28th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#61 Strange World (2022)

BACKGROUND

The 2020s have, so far, been a difficult time for Disney Animation.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of streaming services making the viewing of new content easier and more convenient, it’s been hard trying to get audiences back into movie theatres. Film studios are ever hopeful that their movie will be the one to coax people out of their homes, but so far, only a handful of movies have done this.

At the Disney Studios, this issue is continuing to cause problems, with neither Encanto (2021) nor Wish (2023), both being “safer” musical movies, having succeeded in this endeavour, although Encanto did succeed in becoming a major success after its release to Disney+. We’re still talking about Bruno.

So, it’s not really a huge surprise that with Disney Animation “turning left” in making Strange World, i.e., choosing to go to Adventureland and not Fantasyland, with an action-packed, non-musical movie, that the viewers just did not come.

When Disney Animation made a string of non-musical movies in the 2000s, during their “Post-Renaissance Era”, many of these did not do well. Think of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) or Treasure Planet (2002); those movies are now considered “cult classics”, but they underperformed at the box-office and ultimately led to the downfall of traditional 2D animated Disney movies. Strange World is similar in both its genre and its aftermath.

I was not excited to watch Strange World. After seeing the trailer, I didn’t think it looked particularly interesting, and it reminded me of DreamWorks’ film The Croods (2013), which I was never bothered by and have never seen.

But because its Disney, I knew I had to watch Strange World – just not in the cinema. Luckily, in December 2022, a month after its release in theatres, it came on to Disney+ and I decided watching it at home, over the festive period, would be the best option.

Strange World certainly is not terrible, as some reviews have unfairly claimed, but it is different. Unfortunately for Disney, their adventure-type films have not been seen as the best throughout their history. In actual fact, Strange World isn’t bad. It’s not exactly what you might expect to see from Disney Animation, and it’s not a film I want to rush back and see, but I quite liked it in places. I went into Strange World expecting an adventure film, and that’s exactly what I got.

PLOT

The plot of Strange World follows the Clades, a famous explorer father-son duo. Their community of Avalonia is completely encircled by mountains. Many have tried and failed to get through the mountains, to seek out Avalonia’s future, but one man, Jaeger Clade, is determined to do so. Alongside him is his son, Searcher, an unwilling participant in these journeys. Whilst out on the latest expedition to go beyond the mountains that enclose Avalonia, Searcher Clade discovers a strange, electric plant, which him and the rest of the crew decide must be the legacy to bring back to Avalonia. Jaeger Clade disagrees, wanting to push forward to explore past the mountains as planned. Disappointed nobody wants to join him, Jaeger Clade continues the mission on his own – and is not seen again.

The movie then jumps twenty-five years later where this plant, now named Pando, is the main power source for all of Avalonia, and a whole new way of living was founded off the back of its discovery. Searcher is now a farmer, farming the Pando plant for the city, and is married to Meridian, a pilot. Together, they have a sixteen-year-old son, Ethan, who is soon to be trained in farming, as Searcher wants his son to take over the business someday.

Then, a huge airship, the Venture, lands in Searcher’s fields, and it turns out to be Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and one of Searcher’s crewmates on their expedition twenty-five years earlier. She needs Searcher’s help in discovering why the Pando plant is dying and how it can be reversed. Ethan wants to go on this journey, but Searcher refuses to allow him to go along. Searcher, Callisto, and the rest of the crew start their mission by following the Pando roots, which run deep underground. However, Meridian soon flies down to them to say that Ethan, along with the family’s three-legged dog, Legend, has stowed away on the airship. As this happens, all of them are attacked by pink pterodactyl-type creatures, with the pilot of the airship being killed in the process. Meridian takes control and they crash land on a subterranean, strange “world”, with Searcher and Legend being thrown overboard and separated from the crew. Ethan wants to look for his father, but is told that he needs to wait until the Venture airship is repaired, since they know nothing about this place.

Meanwhile, Searcher runs into a blue blob that steals his handkerchief. The blue blob then proceeds to show this handkerchief to some tentacled creatures that attack Searcher. He is saved in the nick of time by a huge, hairy man with a flamethrower. It turns out this man is actually Jaeger, Searcher’s long-lost father! It takes a while to convince Jaeger that he has been reunited with his son; it’s kind of an awkward moment. Jaeger then runs toward the Venture as he needs the airship to get to the other side of the mountains, as per his original mission, which he still has not completed after being stuck in this place for years.

Ethan has managed to sneak away from the crew, and, using a skiff, races around the area looking for Searcher. He soon comes across the same blue blob from earlier, which he names Splat. Splat has Searcher’s handkerchief still, and Ethan asks Splat to lead him to his father. As this is going on, Searcher catches Jaeger up on what he’s missed over the last twenty-five years of his life! Jaeger is disappointed to hear that Searcher is “just a farmer”, dismissing all of Searcher’s achievement. But this argument is soon stopped as Jaeger spots one of Ethan’s playing cards on the ground. He tells Searcher that Ethan is in a lot of trouble, about to be lured to his death. They race to find him.

Ethan has indeed been lured to the Reapers, those tentacled creatures, but Jaeger comes along to burn them with his flamethrower just in time. Except there are too many of them, and Jaeger makes all three of them jump onto what seems to be a river of fish. The Reapers continue to chase the trio, and when all looks lost, Callisto and Meridian arrive to drive them away on their skiffs. They get away from the Reapers by using Pando bulbs Ethan collected earlier which electrocute the creatures.

Now safely back on the Venture, the crew can investigate what’s causing the Pando to die by using a sample of its root. But family tensions continue to boil over, as Searcher becomes jealous of Ethan and Jaeger bonding, believing that Ethan will want to be more like Jaeger instead of like him. In attempting to get father and son to communicate better, Ethan suggests they all play a game called Primal Outpost, which is an environmental based game. All this does is cause further argument and, frustrated, Ethan walks away. See, the Clades are just like every other family when the board games or card games come out!

The crew arrive at the Burning Sea, which seems to be a lake of acid. With Splat the blue blob now on side to help, it communicates with these little green things to drive the airship through the area, to avoid the acid sprays. More Reapers come for the crew, and the team use their Pando bulbs to keep them away. Continuing to follow the Pando roots, they see that the roots are getting stronger the deeper down they go. As they get nearer to the heart of Pando, the crew believe they are about to be attacked by more Reapers and those pink pterodactyls – but they go straight past them, on to the heart of Pando. Searcher believes that those creatures are pests, with Pando diverting its energy to fighting them off instead of keeping its crops alive on the surface. Crushing some Pando bulbs and putting the dust into Jaeger’s flamethrower, he sprays these pests, killing them. They believe this must be how they are meant to save their Pando plant.

As the crew set about making their pesticides, Ethan starts to feel that this isn’t right, that they shouldn’t be killing these creatures. Searcher reminds Ethan that this is what farmers do, to which Ethan responds that he doesn’t even want to be a farmer, wanting to explore new lands instead. Searcher thinks this is all Jaeger’s fault, filling Ethan’s mind with these ideas, but Ethan says he’s just trying to lead his own life, and jumps off the airship, onto the river of fish. Searcher follows him in a skiff to apologise, saying that he never wanted to be like his father, trying to force Searcher into following his exploring legacy, but in fact, he is forcing his own legacy onto Ethan. As this conversation has been going on, their skiff has gone across to the other side of mountains. Searcher and Ethan discover that Avalonia is just surrounded by water. But then they notice the mound behind them is moving, and turn around to see an eye looking back at them! Avalonia was built on top of a living creature, so the “world” they’ve been going through is actually this creature’s insides. Eww…

Searcher and Ethan quickly realise that the Pando plant is an infection, attacking this creature’s heart, and that the strange creatures they are planning on poisoning and killing are actually the immune system, trying to keep the being alive. Realising their mistake, they set out to destroy the Pando instead and save the creature. As Searcher and Ethan explain their discovery to the others, Jaeger gets annoyed, and just wants to finally finish his mission of getting to the other side of the mountain, and sensing he’s not wanted, goes alone. Callisto locks all the Clades in a cupboard, so that they will not stop the original plan; Avalonia needs Pando and this is the only way to keep it alive. Luckily, by using Legend the dog, and Splat, they get Legend to open the door and free them. Searcher and Ethan then get on the back of one of the pterodactyls and ride to the heart, whilst Meridian takes control of the Venture once more.

At the heart, Searcher tries to dig a hole into the Pando root, so that the immune system creatures can get direct access to heal the creature’s heart. Ethan is told to round up as many Reapers as he can. Searcher is electrocuted whilst attempting to dig this hole and his shovel breaks. Jaeger then comes back to help, saying that his legacy was never about his mission, but is actually Searcher. They both work together using an axe to get to the core. A hole opens up and Reapers fill the area, destroying all of the Pando root. But it wasn’t enough; the heart is not healed. When all looks lost, a flurry of little orange creatures rush over the surface of the heart. They are there to restore the heart back to health. After some time, the heart is revived again, and starts beating. The plan worked! The team then head back up to the surface – after making a quick pit stop to the other side of the mountains, so that Jaeger can finally complete his mission.

One year on, Ethan has become an environmentalist, studying and collecting resources from the Strange World alongside his partner, Diazo, and Avalonia has moved on to using wind energy as its primary energy source. Jaeger and Searcher are now closer, and Searcher continues to run his farm alongside Meridian, growing normal crops this time. A final shot shows the camera zooming away from Avalonia and showing the turtle-like creature that Avalonia was built upon swimming over an ocean-covered planet.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Searcher Clade is the middle generation character. It’s clear from the start of the movie that he is very different to his explorer father and that the path he is going on at that point is not for him, and that he needs to find his own purpose. He seems to really thrive in the farming industry, with the Pando plant discovery being credited to him by the people of Avalonia. He tries to push his son Ethan into following in his footsteps, but soon realises he is doing exactly what his father did to him and knows for Ethan to be happy, Searcher has to let that dream go. Searcher is a good father, albeit quite a protective one, who is also embarrassing at times, as we see when Ethan is trying to talk to his crush, Diazo, and Searcher butts in, introducing himself and generally being weird.

Searcher was voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, who said the personal story behind the film appealed to him the most as it was clear it had come from a true place. He also was able to bring in his own family experiences to the character. Gyllenhaal has had roles in movies such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). More recently, Gyllenhaal portrayed the villain Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019); and Dalton in Road House (2024).

Jaeger Clade is the eldest Clade, and though he is a great explorer, very determined and brave, Jaeger also knows it, so he finds it difficult to check his ego at times and just be a father and grandfather without that determination getting in the way. He is completely fixated on his own mission, to get to the other side of the Avalonia mountains, that he doesn’t initially want to help Searcher and the others with their mission to save the Pando plant because he’s spent a large part of his life on this one expedition, foregoing his responsibilities as a father and a husband, and is still upset that Searcher did not want to be an explorer like him. In the end, though, he realises that he needs to be with his family and that he can’t always think of himself, and he repairs his bond with Searcher.

Jaeger was voiced by Dennis Quaid, who was incredibly enthusiastic about the role. Quaid said the Clades felt like a real family, with real issues and that some of the conversations and conflicts they have are reminiscent of any family at the Thanksgiving dinner table. He liked that Disney were being very open with these discussions, but also making them funny. Quaid also starred in The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as the father of Gyllenhaal’s character. He has starred in numerous movies throughout his career, including Innerspace (1987), alongside Meg Ryan and Martin Short; The Rookie (2002); and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). In 2024, Quaid will portray Ronald Reagan in the movie Reagan. And, for all the 90s kids out there, you’ll know Quaid from The Parent Trap (1998), where he played Nick Parker, the father of the twins.

Ethan is the youngest family member at sixteen-years-old, and is Searcher’s son and Jaeger’s grandson. Ethan is at a point in his life where he’s trying to figure out who he wants to be and what he wants to do with his life. He knows that he doesn’t want to be a farmer, and that he wants to experience what else is out there, beyond Avalonia. His father struggles with this idea, and thinks that, whilst out on this mission, that Jaeger has spent time trying to convince Ethan to be an explorer, not listening to Ethan and what he wants. Ethan perseveres though, and doesn’t give in, explaining to his father that it’s his life and he should do what he wants with it. Ethan is also the peacekeeper and the environmentally-conscious one in the family. He finds happiness in the end, researching and resourcing from the strange world. Ethan is the first openly gay character to feature in any Disney work. Ethan’s family are wholly accepting of his sexuality, so this isn’t even a story about him having to seek approval from his parents as you might expect.

Comedian, actor and writer Jaboukie Young-White voiced the role of Ethan. Young-White has written for shows such as Big Mouth (2018-present) and American Vandal (2017-18), and appeared as a correspondent on Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show from 2018 to 2021. Young-White also released his debut music album in August 2023.

Meridian is Searcher’s wife and Ethan’s mother, but is also a pilot, and ends up playing a pivotal role in the expedition as the original crew pilot is killed by a creature whilst the airship is crash-landing. She was only there to try and retrieve Ethan who she knew had snuck aboard the ship. She is a very caring mother, and a very experienced and brave pilot, having to get them through multiple scrapes and navigate difficult terrain. She knows that Ethan is loving exploring this new area, and that he seems to have found what’s right for him; Meridian is the voice of reason and understanding. Originally, Meridian was going to have a backstory, which involved her being a stunt pilot. She loved to fly, but after a crash which she was lucky to walk away from, she had been scared to fly again, having to fly a plane once more to save her family. This backstory ultimately was not used[1].

Meridian was voiced by Gabrielle Union, who was drawn to Meridian’s strength and parenting approach, feeling that it was similar to her own self. She has done voice work for Disney previously, as Nala in The Lion Guard (2016-19), but she said to be able to do a full Disney animated feature was a “dream come true”. She liked how she could contribute to the character, with many of her adlibs kept in the final cut, and she was pleased that Meridian looked like her, with authentic hair and Afrocentric features[2]. Union first appeared in “teen movies” such as She’s All That (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), and Bring It On (2000), moving on to other roles such as Special Agent Burnett in Bad Boys II (2003); Mary Jane Paul in the series Being Mary Jane (2013-19); Zoey Baker in the remake of Cheaper by the Dozen (2022); and Jenna in the Netflix film The Perfect Find (2023).

There is also Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and leader of the exploration. She is a strong leader, but very set in her ways and the aims of the mission. Once the Clades realise the Pando plant is killing the creature that Avalonia sits atop, Callisto does not stop trying to kill the creatures (now shown to be an immune system) and even locks the Clades in a cupboard on the airship as they try to get the other crew members to stop what they are doing. Eventually, though, Callisto sees sense when the Clades show her exactly what the plant is doing to this creature and she helps makes things right again. At one point, the writers were unsure how many of the crew on the expedition should survive, and whether they should all be killed by monsters, except Callisto, who would be the sole survivor in order to “break her” and give her some emotional depth[3]. This idea was not realised.

Lucy Liu voiced Callisto. Liu rose to fame as one of the three Charlie’s Angels, alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in the 2000 film and its 2003 sequel. She also played the role of O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill (2003) and its 2004 sequel. More recently, Liu appeared in the Netflix film Set It Up (2018) as difficult boss Kirsten, and as Kalypso in Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023). For Disney, Liu has also voiced characters such as Mei for Mulan II (2004) and Silvermist in the Tinker Bell series of films.

A couple of other actors to mention are Karan Soni and Alan Tudyk. Soni voices the very funny, but kind of minor, character of crew member Caspian. He has some great lines, delivered with perfect comedic timing. It’s a shame Caspian wasn’t used too much in the overall story. Soni rose to fame in the role of Dopinder in Deadpool (2016), going on to reprise this role in its sequels. He also appeared in the movies Ghostbusters (2016); Detective Pikachu (2019); and Not Okay (2022), as well as having a voice role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as Pavitr Prabhakar. On television, Soni had a role in each of the four series of anthology comedy series Miracle Workers (2019-23).

Alan Tudyk has had a role in every Disney animated movie since 2012. For Strange World, he voiced the very brief role of the pilot on the Venture who dies right at the start of the mission, as well as the narrator at the start of the film. Tudyk’s other Disney voice roles include: King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Duke of Weselton in Frozen (2013), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), KnowsMore in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and Valentino in Wish (2023). Outside of voice acting, Tudyk was the voice and motion capture for Sonny the robot in I, Robot (2004), and also appeared in the films Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), as Steve the Pirate, and Trumbo (2015), as Ian McLellan Hunter. He also portrays the title character of “Harry” in the series Resident Alien (2021-present).

PRODUCTION

After Moana was released in 2016, Don Hall started working on a new project to direct. Strange World was just one of a few ideas that he had been working on and had pitched to Disney. The idea for the movie came from the question: what kind of world did we inherit from others, and what world will the new generation inherit from us? It was to be a generational story of how the world has been developed, or harmed, at various points in time, although the very first pitch was about what would you do if you found out you were living on a living thing. Clearly, both of these ideas made it into Strange World in some form.

The story was originally being developed with Chris Williams, who had co-directed Big Hero 6 (2014) with Hall, however, Williams left Disney to work on The Sea Beast (2022) for Netflix. Roy Conli came on board as the producer for Strange World in 2018, and had previously collaborated with Hall on Big Hero 6. He liked the father-son angle of the story. To get writer and co-director Qui Nguyen to join the project, Hall called the movie Indiana Jones meets National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983).

Strange World was inspired by multiple movies from completely different decades of film-making. For example, Hall stated that he was inspired by movies of the 1970s and 1980s, like Star Wars, as well as Disney animated films, like Peter Pan (1953) that were all about adventure. They were also inspired by the “pulp fiction” era of the 1900s to the 1950s, where magazines were printed onto cheap wood pulp paper – hence the name – as well as movies like King Kong. These choices gave a nostalgic feeling to the adventure film[4].

Work on the film was going well, however, in 2019, Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) was announced at the D23 Expo as the next Disney animated film release, so Strange World was put aside so that Don Hall and Qui Nguyen could come onto the project as director and screenwriter, respectively, for Raya and the Last Dragon instead. They both felt they knew the story of Strange World well enough to leave it for a while and focus on Raya[5].

Creating the world of Strange World, or sub-Avalonia as it is also called, was a complex challenge, since the area had to look like the most bizarre landscape ever, and yet also refer to the plot-twist of the movie by showing that everything within this landscape is alive. The team working on Strange World consulted with biologists and scientists, and researched ecosystems, organ functions, and cell structures so that everything that exists within Strange World would be grounded in real science, although it was never meant to exactly replicate the anatomy or internal workings of any creature or a turtle specifically, despite this being the creature Avalonia resides on.

They chose a jungle-like landscape for sub-Avalonia but did not use the colour green. The pinks, blues, and purples of the scenery is in stark contrast to what would be expected. Strange World includes some of the largest environments created at Disney Animation and they had to include everything: from the smallest blade of grass, to the biggest structures. Disney also had to make this place feel alive, in both the backgrounds and the characters.

Everything had to feel like it was a part of the overall environment, since this place is constantly in motion, so the ground can suddenly give way, as Ethan finds out when he thinks he’s landed on solid ground but he is actually on top of an organism that flies away, and the trees even breathe; the trees were made to represent bronchial tubes as the first organ that the crew falls into is the lungs. This means that the Burning Sea with its oceans of acids is actually the stomach, and the creatures that seem to attack the crew are parts of the immune system. The flying fish that the Clades travel across whilst trying to avoid the Reapers are actually the bloodstream, with a red channel and a blue channel to mimic oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.

Some of the creatures that exist within Strange World include the Filterlope, which is a six-legged deer which filters and purifies everything that it comes into contact with; the Nub McNubbins, which are the little orange things that ride around on the six-legged dinosaurs, looking for damage tissues that they can repair, so they represent stem cells; the Reapers with their long tentacles are part of the immune system, looking to swallow any foreign objects to keep away harm; and the T cells, the pink pterodactyls, are another part of the immune system, seeking to destroy harmful particles, working similarly to white blood cells[6].

Splat, the blue blob, is a form of dendritic cell, which scouts out the area, finding antigens so that it can defend its organism. That is why when Splat first meets Searcher, he takes his handkerchief and tries to lead him to the Reapers so that they can destroy him[7]. Splat’s not being mean, that’s just what he’s been trained to do. In the end though, Splat sees Ethan as a friend, because Ethan heals Splat after he is terribly burnt by a Pando bulb – that scene actually made me really sad; I don’t like seeing things getting hurt, especially when they’re cute, like Splat. Splat’s character design looks simple but it was quite challenging, since it has so many limbs and all of them stretchy.

The difficulty in animating the worlds of Strange World was in keeping it relatable, grounded in reality, but also beautiful, just not so appealing that it detracted from the story. It couldn’t pull focus but needed to be imaginative. I think the animators did a great job in creating this bizarre world, and the science behind it and all the creatures was fascinating. In contrast to sub-Avalonia, we also see the city of Avalonia, which, despite being a technologically progressive place, contains quite an old style of architecture with many stone buildings, kind of reminiscent of towns in Spain or Italy, which I found to be an interesting twist on a futuristic world.

MUSIC

Composer Henry Jackman wrote the music for Strange World, having previously worked on Winnie the Pooh (2011), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), for which he won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production in 2013, Big Hero 6 (2014), and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) for Disney. Jackman has also composed music for non-animated action films including Kick-Ass (2010) and its 2013 sequel; Captain Phillips (2013); Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its 2017 sequel, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its 2019 sequel. Hall and Nguyen wanted Jackman to evoke the adventure mood of the film.

The score definitely evokes the feeling of adventure and peril. Some of my favourite instrumental pieces include “The Fate of Strange World” and “Resurrection”, which play as Pando is destroyed and the creature’s heart is revived. This is the big emotional scene in Strange World. Naturally, I pay more attention to the score in those quiet moments when you’re being made to think, and those are my favourite types of pieces. I also like “A New Perspective”, which plays during the final scene.

There is only one song in Strange World, and it’s a bit of a strange one. “They’re the Clades!” plays as we are given some backstory into the explorer family of the Clades, as a documentary-style film plays. The music was written by Jackman, with lyrics by Kevin Del Aguila. It does fit the comic-book style opening scene that the movie has, being quite loud and exuberant, and it throws you straight into what the Clades do. It’s kind of catchy, but it’s not going to go down in Disney history as one of their best songs! “They’re the Clades” has a reprise at the end of the movie as well, during the End Credits. These songs are performed by James Hayden.

RECEPTION

Strange World was released in theatres on 23^rd November 2022 – in some countries. Disney decided not to theatrically release their movie in certain territories, such as the Middle East, China, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan. This is due to the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ content, with the character of Ethan, which Disney did not want to have to edit out to make it fit the culture of these areas. Pixar’s movie Lightyear, released in June 2022, had been banned in a few countries, like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia, due to controversy over a brief scene of a same-sex couple kissing[8].

The inclusion of an openly gay character was not only seen as “problematic” in these areas, but also within the United States. A teacher in Florida was reported to the school board by a student’s mother in 2023 after showing the movie Strange World to her fifth-grade class. The parent reported the teacher for “indoctrination” and an official investigation was set in motion after this complaint, as it was in possible violation of the Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned the teaching of gender and sexual identity in schools in the state. The teacher had felt that Strange World was an appropriate movie for her class to watch as it related to their studies on Earth science and the ecosystem, and did not choose to show it to her students for any other reason, having also received permission slips from the parents to allow their children to see the PG-rated movie[9].

This just shows how divisive Strange World has become, although many critics did like the progression of including a gay character in a Disney movie. The environmental message was also praised by some, although others found it slightly too preachy. In general, audiences liked the bright, colourful animation, and the overall themes of the movie, around family dynamics, exploration, and understanding each other, but felt that the movie’s plot was “dull” and lacked drama.

Strange World was not nominated for Best Animated Feature in any of the major award ceremonies, and was only nominated for a couple of awards for storyboarding at the Annie Awards in 2023. It was also nominated at the Visual Effects Society Awards in 2023, but again, did not win.

Potentially because of the controversy around the LGBTQIA+ content, and for the lack of desire by viewers to see movies in theatres, Strange World became a box-office bomb. Despite being released around Thanksgiving, generally considered a very good time to release new movies, especially family-friendly ones, Strange World only made $18.6 million in that five-day window[10]. Globally, the movie only grossed $73.4 million, and with an estimated budget of $180 million, plus its advertising costs, that was a big loss.

Strange World was then released just a month later on Disney+ on 23^rd December 2022, just in time for the festive season, where it became one of the top 10 most streamed films on the platform in its first three weeks[11].

LEGACY

To promote the release of Strange World, the Disney Parks offered some limited time experiences from November 2022 to January 2023. These included a sneak peek of the movie at Walt Disney Presents in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, as well as at Disneyland Paris.

At Disney California Adventure, guests could learn how to draw Splat and the Clades’ dog Legend at the Animation Academy, and photo opportunities were available at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. These included “magic shots” of Splat appearing in Disney PhotoPass photos. There was also some merchandise available for Strange World, including play sets, books, and plush toys of Splat.

