it was my childhood favourite, where my three or four-year-old self apparently referred to it as “Pippin’ Boopy”, as I’m constantly reminded by my parents. I still class Sleeping Beauty as my second-favourite Disney animated film, so I clearly do not agree with the modern-day criticism surrounding this film, or the other “princess films”.

Though Disney’s Sleeping Beauty has a basis in the Charles Perrault fairytale La Belle au Bois Dormant, as well as Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, Disney made several changes to these storylines for their own movie, making it unique.

PLOT

The movie begins with a traditional Disney storybook opening – it’s my favourite of all them; the book is decorated with loads of jewels, and I even bought the notebook of it from the Disney Store a couple of years ago when they were making replicas of all the famous Disney storybooks. Anyway, a narrator reads the opening pages of the book, saying that for many years a king and a queen had longed for a child, and one day, their wish was granted with the birth of a baby girl. They named her Aurora, after the dawn, for “she filled their lives with sunshine”. They decide to throw a party, a christening for the new princess, where everyone in the kingdom can attend.

We see the kingdom parading to the castle, where hundreds of guests have arrived to see baby Princess Aurora. During the ceremony, the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, arrive to bestow gifts on the princess. Flora goes first, giving her the gift of beauty. Fauna follows with the gift of song. But just as Merryweather is about to bestow her gift, she is interrupted by a wind blowing open the doors and lightning crashing. It’s Maleficent, the Evil Fairy, with her raven, Diablo. Maleficent is upset at not having received an invitation to this supposedly-open-to-all party. Merryweather informs her she wasn’t wanted, at which point, Maleficent claims she’ll leave. Queen Leah, Aurora’s mother, asks if Maleficent is offended by this, to which she responds that she is not, and wants to bestow her own gift on the child. Except it’s not a gift, but a curse; a curse that states before the sun sets on Aurora’s 16^th birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. King Stefan, Aurora’s father, orders his guards to seize Maleficent but she disappears. Merryweather is asked to undo Maleficent’s curse, but Maleficent’s magic is too great, so Merryweather alters the curse, stating that should Aurora prick her finger, she will fall into a deep sleep, to be awaken by true love’s kiss.

King Stefan is still concerned so orders all the spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burnt. As the fairies watch over this bonfire, they know it’s not enough to stop the curse from being fulfilled and think about how they can help. Suddenly, Flora has an idea: to turn Aurora into a flower, until Merryweather counters by saying Maleficent will just send a frost. Then, Flora has another idea: the three of them will take the child away to the forest to raise her themselves, without magic; this being something Maleficent wouldn’t expect them to do as she has no concept of helping others. The King and Queen need some convincing but allow it, heartbroken at being apart from their only child, but seeing it’s the only way.

Sixteen years pass, and the kingdom starts to rejoice at the thought of seeing Princess Aurora again. They know that Maleficent’s curse has not been fulfilled as her lair, the Forbidden Mountain, continues to thunder with her anger. Maleficent asks her goons if they have found Aurora yet, but they have not, saying they’ve checked everywhere, including in every cradle. To which Maleficent laughs, because for sixteen years they’ve been looking for a baby. The goons are confused and laugh with her, only for Maleficent to call them idiots and fire at them with her magic. Maleficent instead sends her raven to look for a maid of 16.

At the Woodcutter’s Cottage, deep in the forest, we come back to Aurora, now 16 and using the name Briar Rose. She is lonely with just Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather for company, and she dreams of love. On this day, her 16^th birthday, Briar Rose is sent out to pick berries, while the fairies organise gifts for her: a handmade dress and birthday cake. Flora decides she’ll do the dress, whilst Fauna makes the cake, much to Merryweather’s dismay as she seems to have been the only one to cook or sew for the sixteen years they’ve looked after Aurora! Merryweather tries to convince them they can use magic as the sixteen years are over, but Flora insists they mustn’t until the end of the day. Merryweather becomes Flora’s dummy whilst she makes the dress, with Merryweather saying it looks awful.

In the forest, Briar Rose is singing. She tells the animals that she met a prince and that they danced all evening, only for her to reveal that it was just a dream. Little does she know that a prince has been riding through the forest, Prince Phillip and his horse Samson. He tries to follow the sound of her voice as he is entranced by it, except Samson gallops too quickly and sends Phillip falling into a stream. The forest animals want to make Briar Rose happy, so they dress up as a prince, stealing some of Phillip’s clothes to make the perfect disguise! They dance together, but Phillip has followed the thieving animals and steps in to dance with Briar Rose instead. Briar Rose is reluctant to speak with him as he is a stranger, but he encourages her to, saying they met “once upon a dream”. Briar Rose is asked her name by Phillip, snapping her out of her dreamlike state. She runs home, saying that she’ll never see Phillip again, before inviting him to the cottage that evening to see her.

Back at the cottage, Flora and Fauna’s birthday gifts aren’t going to plan, with an annoyed Merryweather going up to collect their wands so they can do things properly. Flora is still concerned about being discovered, so tells them to close every door and window, and block up every hole before they begin. Flora and Fauna successfully make a beautiful dress and birthday cake, with Merryweather cleaning up the house. Merryweather hates the dress being pink, so makes it blue instead with her magic, annoying Flora who changes it back. The two start a colour-changing war, which alerts Maleficent’s raven to the area, as he sees the magic coming up through the chimney. He waits, as Briar Rose returns home. She’s excited to tell the others about who she met, but the three fairies aren’t so happy, and tell her that she is betrothed to Prince Phillip and that she is Princess Aurora and will be returned to her parents and kingdom this evening. That’s enough for the raven who flies off satisfied with what he’s heard. Aurora is heartbroken and runs up to her bed and cries.

At the castle, King Stefan and King Hubert, Prince Phillip’s father, are discussing Aurora’s return, with Hubert saying how he’s already had a castle built for the two of them, which upsets Stefan who hasn’t seen his daughter for sixteen years and doesn’t want her leaving straight away. He is also concerned that all these big reveals might shock her, to which Hubert is insulted, asking what is wrong with Phillip that might cause him to be a shock to her. Stefan tries to calm the situation but fails, with Hubert challenging him to a swordfight – instead of grabbing his sword though, Hubert picks up a swordfish, and the two laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. They call for wine to celebrate, and see that their minstrel is drunk under the table, having drunk most of the wine for himself! Phillip returns to King Stefan’s castle at this point and tells Hubert he’s found the girl he’s going to marry and that it’s not Princess Aurora. Hubert is horrified and tries to get Phillip to think about it, but he doesn’t and rides off to the cottage in the woods to meet with her again.

Aurora has been brought to the castle by the fairies, who give her a crown to wear as she is a princess after all. Aurora is still devastated, so the fairies leave her alone and wait outside. They’re just as upset that Aurora can’t marry the man she wants to, when they hear some strange noises. Aurora has been lured away from the room by a strange orb of green light. The fairies follow, but they’re too late: Maleficent has managed to get Aurora up to the castle tower and to touch the spindle of a spinning wheel. The fairies put a sleeping Aurora in her bed, and decide that, instead of telling the kingdom that they failed in their duty to protect Aurora from the curse, they’ll put the whole kingdom to sleep until she wakes. Whilst doing this, Flora hears Hubert mumbling about Phillip and “once upon a dream”, alerting Flora to the fact that Phillip was the man Aurora met in the woods. They hurry to the cottage, hoping to see him and get him to kiss Aurora and break the spell, but it’s clear that he has been captured by Maleficent by the time they get there. They bravely decide to go to the Forbidden Mountain to rescue him.

At the Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent is celebrating her win, and tells Phillip that the “peasant girl” he met was actually Princess Aurora and that she is asleep, waiting for her true love’s kiss, but he shouldn’t worry as she’ll release him in a hundred years’ time so he can be with his love again, knowing that he will likely not live to that age, leaving Aurora asleep forever. Maleficent leaves the cell, and the fairies come in and free him. Flora arms him with the Shield of Virtue and the Sword of Truth to help him on this journey to save Aurora. Unfortunately, as they are about to leave, Maleficent’s raven spots them and alerts the goons. They pursue the four, with the fairies magicking their obstacles into harmless items, such as rocks into bubbles, arrows into flowers, and tar into a rainbow, to get them out of Maleficent’s lair. Merryweather even turns the raven into stone! They are on their way to Stefan’s castle, much to Maleficent’s shock, and she tries everything to stop them, destroying bridges, sending rocks tumbling on to them, and summoning a forest of thorns to encircle the castle. But it’s not enough and Phillip, with the fairies help, gets through easily, so Maleficent goes over to sort this herself, turning herself into a huge dragon. Phillip and dragon Maleficent battle, with Flora enchanting the Sword of Truth so that it will kill Maleficent on impact. Phillip throws the sword and sure enough, Maleficent is killed.

Phillip and the fairies rush up to Aurora’s tower, with him kissing her and breaking the curse. Aurora awakens, overjoyed that the man she met is Prince Phillip, the man she was betrothed to from birth. The rest of the kingdom awakens, and just as Hubert is about to tell Stefan that Phillip won’t marry Aurora, the two make their grand entrance into the hall. The two dance together, seemingly all the way into the clouds, and the storybook closes.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Although she is the title character and the one the whole movie revolves around, Princess Aurora is only seen in the movie for about eighteen minutes in total, roughly a fifth of the entire runtime of the film[1]. Because of this, we don’t get to see a lot of personality from her, but it is clear that Aurora is kind, elegant, graceful, and a hopeless romantic. Typical of a Disney princess, she likes to sing, specifically with forest creatures, such as birds and squirrels, but this is because the fairies have tried to keep Aurora from harm by not letting her speak to anyone, so the animals are the only ones she can talk to, away from her guardians! All of this means that viewers are quick to dismiss Aurora as simply a pointless character and a terrible example of a good female role model. I disagree with this because there is nothing wrong with dreaming of romance, and there is also nothing wrong with being kind and considerate of others. Her character lives in the 14^th Century; I’m sorry to have to point out that there wasn’t going to be much career progression for her at that time, princess or not! She doesn’t go out on a big adventure, like more contemporary Disney princess, but that’s because she’s spent her whole life being protected from the impact of Maleficent’s curse; she’s not given the opportunity to do this.

Aurora’s character design was based on a few people, with one apparently being Audrey Hepburn. This was more in terms of her posture, to give Aurora poise, elegance and grace. Her design was also inspired by Aurora’s live-action reference model, Helene Stanley, who had ballet experience, and can be seen dancing in Aurora’s costume in behind-the-scenes footage. Her voice artist was also a strong inspiration for the character, Mary Costa. Mary Costa had been chosen in part for her operatic singing voice, which is integral to the story as Aurora is given the “gift of song” from birth. Walt Disney loved Costa’s voice and encouraged her to “paint with her voice”[2]. Disney had been auditioning women for the part for three years by the time they found Costa! Mary Costa had the perfect fairytale speaking voice too, but she had to put on an English accent to work with the European fairytale setting, as Costa was born in Tennessee and had a natural Southern accent. Marc Davis watched Costa’s recording sessions to include her natural expressions and gestures into the character of Aurora. Costa would go on to become a successful opera singer.

Again, many people like to ignore Prince Phillip as well, saying that he is just a typical Disney prince, with not much going for him in way of a personality; he’s just there to marry the girl at the end of the movie. Though I might agree with this comment for Prince Charming and Snow White’s Prince, I disagree for Prince Phillip. Unlike the other two princes, I think Prince Phillip actually gets to say quite a lot and certainly does more for the story. Prince Phillip is charming and handsome, but also kind of funny, in both his conversation with Aurora in the woods, as well as later with King Hubert. Prince Phillip even gets some action scenes, getting to fight off Maleficent and rescue the girl, though he does get a lot of help from the three fairies here! Woolie Reitherman directed the whole sequence of Phillip escaping Maleficent’s lair, and that includes the dragon battle. Reitherman got some stick in the company for the fact that Phillip gets through all the thorns even on his horse and for elements of it not being “logical”, but Walt didn’t care; he loved it. This sequence is considered to be one of the biggest climatic scenes in Disney history, so Reitherman must have done something right! It is such a huge part of the movie that it has even been built in LEGO and can be seen outside the LEGO stores at both Disney Springs in Walt Disney World and Downtown Disney at Disneyland.

Prince Phillip, and his horse Samson, were animated by Milt Kahl. Most animators did not like animating the princes, thinking they are a bit bland and boring, but I’m hoping Kahl didn’t mind designing Prince Phillip. I definitely think he’s different to the other Disney princes that came before him. Prince Phillip is voiced by radio performer and pop singer Bill Shirley, who also provided the live-action reference modelling for the character, even acting out the final battle scene on a makeshift horse contraption! Disney chose Shirley for the role because of his singing range and his youthful voice. Bill Shirley would later go on to dub the singing voice of Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady (1964). Regardless of what anyone says, I like Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora; I like them as characters and as a couple.

Then there is Maleficent, considered to be the best villain in Disney history to many, who has spanned her own personal legacy from this movie, but more on that later. Maleficent doesn’t have a backstory in Sleeping Beauty, so we don’t know why she wants to curse a baby or why it’s so important to her that Aurora dies. I personally don’t need one, I just like villains being evil for evil’s sake, but if you need one, Disney made the live-action Maleficent (2014) to do this. Maleficent is an evil fairy, who dabbles in dark magic. She lives in her fortress, the Forbidden Mountain, with a gaggle of hopeless goons, who just irritate her, and her beloved raven, Diablo, the only thing she can trust. Maleficent is cruel and terrifying, but has a grace and elegance to her, like Aurora. She is formidable and stern, and her magic allows her to do anything she wants, like turning herself into a dragon, which makes her even more scary! I’m a big fan of Maleficent as a character.

Marc Davis, as well as animating Aurora, also worked on Maleficent’s design. He wanted her gown to look like flames, which it does by having triangular wisps coming from. Davis also gave her a bat-wing shaped collar and horns of the devil to show how evil she is[3]. Davis didn’t particularly like the fact that Maleficent is such a straight, sharp, calm character, so when he got to design Cruella de Vil for Disney’s next animated feature, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), he was pleased to be able to do more with the expressions and make Cruella very over-the-top! Marc Davis had ample inspiration from Maleficent’s voice artist, Eleanor Audley, who had a particularly powerful and impressive voice. According to Mary Costa, many of the voice actors would go to watch Audley’s voice recordings because they loved how expressive she was[4]. Eleanor Audley had voiced the role of Lady Tremaine in Cinderella (1950) and would later voice Madame Leota for Disney Parks attraction The Haunted Mansion. Marc Davis also animated Maleficent’s raven, Diablo, using footage of ravens from Disney’s True-Life Adventures series as guidance.

For the three good fairies, originally Walt Disney wanted the trio to all be the same, but the animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnstone, fought for them to all be likeable but different – and they got their way, thankfully, because the fairies bouncing off each other’s personalities gives the movie some comedy! Flora, who wears red, is the bossy one, the leader of the group, even though she may not be the smartest or have the best ideas. Flora is voiced by veteran Disney voice artist Verna Felton, who had worked on numerous Disney movies, even by this point, such as being the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950). Some have alleged that Verna Felton also provides the voice for Queen Leah, Aurora’s mother, however, it has since been pointed out to me that the voice artist for Queen Leah remains unknown, as there are no specific records detailing who this actually was.

Fauna, the green one, is the sweet but ditzy fairy! Apparently, Fauna was based on a woman that Frank Thomas met in Colorado, who was sweet but not “quite all there”. She is funny because she makes lots of mistakes, and doesn’t seem to fully understand what’s going on all the times. Her silliness is apparent during her baking scene, when she has to ask what a “tsp” is and literally folds whole eggs into her batter! Fauna is voiced by Barbara Jo Allen, who portrayed Vera Vague on radio around this time. She would also voice the Scullery Maid in Disney’s Sword in the Stone in 1963.

Finally, we have Merryweather, in blue, who is the feisty one who always speaks her mind. Merryweather is voiced by Barbara Luddy, who also had a long history with Disney voice acting, starting with Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955), in the movie before Sleeping Beauty. Merryweather is quite the contrast to the proper and posh Lady!  She is probably my favourite of the three but I like them all together. I do agree with Merryweather though about making Aurora’s dress blue instead of pink. I used to think that her pink dress was great, but one day, I realised that blue looks so much better with Aurora’s blonde hair, and she also ends up blending into the pink floor in the final scene of the film in the Great Hall…

For the last of the characters, we have King Stefan and King Hubert, kings of neighbouring kingdoms who seem to have forged a strong friendship. They only have a couple of scenes together, but the main one, where they are talking over a banquet, the “Skumps” drinking scene, is very funny, and was used to liven up the film a bit as it isn’t the most humorous of Disney movies. The two have a bit of a pointless argument, which escalates to petty insults, a lacklustre declaration of war, and a sword fight with a fish, but they see the silliness of their actions and quickly move on! It was animated by John Lounsbery, with the lute-playing minstrel being animated by John Sibley to add some slapstick humour to the scene[5]. King Stefan is generally calmer than King Hubert, more softly-spoken whereas King Hubert is bolder, yet mostly jolly. King Hubert is voiced by Bill Thompson, who is another cast member in Sleeping Beauty who had a history with Disney! Thompson voiced characters such as Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953), the White Rabbit and Dodo in Alice in Wonderland (1951), and various voices, including Jock, in Lady and the Tramp (1955). The part of King Stefan seemed at one point to have gone to Hans Conried, the voice of Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1953) as his voice features in a deleted song, but actually went to Taylor Holmes, who had roles in movies such as Mr. Esmond Sr. in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Vincent Price-narrated 1949 television version of A Christmas Carol. Taylor Holmes died eight months after the release of Sleeping Beauty.

PRODUCTION

Production on Sleeping Beauty was advertised as being six years in the making, but in actual fact, work on the story began as early as 1951, meaning that the movie took almost a whole decade to make. As other Disney films of the 1940s and 1950s had been either “hit or miss”, Walt Disney wanted to go back to his fairytale roots, especially as Cinderella (1950) had boosted the studios financially and showed Disney were back at their best post-war. Walt wanted Sleeping Beauty to be similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Cinderella (1950) in terms of story, but wanted the imagery to be unique and beautiful.

Even though work on Sleeping Beauty’s storyline began in 1951, work on the movie took a while to progress as the Disney Studios were incredibly busy in the 1950s, with numerous live-action films in the making, as well as three television series, and the construction of Disneyland theme park. The story was also problematic as the original Charles Perrault tale that Disney used as the basis of the film was only a few paragraphs long, and Walt did not want the story to be fleshed out with elements like gags, that had been featured in Snow White, or subplots like in Cinderella. By 1952, the storyboard was well-refined enough and the movie ended up being pretty much exactly as was storyboarded at this time[6].

The earliest recorded version of Sleeping Beauty as a fairytale is from the 14^th Century, where it was called Perceforest. There was then an Italian version written in 1634 by Giambattista Basile, called The Sun, the Moon and Talia. The tale got to Charles Perrault who published La Belle au Bois Dormant in 1697, which is the most well-known version of the fairytale, and the one that Disney used as a loose basis. But the differences are that Perrault’s tale has the curse go on for 100 years, whereas the Disney film takes place over one night, and the prince just being in the room, without a kiss, is enough to wake her, but the Disney film talks of “true love’s kiss”. There is also an additional part to Perrault’s tale after the awakening where the prince’s ogre mother tries to eat the new bride and their children. Gross. Perrault’s fairytale was updated by Brothers Grimm in 1812 under the name Little Briar Rose. Then, the Grimm’s version was adapted for Russian ballet, scored by Tchaikovsky, called The Sleeping Beauty. The ballet also uses the idea of the 100-year curse, but nowadays has a kiss to awaken Aurora. There are multiple good fairies in the ballet, but only one helps the curse be broken, the Lilac Fairy, and Maleficent is sometimes known as Carabosse[7].

In terms of changes being made to the story, there were multiple different approaches and scenes that were cut from Sleeping Beauty during production. One of these was an alternate opening, which would have had similar dialogue to the final film and still have a storybook opening, but the song was different, a song called “Holiday Song”, which sounded more like a traditional Disney film song. It followed all the regular townspeople attending the christening, as we are told in the final film, all of high or low estate were invited. The final film doesn’t really show that, with everyone attending looking to be quite noble and majestic, but this type of song wouldn’t have fit with the artistic choice of the final film. Other songs of this type were also cut, such as “It Happens I Have A Picture”, where the two kings sang of their children’s virtues. This is where Hans Conried can be heard auditioning for King Stefan, along with Bill Thompson. This sounded similar to the final “Skumps” scene.