Since Strange World was not a successful movie for Disney in terms of box-office results, and to some extent reviews, very little else related to Strange World has been seen at the Disney Parks, although surprisingly, Ethan Clade as a meet-and-greet character made his debut at the runDisney 10-miler race in April 2024, standing in front of a sign for Clade Farms. This appears to be the first time that any character from Strange World has been spotted at the Disney Parks as a meet-and-greet opportunity. Whether or not that changes soon, and more characters from the movie will be seen more frequently or even just at Special Events remains to be seen.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is a shame that Strange World was not received as well as hoped, or as well as previous “Revival Era” animated features, especially after having read some interviews with the cast and creators for this piece, as it’s clear just how much passion and emotional experience went into the making of the movie.

Disney have tried to be more progressive in their characters, and have been much more diverse in their casting choices and ethnic representations recently. Even a decade ago, this was not the case. It is disappointing to find that people haven’t warmed to this film as much as they did with 2021’s hit Encanto, possibly because Strange World is not a musical, and adventure films are not as widely popular with a large audience.

I do think Strange World needs to be seen a couple of times to fully appreciate the artistic talent that went into creating that world, and the emotional arcs that take place. There is a lot going on, and it is difficult to figure out where to focus initially, whether that’s on the family aspect, or the environmental theme.

If anyone is unsure about whether to watch Strange World or not, I say be brave like the Clades and give it a go.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes: Lightning Lynx”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[2] Credit: Alison Stateman, ‘Behind the Scenes of Disney Animation’s Strange World’, D23.com, 17^th November 2022.

[3] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘Making ‘Strange World’: The Origin, Evolution and Progressive Representation of Disney Animation’s Sci-Fi Adventure’, TheWrap.com, 25^th November 2022.

[4] Credit: Camille Jefferson, ‘Behind the Scenes With the Makers of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Latest Film, Strange World’, Disney News (online), 14^th October 2022.

[5] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘Making ‘Strange World’: The Origin, Evolution and Progressive Representation of Disney Animation’s Sci-Fi Adventure’, TheWrap.com, 25^th November 2022.

[6] Credit: Disney, “Creature Feature”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[7] Credit: Disney, “Strange Science”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[8] Credit: Jamie Lang, ‘Disney’s ‘Strange World’ Skips Markets Where LGBTQIA+ Content Is Banned Or Censored’, CartoonBrew.com, 22^nd November 2022.

[9] Credit: Ed Pilkington, ‘Florida teacher defends showing Disney movie: ‘I’m just being accepting’, The Guardian (online), 14^th May 2023.

[10] Credit: Anthony D’Alessandro, ‘The Biggest Box Office Bombs of 2022: Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament’, Deadline.com, 14^th April 2023.

[11] Credit: Amanda Lamadrid, ‘Strange World Ended An Incredible 30-Year Disney Movie Rating Streak’, ScreenRant.com, 14^th April 2023.

21st Jun 202426th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#48 Bolt (2008)

BACKGROUND

In the midst of the Disney “Post-Renaissance Era”, the Disney Studios were struggling, as you can tell from the uninspiring era name, suggesting a decade of movie releases that never hit the heights of the famed “Renaissance Era” of the 1990s.

Disney Animation had tried to move into comedy and adventure films in the 2000s; that hadn’t worked out. They then moved away from 2D animation, and threw themselves into the world of computer animation; that also hadn’t impressed audiences.

It was getting to the end of another decade and Disney Animation wasn’t matching up to outside animation studios like DreamWorks and Blue Sky Studios – just think of how popular Shrek (2001), Madagascar (2005), and Ice Age (2002) had been at this time, spanning long-running franchises, some of which are still going today.

Not to mention Pixar, who was way ahead of everyone in terms of their CG movies, full of humour, heart, and soul. But since Disney merged with Pixar in 2006, the success of those movies could almost be considered a success for Disney Animation.

A new animated movie had to show that Disney Animation was a force to be reckoned with once more. That movie which drove the company onwards to better days was actually Bolt. In some ways, anyway.

Bolt is an underrated Disney film, and one that is not usually talked about. I don’t personally know anybody that has watched it, or, if they have, they clearly didn’t like it enough to mention it!

The first time I watched it was purely so I could say I’d watched all the Disney Animated Classics. I didn’t choose to watch Bolt out of any interest for the story. I remember deciding that I didn’t like it at all after that first watch, and that I would never watch it again.

But I did watch it again, with some reluctance, and actually…. I kind of liked it.

Bolt doesn’t have the most interesting storyline, but it has some touching moments, and the relationship between Bolt and Penny, his owner, is sweet. I also found that I liked the “showbusiness” elements to the plot, both the behind-the-scenes moments, as well as those featuring the awkwardness between Penny and her uncaring agent, which is actually quite topical, given what we have heard from former child stars about their time in showbusiness, and what we are still hearing today.

PLOT

The story begins with us seeing a White Swiss Shepherd in the Silver Lake Animal Rescue Center, where he’s playing with his squeaky carrot toy. A little girl walks in to the centre and decides that she wants this little puppy. She gives him a tag, showing his name is now Bolt.

Five years later, we see this twelve-year-old girl, named Penny, still with her dog, Bolt. She gets a call from her father, telling her he’s in trouble and that she can’t go home, but not to worry because he has altered Bolt to give him powers so she will be protected. Penny and Bolt try to track down her father, coming across the evil Dr. Calico, who has captured him. They discover that Dr. Calico is in Bolivia so they head to the airport, however, they are being chased by agents of Dr. Calico. With the help of Bolt and his special power “the super bark” all the bad guys are thrown back and the two are safe to go on. We then find that this almost ten-minute sequence is actually not how the rest of the film is going to go because we discover this is all just a television show that Penny and Bolt star in together.

The Director of this TV show relays the importance of ensuring that Bolt doesn’t know that this is a show, as his belief that Penny is in danger makes his “acting” more real. However, the Network says that the show is getting too predictable and they need to do something about getting their ratings back up. Penny is upset that Bolt can never act like a normal dog, because of the Director’s rules; Bolt has to stay shut in the trailer and can never be taken home with Penny because he has to believe that everything in the show is real.

The next day, a new shoot for the show begins. The shoot ends with Penny being captured by Dr. Calico and shut in a huge box. The Director believes that ending the show on a cliffhanger will help ratings, but this traumatises Bolt who is not allowed to know that Penny is safe until they film the next episode. When Bolt is taken back to his trailer by a handler, he escapes and runs around the studio lot trying to find the box Penny was placed in on set. He finds it, but smashes into a window as he tries to get to it. Bolt then collapses into a box. This box is then sealed up and put in a van, with it eventually being delivered to New York City. Bolt breaks out of the box and begins to run around the city, not knowing where he is or where Penny is. At one point, he believes he’s found the real Dr. Calico, but it’s not him. Bolt then follows a Portaloo being taken across the city on a truck, believing this to be the box Penny is trapped in, but he finds she isn’t there. He then tries to ask for help from dogs on the street, but their owner thinks Bolt is lost and attaches a lead to him, so he runs away into the park, getting his head trapped between some railings. A trio of pigeons help him free himself from the bars.

Bolt then sees a Styrofoam packing peanut attached to him. He believes this has weakened him and that is why his powers aren’t working. Bolt tells the pigeons he needs to find one of Dr. Calico’s cats. The pigeons have no idea what he’s talking about but take Bolt to Mittens. This is some sort of act of revenge as Mittens coerces the city’s pigeons into getting her food regularly. Bolt threatens Mittens and holds her over a road until she tells him where Dr. Calico is. She has no idea what he’s talking about but claims she does just to get him to stop. Bolt attaches her to his lead, so that Mittens is like his prisoner. She shows Bolt a top-secret map of the entire Earth, which is actually just a map of Waffle World locations across the US. Mittens says he must get from New York City to Hollywood to find Dr. Calico. Thinking this is the end of her involvement with this strange dog, Mittens hopes she’ll be freed, but she’s actually dragged along for the ride – quite literally.

First, the two hitchhike in the back of a U-Haul van. Mittens tries to knock out Bolt with a baseball bat she’s found in the back of this van, but she falls and knocks over a box of Styrofoam onto Bolt who freaks out and jumps out the van, taking Mittens with him. They end up in Ohio. Mittens then teaches Bolt how to beg for food at a nearby trailer park. In one of these trailers is a hamster in a ball who loves TV; his name is Rhino, randomly. He spots Bolt and being a big fan of his asks to come along on Bolt’s mission; Bolt allows it.

Their next plan to get to Hollywood is to jump off a bridge and onto a moving train. It is at this point that Mittens realises that Bolt doesn’t actually have super powers, but that he’s on a TV show. She’s horrified and tells Bolt not to jump, but he doesn’t listen. The jump down onto the train, unsurprisingly, doesn’t work out as expected and after avoiding being decapitated by a railway signal, the trio roll of the train. Mittens angrily tells Bolt he’s not a super dog. Bolt doesn’t care what she thinks and starts barking at her, to get her to continue their journey, but the barking alerts a nearby animal control worker who catches Bolt and Mittens and puts them into his van. Rhino sees all this and follows the van. Rhino gets out of his ball and opens up Bolt’s cage, allowing him to jump out. Bolt is disappointed to find that he hadn’t been able to bust himself out of his cage, proving that he really doesn’t have powers. He touches his bolt-shaped “birthmark” and realises it is just ink… Mittens was right; he really isn’t a super dog. To try and motivate Bolt, Rhino tells him that he is a hero, because he still thinks Bolt is a super dog, and that they must go and save Mittens. Bolt knows it’s the right thing to do so they head to the animal shelter. With some clever distractions from Rhino, Bolt easily frees Mittens from her cage and the three leave the centre – after Rhino, back in his ball, knocks out one of the workers and then crashes into a helium tank which blows up a car in the parking lot…

They then get on another van where Bolt tells Mittens he doesn’t know who he is if he isn’t a superhero. She tells him about how easy life as a regular dog is, with all that food and warm fires to sit by. As they travel from Ohio to Las Vegas, Mittens teaches Bolt how to be like a regular dog, since she was a house cat once upon a time. In Vegas, Mittens shows Bolt the little homes she’s made for them both, hoping they can forget this quest and just have a life out in the wild. Bolt says he has to get to Penny. Mittens is upset and tells Bolt that Penny is just an actress and doesn’t care about him; no human cares about their pet. It turns out Mittens’ owners moved away one day and left her to fend for herself. Bolt goes on to Hollywood alone, leaving Mittens to tell Rhino that Bolt said he had to face Dr. Calico alone, to keep up Rhino’s delusional. Rhino insists they go after him, because you can never abandon a friend in a time of need.

Meanwhile, Penny is heartbroken, having still not found Bolt. Her agent tells her that they have found him, but it’s actually just a replacement dog who looks like him. The Network tells Penny she’ll have to continue the show with this dog, or else the show will get cancelled and many people will lose their jobs. Talk about emotional blackmail…

Bolt finally makes it to the studio, with Mittens and Rhino making it too. Bolt hears Penny and runs over to her – but is devastated to find her hugging a different dog who looks just like him. Believing Mittens to have been right about humans all along, Bolt leaves. In actual fact, this was all just a rehearsal for the show that Mittens has also overheard, but what Bolt didn’t hear is Penny saying how much she misses the real Bolt.

In a new scene for the show, Penny is tied up, hanging from the ceiling when new Bolt arrives, but he is scared of all the actors and the whole set and runs away, knocking over the scene’s lit torches, setting the whole stage on fire. Mittens catches up with Bolt by the studio entrance and tells him that Penny does care about him. Bolt then feels that something is wrong and runs over to the studio. He gets into the building thanks to Rhino, whose plastic ball keeps a door open long enough for Bolt to get inside. Penny has managed to release herself from the ceiling but can’t find a way out. Bolt hears her coughing and follows the sound right to her. The two are so happy to be reunited, but the whole set is coming down and Penny is struggling to breathe. Penny attaches a lead to Bolt and asks him to find a way out for them. He drags her to a vent, but she is too weak to move. Penny tells him to go without her, but Bolt, ever the loyal dog, refuses to leave her. He barks near the vent to try and get help, before passing out himself.

Luckily, the bark echoes through the vent and gets to the rescue workers outside. They get in to the studio and find the two of them. Penny’s agent tells her that they can get more work from this incident, but her mother angrily tells him they quit. Penny and Bolt are rushed to hospital, with Rhino and Mittens hitching a ride there too.

We then see a girl being told that her injuries were severe and that her face had to be reconstructed. Don’t worry; this isn’t Penny. Well, not really. It’s a different actress and this is another scene from the show, which ends with “Penny” and “Bolt” being abducted by aliens. We move to Rhino who is distraught about this new reboot. I feel your pain, Rhino. Who hasn’t been disappointed by the recasting of a character in a show or by a terrible reboot? We’ve all been there! We now see that Bolt, Mittens and Rhino are living together with Penny, who has retired from acting and living a happy, normal life with her favourite dog.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Bolt is made to believe that everything that happens on the set of the TV show is real: that he has a “super bark” that can knock people backwards; that he has laser beam eyes; he can jump long distances; he has super strength. This has got to be a form of animal cruelty, doesn’t it? It’s no wonder he spends much of his time being mocked by animals in “the real world” who think he’s completely delusional, when it’s not even his fault! I feel really sorry for Bolt when he eventually realises that he is just a dog, but it is nice watching Mittens teach him how to be a normal dog, like learning to beg for food from people’s RVs on the trailer park; telling him how dogs drink out of the toilet, which Bolt is grossed out by; and saying how dogs like to curl up and sleep by the fire, which Bolt much prefers, and he starts to accept his new status in life. With his heroics by saving Penny, because apparently nobody in the crew cared enough about their star to save her, Bolt shows how he is super in normal ways, not magical ones, and it’s very sweet and touching when the firemen figure out where they are in the studio from his real life “super bark”.

John Travolta was chosen to voice Bolt. It may not seem like the obvious choice for such a sweet, naïve character, but actually Travolta does a great job with the role, giving much emotion to some of the movie’s big moments, like discovering that he’s not actually a superhero, and finding out that Penny has supposedly replaced him. Travolta is known for his early roles in movies like Carrie (1976), Grease (1978) and Saturday Night Fever (1977), with him earning Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for that role, as well as for Pulp Fiction (1994). Around the time of Bolt, he had also appeared in Wild Hogs (2007) and the movie version of the musical Hairspray (2007). More recently, Travolta has appeared in television series like The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) as Robert Shapiro and in the comedy-action series Die Hart (2020), alongside Kevin Hart.

Mittens ended up being my favourite character, because we first see her acting like a mob boss, controlling the pigeons and making them get her food. The character of Mittens also reminded me a lot of Jessie from the Toy Story series, because it turned out she was abandoned by her previous owners who just moved away and left her too. In the scene when Mittens shows Bolt this little home she’s made for them and Bolt says he has to find Penny because she’s his “person”, Mittens cannot understand this and tells him how she was abandoned and that humans don’t care about animals. In the end though, she does get her forever home with Penny and realises that Penny does truly love Bolt.

Disney wanted someone with an authentic New York accent to voice the character of Mittens, with actress Susie Essman being given the part. Essman is best known for her role as Susie Greene in the series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-24), as well as for her recurring voice role of Mrs. Lonstein in American Dad! (2005-present).

Rhino, the hamster – who is “1/16 wolf with a little wolverine” – is a very energetic, crazy character! Rhino spends almost the entire movie in his hamster ball, constantly in awe of Bolt. He clearly doesn’t understand what TV is, so that is his excuse for continuing the fantasy that Bolt is a famous superhero. He’s a little bit too loud for me, but I know he was a favourite with some critics. John Lasseter brought in his pet chinchilla during production for the animators to use as inspiration for the design of Rhino. The animators also adopted a hamster called Doink! who lived at the studios[1]. Mark Walton had been a storyboard artist on Tarzan (1999), Home on the Range (2004), Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007). He was originally the “scratch voice” for the character of Rhino during storyboarding, but the team gave Walton the role as they felt no-one else could do the voice as well. Walton left Disney around 2009 and has worked at Illumination since 2023.

Then there’s Penny. She is a child actress, only twelve years old, and she clearly has a difficult time dealing with all the responsibilities that go with fame. Her agent seems quite pushy, not letting her spend time with Bolt and convincing her to give interviews on all these shows like The Tonight Show to publicise the series. It’s very sad to see Penny lose Bolt, who was seemingly her only access to any sort of normal childhood, and it’s obvious that she hates how Bolt is treated by the show and how it made him hypervigilant and unable to relax. It’s such a great moment when Penny and her mother stand up for themselves by quitting show business. They then get to live a happy life away from all that pressure.

Penny was voiced by Miley Cyrus. Cyrus does well acting in those dramatic moments, like the studio fire, delivering her lines with a lot of emotion. I teared up when Bolt decided to stay with Penny when she’d collapsed from smoke inhalation and couldn’t escape. It did take me a while to get used to her voice though, as it didn’t sound as young as I was expecting – Penny is meant to be twelve-years-old after all – but Cyrus admitted in a behind-the-scenes video on the making of Bolt that her voice is quite deep, so she had to make it sound younger[2]. I did get used to it in the end, but initially I was sceptical about her being chosen for the movie, believing it to just be a marketing ploy to get younger fans back to watching Disney movies, since at the time, Cyrus was best known for her starring role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana (2006-11). She later starred in the movie LOL (2012) and is now one of the most successful recording artists, with some of her most popular singles being “The Climb”, “Party in the U.S.A”, “Wrecking Ball”, and “Flowers”.

There are a few other “human characters” to mention, those being involved in the Hollywood side of Bolt. The first is The Agent. He is awful, not caring at all about what Penny wants, not being bothered by the fact that Bolt is being mistreated by the studio, replacing her dog like it’s no big deal, and then trying to capitalise on her near-death experience. He’s very pushy and he has the most annoying catchphrase: “let’s put a pin in this conversation”. Despite the terrible character, I’m actually a fan of the actor who voiced The Agent, Greg Germann. He had played the role of Richard Fish on Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and was recently cast as Dr. Tom Koracick from Season 14 to Season 19 in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present). The reason I’m a fan of his, though, is because of his portrayal of Hades in Season 5 of Once Upon a Time (2011-18); I love Hades as a Disney villain and I was glad that someone lived up to James Woods’ voice performance in Hercules (1997).

Then there is The Director, who is another toxic reference to the world of showbusiness. All he cares about is making sure his show doesn’t get cancelled. It is on his orders that Bolt is left alone in his trailer at the end of the day and that he never gets to act like a normal dog. The Director says “if the dog believes it, then the audience believes it too”. Yeah, ok – whatever helps you sleep at night, bro. The Director was voiced by James Lipton, who produced, created, and hosted the Bravo TV series Inside the Actors Studio (1994-2019), which interviewed people in the entertainment industry, like actors and directors. Lipton passed away in 2020.

Finally, we have the actor who voices the actor who portrays the evil Dr. Calico on the Bolt TV show, who of course had to be English because all the best villains are voiced by British people! Malcolm McDowell voiced the character. McDowell is best known for playing the main role of Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971). In more recent years, he played the part of Daniel Linderman in the superhero series Heroes (2006-10) and portrayed Rupert Murdock in Bombshell (2019).

MUSIC

Unlike other Disney animated movies, Bolt does not have a particularly memorable soundtrack, but that’s probably just because it’s not a musical, in the same way that none of the movies from 2000 to 2008 were the typical Disney musical.

There are only two songs in the movie, with only one being played in the actual movie, and the other being an End Credits song. “Barking at the Moon”, written and performed by Jenny Lewis, a former child actress, who appeared in the sitcom Brooklyn Bridge (1991-93). Lewis then left acting to focus on her music career, being the lead singer in the band Rilo Kiley in 1998 before launching a solo career. She provided the voice of the Assistant Director in Bolt as well. “Barking at the Moon” plays as Rhino, Bolt, and Mittens make their way from Ohio to Las Vegas, and Mittens teaches Bolt how to act like a normal dog. This song has a very country feel to it, which is appropriate for the road trip element of the movie, but I’m not a fan of this song, probably because I’m not a big fan of country music. I do like its lyrics referencing the importance of home though and I feel like it fits in well at this point in the movie. There is a brief reprise of the song at the end of the movie.

The other song is “I Thought I Lost You” performed by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta. It was written by Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele, who was the lead singer and bass guitarist in the band Boy Howdy in the 1990s and went on to co-write many hits songs for artists such as LeAnn Rimes, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Tim McGraw. I prefer this song to “Barking at the Moon” as it sounds more like a pop song and a typical song we’d expect to hear from Miley Cyrus during her Hannah Montana days. It’s also got a nice message about reuniting with someone you thought you’d lost. “I Thought I Lost You” was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, but lost to “The Wrestler” from the movie of the same name.

The score for Bolt was composed by John Powell, who had co-composed scores for DreamWorks movies such as The Road to El Dorado (2000), Shrek (2001) and Kung Fu Panda (2008), as well as Animal Logic’s Happy Feet (2006) prior to working on Bolt. Powell went on to compose the score for the How to Train Your Dragon film series, as well as live-action movies including Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and Don’t Worry Darling (2022). Powell is also known for his musical work on some the Ice Age films and the Bourne movies.

Within the score, I can’t say any instrumental pieces stood out to me whilst watching the movie, unlike my experiences with other Disney animated film scores. However, the ending piece “Home at Last” is probably the one I noticed most. The score does have a good mix of intense moments, like “Rescuing Penny”, and some more reflective ones, like “A Friend in Need”, so those match the tone of the movie.

PRODUCTION

Bolt started out as an original story idea called American Dog, written by Chris Sanders, who had co-written and co-directed Lilo & Stitch (2002). After the Disney-Pixar merger in 2006, John Lasseter came on board as Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation and was tasked with overseeing production on the movie. Bolt happens to be the first Disney film to be produced completely under his guidance.

With that in mind, Lasseter gave Sanders notes on how the movie could be improved. These were rejected by Sanders who then left the Disney Studios and ended up working at DreamWorks where he co-wrote and co-directed How to Train Your Dragon (2010) instead, a movie that spanned a hugely popular franchise[3].

In February 2007, two new directors were assigned to the project. These directors were Chris Williams and Byron Howard. Williams had previously worked as a Story Artist for Disney animated films like Mulan (1998), The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Lilo & Stitch (2002), and Chicken Little (2005). He went on to co-direct Big Hero 6 (2014) with Don Hall, as well as work on story for Moana (2016). Howard had worked as the Supervising Animator for Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Bear Kenai for Brother Bear (2003) before Bolt, and went on to co-direct Tangled (2010), Zootopia (2016), and Encanto (2021).

With a combination of Disney talent in the areas of story and character animation, it’s no surprise that Williams and Howard made sure to fully focus on these areas of Bolt. As is normal for any movie, some story ideas were originally conceived and then later cut, or reworked. Two of these were around Bolt’s realisation that he is not a super hero, and doesn’t have powers, like he’d been made to believe by the people behind his television series. The first idea was to have Bolt confront two mean dogs in an alleyway in Las Vegas. He would believe that his super bark and laser eyes will fight off the dogs, but it doesn’t work and he is brutally attacked. Mittens finds him hurt, but more than that, crushed that everything he thought was real and true was actually all a lie. This scene was potentially too traumatic to include in a family-friendly movie, so it was reworked. Another version of this scene was to have Bolt dive into a fast-flowing river to save Rhino who has somehow ended up in there, still in his ball. Bolt can’t get through the strong currents and hits up against rocks, needing Mittens to save him. Rhino believes Bolt did save his life, but Bolt knows he didn’t, touching the bolt on his back and knowing that he is not a super dog. Although this moment of realisation was again reworked, this moment of Bolt touching his bolt was kept[4].

As a tribute to Disney Animation’s days of 2D animation, the Art Department wanted to have painterly backgrounds that were realistic and simple, referencing a specific place or type of area, but without so much detail that it would detract from the actions of the characters. However, given that Bolt is a CG animated movie, a new type of software was created to allow for the computer-generated backgrounds to look as though they had been painted, by adding brushstroke and shadow effects to them. These backgrounds in Bolt clearly show the audience were in the US Bolt and his two friends are, such as parts of Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, and even Las Vegas, with a shot showing the Bellagio hotel and its famous fountains. The artwork is simple but realistic to the real world.

Art Director Paul Felix and Lighting Director Adolph Lusinsky also took a research trip across America, travelling 1,200 miles in two days so that they could look at the details of small towns as well as study the light in these different parts of America. For example, they looked at the Las Vegas desert to see how the heat affects how we see the landscape, and New York City has lots of buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, so seeing the sunlight reflect off those gave the scenery a different light quality.

In contrast to this familiar world, we also have a few minutes of “TV world”, where we are brought into the filming of the Bolt television show. This is filled with action-packed scenes of explosions, bombs, and bad guys, as well as superhero powers, like Bolt’s super bark and his laser eyes. It’s a typical spy-style television show, but we get the added twist of seeing it being filmed, with random additional references to things like boom mics, effects teams, and dog handlers, to take us out of that “fake world” and back to reality[5]. Shame Bolt isn’t allowed to ever do that! Speaking of this studio lot, it was made to resemble the Riverside Drive entrance of the actual Disney Studios in Burbank[6].