In the cottage when the fairies are making the birthday cake and dress with magic, words were written to match the “Magical Cleaning” instrumental that is played in the scene to create the song, “Riddle Diddle”. I hated it; it was strange and must have been meant to resemble a spell with the magic words, but it takes away from the instrumental which is one of my favourites. Another close song to the final decision was “Go To Sleep”. It wasn’t as calming as the kept song but the tune was relatively similar, just slightly louder.

Some other deleted scenes include one of Aurora dressing as her maid servant to attend a nearby fair, as she has been kept inside the palace walls all her life to keep her away from Maleficent. Maleficent’s bird, in this version a talking vulture, who reminded me of Iago from Aladdin (1992), is told to follow Aurora and lead her to Maleficent. Maleficent disguises herself as a gypsy woman and tells Aurora she’ll meet a “tall, dark stranger”. She offers to give Aurora a gift of a spinning wheel but before she can, a “tall, dark stranger” comes in and leads Aurora away. Maleficent’s vulture is told to tell Maleficent when she is alone again, but he gets distracted and misses her. Another scene is of Aurora being cursed. In this case, she sees an old woman on a spinning wheel in the tower, and is told to make a wish on this woman’s wishing wheel. Aurora makes a wish to see her true love again, touches the spindle, and is cursed. Maleficent’s original arrival into the christening was going to be slightly different but not overly. She would’ve been referred to as “Mistress Maleficent” and is announced into the room, instead of appearing in a rush of wind and storm[8].

Once the story was decided, the artistic look for Sleeping Beauty then had to be confirmed. Walt Disney specifically chose artist Eyvind Earle to complete the concept art and backgrounds for the movie, as he had a stylised look in mind for the film. Earle particularly favoured gothic, pre-Renaissance and medieval styles of art, which was perfect to achieve Walt’s plan of a “moving tapestry”. Earle even got ideas for the art from Persian tapestries, as well as using ideas from the book Très Riches Heures by Duc de Berry. Despite this older art style, Earle managed to make the style feel contemporary. Earle was a hard-working, but quiet, man at the Disney Studios, where he began working in 1951, starting as an assistant background artist on the short The Little House (1952). He then moved on to working on the films of the 1950s, like Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). Earle has said that he either painted or at least touched every background in Sleeping Beauty, where he taught his assistants how to recreate his exact style, including landscaping, like bushes and trees, and his method of painting in layers[9].

This very detailed, sophisticated approach, though, caused some clashes of ideas between the animators and Eyvind Earle. Because of the stylisation of the backgrounds, the animators were concerned that they would overtake their character animations. It also became an annoyance to them that they had to make their design choices fit in with Earle’s overall artistic choice for the film. One example of this is that Merryweather’s scene where she is doing a balletic-type dance whilst cleaning, where she seems to be floating, was “spoilt” in the animator’s mind by her having to have a black bodice, as it “anchored her to the ground” and made the scene work less well than envisaged[10]. Clean-up and Ink and Paint had to be meticulous to deliver the artistic results that Earle and Walt Disney wanted. This was not necessarily a problem, however on this specific movie, these processes were taking so long that by 1957, people were being taken off jobs in other departments and put on Sleeping Beauty. Disney animator Floyd Norman was one of those people, with his department being assigned clean-up of the three good fairies. He also reiterated that there was annoyance at Earle for having some ornate and complex backgrounds, with fears of them upstaging the characters[11].

But this wasn’t the only area that contributed to budget and time issues. Another was “Sequence 8”, which is the scene of Aurora in the woods, where she dances with Prince Phillip right up to the song “Once Upon a Dream”. Eric Larson, who animated characters such as Figaro in Pinocchio (1940) and Peg in Lady and the Tramp (1955) directed this sequence. It was the first scene that was worked on for the movie, but it took ages to complete. The animators wanted to prove they could make this look amazing, however, due to the precise drawings, only eight drawings on average were completed in a day, meaning that they only had one second of footage after three days – and this is a long sequence!

To make matters worse, when Walt first saw the sequence he thought it was dull and asked that more forest animals be included to liven it up. It had already cost $10,000 to complete. Because of the loss of budget control, Larson was removed from directing the sequence, something that he was irritated by as he had not been told they were going over budget. Luckily, the sequence is one of the most important and most beautiful, so although it caused some troubles financially, now it shows the artists’ talent[12].

MUSIC

Walt also wanted Sleeping Beauty to stand out from his other movies not just artistically, but musically as well. Originally, they tried some normal Broadway-type songs, such as “Holiday Song” and “It Happens I Have A Picture”, as I’ve mentioned, but it was decided these didn’t fit in with the stylised beauty of the production. The only original song to stay in was “Once Upon a Dream”, which is actually from the “Garland Waltz” within Tchaikovsky’s ballet. It was written by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence. Fain contributed to the scores of Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953) for Disney, and Lawrence had written “Never Smile at a Crocodile” for Peter Pan. “Once Upon a Dream” is the iconic song of the whole movie, appearing in the scene where Phillip and Aurora dance in the forest, as well as in the final scene when Aurora and Phillip dance in the hall after Aurora’s awakening. I love it, it’s a beautiful, romantic song, and I don’t even mind when the whispery choir comes in to finish it after hearing Mary Costa and Bill Shirley begin in!

Apart from this song, many viewers have found the remaining songs to be “forgettable”. I find “Hail to the Princess Aurora”, the opening song of the kingdom arriving at the coronation, to be less enjoyable, but it does resemble royal occasion music, so it works in that respect. I like the calming music of “The Gifts of Beauty and Song”, when Flora and Fauna bestow the two gifts on baby Aurora, and I also like “Sleeping Beauty”, when the fairies are putting the kingdom to sleep after Aurora is cursed, for the same reason. But I will admit, they aren’t particularly memorable if you’ve only watched the film once or twice. “I Wonder”, sung beautifully by Mary Costa when Aurora is walking through the forest, is a nice operatic tune, typical of Disney princesses singing with birds. I like it, but it’s hard to sing along to! The other song is called “Skumps (Drinking Song)”, which is a silly song to match one of the few comic scenes in the movie. It is “sung” by King Stefan and King Hubert as they await Aurora’s return to her home and are celebrating, but end up arguing instead.

But the major highlight of Sleeping Beauty’s music is its score. George Bruns, who was an in-house composer for Disney and went on to score multiple Disney animated films such as The Sword in the Stone (1963) and The Jungle Book (1967), was selected to compose the score for Sleeping Beauty, using Tchaikovsky’s original ballet score as a basis. Bruns said that it would’ve been easier for him to have composed a new score for Sleeping Beauty instead of having to use Tchaikovsky’s score, however, he did say that he had a lot of choice of melodies and motifs. Bruns conducted the Berlin Symphony Orchestra to record the score, with recording taking place in Germany from September to November 1958. It used state-of-the-art six channel stereo equipment. The score ended up being nominated for an Academy Award[13], losing to Porgy and Bess (1959), co-written by Ken Darby, who had worked for the Walt Disney Studios as a composer in the 1940s.

My favourite piece within the score is “Magical House Cleaning/Blue or Pink”, when the fairies are baking and sewing for Aurora’s birthday. It’s a lovely piece of music to accompany a fun scene; my sister and I used to watch that scene multiple times when we were younger. I also like “Awakening” as it’s a romantic tune for when Phillip kisses Aurora awake, and signifies hope returning to the kingdom after evil has been slayed, and “Battle with the Forces of Evil”, which plays during Phillip’s epic battle with Maleficent. But really, the whole score is nice, and for this reason a year or so ago, I decided to watch a version of the ballet The Sleeping Beauty on television and I loved it. It’s interesting to see where the pieces I know from the Disney score actually fit within the ballet. For example, when Aurora touches the spindle and falls asleep in the ballet, Disney uses this melody for the scene where the fairies go to their cottage to find Phillip before Maleficent. When Maleficent first appears at the christening of Aurora in the ballet, this music appears in the film as “Forbidden Mountain”, when the fairies go to Maleficent’s lair to rescue Phillip. Strangely enough, the music Disney used in their film for when Aurora is led by Maleficent to touch the spindle is the same music as the White Cat and Puss-in-Boots dance in the ballet; they are wedding guests of Princess Aurora and her Prince.

RECEPTION

Sleeping Beauty was released on 29^th January 1959 in Technirama 70. The movie was released alongside the roughly thirty-minute theatrical short Grand Canyon, which was a live-action documentary, showing imagery and photos of the Grand Canyon, set to Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite”. It ended up winning the Academy Award in 1959 for Best Short Subject.

Multiple Disney productions were released to promote Sleeping Beauty before its release, such as The Peter Tchaikovsky Story, which was an episode of the television series Walt Disney Presents, released in 1959. It begins with Walt discussing Sleeping Beauty and all its advancements in sound and format, mentioning Technirama 70. He says that Sleeping Beauty took six years and $6 million to make. Walt then mentions that the team were inspired by Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty ballet when making the film. The episode then goes into a live-action dramatized version of Tchaikovsky’s life, from childhood to him writing The Sleeping Beauty. This section would later be released as a standalone programme. After this, Walt shows the first images and clips of Sleeping Beauty, including the sequence of Aurora and Phillip in the forest[14]. Another promotional television programme, this time for Disneyland on ABC, was called Four Artists Paint One Tree, broadcast in 1958. It was about how artists have different ways of showing or drawing the same image, but it showed a few images from Sleeping Beauty, including designs of Aurora, and the backgrounds by Eyvind Earle[15].

Despite these promotional activities, the reviews for Sleeping Beauty were not great, though many critics did appreciate the artistic quality and the use of Tchaikovsky’s original ballet score in Disney’s own score. However, it was considered to be less heartfelt and touching than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), with some even claiming that Sleeping Beauty and its characters were simply a carbon-copy of all those in Snow White, which I feel is unfair. Some also found the lack of memorable songs disappointing.

The biggest issue was just how much Sleeping Beauty cost to make, as it did not recoup its costs in its initial run despite a relatively successful box-office result. This led to Walt Disney taking much less of an interest in his animated movies for a while, deciding instead to focus on other pursuits. However, Sleeping Beauty is now considered a financially successful movie for Disney, after numerous re-releases and home releases, becoming the second most successful film of 1959, with the top one being Ben-Hur (1959)[16]. 

LEGACY

Sleeping Beauty was a driving force behind the sudden obsession, as I’d call it, of Disney making live-action remakes of their animated films, as it led to the release of the 2014 movie, Maleficent, though this one is slightly different to some of the later remakes, as it tells the story of Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent’s point of view, with her being given a backstory around being betrayed by her love, Stefan. Angelina Jolie was chosen to portray the evil Maleficent. Though the film received mixed reviews, it did well financially, and led to a sequel, titled Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). A third film is said to be in early development currently. I have not watched either, and will not, because I don’t want Maleficent to become weak in my eyes with a sad childhood love story.

Also in the movie world, Maleficent’s daughter, Mal, is the main figure in the Disney Channel Original Film Series, Descendants (2015-present), which spanned a total of three films, three short films, an animated spin-off television series, multiple novels, and potentially two further spin-offs. Maleficent features in the first Descendants film, but is only mentioned in the remaining two, after Mal turns her mother from a dragon into a lizard, which she keeps as a pet. It’s a clever series, and one I don’t mind watching, because it feels completely separate from the Disney franchises as it is a fairly comedic take on the characters. Maleficent is portrayed by Kristin Chenoweth, known for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked, amongst numerous other screen roles, with Mal being played by Dove Cameron, who starred in the Disney Channel television series Liv & Maddie (2013-17) and has recently had starring roles on stage as well as beginning a promising singing career.

Characters from Sleeping Beauty have also appeared in Disney video games, such as Kingdom Hearts (2002-present) and Disney Infinity (2014-2016). The three good fairies had a recurring role in the Disney Junior television series Sofia the First (2012-2018).

But the Disney Parks is where Sleeping Beauty has had more impact, with her castle being the symbol for both Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. Sleeping Beauty Castle was also the focal point for Hong Kong Disneyland, which looked similar to Disneyland’s one. It only lasted from 2005 until 1^st January 2018 when the castle was closed for a redesign for the park’s 15^th anniversary, reopening in November 2020 as Castle of Magical Dreams.

Herb Ryman was tasked with creating a visual concept of Disneyland in 1953, with Walt wanting a castle to be the symbol of the whole place. Ryman was inspired by Neuschwanstein castle in Germany; he could not have used the movie as inspiration as that would not be released for another six years. Walt wanted the castle to have a blue roof to make it look taller, as the castle is only 77 feet tall. This feature would be used on all other Disney castles, with every Disney Park getting a castle to be the visual beacon of the area[17].

Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland opened with the park on 17^th July 1955, and is one of the rare occasions when a Disney Park opened an attraction based on a film that has not yet been released. It wasn’t originally designed to be Sleeping Beauty’s castle, with it being referred to as “The Medieval Castle”, “Fantasyland Castle” and even “Robin Hood Castle”, to tie-in with the live-action Disney film, during early planning stages. Walt designed referred to the castle on his television show in December 1954 as “Snow White’s Castle”.

But on opening day, it was named Sleeping Beauty Castle, with the space inside completely empty, with no plans to become an attraction. That didn’t stop some curious guests from managing to get inside the castle through an unlocked door on opening door and sitting on the balcony though! It soon became clear that guests wanted to go inside the castle so Walt Disney asked Ken Anderson to come with him inside the castle to see what they could do with the space. They were not aware that the castle was full of about a hundred feral cats, who had left fleas everywhere! In the end, the cats were cleaned up and rehomed, despite “quicker options” being available to remove them. Disneyland’s castle became such an icon that the silhouette of it became the logo of many divisions of the Walt Disney Company, including its movie division.

The internal area was official dedicated by actress and child star Shirley Temple as the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough attraction on 29^th April 1957, complete with a 25-cent booklet available to purchase at the end of the experience to tell the story of the still-unreleased Sleeping Beauty film[18]. This walkthrough consisted of storybooks, telling the guests parts of the story, with dioramas representing some of the movie’s scenes, using special effects such as Pepper’s Ghost. The dioramas displayed were: spinning wheels being burnt; the fairies bestowing gifts on Aurora; Aurora being cursed; the kingdom being sent to sleep and Aurora asleep. Then there was an interactive part where guests could peep through keyholes and see goons staring back at them. These were soon removed as they blocked traffic as guests waited to try them out, causing queuing on the stairways. Then there was a scene of Maleficent summoning her goons, which did not end up in the film, as well as a bottomless pit, and a scene of Maleficent celebrating her curse. The final scene of course shows the final kiss, but just as guests went to go down the stairs to leave the attraction, a silhouette of Maleficent would pop out from the shadows and laugh. This scared guests and stopped them moving, so this feature only lasted a month before being removed. Concept art from Eyvind Earle was used for this attraction to match the styling to the movie.

As the walkthrough was developed before the release of Sleeping Beauty in 1959, many guests starting questioning the dioramas as they did not follow the plot of the movie after its release. In 1977, the walkthrough was redesigned, with miniature sculptures being used, resembling the window displays on Main Street, U.S.A. It also followed the movie more closely. In October 2001, the walkthrough was closed, with some speculating that this was due to safety concerns after the September 11^th attacks. This was apparently not the case but actually due to much needed maintenance on the castle and the declining popularity of the attraction[19]. Finally, in November 2008, the walkthrough was reopened after a further redesign, with this version looking back at the designs of the original walkthrough from 1957 for style inspiration. The storybooks and diorama scenes are still included but follow the film closely, unlike 1957’s version. They also are enhanced with special-effects.

At Disneyland Paris, the opening of that park showed their icon, Sleeping Beauty Castle, or in French, Le Château de la Bella au Bois Dormant. It is the most fantastical in appearance, but is the most similar to the castle that appears in the movie, even having square topiary trees around it, matching the artistic style of Eyvind Earle in the film. The Imagineers were also influenced by Mont St. Michel in France. The castle is 148 feet tall[20]. This is supposedly a favoured Disney Park castle by many. I disagree as I feel it looks a bit tacky, with the pink paint and gold trim being a bit garish, but I agree that it is better than Disneyland’s tiny castle, but not as good as Cinderella Castle!

The castle also features a walkthrough attraction titled La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant, or Sleeping Beauty Gallery, which details the movie’s story through huge ornate tapestries and stained-glass windows. It was beautiful inside that gallery, and I really enjoyed seeing it when I last went to Disneyland Paris. Maleficent in her dragon form can also be found as an audio-animatronic being moody and blowing smoke at you in La Tanière du Dragon, or The Lair of the Dragon. This is located beneath the castle in the “dungeons”. Both these attractions opened with the park and castle on 12^th April 1992.

Princess Aurora can be found as a meet-and-greet character in multiple locations in the Disney Parks. At Walt Disney World, for example, she can sometimes be found at Princess Fairytale Hall and the character dining experience, Cinderella’s Royal Table, in Magic Kingdom, and at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall character dining meal in Epcot as well as in the France pavilion of World Showcase. An interesting fact about Cinderella’s Royal Table is that the restaurant was originally named King Stefan’s Banquet Hall, from its opening in 1971 to 1997, despite Walt Disney World’s iconic castle being named after Cinderella and not Aurora. It was a confusion that bothered guests so much that it led to the name being changed, only 26 years later!

At Disneyland Paris, Aurora may be available for photos at the Princess Pavilion. At Disneyland, she may be seen at Royal Hall in Fantasy Faire in Fantasyland. At Shanghai Disneyland, Aurora may be found at Storybook Court, within the castle grounds or at Royal Banquet Hall, the castle’s dining area. There is a restaurant called Aurora at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. It is a fine dining restaurant with views of Shanghai’s impressive Enchanted Storybook Castle. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Aurora may be one of the characters around at Royal Banquet Hall, the castle restaurant, or in and around the castle. At Tokyo Disneyland, Princess Aurora is likely to be around the castle at some point.

Prince Phillip and Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are most likely to only be available for meet-and-greets at certain special events, however, they do all feature in Walt Disney World’s Festival of Fantasy parade in Magic Kingdom, along with dragon Maleficent. This specially designed float actually caught fire back in 2018, and was out of action for a while, before returning in 2019. Maleficent can also be found in her dragon form at Fantasmic! in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, where she appears in more of a puppet-form. At Disneyland, there used to be a very impressive animatronic Maleficent dragon which debuted around 2009 in the show. Unfortunately, in April 2023, the Maleficent dragon caught on fire, destroying it entirely. Fantasmic! at Disneyland has since been suspended until Spring 2024, where it will likely return without a replacement dragon. Maleficent in human form is likely to be available for meet-and-greets around Halloween, and feature in parades, but may also appear at special events, or even randomly.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Sleeping Beauty may have had a difficult history, but it deserves to be remembered for its romance, charming characters, enchanting score, and brilliant Disney story-telling. Its characters are frequently featured in Disney Parks and in other Disney media products. Their popularity has lasted a long time, and it remains one of the most popular franchises, with Princess Aurora being one of the signature Disney Princesses.

So, stop reading so much into Sleeping Beauty, and all this talk of Aurora being “passive”, and enjoy the film for what it is: an artistic masterpiece from Disney Animation that has not been equalled since.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Fanning, ’11 Royal Facts You Might Not Know About Sleeping Beauty’, D23.com, 24^th January 2019.

[2] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘The Secret Princess’, p. 57.

[3] Credit: Disney, Once Upon A Dream: The Making of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1997).

[4] Credit: Anna Tims, ‘How we made Sleeping Beauty’, The Guardian (online), 17^th June 2014.

[5] Credit: Disney, “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[6] Credit: Disney, “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[7] Credit: Alex Reif, ‘From the Vault: The History of “Sleeping Beauty”, LaughingPlace.com, 6^th October 2014.

[8] Credit: Disney, “Alternate Opening” “Deleted Songs” “Deleted Scenes”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[9] Credit: “Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art” from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[10] Credit: Disney, “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[11] Credit: Anna Tims, ‘How we made Sleeping Beauty’, The Guardian (online), 17^th June 2014.

[12] Credit: Disney, “Sequence 8 from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[13] Credit: Jim Fanning, ’11 Royal Facts You Might Not Know About Sleeping Beauty’, D23.com, 24^th January 2019.

[14] Credit: Disney, “The Peter Tchaikovsky Story” from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[15] Credit: Disney, “Four Artists Paint One Tree” from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[16] Credit: Disney, “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[17] Credit: Sophie Jo, ‘Once Upon a Dream: The History of Sleeping Beauty Castle’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 19^th December 2018.

[18] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘A Walk Inside Sleeping Beauty Castle’, MousePlanet.com, 23^rd July 2008.

[19] Credit: Disney, “Original Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough Attraction”, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition 2-Disc DVD (2008).

[20] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Castle of Dreams’, p.180.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Peter Pan is one of those childhood stories that everyone seems to know, probably because it’s been around since the early 1900s!

But ask anyone who was born after 1953 what their first introduction to Neverland and that boy who just won’t grow up was, and they will likely tell you it was Disney’s Peter Pan. It certainly was for me, and I’ve always liked the movie.

Though Disney’s movie is unlikely to be the only version of the story that you’ll have seen, because there have been numerous other non-Disney adaptations of the tale. Films like Spielberg’s Hook (1991), starring Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan returning to Neverland, or one of the more recent adaptations such as 2015’s Pan. Even if you didn’t like Disney’s version of the story, you can guarantee that you’ll like at least one other adaptation.

The original Peter Pan was actually a stage play, written by Scottish novelist and playwright James Matthew Barrie, or J. M. Barrie. The stage play was first performed in 1904, before being published as a children’s story in 1911, under the title “Peter Pan and Wendy”. Disney’s version of Peter Pan is not the most faithful retelling of the novel, but it is likely to be the most well-known.

PLOT

There are many differences between the original story and Disney’s animated movie. Some plot differences are that Tinker Bell never reveals Peter’s hideout in the book, Hook and Smee find it by chance; Peter is injured trying to save Tiger Lily and can’t fly for a while afterwards because of it, being saved by a “Neverbird” who gives him its nest to sail back home in; Hook tries to poison Peter’s medicine – something that Wendy “playing mother” has implemented at Peter’s camp, with Tinker Bell drinking it instead and almost dying – this is the big moment where the stage audience would be asked to clap if they believe in fairies to save her; and that Captain Hook is clearly eaten by the Crocodile in the novel, whereas Hook makes a lucky escape in Disney’s film!

Finally, the ending is very different between the two media. In the movie, Peter Pan returns the Darling children back to London, after minimal discussion, despite being annoyed about the idea originally. In the novel, however, Peter is so against the Darling children from going home that he goes to their house and shuts the nursery window, which had been left open by Mrs. Darling so that the children could come back whenever they wanted. Peter only relents when he sees how heartbroken Mrs. Darling is to have her children missing, because the events happen over a course of a number of days, not just one evening whilst the parents are at a party. The Lost Boys in the movie do not come to live with the Darling children, though they express an interest in doing so, but ultimately change their mind, however, in the novel, they are adopted by the family. Peter promises Wendy in the book that he will come back every year to take her back to Neverland, but after some time, he forgets, allowing Wendy to grow up. When he does return randomly one day, he sees Wendy is all grown up, and has a daughter, Jane. Jane instead goes to Neverland with Peter, and this starts a family tradition of the next daughter going to Neverland. This is an idea that Disney would explore in the direct-to-video sequel, Peter Pan: Return to Never Land (2002)[1].

But let’s get to the plot of Disney’s Peter Pan. The story begins in Bloomsbury, London, at the home of the Darlings, where George and Mary Darling are getting ready to go out to a party for the night. John and Michael, their sons, are playing games based on their sister’s, Wendy, bedtime stories about Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up, and his adventures in Neverland. Nana, their pet dog and “nursemaid”, is tidying up after them and getting them all ready for bed. George cannot find his cufflinks or his shirt front, which are being used as part of John and Michael’s game. After George trips over various toys, and Nana, in the nursery, falling over and hitting his head, with the rest of the family not concerned about him at all, he angrily says that this will be Wendy’s last night in the nursery and that she needs to grow up, and stop filling the boys’ heads with these ridiculous stories of Peter Pan. Mary tells the children that their father is just upset, and that things will be better in the morning. The nursery window is reluctantly left open by their mother, at Wendy’s request, in case Peter Pan comes back to reclaim his shadow. Mary voices her concerns about potential intruders to George, especially as Nana has been put outside for the night, but he scoffs at these, saying they’ll be perfectly safe.

Sure enough, Peter Pan does return to the Darling nursery, with pixie Tinker Bell, to retrieve his shadow. The shadow is found in a drawer, with Tinker Bell ending up shut inside it. Peter and his shadow fight, toppling over pieces of furniture, which wakes up Wendy but the shadow is caught. Peter tries to reattach it with soap, but Wendy tells him she’ll sew it on for him instead. Peter then tells Wendy that he comes to the window often to hear her stories so he can tell them to the Lost Boys back home in Neverland, and that his shadow was caught by Nana one night. Wendy sadly tells Peter that this will be her last night in the nursery because she “has to grow up tomorrow”. Peter angrily refuses to let that happen, or else there’ll be no more stories about him! Peter says he’ll take Wendy to Neverland instead; she won’t be able to grow up there. Wendy is so overjoyed that she goes to kiss Peter – only for Tinker Bell to fly out of the drawer and tug her away from him. The boys then wake up and ask to go to Neverland too. Peter says they can all go, and tries to teach them how to fly there, but they don’t know how. With “faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust”, begrudgingly given by Tinker Bell, they fly off to Neverland, heading for the “second star to the right and straight on ‘till morning”.

Back in Neverland, we are introduced to Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, and the rest of his pirate crew. Hook is desperately searching for Peter Pan’s hideout across Neverland, so he can seek revenge on him for cutting off his left hand, and making him have a hook as a replacement. The hand was thrown to the Crocodile, who searches for Captain Hook, though luckily, the fact it swallowed an alarm clock allows them to know when it is around! Hook is alerted to Peter arriving back at Neverland, and signals for his crew to shoot cannonballs at him. Peter tells Wendy, John, and Michael to follow Tinker Bell to his hideout, whilst he distracts Hook, only Tinker Bell has no interest in showing them the way and rushes ahead. She tells the Lost Boys that a “Wendy bird” is approaching and that they must shoot it down. As Wendy comes into view, the Lost Boys fire arrows and all sorts at her; she tumbles down to the rocks below – to be saved by Peter at the very last moment. Peter finds out that Tinker Bell told the boys to do it and banishes her for a week; Tinker Bell furiously flies off.

After this, the boys, including John and Michael, go to hunt for “Indians” together. As they come to a clearing in the forest, they see clues that the tribe is about, but the Natives get to the boys first and capture them, taking them back to their camp. The Lost Boys assure John and Michael that this is just what they do, sometimes they are captured and sometimes the Natives are, but they always turn each other loose. Except this time, the Chief has said that the boys have kidnapped Princess Tiger Lily, and that if she is not returned by sunset, they’ll all be burnt at the stake, even Michael’s teddy bear!

At the same time, Peter has flown Wendy to Mermaid Lagoon to meet the mermaids. The mermaids are not friendly to Wendy, and are jealous of her friendship with Peter. They try to pull her into the water, “for a swim”, with Wendy threatening to hit them with a shell if they don’t back off. Peter tells her they were just having a bit of fun, but Wendy is not amused. Suddenly, they all see Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, and Tiger Lily rowing towards Skull Rock. Peter and Wendy go to see what’s happening. Hook orders Tiger Lily to tell him where Pan’s hideout is, or else she’ll drown when the tide comes in. Peter starts throwing his voice, to sound like a ghost to scare Hook, and to sound like Hook so Smee will untie Tiger Lily. Hook eventually sees that it is Peter making these noises, and fights him, only to lose and almost be eaten by the Crocodile. Hook swims away from the Crocodile, with Smee way ahead of him in the boat.

Peter rescues Tiger Lily, who’s entire face is almost submerged at this point, and takes her back to the Indian Camp. They hold a big celebration in Peter’s honour, dubbing him “Little Flying Eagle”. When Wendy sees Tiger Lily kissing Peter, she leaves the area and heads back to the hideout. Whilst this is happening, Tinker Bell has been captured by Smee and Hook, and tricked into telling them that Peter’s hideout is at Hangman’s Tree. Hook was pretending to be sympathetic of Tinker Bell’s troubles with Wendy, saying that he could take Wendy away with them, as the pirates are going to leave Neverland tomorrow. It’s all a lie and Tinker Bell is shut in a cage as soon as she talks.

Wendy tells John and Michael that they will be going home in the morning, back to their mother. It’s only been a day, yet the boys have forgotten who their mother is, leaving Wendy to remind them, which makes the Lost Boys sad about not having any parents. Wendy tells them they can all come back with them, as their parents will adopt them. Peter is angry with this plan, warning them that if they leave, they can never return. They go anyway, leaving Peter alone. As they depart Hangman’s Tree, Hook and his crew are waiting for them and take them all back to the ship. They are told that if they do not join up with the pirates, then they’ll have to walk the plank. The boys are about to join before Wendy tells them they shouldn’t do that as Peter will be here to save them soon. Hook laughs and tells the others that a bomb has been deposited at Peter’s hideout, to go off at 6pm. It has been disguised as a present from Wendy to Peter. Tinker Bell manages to break free and flies over to Peter, pushing the bomb away from him, which goes off as planned.

Everyone on the ship sees the blast, with them now believing Peter to be dead. Wendy is told to walk the plank and bravely does so. But there’s no splash… Peter survived the blast, along with Tinker Bell, and catches Wendy before she can enter the water. Peter reveals that he is still alive to the shocked crew, with Smee sneakily setting to leave in a row boat! The other pirates go after the boys, who have been freed by Peter, and Peter battles Hook. The pirates are defeated by the boys and they all fall into Smee’s boat. Hook and Peter continue their battle, with Hook demanding that Peter does not fly to make it fair. Hook seems to have gotten him but Peter jumps up and pulls the ship’s flag down over him. Hook is told to proclaim himself a cod fish, which he sadly does, but then tries to stab Peter when his back is turned. Peter jumps up, leaving Hook to fall into the waiting Crocodile’s mouth. Hook manages to get out and swims away again, trying to get to Smee and his boat. We don’t find out what happens after that!

Peter is proclaimed the captain of The Jolly Roger, and orders the crew to get ready to leave. Wendy asks where they are going, and Peter says they are going to London, to take them home. Tinker Bell covers the whole ship in pixie dust so it can fly to London. The Darling parents return home, to see that all the children are “still” in their beds – except Wendy, who is asleep on the window seat. Mrs. Darling wakes her up and she babbles about their adventures with Peter Pan. Wendy tells her father that she is ready to grow up now, but he says she can stay in the nursery. As he is about to go bed, he sees a pirate ship shape in the clouds, making him remember his childhood. Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Wendy hug, as they watch the shape disappear into the night sky.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Peter Pan is quite obviously the boy who won’t grow up. He is carefree, mischievous, and completely devoid of any responsibilities. He is so against becoming an adult that he even forbids others around him from growing up. Eventually, he learns that not everyone can be like him, nor do all the children want to stay in Neverland with him, as they have homes and families to go back to. Peter thinks of himself as a hero, whether that is by saving Tiger Lily, though so wrapped up in his defeat of Hook, he almost forgets that she’s even there, or by rescuing Wendy from being shot down by the Lost Boys. He is also quite arrogant and believes that every word he says is true and must be followed. In a very cynical way, he reminds me a bit of a cult leader, though unlike many cult leaders, he does learn the error of his ways and lets people leave! Peter is very loyal to those around him, though, and he just wants to show everyone how good life can be if you always stay young and laidback.

Milt Kahl was responsible for animating Peter Pan, and found it challenging to animate weightlessness as Peter spends much of his time either flying, or at least floating off the ground! Peter does this most during his numerous duals and battles with Captain Hook, so that must’ve made it even more difficult! Disney are credited with breaking the tradition of only women playing the role of Peter Pan, as had been the case with many other performances both on stage and screen, by giving American child actor Bobby Driscoll the chance to portray Peter Pan, both as a voice role and a live-action reference model. He was labelled the “resident juvenile actor” within the Disney Studios due to his previous performances in Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949) and Treasure Island (1950). Driscoll died in 1968 at the age of 31, due to issues arising from substance abuse.

Wendy is the eldest Darling child. She is a good storyteller, telling her brothers tales of Peter Pan and his adventures, and is a caring figure; she looks after her brothers well. Wendy was brought to Neverland by Peter Pan to be the boys’ “mother”, so she fits that role quite well! She can be quite strict and stubborn at times, not allowing her brothers to think for themselves, like when they are being told to join Captain Hook’s crew and Wendy says “no”, or when they want to stay and Wendy tells them “No, they must go home to Mother”! But in the end, it’s quite clear she made these decisions because they were best for everyone! Wendy seems to have a crush on Peter throughout much of the movie, though he doesn’t seem to share her affections, and actually just likes the attention he gets from all the girls he meets, like Tiger Lily, or the mermaids, or Tinker Bell!

Kathryn Beaumont was selected for the role as Wendy. She was known to the Disney Studios as she voiced the role of Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951), their previous animated feature. She went straight from working on that film to working on Peter Pan. Like Driscoll, Beaumont provided both the voice and the live-action reference for the part of Wendy. The two would feature as their Peter Pan characters in The Walt Disney Christmas Show, which aired in 1951 and was used in part to promote Peter Pan.

John is the middle Darling child. He is clearly intelligent, well-spoken and well-mannered, taking a top hat and an umbrella along with him to Neverland, despite the fact all three of the Darling children go to Neverland in their nightwear! John becomes a leader of sorts within the Lost Boys, though during their hunt for “Indians”, he ends up getting them captured because he thinks he knows best! British actor Paul Collins voices the role of John Darling. He is most known for this performance, however, I did spot in his acting credits that he was in Evan Almighty (2007) as Congressman Stamp, though I do not know which character that is! Michael is the youngest Darling, only four years old, therefore, he is the one who needs the most looking after. Michael even takes his teddy bear all the way to Neverland. Because of his age, he is overlooked and ignored by many of the Lost Boys, but he has fun in Neverland anyway, loving all these adventures he gets to go on, and seeing all these places that Wendy told them about. Michael is voiced by Tommy Luske, in one of his few film roles. Luske was the son of Disney animator and director Hamilton “Ham” Luske.  

Tinker Bell is the most iconic Disney character from Peter Pan, potentially being the most recognisable, probably because she’s used frequently within the Disney company and its numerous divisions! She has a huge personality, going from jealousy to anger to happiness within a short space of time. She despises Wendy at the start of the movie, due to her loyalty and love for Peter, but grows to like her by the end of the movie. Tinker Bell also saves Peter’s life by moving the bomb away from him, risking her own, let’s not forget. Marc Davis animated the character, giving her model-like looks and a huge personality that far exceeds her six-inch height! The animation of Tink was especially important as her movements and facial expressions are the only means of expressing her thoughts, given that her “voice” is just the sound of tinkling bells[2]. Previously, Tinker Bell was just a light in stage adaptations of Peter Pan, though she had become a fully realised character in the silent movie version, Peter Pan (1924), being played by actress Virginia Brown Faire. But it allowed Disney to have more creative license over what Tinker Bell would look like.

A recurring myth is that Tinker Bell’s appearance was inspired by Marilyn Monroe, but Disney debunked that by saying that Marilyn Monroe was not a star in Hollywood at the time that Peter Pan was in production, and that the animators wouldn’t have even known who she was! Margaret Kerry was the actual model for Tinker Bell. As Tinker Bell has no voice, her movements had to be pantomime-ish and overexaggerated to get across her feelings. Kerry was asked to perform the well-remembered, though now unsuitable, scene of Tinker Bell measuring her hips in the hand mirror she is standing on; this was almost like her “audition”, and she was asked to come back to do the rest of Tinker Bell’s scenes. Kerry also voices the red-haired mermaid in Peter Pan. Voice actress June Foray, known for her voices within the Looney Tunes franchise, as well as Lucifer in Cinderella (1950), voices another of the mermaids and the woman who orders Wendy to get firewood at the Indian camp.

Captain Hook is the nemesis of Peter Pan, and wants revenge on him for cutting off his hand. Hook is both elegant, well-spoken, with grand manners, but also evil and menacing when he wants to be. Captain Hook is one of my favourite Disney villains for this reason. He doesn’t tolerate fools within his crew, with many of them being thrown overboard when Hook gets angry. Hook is also charming when he wants to be, managing to coax Tinker Bell into telling him where Pan’s hideout is, after sympathising with her over her hatred of Wendy for taking Peter away from her. Hook is easily scared, though, by the Crocodile. The Crocodile was fed Hook’s hand when Peter cut it off, so now has a taste for him, putting Hook on edge most of the time! The pirates are alerted to the Crocodile’s arrival, thanks to a “tick”, after it swallowed an alarm clock. Frank Thomas was chosen by Walt Disney to animate Captain Hook, and had to reconcile the competing ideas from the directors that Hook be threatening, and from the story men that he be quite suave.

American actor and comedian Hans Conried was chosen to voice both the parts of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, because in stage performances of Peter Pan the same actor would generally play both these roles. Conried was one of the best radio actors in the 1930s and 40s, so the team at Disney knew he would be able to vocally act the part as they wanted[3]. For Disney, Conried voiced the part of the Magic Mirror in some Disney television specials in the 1950s, and played the role of Thimblerig in Disney’s live-action Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955). He would also be the live-action reference, but not the voice, of King Stefan for Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Captain Hook’s first mate and sidekick is the bumbling, mocked, and often clumsy, Mr. Smee. He is very much the comic relief of the film, with the scene of him thinking he’s shaving Hook, when in fact he’s just shaved all the feathers off a seagull instead, being a personal highlight for me. Smee is voiced by Bill Thompson, who was known for his radio and voice roles. For Disney, Thompson also voiced the White Rabbit and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland (1951); various characters in Lady and the Tramp (1955), including Jock; King Hubert in Sleeping Beauty (1959); and Uncle Waldo in The Aristocats (1970), which was his final film role.

These are the main characters of Peter Pan, though there are many more. Mr. George and Mrs. Mary Darling are the parents of Wendy, John, and Michael. They seem to be a typical couple in Victorian times, though why they thought it was a good idea to leave their children alone overnight while they go out to a party, I don’t know! George is quite stubborn and easily angered, whereas Mary is the peacemaker. Mary is voiced by Heather Angel, who also voices Alice’s sister in Alice in Wonderland (1951). They have Nana, their dog and nursemaid, but I don’t think she’s a great choice for this household position! Though she is quite cute, especially when Michael tries to get her to fly, but as she’s tied up outside, she just floats up, waving “goodbye” to them very awkwardly!

The Lost Boys are an eclectic mix of personalities, though they are all quite savage, with few manners, fighting each other often. Many of them seem to have had mothers before, judging by their reaction to Wendy talking about what mothers are like, and seem to want to go find families, but they change their mind at the last minute and return with Peter.

The most problematic of the supporting characters are, obviously, the Native American tribe. This is not purely a Disney problem, but goes back to the original play by J.M. Barrie. At the time of its release, back in Victorian times, the portrayal of Native Americans as savage and uneducated, lesser than the superior Europeans, would not have been controversial. In fact, it would’ve been quite comedic to the people of that time. However, in the years that followed, many stories, even those of Mary Poppins, would have chapters rewritten or removed altogether due to similar tropes which were considered offensive; Peter Pan did not receive this same treatment and carried on as normal.

This is probably because its copyright was gifted by Barrie to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. Even when the copyright expired in 1987, the British Government granted a special extension which allowed Great Ormond Street Hospital to receive royalties for any Peter Pan adaptations forever, meaning that the story has remained untouched. Later adaptations of the story would omit any reference to the “Indians”, such as Hook (1991), or would change the tribe to be so fantastical that it didn’t relate to Native Americans at all, such as in Pan (2015), or make them Amazons instead, like in Tim Carroll’s staging of Peter Pan for the Stratford Festival in 2010[4].  

Whatever the reason, Disney’s 1953 movie does not shy away from these negative stereotypes, with there clearly not being much, if any, research into how Native American tribes looked, acted, or spoke, making these scenes awkward to sit through now, though these would not have been considered a problem in the 1950s. This change in attitudes led to Disney removing Peter Pan from children’s profiles on Disney+, with a warning about negative racial stereotypes being added to the start of the movie.

MUSIC

The biggest scene to feature the tribe is the celebration of Peter Pan after he saves Tiger Lily from drowning. This is followed by a song called “What Made the Red Man Red?”. It is quite a catchy song; however, the lyrics are problematic and particularly stereotypical, not to mention completely false. The song literally answers three questions that Michael and the Lost Boys ask the Chief, with “what made the Red Man red?” being the final one. It was clearly meant to be a witty song, but it has not aged well, though still features in the movie in its entirety. I always liked that song as a child, before I understood what the lyrics were, as I’m sure many did.