Making Bolt was quite the learning curve for the two directors, as this was the first time either Williams or Howard had ever directed a Disney animated movie. They found it to be a very fun and collaborative experience, with ideas from all departments being taken into account for the movie’s plot, characters, animation, and effects. They even had to create a whole new technology to deal with the stretchy leash that ties Mittens to Bolt for the first part of their journey together! The team also had a huge inflatable hamster ball, or what we would now call a Zorb Ball, blown up in the Studios for the workers to run around inside, so that they knew what it was like to be Rhino the hamster – or it was just a way of goofing off, but I don’t blame them either way. Ten weeks before the end of their tight production schedule on Bolt, all the men working on the project decided not to shave their beards until the movie was completed, supposedly as some sort of motivational tactic[7]!

RECEPTION

Bolt was released on 21^st November 2008, a week before Thanksgiving. This also happens to be the exact same day that the movie Twilight was released. Awkward…

Given the bad timing of releasing Bolt that could never have been predicted, the movie did not do as well as expected at the box-office during its cinema run. It was outperformed by many other animated family-friendly movies of 2008, including Pixar’s WALL-E, DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Blue Sky Studios’ Horton Hears a Who! Bolt was also later beaten out at the domestic box-office by Marley & Me, coincidentally another movie about a dog, albeit a live-action rom-com. Bolt was even out-grossed by Chicken Little (2005), a Disney animated movie that was panned by critics and viewers alike.

Bolt later ended its run with a domestic total of $114 million, which, combined with $196 million from international markets, came to a global total of $310 million, which may have been a disappointment to Disney executives, but doesn’t seem too bad when compared to some of the box-office bombs that Disney experienced in the 2000s.

It is also worth remembering that Bolt’s reviews and audience scores surpassed those of both Disney’s Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons (2007)[8]. Although some felt that the story was lacking in both action and humour, others did find Bolt funny and liked many of the characters, especially Rhino, who injected a lot of energy into the plot. Many said it was a step up from Disney Animation’s previous work and felt that it was a good sign for the future of the company.

Bolt was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Academy Awards, which is very significant, actually, as the last solely Disney, not Pixar, film to be nominated in this category was Brother Bear (2003). Bolt did, however, lose to Pixar’s WALL-E here. Not only that but Bolt was also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards, losing to Kung Fu Panda; at the Golden Globes, losing to WALL-E; and at the Kids’ Choice Awards, losing to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. It was clearly a very competitive year for animated movies, and perhaps many viewers had decided not to give Disney a chance at the time, given their previous track record in the decade.

LEGACY

Bolt did not receive tons of celebrations on its release, so it is not surprising that the movie has not been referenced much by The Walt Disney Company since then.

In 2009, a short spin-off movie was made called Super Rhino. It really is a short film, only around five minutes long, which sees Rhino get some super power upgrades, like laser eyes, to save Penny and Bolt from yet another encounter with the evil Dr. Calico. Rhino even goes to a concert at the end of the movie and sings that big Hannah Montana hit “The Best of Both Worlds”. But alas, it was all just a dream, and Rhino is still not a superhero[9]. Given that Rhino became the standout character from Bolt, it was a good move to make a short film based on him. Mark Walton, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, and Malcolm McDowell reprised their voice roles of Rhino, Penny, Mittens, and Dr. Calico here.

To promote the movie’s release at the Disney Parks, at Walt Disney World within the Magic of Animation building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which has since been replaced by Star Wars Launch Bay, Rhino, Mittens, and Bolt were all available to meet guests from November 2008. It is unclear how long the meet-and-greets lasted for, but it appears to have been for less than year. Ever since then, Bolt has been the only character to meet guests at Walt Disney World, and is not a regularly scheduled character – not a big shocker there. Bolt was seen as part of the Limited Time Magic: Dogs of Summer event at Magic Kingdom alongside Stitch, Pluto, and Doug in 2013, but was also randomly spotted at both Epcot and the Wilderness Lodge Resort in 2023. You can also catch a quick glimpse of a clip from Bolt as part of the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

At Disneyland, there was the Bolt Pre-Parade which began in 2008, with a float featuring Bolt, Mittens, and a few cheerleaders/dancers appearing before Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams. When that parade stopped running in 2008, the pre-parade then moved to Disney California Adventure to run before the Pixar Play Parade. The Bolt Pre-Parade used the song “I Thought I Lost You” as its soundtrack.

At Disneyland Paris, Bolt and Mittens were seen together in 2017 for a Guest Star Day, but Bolt was also seen sometime in late 2023 as a random character find. Bolt and his friends do not seem to have ever featured at the Disney Parks in Asia.

Merchandise including pins and plush toys were available around the time of Bolt’s release in 2008, but ever since then, it has been harder to find. For any fans of Bolt, it is likely that looking for merchandise around a milestone anniversary is the best bet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite being the most critically and commercially successful movie from Disney Animation since Lilo & Stitch (2002) at the time, Bolt seems to have been promptly forgotten by many. Whether that is because it has always been considered lesser to the big movies of the 1990s, or because it had already been surpassed by later movies from Disney just a couple of years later, it is not clear.

It may not have been a big fairy-tale musical, or even a strangely comedic movie like Shrek (2001), but Bolt was definitely quite a few steps in the right direction. Even if you don’t like Bolt, you have to admit that is true. It did take a while for Disney Animation to figure out how to make visually appealing, interesting, and funny movies with their new medium of computer-animation, but by the end of the 2000s, it looked like they were just about there.

Bolt was a lot better than I expected, or remembered, with much more emotion to it than I’d anticipated, and that’s what I look for in any movie. It’s definitely worth a watch, and I’d like to think that I will choose to watch Bolt again some time, just because I want to.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[2] Credit: Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt, Disney (2008).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Creating the World of Bolt”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[7] Credit: Disney, “A New Breed of Directors: A Filmmakers’ Journey”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[8] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Toon Tuesday: Disney tries to figure out why “Bolt” missed its box office target’, JimHillMedia.com, 6^th January 2009.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Bonus Short: Super Rhino”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

14th Jun 202426th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#11 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

BACKGROUND

After the Disney Studios had released their animated film Bambi in 1942, it became only too clear to Walt Disney that they would have to explore different ways of making movies.

When the US joined World War II in December 1941, the US Army tasked the Disney Studios with making propaganda films to help with the war effort. Many of the animators had also left the company to enlist in the army, so manpower was limited.

To deal with this, Disney Animation made a series of what became known as “package features”. Similarly to Fantasia (1940), these movies consisted of different animated segments joined together to make a full-length feature film. The Disney “package features” of the 1940s were sometimes made up of numerous short segments, often paired with musical accompaniments, and others consisted of just two longer stories.

That was the case for two of Disney’s movies: Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad also became the final film in what was to be known as Disney’s “Wartime Era”. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad consists of two different stories, each one just over thirty minutes long, which probably helps in terms of being able to focus on just two tales, instead of up to ten like in some of the previous package films.

These “package features”, although not generally remembered, either at all or for their animation quality, had a more important purpose: to keep the Disney Studios afloat. They are not be the best movies to have ever come out of the Disney Animation department, but they were good enough to keep money coming in to the Studios, and to keep the animators somewhat trained and entertained.

Despite the generally poor critical reception these package films receive, I do quite like The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and I like to watch it every Halloween for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. That’s about as far and as “spooky” as I go in terms of “celebrating” Halloween! Many others also particularly like watching The Legend of Sleepy Hollow during the Halloween festivities, and the famous Disneyland ride Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride has kept the story of Mr. Toad, making The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad one of Disney’s more popular “package feature” films.

STORY #1: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, going against its title, begins with Toad’s story. The movie begins with the usual opening credits and title song, before heading into a library, where character actor, Basil Rathbone, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films between 1939 and 1946, starts The Wind in the Willows section of the film. Rathbone asks: who is the most fabulous character in English Literature? He then lists a number of well-known characters, like Robin Hood, Oliver Twist, King Arthur. But no, he decides the answer to that question is J. Thaddeus Toad. I disagree with this decision.

We then go into the animated story, which follows J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of the Toad Hall estate in London, and his friends, MacBadger, Rat, and Mole, who try to keep Toad on the straight and narrow, and out of bankruptcy, but he becomes quickly obsessed with different “manias”, making him difficult to keep in line. To begin with, Toad is obsessed with his new gypsy cart which he drives around in with his horse, Cyril Proudbottom. Whilst out riding one day, Toad spots a shiny red car outside of a bar and begins a new obsession; he must have that car. Trying to stop Toad’s new mania, his friends shut him in his room and keep watch, but Toad manages to escape so he can get that car.

However, Toad is arrested for allegedly stealing this car. It turns out he actually bought it from a pack of weasels fair and square, trading Toad Hall for the vehicle, with a barman called Mr. Winky witnessing this event, but as the car was first stolen by the weasels, Toad has been blamed for the theft. Toad hopes that Mr. Winky will come to trial and resolve all of this, but that is not the case. Mr. Winky tells the court that Toad did steal the car, and Toad is found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. Meanwhile, the weasels and Mr. Winky take over Toad Hall.

On Christmas Eve, Cyril Proudbottom goes to the Tower of London and, using a disguise, breaks Toad out of jail. He hijacks a steam train and uses that to get to his friend Rat’s house, whilst outrunning the police. At Rat’s house, Rat and Mole hope that Toad will get time off for “good behaviour” – oh please, don’t make me laugh – but when Toad shows up, they plan to prove Toad’s innocence, since the weasels do have the deed to Toad Hall so Toad must have been telling the truth about not stealing the car. They and MacBadger sneak into Toad Hall and manage to steal the deed back from the weasels and Mr. Winky, showing all the signatures on it, proving that a legitimate sale took place.

Toad is acquitted of his crimes and is free to return to Toad Hall. However, Toad has since developed a new obsession – for planes. On New Year’s Day, him and Cyril are seen flying over the estate as MacBadger, Rat, and Mole watch helplessly from the ground.

In all honestly, I don’t really like the Mr. Toad part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad but I still make myself watch it, just to get to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It’s a good thing they save Ichabod Crane until last or I wouldn’t bother with the first half of the movie, because Toad is so unlikeable.

Toad is nothing but a brat of an aristocrat, with no responsibility, no career, no purpose in life. So instead of actually helping to keep Toad Hall, his ancestral home and bright light of the community, by keeping it and himself out of financial ruin, he decides to continue spending ridiculous amounts of money, and getting himself into trouble, destroying public property, that then needs to be paid for. He’s a mess of a character. There is nothing I find likeable about him. He’s selfish, childish, naïve, irresponsible, reckless, arrogant – need I go on? Ultimately, Toad learns absolutely nothing and instead of his road mania, where he owned a bright yellow gypsy cart, and then his “motor mania” which led to him trading Toad Hall, a £100,000 estate, for a shiny red car, he ends up being obsessed with planes, and flies off on a Wright Flyer. It was all completely pointless, really. The character of Toad was voiced by Eric Blore, who appeared in numerous musical movies, including those starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, such as Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935).

To their credit, Rat, Mole, and MacBadger do an awful lot for Toad, whether he deserves it or not. They try to keep him on the straight and narrow, but Toad is so difficult to communicate with that their advice falls on deaf ears. Toad’s horse friend, Cyril, even busts him out of jail. Cyril was voiced by J. Pat O’Malley. His voice might sound familiar as he went on to voice many Disney characters, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, plus the Walrus and the Carpenter, in Alice in Wonderland (1951); Jasper and Colonel in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961); and Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967). Claud Allister voiced the part of Rat. Allister had previously voiced the character of Sir Giles in the live-action/animated Disney movie The Reluctant Dragon (1941), and also appeared as Paul in the movie Kiss Me Kate (1953). MacBadger was voiced by Disney animator and writer Campbell Grant, whilst Mole’s voice actor was Colin Campbell.

Disney’s Toad seems to be a lot less apologetic and friendly than he is in the original story. Originally, he doesn’t develop a mania for planes at the end, instead righting his wrongs and compensating for his bad ways. I have no idea why Disney wouldn’t have wanted Toad to learn from his mistakes at the end. It hardly sets a good example for children but there you go! The main basis of Disney’s story is more or less the same as Kenneth Grahame’s original novel, The Wind in the Willows, though the additional short stories included in the original book were omitted.

In terms of music, the only original song in Disney’s story of The Wind in the Willows is “The Merrily Song”, where Toad and Cyril Proudbottom both sing that they are “merrily, merrily on our way to nowhere in particular”. It’s actually quite a catchy song, and it sums up Toad’s whole life well: that he has no reason to get anywhere, or do anything useful. The popular New Year’s Eve song “Auld Lang Syne” also appears in this story.

All the music for the songs in The Wind in the Willows were written by Frank Churchill and Charles Wolcott. Churchill had won the Oscar for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “Baby Mine” for Dumbo (1941) and he also co-composed the score for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He died by suicide in May 1942, before the release of Bambi (1942) for which he also wrote the music. Wolcott had previously worked as the General Musical Director for many of the “package features” at Disney, including Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944). The lyrics were written by Larry Morey and Ray Gilbert. Morey had previously co-composed the score for Bambi with Frank Churchill and worked on the music for the Disney live-action film So Dear to My Heart (1948). Gilbert had written the lyrics to the Oscar-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South (1946) and written the lyrics for the songs in The Three Caballeros (1944) prior to this film.

It seems that The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad might have been the first adaptation of The Wind and the Willows on screen, but there have been numerous adaptations since. Julian Fellowes, creator of the period drama series’ Downton Abbey (2010-15) and The Gilded Age (2022-present) wrote a musical version of the novel in 2016, and Alan Bennett wrote a 1990 play of the novel. On screen, some adaptations include a live-action film which aired in 2006, starring Matt Lucas as Mr. Toad, Bob Hoskins as Badger, and Mark Gatiss as Ratty, as well as a 1995 animated film with Rik Mayall as the voice of Mr. Toad, Michael Gambon as the voice of Badger, and Michael Palin as Rat, with live-action sequences with Vanessa Redgrave as the Narrator.

STORY #2: THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

For this story, we return to the library from the opening, and move on to American literature. The story of Ichabod Crane is narrated by famed singer and actor Bing Crosby, known for starring roles in such movie musicals as Holiday Inn (1942), alongside Fred Astaire; White Christmas (1954) with Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney; and High Society (1956), where he shared the screen with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong.

The plot for this segment follows Ichabod Crane, a tall, lanky man, arriving at the small village of Sleepy Hollow, outside of Tarrytown, New York, to become the next schoolmaster. Despite Ichabod’s strange appearance, he still finds himself able to charm the women of the village, however, the men, led by hard-man Brom Bones, do not warm to him, especially once Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of the richest farmer in the area, comes to town and starts flirting with Ichabod, making Brom, her unofficial fiancé, furious and incredibly jealous. Though Ichabod is entranced by Katrina’s beauty, he’s more interested in her family money, so is determined to win her hand – that sneaky gold-digger.

At the annual Van Tassel Halloween party, to which both men are invited, Brom tries to keep Katrina away from Ichabod, but to no avail. So, Brom decides that he’ll tell the spooky tale of the Headless Horseman, to scare Ichabod, who is incredibly superstitious and jumpy with things like that. The Headless Horseman supposedly waits in the woods on Halloween night trying to find a living head to replace his; the victim can only escape by crossing the covered bridge. Nobody else at the party is scared, but it works on Ichabod.

On Ichabod’s ride home, he is incredibly jumpy and his slow, old horse Gunpowder does nothing to speed along his journey. Consumed by fear, Ichabod’s imagination goes into overdrive, and he does encounter the Headless Horseman. After a chase through the woods as Ichabod attempts to reach the end of the bridge, we see the Horseman throw a jack-o’-lantern at Ichabod’s head, and the screen goes black…

The character of Ichabod Crane isn’t much better than Mr. Toad, since he is greedy and selfish, using Katrina to get her father’s money and to annoy Brom Bones. Before he meets her, he was using his students to get to their mothers to cook for him, so he could get free dinners, so that shows the type of man Ichabod Crane is. Even his horse doesn’t seem to think much of him! Animator Frank Thomas used his precarious experiences of horse riding to animate the scene of Ichabod riding Gunpowder at night.

Brom Bones is a typical man’s man, who thinks he deserves the respect of everyone in the town and to be able to marry the richest, most beautiful woman in the town – that being Katrina. Disney animator Andreas Deja used Brom Bones as an inspiration for his character design of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (1991), so if you know Gaston, you can imagine what Brom Bones is like without even watching the film! Katrina is flirtatious and takes advantage of her beauty, watching as men fawn all over her. She’s a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to take it.

Other than a few brief sound effects, the whole story is spoken and sung by Bing Crosby. Some of these brief lines of dialogue include a “yoo-hoo”, by Katrina Van Tassel, apparently voiced by Bea Benaderet, the voice of Betty Rubble in The Flintstones (1960-63). There is also the laugh of the Headless Horseman which was provided by Billy Bletcher, the original voice artist behind Pete, the antagonist in many Mickey Mouse shorts, and the Big Bad Wolf in Three Little Pigs (1933). The animation of this character was primarily completed by Woolie Reitherman and John Sibley. Clarence Nash, original voice of Donald Duck, made many of the animals in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Pinto Colvig, original voice of Goofy, did Ichabod’s scream[1].

Some aspects of Disney’s version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are quite different to the original story by Washington Irving. One of these is that it is strongly implied that the Headless Horseman was in fact Brom Bones in disguise, playing a prank on Ichabod Crane, and that Ichabod fled the town in fear for his life. Though we are meant to be watching the events of that night play out as they did in Ichabod’s terror-stricken mind, it would appear to the audience that the Headless Horseman was in fact real. Gunpowder, Ichabod’s horse, is also found the next day, whereas in the Disney story, he seems to have vanished too to make it seem even more likely that they were taken, or killed, by the Headless Horseman. Another change is that Ichabod is rejected by Katrina in the book at her family’s party, whereas that doesn’t seem to happen in Disney’s story. Also, the ghost has a full backstory in the original story, with the Headless Horseman being the ghost of a trooper who was decapitated during the Revolutionary War.

In terms of animation, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section used concept art from Mary Blair, who created the artwork for such places as the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World Resort, and the it’s a small world attractionand would later draw concept art for some of the “Silver Age” of Disney movies[2]. Mary Blair was a very famous artist for the Disney company, and her artwork is revered by many Disney artists and fans today. Walt Disney also visited Tarrytown to research the area, so that the animators could accurately replicate the clothing, buildings and landscapes. The church in the opening shot was made to represent the actual Old Dutch Church built in the area in the 1660s.

As well as this, some areas of the short film use recycled animation from previous Disney projects. These include images of the reeds swaying being taken from the Silly Symphony short The Old Mill (1937), and the character of Katrina Van Tassel being from the same model sheet as Grace Martin from The Martins and the Coys segment of Make Mine Music (1946). Ichabod’s horse also bears some resemblance to Cyril Proudbottom, Mr. Toad’s horse friend.

The reason I like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn’t for its story so much, though I do like it, but actually for its songs, all three of which are performed by Bing Crosby, with accompaniment by Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires, who frequently collaborated with Crosby. All three numbers were written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul. Raye had written many songs for The Andrew Sisters, including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and went on to write the song “Beware the Jabberwock” with Gene de Paul for Alice in Wonderland (1951). De Paul later contributed to the music in the 1954 musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

The first song “Ichabod Crane” introduces this odd-looking character to the audience, as he walks into Sleepy Hollow for the first time, nose in a book, not noticing everyone staring at him initially. It also shows how superstitious he is, avoiding black cats and not walking under ladders. Though he looks strange, many of the women seem to like him straight away – Brom and his lads aren’t too sure though. The next song is all about Katrina, so naturally it’s called “Katrina”. The lyrics frequently refer to her as “that little coquette, Katrina” and that she is, as we see all the men chasing after her, doing things for her without so much as a “thank you”. She’s just a flirt, and quickly gets her hooks into Ichabod.

Both of these songs are pleasant to listen to, but they are just introducing characters. The big song is “The Headless Horseman”, Brom’s story about the scary ghost that might come and get Ichabod if he’s not careful this Halloween night. It’s a very bouncy, jazzy tune, considering it’s meant to be about such a terrifying ghost. It’s a favourite of many Disney fans. Thurl Ravenscroft, original voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s, as well as one of the five singing busts in The Haunted Mansion attraction, was meant to sing “The Headless Horseman” for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Known for his deep, bass voice, it certainly made it sound spookier than Bing Crosby’s version, but for consistency they felt it was best to leave it to Crosby. Ravenscroft did later record the song though.

Oliver Wallace composed the score for all of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, having composed the scores for Dumbo (1941), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), and Fun and Fancy Free (1947) for Disney previously. Wallace also whistled for Ichabod Crane as he is riding through the woods[3].

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was adapted into a 1922 silent film, which is believed to have inspired Disney’s take on the story. In more recent years, there was a 1980 television movie, starring Jeff Goldblum as Ichabod Crane, as well as Tim Burton’s 1999 film Sleepy Hollow, which starred Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, Christina Ricci as Katrina, and Michael Gambon and Miranda Richardson as her parents. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction in 2000, and two BAFTA awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. From 2013 to 2017, FOX also made a crime horror series based on Irving’s story, also titled Sleepy Hollow.

PRODUCTION

Although not a particularly popular form of Disney animated movie, either with the general public or with Walt Disney himself, the package films were a “necessary evil” in order for the Disney Studios to continue to generate some much-needed income during the wartime era.

The rights to The Wind in the Willows, written by British author Kenneth Grahame and first published in 1908, were acquired by Disney in June 1938. A basic script and the song “The Merrily Song” were already developed by 1941, however, the project was then put on hold in October of that year. Development would not resume on this story until World War II ended in 1945[4].

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a short story published by American writer Washington Irving in 1820. It is based on a German folk tale, with the setting being moved to 1790 upstate New York. Disney began adapting Irving’s work in the early 1940s, but, like The Wind in the Willows adaptation, this was also put on hold when the United States joined World War II in 1941. Work later resumed once war ended.

These two stories were meant to become feature-length films; however, they did not contain enough content to make them the desired length so in 1947, following the format of previous 1940s Disney animated movies, they were paired together. The original title for this movie was to be Two Fabulous Characters, with the character of Jiminy Cricket acting as a host and introducer of the two stories, as per his role in Fun and Fancy Free (1947)[5].

This ultimately didn’t happen, and celebrity narrators were chosen instead, potentially as a way of increasing viewership. Basil Rathbone, well-spoken and eloquent, pairs well with the quintessentially British tale of The Wind in the Willows, whilst Bing Crosby’s warm voice and strange ad-libs, such as calling Ichabod “Old Ichy”, lightens the slightly dark material of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was also announced in 1948 that Bing Crosby and his four sons would be filmed in live-action, gathering around a radio to listen to their father tell the tale of the Headless Horseman as an introduction to the story within the film. This introduction was never filmed[6].

RECEPTION

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released on 5^th October 1949 in the US. As with many of Disney’s “package features”, it received mixed reviews. Much of the public felt that, although the majority of these movies were fine to watch and entertaining enough, they were not fully satisfying, and the animation was generally not particularly impressive.

In the case of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, it seemed to be one of Disney’s better “package features” at the time, with critics enjoying the narration of both Crosby and Rathbone and felt that it was an entertaining film, overall. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad even succeeded in winning an award; it won the Golden Globe for Best Cinematography – Color in 1950.

Viewers from both then and now are split over which story of the two is “the best”. Some prefer The Wind in the Willows’ mayhem and colour over The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; however, others feel the opposite way, preferring the spookiness of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – which also happens to match my own opinion. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’s Halloween setting allows it to be watched annually at a set time of year, so it is a regular viewing event for some, but the cult classic ride of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland has kept that story alive in the mind of others.

In 1955, The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow stories were both shown separately on the television series Disneyland, with The Wind in the Willows being shown first in February 1955, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow airing in October of that year, likely to coincide with Halloween. A 14-minute segment all about the life of author Washington Irving was shown alongside it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was later released as a 33-minute feature in theatres in September 1963[7]. The Wind in the Willow was then re-released to theatres in 1978, retitled The Madcap Adventures of Mr. Toad, to accompany the theatrical release of the Disney movie Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978).

In the 1980s and 1990s, the two stories were then paired back together and released on VHS, before being released on DVD in 2000, and subsequently re-released numerous times on DVD and Blu-Ray, usually around a milestone anniversary.

LEGACY

On screen, the characters of Mr. Toad, Mole, and Rat later ended up in Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). Mole and Rat appear as collectors for the poor, whilst Mr. Toad was cast as Fezzywig, Scrooge’s first employer. Mr. Toad also appeared in a couple of episodes of the House of Mouse (2001-03).

At the Disney Parks, the biggest reference to any story within The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, a dark ride attraction. It was an opening day attraction at Disneyland on 17^th July 1955, and continues to operate today, being a cult favourite of many park-goers. It consists of guests boarding 1900s era motorcars and driving recklessly around the English countryside like Mr. Toad. The journey begins with the cars careening through set pieces designed to represent areas from the movie, such as Toad Hall itself, through the village streets, across railway tracks as you’re chased by the police, through Mr. Winky’s pub, and then into a courtroom where you are sentenced to imprisonment. However, that was never good enough for Mr. Toad, so the vehicles escape their prison cells and drive back through the village, coming to the railway again where the drivers are not so lucky and they proceed to end their journey in a Disney depiction of hell. It’s a strange route through events of the movie as it doesn’t recreate them particularly faithfully, with the scene of Hell being completely new to this story. This scene was added to the ride to show the dangers of reckless driving – and that’s one way to put some people off driving for life! Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was later updated in 1983 to add new effects. Also at Disneyland, a miniature version of Toad Hall can be seen on the Storybook Land Canal Boats and the Casey Jr. Circus Train attractions.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride then became an opening day attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, opening on 1^st October 1971. However, due to the popularity of Disneyland’s version, Magic Kingdom’s ride opened with two completely separate tracks which gave guests different experiences of the attraction. For example, one track followed a similar version to Disneyland’s attraction, ending in a recreation of hell after being hit by a train. The other track passed through three original scenes, those being Toad’s trophy room, the kitchen, and a gypsy camp – but it still ended with the vehicle being “struck” by a train and proceeding to take a ride through hell. Walt Disney World later added four-person vehicles to the attraction, instead of the two-person cars that Disneyland has.

In 1997, at Walt Disney World, it was announced that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride would be replaced with a dark ride attraction based on Winnie the Pooh and his friends, since these characters were incredibly popular at the time, with their merchandise even outselling that of Mickey Mouse. This announcement did not go down well with some people who fought to save Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, with actual demonstrations, petitions, and media attention being brought to the fight. But it was to no avail as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride officially closed at Walt Disney World in September 1998, with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opening in its place in June 1999. Within The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride, during the scene of Owl’s house, you can see a picture of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to “the property” to Owl, as well as another picture of Mole tipping his hat to Winnie the Pooh, just to show that this was all a legitimate transaction and that Mr. Toad was happy to make the move! A statue of Mr. Toad can also be found in the Haunted Mansion pet cemetery. What a fun way to really annoy and taunt all those that wanted Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to stay!

Disneyland Paris was meant to have a version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride when its park opened in April 1992, which would have supposedly been truer to the events of the actual film, with no mention of hell and just Toad flying in his plane as the ending, but it was never built. Instead, Disneyland Paris just got the Toad Hall restaurant, which serves the typically British dish of fish and chips, with its building designed to look just like the attraction building at Disneyland, i.e., a recreation of Toad Hall[8].

But don’t think The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been forgotten at the Disney Parks, because it hasn’t, though it’s only really the US Parks that reference it. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, at the Liberty Square area of the park, you can eat at a quick-service location called Sleepy Hollow Refreshments. It doesn’t serve anything spooky, mostly variations on waffles and funnel cakes, but its exterior building was made to resemble the two-room cottage that Washington Irving purchased in Tarrytown, the location that inspired his story. You might see outside Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe a sign for a neighbouring building that highlights the location of “Music & Voice Lessons by appointment, Ichabod Crane, Instructor”, as per one of his jobs in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

At Halloween, during Disney’s events, they like to make sure the Headless Horseman gets his moment in the spotlight. Every year, during both Mickey’s Boo To You Halloween Parade at Walt Disney World and during Disneyland’s Frightfully Fun Parade, the Headless Horseman, riding a horse and carrying a jack-o’-lantern rides down the parade route to signal the official start of the parade. There is one difference between these two appearances, and that is that Ichabod Crane can be seen ahead of the Headless Horseman, running in fear, at the beginning of Disneyland’s Halloween parade. Ichabod Crane does not seem to have ever done this at Walt Disney World for some reason.

At Walt Disney World, there also used to be an event held during the Halloween season at Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, where The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was shown inside the Tri-Circle-D Ranch stables. The event even included a meet-and-greet with the Headless Horseman. This ticketed event began in 2017 and returned in 2018, but it is not a regular event now. There’s hope that it may come back one day. In the same area, there used to be a Haunted Hayride event which had the Horseman chasing the carriages into the night. These later became known as Haunted Carriage Rides, before being discontinued completely from 2012.

There were also experiences related to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that never happened. One of these was an idea submitted by Imagineer Ken Anderson in 1957 to use the Headless Horseman in the scary finale scene of the haunted house attraction that was being devised for Disneyland. This ultimately didn’t happen, and the haunted house later became The Haunted Mansion. When Liberty Square was being built in 1970 for Walt Disney World, Imagineer Tony Baxter pitched the idea of a whole dark ride based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for the new land. Guests would have ridden through scenes from the story whilst sitting in hollowed out jack-o’-lanterns apparently[9].

Shanghai Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland do not seem to reference the characters of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, not even during the Halloween season, which is perhaps not surprising. More surprising is that at Hong Kong Disneyland, there was a scary walkthrough attraction for Halloween named The Revenge of the Headless Horseman, which ran for Halloween from 2011 to 2014.

Merchandise for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is not overly prevalent, however, for the Disney100 event as part of their Disney Decades Collection, for the 1940s, there were two toy sets available to purchase; one of Mr. Toad, and another of the Headless Horseman. Halloween is a good time to try and find something relating to the characters of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and milestone anniversaries of the release of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad should lead to new merchandise lines.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After the wartime era of Disney had ended with the release of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949, some felt that Walt Disney had lost his vision and direction, and that he was no longer relevant on the film-making stage. He was even called a “hack” by some. Fortunately, he would recover his reputation with Cinderella in 1950, which would be a critical and financial success.

Though the animation in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad film lacks detail and realism, clearly showing it was cheaper to make, I don’t think that is a bad thing, as it doesn’t take anything away from the story, and is bright and cheerful. I don’t think The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad should be overlooked and anyone that hasn’t seen it should go and give it a watch.

It might be just another Disney “package feature” but it’s definitely the best one.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[2] Credit: Eric Goldberg, ‘D23 Creepy Classics: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, part of Halloween Hullabaloo’, D23 YouTube Channel, uploaded 15^th October 2020.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)’, pp. 31-33.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 5 (2016), ‘The Disney Package Features’, pp. 65-73.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)’, pp. 31-33.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

7th Jun 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#4 Dumbo (1941)

BACKGROUND

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) proved to the world that good stories could be told in the form of animation. Pinocchio (1940) is remembered for its impressive visual effects and detailed artwork. Fantasia (1940) pushed boundaries by perfectly synchronising classical music with differing animated sequences. Bambi (1942) painstakingly recreated natural landscapes and realistically animated animals.

Dumbo, on the other hand, released a year prior to Bambi, is not known for its artistic merits, not as much as the other four movies in Disney’s “Golden Age”. Instead, it is seen as one of the most emotional and heartfelt movies to have ever come out of the Disney Studios.

It is also known for being the film that managed to lift the Disney Studios out of financial difficulty, and for recapturing audience attentions again. Pinocchio and Fantasia had not been successful at the box-office. This was due, in part, to World War II disrupting their movie distribution. Fantasia had also not interested the general public, and even managed to anger some music critics for its rearrangements of classical music pieces.

The Disney Studios needed a guaranteed hit, and one that wouldn’t cost nearly as much as their previous movie releases. They needed to find a story with a simple plot, something that would be easy to adapt, and they couldn’t have as much focus on the artistry of animation; that would cost too much.

Luckily, a short story about a small elephant with big ears overcoming self-doubt would prove itself to be a great movie for Disney Animation’s next movie. With its heart-breaking moments and relatable troubles, it touched viewers who even today continue to name Dumbo as one of Disney’s best ever movies.

Dumbo has never been one of my favourite Disney movies though. I think Dumbo is a very cute character, but it’s not nice to see something so little and cute being bullied because of its appearance. The story has some surprisingly dark and sad moments, so it’s not exactly light-hearted entertainment by today’s standards, when Disney’s most treasured animated movies these days tend to be those musicals of the 1990s, or even more recent ones of the 2010s and 2020s.

Still, Dumbo was a milestone moment for Disney Animation, and its success helped the Disney Studios to stay afloat during a particularly difficult decade for the whole world.

PLOT

The story of Dumbo begins with baby animals being delivered by stork to animals in a travelling circus in Florida during wintertime, through storms and blustery weather. Sadly, one of these animals, Mrs. Jumbo the elephant does not receive her baby at this time.

The next spring, after the animals have been herded onto the circus train for their next set of engagements, one of the storks arrives late to deliver Mrs. Jumbo’s baby. After signing for her “package”, the customary “Happy Birthday” song is sung by the stork. Mrs. Jumbo opens up the bundle and sees her baby, which she has named Jumbo Jr. The other female elephants are eager to see, and at first, find it to be a cute little thing. But when little Jumbo sneezes, he reveals his huge ears. At this point, the female elephants all start to make fun of Jumbo, giving him the cruel nickname of “Dumbo”. Mrs. Jumbo doesn’t care what they think though, and vows to protect her baby no matter what.

Once the circus arrives at its next stop, it soon becomes clear that Dumbo’s large ears cause him to be quite clumsy, as he constantly trips over them. A group of teenage boys come to the circus and mock Dumbo, and despite Mrs. Jumbo’s attempts to shield him from view, one of the boys continues to torment Dumbo, to the point where Mrs. Jumbo picks up the boy and spanks him in front of all of his friends. Good for her, you might think, but the Ringmaster doesn’t see it that way, and begins to whip her in an attempt to stop this. Instead, Mrs. Jumbo throws the Ringmaster into a bucket of cold water, and is then locked up in a tiny cage and labelled a “mad elephant”.

This leaves Dumbo alone with the horrible female elephants who ignore him. But not for long, as a little mouse, Timothy Q. Mouse, arrives to stop these elephants from being cruel to Dumbo, telling them not to pick on little guys. Timothy scares the elephants away, as only a mouse can do, and tells Dumbo he’ll look after him, and that he could be a great circus star. That night, Timothy whispers into the Ringmaster’s ear whilst he’s sleeping, telling him to make a finale act of a pyramid of elephants where Dumbo will stand on top.

The next day, this pyramid of elephants is shown to a paying audience. After some difficulty, the pyramid, albeit a less than steady one, is complete and Dumbo, with his ears tied up, goes out to do his act, however, he gets stage-fright and tries to walk away. Timothy forces him to go out there, but as he runs towards the springboard that will catapult him to the top of the pyramid, his ears become untied and he trips, bouncing into the bottom of the pyramid, causing all the elephants to fall. The audience runs away in fear and the circus act is ruined. Because of Dumbo’s clumsiness, he is then demoted to being a clown instead.

As a clown, Dumbo is made a laughing stock, forced to ascend a high platform and then jump down into a bucket of pie filling. Dumbo is a hit as a clown, but he hates his new job. Timothy tries to convince him that this success is a good thing, but it doesn’t work; nothing will cheer Dumbo up. So, Timothy takes him over to Mrs. Jumbo’s cage so he can see his mother for a little while, except the cage is so tall that Dumbo can only interact with his mother’s trunk, in one of Disney’s most heart-breaking movie moments.

We then hear that the clowns want to raise the height of the platform to crazy levels so that their act can be even better, and they deduce that Dumbo won’t care because “elephants don’t have feelings”, since they are made of rubber… The clowns then proceed to accidentally poison Dumbo by carelessly allowing a bottle of champagne to fall into his water. After Dumbo gets hiccups from crying, Timothy leads Dumbo over to his tainted water supply, and the two become drunk, hallucinating about weird pink elephants.

The next day, the two find themselves waking up in a tree next to a gang of crows. That must have been some wild night! Timothy deduces that Dumbo must have flown them up to that tree, but the crows laugh at this theory, finding it absurd. After hearing that Dumbo was torn away from his mother, that everyone has isolated him because of his big ears, and that the circus has made him into a clown, the crows feel bad about what they have said and decide to help. They give Timothy a “magic feather” to give Dumbo the confidence to fly. Sure enough, it works – Dumbo can fly! Timothy plans for Dumbo to surprise everyone at the circus that night with his new talent.

As Dumbo is placed on the high platform as part of the clown act, due to jump down to the bucket below, Dumbo is ready to show he can fly – but he drops his feather midway down and loses all of his confidence. Timothy quickly tells him the feather wasn’t actually magic and that he can fly without it. At the last moment, Dumbo has faith and opens his ears, and flies all across the circus tent, terrorising the clowns below and blasting peanuts into the faces of the elephants that tormented him. Serves them right.

The movie ends by saying that Dumbo has become a major celebrity, with his ears even being insured for $1 million. Timothy becomes Dumbo’s manager and gets him a Hollywood contract. We then see the circus train going to its next stop. Dumbo flies behind it with the crows, before reuniting with his mother in their own private coach on the train.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Dumbo is a cute little elephant with big ears who becomes a huge star. Dumbo is an incredibly sweet character, and I think his hiccups are adorable. However, nobody else seems to see it that way because he’s “different”. I can definitely relate to Dumbo as a character, as I’m sure many people can. It’s not easy growing up when there’s something about you that makes you different from everyone else. I was the short kid with big ears and funny teeth at school. And kids can be cruel – but in this case, it’s not just the kids; the adults do it too. Although all the other female elephants initially think he’s the sweetest little baby they’ve ever seen, the minute his ears are revealed, they bully and tease him. It’s awful to see this, and then it gets worse, when the teenage circus-goers begin to torment him, which leads to Mrs. Jumbo attacking the kids. Who can blame her really? No-one dies, it’s not a big deal. Yet the Ringmaster locks up Mrs. Jumbo, separating Dumbo from his mother. If it weren’t for Timothy Q. Mouse, I don’t know how Dumbo would have survived all that. But luckily, that’s not the case and Timothy gives him the confidence to believe in himself that he can fly, which certainly shuts everyone up in the end. The movie has a nice message about accepting yourself as you are and showing that everyone has a talent.

The character of Dumbo was designed by animator Bill Tytla, who was best known for animating Stromboli in Pinocchio (1940) and Chernabog in Fantasia (1940). Since Dumbo does not speak at all in the movie, it was incredibly important that his thoughts and feelings were able to be read purely through his facial expressions. Tytla used his two-year-old son Peter as inspiration for this aspect of the character, giving Dumbo that innocent quality to him. In the 29^th December 1941 edition of Time magazine, there was an interview with Tytla about the fact he used his son as inspiration for the design of Dumbo, however, people seemed to take this fact literally, which led to Tytla’s wife, Adrienne, writing a letter to Time, which was published in their 2^nd February 1942 edition of the magazine. She said that she did not enjoy the jokes about how her son must resemble an elephant to have been the design inspiration for Dumbo, and included a picture of her son to prove he did not. After this, Peter received many fan letters, but it also got the attention of Walt Disney, who visited Adrienne to not-so-subtly, but kindly, inform her that she should ask permission the next time she wishes to discuss Disney matters with the press[1].

Dumbo has remained a popular character with Disney fans for decades now, but there is something a bit problematic about this. Although the main character is referred to as Dumbo for most of the movie, it’s his name on the title of the movie after all, and it’s the name we all know the character as, in actual fact his name is Jumbo Jr. If you think about it, aren’t we continuing the elephants bullying by calling him this? It’s been over eighty years now, so I guess that ship has sailed.

Similarly to Jiminy Cricket’s role in Pinocchio (1940), Timothy Q. Mouse is the confidante of Dumbo, and, since Dumbo does not talk, Timothy becomes his voice, standing up for him against the bullies. He takes Dumbo under his wing and plans to make him a big star, so that no-one will ever laugh at him again. Timothy Q. Mouse is the eternal optimist, determined to make the world a better and more understanding place. What a dream that would be… Disney’s Dumbo is based on an original story written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. The biggest difference between the two stories is that there is no mouse named Timothy. Instead, Dumbo is helped to stardom by a little robin named Red[2]. Animator Fred Moore did much of the animation work on Timothy, managing to mix the comic and the more sympathetic scenes well. Moore had animated most of the character of Lampwick in Pinocchio (1940) before this.

Edward Brophy voiced the character of Timothy. Brophy worked with Buster Keaton on a few of his movies, like The Cameraman (1928), Doughboys (1930) and The Champ (1931). later appeared as the sidekick, Goldie Locke, in a couple of movies within The Falcon film series, which starred Tom Conway.

Although not hugely present in the movie, Mrs. Jumbo is a major supporting character for Dumbo. She is protective of him right from the outset, shielding him from the comments of the other elephants, and then beats up the horrible kids that start to make fun of Dumbo, which unfortunately means that she is taken away from her son and locked up…It’s a difficult series of events to watch, and you can feel how depressed both Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo are at being separated from each other. It’s just good that they are reunited at the end of the movie.

Verna Felton voiced the characters of both Mrs. Jumbo, who only has the one line in the movie, when she names her son, and Elephant Matriarch, the leader of the other elephants who makes many of the nasty jokes and comments about Dumbo and his ears. Felton went on to voice characters for other Disney animated movies: wholesome, helpful ones, like The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950) and Flora, one of the Good Fairies, in Sleeping Beauty (1959), as well as cruel, villainous ones, including the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955).

Another voice actor who first appeared in Dumbo and later voiced other beloved Disney characters is Sterling Holloway, who voiced Mr. Stork. Holloway went on to voice the characters of Adult Flower in Bambi (1942), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967), and Roquefort in The Aristocats (1970). He was also the original voice of the lovable Winnie the Pooh.

Now for the last set of characters to mention. Let’s talk about the crows. The crows have come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, due to some seeing the characters as perpetuating stereotypes of Black people. According to Disney, the crows were meant to accurately portray the “backchat” and “back and forth” between band leaders and their performers, which is frequently heard on band recordings of this era, including those of Louis Armstrong. It was never intended to be seen as stereotyping, with the only intention being to faithfully recreate the spirit of that type of music, as the crows’ main role in Dumbo is to perform the song “When I See An Elephant Fly”. They are also quite a sympathetic group of characters, who come to identify with Dumbo and help him to succeed.

Mainly because of the crows’ sequence, Dumbo on Disney+ begins with a warning message, highlighting the potential negative stereotypes within the movie. As time goes on, there will always be parts of “older” movies that do not age well. Providing we know the context of the time, I do not personally take issue with it, but I can see why others would. The only issue I have with this scene is that Cliff Edwards, a white performer and original voice of Jiminy Cricket, provided one of the crows’ voices, which doesn’t sit well in today’s world. The other crows were performed by Hall Johnson, who was a highly regarded African-American choral director, and members of his Hall Johnson Choir. Johnson didn’t seem to find anything racist in the work they were doing for Dumbo and was happy to continue his involvement in the movie[3]. Others, including Disney animator Floyd Norman and Whoopi Goldberg, have previously come out in defence of the crow characters.

The animation of the crows was completed by animator Ward Kimball, who had previously animated the character of Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940). To help with capturing realistic movements, live-action recordings were taken of the Jackson Brothers, a vaudeville act, dancing and these were used as inspiration for some of the sequence[4].

MUSIC

The score for Dumbo was written by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Churchill had worked on the soundtrack for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and had also contributed to the music on many other Disney projects from the time he joined the Studios in 1930, such as the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” for the Silly Symphony short Three Little Pigs (1933). After his work on Dumbo, Churchill composed music for Bambi (1942) and the song “Never Smile at a Crocodile”, which is a deleted song from Peter Pan (1953) and was co-written with Jack Lawrence. Churchill sadly passed away from suicide in May 1942, just three months before the release of Bambi.

Wallace joined the Disney Studios in the 1930s, composing the film scores for many of the Disney animated films, and some live-action ones, until his death in 1963. These included Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), as well as Dumbo. Churchill and Wallace won the Academy Award in 1942 for Best Original Score for their work on Dumbo. Some standout pieces from the score in my opinion are the “Main Titles”, which sounds just like the music you’d hear at a circus, and “The Dumbo’s Triumph”, which plays as Dumbo finally shows everyone just what he can do and gives those that bullied him their “just desserts”; it really is a triumphant ending to the movie.

Then there are the seven songs that make up the rest of the music on Dumbo. These were written by Churchill and Wallace, with lyrics from Ned Washington. Washington contributed the lyrics to songs in Pinocchio (1940), winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song along with Leigh Harline, and after Dumbo, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song again for “High Noon” from the 1952 film High Noon.

The first song is a bouncy little tune called “Look Out for Mr. Stork”, as all the circus animals, except Mrs. Jumbo, receive their babies from the storks. It’s not a big moment in the movie, so it’s not overly memorable but it’s not a bad song. Another similar song is “Casey Junior”, which plays as the circus train heads to its next stop, going through rain, storms, and hilly terrain to get there. These two songs were performed by The Sportsmen, who also performed one more song in Dumbo: “Pink Elephants on Parade”.

There are two remaining “small” songs in Dumbo to mention. The first is “Song of the Roustabouts”, which is another quite troublesome song, as it seems to feature Black railroad workers putting up the circus tent in an awful storm, with a couple of the lyrics seeming to reference that this is in fact slave labour… It is not clear what ethnicity the workers are, as the scene takes place in darkness and shadow, but it’s not a nice scene to watch anyway, as the animals are also being forced to put up this tent in the pelting rain and slippery rain. The song was performed by The King’s Men singing group. Finally, we have “The Clown Song”, which is just a few lines about how the clowns want a raise from their boss.

“Pink Elephants on Parade” is one of the bigger songs in Dumbo, and one of the most memorable, not even for its music, but for its abstract, bizarre animation. Within this scene, a drunk Dumbo hallucinates about all these strange elephants. They change shape and colour quickly and without warning. It’s quite disturbing, but this style of animation was ahead of its time in terms of colour, form, and surreal imagery, with surrealism being popular in the USA around the 1930s, when Dumbo was being made[5]. This is probably the stand-out part of Dumbo in terms of its artistic style, with the rest of the movie seeming less sharp and detailed in places, and backgrounds being simple watercolours. I don’t know how Dumbo wasn’t completely traumatised by having these images in his mind; I would’ve been!

“Baby Mine” is the most memorable song within Dumbo without a doubt. It’s the emotional tear-jerker moment of the movie, as we see Dumbo trying to spend some time with his mother after being separated from her. Since the cage Mrs. Jumbo is locked in is so high up, Dumbo can only interact with her trunk, and the moment when she rocks him is the sweetest part. It is incredibly sad to see Dumbo this upset and confused about why he can’t be with his mother. You wouldn’t believe it but actually in this scene Timothy Q. Mouse says “I hope she’s in” when they go to visit Mrs. Jumbo. He has no tact. Hello, she’s locked in a cage; of course she’s in! “Baby Mine” was sung by Betty Noyes, who ironically dubbed two of Debbie Reynolds’ numbers in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). “Baby Mine” went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 14^th Academy Awards in 1942. It has been covered by artists such as Michael Crawford, Bette Midler, for the movie soundtrack of Beaches (1988), and Sharon Rooney and Arcade Fire for the End Credits of the live-action Dumbo (2019).

The other most popular song in Dumbo is “When I See An Elephant Fly”, which is sung by the crows as they laugh about how an elephant couldn’t possibly fly. It has some very nice harmonies, and it is incredibly catchy, although the controversy surrounding the characters of the crows has somewhat tainted this song. It was performed by Cliff Edwards and The Hall Johnson Choir. A reprise of the song also comes at the end of the movie.

PRODUCTION

The original story of Dumbo was first written by Helen Aberson with illustrations by Harold Pearl in 1938. It was intended to be used for a novelty toy called a “Roll-A-Book”. These Roll-A-Books featured a few illustrations which appeared on a short scroll inside a box. By twisting a wheel on the box, it would reveal the next drawing, however, there are no known copies of this Dumbo Roll-A-Book, presumably because only a prototype was made before the rights were purchased by Walt Disney in 1939, having been brought to his attention by Kay Kamen in Disney merchandising who had seen the prototype. It was not unusual for Disney to purchase the rights to an unpublished story. The story was then passed over to Disney story men Joe Grant and Dick Huemer to adapt it for the screen. At some point around 1939, a 36-page book of the Dumbo story was published, with only a mention of Disney on the copyright page. It only sold just over 1,000 copies.

At the time of Disney’s development on Dumbo, Aberson and Pearl were a married couple, however, they later had a troublesome divorce, which led to Pearl attempting to claim that he was the sole creator of the Dumbo story years later. In actual fact, it is unclear exactly what Pearl contributed to Dumbo as it soon became clear that artist Helen Durney completed the original illustrations, not Pearl. It is possible Pearl had made rough sketches that had been enhanced by Durney. Pearl never wrote another children’s book, instead choosing to go into journalism; he died in 1975. Helen Aberson died in 1999 and did write more children’s books during her lifetime, though seemingly none of them were published. Aberson felt that proper credit for her contributions on Dumbo were not given by Disney[6].