This song was written by Sammy Cahn and Sammy Fain. Cahn worked with many great performers with his potentially most well-known song, co-written with Julie Styne, being “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” in 1945. Fain worked on the scores of The Rescuers (1977) and Alice in Wonderland (1951), amongst other things. Then, there are “You Can Fly!”, the song where the children, Peter and Tink fly off to Neverland; “Your Mother and Mine”, which Wendy sings to the Lost Boys and her brothers to remind them of how wonderful mothers are – I love this song; and “The Elegant Captain Hook”, which I also really like. Another song this duo wrote together for Peter Pan was “The Second Star to the Right”, which features during the opening credits of the movie. The same melody came from a song titled “Beyond the Laughing Sky” which was written, but not used, for Alice in Wonderland (1951).

“Never Smile at a Crocodile” was a surprise hit, despite only the melody being used to announce that the Crocodile within the movie. The song had been written more than a decade before the release of Peter Pan, by Jack Lawrence and Frank Churchill. Churchill contributed to many Disney animated soundtracks, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Bambi (1942) and Dumbo (1941). For Dumbo, he won an Oscar for Best Score, alongside Oliver Wallace. Churchill died in 1942[5].

Two other songs in the soundtrack are “Following the Leader”, which featured on a Disney Sing-Along video that my family owned so I’ve overheard that song and now don’t like it so much; and “A Pirate’s Life”, which the pirate crew sing when we first see them. “Following the Leader” was written by Erdman Penner and Oliver Wallace, and “A Pirate’s Life” by Ted Sears, Winston Hibler and Oliver Wallace. Long-time Disney composer Oliver Wallace also composed the score for Peter Pan.

Though none of the movie’s soundtrack, except “Never Smile at a Crocodile”, which I don’t like and don’t think would’ve worked in the movie at all, became big hits, they did work well within the story. I really like the Peter Pan soundtrack, with it fitting with the magical and fantasy atmosphere of the film. I do like many of the songs, even “The Second Star to the Right”, despite its whispery choir sound, and a lot of the score, though many of the songs blend into the score, so I do not have any memorable instrumentals to mention.

PRODUCTION

When James Matthew Barrie graduated from Edinburgh University, he came to London “to make his fortune”. For the story of Peter Pan, he used his own home in Grenville Street as inspiration for the Darlings’ house, and in 1987, he met and befriended the Llewelyn Davies family, who had five boys. Those boys provided Barrie with ample inspiration for his character, Peter Pan. Peter first appeared in a chapter of the book “The Little White Bird” published in 1902. Barrie then wrote the stage play of the character. The film Finding Neverland (2004), starring Johnny Depp as Barrie, tells the story of how Barrie came to write the Peter Pan play, and is based on the 1998 play by Allan Knee, The Man Who Was Peter Pan.

The first production of the play took place at The Duke of York’s Theatre in London on 27^th December 1904 and was a huge success. The play was then published as a book, titled “Peter and Wendy”, published in 1911, which was an instant bestseller and has never gone out of print. In 1929, Barrie gifted the copyright of Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital and requested that the amount raised for the hospital from these royalties never be revealed[6].

The seed for the idea of adapting Peter Pan within the Disney Studios was first planted in 1913, when a touring company came to Marceline, Missouri, to present a performance of Peter Pan, which was seen by Walt Disney, and his brother, Roy. He loved the story and never forgot it, even being allowed to play Peter Pan in a school play a little while later. He got to fly on ropes, however, in one performance, they gave way and Walt flew into the audience! Walt then saw the silent film version of Peter Pan in 1924, with its many innovations, such as a live actress playing Tinker Bell and state-of-the-art special effects for the day, though it annoyed Walt that it was clear that the actors were flying on wires, and that a person in a dog suit or a crocodile suit played Nana and the Crocodile.

In the late 1930s, Disney began to properly develop Peter Pan, around the same time as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was decided that animation, not live-action, which had been considered, would be the best medium to adapt the play as their imagination was unlimited and they would be free to show things that couldn’t be done properly on stage or screen, like flight[7]. In 1939, the rights to adapt Peter Pan were acquired from Great Ormond Street Hospital. Walt had been trying to purchase the rights since 1937, after Barrie’s death, expecting high prices or high competition for them. Maude Adams, who performed the role of Peter Pan on stage, including in the version that Walt had seen as a child, was asked by Walt Disney to review a scene that was being developed. Adams refused to be involved, saying she didn’t want to see the movie, as it would be “a ghost” of the version she had worked on. Adams died in 1953, the same year as the film’s release[8].

At one time, Disney had planned to adapt Peter Pan to be their second Disney animated feature film release, however, Walt wanted to wait until animation technologies were updated sufficiently to do the story justice. The movie began to be storyboarded in the 1940s, with early-stage drawings showing Nana going with the children to Neverland. It was going to be darker and more sinister than the play or previous Disney films, with lots of skeletons within the Skull Rock scene being drawn, for instance. There would also have been more fight scenes, such as between the Natives and the pirates. This was detailed in a deleted scene, “Alternate Arrival”, to take place when the children and Nana arrive in Neverland. It would have also featured Captain Hook being close to capturing all them at Peter’s hideout. Another early idea was for a goodbye scene between the children and Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, which we don’t see in the final film. Peter would have given the Lost Boys permission to return with the others, but they decide not to. Wendy says goodbye to Peter, telling him not to grow up and to keep Neverland forever, before Tinker Bell sprinkles all of them with pixie dust to fly the rest of the way home[9].

Concept art in watercolours were completed by British artist David Hall, as part of the initial development. Hall had done the same for Alice in Wonderland (1951) in 1948. By 1941, a basic story structure was in place, however, World War II stopped any further development on the movie. After the war, Walt Disney brought Peter Pan back into development, with further concept art coming from Mary Blair, who had also contributed to concept art for Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951)[10].

RECEPTION

After nearly two decades of work, numerous story treatments, and around 1000 drawings, Peter Pan was first released on 5^th February 1953 in theatres. It quickly became a favourite with audiences, and considered a beloved classic[11]. It was released alongside Bear Country, the latest of the True-Life documentary films from Disney. Some critics did object to the movie not being “loyal enough” to the play, with the big audience participation part of saving Tinker Bell being particularly missed. Walt Disney had taken this out of the movie as he felt movie audiences would not react in the same way as in the theatre. I think Walt was definitely right there! But the animation was praised, with some funny sequences also being highlighted, such as those with the Crocodile and Hook, as well as Mr. Smee shaving Captain Hook[12]. Others liked the music, though none of the songs were big hits. Tinker Bell and Captain Hook as characters were also enjoyed by many in particular.

Peter Pan became one of Disney’s biggest hits in its initial release, alongside Cinderella (1950), which both helped the Walt Disney Studios to recover economically from the problems of the 1940s, with World War II and the Disney animators’ strike. Peter Pan continued to be popular in its theatrical re-releases, with the movie making more than $145 million during its first six re-releases; Peter Pan took around three years and $4 million to make. It was first released on video in September 1990 and climbed to No. 1 quickly, remaining in Billboard’s Top 10 best-selling videos for some time. Peter Pan was even entered in competition at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival in April of that year. It did not win any awards, but many festival-goers loved it[13].

LEGACY

Peter Pan has been featured in the Disney theme parks for as long as the parks have existed. Peter Pan’s Flight, a rail-suspended dark ride taking guests through scenes from the movie, was an opening day attraction at Disneyland, opening on 17^th July 1955. It was later redesigned in 1983, as very few characters appeared in the original version, not even Peter Pan or any of the Darling children! Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort has a version of Peter Pan’s Flight which, contrary to belief, was not an opening day attraction, but opened two days after the official opening of the park, on 3^rd October 1971. In 2014, its queue was updated to take guests into the nursery, and included interactive murals.

The next one to open was at Tokyo Disneyland, opening with the park on 15^th April 1983. It was very similar to the Magic Kingdom version, but new digital effects were added in to the ride in 2016. Disneyland Paris also has a Peter Pan’s Flight, which opened on the same day as the park as well, on 12^th April 1992. The newest version was another opening day attraction but this time for Shanghai Disneyland, on 16^th June 2016. It is the only version to feature 4-person ride vehicles instead of the usual 2-person. The ride vehicles can also stop and change speed, with Shanghai’s Peter Pan’s Flight making the most of new technologies by enhancing original scenes and creating new ones. All of these versions of Peter Pan’s Flight run under that name and feature in the Fantasyland area, but they have slightly different rides, queues, and ride exteriors. The only Disney theme park not to have a Peter Pan’s Flight is Hong Kong Disneyland.

As well as this very popular ride, which frequently sees lines of over an hour at the Disney Parks, Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee appear frequently in the parks, whether that is within stage shows, parades, or traditional meet-and-greets, with Captain Hook being particularly present at Halloween events. Some meet-and-greets may be daily, others are more spontaneous. These four Peter Pan characters all feature in Walt Disney World’s Festival of Fantasy Parade, along with Tinker Bell, who used to have her own meet-and-greet at Walt Disney World, first at Pixie Hollow and then at Town Square Theater, however, both of these experiences are now defunct. Tinker Bell does still meet at Pixie Hollow at Disneyland, and at Fairy Tale Forest at Hong Kong Disneyland. At Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, there are hotel rooms themed to Tinker Bell and Pixie Hollow and, at Tokyo DisneySea, the much-anticipated expansion called Fantasy Springs opened in June 2024 with a whole area themed to Peter Pan‘s Never Land, as well as areas themed to Frozen (2013) and Tangled (2010). Never Land features a recreation of Captain Hook’s ship as well as Skull Rock, and has a Pixie Hollow area. At Pixie Hollow, there is a children’s ride called Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies. There is also a 3D ride named Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure, which takes guests on an adventure to rescue John from Captain Hook. Similar to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, this ride uses both screens and ride vehicle movements. There is also a quick-service named Lookout Cookout.

I have a particular memory around Captain Hook and Mr. Smee in the long-forgotten nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom, SpectroMagic, which ran from 1991-1999, and again from 2001-2010. Every character would be lit up with various coloured lightbulbs being placed all over their costumes. Captain Hook featured on the villains’ float, shaped like a ship, and Mr. Smee walked around with other characters just ahead of the float. Mr. Smee would walk over to guests lining Main Street, U.S.A. and suddenly, his costume would light up! It was quite a shock to anyone not expecting it!

I’ve mentioned Tinker Bell and Pixie Hollow, but that is unlikely to make sense to anyone that is not aware of the Disney Fairies spin-off from Peter Pan, first being a series of children’s books, before spanning into its very own film series. Plans were made for Tinker Bell to have her own franchise in the early 2000s, with the first movie being released direct-to-video in 2008, simply titled Tinker Bell. Actress Mae Whitman became the first person to provide a voice for Tinker Bell. She reprised the role in the following five direct-to-video sequels and two shorts, with the Disney Fairies film franchise running from 2008 to 2015. A seventh and eighth film were in the works, but were cancelled in 2018, when the DisneyToon Studios who produced the movies was closed permanently in June 2018. Along with being given a voice for the first time, Tinker Bell was also given the talent of “tinkering” and inventing gadgets, along with the home of Pixie Hollow, within Neverland, with a group of other fairy friends. Tinker Bell discovered she has a sister called Periwinkle in the movie, Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings (2012). If this wasn’t enough, there have been talks of a live-action film based on this franchise, with the first film planned to be called Tink. Reese Witherspoon is currently attached to the project, though no further news on it has been given since 2021.

Tinker Bell is so popular as a character that she has ended up representing the magic of Disney, with her sprinkling pixie dust in the opening of some Disney television shows, including those starring Walt Disney; featuring at the start of home movie releases; and flying from the castle during various Disney Parks’ fireworks shows. She even appears at the end of the Soarin’ Around the World attraction[14].

In terms of Peter Pan returning to the screen after the first movie, there was a sequel, titled Peter Pan: Return to Never Land, released in 2002. It follows Jane being kidnapped by Captain Hook, thinking she is Wendy, when in fact Jane is her daughter, and taken to Never Land. She never believed her mother’s stories of this place, so when Peter rescues her from Hook, him, the Lost Boys and Tinker Bell have to try and make her believe in them, Never Land, and in fairies, and find a way to get Jane home.

There was also a television series which aired on Disney Junior between 2011 and 2016, Jake and the Never Land Pirates. It focused on a group of young pirates competing against Captain Hook and his crew in Never Land, set many years after the original Peter Pan film. Though Hook and Smee were the only main characters of the series from the movie, many of the original characters had either recurring or guest roles on the series.

A live-action remake of Peter Pan, called Peter Pan & Wendy was released directly to Disney+ on 28^th April 2023. It stars newcomers Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as Peter Pan and Wendy, respectively, as well as Jude Law and Jim Gaffigan as Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Recurring Disney actor Alan Tudyk makes an appearance as Mr. Darling. This remake made some changes to the original story, taking into account modern attitudes on women and inclusivity. Some of the “Lost Boys” are girls, and Wendy plays a more active role in the storyline. The girls in this movie are not fighting over Peter Pan and getting into jealous rages as they do in the original movie! They have more of a brotherly relationship with him. The remake also makes Peter Pan more accountable for his decisions, i.e., keeping the Lost Boys away from their homes and families, and learning not to always see himself as the hero. The ending is more similar to the original play, as the Lost Boys are taken back home with the Darling children, with only Peter returning to Neverland. Captain Hook was, unfortunately for me, given a backstory, where him and Peter were best friends and the first children to come to Neverland. Hook was banished by Peter after saying he missed his mother, but when he tried to sail home, he got lost at sea and was taken in by a pirate crew. Very sentimental…

The biggest addition to this movie is the fact that the Native American tribe is presented more realistically, with people of Native American descent portraying these roles[15]. Princess Tiger Lily is a much stronger personality in Peter Pan & Wendy, being more of a leader to her tribe and a confidante of sorts to Wendy, instead of being an almost silent damsel in distress as she is in the Disney animated film. Two Native consultants also worked on the project throughout its development and production. Tiger Lily is played by Alyssa Wapanatâhk, who is of Cree descent[16]. This remake received mostly positive reviews. I have not seen it, and won’t, but it doesn’t sound too bad as Disney live-action films go, though that’s probably because I’ve seen many different adaptations of Peter Pan before, so it doesn’t feel like an inherently “Disney story”.

Finally, Peter Pan and Captain Hook make appearances within the ABC series Once Upon a Time. Captain Hook is a main character, featuring from Series 2 to the conclusion of the show. He became the love interest of Snow White’s daughter, Emma Swann, who is the main protagonist of the whole series. Captain Hook receives a new storyline, with his hand being taken by Rumpelstiltskin as revenge for falling in love with his wife. Hook ends up in Neverland when searching for Rumpelstiltskin. Colin O’Donoghue played the part of Captain Hook very well, in my opinion. Peter Pan, played by both Robbie Kay and Stephen Lord, appeared in Season 3 (2013-14) and returned again for Season 5 (2015-2016). Pan’s storyline is drastically altered from the original movie, with him being a trickster, stealing children from their homes, and a definite villain, but to avoid spoiling it for anyone that hasn’t had the chance to see Once Upon a Time yet, I’ll say no more – only that Robbie Kay played this evil twist on Peter Pan exceptionally well. Peter Pan and its characters have also featured in Disney on Ice and within multiple video games.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The fact that Peter Pan has been such a popular story to adapt, both within Disney and at other studios, shows the continued appeal of the story. It is about the wonders of childhood, yet also about accepting the responsibilities of growing up. Although we have to grow up and become adults eventually, we should never forget how to be creative and how to have fun, like children are seemingly always able to do.

Even though Disney’s animated Peter Pan has had its fair share of controversy in recent years, it still provides fun and entertainment, as well as the strong message that Walt Disney himself believed in wholeheartedly. After all, Disneyland was made to be a theme park where adults and children could have fun together, where adults could go back to their childhoods and remember what it was like to be young and carefree.

Because of this, the story of Peter Pan fits in very well with the ideology of the Disney company, and it will forever be closely aligned to their belief in magic and imagination.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Elisa Guimaräes, ‘Disney’s Animated ‘Peter Pan’ Is Way Different From the Original Children’s Novel’, Collider.com, 30^th April 2023.

[2] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘The World’s Favorite Fairy’, pp. 80-81.

[3] Credit: Disney, You Can Fly – The Making of Walt Disney’s Masterpiece Peter Pan (1998).

[4] Credit: Sarah Laskow, ‘The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe’, Smithsonian Magazine (online), 2nd December 2014.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Tales of Walt’s Peter Pan’, MousePlanet.com, 27^th July 2016.

[6] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘The history of Peter Pan and Great Ormond Street’, GOSH.org, date unknown.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Walt Disney on Peter Pan’, CartoonResearch.com, 24th February 2023.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Tales of Walt’s Peter Pan’, MousePlanet.com, 27th July 2016.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Peter Pan (1953) 65th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray (2018).

[10] Credit: Disney, You Can Fly – The Making of Walt Disney’s Masterpiece Peter Pan (1998).

[11] Credit: Disney, You Can Fly – The Making of Walt Disney’s Masterpiece Peter Pan (1998).

[12] Credit: Bosley Crowther, ‘THE SCREEN: DISNEY’S ‘PETER PAN’ BOWS; Full-Length Color Cartoon, an Adaptation of Barrie Play, Is Feature at the Roxy’, The New York Times (online), 12th February 1953.

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Tales of Walt’s Peter Pan’, MousePlanet.com, 27^th July 2016.

[14] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘The World’s Favorite Fairy’, pp. 80-81.

[15] Credit: Lucy-Jo Finnighan, ‘5 differences between Peter Pan & Wendy 2023 and Peter Pan 1953’, Dexerto.com, 28th April 2023.

[16] Credit: Cady Lang, ‘How a New Peter Pan Adaptation Confronts Its Racist Origins’, TIME (online), 28th April 2023.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

One Hundred and One Dalmatians is one of those Disney animated feature films that most people remember with joy and nostalgia, because who doesn’t like dogs?

Me. I don’t like dogs.

Well, I’m scared of dogs; it’s not like I want to make fur coats out of them or anything, but for that reason, I don’t particularly like One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It’s similar to how I feel about Lady and the Tramp (1955), although I struggled to find any sequences in One Hundred and One Dalmatians that I liked, unlike Lady and the Tramp.

To be fair, I hadn’t watched One Hundred and One Dalmatians in years before this week, and the only reason I would’ve watched it years ago is because my family wanted to watch it, not because I did!

It wasn’t awful to sit through; the first 45 minutes to an hour in particular weren’t too bad, but then the last half an hour was so slow, I just kept hoping the end was in sight! But One Hundred and One Dalmatians isn’t my thing – I just don’t like Disney’s “animal” films that much, and as there is very little music in this movie, I didn’t even have that to keep my interest. I also don’t particularly like the look of the movie; it doesn’t match the standards of the films that came before it, such as Cinderella (1950) or Sleeping Beauty (1959), but I’ll get to why that is later.

PLOT

One Hundred and One Dalmatians starts with quite a long opening sequence, introducing the credits. It shows line drawings of the Dalmatians, before throwing the black spots on to them, which makes the dogs bark and move. From this point, the spots are used in various ways, such as backgrounds for the credits to be written on; as smoke coming out of a boat; and as musical notes, all with a jazzy tune playing over it.

Then the actual action begins. A narrator speaks, saying how he is living a lonely, dull life as a bachelor in a flat near Regent’s Park, with his “pet”. This narrator is actually Pongo, the Dalmatian, not Roger Radcliffe, the human. Pongo wants to find himself and Roger a partner, so he starts looking out of the window at women walking their dogs down the street. Eventually, Pongo spots one he likes, and gets Roger to take him for an early walk, by changing the time on the clock so that it’s after 5pm, because Roger won’t stop his songwriting work before that time. The two head off to the park, with Pongo pulling Roger as he searches for the Dalmatian he saw with her “pet”. He sees them, on a bench, and walks past casually, to a patch of grass by the pond. Pongo starts trying to get their attention, by stealing Roger’s hat and playing with it, finally resting it on the bench next to the woman – but both of them have gone! Pongo sees them just ahead and runs in circles, so that Roger and the woman are tied together; they stumble, trying to get free but end up falling into the pond. Both of them are soaked, with the woman clearly upset by her new suit being ruined. Eventually, they laugh it off and we skip forward to the dogs and their “pets” getting married.

Roger and his new wife, Anita, move to a small townhouse near the park and hire Nanny, their cook and housekeeper. Perdita, Pongo’s “wife”, is expecting puppies and the two are very happy about that – until Anita’s overly flamboyant, posh schoolfriend, Cruella de Vil, pays them all a surprise visit. She’s looking for the puppies, but she’s three weeks too early and leaves, telling Anita to let her know when they’ve arrived. Perdita is visibly shaken by Cruella, and hides under the stove until she’s gone, as she knows Cruella is after their puppies. Pongo tells her not to worry. At the same time, Roger writes and sings a song about Cruella, and how strange and wicked she is, titled “Cruella de Vil”.