With the rights to Dumbo in the hands of the Disney Studios, Joe Grant, one of Walt Disney’s most trusted story men, and Dick Huemer set to work on adapting the story for their next animated movie in early 1940. Grant had been brought to the Disney Studios in 1933 to work on the short Mickey’s Gala Premier (1933) and later worked on Fantasia (1940) along with Dick Huemer, who had worked on the Silly Symphonies prior to that. They made some early changes to the original short story, such as deciding to make Dumbo’s sidekick a mouse instead of a robin since elephants are meant to be scared of mice. Supposedly, the two wrote their story treatment and gave Walt just one chapter of the story at a time to keep him interested and wanting more.

Also around this time, the Disney Studios’ operations were moving into their newly built studios in Burbank, which had been built using the extraordinary profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). This makes Dumbo the first Disney animated feature film to have been solely produced at the Burbank Studios.

After a month of development, Walt looked at progress on the story and knew it would work. It was a simple story, and one that could be developed easily and for less money. With World War II raging on in Europe, cutting off around three-quarters of Disney’s overseas income, Walt Disney knew they needed a lower budget movie to hopefully bring them financial success after the box-office disappointments of Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940). By Autumn 1940, the movie had begun animation, and it was fully completed by the time of the infamous Animators’ Strike in May 1941, whereby the Studios lost many major animating staff including Bill Tytla and Art Babbitt. The strike was later settled in September 1941, but the controversy surrounding it had damaged Walt Disney’s reputation somewhat.

Luckily, Dumbo was not an expensive movie to make. It benefitted from having simple backgrounds, bright colours, a short, easy-to-adapt story, and less detailed animation. Disney’s next animated release, Bambi (1942), would be the complete opposite of Dumbo, with the animators focused on realistically recreating nature in the artwork. Many of the animators who had worked on the original Silly Symphony series of shorts, those who were more “cartoony”, therefore ended up on Dumbo. This turned out to be most of the “Old Guard”, like Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla, with many of those who would become known as the “Nine Old Men” working on Bambi, except for Ward Kimball, whose artistic style was better suited to Dumbo[7]. The animators spent time studying real elephants though, to understand how the animals move. There was also some research on circus attractions of the time, with traditional graphic posters being seen frequently within the movie, as well as during its opening titles. Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo’s mother’s name, although originally Ella in Aberson’s story, is a reference to the famous Barnum and Bailey African elephant who was the largest elephant in captivity and became an international star. Disney were also inspired by the Ringling Bros. circus attractions, with John Ringling’s Greatest Show on Earth being based in Sarasota, Florida in the winter, as Dumbo’s circus also is[8].

In terms of the story, unlike many other Disney animated films that have numerous deleted sequences, Dumbo had very few story changes during its eighteen-month production. However, one of these was later discovered in Disney’s Animation Research Library. It was a small sequence where Timothy explains to Dumbo why elephants are scared of mice: because back in prehistoric times, mice were huge and used to torment the elephants constantly. Despite elephants now being bigger than mice, their trauma has stayed with them since an elephant never forgets[9].

RECEPTION

With Dumbo’s final budget being less than $1 million, Dumbo stood to make big financial gains at the box-office, although it took some convincing for Disney’s Dumbo to be released just as it was. RKO, the distributor of Disney’s movies at the time, complained about the length of the movie, since Dumbo was only just over 60 minutes long. Walt refused to lengthen the story to satisfy their demands, not wanting to pad out the story with unnecessary plot points, so RKO had to distribute the movie as it was[10].

Luckily, the audience didn’t seem to mind that, and Dumbo did in fact do well at the box-office when it was released on 31^st October 1941. Considering much of the world was in the midst of war, it seemed to be the perfect way to escape from the horrors of realities for a while. Dumbo made around half a million dollars in profit, which helped to ease some of the Disney Studios’ financial difficulties.

The story of Dumbo was praised for its moral message, about not judging by appearances and not letting your circumstances determine your life choices. It was also found to be endearing and compassionate, with bright colours, humour, good music, and memorable characters. This type of movie was more what the people had come to expect and love from Disney, unlike Fantasia (1940).

Sadly, the celebrations didn’t last long. After the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7^th December 1941, the US were compelled to join World War II. The US Army moved into the Disney Studios lot, and asked Disney to contribute to the war effort by making propaganda films. Some of the staff obviously enlisted in the army as well.

Time magazine had planned on putting Dumbo on the cover of one of their December 1941 editions, after the successful theatrical release of the film in October. A black-and-white portrait of Dumbo had been drawn, ready for Dumbo to be the first non-human cover model for the magazine, which would have proclaimed him “Mammal of the Year”. This magazine was scheduled for 29^th December 1941. However, after joining the war, it was seen that having Dumbo on the cover of Time would not be fitting for the new world that the US had just found themselves in. Instead, on 29^th December 1941, a portrait of General Douglas MacArthur appeared on the cover, although a story was still printed in the magazine about the development of Dumbo[11].

LEGACY

Dumbo was later re-released into theatres in 1949, 1959, and again in the 1970s. In 1955, Dumbo was also aired as part of the Disneyland television series, albeit in an edited form. It has been shown on television in full as well.

A television series that used the movie Dumbo as a basis was the Disney Channel series Dumbo’s Circus. It was not an animated series, but used human-sized puppet suits of Dumbo and other circus animals, including a lion, a koala, and a dog. Dumbo could now speak and had started his own circus with these other talented animals. The show aired from 1985 to 1986. Dumbo as a character has also made cameo appearances in the movies The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

Because the animated version of Dumbo will remain a beloved addition to the Disney animated classics for many more decades to come, as well as being remembered as the most financially successful Disney animated movie of the 1940s and potentially the most emotionally touching movie to come out of the Disney Studios, that made Dumbo the perfect candidate to get the live-action remake treatment.

Tim Burton directed the 2019 live-action remake of Dumbo, starring a CG elephant as the title character of Dumbo, who appeared alongside human actors such as Michael Keaton and Colin Farrell in new roles, and Danny DeVito as the Ringmaster. There are no talking animals here whatsoever, and the plot features a strong message around the poor treatment of animals in the circus. It also involves more historical context to the location and setting of the movie, unlike the animated Dumbo. New music was written for the movie, although “Baby Mine” did still feature in the 2019 remake. Dumbo (2019) was not a successful movie, critically or financially.

Outside of this, there was going to be a Dumbo II, which probably would have been a direct-to-video sequel. A sneak peek of this movie featured on the 2001 DVD release of Dumbo; however, the movie was ultimately cancelled in 2006. After Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, John Lasseter became the Chief Creative Officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation, and at this point he cancelled many sequels to Disney animated movies. The direct-to-video sequels have never had a good reputation, for story or animation quality. But this bonus feature on the 2001 DVD clearly shows that Dumbo II was in development, with animators informing the viewer that the sequel was to be set soon after the original movie, with the plot following the circus animal children, including Dumbo, becoming separated from their circus home and ending up lost in New York City. Timothy Q. Mouse was set to return, along with a number of new animal characters.

At the Disney Parks, Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a very famous and beloved Disney attraction, with a version still operating at all six of the Disney Resorts. It features elephants attached to mechanical arms that spin around a hub section, whilst guests control the height of their vehicle. The original version obviously appeared at Disneyland. It was supposed to be an opening day attraction, however, the ride had many mechanical issues meaning that it could not open on 17^th July 1955. It opened almost a month later on 16^th August 1955. The original ride featured ten elephants, all with hinged ears that were supposed to move but they never worked properly. In 1983, the attraction was moved from its initial location to become part of New Fantasyland. Unfortunately, two mechanical issues with the ride caused two separate guest injury incidents in 1989 and 1990 which led to Disney wanting a new updated version of the ride. Luckily, one had already been built for Euro Disneyland, but since the opening of that park was still two years away, this ride was instead taken to Disneyland and installed there. This update increased capacity by adding six more elephants. Fun fact: President Harry S. Truman reportedly refused to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant in 1957 due to the elephant being a symbol of the Republican Party[12].

Apparently, the original concept for Dumbo the Flying Elephant was for the ten flying elephants to be ten pink elephants, as per the movie, however, it was decided that perhaps using Dumbo’s drunken hallucination as the basis for a children’s ride wasn’t the best idea! The ride later opened at Walt Disney World Resort for its opening day on 1^st October 1971, though the elephants had no hats, and Timothy Q. Mouse standing on his disco ball was not there either; these features were added two years later. In 1993, Walt Disney World’s Dumbo the Flying Elephant increased capacity from ten to sixteen vehicles. It was then moved in 2012 to the new area called Storybook Circus, as part of the New Fantasyland expansion, taking the over the area once known as Mickey’s Toontown Fair. Timothy now sits above the entrance to the ride[13]. Storybook Circus is meant to resemble a travelling circus, with the pavement complete with animal footprints and even some faux peanut shells stamped into it to really give that circus feel. As well as the Dumbo attraction, where a second identical attraction was added, along with an indoor play area in the queue, this area has the Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station; a new interactive experience called Smellephants on Parade, which consists of a short trail of elephant statues with different scents on them; the Barnstormer coaster; and Pete’s Silly Sideshow character meet-and-greet location.

The concept for Storybook Circus was originally proposed as part of an expansion to Disneyland’s Fantasyland in 1976. The proposal involved show buildings decorated with striped circus tent awnings, and bunting and posters everywhere. There would have been a clown-themed restaurant, a small merry-go-round called Circus Parade, using circus animals instead of the classic horses, as well as Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Casey Jr. Circus Train being relocated there. Other attractions such as Mickey’s Mad House, a Wild Mouse coaster, and an Audio-Animatronics show on a moving track called Circus Disney, did not appear. Finances for the land had been diverted to other Disney Park locations, such as Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland, which both opened in the early 1980s[14].

At Disneyland Paris, they have also had Dumbo the Flying Elephant since their park opening on 12^th April 1992, which had sixteen elephant Dumbos from the start. There is a Casey Jr. Circus Train here, based on the one in Dumbo, called Casey Jr. – le Petit Train du Cirque, giving guests a view of what can be seen on Le Pays des Contes de Fées, their version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Disneyland also has the Casey Jr. Circus Train, which takes guests on a tour of the fairy-tale sights that feature on their Storybook Land Canal Boats. You can also find Dumbo the Flying Elephant at Shanghai Disneyland, again with sixteen elephants and as an opening day attraction, although this is the only version of the attraction not to be found in Fantasyland; it is actually situated at Gardens of Imagination. There is also the circus-themed snack bar Timothy’s Treats here.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, another sixteen-vehicle Dumbo the Flying Elephant has been found here since opening day on 12^th September 2005. Tokyo Disneyland has also had Dumbo the Flying Elephant since its opening day on 15^th April 1983, but this version is different to all the rest – and that is because it is the version of Dumbo that existed in 1983. It only has ten Dumbos and still features Timothy Q. Mouse spinning on his disco ball.

In terms of meet-and-greets, Dumbo has surprisingly been seen in recent years, though only at Disneyland as part of their Disneyland After Dark: Throwback Nite in April 2023. Dumbo had been a meet-and-greet character many years before, but is now an incredibly rare character to see. Dumbo is still a frequent character used within Disney merchandise lines, and songs or characters from the movie can be seen in some parades and nighttime shows such as the Festival of Fantasy Parade at Walt Disney World

Dumbo also made appearances in experiences that now no longer exist. During Magical: Disney’s New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations which ran at Disneyland from 2009 to 2014, Dumbo could even be seen flying over Sleeping Beauty Castle as the song “Baby Mine” played. There was also a series of floats in the Main Street Electrical Parade for Dumbo, with Dumbo even riding on one, and Dumbo began the Flights of Fantasy Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland. Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse were also seen playing the tuba as part of the Disney character orchestra during the Mickey Mouse Revue, which ran at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom from 1971 to 1980, before moving to Tokyo Disneyland, where the show ran from 1983 to 2009.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Dumbo’s constant presence in the Disney Parks in the form of Dumbo the Flying Elephant in particular has given countless children and adults memorable experiences of what it feels like to actually fly, remaining a very popular attraction all over the world.

Thanks to a touching message about accepting others for how they are and believing in the “underdog”, Dumbo has remained popular ever since its release dates, despite Dumbo being quite a sad film. It highlights the importance of family, and most importantly that unbreakable bond between parent and child.

Dumbo has become a quintessentially Disney story, one that helped families at a time of great distress and uncertainty in the 1940s, as well as continuing to be watched by families over the decades simply for its comforting nature.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[2] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Original Story of Dumbo’, JimHillMedia.com, 27^th December 2004.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Debunking Meryl Streep, Part Two’, MousePlanet.com, 26^th February 2014.

[4] Credit: Disney, Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (2010).

[5] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Little Elephant, Big Heart’, pp. 48-49.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[7] Credit: Disney, Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (2010).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Dumbo (1941), pp. 10-12.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Dumbo (1941) 70^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[11] Credit: Andrew R. Chow, ‘How Dumbo Almost Ended Up on the Cover of TIME’, TIME (online), 29^th March 2019.

[12] Credit: Werner Weiss, ‘The Original Dumbo Flying Elephants’, Yesterland.com, 17^th December 2021.

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Dumbo at the Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Dumbo’s Circusland at Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

31st May 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#38 Fantasia 2000 (1999)

BACKGROUND

Fantasia 2000 was released almost sixty years after the release of Walt Disney’s musical and artistic extravaganza, Fantasia (1940), becoming the final movie of the “Disney Renaissance Era”.

Walt’s initial vision for Fantasia was for the movie to be re-released in various forms throughout the years, adding in new sequences whilst removing others, so that the programme was always changing. However, when Fantasia didn’t return a profit and annoyed or confused some audiences, this idea was shelved.

Attempts to revive Fantasia had been in the works for years afterwards, with a 1970s version coming the closest, a new concept called Musicana, which would’ve featured stories and music from different countries. This was again not moved forward as it was felt another Fantasia-type of film would not be profitable.

In the 1990s, Roy E. Disney felt like the time was right for a sequel to finally be produced, as the Disney Studios were releasing hit after hit with their “Renaissance Era” movies. Roy wanted this to be a tribute to his uncle, Walt, and all of the work that went into his original Fantasia, which was seen to be a “passion project”.

Because I don’t like Fantasia, I did not hold out much hope that I would enjoy the long-awaited, or perhaps not-even-asked-for, sequel of Fantasia 2000.

I’m not sure if I’d ever seen Fantasia 2000 before, perhaps once, so if I did, I obviously didn’t think much of it! When I came to watching it again, I was pleased to see that Fantasia 2000 is only around 75 minutes long, so 45 minutes shorter than the epic that is Fantasia, so at least I knew the pain of enduring the film would be limited.

But I’m glad to say that I actually quite enjoyed it. Not every section – some were a bit long and a bit strange – but others I very much liked, for both the music and the animation. After the second section started, I found that I was no longer feeling like this was just a film I had to get through and that actually, it might be good!

Like Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 consists of eight sections, mixing animation and classical music pieces together. The main differences between the two films are, obviously, new choices for the short sequences, as well as the use of computer generated imagery, in amongst the traditional animation techniques, which was becoming a more prominent part of animation, and a more popular technology.

The eight sections are:

“Symphony No. 5”: Beethoven
“Pines of Rome”: Respighi
“Rhapsody in Blue”: Gershwin
“Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102”: Shostakovich
“The Carnival of the Animals Finale”: Saint-Saëns
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”: Dukas
“Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1-4”: Elgar
“Firebird Suite – 1919 Version”: Stravinsky

STORY #1: SYMPHONY NO. 5: BEETHOVEN

Fantasia 2000 begins on a background of outer space, with images from the original Fantasia flying across the screen. One of these is archive footage of Deems Taylor’s original introduction from Fantasia; Deems Taylor was the Master of Ceremonies in the film. In this introduction, Taylor explains that there are three types of music within Fantasia: music that tells a definite story; music that paints a picture; and music that exists for its own sake. He states that the first piece is this last kind.

We then move to the stage where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been tuning up and James Levine, the conductor, has been getting ready. They then launch into Symphony No. 5, using Beethoven’s music of the same name, which may not be known to the general viewer by name, but it begins with the most well-known few notes in classical music, so you’ll definitely have heard of it before.

Much like the first section of Fantasia with Toccata and Fugue, Symphony No. 5 is another abstract animated piece. It starts by following flashes of light in the sky, resembling lightning strikes which move with the musical notes, before moving on to a flurry of coloured triangles dancing over the screen like butterflies. The landscape begins to resemble a volcano, with more dark triangles erupting out of them that then chase the colourful ones, becoming a battle between the two, with the light winning out over the dark in the end.

Symphony No. 5 is computer generated, with some elements hand-drawn and scanned into the computer system, making a collaboration between the new and old technologies. It looks good, seeing all the triangles moving together like a flock of birds, but this is my least favourite of the eight sections, because it lacks a story. I do prefer it to Toccata and Fugue from Fantasia though.

STORY #2: PINES OF ROME: RESPIGHI

In a difference from Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 has celebrity guests to introduce each of the sections of the film. These introductions were directed by Don Hahn, who produced many of the movies of the “Disney Renaissance Era”.

Pines of Rome is introduced by Steve Martin, who makes a couple of jokes about Fantasia, like how we should all be glad that Fantasia was renamed from its original name of The Concert Feature, and explains how Fantasia was meant to be added to after its release, before attempting to play the violin, instead throwing the bow across the room. It then moves over to Itzhak Perlman, who actually is a violinist. Perlman introduces the piece properly, saying how Disney thought a completely different story for this music to the lush landscapes that the title of the music might bring to mind.

Pines of Rome follows a pod of humpback whales – that can fly – particularly focussing on a young whale who gets trapped in an iceberg, before being helped to safety by its mother, with the whole pod flying off together soon after. It’s a bit of a random story, but still, I like it, though the music is the standout for me here. I also thought these whales seem to resemble the “space whales” that would be seen in Disney’s Treasure Planet in 2002.

Pines of Rome is an impressive use of computer-animation, something that Disney Animation had only been using sparingly in their predominately hand-drawn 2D animated movies of the 1990s. Fantasia 2000 gave the animators more freedom to experiment with this new technology, which would help them with the movies that were to come from the Disney Studios from 2005 onwards.

STORY #3: RHAPSODY IN BLUE: GERSHWIN

Quincy Jones then explains that we’ll be heading to New York City now, with inspiration from Al Hirschfeld for the animation style, and the music of George Gershwin as a background. Jones also introduces pianist Ralph Grierson.

This third section is Rhapsody in Blue, which is potentially most people’s favourite segment from Fantasia 2000, for its artistic merits. I think the animation is clever, especially the beginning where one line draws the whole New York skyline, and I like the overall plot of the piece, following four people through their time during the Depression in the 1930s: one stuck in a boring job, wanting to be a drummer; another out of work and down on his luck; a child wantomg to spend time with her parents; and a husband struggling to find joy in his life.

Rhapsody in Blue’s animation style resembles the work of artist Al Hirschfeld, who was happy for his work to be adapted and gave notes during production on the piece. Eric Goldberg was the lead animator behind Rhapsody in Blue, and approached Hirschfeld specifically about helping with this idea, as he was a huge admirer of Hirschfeld’s work, even using some stylistic elements in his work on the character of Genie in Aladdin (1992). The colour blue was used heavily in this sequence, naturally, given the title of the musical piece, with this even being the case with the skin colours of the human characters; different shades of blue and purple hint at differences in skin tones. It was an experimental piece of animation which worked well.

Since Rhapsody in Blue is drawn in the style of Hirschfeld, it seemed right for the name “Nina” to be incorporated into this sequence. Hirschfeld inscribed this name into much of his work as a reference to his daughter. “Nina” pops up three times here: once on the toothpaste tube, then on a coat’s fur collar, and again in a woman’s hair. Also, the bespectacled character, “Flying John” was based on animation historian John Culhane, who was also the inspiration for the character of Mr. Snoops in The Rescuers (1977)[1].

Goldberg was given the opportunity to make Rhapsody in Blue as a standalone short. However, during a screening of Fantasia 2000, which had a combination of new sequences and ones from Fantasia, they found that some of them just weren’t working well together. Roy E. Disney then asked Goldberg if he thought Rhapsody in Blue would be ready in time for Fantasia 2000; Goldberg said it would be, so it made it into the film after all[2].

STORY #4: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2, ALLEGRO, OPUS 102: SHOSTAKOVICH

Moving on to Bette Midler, she shows some concept art of pieces that were intended for Fantasia but were never made, including a bug ballet, a baby ballet, and a piece inspired by music from the Weinberger opera Schwanda the Bagpiper. Midler goes on to explain that there was finally a success; Disney animators had wanted to do a piece following the story of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier. They couldn’t decide what music to use, but finally settled on Shostakovich’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”, thanks to a suggestion from Roy E. Disney. The Steadfast Tin Soldier piece uses CGI characters with hand-painted backgrounds. It looks like a nod to the early work of Pixar Animation to me.

This fourth segment follows a tin soldier with one leg falling in love with a ballerina doll, originally because, when he first sees her, she is balancing on one leg so he thinks she is just like him. It’s fine though, it all works out, however, the evil jack-in-the-box in the room loves her too, so a fight ensues, with the soldier falling out of the window, into a sewer, then into the sea, where he is swallowed by a fish. That fish is then caught and brought to a fishmonger, and the soldier falls out of the fish’s mouth, returning to his place in the toy room, where there is another fight but this time the jack-in-the-box falls off the table and into the fireplace, leaving the soldier and the ballerina to reunite. What a weird story…But this version at least ends happily. The Hans Christian Andersen story has the tin soldier and the ballerina burn to a crisp in the fireplace…

This section of Fantasia 2000 is without a doubt the worst segment for me, purely because I have a fear of creepy dolls, puppets, clowns, anything with a human face that isn’t alive, so I do not like this story at all. That jack-in-the-box particularly freaks me out…

STORY #5: THE CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS FINALE: SAINT-SAËNS

On to the fifth section, which is introduced by James Earl Jones. He states that Disney animators have always had a history of drawing animals, so it would be only natural for Fantasia 2000 to include a piece inspired by “The Carnival of the Animals Finale” by Saint-Saëns. Jones says that this piece will answer the question “what is man’s relationship to nature?”, before being corrected by animator Eric Goldberg that actually this answers the age-old question “what would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?”

I love this piece, it’s my favourite in the film, because it’s so funny and silly; I also like the music. One flamingo is playing with a yo-yo, which is irritating the rest of the flock so they try to wrestle it away from him so he can continue doing the same as them, mostly just walking around in a line. This flamingo gets the better of them though, fighting against their attempts to make him conform, and the joke really is on them at the end, because he actually ends up having loads of yo-yos! This section is only two minutes long, which is palatable for anyone, but I feel like it could’ve been longer and still been just as enjoyable.

The original idea for The Carnival of the Animals segment was to have the ostriches from Dance of the Hours in Fantasia play with a yo-yo – this idea was devised by Disney story writer Joe Grant, who had worked on the original Fantasia – but instead of using the familiar characters of the ostriches, Disney ended up using the same idea but with flamingos, partly because they are more colourful[3]. This whole sequence was created in watercolours. Disney rarely used watercolours and when they did, it was mostly just for backgrounds, like in Dumbo (1941), or Lilo & Stitch (2002). It’s also interesting to see how the background colour frequently changes; when it is focused on the main flock, the background is orange, but when the “hero” flamingo is the focus, the background is green. That must have been quite difficult to keep track of[4]!

STORY #6: THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE: DUKAS

Of all of the Fantasia sections, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily the most well-known to the general public, so it made sense to add this segment to the program for Fantasia 2000, with this being the only story repeated from Fantasia. It is introduced by Penn and Teller, who do a couple of magic tricks for us, telling us that stage magic is all fake, but that Mickey is the “genuine article”, and that all of his magic is real. Penn then tells Teller that he is like the little sorcerer’s apprentice, with Teller then proceeding to cut Penn’s hair as revenge.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice shows Mickey using a magical hat to bring a broom to life so that it will fetch water for him, since he is so tired of doing his chores for the sorcerer. Eventually, things get out of hand though, as Mickey falls asleep and dreams that he is controlling the whole universe and all the oceans, clearly enjoying his power. When Mickey awakens, he finds that the room is flooded with water, and that he cannot stop the broom from collecting water. Mickey decides the best way to deal with the situation is to hack the unruly broom to pieces but that doesn’t work, and the wood shards come back to life, making more brooms than ever. They go back to collecting water and almost drown Mickey in the room. Finally, the sorcerer returns and is able to magic away all that water, though he is most annoyed at his apprentice. On returning to the orchestra stage, we then see Mickey shake hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski.

This story is the one that began the whole production of Fantasia, as Walt Disney wanted to make a new short cartoon that highlighted Mickey Mouse as the star attraction he is, and to give him an opportunity to act more expressively than he did in the short humorous cartoons. Mickey is obviously “the apprentice” here, with the Sorcerer being given the named Yen Sid, which is “Disney” spelt backwards. He is a strict man and one that is easily irritated. The disapproving look that he gives Mickey at the end of the story, with that raised eyebrow, was supposedly meant to be an imitation of the same disapproving look Walt Disney had[5]!