One October stormy night, exactly three weeks later, the puppies arrive, but the number is far higher than anyone expected, going from 8, to 10, 11, 13, to 15! Nanny comes in sadly, saying one was lost, so there’s only 14. Roger takes the puppy and rubs it gently; it comes alive again, so there really are 15 puppies! Everyone is overjoyed – but then Cruella returns. She’s horrified to see that they have no spots; they can’t be real Dalmatians. Anita assures her that all Dalmatian puppies start off like that, but they’ll get their spots in a few weeks. Cruella then demands to buy the puppies, for any price, because Anita and Roger clearly can’t afford to keep them. Roger stands up to her, saying they will not sell. Cruella is furious, and leaves, saying they can do what they like with the puppies, “drown them” even!

A few weeks later, the puppies are watching a show about a hero dog called “Thunderbolt” on television, complete with an advert for “Kanine Krunchies”, which has a surprisingly catchy jingle! The puppies are soon sent to bed, so that Pongo, Perdita, Roger and Anita can go for their evening walk, unaware that two men have been waiting around the corner for them to leave. The two, Horace and Jasper, barge into the house, much to the dismay of Nanny, who tries to get them to leave. Jasper goes upstairs, and Nanny follows, with Jasper shutting her in the attic until Horace has collected all the puppies. They leave right after. Nanny assumes they’ve stolen the silver, but is horrified to find it’s only the puppies that have gone. She tries to run after them and calls for help.

The next day, Cruella is reading about the incident, laughing. Jasper calls her, confirming they’ve got the puppies and asking for their money. Cruella tells him not to call her again and that they shan’t get any money until the job is done. Cruella then calls Anita to “check on them”. Roger is suspicious, believing Cruella has the puppies. Anita says that as Scotland Yard already investigated her and found nothing, they cannot do anything else. Pongo and Perdita, unhappy with waiting for the human police to find their puppies, use the “Twilight Bark”, a way to pass news to other dogs in the area. The message is passed on throughout London, with all of London’s dogs barking like mad. Eventually, the news gets further than London, all the way to Suffolk, where it is picked up by Colonel, an Old English sheepdog, who, along with Sergeant Tibbs, a cat, go to investigate. Puppies were heard barking at Hell Hall, the old De Vil place, confirming Cruella was behind the crime. Tibbs is sent inside to check, where he finds a whole room full of puppies. The nearest one says that none of them have been stolen, they were all bought from pet shops, but another points out that some have names and collars, so can’t have been. She tells Tibbs they are all around the television, watching alongside Horace and Jasper. Tibbs goes over to count them, careful not to be spotted; there are fifteen of them! As he’s about to leave to report this update, Jasper grabs Tibbs, thinking it’s his nearby bottle of wine. Both of them freak out, with Tibbs making a hasty getaway.

Meanwhile, Pongo and Perdita set off for Suffolk, navigating snow and a fast-flowing icy river. They’re told to find Old Towser, a bloodhound, who will direct them to Colonel. Colonel doesn’t hear any news of them and suspects the two are lost. Then, the De Vil car arrives at Hell Hall, with Colonel and Tibbs going back over there to see what’s going on. Tibbs overhears Cruella saying that the police are on to them and that the puppies must be skinned tonight. She orders Horace and Jasper to do it now, or she’ll call the police. The two decide to finish their programme first, giving Tibbs time to sneak all the puppies out through a hole in the wall. Jasper and Horace finish their show, and find that all the puppies are gone. They grab torches and start searching the house. Jasper finds them all hiding under a bed, with Tibbs scaring him so that they can make a run for it. They hide under the stairs, but are spotted again, and run to another room. Jasper and Horace shut them in, with the puppies being cornered, Tibbs trying to protect them. Pongo and Perdita finally arrive, having been heard by Colonel, and they jump in to the room and attack Jasper and Horace. Tibbs and the puppies flee through a broken window.

All of them escape and find shelter in a barn, where they find there are 99 puppies in total that have been rescued! Pongo and Perdita decide to take all of them back to London and they start on their exhausting journey, through snow and freezing weather, dodging Jasper and Horace’s attempts to recapture them as they follow in their van. The next morning, Cruella asks where the puppies are, and starts searching for them too. The dogs are given shelter in a dairy farm barn but start back out on their journey the next morning. They get to Dinsford, where a local black Labrador has organised a ride home for them, in a van heading to London. But Cruella, Jasper and Horace are in the village too. Pongo has a clever idea of covering the puppies in soot so they look like Labradors instead. It works – for a while, until melting ice drops on to some of them, revealing their spots, just as Cruella is driving past.

Pongo quickly gets all the puppies into the van, and it drives off, with Cruella in hot pursuit. Driving like a maniac, she constantly hits the van, trying to knock it off the road. Jasper and Horace try to head the van off at the next junction, but instead of hitting the van, they hit Cruella, sending them tumbling down a ditch, vehicles completely destroyed. Needless to say, Cruella is furious! But the van arrives in London, just in time for Christmas Day. Roger, Anita, and Nanny are heartbroken that Pongo and Perdita seemingly ran away, but Roger’s “Cruella De Vil” song has become a huge hit. They are shocked to find numerous black dogs at their door, but soon realise it’s their beloved Dalmatian dogs and puppies returning to them – along with 84 other puppies. They decide to keep all of them, with Roger and Anita planning to use their newfound wealth from the hit song to buy a big house in the country for them all, saying they’ll have a “Dalmatian plantation”.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Pongo and Perdita are the loving Dalmatian couple that the movie centres around. Pongo sets out to find a partner for himself, as he is lonely being a bachelor, and spots Perdita through a window, deciding that she is the one, and setting up a way for them to meet. They fall in love quickly, and are soon expecting puppies to complete their family. They are supportive of each other and work well together in pursuit of their stolen pups. Pongo is level-headed and adoring of Perdita. Perdita is slightly more cautious. She also fears Cruella de Vil, whereas Pongo is not afraid of her, vowing to protect Perdita. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston animated many of the scenes of the two dogs, with Frank animating the sequence of Roger reviving one of the puppies, and Ollie working on the scene of Perdita hiding from Cruella. Rod Taylor and Cate Bauer voice Pongo and Perdita respectively. Taylor played Mitch Brenner in the Hitchcock movie The Birds (1963), with his final film role being in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) as Winston Churchill.

Of Pongo and Perdita’s fifteen puppies, only six have names: Lucky, Rolly, Patch, Penny, Pepper, and Freckles, with Rolly and Lucky being the only two distinguishable ones for me! Rolly is hungry all the time, and Lucky likes to watch television close to the screen!

Roger and Anita Radcliffe are the loving human couple, who came to be together because of Pongo’s persistence! It is quite the meet cute, being tangled in dog leads and falling into a pond together! Roger is a songwriter, who is relatively calm and collected most of the time, though he despises Anita’s friend, Cruella. He stands up to Cruella multiple times, despite Cruella making comments to put him down. Anita is a little bit naïve, in that she doesn’t believe Cruella is evil and puts up with her, even though it’s quite clear she doesn’t really like her! Milt Kahl animated many of the sequences of Anita and Roger. He particularly enjoyed animating the scene of Roger fumbling with his pipe when he is startled by Pongo, waiting for the puppies to be born[1]. English actors Ben Wright and Lisa Davis voice Roger and Anita. Lisa Davis retired from acting in 1970, but had been acting since the age of 13. Ben Wright would voice Rama, Mowgli’s wolf father in The Jungle Book (1967) and Grimsby in The Little Mermaid (1989), that being his final film role, but he also starred as Herr Zeller in The Sound of Music (1965). Roger’s singing voice, Bill Lee, is the singing voice for Captain von Trapp in the same movie!

Cruella de Vil was animated by Marc Davis, who had a lot of fun designing this character, using inspiration from people he’d met; Cruella’s voice actress Betty Lou Gerson; and Mary Wicks’ live-action reference material, since Gerson did not look right for the character. The original book that the film is based on stated that Cruella had a great white fur coat, and half-black, half-white hair, so these were included in the character design, with Davis going even further with it, to ensure she’d be hated, giving her overly flamboyant expressions, crazy movements, and even green smoke coming from her pink cigarettes. Animators felt that Cruella stole the show from the rest of the characters, with Davis wondering if he’d “gone too far” with the character at times! Milt Kahl loved to design the crazy villains, so he was quite jealous of Davis’ assignment. Betty Lou Gerson gave her all in the voice work, with her cackling laugh, the posh, entitled accent, and pushy tone. Cruella de Vil is Gerson’s most recognisable role, though she was the Narrator in Cinderella (1950). Together, Gerson and Davis created a villain who has gone down in movie history as being one of the best[2].

Alongside Cruella, we have her two bumbling henchmen, Jasper and Horace. Jasper is tall and skinny, the brains of the operations, with Horace being shorter and rounder, and the one who is told what to do! Jasper and Horace make a real mess of everything, with Cruella ruing the day she hired them to do a simple job like this! In a way, Jasper and Horace remind me of “The Wet Bandits” from the Home Alone films (1990-92), though Marv is the tall, dumb one, and Harry is the short, smart one! J. Pat O’Malley voices Jasper. He did a lot of voice work for Disney, such as Cyril Proudbottom in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), Tweedledee, Tweedledum, the Walrus and the Carpenter in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and would go on to voice Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967). Frederick Worlock voices Horace.

Finally, for the humans, there is Nanny, the cook and housekeeper for the Radcliffe family. Nanny is dedicated to the family, but quite nervous and anxious. She gets in a real state when Horace and Jasper barge into the house, for example! Nanny is voiced by Martha Wentworth, who would voice Madam Mim in The Sword in the Stone (1963).

Then, there are numerous other dogs and animals. Colonel, the Old English Sheepdog in Suffolk who helps find the stolen puppies, is voiced by J. Pat O’Malley as well, with his loyal and brave second-in-command, Sergeant Tibbs being voiced by British actor David Frankham. Another interesting name I found in the credits is Thurl Ravenscroft, who voiced Captain, the grey horse who works alongside Tibbs and Colonel. Ravenscroft did a lot of voice-over and singing work for many Disney animated films and theme park attractions such as The Haunted Mansion and Country Bear Jamboree. He was also the voice of Tony the Tiger in Kellogg’s adverts from 1953-2005.

Finally, some characters from Lady and the Tramp (1955) make surprise, non-speaking, roles in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, during the “Twilight Bark” scene. Jock, a rougher, looser version of him anyway, receives the call for help and passes it on to a pet shop, where Bull and Peg can be seen, before Lady makes an appearance on the street. It was director Woolie Reitherman’s idea to re-use those animated characters for this scene[3].

PRODUCTION

The story for Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians was based on a children’s book, written by Dodie Smith, who used her own experiences of owning Dalmatians to come up with the story. She also claimed to have helped birth a litter of fifteen puppies, with her husband reviving one, just as Roger does in the film[4]. There are a few changes from the original story though. The most obvious is the title, which should actually be “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”, not “One Hundred and One”. Some others are that in the movie Roger and Anita’s surname is Radcliffe, whereas in the original book, they are called “the Dearlys”, with no first names being given. Mr. Dearly is not a composer, but worked in finance, being given a lifelong tax exemption as a reward for wiping out the government’s debt! They also had two nannies at their home in Regent’s Park, not just one.

Another change is that Pongo’s partner in the book is actually called “Missus”, with Perdita being a third dog, who is found out in the rain by Mrs. Dearly and taken into the home, partly as an extra way of feeding these extra puppies. The name “Perdita” means lost; she ran away from her owners as her recent litter of puppies had been sold and she wanted to find them. Cruella de Vil is a schoolfriend of Mrs. Dearly, as per the movie, however, in the book, it is revealed that she was expelled from school for drinking ink! One other change is that the whole experience at Hell Hall is much scarier, so much so that the puppies scratch “SOS: Save Our Skins” into a bone.

The original story adds the numbers up to 101 slightly differently as well, as there are three adult Dalmatians, not just two. 97 puppies are found at Hell Hall, including the fifteen stolen puppies, so that totals 100 Dalmatians. The final one is actually Perdita’s lost love, Prince, who returns to her at the end of the story[5].

Dodie Smith’s original story was published in 1956, with the book being brought to Walt’s attention a year later in 1957. He liked the universal appeal of the story. The rights were purchased after some discussions, and was passed over to Bill Peet, as Walt’s attentions were focused on other projects, such as his new theme park, Disneyland, television series, documentaries, and live-action films. His attention on animation had been waning for some time at this point, yet Walt Disney and Dodie Smith kept up a correspondence both during the production on the film and for many years afterwards. Dodie Smith stated that she had hoped Walt Disney might make a film of her book, even to the point where some of her writing was inspired by how it might be portrayed on screen. She gave Walt an autographed copy of the book; he responded by sending her pictures from the production on the film, telling her that they were aiming for a Christmas 1960 release. The film would be released in January 1961.

Smith would state in a letter to Walt Disney that she was heartbroken to find that her character, “Missus”, had somehow become “Perdita”, though Dodie Smith did come to love the film, along with both US audiences and the international press. The only gripe she had was that her name was only on the screen for a flash and in a small font during the credits. Walt apologised for this and sent her some original artwork from the movie by way of an apology. I do not know if this was fixed in later releases, as her name is bigger than the title of the novel in the version of the movie that I watched, and seemed to be on screen for a decent amount of time. Dodie Smith would write a sequel to “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”, titled “The Starlight Barking”, released in 1967. Walt Disney would not be alive to read the novel, let alone adapt it, so unfortunately, despite their hopes of working together again, it did not happen[6].

Legendary Disney story man Bill Peet wrote the script for the movie, becoming the first person to write a whole Disney animated movie singlehandedly. Despite the changes to her novel, Dodie Smith loved Peet’s storyline, saying that it was funny, exciting and suspenseful. Bill Peet joined the Disney Studios in 1937, in a low-level role as an in-betweener, but he was driven and soon got his story ideas into Disney animated features. From Dumbo (1941), his work was included in every other Disney feature that followed. The plot that Peet chose was relatively close to the telling of the story, and kept it controlled and centred so it would be easy to follow. It is a mystery story, something very different from the fairy-tale and fantastical stories that Disney had become known for at that time. It was a contemporary movie, with modern relationships and current themes, like smoking and television, and all the excessive advertising that comes with it! [7]. One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the first Disney animated feature to be set in a specific place and a contemporary time. Previous features had been based on fairy-tales set in non-existent places in non-specific times. Others were set in real locations, but based in the early 1900s.

One of the reasons for Disney to branch out with their story ideas like this was because of the failure of their previous release, Sleeping Beauty (1959). Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty cost $6 million to make, using the traditional hand-drawn animation and ink-and-paint methods that Disney had become know for to evoke that magical imagery on screen; it only made back $5.3 million at the box office. Sleeping Beauty was twice as expensive as the previous Disney animated features, such as Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). Because of the financial failure, Disney would not make another fairy-tale-based animated film for three decades, where they made a comeback during the Disney “Renaissance Era”, beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989. At the same time that Disney were sticking with their well-known storybook style, other studios had started to become more modernist and experimental with their styles[8].

Sleeping Beauty was the last Disney animated movie to be inked and painted by hand. Although beautiful, the process was complicated and time-consuming, and Disney Animation knew that to stay profitable, they would have to find a cheaper method. Walt Disney had been told to close down Disney Animation as he had other profitable pursuits, but as animation was the basis for the whole company, he knew it had to keep going.

Walt turned to Ub Iwerks to come up with a solution. Iwerks had worked with Walt during the early days of Disney, with Mickey Mouse and Laugh-O-Grams. He left the Disney company in 1930, but returned in 1940 to develop new processes for visual effects. Iwerks had heard about the Xerox process and thought that could work for Disney animation. The method involves taking a photocopy of a drawing, transferring it onto a plate, before dipping that plate in toner and printing it onto an animation cel. This process had been used briefly for some parts of Sleeping Beauty, such as the Maleficent dragon scene, but was fully tested on the short Goliath II (1960). It worked well, so Xerox was the process that Disney Animation started using, putting all the inkers and painters out of a job. Xerox was used right up until the creation of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) in the 1990s.

Sadly, the Xerox process was not without its problems, at least back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Disney started using it. The biggest problem was that the line lacked subtlety, compared to that of an inked line. For One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the lines were all black, grey, or brown, which worked well with the black and white Dalmatians in the movie, but it did not work so well with other characters, as a black outline on everything makes it obvious that you are watching drawings, and takes away from some of the magic – at least, it does to me! Xerox would become more sophisticated, so that additional coloured Xerox lines could be used in later Disney features.

However, the animators liked this process because it meant that their original drawings were not tampered and changed by other people along the process, though there was a memo sent to make sure that all the drawings were clean and without construction lines. This meant many assistants had to go and tidy up the work of some of the big animating greats. Milt Kahl in particular did not like this, and hated other people changing his drawings, so many of his original drawings were kept exactly as they were!

With this new process came new ways of experimenting with motion in Disney Animation. For one thing, the driving scenes used Xerox. Small scale models of Cruella’s car and the two vans were built out of cardboard with strong black lines drawn on to the edges. They were suspended from the ceiling and pulled along to do a take. This take was then transferred to animation via the Xerox process. The process was repeated for the other scenes. When Cruella’s car is going up a snowbank, a snowbank was created with sand, with the action then being filmed and Xeroxed.

The Xerox process worked well for this specific movie, given the number of spots that were required, around 6.5 million of them, with Disney publicity stating that there were 72 spots on Pongo, 68 on Perdita, and 32 on each puppy. Lucky even has a horseshoe symbol on his back made up of three spots[9]. It was a crazy idea to begin with, with each one having to be drawn, but imagine if they’d all had to be inked and painted as well! Another was that Xerox gave the movie a more modern look to match the present-day story. Ken Anderson, the Art Director on this film, wanted the backgrounds and animation to feel cohesive. With the help of Colour Stylist Walt Peregoy, they found that additional detail could be Xeroxed and placed over the light backgrounds to match the graphic quality of the characters.

Although many audiences and artists love the look and stylistic design of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Walt Disney did not like it. He was sad to let go of the romantic, though expensive, style of animation he’d been used to, in exchange for this cheaper, sketchier animation style. Personally, I agree with Walt Disney on this one, but then, I’m no art buff! Ken Anderson, the Art Director on this film, said it took a long time for Walt to forgive him. In late 1966, Ken Anderson saw Walt on the studio lot, and they had a brief conversation. Anderson believed that with one look, Walt was saying that he finally forgave him for One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Two weeks later, Anderson and the rest of the Disney animators were told that Walt Disney had passed away[10].

MUSIC

Despite the fact that Roger is a songwriter in this movie, it did not become a musical. In fact, there are only three songs in this whole movie. The three songs were written by Mel Leven and George Bruns. Leven worked with the Walt Disney Company on other projects such as Babes in Toyland (1961) and for the 1969 short It’s Tough to Be a Bird, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1970. Leven had also written songs for bigtime singers, such as Peggy Lee, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.

However, Leven’s most famous song is likely to be “Cruella De Vil”, the main song in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The original version was changed to a Blues tempo, to suit the character of Cruella better. The song at that end of the movie, “Dalmatian Plantation”, was another one that was changed from its original idea. It’s not a big song to finish the movie, so I find it forgettable. I used to like “Cruella De Vil” as a song, but I think it’s been overused now, so I don’t like it so much anymore! These two songs are performed by Roger in the movie, whose singing voice was provided by singer Bill Lee. As well as singing for Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), Lee has performed singing work in many Disney movies, such as The Jungle Book (1967) and Lady and the Tramp (1955) as part of the group, The Mellomen.

The only other song is a spoof advertising jingle called “Kanine Krunchies” for the product of the same name. It is quite a catchy jingle, considering it is a parody of the advertisements of the time. This jingle is performed by Lucille Bliss, a well-known voice performer, who had performed roles such as Anastasia Tremaine in Cinderella (1950) for Disney, and Smurfette in The Smurfs (1981-1989).

George Bruns composed the score for One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He created a contemporary, jazzy score for this modern day, non-fantastical film[11]. I do quite enjoy the “Overture” at the start of the movie, with the opening credits sequence, but nothing else within the score stood out to me particularly. I’m not saying the score is bad, because it’s not, and it does compliment the action on screen; it’s just that I didn’t find it very memorable. Bruns had a longstanding working relationship with the Walt Disney Studios, which lasted from 1953 to 1976, when he retired.