This story started out as a poem by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, which was written in 1797, telling the tale of a sorcerer who leaves his apprentice with chores to do, however, the apprentice, fed up with having to do everything by hand, enchants a broom to do his work for him, but since the apprentice is not fully trained in magic, when things get out of hand, he is powerless to stop it. Eventually, the sorcerer returns and breaks the spell. French composer Paul Dukas then used this poem as the basis for his classical piece “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was first performed in Paris in 1897.

STORY #7: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE – MARCHES 1-4: ELGAR

The next section begins as Mickey goes over to conductor James Levine, asking him to stall as he can’t find Donald Duck, the star of this next sequence. Levine tells us that Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” is normally used for graduation ceremonies these days, but here it will be a twist on the story of Noah’s Ark. Mickey tells Levine that Donald is just getting out of the shower and will be ready soon, so he can get started.

The animation begins by showing numerous animals heading off, in pairs, over to the Ark. Noah then comes to Donald, as he is Noah’s assistant, to tell him that there will be a flood and that Donald needs to help herd all the animals into the Ark, with some going more willingly than others. Daisy also arrives to get on the Ark; however, Donald can’t find her, and thinks she hasn’t made it on board. He tries to look for her, but the flood waters come, and he gets back inside, believing Daisy to be lost forever. Daisy thinks the same about Donald as she cannot find him either. Once the flood waters have receded, the animals are taken off the Ark, with Daisy leaving sadly. She then realises she has lost her locket, which contains a picture of them both together. Donald is clearing up the Ark and finds the locket – at exactly the same time that Daisy comes to retrieve it. They kiss and leave together, reunited again.

Pomp and Circumstance was an idea brought to the table by Michael Eisner as he’d just been to a graduation and felt the music would be good for Fantasia 2000 as it is familiar and universal[6]. The decision to use a biblical story alongside Elgar’s music did not sit well with everyone though, but I really like it, and think the ending of Donald and Daisy reuniting is really sweet.

Originally, George Scribner, director of Oliver & Company (1988), was tasked with taking that music and designing a Disney Princess processional to go alongside it. It would have followed the princesses, starting with Snow White and ending with Princess Jasmine, marching alongside their princes and their children, with cameos from other famous Disney characters. Donald Duck was supposed to be causing problems and ruining the stately processional at the same time. The story reel of this version of Pomp and Circumstance was shown once, apparently, on the Disney Cruise Line in 2009, but doesn’t appear to have ever been shown again[7]. Though the Disney Princess version did not work out, thanks to the idea of having Donald wreaking havoc, this led to the Noah’s Ark concept.

STORY #8: FIREBIRD SUITE – 1919 VERSION: STRAVINSKY

Angela Lansbury narrates the final sequence, Firebird using the music“Firebird Suite – 1919 Version” byStravinsky from the ballet Firebird. She says that Walt Disney once described the art of animation as “a voyage of discovery into the realms of colour, sound, and motion”, and that Stravinsky’s “Firebird” encourages such a voyage, before telling us that what we are about to see is a mythical story of life, death, and renewal.

The sequence follows a sprite, who accidentally awakens a volcano while she is turning winter into spring. This causes immense devastation to the Earth, which she then ends up rebuilding, making everywhere green and lush again, bringing life to the forest once more. I like the colour in the scene, and it had an obvious plot, which I like. I thought it was a good ending, and the music is incredibly powerful.

The “Firebird Suite” by Stravinsky had already been licensed to Disney, at the same time that another of his works, “Rite of Spring”, had been for Fantasia. Disney knew they needed an emotional ending to rival the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence from the original. It was based on a visit that Roy E. Disney took to Mount St. Helens post-eruption[8]. Many critics seemed to enjoy this section of Fantasia 2000, so I think it did the job of ending the movie on a high point.

PRODUCTION

Walt Disney’s Fantasia was released in November 1940, and received mixed reviews. Some liked the animation; others felt it was over long and tedious to sit through; music critics hated the orchestration and arrangement of beloved classical music pieces. It wasn’t at all what Walt Disney had hoped for, and the disappointing reviews stayed with him for a long time.

The whole idea for Fantasia was that the movie would be added to every so often, replacing some of the original sequences with new ones, making for a new experience every time. Some classical music pieces that were going to be included in later versions of Fantasia included Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”. But after the reaction to Fantasia, this concept was never moved forward.

In the 1970s, a new version of Fantasia, to be called Musicana, was in the works for a brief time, being worked on by veteran Disney animators Mel Shaw and Woolie Reitherman, which would have used stories and musical pieces from different countries to make a completely unique new Fantasia-style film. These sections included a jazz sequence set in the Deep South, a version of The Emperor and the Nightingale featuring Mickey Mouse, and the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, set to “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov. Ultimately, this project was cancelled due to concerns over its profitability.

These attempts at reviving and revitalising Fantasia had not worked for decades, with the Disney Studios executives not wanting to take the risk of having a similar reception that Walt Disney received to his original film. It was actually because of a popular re-release of Fantasia in 1991 that Fantasia 2000 even came about. With the re-release, as well as the boom that The Walt Disney Company was experiencing in the 1990s both within Disney Animation and their theme parks, Disney had sufficient funds to look at making the sequel, and it boosted then-CEO Michael Eisner’s confidence in the project, though him and some other members of the Disney Company were not overly optimistic about it at times.

Fantasia 2000 had been the long-fought-for continuation of Walt’s Fantasia legacy. Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, was the real champion of the project, though the original movie had never left the minds of the Disney animators. Production on the sequel was greenlit in 1992. The aim was to release the film in 1997, but it took almost a decade to complete Fantasia 2000, as work on the film was being completed between other work for the popular “Renaissance Era” movies. The original name for this sequel was going to be Fantasia Continued, but as the release date started to approach the Millennium it was decided to tie the movie in with the year 2000.

Originally, Disney had wanted to keep half of the original Fantasia programme, and only create fifty percent new footage. However, the amount of original footage being chosen became less and less the further Fantasia 2000 got into production. For a long time though, Dance of the Hours and The Nutcracker Suite were going to be included along with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Eventually, Dance of the Hours was dropped and then The Nutcracker Suite was replaced with Rhapsody in Blue, leaving just The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which really did need to be included as it is such an iconic piece[9].

RECEPTION

Unfortunately, Fantasia 2000 wasn’t a box-office success, and in actual fact only just “broke even”. As Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was wrongly named “Walt Disney’s Folly”, perhaps it was more correct for Fantasia 2000 to be named “Roy Disney’s Folly”, as Michael Eisner supposedly referred to the film. Roy E. Disney had passion for the project, which was replicated by many of the animators who worked on Fantasia 2000, so that’s a harsh title. The movie is often overlooked, but I feel it has a place in Disney history.

In making a tribute to Walt Disney’s original Fantasia, given the initial response to that film in the 1940s, it was always going to be a risk to make a similar type of movie and release it in the 1990s. The 1990s were arguably Disney Animation’s best era, and potentially the best decade for The Walt Disney Company, and to have Fantasia 2000 be released at the end of the decade, it would seem a bit mediocre in comparison.

Fantasia 2000 premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City on 17^th December 1999, playing for three nights as part of a five-city concert tour, before moving to the Royal Albert Hall in London, and then to Paris and Tokyo, finishing in Pasadena, California on 31^st December 1999. These consisted of James Levine conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, whilst the animation was presented on a screen above the stage.

Fantasia 2000 was then released in theatres on 1^st January 2000, becoming the first animated feature film to be presented in IMAX, so it broke new ground there, although it did limit its release to solely IMAX theatres, of which there were not so many at the time. In Los Angeles, the Disney Company built a temporary IMAX theatre to show the film for its first four months of release, from January to April 2000[10]. Fantasia 2000 was released widely in regular theatres later in the year.

Reviews for the movie were fairly positive. The release of the movie in IMAX was a positive note for many critics, who felt it fully immersed the audience in the animation and in the music, though many did say that this did not help The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which, despite being restored somewhat, looked grainy according to some viewers, especially compared to the rest of the sequences which were all new and relatively technologically advanced. Again, some sequences were popular, and others were not, with Firebird, and the artsy look of Rhapsody in Blue being two of the best sequences, and the abstractness of Symphony No. 5 being one of the least popular. Everyone has different opinions on these.

Fantasia 2000 did win four Annie Awards for its technical achievements. One of these was to Eric Goldberg for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation on The Carnival of the Animals; another was to his wife, Susan McKinsey Goldberg for Production Design on Rhapsody in Blue[11]. It lost the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature to Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999). The soundtrack was also nominated at the Grammy Awards for Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture.

LEGACY

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is the never-ending story of Fantasia, there was supposed to be a sequel to Fantasia 2000. Some sequences had already been completed, or were close to being finished at the time that this sequel, to be named Fantasia 2006, was cancelled. It did not proceed potentially due to concerns about the commercial prospects of another feature film like Fantasia. Although Fantasia itself did prove itself to be an icon of Disney movie history eventually, that has not happened for Fantasia 2000. With its mixed reviews, as well as having to follow the greats of the “Disney Renaissance Era”, it was never going to give much confidence for Disney executives to green-light a further Fantasia project. However, we did get to see some of these completed sequences as standalone short films, so all was not lost.

The Little Matchgirl made its appearance in 2006, first at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in June 2006, before being added as a bonus feature on The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD, also released in 2006. Both The Little Matchgirl and The Little Mermaid are Disney takes on Hans Christian Andersen stories. The Little Matchgirl short film was directed by Roger Allers, who had also co-directed The Lion King (1994) by this point, and produced by Don Hahn, who produced many of the hit Disney films of the 1990s including Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994).

The story follows a young homeless girl attempting to sell matchsticks to people on the streets of St. Petersburg to make some money for herself, however, no-one will buy any. Wanting to get out of the cold, the girl hides away in a snow-filled alley. To keep herself warm, the girl begins to strike her matches, each time seeing visions of happier Christmas times, with a house, a fireplace, good food, and her grandmother. But each time the match burns out, the girl is brought back to her reality of freezing alone on the streets. The next day, the girl is seemingly found in the alley by her grandmother, although, we soon see that the grandmother is a spirit and that the girl must have died in the cold… Not the happiest of tales. Apparently attempts were made to give it a happier ending, but none of these worked.

The story was first intended to be set to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”; a piece of music that had been considered for the original Fantasia. It was not used, with Borodin’s “String Quarter No. 2” being chosen instead, and performed by the Emerson String Quartet. The Little Matchgirl was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards, but lost to a Norwegian short titled The Danish Poet (2006)[12].

One by One was directed by Pixote Hunt, who was the Art Director for The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and created the Symphony No. 5 section for Fantasia 2000. It was released in 2004 as a bonus feature on the DVD release of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.

This short film takes place in a town in South Africa and sees us follow a colourful feather as it flies into this town. A young boy finds the feather and, inspired by it, calls for his friends to fly kites with him. All the children of the town find materials they can use to make their own colourful kites, and walk in procession up to the highest hill. One boy lets his kite go first and then tells everyone else to do the same, with the whole sky awash with colourful kites. One by One takes its name from the song of the same name written by Lebo M. It was originally intended to be included in The Lion King (1994). This song was cut from the final movie, but was later used in the Broadway musical of The Lion King.

Another completed sequence was Lorenzo. Work had begun on this short back in the 1940s, but was revived and completed for Fantasia 2006. After Fantasia 2006 was cancelled, Lorenzo was instead released in 2004 after premiering at the Florida Film Festival in March of that year. It was directed by Mike Gabriel, who was the co-director for The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and Pocahontas (1995).

Lorenzo is a pampered cat who comes across a stray, street cat with no tail one day, proceeding to show off how fluffy and wonderful his own is. The street cat then curses Lorenzo so that his tail will have a mind of its own, making him dance all over the streets with it. Lorenzo then finds himself in a fountain and tries to drown his tail. That doesn’t work, so he then tries to break his tail off by slamming it in a door. That also doesn’t work, so Lorenzo ties his tail down to the train tracks, but the tail is too smart for that, and manages to untie itself. Lorenzo tries to electrocute his tail, but instead only harms himself. The street cat from earlier then gives Lorenzo a knife so that he may cut his tail off. A fight then ensues, with Lorenzo ultimately succeeding in removing the tail. That’s a bit of a gruesome story…

But the music is quite good. Gabriel chose a piece of tango music for the short, which works well here, giving it some suspense and drama. The music chosen was “Bordoneo y 900”, by Osvaldo Ruggiero, performed by Juan José Mosalini and his Big Tango Orchestra. Lorenzo was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, but lost to Ryan (2004), a short animated film about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin.

Whilst working on Fantasia 2000, Roy E. Disney uncovered a project that had begun in 1945, a collaboration between his uncle, Walt Disney, and Spanish artist Salvador Dalí entitled Destino. This is the final completed sequence for what could have been Fantasia 2006. It was instead released separately in 2003 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in June of that year. It was later released theatrically in 2004.

In the mid-1940s, Dalí was invited to work on this short film at the Disney Studios, completing plenty of concept art in his iconic surrealist style alongside John Hench, who went on to lead various projects as part of Walt Disney Imagineering. The story follows a young woman named Dahlia struggling to find her long-lost love, Chronos, the personification of time, as she travels across various strange landscapes, reminiscent of famous Dalí paintings. It’s not entirely clear to me what happens here, or whether the two are reunited in the final scene – let’s assume they do! The film is set to a piece of music called “Destino”, written by Armando Dominguez, performed by Dora Luz, who performed the song “You Belong to My Heart” for Disney’s The Three Caballeros (1944).

Destino was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, losing out to the claymation short film Harvie Krumpet. Of these four completed sequences meant for Fantasia 2006, Destino seems to be the most remembered and praised, having been shown as part of numerous Dalí exhibitions around the world ever since its release in 2003.

At the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World, Destino plays in the main lobby of its building Gran Destino Tower, which opened in July 2019. Its Dahlia Lounge area was named after the heroine of the film, and photos of Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí appear on the walls of the lounge[13].

At the All-Star Movies Resort also at Walt Disney World, two buildings of the hotel are themed to the two Fantasia movies: one features the brooms from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence which appears in both films, and the second building is themed to The Steadfast Tin Soldier section of Fantasia 2000, complete with giant statues of the creepy jack-in-the-box, the ballerina doll, and of course, the one-legged soldier. Since Fantasia 2000 wasn’t released until a year after the All-Star Movies Resort opened in January 1999, Roy E. Disney, Chairman of Feature Animation at the time and producer of Fantasia 2000, had to give special permission for the movie to be referenced[14].

There are few references at the Disney Parks that specifically relate to Fantasia 2000. Apart from those two hotels, one other is that the Spring Sprite from the Firebird sequence has featured in a couple of shows and parades. One of these was Tokyo Disneyland’s 25^th anniversary parade, Jubilation!, where the Spring Sprite was added to the top of one of the parade floats; this parade ran from 2008 to 2013. The Sprite also appeared during the original World of Color show at Disney California Adventure. The music “Pines of Rome” has also been used in a few nighttime shows, including Epcot’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks, and World of Color. The whales from Pines of Rome also appear briefly in the finale section of the Wonderful World of Animation show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

There are no character meet-and-greets here for specific Fantasia 2000 characters, although at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, you can meet Sorcerer Mickey at Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams, located just outside of the ABC Commissary quick-service location, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene appears in the Mickey’s PhilarMagic show which currently operates at all of the Disney Parks except for Shanghai Disneyland. Sorcerer Mickey merchandise is also likely to be the easiest to find, with anything specific to Fantasia 2000 most likely to be made for a milestone anniversary.

In recent years, Disney have gone back to their idea of making Fantasia into a concert experience. This is the touring concert Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert, where a live orchestra plays the classical pieces of music, whilst a screen shows the animated segments. The program contains a mixture of sequences from both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, although the program seems to change. It is unclear to me when Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert first began showing, with the earliest date I can find going back to 2012. It is currently still touring in 2024.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s great that Disney agreed to make Fantasia 2000, and I think I’ve found a new Disney animated film that I like. There are pieces of music I will certainly be listening to now, so Disney have succeeded in winning me over there. I surprisingly found myself getting teary at times: at the ending with the sprite, Donald and Daisy reuniting, the whales flying off into space, so that shows how much I enjoyed the film. I’m still thinking about it a few days later.

This film was much funnier, much less stuffy, and less serious than Fantasia, and it felt generally more familiar, with the music choices and animation stylings. I hope others join me in giving this one another go, even if Fantasia is too much for them!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 112-114.

[2] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 112-114.

[4] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[5] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[6] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[7] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Why For: The Disney Princess royal processional that you almost got to see’, JimHillMedia.com, 29^th April 2011.

[8] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[9] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 113.

[11] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[12] Credit: Disney, “The Little Matchgirl (2006)”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Gran Destino Tower’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: All-Star Movies’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

24th May 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#3 Fantasia (1940)

BACKGROUND

Walt Disney was an appreciator of both art and music. Despite not being a musician himself, Walt understood the importance of music and song in his film-making.

Within the Silly Symphony series of cartoons, the Disney Studios began to use music to enhance their story-telling, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) went one step further by having the songs move the narrative forward, at a time when musicals revues, shows that consisted of numerous singing and dancing numbers that did not come together to form an overall plot, were all the rage.

After the success of Snow White, Walt wanted to go further with both music and animation, deciding to set classical music to animated sequences in an experience like no other. Something that was more of a concert than a feature film.

With the help of a famed conductor, the Disney Studios released Fantasia, hoping for very positive reviews. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way for Walt’s project, with many audiences and even some critics confused by this strange movie.

I’m not ashamed to say that I am one of those people. I have never liked Fantasia.

It’s not that I don’t like classical music, though I cannot say I am anything close to a connoisseur, and it’s not that I don’t like the animation, although some of the pieces are quite abstract and bizarre. The main problem I have is that Fantasia is just so long.

With a runtime of a little over two hours, Fantasia is the longest of all the Disney animated classics. That’s not to say that I have a short attention span because I don’t think I do; if I’m fully focused and interested in the subject, then I can easily watch a movie of two hours, sometimes more. But I started to lose interest about halfway into Fantasia, around the time of the Intermission, because of the lack of an overall story, and by the end of the movie, I just felt relieved it was over.

Fantasia is split into eight individual, standalone animated sections with a corresponding piece of music being played by an orchestra in the background. These segments have no relation to each other, and are of varying length.

These eight sections are:

“Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”: Bach
“The Nutcracker Suite“: Tchaikovsky
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice“: Dukas
“The Rite of Spring“: Stravinsky
“Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack“
“The Pastoral Symphony“: Beethoven
“Dance of the Hours“: Ponchielli
“Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria“: Mussorgsky/Schubert

Fantasia does not follow any traditional story-telling format. Instead, the film showcases how animation and music can work in harmony with each other. It does succeed in that mission, but I don’t know if anyone can honestly say that every single section of Fantasia interests them, or that they enjoy every piece of music.

STORY #1: TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR: BACH

The introduction to Fantasia sees the viewer watching as the live orchestra prepares for their “concert”, getting to their seats and tuning up their instruments. Deems Taylor, the Master of Ceremonies for Fantasia who introduces each section of the film, then welcomes the audience, explaining what they are about to see in this feature film. Taylor explains that there are three types of music within Fantasia: music that tells a definite story; music that paints a picture; and music that exists for its own sake. He then introduces conductor Leopold Stokowski, who takes his place on stage.

The first sequence, Toccata and Fugue, is the third type of music. It has no story and is instead purely artistic, showing a series of abstract designs that are suggested by the classical piece itself. It begins with silhouettes of the orchestra, highlighted in different colours, before moving on to show lines and shapes mimicking the orchestra’s movements. These shapes combine to create forms and landscapes. It ends by returning to Stokowski and his orchestra on the stage.

Walt Disney wanted to have an animated abstract piece here that had no story, something that was experimental in nature. The work of German artist Oskar Fischinger was used as inspiration for this sequence. Fischinger was known for using lots of geometric patterns in his work and because of his experience, he was asked to help the artists with this sequence at the Disney Studios, however, he left the Studios because he did not like the fact that his designs were being altered by the Disney artists to fit their overall vision; Fischinger was used to working as an individual, not being within a collaborative work environment.

Toccata and Fugue is certainly abstract, and not exactly the best way of enticing an uncertain audience into enjoying Fantasia, if you ask me. I don’t enjoy the animation and I struggle to pay attention throughout this sequence. It is at least matched with a fairly well-known piece of music though.

STORY #2: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE: TCHAIKOVSKY

Pretty much everyone is familiar with “The Nutcracker Suite” music, or at least parts of it. However, instead of this sequence following the popular story of The Nutcracker ballet, something that has become a staple part of Christmas entertainment in many countries, Disney decided to move away from this and have their version tell a story of the changing seasons, featuring fairies, leaves, flowers, and mushrooms.

The Paint department experimented with new techniques for this piece, such as dry brushing, as they wanted it to be a spectacular piece of artwork and something that provoked an emotional reaction, so it took longer than normal to complete.

I really like the music of “The Nutcracker Suite” and I try to watch a version of the ballet on television every Christmas if it is airing. My favourite parts of Disney’s The Nutcracker Suite are the dancing mushrooms, with the little one that gets frustrated by being out of step with the others being the best part of it – apparently, his name is Hop Low[1] – and the dance with the thistles. Art Babbitt, the animator who designed the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Geppetto in Pinocchio (1940) animated the dancing mushrooms, and despite that “dance” only be a couple of minutes long, it is perhaps the most memorable in The Nutcracker Suite.

The colour, changing scenery, and familiarity of the music of this sequence help to keep the viewer interested here.

STORY #3: THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE: DUKAS

Of all of the Fantasia sections, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily the most well-known to the general public, probably because it stars Mickey Mouse as the apprentice. It also popularised Dukas’ music. It helps that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is one of the more interesting segments, actually telling a complete story. It is definitely my favourite section.

It shows Mickey using a magical hat to bring a broom to life so that it will fetch water for Mickey who is so tired of doing his chores for the sorcerer. Eventually, things get out of hand though, as Mickey falls asleep and dreams that he is controlling the whole universe and all the oceans, clearly enjoying his power. When Mickey awakens, he finds that the room is flooded with water, and that he cannot stop the broom from collecting water. Mickey decides the best way to deal with the situation is to hack the unruly broom to pieces but that doesn’t work, and the wood shards come back to life, making more brooms than ever. They go back to collecting water and almost drown Mickey in the room. Finally, the sorcerer returns and is able to magic away all that water, though he is most annoyed at his apprentice. It’s a good thing this happened to a sorcerer who could magic all the water away; imagine the insurance documents we’d have to fill in if our basements flooded. I doubt many companies insure against enchanted brooms… On returning to the orchestra stage, we then see Mickey shake hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski.

This story is the one that began the whole production of Fantasia, as Walt Disney wanted to make a new short cartoon that highlighted Mickey Mouse as the star attraction he is, and to give him an opportunity to act more expressively than he had done in his short humorous cartoons.

Mickey is obviously “the apprentice” here, with the Sorcerer being given the named Yen Sid, which is “Disney” spelt backwards. He is a strict man and one that is easily irritated. The disapproving look that he gives Mickey at the end of the story, with that raised eyebrow, was supposedly meant to be an imitation of the same disapproving look Walt Disney had[2]!

Sorcerer Yen Sid first spoke in a 1971 episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, as Fantasia contains no dialogue within the animation. The episode was called “Disney on Parade” and the character was voiced by Michael Rye[3]. Yen Sid also appeared in other Disney projects, such as House of Mouse (2001-03), the video game franchises Kingdom Hearts and Epic Mickey, as well as in the interactive game Fantasia: Music Evolved.

STORY #4: THE RITE OF SPRING: STRAVINSKY

The Rite of Spring takes us through the origin of life on Earth, including the lifespan of dinosaurs. It begins by taking us through space, through the galaxy, before descending on Earth where volcanoes bubble, lava flows, and oceans cascade over the ground. Then, we see the dinosaurs, and how they live in this environment alongside each other. Obviously, things don’t remain harmonious when a Tyrannosaurus Rex comes in to terrorise all the other dinosaurs, and a battle ensues between it and a Stegosaurus, with the Stegosaurus ultimately losing… The whole ground dries up, leaving no food or water for the dinosaurs. Eventually, they all die. But there’s no meteor shower here to finish them off; they just collapse and become extinct.

Apparently, The Rite of Spring as a single short film was used as an educational film for school science classes in the 1950s and 1960s, which makes sense, as it is kind of informative. I, sadly, find the length of the short, at just over 20 minutes, to be too long, and as I’m not overly interested in dinosaurs, I don’t particularly like it, but many do find this section of Fantasia to be one of the best ones.

Without computer animation, the Disney artists and effects team had to work out how to show the earliest times on Earth in an effective way. For example, the smoke clouds were created by setting oily rags on fire, and putting paint pots upside down in water created some of the smoke patterns. This adds drama to the piece, and these effects do make the sequence look impressive. Disney also wanted to make the dinosaurs as realistic as possible, studying dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History for hours to get the visuals right. Some of the science is not quite accurate, with some of the dinosaur species not co-existing together in real-life as they do on screen, but that’s getting a bit picky[4].

As well as the subject matter of evolution being quite daring, the choice of music was too. Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” was first performed in 1913, making it one of the “newer” pieces of classical music within Fantasia, but there was also a riot at the premiere of Stravinsky’s music, this being one of the most famous scandals in the art world. Some of the audience did not like the piece, or the primitive dance numbers that were choreographed to go alongside it. It was a shock to see, but there were also political tensions around the time that no doubt inflamed the people’s actions[5].

STORY #5: INTERMISSION / MEET THE SOUNDTRACK

Following on from that, we get to the Intermission, or Meet the Soundtrack as this section is also known. It is by far the most random part of Fantasia, even more abstract than Toccata and Fugue, feeling completely unnecessary to the overall feature.

It involves a short “jam session” with some of the musicians before moving us on to meet ‘Soundtrack’, a vertical white line, who moves to mimic the different instruments being played. I suppose Disney wanted to show how they can give an inanimate object a personality, and to give more of an insight into the musicians and performers. Luckily, it’s not much to sit through, but I feel like just showing the movie’s title card and playing a piece of calming music would’ve been more fitting for an Intermission.

STORY #6: THE PASTORAL SYMPHONY: BEETHOVEN

The Pastoral Symphony depicts creatures from Greek mythology, such as centaurs and “centaurettes”, the female version of centaurs, where Disney artists had to make a decision over how much of their uncovered “top halves” should be exposed, according to Ward Kimball, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men, as well as cherubs and Pegasus horses, just going about their day, relaxing, flirting, falling in love. Bacchus, the God of Wine, then shows up, seemingly drunk, and they all have a party. That is, until a dark cloud comes over, bringing a storm to the area. It turns out that it is Zeus, wanting to ruin the party, seemingly for no reason, other than I guess he was bored or was in a mood because he wasn’t invited, so he begins to throw lightning bolts at everyone below him, causing them to flee in terror. A bolt hits a huge barrel of wine and it floods the place. Zeus has had enough of causing problems for the day, and goes back to his business. The next day, the sun is out and everyone gets back to enjoying themselves once more.

The Pastoral Symphony is the most colourful of the Fantasia pieces, with the artists being told to be as free and creative with colour as they could be. According to Disney legend, background painter Ray Huffine was annoyed one day at not being able to find the perfect colour for some aspects of the scenery in The Pastoral Symphony. As he pondered what to do, he opened up his lunch and found that his wife had packed him a jar of boysenberry jam. It gave him an idea – by putting a light wash of jam on the cel, he had found the perfect colour[6]! Originally, Pierné’s music “Cydalise” was going to be used to accompany this section, however, it was decided that they needed something bigger and more dramatic for the sequence, so went with Beethoven.

The Pastoral Symphony happens to be the most controversial sequence within Fantasia. That is because it clearly introduced two stereotypical and caricatured African-American centaurettes, who are maids to the white centaurettes. The first of these is called Sunflower, who could be seen shining the white centaurettes hooves, and braiding flowers into their hair. Later on, another Black centaurette named Atika, who looks almost identical to Sunflower other than the fact she was given a slightly different hairstyle, could be seen holding a garland of one of the centaurettes and following behind her, as though Atika was picking up the train of a wedding dress. Sunflower also appeared later, unrolling the red carpet for the god Bacchus and attempting to help him into his seat. By the 1960s, these characters had been edited out of the film in the rise of the Civil Rights movement[7].

STORY #7: DANCE OF THE HOURS: PONCHIELLI

Dance of the Hours is perhaps the most fun section of Fantasia, and it is also relatively short so that’s helpful if your attention begins to wane at this point, like mine does. It starts with ostriches dancing to signal the start of the day. By the afternoon, we then see hippos dancing in the late day sun. In the evening, elephants can be seen dancing in the sunset; and then, the alligators appear in the dark of night, seemingly looking like they are up to no good, but one alligator dances with a huge hippo that he loves dearly. The piece ends with a big group number with all of the animals appearing.

Dance of the Hours was meant to be a parody of the highbrow dance numbers that had begun to become an essential part of motion pictures at the time. Although I do not know what films had been used as inspiration for this parody, I am well aware that many movie musicals of the 1960s have moments like this, where there is an overly long, largely unnecessary dance number that appears towards the end of the film, breaking up the main storyline, so I think I can understand this parody! Ponchielli’s music, the Act 3 finale of the opera La Gioconda, is also a familiar piece of music, so that contributed to the joke.

Since this is predominately a sequence of ballet dancing, animators studied real ballet dancers to get a sense of what accurate ballet dance steps would look like. They then used those movements to animate these animals as ballet dancers, to make a realistic, but comic, ballet. It is funny to see some of the least graceful creatures in the animal kingdom doing one of the most elegant dance styles in the world[8].

STORY #8: NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN / AVE MARIA: MUSSORGSKY / SCHUBERT

Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria, the final sequence of Fantasia, was envisioned as a classic take on the battle between good versus evil, and light versus dark.

It begins with the bat-like demon Chernabog summoning witches and evil spirits on Halloween night as he sits atop his mountain, overlooking a village. He begins to sacrifice some of these evil beings into the fiery pit of the mountain. Chernabog is them defeated by the next morning’s sunrise, cowering away from the light, and concealing himself into the face of the mountain again. Church bells ring as a procession of figures walk to see the sunrise in a perfect contrast to the horror just witnessed.

Animator Bill Tytla was the leading figure on this sequence for Fantasia, animating Chernabog, who was based on the God of the Night from Slavic mythology. Because of Chernabog’s status as one of Disney’s most powerful and terrifying villains, Night on Bald Mountain is regularly referenced by Disney on Halloween, making this another popular segment of Fantasia. Chernabog is also part of the Disney Villains franchise, appearing occasionally for Halloween events, as well as in the nighttime show Fantasmic! Chernabog is also a key villain in the Disney fiction series Kingdom Keepers. Although I find Chernabog and this whole story to be quite frightening and disturbing, I do like the music here.

For the Ave Maria section, they had planned to use the horizontal multiplane camera to shoot the procession as one continuous shot, even though it took days to do this. On their first attempt, they discovered that one camera lens was wrong, so they had to start again. Their second attempt was then interrupted by an earthquake. It was third time lucky though, as the third attempt successfully completed the shot[9].

PRODUCTION

Fantasia was a passion project for Walt Disney. Walt wanted to show that music and animation could complement each other, and that the two forms of art worked well together.

Previously, music in animated short cartoons had only been used to accompany the story or to highlight certain actions. This all changed with the Silly Symphonies, the short cartoons that the Disney Studios developed throughout the 1930s. One song in particular became very popular after the release of a short cartoon, and that was “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” from Three Little Pigs (1933), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1934.

From this, the Disney Studios used music and songs to drive the narrative forward for their first full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). This soundtrack also became very popular with the public. But this time, Walt knew they could do something different – pair classical music with animated stories.

Fantasia began its life as just one short film. Mickey Mouse had been Disney’s star character, however, with the introduction of the easily-irritated, funny Donald Duck, Mickey’s star power was starting to decline, and it was becoming a struggle to find stories for Mickey to be a part of. Walt didn’t want his main creation to be sidelined, and he happened to come across the story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

This story started out as a poem by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, which was written in 1797, telling the tale of a sorcerer who leaves his apprentice with chores to do, however, the apprentice, fed up with having to do everything by hand, enchants a broom to do his work for him, but since the apprentice is not full trained in magic, when things get out of hand, he is powerless to stop it. Eventually, the sorcerer returns and breaks the spell. French composer Paul Dukas used this poem as the basis for his classical piece “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was first performed in Paris in 1897.

Walt felt that this story was perfect for Mickey and the animators set about animating the sequence. The animators began by updating Mickey’s look for this as he needed to be more expressive in the face and eyes since there would be no dialogue. The biggest change was in Mickey’s eyes. Previously, Mickey had only black oval shapes for eyes, but the animators decided to put pupils into those shapes, giving him eyes truer to real-life. The redesign of Mickey was led by animator Fred Moore, who had supervised animation on the dwarfs in Snow White (1937), and went on to animate Timothy Q. Mouse for Dumbo (1941).

As development on this piece was ongoing, Walt Disney happened to meet Leopold Stokowski for dinner. Stokowski was one of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20^th century and was a big celebrity, even outside of the classical music world. He became the director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1912, and was famed for his recordings and radio appearances from the 1910s. He appeared in two films in 1937, The Big Broadcast of 1937 and One Hundred Men and a Girl, and even appeared on the cover of Time for the 28^th April 1930 issue, and again on the 18^th November 1940 issue to promote Fantasia[10]. Stokowski was very interested in Walt’s idea of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice short cartoon and offered to conduct the music for it[11].

Stokowski and Walt assembled a 100-piece orchestra to record The Sorcerer’s Apprentice score, and the recording took place in January 1938 at the Pathé Studios in Culver City, allegedly between midnight and 3am, with excessive coffee drinking keeping everyone awake and alert. Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother, was very concerned about how much time, effort, and money was being spent on this one short film. He knew that they’d never make their money back on this film, so Walt then decided that they’d put lots of similar short cartoons together to make a feature film, a concert of classical music with animated sequences. This project was then referred to as The Concert Feature for a while.

Deems Taylor, another famous celebrity of the music world at the time, having been a composer, radio commentator and music critic, was brought in to help Walt and Stokowski decide on the musical selections for The Concert Feature, alongside Disney story writers Joe Grant and Dick Huemer who went on to co-write Dumbo (1941). Taylor also appeared as the Master of Ceremonies in the final film. Many selections were considered and then discarded for various reasons, such as “Swan of Tuonela” by Sibelius and “Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner”, but eight pieces of music were eventually chosen for the film, and were recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Stokowski as conductor.

It was later deemed that The Concert Feature was quite a mundane title for what would surely become a masterpiece. The name Fantasia was chosen for the film, as the word means a free-form piece of music, matching the imaginative nature of the movie.

Since Fantasia was always meant to be like a concert, Walt Disney wanted a roadshow attraction where audiences would have to buy a ticket to have a reserved seat like it was an actual concert or play. Two shows of Fantasia would run per day. As RKO, Disney’s movie distributor at the time, didn’t like the expense of this plan and didn’t believe it would work, Disney had to do it themselves.

They designed beautiful programmes and even wanted to change the typical sound system to suit their movie. Walt and Stokowski said the sound system had to be better than anything that existed at the time. They wanted the music to surround the audience and so Fantasound was created to enhance the movie, basically an early version of surround sound[12]. Walt didn’t want to just stop their either; he wanted his film to be in 3D and even had the idea of trying to get perfume scents to waft into the theatres at certain points during The Nutcracker Suite. Stokowski thought gunpowder would be a good smell for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Neither of these actually happened, however, we now know that 3D media is now quite commonplace and Smell-O-Vision continues to be developed.

RECEPTION

Fantasia first opened on 13^th November 1940 at the Broadway Theatre in New York City, which happened to be the same theatre where the short cartoon Steamboat Willie (1928) debuted. The Fantasia roadshow later moved on to other areas, including San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ premiere had been held in December 1937.

Fantasia only managed to reach a select number of people as only 12 venues were fitted with the Fantasound system. This inconsistent release of the show hurt Fantasia’s reach, and with World War II in Europe, the movie was not going to be able to reach the overseas market. Not only that but many weren’t even interested in watching the film, since it was not an animated fairy tale, like Snow White or Pinocchio (1940), which audiences had come to know, like, and expect from the Disney Studios. Music critics didn’t like Fantasia at all, feeling that the movie ruined the classical pieces with its rearrangements, but film critics seemed to like the idea of the movie, although some of the animated sequences were not as appealing as others. Others said it was pretentious.

From April 1941, RKO took over the distribution of the film, cutting the movie down from its two-hour runtime to 80 minutes, editing out some of the more abstract, less appealing segments such as Toccata and Fugue, but it still failed to take off[13].

The reaction to Fantasia was definitely a disappointment to Walt, as he had put a lot of energy into his project. It was clearly an experiment from the Disney Studios, but Walt had hoped for more of a positive reaction anyway. Despite the lack of commercial and financial success, Fantasia did receive two honorary Academy Awards at the 1942 ceremony: one to Walt, William E. Garity and RCA for the development of Fantasound, and the second to Stokowski and his orchestra for the creation of a new form of visualised music. Segments from Fantasia were then later used in some of Walt’s television series in the 1950s, and the movie finally turned a profit in the 1960s thanks to some clever ‘psychedelic’ advertising, fitting of the time period, after being reissued theatrically every few years[14].

Fantasia slowly but surely gained popularity over the decades and more contemporary reviews of Fantasia are generally in agreement that this film is iconic and a real Disney classic, recognising the ambitiousness of the project.

LEGACY

It was hoped that Fantasia could constantly be added to, with new sections replacing older sections, giving movie-goers a new experience each time the film was re-released.

Because of the disappointing reaction to Fantasia, that didn’t happen, despite the fact some segments were already being worked on. These included a segment using Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, another set to Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, and one using Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee”. Luckily, during the late 1940s, a similar format of film to Fantasia was being created at the Disney Studios, now known as the “package features”. These featured animated short cartoons set to music that were packaged together to make a feature film, despite none of them being at all related to each other. “Peter and the Wolf” ended up in Make Mine Music (1946), with a swing version of “Flight of the Bumblebee” becoming Bumble Boogie in Melody Time (1948). “Clair de Lune” was meant to be used for the Blue Bayou segment of Make Mine Music, but a new song replaced it in the final film.

In the late 1970s, the idea of making a new Fantasia was revived by veteran Disney animators Mel Shaw and Woolie Reitherman. This new Fantasia was to be called Musicana and would have featured music and stories from other countries. Mel Shaw had been recruited by Walt Disney to do development work on Bambi (1942), and left the Studios shortly after to enlist in the army. He returned to the Disney Studios in 1975, where he did a lot of development work for movies at that time, including The Rescuers (1977).

Pieces of music were chosen, and stories were created for them. Some of these included a sequence of frogs playing jazz music in the Southern US, using a song by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong; a story based on Aztec and Incan folklore set to a song by Peruvian soprano singer Yma Sumac; a Mickey Mouse short retelling the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Emperor’s Nightingale, though it is unclear what music was planned to go alongside it; another using Sibelius’ “Finlandia” about an Ice god and a Sun god battling; and one more on the Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves tale, using the piece “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov. Despite all this development work, the Studios passed on the project[15].

On screen, Disney Animation later did finally do a follow-up film to Fantasia, called Fantasia 2000 (1999), which I feel is more interesting and accessible to modern audiences; I also appreciate its shorter runtime of around 75 minutes.

In recent years, Disney have gone back to their idea of making Fantasia into a concert experience. This is the touring concert Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert, where a live orchestra plays the classical pieces of music, whilst a screen shows the animated segments. The programme contains a mixture of sequences from both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, although the programme seems to change. It is unclear to me when Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert first began, with the earliest date I can find going back to 2012. It is currently still touring in 2024.

Another film released by Disney which is vaguely related to Fantasia is the live-action film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), starring Jay Baruchel as “the apprentice”, Dave, and Nicholas Cage as “the sorcerer”, Balthazar. Although it takes its name from the Mickey Mouse short within Fantasia, and features a brief scene parodying the famous cartoon, except this time with the added danger of mixing electricity and buckets of water, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is based more on the legend of the magician Merlin, and has nothing to do with Yensid or Mickey Mouse. It’s a good film though.

At the Disney Parks, I was surprised to find that Fantasia is actually represented in all of the international Disney resorts, albeit some in quite small ways. For example, at Disneyland Paris, you can find two miniature scenes recreated from the film during Le Pays des Contes de Fées, the Paris version of Disneyland’s Storybook Land Canal Boats: one of these is Mount Olympus from The Pastoral Symphony, and the other is from Night on Bald Mountain, with Chernabog sitting atop his castle, overlooking the village below. These scenes do not feature in Disneyland’s version of the ride. Outside of the entrance to Disneyland Paris, as well as the Disneyland Paris Hotel, there is also a small landscaped area titled Fantasia Gardens, featuring topiaries of some of the characters from the film. There used to be the Café Fantasia inside the hotel, a bar area with subtle references to the movie, however, that has been rethemed.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, there is another landscaped area called Fantasy Gardens, which, like Paris, is subtly themed to Fantasia, with topiaries of some of the film’s most well-known characters. Fantasy Gardens can be found in Fantasyland, and is also a character meet-and-greet location. At Tokyo Disneyland, at the Disney Ambassador Hotel, guests can stay in the Fantasia Suite, which is, again, subtly themed to the film.

The Shanghai Disneyland Hotel also has some Fantasia-themed areas, such as the quick-service food location Ballet Café, inspired by the Dance of the Hours sequence, and the bar and lounge area Bacchus Lounge, appropriately named after the God of Wine who appears in The Pastoral Symphony. Inside Shanghai Disneyland, you can also find the Fantasia Carousel, which is a typical carousel that features the Pegasus horses from The Pastoral Symphony instead of normal horses. During their boat ride attraction Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, guests pass by a scene of Sorcerer Mickey attempting to control all those brooms with their buckets of water.

At Disneyland, there are a few references to Fantasia. One of these is the Primeval World section of the Disneyland Railroad. Although not specifically themed to The Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, it is believed that the Primeval World scene, originally created for the Magic Skyway attraction at the 1964-65 New York World’s fair, was inspired by the battle between the T-Rex and Stegosaurus in Fantasia, a scene animated by Woolie Reitherman, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men[16].The Christmas version of the World of Color nighttime show, World of Color – Season of Light, features a Fantasia section, utilising “The Nutcracker Suite” music, as well as projecting scenes of the Dance of the Hours ballet onto the water screens, and the Wondrous Journeys fireworks feature some clips of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. At Disney California Adventure Park, you can even eat at the Carthay Circle Restaurant, a fine dining experience residing inside a reproduction of the actual Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, where Fantasia was shown. At the Disneyland Hotel, some of the new 1- and 2- Bedroom Villas have been themed to Fantasia, using artwork from the movie to decorate. The hotel also has Disney’s Fantasia Shop.

Currently at Walt Disney World Resort, the most interesting reference to Fantasia can be found at the Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf course, located behind the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resorts. The 18-hole miniature golf course is elaborately themed to the movie, with sections of the course being themed to Toccata and Fugue, The Nutcracker Suite, The Pastoral Symphony, Dance of the Hours, and finally The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Clever verses introduce each hole, and you’ll find a few surprises as you make your way through the course. I love a good mini golf course, and this is one of the best ones I’ve done. On the opposite side of Fantasia Gardens, you can find the Fantasia Fairways, which is a more difficult course and does not feature much theming, only that the hole names are named after characters or sections from the film.

Some of the Walt Disney World Resort hotels also feature theming to Fantasia. One of these is the All-Star Movies Resort, where one of the resort pools and one of their hotel buildings is themed to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. At the Riviera Resort, the children’s water play area, named S’il Vous Play, is themed to the characters from the Dance of the Hours section of Fantasia. At the Contemporary Resort, their main shop is named Fantasia Market and they also have the Fantasia Ballroom meeting space.

All the Disney Parks, except Shanghai Disneyland, have the 4D show Mickey’s PhilarMagic. This is based on the story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, except Mickey uses the hat to conduct the orchestra. During the story of Mickey’s PhilarMagic, guests follow Donald Duck as he goes through different Disney animated films to retrieve the hat that he used without permission, finding the magic too difficult to control – much like Mickey in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence. It also features a small section of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, where the brooms splash water onto the guests.

There were plenty of other references to Fantasia that have since left the Disney Parks. One of these was a small section of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice being shown during The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; another is the huge Sorcerer’s Hat that was placed in front of the Chinese Theater also at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the 100 Years of Magic celebration in 2001. It became the park’s icon, until 2015 when it was removed, to the delight of some guests who felt it was a bit of an eyesore.

During the SpectroMagic parade that no-one seems to talk about for some reason, preferring to discuss the Main Street Electrical Parade that I certainly do not prefer over SpectroMagic despite some of those “SpectroMen” creeping me out, there was a Chernabog float. The creature would open and close his wings either to reveal or conceal himself in the mountain. It was a really cool float. There were also other floats featuring the dancing ostriches from Dance of the Hours and elements of The Pastoral Symphony. The SpectroMagic parade ran from 1991 to 1999, and then again from 2001 to 2010 at the Walt Disney World Resort.

There were even meant to be Fantasia attractions that sadly never came to be. One of these would have been housed within the Beastly Kingdom that never arrived at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, probably due to budgetary reasons. This land, that would have featured attractions themed to mythical and fantastical creatures, was going to have the Fantasia Gardens boat ride, a musical boat ride themed to Fantasia, passing by scenes of Mount Olympus and all the creatures from The Pastoral Symphony sequence, as well as going past a recreation of the animal ballet from Dance of the Hours[17].

At Disneyland, there were plans for a Fantasia boat ride to replace the Disneyland Fantasyland Motor Boats. It would have featured music and scenes from the films, using “water sculptures”. This concept was soon abandoned after Imagineers realised that noise from the nearby Autopia would drown out the soundtrack. This idea was then reconfigured to be a potential walkthrough attraction for Walt Disney World to replace the Swan Boats that operated in and around the Magic Kingdom hub and the Swiss Family Treehouse from 1973 to 1983. They wanted to fill this new area with topiaries of the Fantasia characters, but it was deemed too expensive and never proceeded, although Fantasia Gardens areas did come to be in some of the international parks in some form or another[18].

For character meet-and-greets, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you can actually meet Sorcerer Mickey, at Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams, located just outside of the ABC Commissary quick-service location; Minnie Mouse also meets here. It is unlikely that any other Fantasia characters will be available to meet anywhere else, although Hyacinth Hippo and Madame Upanova Ostrich have been known to come out for Special Events at the Disney Parks. Sorcerer Mickey is not a usual meet-and-greet character, but the nighttime show Fantasmic! that currently operates at Disneyland and Walt Disney World does feature Sorcerer Mickey briefly for the grand finale.

Within merchandising, there are plenty of items featuring Sorcerer Mickey, such as plush toys, figurines, and pins, with the character also featured in Disney video games, such as Disney Infinity and Epic Mickey. Outside of that, any other Fantasia character merchandise will be harder to find, especially outside of a movie milestone anniversary, however, for the Disney100 Decades Collection for the 1940s, five of the Pegasus horses were released as plush toys.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Walt Disney struggled to get over the lack of financial success of Fantasia, but truly believed in the creation. The original plan had been for Fantasia to constantly have additional sections added, and others taken away, so it could be re-released year-on-year and always be a new experience. This never materialised during Walt’s lifetime. It wasn’t until the late 1990s when work on Fantasia 2000 would begin, thanks to Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew.

I am glad that Fantasia 2000 was released as a homage to the amount of effort and work that went into Fantasia, and to keep Walt’s dream “alive” in some way. I can see exactly what the Disney Studios wanted to achieve, and it did push creative boundaries. It also took courage to do something so “out there” and different, risking the reputation of the Studios. They survived the lukewarm reception, and difficult global events, and pressed on.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece (1990).

[2] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia (1940), pp. 7-9.

[4] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[5] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘This is what REALLY happened at The Rite of Spring riot in 1913’, ClassicFM.com, 15^th October 2018.

[6] Credit: Disney, Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece (1990).

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Lost “Fantasia”: The Disappearance of Sunflower’, CartoonResearch.com, 27^th March 2020.

[8] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[9] Credit: Disney, Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece (1990).

[10] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Fifteen Fascinating Facts About Fantasia’, D23.com, date unknown.

[11] Credit: Disney, Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece (1990).

[12] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[13] Credit: Disney, Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece (1990).

[14] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Fifteen Fascinating Facts About Fantasia’, D23.com, date unknown.

[15] Credit: Disney, Musicana: The Fantasia Sequel That Never Was (2010).

[16] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Fifteen Fascinating Facts About Fantasia’, D23.com, date unknown.

[17] Credit: Jim Korkis, Disney Never Lands (2019), ‘Beastly Kingdom’, pp. 55-60.

[18] Credit: Michael, ‘Neverworlds – The Magic Kingdom’s Fantasia Gardens’, ProgressCityUSA.com, 19^th June 2009.

17th May 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

BACKGROUND

This is the story of the one that started it all.

Although not the first-ever animated feature-length film – the oldest of these appear to have been made earlier in the 1900s, and some lost to history – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does hold the title of being the first full-length traditionally cel animated film.

More importantly, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first feature-length animated movie to come out of the Disney Studios, starting their collection that came to be known as the Disney Animated Classics.

After years of making cartoon shorts, where the medium of animation was experimented with and humour was defined, in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was finally released into the world, fourteen years after Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, founded their film studio.

It wasn’t an easy journey by any means. The press was brutal in their opinions of Walt’s plans, what they liked to call “Disney’s Folly”, and no-one outside of the Disney Studios thought that they could either pull it off, or that the audience would be receptive to it.

Well, the press was wrong. Very wrong, in fact. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a huge success. Audiences were overjoyed with the movie that they were presented, plus it was artistically amazing, something they had never seen before. A full cartoon story that had heart, humour, and drama.

It put Walt Disney in line with the major film studio owners of the time. At last, animation was finally being recognised in film as something just as good as live-action.