There were plenty of deleted and abandoned songs from the One Hundred and One Dalmatians soundtrack, but none that I think were so good that they were worthy of being in the movie! One was a song that would’ve featured when the Dalmatians are in the van, heading back home. There was another peppier song, with a Christmas theme, as the Dalmatians return on Christmas Day called “Cheerio, Good-bye, Toodle-Oo, Hip-Hip!”. Jasper and Horace were even going to have a song, something to resemble a pub shanty, called “Don’t Buy A Parrot From A Sailor”, which was such a random song!

RECEPTION

One Hundred and One Dalmatians surprised everyone. As well as being less costly to make than previous Disney animated features, it also did incredibly well at the box-office and with critics’ reviews, receiving some of the best reviews that Disney Animation had received since Dumbo was released in 1941. The critical reviews stated that the movie was unpretentious, fresh, and artistic, pushing the studio forward in a new direction. It was light-hearted and loved by both children and adults. Cruella de Vil was also warmly received, despite her unsettling love of fur coats and obsession with Dalmatians, with many loving her eccentric nature[12]. One Hundred and One Dalmatians has continued to do well in its subsequent re-releases, in theatres and on home media.

LEGACY

Given this response to the movie, it is no surprise that One Hundred and One Dalmatians spanned a successful range of spin-offs and sequels, more so, in my opinion, than many other Disney animated features, especially one released outside of the Disney “Renaissance Era”, though Cinderella (1950) has had a similar achievement.

Let’s begin with the animated sequels and spin-offs. Between 1997 and 1998, a television series was created called 101 Dalmatians: The Series, which primarily focused on three of the puppies: Lucky and Rolly, known from the original film, and Cadpig, their sister and runt of the litter, who was not named in the film. It follows their adventures at their new farm, where Roger and Anita have moved the family. Another animated television series, called 101 Dalmatian Street, is much more recent, being released on Disney Channel and on Disney+, running from 2019 to 2020. It is set 60 years after the original film, and follows a family of 101 Dalmatians who live in Camden, London, and are descended from Pongo and Perdita. Delilah, the mother of 99 puppies, is their great-great granddaughter. All of the dogs’ names begin with the letter “D”. Only one season was ordered and produced.

A sequel to One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released, direct-to-video, in 2003. It is titled 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure (2003). It is considered to be one of the better of these sequels, and follows Patch meeting Thunderbolt, the puppies’ TV hero, whose show they are all sat around watching in the original movie, after Patch is left behind when the Radcliffe family is moving to the country, to their “Dalmatian Plantation”. I think I watched this sequel and liked it, yet I can’t remember it. I believe I have mixed it up with Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure (2001); they are both about dogs getting lost! But 101 Dalmatians II has some very interesting names in its voice cast, like the Canadian comedian Martin Short, who voices Lars, an eccentric French artist; American actor Jason Alexander, voicing Thunderbolt’s sidekick, Lil’ Lightning; and the voice of Ariel herself, Jodi Benson, as Anita.

Then, there are the live-action spin-offs, with 101 Dalmatians being released in 1996, with some differences to the original film, such as Roger being an American video game designer, living in London, and Anita working as a fashion designer, at Cruella’s “House of de Vil”. The dogs also do not speak in this film and the original surname of Roger and Anita from the book, “Dearly”, is used. It features an impressive cast, such as Jeff Daniels as Roger; Hugh Laurie as Jasper; Mark Williams as Horace; Tim McInnerny as a new character, Alonzo, Cruella’s underappreciated butler; and of course, Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. Despite receiving mixed reviews, a sequel to this, called 102 Dalmatians, was released in 2000. It follows Cruella’s release from prison, having been “cured” of her Dalmatian obsession, and how she reverts back to her old ways! I actually really like 102 Dalmatians, unlike the original movie or the live-action remake, which I can’t even remember much of! Close and McInnerny reprise their roles in 102 Dalmatians, with other great actors such as Gérard Depardieu, Ioan Gruffudd and Eric Idle joining the cast.

The most recent film to be released based on this franchise is the live-action prequel, Cruella, released in 2021, starring Emma Stone as a young Cruella, alongside the likes of Emma Thompson and Mark Strong. This gives Cruella a backstory to how she got to be a fashion designer, set in 1970s London. I did quite like this film’s storyline, but it would’ve been better had it not been linked to Cruella de Vil at all; I disagree with the need to give all these Disney villains simple backstories to make them more human. Isn’t the whole point of a villain that we aren’t meant to sympathise with or relate to them, since they then cease to be an object of distress to anyone? Still, it wasn’t a bad film, and did well on its release, so much so that a sequel in the works. Around the time of the film’s release, Glenn Close, who was an executive producer on the movie, stated that she had an idea for a 103 Dalmatians movie, so whether or not that becomes a reality, we’ll have to wait and see!

Speaking of Cruella, she has had a featured role in other Disney projects. Irish actress Victoria Smurfit played the role of Cruella de Vil in the series Once Upon A Time, in the show’s fourth and fifth seasons. This version of Cruella can actually control animals. I think Smurfit’s portrayal of Cruella is the best one; she’s calculating, evil, heartless, insane, yet also very funny. Another version of Cruella is seen within the Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants (2015), played by American actress Wendy Raquel Robinson. Cruella does not appear for much of the movie, nor for either of the two sequels, but her son, Carlos, is one of the four villain children who get to go to school in Auradon, away from the villain slum of the Isle of the Lost. Carlos was played by Cameron Boyce, who sadly passed away in 2019, at the age of 20.

There were also multiple video games released in the 1990s and 2000s based on One Hundred and One Dalmatians. I think my family had one, but I couldn’t tell you which, just that there was some game where you had to match dogs to their owners, based on the scene where Pongo is looking out the window, trying to find a partner for himself.

At the Disney theme parks, Cruella de Vil is the only character from One Hundred and One Dalmatians available for meet-and-greets, with her being particularly prominent at the Halloween parties, either as a meet-and-greet location or within the parades. Merchandise based on the movie can be found at multiple shopping locations, and a whole area of Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort at Walt Disney World is dedicated to the movie, with some photo spots and large statues of Pongo and Perdita.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Plenty of people love One Hundred and One Dalmatians, those who were around at the time of its release as well as current audiences, so I am well aware that I am in the minority here by not liking it. Every Disney film has its fair share of fans and haters.

The fact that it is still being used as material for further Disney adaptations just proves how popular the franchise is, and I have to admit that without One Hundred and One Dalmatians there would be no Cruella, who is a good Disney villain, although not one of my favourites, nor would I have ever been able to see 102 Dalmatians (2000), so I suppose I have some reason to be thankful to One Hundred and One Dalmatians!

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).

[2] Credit: Disney, Cruella De Vil: Drawn To Be Bad (2008).

[3] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘101 Dalmatians (1961)’, pp. 49-51.

[5] Credit: Alison Flood, ‘I wish more people would read…The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith’, The Guardian (online), 23^rd April 2020.

[6] Credit: Disney, Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney (2008).

[7] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).

[8] Credit: Parker Amoroso, ‘The Making and Impact of One Hundred and One Dalmatians’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 21^st March 2022.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘101 Dalmatians (1961)’, pp. 49-51.

[10] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).

[11] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).

[12] Credit: Howard Thompson, ‘Disney Film on Dogs’, The New York Times (online), 11^th February 1961.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Just think: without Cinderella, there may not have been a Disneyland.

After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the following full-length feature animated releases from the Walt Disney Studios were a mixed bag, with only Dumbo (1941) making a profit. When World War II began, the Disney Studios were contracted by the government to create training videos and, alongside that, they released their “package films”, multiple short films that had been pieced together. These sustained the company, but just barely, and were nothing to be excited about.

 After the war, the Disney Studios were in $4 million worth of debt and needed a hit animated film release to not only recoup the costs of producing it, but also to wipe away that debt, otherwise the Studios may have been forced to closed. Luckily, Cinderella was a huge success, financially and critically, and the movie cleared all the debts, and allowed Walt Disney to fund other projects, such as movies, television shows and, of course, Disneyland.

The story of Cinderella has been adapted many times in just about every possible medium: television, films, theatre productions, books, and even ballet. Yet it is Disney’s 1950 version of Cinderella that has become the most recognised and the most iconic. Disney’s original Cinderella is likely the first introduction to the story that most children will have. It was for me, and I have always liked Disney’s version of the film, though I do prefer the “princess” films that came after it, especially Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Beauty and the Beast (1991). I also like other retellings of the story, whether that is Hilary Duff in Warner Bros. A Cinderella Story (2004), or Anna Kendrick in Disney’s Into the Woods (2014).

PLOT

The Disney movie begins with the standard opening of the storybook, with a narrator reading out the first few pages to us: a motherless girl lives with her father in a majestic chateau in a “peaceful, prosperous land”, full of “romance and tradition”. One day, he decides the girl needs a mother and marries another woman, who has two daughters. The father unexpectedly dies, leaving the girl to be “cared for” by her stepmother, but instead is used as a servant, as the chateau falls into disrepair and the fortune is squandered.

We then find Cinderella waking up in the attic, after being woken from her lovely dream, by her bird and mice “friends”. She is told by one of the mice, Jaq, that another is stuck in a trap; she goes to save him, bringing him clothes and naming him “Octavius”, shortened to “Gus”. Cinderella then gets on with her daily chores, feeding her stepmother’s cat, Lucifer, the dog and the chickens, sorting out the breakfast trays, and starting on laundry. Lucifer is chasing Gus, who hides underneath one of the teacups on the trays. One of Cinderella’s stepsisters, Anastasia, is the unlucky one to find Gus, shrieks and runs to tell her mother. Cinderella is soon punished for the “prank”, by being given extra chores.

At the palace, the King is discussing his annoyance at his son, the Prince, for not being inclined to marry and give the King some grandchildren. He plots to put on a grand ball that night, and invite every unmarried woman in the kingdom to attend. The overworked Grand Duke is put in charge, much to his chagrin as he doesn’t believe this plan will work.

Then, we see Anastasia and Drizella having a music lesson: Anastasia on the flute, Drizella singing “Sing, Sweet Nightingale” – badly, I should add – with their mother, Lady Tremaine on the piano. Cinderella is busy cleaning the floors, but distractedly sings along to the tune, doing a much better job of it! The doorbell rings, and Cinderella is passed an invitation to the ball. She disturbs the music lesson to give it to Lady Tremaine, who reads it out loud. The girls are naturally excited and start discussing what they’ll wear. Cinderella mentions that as every eligible woman has been asked to attend, that she should go too. Lady Tremaine reluctantly agrees, only if she can finish all her chores and find something suitable to wear. Cinderella is then given more chores, so thinks she will not have time to alter her mother’s old dress. Her mice friends overhear and decide to make the alterations.

At the end of the day, Cinderella is upset that she has not been able to sort her outfit for the ball and sadly says she will not be attending. As she goes into her room, she finds the dress exactly as she wanted it, quickly gets dressed, and rushes downstairs to meet the carriage with the others. Anastasia and Drizella are furious, but Lady Tremaine seems at peace with this. She compliments Cinderella on her dress, particularly her necklace and sash, which are actually Anastasia and Drizella’s. The girls had said they didn’t even want them, so the mice picked up their “cast-offs” and used them. The two sisters rip apart Cinderella’s dress until it is shredded and tattered. The others leave, but Cinderella is distraught and runs into the garden to cry. There, her Fairy Godmother appears. The Fairy Godmother magics a pumpkin into a carriage; her dog, Bruno, into a footman; her horse into the coachman; and four mice into the horses. She almost sends Cinderella on her way with her tattered dress, before transforming it into a beautiful blue-white ballgown, complete with choker, headband, and, of course, glass slippers. Cinderella is warned that the magic will run out at the stroke of midnight, and she heads off to the ball.

At the ball, the Prince is bored of meeting all these women, much to the dismay of the King who can’t believe how uncooperative he’s being! Then, Cinderella arrives. The King sees her first and knows she’ll be the one to turn the Prince’s head. Sure enough, she does. The two dance together, first in the ballroom before heading out into the garden. Just as they are about to kiss, the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella rushes off. Despite the Prince and the Duke’s attempts to stop her, Cinderella gets away, leaving only a glass slipper on the stairs. The magic wears off in the middle of the forest. Cinderella is left with the other glass slipper as a memory of her night, which she is thankful for. The Duke tells the King of the events of the evening, and is ordered to try the slipper on every woman in the kingdom, and whoever it does fit, the Prince will have to marry her.

When Lady Tremaine is informed of this, she tells Cinderella to bring up the girls’ breakfasts. Cinderella overhears what has happened, and is surprised to find it was in fact the Prince she’d danced with all evening and that he is determined to find her. Cinderella is overjoyed, and dizzy with daydreams, leading Lady Tremaine to believe she was the girl at the ball. To stop her interfering with Lady Tremaine’s plans for one of her daughters to marry the Prince, she locks Cinderella in her room. Soon, the Duke arrives with the slipper, but no matter how hard Anastasia and Drizella try and dupe him, the slipper is much too small for their feet. At the same time, Jaq and Gus have taken the key to Cinderella’s room from Lady Tremaine’s pocket and walked it up hundreds of stairs to try and free her. Just as they arrive at the door, Lucifer pounces on Gus and the key, not letting go. Cinderella tells the mice to get her dog, Bruno. Bruno scares Lucifer off successfully, and Cinderella is freed.

As the Duke is about to leave, Cinderella rushes down the stairs and asks if she may try on the slipper. Despite Lady Tremaine’s protests, Cinderella is allowed; she takes a seat. One of the palace servants brings over the slipper, but Lady Tremaine trips him and the slipper smashes on the floor. The Duke is distressed over this and Cinderella offers to help; the Duke bats away her suggestion, saying there is nothing she can do. Except there is – because she has the other slipper! The Duke is delighted, and tries the slipper on Cinderella. It fits, and she is whisked away to meet the Prince. The two are married shortly after in a big royal wedding, with her mice friends watching over her, pleased she finally got her wish and that she is now far away from her stepfamily. The storybook tells us that the Prince and Cinderella live happily ever after, before it closes.

The story for Disney’s Cinderella was based on the fairy-tale written by Charles Perrault, not the Brothers Grimm. Perrault wrote the story in 1697, adding into his story the Fairy Godmother; the pumpkin carriage and mice transformations; and the glass slippers. At the time that Perrault wrote his version of Cinderella, glass was more expensive than gold by weight, so it was the costliest accessory that someone could have at the time, though nowadays we see glass as cheap, commonplace and breakable, therefore making it potentially hazardous footwear! But it was meant to be a symbol of wealth. In later versions of Cinderella, such as that by the Brothers Grimm, the slippers were no longer glass, but made of silver and gold, which we see now as much more luxurious than glass[1]!

Yet Perrault’s version of Cinderella was not the original story. Cinderella-like figures have appeared in stories for centuries. The first recorded story of this type of character comes from Greece in 6^th Century BC, with the story of Greek courtesan, Rhodopis, whose shoe is stolen by an eagle and flown to Egypt, where it falls into the lap of the king. The King goes on a quest to find the owner of the shoe, eventually finding Rhodopis, and marries her. One European version from the 17^th Century has the most similar plotline to what we know today: Italian writer Basile’s Zezolla, the Cat Cinderella. Zezolla is a woman forced to be a servant to her stepmother, her former governess, and six stepsisters. The King of a nearby kingdom holds a ball, which Zezolla attends. The King falls in love with her, but Zezolla runs away before he can find out who she is. On two occasions, she manages to escape him, but on the third, one of her slippers is seized. The King gets all the maidens in the kingdom to try it on, with Zezolla being the one it fits, and she marries the King. Charles Perrault’s version appeared in the late 17^th Century, and became the basis for most other versions[2].

CHARACTERS & CAST

In Disney’s version, Cinderella is kind, and respectful of others. She rescues mice from traps, is loved by all animals, and, despite her life as a servant in her father’s home, she tries to be positive and keeps hoping that something will change. Eric Larson and Marc Davis were the animators for Cinderella. They couldn’t agree on what direction to go with the character, as Larson wanted her to be a simple rural girl, whereas Davis wanted her to be elegant, graceful and with some intelligence to her. In the end, Cinderella became a mixture of the two! I like Cinderella as a character. There are better “feminist role models” for children now, even in the Disney Princess group, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with Cinderella being kind, respectful, and dreaming of love. People today probably think Cinderella is a pushover for doing what’s she’s told by her stepmother, but really, she didn’t have much choice. This isn’t set in modern day – it’s 1800s France – so there weren’t many options for her. The Prince is her way out of this life in the movie, yes, but the point still stands that if you want to change your circumstances, then you should do something about it. Cinderella is forceful in her choice to go to the ball; she didn’t have to ask her stepmother to go, but she chose to. Ilene Woods voices Cinderella. She knew the songwriters on the movie from her career in radio, and was asked to sing their songs for the “demo”. Over 300 girls had auditioned for the role, but no-one suitable had been found. When Walt Disney heard Woods’ voice on the “demo”, he offered her the role, as he loved her “fairy-tale voice”.

Lady Tremaine is the villain of the movie, with her evil stepmother character being similar, but obviously more real as she is human, to the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). She is a scary character, with her sharp tongue, and piercing eyes. Frank Thomas was the animator for Lady Tremaine and was surprised to be tasked with the villain, as he had animated Snow White and Pinocchio previously. Lady Tremaine is a menacing villain, and not difficult to dislike – even me, who generally loves the villain! Her locking Cinderella in the attic is pure evil, wanting her to stay as her servant and never move forward in her life. She is voiced by Eleanor Audley, who would later voice “the mistress of all evil”, Maleficent, in Sleeping Beauty (1959), as well as Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion attraction. Her voice has such authority and command, delivering the lines sharply with sarcasm and menace. She’s perfect. One other thing to mention is that Betty Lou Gerson narrates the opening of Cinderella. She has such a kind, gentle voice, so I was very surprised to find that she is also the voice of another iconic Disney villain: Cruella de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)!.

The two “ugly” stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, are mean, by giving Cinderella lots of work to do, and of course tearing her dress to shreds in that awful scene, but they are also kind of funny – I like them both! Ollie Johnston animated the two, and gave them quite strange ugly facial expressions, so Cinderella would always look good in comparison! Their music lesson of Drizella singing “Sing, Sweet Nightingale”, with Anastasia on the flute is so terrible that it makes me smile every time. And them trying to ram that tiny shoe onto their feet does the same thing, and they’re so obvious in front of the Prince at the ball. The girls are just funny, even though they’re bratty and their voices are kind of grating and screechy! Drizella is voiced by Rhoda Williams. She had roles in radio, TV and film but was also active in work relating to film industry unions in her later life. Lucille Bliss voices Anastasia, in her first movie role. She was known for her voice-over work, voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs (1981-1989), as well as uncredited parts in the Disney animations that followed Cinderella.

Milt Kahl did work on numerous characters, including the Fairy Godmother. The Fairy Godmother is a kind, motherly figure, very compassionate, though she is also a bit absent-minded, losing her wand and not realising that Cinderella needs a new dress for the ball until she’s about to send her on her way. Unfortunately, she only features in that one scene but she makes an impact on the audience, making a lot of us wish we had a Fairy Godmother just like her! Verna Felton voices the Fairy Godmother. She voiced many other Disney characters during her career, including one of the elephants in Dumbo (1941) and Flora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), however, everyone at Disney felt she was being the truest to herself as a person when she voiced Fairy Godmother. She died on 14^th December 1966, just one day before Walt Disney. Walt’s favourite piece of animation was the Fairy Godmother’s scene, particularly the transformation of Cinderella’s tattered dress to her blue-white princess ball gown[3]. Her ballgown was inspired by a similar gown by Christian Dior for his Zemire piece. Cinderella also sports a choker and headband, which were popular accessories in the USA after World War II[4].

For the Grand Duke and the King, they have a fun dynamic together. The Grand Duke is clearly overworked by the King, and unable to state his opinion without being either ignored or dismissed completely! He looks so tired by the end of the movie, and every time something goes wrong and he has to tell the King, he seems so scared by the reaction he’ll get. The King is furious when he finds that Cinderella has disappeared after the ball, even attacking him with a sword. If it weren’t for that huge, crazily bouncy bed helping the Grand Duke avoid the swings, who knows what he would’ve done? The King is very set on his son marrying and giving him some grandchildren – that’s seemingly all his bothered by for most of the movie, but he is very happy for the couple at their wedding, and seems quite pleased to have Cinderella as his new daughter-in-law, as we see when the King picks up her shoe and she kisses him on the head; he blushes and waves them off – it’s very sweet. Milt Kahl and Norman Ferguson worked on these characters. Both are voiced by Luis Van Rooten, an actor known mostly for his villainous roles.

Milt Kahl also worked on the Prince; he apparently always got stuck with the princes who didn’t used to do much, say much, or have much personality – and that’s the case here as well! The Prince doesn’t have many lines in the movie, and we only see him look bored at the ball, having to meet all these women he isn’t interested in, and then goes and dances with Cinderella. Then he appears at the wedding, obviously, but that’s about it! He doesn’t even have a name! Contrary to belief, he is never referred to as Prince Charming in the movie. His character name is used in merchandising and at the Disney Parks though, such as Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel. Apparently, his real name may be Prince Henry (Henri), as revealed by Disney France. Mike Douglas provides the singing voice of Prince Charming, as he does mostly sing, but due to his strong accent was not allowed the voice part too, so his few lines are voiced by actor William Edward Phipps instead[5]! The Prince was going to have more of a role in the movie, with an opening sequence set to be him hunting a deer, only to find that he’d be friends with the deer; he was given more personality, but then it was shrunk to not very much at all!

Cinderella was also going to have a pet turtle called Clarissa originally, who would become her lady-in-waiting during the Fairy Godmother scene. Clarissa would then have fallen in love with the Prince’s valet. There were also plans for a crow called Jabber to be included, along with the clothes-wearing mice, who would all talk when Cinderella wasn’t around, except the birds – they would only be allowed to chirp. This was simplified so there would still be chirping birds, but then there would just be the mice, with the parallel relationship between them and Lucifer the cat going on at the same time as the rest of the story. Ward Kimball animated Lucifer, and had a lot of fun with the pure comedy of the cat-and-mouse games. I like Lucifer; he’s a typical over-indulged cat, who thinks the world revolves around him – as cats do! He’s a bit of a menace to the mice, though again, that’s his job as a cat, to get rid of mice – how is he supposed to know that Cinderella is friends with them? The mice are very kind to Cinderella, as she is to them, and Jaq and Gus are the most prominent ones. They have the most dealings with Lucifer too, with the scene of them trying to get the attic key to Cinderella being a very suspense-filled, tense one. Just as they’ve struggled up all those stairs, Lucifer comes in and traps Gus and the key under a teacup. That scene came from Wolfgang Reitherman, who was good at coming up with ideas to build tension and suspense.

PRODUCTION

The first time the Disney Studios told the story of Cinderella was in a Laugh-O-Gram cartoon in 1922, from Walt Disney’s original studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studios in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1933, over ten years later, Walt expressed interest in developing the story again, this time into one of Disney’s Silly Symphony shorts. However, soon they realised that the story was too long to fit into the short film format, and it was decided to make it into a full animated feature film instead. This feature film was considered further, but was still not working and was set aside. The studio returned to the idea in 1938 with a draft by writer Al Perkins, followed by more drafts and storyboards being made and then discarded[6].

In 1947, the Walt Disney Studios were suffering from debts, due to a lack of income during the war. They had made government training films for the war effort, as well as their “package films” of the 1940s, but this had not been enough to keep their finances consistent, leaving them in $4 million worth of debt. Walt Disney knew he needed a big hit to keep them afloat. Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), and Cinderella were all in development at this time, but Walt felt that Cinderella was a similar type of story to their big success, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and would have the better release, so all resources were committed to it. Cinderella became the first Disney single story full-length animated feature since Bambi (1942), and only the second feature based on a princess fairy-tale.

One of the most interesting things about how Cinderella was made is that it was actually filmed in live-action first. Filming certain scenes in live-action, in costumes with props, had been done before for the previous Disney feature-length animated films, however, they decided to complete a full live-action shoot for Cinderella to save time and money, by eliminating the trial and error of hand-drawing everything. The animators didn’t like the fact that this method stunted their creativity, but they tried to use it as a reference and enhance it in their own way[7]. For the stylisation of the movie, Disney artist Mary Blair did much of the concept artwork. The paintings she did were almost translated exactly to screen, with her costume choices, settings, and particularly her bold use of colour. For example, when Cinderella’s dress is being ripped to pieces – a big cinematic scene – you can see the background colour change from a burgundy to a bright red as the anger for Anastasia and Drizella builds and Cinderella becomes more and more embarrassed. Mary Blair was a huge influence to the works of Disney in the 1940s and 50s, with it being rare for a woman to be in such a key position at the time. Blair left the Disney Studios in 1953 to go into children’s illustration but would be requested to return by Walt Disney to work on it’s a small world in 1963 for the New York’s World Fair. That became one of the works she is most known for her, however, her work appears in films like Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944), as well as Peter Pan (1953) and Alice in Wonderland (1951)[8].

As with all movies, some ideas are discarded early on in the production process, as well as fairly late on. With Cinderella, two songs were still included in the film as late as 1948. The first was “Cinderella’s Work Song”, which would have happened right after Lady Tremaine had told Cinderella that she could go to the ball if you got all her work done. The sequence involved Cinderella daydreaming about multiplying herself to get her chores finished faster, with the numbers doubling, before becoming a huge band of working Cinderellas. This idea then became “The Work Song”, with the mice singing when working on Cinderella’s dress. The second song was called “Dancing on a Cloud” and involved a fantasy sequence of Cinderella and the Prince dancing on the clouds, during their first dance at the ball together. Though I think the concept would’ve been nice to see, I didn’t like the song at all, as it felt a bit too quick and loud to fit the quiet, magical mood of the scene, so I’m glad they chose to rewrite this scene and go with “So This is Love” instead. Walt’s dream of having an animated scene of two people dancing on the clouds would become a reality with Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip at the end of Sleeping Beauty (1959)[9].

MUSIC

Walt Disney wanted to make sure that the songs in Cinderella would both fit into the movie, without taking away from the story, and that they would be deliberate commercial hits. In previous years, the music within Disney shorts and feature films had not been considered for the commercial factor – they had become hits accidentally. However, Walt Disney knew that if Cinderella was going to be a financial success, he needed the music to do the same. Disney decided to publish the music for Cinderella through their own company for the first time as they hoped the music would be popular so they could benefit from it.

This is why Walt Disney looked for commercial songwriters for the movie, finding Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman, who were part of the “Tin Pan Alley” set, a group of songwriters from New York City who dominated the music industry in the US, around the late 19th/early 20th centuries. They had previously written the song “Chi-Baba Chi-Baba”, which Walt had heard on the radio and wanted something similar for the Fairy Godmother scene. They came up with “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, which is still used frequently within Disney projects. The song and scene also inspired the “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutiques” at the Disney Parks, makeover centres for children to become a Disney princess.

The trio also wrote the five other songs in the movie, like “The Work Song”, which became a big hit. It’s my favourite of all the songs in the movie, probably because watching mice sewing a dress is apparently very satisfying to watch! “Sing, Sweet Nightingale”, sung by Ilene Woods as Cinderella, was ground breaking for its use of overdubbing, a technique where multiple vocal tracks are recorded and played together as harmonies. This technique had only become mainstream in the mid-1940s so it was a relatively new concept. Cinderella also sings the emotion-filled song “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, as she’s getting ready in the morning. It’s upbeat and positive, yet with a strong heartfelt message behind it. “So This Is Love” is the love theme of the movie, sung by Cinderella and the Prince during the ball. It’s a quiet, romantic song, which has been re-recorded by other artists for Disney projects, along with “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, meaning they are still remembered today. The only song in the movie I don’t like is the Main Title song “Cinderella”, just because of that strange whispery choir sound that Disney used frequently in title songs!

Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith composed the score for the film. Smith had worked for Disney before, for many Disney shorts and “package films” such as Saludos Amigos (1942) and Fun and Fancy Free (1947). Oliver Wallace joined Disney in the 1930s, and composed the score for Dumbo (1941), for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Score. He worked with Disney for decades, doing the film scores for many of the Disney animated films and some live-action ones until his death in 1963[10].

RECEPTION

Cinderella opened on 15^th February 1950. It needed to make more than its $2.9 million budget. If it had failed, then the Disney Studios may have been forced to close. But it was a success, and was the most successful film for Disney since Dumbo (1941). It grossed $8 million, and was praised for its storytelling and artistic details. It also received two Academy Award nominations: one for Best Score for Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith and the other for Best Original Score for “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, written by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston. Unfortunately, neither won, losing out to Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and “Mona Lisa” from Captain Carey, U.S.A (1949)[11].

Cinderella was released at a good time, as by 1950, the world was recovering from the war and needed a morale boost. The whole idea of a “rags to riches” story appealed to the classic “American dream” that exists in North America and in Britain, Cinderella boosted spirits after continuing austerity and rationing. The Royal Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten in 1947, as well as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, put royalty and fairy-tale love at the forefront of people’s minds, reigniting the romantic notion of young women meeting and marrying a prince[12].

LEGACY

Disney’s animated movie would span two direct-to-video sequels. The first, released in 2002, was Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, with the second in 2007 called Cinderella III: A Twist in Time. Cinderella II is made up of three individual segments connected together, detailing Cinderella adjusting to life as a princess after her marriage to the Prince. I don’t believe I have seen this film, but I think I have watched Cinderella III once or twice on the Disney Channel. Cinderella III is set one year after the first film, and is about Lady Tremaine stealing the Fairy Godmother’s wand to reverse time and stop Cinderella marrying the prince, and attempting to replace Cinderella with her own daughter, Anastasia.

There was also a 1997 television film, produced by Walt Disney Television, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television, which was originally broadcast in 1957 with Julie Andrews playing the title role. The 1997 Cinderella stars Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, singer Brandy (Norwood) as Cinderella, and Whoopi Goldberg as Queen Constantina. It was a huge ratings success, being nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Art Direction. It was ground breaking for its diverse cast, especially casting a Black actress as Cinderella.

Disney’s live-action remake of Cinderella in 2015 saw British actress Lily James cast as the title role, with other big names such as Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother. The movie performed well financially, and received positive reviews from critics. I have not seen it, nor do I want to, for obvious reasons – it’s a live-action remake, so no, thanks! – but I’ve heard it’s one of the better live-action remakes.  

Cinderella was unofficially the most popular princess at the time that Walt Disney World was being planned in the 1960s. Disney knew they wanted Cinderella to have her own castle and that it should be the centrepiece of the Magic Kingdom Park, to dwarf Anaheim’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. It opened 1^st October 1971 with the park, and has become the iconic structure of not just Magic Kingdom, but the whole of the Walt Disney World Resort. At 189 feet high, it is also the second tallest Disney castle, after Shanghai Disneyland’s. There is an urban myth that Cinderella Castle can be dismantled in a hurricane. This is not true. The castle was assembled in two separate sections, but they were then bolted together permanently. As it has a steel frame and a concrete foundation, it can withstand winds of at least 90 miles per hour. Cinderella Castle was inspired by the French courts of Versailles and Fontainebleau and the chateaux of Loire Valley. It was designed by Imagineer Herb Ryman. Inside the walkway, there are also five mosaic murals, each 15 feet high and 10 feet wide, designed by Dorothea Redmond, detailing the story of Cinderella. At the top of Cinderella Castle, there is a restaurant called Cinderella’s Royal Table, one of the most popular character meals in Walt Disney World, where you can dine with the princesses for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It was previously called King Stefan’s Banquet Hall up to April 1997, even though King Stefan is the name of the king in Sleeping Beauty (1959). There is also a Cinderella Castle at Tokyo Disneyland.

The castle has been temporarily transformed a few times over the years. From October 1996 to January 1998, the castle was decorated to look like a pink birthday cake, in celebration of Walt Disney World’s 25^th anniversary. This was the first time I would’ve seen the castle, and I loved it! In November 2004, the castle was “vandalised by Stitch” for one day, for the opening of the Stitch’s Great Escape attraction, with toilet paper covering the castle. These two transformations were not popular with the masses! In 2005, the castle received a gold trim for the “Happiest Celebration on Earth” celebration and was recently painted rose gold for Walt Disney World’s 50^th anniversary. I’d prefer if they painted it back to blue and white soon, to match Cinderella’s dress colours! There is also a private suite built into the castle. It was a planned private suite for the Disney family originally, but it was not built until 2005. Stays in the castle were awarded during the “Year of a Million Dreams” in 2007. Some celebrities have been known to stay in it occasionally in recent years[13].

At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park, Cinderella used to have her own carrousel. The carrousel was constructed by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1917, was run in small East Coast parks, before being purchased by the Walt Disney Company for the opening of Magic Kingdom in 1971 and being refurbished and themed to the movie Cinderella, with hand-painted scenes on the top panels. It was later renamed from Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel to Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel in 2010[14]. The renaming story is that Prince Charming had a carrousel built for him to practice jousting. A second one was built for visitors to go on closer to the castle, with regal theming instead of knights jousting. There is also another myth surrounding “Cinderella’s Horse”. There is a horse on the carrousel with a golden bow on its tail, second row from the edge. This is not an official story from Disney Imagineering, but many people like to sit on this horse anyway!

Cinderella is a popular meet-and-greet character at the Disney theme parks, and can be seen at Princess Fantasy Faire in Disneyland; within Cinderella’s Royal Table, she has a personal meet-and-greet on entry for diners, and at Princess Fairytale Hall at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; and at Princess Pavilion at Disneyland Paris. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Cinderella Carousel and the Royal Banquet Hall feature nods to the movie. At Tokyo, a walkthrough attraction called Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall exists within their Cinderella Castle, depicting parts of Cinderella’s story. She can also be spotted within parades, shows, and at other meet-and-greet locations throughout the Disney Parks.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite Cinderella not exactly being a feminist icon, the character has become, and continues to be, one of the most well-known, most celebrated, and most popular princesses in the Disney Princess franchise. Her story is well-known, and her belief in dreams coming true is a strong message to people. Sure, Cinderella is focused on romance and love, but that doesn’t mean that the message can’t be applied to other aspects of life, like careers. I disagree with people who claim Cinderella is not a good role model. She may not be as progressive as the princesses that have come since, but there is nothing wrong with teaching children to be kind, respectful, and not to lose hope in difficult situations, because positive things can happen if you change your attitude and work towards them.

Thanks to the success of Cinderella, the world got to see much more from the Walt Disney Company, with further projects being able to be funded, like Disneyland. Cinderella lived up to the expectations from the Disney Studios, that it could be a success and would save the future of Disney Animation. It is also the most remembered retelling of the story.

Cinderella is first and foremost a romantic love story, though at the heart of it is the message to stay positive through times of adversity, and to never give up on your dreams – no matter what they may be – because perhaps with enough hope, belief and perseverance, maybe someday, that dream that you wish will come true.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Disney Cinderella Story’, MousePlanet.com, 24^th August 2022.

[2] Credit: Kelsey McKinney, ‘Disney didn’t invent Cinderella. Her story is at least 2,000 years old.’, Vox.com, 15^th March 2015.

[3] Credit: Disney, “From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Disney Cinderella Story’, MousePlanet.com, 24^th August 2022.

[5] Credit: Disney, “From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[6] Credit: Disney, “The “Cinderella” That Almost Was”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Disney Cinderella Story’, MousePlanet.com, 24^th August 2022.

[8] Credit: Disney, “The Art of Mary Blair”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[9] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[10] Credit: Disney, “From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[11] Credit: Brittany DiCologero, ‘Cinderella Was Released in Theaters in 1950 – Here’s How it Went’, WDW Magazine (online), 15^th February 2021.

[12] Credit: Carol Dyhouse, ‘What the Rise and Fall of the Cinderella Fairy Tale Means for Real Women Today’, Time (online), 19^th April 2021.

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Walt Disney World Chronicles: Cinderella Castle’, AllEars.Net, 15^th April 2014.

[14] Credit: Brittany DiCologero, ‘Cinderella Was Released in Theaters in 1950 – Here’s How it Went’, WDW Magazine (online), 15^th February 2021.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The 1950s was a busy time for Walt Disney and the Disney Studios.

Along with the usual slate of animated film releases, Disney were working on live-action films, the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries, and television projects. As well as that, Walt’s theme park project Disneyland opened on 17^th July 1955, just one month before Lady and the Tramp was released, in June 1955, squarely in the middle of the eight animated features produced during the “Silver Age” of Disney Animation (1950-1967).

It’s no secret that Walt Disney’s attention had been split between these various projects, with animation not being at the forefront of his mind at times, however, despite his attention seeming to dwindle around this medium, Lady and the Tramp was an animated feature that Walt Disney himself was very much involved with. Not only that, but Lady and the Tramp marked a series of firsts: the first Disney animated feature to be based on an original story written by the studio, and have an everyday American setting, and it was the first animated film to be photographed in the widescreen format of CinemaScope[1].

And yet, I don’t like Lady and the Tramp. I hadn’t watched it fully for many years before this week, as it’s not an animated film I would choose to watch. I can’t quite decide why I don’t like it: possibly because I’m scared of dogs, a lot of them anyway; maybe because nothing very exciting happens and the music isn’t very cheery; or perhaps it’s just because it falls into that category of “animal films” that I don’t generally connect to! I certainly didn’t finish watching Lady and the Tramp and think my initial impression was wrong, as it was, at least in part, with other “animal films” like The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Bolt (2008), which I surprised myself by liking more than I thought. Lady and the Tramp wasn’t like that, and, despite only being around 75 minutes in length, I was bored through the majority of it! Having said that, there are a few scenes and sequences that I like, though they only total around a third of the whole movie, and the backgrounds and colours are quite pleasant.

PLOT

Lady and the Tramp is a love story, basically Romeo and Juliet but with dogs! The movie begins on Christmas night in a quintessential New England town, on a street filled with rows of Victorian houses. A woman opens a present from her husband, a golden cocker spaniel puppy, placed in a hat box with a bright red ribbon round its neck. The woman, “Darling”, names her Lady. Soon, it is time for Lady to go to bed in the kitchen, but she doesn’t want to be alone, so after hours of barking, crying, and attempts at escape, she successfully climbs the stairs to their bedroom, and is allowed to sleep on their bed. The movie then skips six months to find Lady still sleeping on their bed, and waking the couple up early every morning, including on Sundays, where she begins her daily routine of fetching “Jim Dear’s” slippers, burying bones, chasing rats out of the garden, and fetching the paper, which gets ripped as she pulls it through her dog door, followed by coffee and doughnuts – not something I think would be recommended for a dog’s breakfast these days!

Soon after, Darling gets Lady a new blue collar and a license, which all dogs in their area need to avoid being sent to the pound. Lady shows off her new collar to neighbourhood friends, Jock, a Scottie dog, and Trusty, an elderly bloodhound. The next day, across town, we see a mongrel waking up in the railway yard, Tramp, before going to a nearby restaurant, Tony’s, where the owners give him leftover bones to eat. He rescues his friends from a dog catcher who is en route to the pound, before stumbling into Lady’s part of town, the posh residential streets. Tramp overhears Lady talking to Jock and Trusty about how Jim Dear and Darling are acting strangely, generally ignoring her, calling her “that dog”. Jock and Trusty figure that Darling must be expecting a baby, with them telling Lady that babies are cute and special. Tramp comes in to correct them, telling Lady that a baby is the worst thing to happen to a dog’s home, and that she’ll be replaced as soon as it arrives. Lady doesn’t know what to believe but over the next six months, she notices many changes to their house, before the baby finally arrives. Lady is curious to know what a baby is and finds her way to the baby’s room where Jim Dear and Darling introduce her to their new born son. Lady decides that actually babies are cute, and this will be fine.

Then, Aunt Sarah arrives to look after the baby while Jim Dear and Darling are away. She doesn’t much like Lady, finding her a nuisance and a threat to the baby. When Sarah’s cats, Si and Am, who she brought with her, start to try and eat the family’s canary and goldfish, Lady stops them and fights them off, causing a total mess, with curtains ripped, water spilt and furniture destroyed. Sarah sees her cats (pretending to be) injured and decides the only way to fix this dangerous dog is to put a muzzle on her. Whilst at the pet store, Lady is scared and runs away, still with the muzzle and lead attached, almost getting runover by cars and wagons, and then finding herself in an alley, where dogs try to attack her. Luckily, Tramp arrives to save her, and sneaks her into the zoo to find an animal to remove the muzzle for her. After an alligator almost bites Lady’s head off, they settle for a beaver, who is sold on the muzzle being used as a log-pulling device for his work-in-progress dam.

After this, Tramp tells Lady that he doesn’t have just one family, but multiple ones who he visits for dinner on different days during the week, getting a new cuisine each day. Which reminds him that it’s time for dinner. Tramp takes Lady to Tony’s restaurant, where the owner, Tony, and chef Joe, make a fuss of the couple who are on their first date, feeding them spaghetti and meatballs and singing a romantic song for them, “Bella Notte”. The two continue their evening in the park, settling down for the night. The next morning, Lady is anxious that she didn’t return home last night. Tramp wants her to trade in that domestic life for one of freedom and adventure with him, but she wants to go home to look after the baby. On the way, though, Tramp decides he wants to chase chickens from a farmer’s coop. Lady doesn’t, but Tramp sets about it anyway, making the farmer mad, who starts shooting at them. Tramp and Lady run, but Lady is caught by the dog catcher and taken to the pound.

At the pound, Lady is teased by the stray dogs for her license, with Peg, a Pekingese dog, and Boris, a Russian hunting dog, leaping to her defence, saying she’ll be on her way home soon and that the others are just jealous. They live in fear of the day they must take “the long walk”. We see a shadow of a human leading a dog down the corridor, presumably on his way to be “put down”…Then, the strays mention knowing Tramp, telling Lady that he has a weakness for the ladies, and listing off his numerous girlfriends. Lady is annoyed, but is picked up by Aunt Sarah to go home before she can find out anymore. Sarah chains Lady up in the doghouse in the garden as punishment for running off. Jock and Trusty come over and offer to marry her so she can leave this abusive house. She declines, just as Tramp arrives. Lady talks with him, telling him she knows about “Trixie and Fifi and all the others”, and that she doesn’t want to see him again. Tramp reluctantly leaves. Lady then sees a black rat climbing up into the house, sneaking in through the window in the baby’s room. Lady barks to try and stop it but it doesn’t. Tramp comes back to help her, and rushes into the house to fight this rat. Lady manages to break her chain and comes to his aid. The rat is killed by Tramp, however, in the chaos, the baby’s crib is overturned. Sarah believes they tried to attack the baby, and Tramp is taken to the pound.

At this moment, Jim Dear and Darling return, releasing Lady from the cellar, who shows them the rat that tried to attacked the baby. Jock and Trusty overhear this and follow the dog catcher’s wagon to save Tramp, who they were wrong about. Jim Dear and Lady follow. Trusty and Jock try to get the wagon to stop, but spook the horses and the wagon tips, with Trusty hit by one of the wheels. He lies motionless on the ground…The movie ends at Christmas, with Tramp now a member of the family, and him and Lady having had a litter of four puppies, three girls like Lady, and one boy like Tramp. The dogs get on well with the baby. Then, they see some visitors walking up the path – Jock, in a tartan waistcoat, and Trusty, who just has an injured leg from the incident. The film ends with all of them celebrating together.

CHARACTERS & CAST

The “Juliet” character in Lady and the Tramp is Lady, the pampered, golden cocker spaniel who lives on one of the most upmarket streets in town. Because of this background, she is quite naïve and is scared of the world around her whenever she leaves her comfy house. Lady is a caring dog though, and very protective of her owners, and their new born baby when it comes along. She even tries to fight a huge evil rat to save it, and not forgetting the mischievous cats who want to eat and destroy anything in their sights! Unfortunately, I find Lady a bit one-sided, which is why Tramp was a necessary character to come into the movie, but I think she’s just a bit too sweet, and a bit too naïve, that I start to find her annoying after a while! Though I do like her opening sequence with Jim Dear and Darling, both as a puppy, because she’s so cute as a puppy, and as she’s older doing her “normal routine”. But as the movie progresses, I don’t find her particularly interesting. Barbara Luddy voices Lady, with Lady and the Tramp being Luddy’s first Disney voice credit, although she would later voice characters in subsequent Disney animated features, including Merryweather, in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Kanga in the Winnie the Pooh series.

Tramp, therefore, is the roguish “Romeo” character. He lives a very different life to Lady, having to fend for himself most of the time, scavenging and begging for food, and having to dodge the dog catcher frequently. He’s a loyal friend to his fellow strays, risking himself to free them from the pound in one section. Tramp also tells it like it is, not wanting to sugar-coat the potential fallout that Lady could experience from this new baby coming into her cosy life, whether that makes him unpopular or not. And, despite the fact I hate Tramp’s pet name for Lady – “pigeon”, come on, really? – he does genuinely care about her. So, of the two, I find Tramp the most interesting; he’s the lovable bad boy, who turns good after meeting his perfect girl – that’s the foundation that most romcoms are built on! Tramp is voiced by Larry Roberts. He had been active in the Hollywood theatre scene, but retired from show business altogether in the 1950s. Lady and the Tramp was his only film credit. Walt Disney settled on the name of “Tramp”; the character had been called Homer, Rags, and Bozo before that. Walt Disney went with it against the objections of the majority of the team who felt the word had negative connotations attached to it. The live-action reference model for Tramp was spotted on story artist Erdman Penner’s way home. He found the dog in a local pound a few hours later, and rescued the dog. Everyone agreed he had the right look for Tramp – though they were later shocked to find it was a female dog! The dog then lived out the rest of her days at Disneyland’s Pony Farm with the Popes, who managed the Disneyland horses.

Then, there are Jock and Trusty, Lady’s neighbour friends. Jock and Trusty are quite protective of Lady, who feel like Lady is being led astray by Tramp, and being neglected at home. I like the first scene where we are introduced to them, especially Jock’s song where he’s singing about burying his “bonnie bones”, because he’s a Scottie dog, so naturally he has a strong Scottish accent! Trusty is a sweet, old dog, who we are led to believe has lost his sense of smell, though he still likes to track and hunt things. He shows everyone they’re wrong at the end of the movie though, when he follows that dog catcher wagon! I like these two; it’s a shame they don’t feature in the movie much. Jock is voiced by Bill Thompson, a veteran Disney voice artist who had also voiced the characters of Scrooge McDuck, and Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953). Thompson also voiced Bull the English bulldog, and Dachsie the dachshund, in the pound. Trusty is voiced by Bill Baucom.

There are multiple other dogs in the scene at the pound, with Pedro, Boris and Peg being the other “main ones”. Peg was originally going to be called Mame, as she has a big fringe, like President Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie. However, they felt this could be offensive so they named her after Peggy Lee, her voice artist, instead. Eric Larson had a great time animating Peg, as Peggy Lee was a big inspiration to the animation of the character. Pedro, a Chihuahua, and Toughy, a stray mutt with a Brooklyn accent, are voiced by Dallas McKennon, who is also the voice of Benjamin Franklin in The American Adventure show at Epcot in Orlando. Boris is a Borzoi, or Russian Hunting Sighthound, who naturally sounds incredibly Russian! Boris was going to have a much bigger role in Lady and the Tramp at one point, as him and “Homer”, the character that would later become Tramp as we know him, would’ve been neighbours, with them both fighting for Lady’s attention. Boris was a show-off, narcissistic dog, who couldn’t stop talking about himself, which was off-putting to Lady! Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred Flintstone, voices Boris. It’s a shame that we don’t see more of these dogs in the pound, because I feel like they would’ve been able to be funnier if they’d had more screen time; they seem like a random addition or afterthought.

For the remaining characters, one is Aunt Sarah. She already doesn’t like Lady before she even gets into the house, and keeps Lady outside for most of the time. I don’t think she is meant to be evil or mean-spirited; she’s just trying to do her job as the babysitter, after all, and I think she is generally upset when she realises Lady and Tramp were trying to save the baby from a rat at the end, knowing she’s got things all wrong. I don’t think she is forgiven by Jim Dear and Darling, as she is noticeably absent from the Christmas celebrations… Disney veteran voice artist Verna Felton voices Aunt Sarah. She had previously been the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950), and the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951). She would also voice Flora to Luddy’s Merryweather a few years later for Sleeping Beauty (1959). Felton’s son, Lee Carson Millar Jr., voices Jim Dear, with Peggy Lee voicing Darling. They are a well-meaning couple, who naturally become distracted by their new baby, and accidentally forget Lady at times, though they come together at the end[2].

One other character that I like is the beaver at the zoo. It’s a fun scene, one of the few others I like, where the beaver is being sold Lady’s muzzle as a log puller. The beaver is easily persuaded, and removes the muzzle so he can use it, even offering to pay, but is given it as a free sample. Walt Disney wanted the beaver to have a lispy, whistling sound to his voice. Stan Freberg, the voice artist, couldn’t quite do the whistle at all the right points, so held a whistle under his lips whilst recording his lines to make just the right noise!

PRODUCTION

The story used for Lady and the Tramp was an original story idea, with the first iteration of it being considered in 1937. Story artist Joe Grant came up with the first idea, being inspired by his own dog, a springer spaniel, named Lady Nell the Second. She had championship credentials but was not suited to the dog show business life so became a domesticated pet. When Grant and his wife had their first baby, they found that Lady was a good nanny and looked after the baby. This gave Grant story ideas and situations for the movie. This version of the story involved Lady being a pet to “Mister Fred” and “Missis”, with the baby already being six months old. The grandmother came to stay with her two Siamese cats, leaving Lady to protect the canary, Trilby, from being eaten by them. Lady was blamed for attacking the baby and was put out in the rain. Mister Fred later found pieces of lace and ribbons in the cats’ claws, and realised that it was them that had done the damage. The grandmother and her cats left the house, and Lady was welcomed back in[3].

Walt Disney did not like this idea. He thought Lady was the issue, as she was just a charming, sweet dog, with nothing much to her, and with little to no conflict for the story to take off. It was put on hold. This could’ve been the end to the whole thing, as so many stories end up being put on hold and destined to fade away. That would seem to have been the likeliest fate for Grant’s story, as World War II began just a couple of years later, with Disney resources then being devoted to making war effort training films for the government. After the war, society changed quickly, and television became the new exciting form of entertainment, leaving filmmakers unsure where this left them[4]. In the mid-1940s, Walt Disney was inspired by a short story he’d read in Cosmopolitan magazine, when it was a literary magazine, called “Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog”, which was published in 1943. Walt met with the writer, Ward Greene, to discuss his story, and specifically the main canine character, further. Walt wanted to combine this carefree dog with the delicate, lady-like spaniel from Grant’s original version of the story. The main bulk of the storyline was worked through, with Greene publishing the first edition novel in 1953 with the title: “Lady and the Tramp: The Story of Two Dogs”. It included illustrations from Disney story man Joe Rinaldi. The novel was published prior to the movie being completed so that audiences could become familiar with the story before the film’s release, as many of the animated films that had come earlier were based on known children’s books or fairy-tales. Despite using elements from Joe Grant’s original story idea, Ward Greene is credited as the sole writer. Joe Grant left the studio in 1949, though he would return in the 1989, and contribute to many of the Disney “Renaissance” films.

There were many changes to the movie during its production. One of the biggest ones is that Trusty was meant to die after being crushed by the dog catcher’s wagon. Walt Disney had been considering whether the scene was too intense, as he was not wanting to receive the backlash he had received when Bambi’s mother died in Bambi (1942). Walt was also influenced by Peggy Lee who said that people would be devasted if Trusty died, meaning that he was added into the final Christmas scene at the end of the movie as a surprise “twist”. There was going to be a sequence reminiscent of “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo (1941), with Lady having a nightmare where baby booties continued to multiply around her. She would then wake up to find the baby had been born. There were some minor changes as well, such as Aunt Sarah’s cats being named Si and Am instead of Nip and Tuck; Jim Dear and Darling becoming the new names of Lady’s owners, based on what she would hear them being called instead of their actual, full names; and Aunt Sarah being less of an evil character.

One change that many people will be glad to see did not happen was the iconic spaghetti-eating scene. Walt didn’t like it and wanted to cut the whole scene, as he felt it was awkward and unromantic. Disney veteran artist Frank Thomas was determined to win Walt over with this scene, and spent a lot of time looking at dogs eating spaghetti, sketching how it could look, and how it would work. Walt must have been convinced because it stayed, and is one of the most recognisable, iconic scenes in any Disney animated movie[5].

Another aspect of Lady and the Tramp’s initial story that is disputed is the legend of whether Walt Disney actually gave his wife a puppy for Christmas, disguising it in a hat box. Some people don’t believe it to be true, believing this “spark” for the movie was used as a story-telling device for interviews and not based in fact; others have mixed up elements of the story so it isn’t recounted consistently. Walt Disney himself stated that he’d always wanted a dog, however his wife, Lillian, was reluctant to have one, especially as dogs can shed hair everywhere. Walt did some research and found that Chows do not shed so much, so he bought a Chow puppy a few weeks before Christmas, keeping it hidden from Lillian, until Christmas Day when he put the puppy into a hat box, and tied a ribbon around it. Lillian was annoyed, as she believed the present to be a hat, and didn’t like anyone buying her hats, but luckily, it was the Chow puppy and Lillian loved it, naming it Sunnee[6]. I believe this story to be true, and as it happened so many years before the movie was even in production, that it is not only factual, but clearly helped Walt with situational ideas for the movie, with the whole opening sequence referencing the Christmas present to Lillian.

The inspiration from the movie is taken partly from Walt’s childhood in Marceline, Missouri. Lady and the Tramp was released at a time of big societal and political changes in the 1950s, so this gave audiences an opportunity to almost long for the simpler times. Disney wanted to make Lady and the Tramp so full of detail of the bygone era of turn-of-the-century America that it evoked nostalgia in people, and would get people interested in it for that “Americana” feeling. Disney also tried the new “big thing” for movie theatres: CinemaScope. This meant that backgrounds needed to be stretched to fill this new widescreen layout, with characters being spread out to fill space, and additional details being added to backgrounds, giving them more chance to experiment with the larger canvas. The only problem was not every theatre had CinemaScope so Disney actually had to make two versions of the movie to cover all bases! The CinemaScope format only lasted from 1953 to 1967.

MUSIC

The music played an important part in Lady and the Tramp, as it had to tell the story and work well with the animation, without overpowering it. The background score was composed by English composer Oliver Wallace, with songs being written by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee. Lee performs three of the songs, and voices four characters in the movie: Si, Am, Peg, and Darling. She was very pleased to work with Burke and Disney on the movie. There is also a small performance by The Mellomen, who perform as the dog quartet in the pound. It’s fascinating to think of humans howling like dogs, and keeping it all in key but it gets a bit annoying after a while! The Mellomen were used by Disney for both film soundtracks, like Peter Pan (1953), as pirates and Indians, as well as Disney theme park attractions, such as the “singing busts” in The Haunted Mansion.

Oliver Wallace joined Disney in the 1930s, and composed the score for Dumbo (1941), for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Score. He worked with Disney for many years, doing the film scores for many of the Disney animated films that came after that, with Lady and the Tramp being his last one, though he would still score some of Disney’s live-action movies until his death in 1963. I really like the score for Lady and the Tramp, particularly the music that plays during the first fifteen or so minutes of the film, as it’s bouncy and joyful, matching the optimism of a dog’s life being full of possibility and no worries. The dramatic music at the end really helps build tension for the scene of them trying to rescue Tramp too. Wallace gave a nod to Victorian era and marching band music in this score, to match the setting and sentimental feel of the movie[7].

As for the songs, I am not a big fan of any of them, other than “Bella Notte”, though I only like when Joe and Tony sing it; I don’t like the whispery choir that sings it afterwards during the evening in the park scene! The other songs that Lee and Burke co-wrote were “Peace on Earth”, which plays during the opening sequence. I find it kind of haunting, which I don’t like because this is meant to be a happy scene; and “He’s a Tramp”, which is performed by Peggy Lee, as the burlesque “Dog and Pony Follies” former show dog Peg. It’s not a terrible song, as it is quite catchy but it’s a bit too burlesque-like for an animated movie, I think, so it feels a bit awkward to watch. “The Siamese Cat Song” is another one that is kind of awkward to watch these days, due to its stereotypical undertones. It’s not a great song, anyway, not really doing anything for the film; it’s just a comic way of introducing the two cats, who don’t even feature much! Lee enjoyed working on it though, and had a lot of freedom with how the cats would sound, and what sound effects could be used, choosing a mixture of bells, chimes and cymbals to accompany the music. Then there’s “La La Lu”, the lullaby that Darling sings, which is currently being used in a John Lewis advert in the UK. It’s alright, but it’s a bit grating after a while, for me!

Peggy Lee would sue Disney in 1988 over Lady and the Tramp for due royalties. She was embarrassed during an interview in 1987, when she realised that Disney had allowed Robie Lester to cover her song, “The Siamese Cat Song”, and change some of the lyrics. After a lengthy legal battle, the case was settled in 1991, with Lee winning $2.3 million, but the case did Lee no favours with her already frail health. She was not happy with the outcome and planned to write a book about the incident, but never did. Lee died in 2002.

RECEPTION

Lady and the Tramp was released in June 1955, one month before Walt’s dream theme park Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. Some of the setting for the movie turned out to be inspiration for some of the Main Street, U.S.A, area of Disneyland, due in part to some of the film’s animators pulling in to help finish the park. Lady and the Tramp took four years and $4 million dollars to make. This was a huge amount of money considering that the Disney company were also building Disneyland at this time[8]. The movie received mixed reviews, with one review from The New York Times stating that the movie was “sentimental”, detailing a “conventional romance”, with nothing surprising. They found some scenes amusing, such as the burlesque-like dogs, and the funny Siamese cats, as well as appreciating the music in the movie. However, it did also state that the CinemaScope view of the movie magnified flaws in the animation[9]. Other reviews were more positive, saying that the characters were well-done, including the multiple different dialogues and accents, and that the artistic approach was beautiful. Walt Disney won one award for the movie, Best Foreign Producer at the David di Donatello awards in 1956, and received a BAFTA award nomination for Best Animated Film that same year, but got no “Oscar nods”.

LEGACY

As well as the movie inspiring architecture at Disneyland, and the theme parks that would follow, Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, themed to Lady and the Tramp and serving Italian fare, exists at Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World, within Main Street, U.S.A, and the town square. There are also two pairs of paw prints pressed into the cement around the restaurant, which is a nod to the scene of Lady and Tramp doing this during their evening in the park. You can also find topiaries of the two leading canines at the Italy Pavilion in Epcot during the annual Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. At Disneyland Paris, you can eat at Pizzeria Bella Notte, a quick service restaurant also serving Italian fare, and themed to Lady and the Tramp.

Lady and the Tramp was “lucky enough” to receive a live-action/CGI remake adaptation, which I have not, and will not watch, but if you liked it, then fair enough! There are too many of these remakes, and I don’t think they ever improve on the original, however, the live-action remake in this case, Lady and the Tramp (2019), did go some way to dealing with some issues that have not aged particularly well from the original movie. This includes the removal of the stereotypical accents of the animals, including Si and Am who were replaced as two Devon Rex cats, with the song changed. The film is set in New Orleans, and includes a more diverse cast. It was released exclusively on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, on 12^th November 2019[10]. There was also a direct-to-video sequel released in 2001 titled Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure, which follows Lady and Tramp’s son, who we see at the end of the original movie. Scamp runs away from home to join a pack of stray dogs called the “Junkyard Dogs”. I vaguely remember watching this and I think I liked it, but I can’t recall most of the plot!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Nowadays, Lady and the Tramp is a beloved classic for many. For me, I still don’t enjoy watching Lady and the Tramp, and wouldn’t choose to watch it. I think it’s quite boring in places, and doesn’t really get particularly deep into a story; it’s mostly just different situations and sequences put together to make a feature-length film. But I know plenty of people like it, and it has some particularly iconic scenes and moments that stick with viewers. There are some sequences that I like, and I agree that the world would be a much less romantic place if it weren’t for that well-loved moment of Lady and Tramp accidentally sharing a kiss over a plate of spaghetti and meatballs!

As the movie states after the opening credits, a quote by Josh Billings: “so it is to all dogs – be they ladies or tramps that this picture is respectfully dedicated.” Lady and the Tramp is a story of love, both romantic and familial, and shows us just how important our pets are to us, and we are to them, especially the bond between humans and dogs.

But please remember, dogs are for life – not just for Christmas!

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Cache of Classics’, p. 73.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Volume 3 (2014), ‘Lady and the Tramp’, pp. 87-95.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Volume 3 (2014), ‘Lady and the Tramp’, pp. 87-95.

[4] Credit: Frank Teurlay, ‘Recap: Lady and the Tramp – A Technical Triumph’, The Walt Disney Family Museum (online), 28^th May 2014.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Volume 3 (2014), ‘Lady and the Tramp’, pp. 87-95.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Volume 7 Christmas Edition (2018), ‘Walt’s Christmas Puppy’, pp. 23-25.

[7] Credit: Disney, Lady’s Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp (2006).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Volume 3 (2014), ‘Lady and the Tramp’, pp. 87-95.

[9] Credit: Bosley Crowther, ‘Screen: Dogs and Lovers; Disney’s ‘Lady and the Tramp’ at Roxy’, The New York Times Archives (online), 24^th June 1955.

[10] Credit: Monica Castillo, ‘Lady and the Tramp’, RogerEbert.com (online), 11^th November 2019.