I do like Snow White, although I think I found it too scary to watch as a child, so it’s a movie that I definitely had to grow to like. The only problem is I grew up in the 1990s, so I was thoroughly spoilt by the musical fairy tales of the “Disney Renaissance Era”, so Snow White will never be too high on my ranking of the Disney Animated Classics.

Although Snow White was released as a “family-friendly” piece of movie entertainment, not everyone remembers it that way, since it has some very dark and frightening moments, as many of Walt Disney’s earliest movies did.

PLOT

The plot of the movie is pretty well-known, but let’s go through it anyway.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs begins with a queen asking her Magic Mirror who the “fairest one of all” is, hoping that it will be her. The Magic Mirror bluntly states that there is another who is fairer than the Queen. Though he does not state her name, merely describing the girl as having “lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow”, the Queen knows it is Snow White. Being the girl’s stepmother, with Snow having lost both of her parents in some unknown way, the Queen forces Snow to work as a maid at the castle, even though Snow White is the princess of this kingdom.

Snow tries not to let this get her down, as she knows that she can always wish for her life to get better, hoping for her true love to find her someday. A prince overhears Snow singing and decides to jump over the wall of the castle grounds to get closer to her. He surprises Snow by singing right next to her, at which point she runs inside. He proceeds to serenade her whilst she stands on a balcony, and they fall in love instantly. I mean, good for them I guess, but if any man ever acted like that today, then they’d just come across as a creepy stalker. Not the best first impression.

The Queen continues to be jealous of Snow White and asks her Huntsman to take Snow into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart to the Queen. Whilst in the forest, unbeknownst to Snow, the Huntsman does plan to kill her, but he finds he cannot bring himself to do it. He tells Snow to run into the forest and never come back. Terrified, Snow does as she’s told, but the forest is much scarier in the dark, and she finds herself scared of the wind, the trees, and all the animals. Eventually, she comes to a clearing and faints from fear. As she begins to come round, the forest animals, who are actually really cute, little things, come over to her. Snow finds herself outside a small cottage. She goes inside.

Inside the cottage, she finds a very untidy house, with seven small chairs and seven small beds. Snow assumes that this must be the home of seven messy orphaned children, and decides to tidy up the house with some help from the animals. After all that work, Snow becomes tired and falls asleep on the beds, but not wanting to choose just one, she ends up sprawling out over multiple of them.

The owners of the cottage, seven dwarfs who work in the nearby mine, come home to find their house clean and believe there is an intruder inside. As they go upstairs to investigate, they discover a monster in their beds! Except, it’s just Snow White. She is welcomed into their home by six of the seven dwarfs – Happy, Doc, Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Dopey; Grumpy isn’t at all impressed by Snow White though, which makes much more sense. Welcoming the person who broke into your house like a friend wouldn’t be the normal reaction of anyone today, regardless of whether they said they’d clean and cook for you. Well, maybe university students would like that, but I wouldn’t.

During the day, Snow stays at the cottage doing housework, whilst the dwarfs are out at work, and at night, they all sing and dance together. It all seems to be going well, until the Queen discovers from her Magic Mirror that Snow White is still alive, and living in a cottage with seven dwarfs. Furious, the Queen goes to her secret basement where she keeps all of her magic and potions. She decides to feed Snow White a poisoned apple. Though it won’t kill her, just putting her into a deep sleep until woken by “love’s first kiss”, the Queen believes that it will make Snow White look so convincingly dead that she will be buried alive. To ensure Snow White takes the apple from her, the Queen turns herself into an old hag as a disguise and heads to the cottage.

Whilst Snow is cooking and the dwarfs are away, the Hag, or the Witch as she is more generally known, goes to the cottage and tells Snow that she should use some of her apples to make the dwarfs apple pies instead of the gooseberry pies Snow was already baking. Snow isn’t sure, but the Witch insists, making her way inside the cottage. The forest animals see through the disguise, and try to warn Snow, but she ignores them. The animals go to the mine and attempt to get the dwarfs home. The dwarfs don’t move, but when Sleepy mentions that the Queen may have found Snow, they rush back. Meanwhile, the Witch tells Snow that the apple she has is a wishing apple, and that if she wants to meet her true love, she should wish for it and take a bite.

The dwarfs get back to the cottage, but it is too late; Snow has already taken a bite of the apple and passed out. The dwarfs see the Witch leaving the cottage and chase her into the mountains during a thunderstorm. The Witch climbs up to the top of a cliff and she tries to move a huge boulder, to have it tumble down on the dwarfs as they make their way up to her. But a lightning strike hits the ledge she is stood on and it crumbles, taking the Witch with it, as well as that boulder which crushes her to death. The Queen is defeated.

Though the dwarfs believe Snow White to be dead, since she is so beautiful, they cannot bring themselves to bury her, but instead encase her body in a glass coffin. The next spring, the Prince, from the beginning of the film, learns about this tragic death of the girl he loved and visits her coffin. With the dwarfs still keeping watch over Snow’s body, the Prince proceeds to say goodbye to Snow White, by giving her one kiss. Suddenly, Snow White awakens; it was love’s first kiss. She is surprised to see the Prince next to her, but is overjoyed at the same time – as are the dwarfs and the forest animals. Everyone celebrates as the Prince carries Snow White to his horse, and she kisses the dwarfs goodbye as her and the Prince ride off into the sunset together, to live “happily ever after”. Aww.

Despite some intense scenes and some awful close-ups of the creepy old hag, this is a relatively tame plot compared with the Brothers Grimm version of the tale. The Brothers Grimm version includes the death of Snow White’s mother during childbirth as well as multiple murder attempts of Snow by the Queen. One of these involved lacing Snow White up into a bodice so tight that Snow passes out. The dwarfs arrive in time to save her though. On the second attempt, Snow is poisoned with a comb and again passes out, but the dwarfs save her. With the third attempt of the poison apple, the Queen cleverly only poisons half the apple so that she can eat the unpoisoned half to calm Snow White’s suspicions. Another difference is that Snow was not awoken with a romantic kiss, but instead, as the Prince and his servants transport Snow White’s body back to her father’s castle, the poison apple simply dislodges from her throat. The two still get married though and on the wedding day, the Queen learns from her Magic Mirror that the Prince’s bride is now the fairest of them all. As she investigates, she sees Snow White is the bride. The Queen is then caught and made to wear red-hot slippers that force her to dance until she drops dead. Nice. That’s actually the main plot point of The Red Shoes – but that’s a different story[1].

CHARACTERS & CAST

These days, Snow White is not considered to be a good feminist role model. She’s a bit too sweet, a bit too naïve, and she only dreams of finding her true love. There’s nothing especially wrong with that, but unlike some of Disney’s more contemporary princesses or female lead characters, Snow White gets a lot of criticism these days.

Watching Snow White, or Cinderella, or Aurora all through my childhood just made me decide that being kind and caring to others is important, and that there’s nothing wrong with having dreams. Not exactly a negative, is it? So, I don’t really care about all that.

There is one thing I really don’t like about Snow White – and that’s her voice. I’m not a big fan of my own voice, so I guess I’m just a hypocrite, but I find Snow White’s voice to be too high-pitched and very grating. I was very surprised when I was younger to find that the “face characters” at the Disney Parks speak in exactly the same way – though why I was surprised, I don’t know, because of course, they’re try to be as authentic as possible.

But she’s not so bad. Snow White is very caring and helpful; she’s not spiteful or resentful even though she has basically been banished from her kingdom by her crazed stepmother, and she just wants to move on with her new life. She is too trusting, by letting a random old woman come into her house, but then again, she is kind and doesn’t have a suspicious or cynical bone in her body, so that’s something she would do.

When the character of Snow White was being designed, it was a struggle for the animators to make her look like a real person. The signature animation style of the Disney Studios at the time had not been to make anybody look particularly authentic, it was all quite caricatured, so when they first attempted to draw Snow’s face, the animators said she ended up looking more like Betty Boop than a real girl, giving her huge cartoon eyes After some additional training around drawing realistic human movements, they figured out how Snow White should look though[2]. When it came time to ink and paint the character, another difficulty arose. The animators knew she needed some colour on her cheeks, however, if they applied red paint to her cheeks, Snow White ended up looking like a clown. The women who worked in the Ink and Paint Department, which was all women at the time due to the need for “a delicate hand”, decided to apply real rouge to the drawing directly, and Snow looked great. Walt Disney was concerned that the women wouldn’t be able to do it in exactly the same way each time Snow was being painted, but they scoffed and said of course they could since they already had to do their own make-up every day. Sure enough, they managed. The ladies later received compacts from Walt as a present after the release of the film. They looked at themselves in the mirrors, and thought they all looked so tired and awful after all the stress of getting Snow White finished on time[3]!

Adriana Caselotti voiced the character of Snow White, and she was named a Disney Legend in 1994 for this role. Caselotti first heard about the part when her father, who was a singing teacher in Los Angeles, was asked if he knew of any women or girls who could sing operatic notes but also speak as a child. Caselotti desperately wanted to audition for the part, so her father put her forward for it. A hundred other actresses also auditioned for the role, but Adriana got the coveted role. Sadly, because of Walt Disney’s desire to make the voice of Snow White unique, Caselotti’s career did not sky-rocket after the movie came out. In fact, she had very few roles after this, providing some operatic singing lines for The Wizard of Oz (1939) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and then for some Disney animated short films, but these were mostly uncredited. Outside of that, she reprised her role of Snow White for a few Disney projects.

For Snow White’s counterpart, of course we have the Queen. Or the Evil Queen, or Queen Grimhilde, or the Witch, or the Old Hag; she has lots of names. She is beautiful, but also very vain, determined to be “the fairest one of all”. The Queen is not the fairest in the land, and is jealous that her stepdaughter, Snow White, happens to have that title even at her young age and without even trying; it drives the Queen mad with envy. The Queen is actually quite stunning, despite her personality being so cold and murderous. When the Queen transforms into the Witch or the Hag, whichever term you prefer, she becomes as ugly as her inside. The close-up shot of the Witch transformed is particularly scary, and it happens again shortly after when she pops up at the window of the Dwarfs’ cottage. Children of all ages have been scared of her for years, including me. But the Evil Queen is a brilliant character. She is calmly villainous, a straight talker, and just plain wicked. The iciness of her voice and stern look is classic Disney villain, and that’s why she is consistently included amongst the Disney Villains franchise, even after all these years.

Lucille La Verne was chosen to voice the Queen originally, but she then said she could also voice the Witch, so La Verne voiced both parts, which makes sense, given the two characters are one and the same. The animators knew La Verne as a great stage actress, having made her Broadway debut in 1888, but they had also seen her as The Vengeance in A Tale of Two Cities (1935) in which she performed a great, witchy cackle, perfect for the Witch here, with her theatrical voice being a match for the Evil Queen. Every evil queen needs their sidekick though, and the all-knowing Magic Mirror happens to be hers. The Magic Mirror is very brave for actually telling the Queen the truth; I think I would’ve lied if that had been me! The Mirror was voiced by Moroni Olsen, who went on to voice the Senior Angel in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and play Herbert Dunstan, the father-in-law, in Father of the Bride (1950) and its sequel Father’s Little Dividend (1951).

Next, we have Snow White’s prince. The prince with no name. What a shame, given the Queen has several of them. He is simply known as The Prince, though some fan sites have said his name is Prince Florian. I like just calling him The Prince, it makes him a man of mystery. I am not a massive fan of the Prince as a character though. He’s a bit stalker-like if you think about it cynically, walking into the palace gardens without being invited, desperately searching for Snow’s coffin for months on end, kissing a dead girl on the lips… Then again, if he hadn’t done that, Snow White wouldn’t have lived and that wouldn’t be right for a fairy-tale ending. I guess riding off into the sunset with an attractive guy you don’t really know is better than getting murdered by your stepmother, right? The Prince was going to have more involvement in the story of the film according to early storyboards, by being captured by the Queen and having to escape from her prison. This idea was abandoned for some reason or another. This could’ve helped his character development so much more, because all we see of him is a brief clip of him singing at the start and then saving Snow White with a kiss at the end; it’s not much of a character arc. No name, no character arc. The poor prince. Who would’ve expected the “lead” male character to be so under-done? Harry Stockwell provided the voice of the Prince. After this voice role, he went on to perform as Curly, the lead role in Oklahoma!, on Broadway from 1943 to 1948. Harry Stockwell is the father of actors Dean and Guy Stockwell.

The Dwarfs were not as difficult to animate as the other characters, as they were based on caricatures instead of real-life humans. The complications came in ensuring that each of the seven had their own personalities and quirks, with these matching their names. The names of the dwarfs were not even settled until a year before the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Dopey just being known as “Seventh” for a while. There were many other possible names for the dwarfs being tossed around including Dirty, Lazy, Wistful, Snoopy, Goopy, Dippy, and Chesty[4]. If you can remember all seven names that were decided upon, then it’s quite obvious to the viewer which dwarf is which.

Doc is the leader of the group, with his biggest quirk being the fact he consistently misspeaks and trips over his words. He is voiced by Roy Atwell, who was known for playing characters that stammer or mis-deliver their lines. Sneezy obviously sneezes a lot, so his voice actor was Billy Gilbert, who was known for his comic sneezing routines. Happy is the optimistic one, voiced by Otis Harlan, and Bashful is the shy one, voiced by Scotty Mattraw. Pinto Colvig, who was the original performer of Goofy and Pluto, voiced Sleepy and Grumpy. Dopey is the final and perhaps most memorable dwarf, despite the fact he never speaks. He’s the sweet but dim one, and the only dwarf without a beard. Eddie Collins provided the small amount of vocals that Dopey does have.

Although all the dwarfs do look similar, their heights and body shapes are slightly different based on their main characteristic, with Doc, for example, being slightly bigger to give him the gravitas of being the group’s leader. Dopey is slightly shorter than the others, and never walks in time with the rest of the dwarfs, which suggests that he is different to them. It was animator Frank Thomas’s idea to give Dopey a recurring hitch step to help him keep up with the others. Though Walt Disney loved this action, it irritated the other animators who thought they had finished their work on the character but then had to add in Thomas’s hitch step to any drawings of Dopey[5]!

MUSIC

Some of the songs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs have become iconic over the decades since the movie’s release. How many of us haven’t whistled whilst we’ve worked, or heard “Heigh-Ho” playing somewhere? It’s been impossible to avoid these songs.

Walt Disney was a strong believer in letting the music move forward the story of his projects, with music being incorporated into many of the Silly Symphonies, so he knew how important this would be for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The magical score for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was composed by Frank Churchill, Paul Smith, and Leigh Harline. Smith had composed the scores for some of Disney’s nature documentaries The True-Life Adventures, as well as working on the scores for other Disney movies, such as Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944) and Cinderella (1950). Harline went on to compose the score and some of the songs for Pinocchio (1940) alongside Ned Washington, winning the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Harline left the Disney Studios in 1941.

The music for the songs was also composed by Frank Churchill, who had written the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” for The Three Little Pigs (1933) Silly Symphony short, and went on to write music for other Disney animated films, including Dumbo (1941), for which he won two Oscars, for the score and the song “Baby Mine”, and Bambi (1942). The lyrics were provided by Larry Morey, who collaborated with Churchill again for the Disney films The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Bambi (1942).

25 songs were originally written for the film, with only eight being used. One song “Music in Your Soup” was cut from the film when its accompanying sequence was removed from the final edit. Another, “You’re Never Too Old to Be Young”, was simply replaced with “The Silly Song”. “The Silly Song” is that strange yodelling song that plays as Snow White and the dwarfs dance together one evening. I don’t mind it so much, although it does go on a bit and I would suspect it would get irritating very quickly if you listened to it on a loop! But it’s much better than the deleted song. Another song the dwarfs have is that very well-known song “Heigh-Ho”. It’s clearly very catchy because everyone at least knows the chorus if nothing else! It’s ok, but I don’t love it. Like the yodelling song, it’s quite samey.

My favourite of the dwarfs’ songs actually doesn’t really have a name, other than “Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum” or “The Dwarfs’ Washing Song”, which plays as they are washing up for dinner. It’s a very satisfying scene to watch, especially if you’re a germophobe, like me. It is literally just telling you how to wash your hands, but for some reason, I really like it.

For Snow White’s songs, obviously, she has a few. One of these is “With a Smile and a Song”, which Snow sings to the forest animals after she’s gotten over her scare in the forest. It’s very upbeat and positive, but if you’re not a fan of Snow White’s high-pitched voice, it’s not an easy song to love. She also sings “Whistle While You Work”, which is a satisfying scene to watch too, if you like to see rooms cleaned to perfection. It’s a bouncy sort of tune that is hard to ignore, even if you want to.

Snow White also gets a (sort of) duet with the Prince early on in the film, “I’m Wishing/One Song”. I like to imitate Snow White with the opening lines of “I’m Wishing” sometimes, because I actually quite like the song. It’s a romantic song and it keeps Snow’s spirits up whilst she’s being used as a slave. The Prince then comes in, before singing “One Song” to Snow after she runs away. It sounds like a classic romantic song from a musical of that era. Since I quite like that era of musicals, this is also a good song for me.

The final song to mention is “Someday My Prince Will Come”, with Snow White describing her earlier encounter with the Prince to the dwarfs, as she dreams of him coming back for her and taking her to her castle to live happily ever after. It’s a sweet dream to have, and one that could only happen in fairy tales, but it’s an iconic song from the film, so let’s not be too cynical about it. The song is reprised at the end of the film, with a chorus coming in to sing triumphantly about how all of Snow’s dreams have finally come true. The song has been covered by many artists since its release, including Barbra Streisand for the Platinum Edition of the DVD in 2001, singer Anastacia for the Disneymania CD (2002), as well as Disney Channel stars Ashley Tisdale and The Cheetah Girls for Disneymania 4 and 6, and Sonny with a Chance’s Tiffany Thornton performed it for the Diamond Edition DVD in 2009.

Interestingly, Disney was sued for this song. Owner of the copyright to the song “Old Eli”, Thornton Allen, claimed the same chorus was used in the Snow White song. Allen said he’d sent a copy of “Old Eli” to Disney in 1932. Allen didn’t have a copy of the letter to say the Studios had received it, but Disney did, though it had been sent to the New York office, not the Hollywood one. It contained a list of musical compositions Allen had sent and “Old Eli” was not listed. Frank Churchill, composer of “Someday My Prince Will Come” said he had never seen it, and there was no evidence to suggest he had. Deems Taylor, a famous composer at the time who would go on to be involved in Disney’s Fantasia (1940), was asked to testify as an expert witness. He noted some similarity in the notes, but stated that it was a common harmonic progression. He also said the rhythmic structure and chorus were very different. The judge for the case ruled against Allen, saying that although he could hear some similarity, there was no chance of mistaking one song for the other[6].

PRODUCTION

By the 1930s, Walt Disney had already made a series of animated/live-action shorts in the 1920s as part of his original Laugh-O-Gram Studio. These were called the Alice Comedies, that combined live-action acting with animated backgrounds. He was also known for being the creator of Mickey Mouse, with Steamboat Willie (1928) being one of the first fully synchronised sound cartoons. The Disney Studios then produced a series of musical shorts, the Silly Symphonies, some of which were ground-breaking for their use of Technicolor, with others spanning hit records, such as “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”.

But this wasn’t enough. Walt Disney had considered making a feature-length animated film in 1932. In May 1933, he thought he had the best idea of making a film of Alice in Wonderland, where Alice would be a live-action actress and Wonderland would have been animated. However, when Paramount released their own film version of Alice in Wonderland in December 1933, Walt decided against it. Briefly, he looked at doing something similar, a live-action/animated hybrid film, with the story of Rip van Winkle, but that idea was cancelled when the actor Walt had in mind to play the main role, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash.

By October 1934 though, after having already won four Academy Awards for his short cartoons by this point, Walt had decided to use the fairy tale of Snow White as the basis for a full-length animated film. Though Grimm’s fairy tale is said to be the inspiration for the story, in actual fact, Walt was more inspired by the 1916 silent movie Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark in the title role, that he had seen as a child[7]. One day, key artists at the Disney Studios were asked at the end of their working day to go away, have dinner, and then come back to the studios for a meeting. At this meeting, Walt proceeded to act out his entire plan and storyline for his version of an animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The animators were drawn in by Walt’s acting and enthusiasm, and loved the idea.

But when the press got wind of the fact Walt Disney was trying to make a full-length animated feature film, they all thought he was crazy, with the film being given the nickname “Disney’s Folly”. The film industry felt that no-one would be able to sit through a cartoon for 90 minutes. Cartoons were too brightly coloured, too packed with sight gags and unrealistic movements to satisfy a regular film audience. Walt didn’t let the nay-sayers put him off though; he knew better. He knew they could make their Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a full story with humour, but also emotion and realism. He was aware that full-length feature films were more likely to make money than an animated short, and wanted to expand the animation medium beyond “silly cartoons” and push its use as a storytelling artform.

Walt Disney wanted to ensure that his animators were ready for this new challenge, so he invested money in art classes, so that the animators could study their art form further in the evenings and at weekends. They needed to properly analyse human movements for this story. Their previous cartoons had never needed to do this as they were not meant to be realistic to life. The Silly Symphonies were still being created during production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so they could use those short cartoons as a way of experimenting with special effects and human animation.

Since Snow White is a typical European fairy tale, Walt Disney wanted the film to look visually like a European storybook, so the best way to do that was to look to some European artists and their concept artwork. Two of these were Albert Hurter and Gustaf Tenggren. Hurter’s work was quite gothic and decorative in nature. His concept work of the forest scene, with the scary trees, as well as his poses for the crying dwarfs as they mourn Snow White’s death inspired the final scenes. Tenggren made inspirational sketches of the backgrounds, like the cottage, forest, and the castle. He was an illustrator and watercolourists, so he had a firm basis in what illustrations for European children’s book looked like. Tenggren went on to be a key artist for the settings of Pinocchio (1940)[8].

Live-action models were also used to act out some of the planned movements for the characters, so that the animators could use those as a guide. Marge Champion was the live-action model for Snow White, with actor Don Brodie dressing up in a cape and walking up tall scaffolding to give the reference material for the Witch’s demise.

By late 1936, the first drawings were sent to the Ink and Paint Department. Colour tests were run to decide on the best colours for the film, with Snow White’s dress colours not being finalised until just a few months before the release of the film. The multiplane camera that was being developed to provide tracking shots and a sense of depth was not even ready at the start of production, so some scenes had to be rushed through the process, meaning this innovative idea was not even used in the way it was meant to be. The multiplane camera would really be used to its full effect in Disney’s next film, Pinocchio (1940). The technique had originally been tested on the Silly Symphony The Old Mill (1937).

By the summer of 1937, the Disney Studios had run out of money, and didn’t have enough to finish the film. They had already spent around $1 million, and estimated they needed about $500,000 more. A banker was invited to the Studios to see a test screening of what Disney had so far on the film. The banker barely reacted at all to the screening, with this making Walt and his brother, Roy, nervous that the bank would not allow any further investment, however, the banker said he was sure the film would make them a lot of money, and gave them the amount needed to complete the film.

This didn’t mean that all sequences could stay in the film though, with many sequences edited. These include Snow White’s run through the forest, the Queen at her cauldron, and the dwarfs march home being shortened. A fight between Grumpy and Doc was cut, with a whole scene of the dwarfs eating soup, that animator Ward Kimball had spent ages working on, also being removed from the final edit. To make up for Kimball’s disappointment, it is said that Walt assigned Kimball to animate the character of Jiminy Cricket for their upcoming film, Pinocchio (1940)[9].

Although it was a lot of work, with many of the employees at the Studios working overtime without pay to complete the project, they were enthusiastic to work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, believing this would be a moment in film-making history.

RECEPTION

After all that work, Walt Disney was determined to give Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a proper Hollywood-style premiere, to showcase the animated masterpiece in the same way as the live-action films of the day.

The premiere was set for 21^st December 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, with the whole film only being completed around the 1^st December. Many celebrities attempted the event, including Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, and Marlene Dietrich. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck were also in attendance, along with Adriana Caselotti and Harry Stockwell, the voice actors of Snow White and the Prince, who sang some of the numbers from the film before the showing. Those two actually were not even given tickets to the premiere and snuck up to the balcony to see themselves in the movie! The dwarfs were also there, along with a set-up of the dwarfs’ cottage, and an exhibit showing some of the artwork from the film[10].

Walt Disney and the rest of the Studios’ employees were nervous about the reaction to the film, but they didn’t need to be concerned. The audience at the premiere was completely taken in by the pure drama and emotion of the film, with some even crying at the end. It was immediately clear that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not “Disney’s Folly” at all, but “Disney’s Triumph”. It had a captivating story, expressive characters, charming music, and was artistically innovative and impressive.

It was popular at the time of its release, immediately becoming one of the most important movies ever made, and being seen as a milestone in movie-making history. Walt Disney was later awarded with an honorary Oscar at the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony. It was presented to him by Shirley Temple, and consisted of one large statuette, with seven mini ones alongside it, to represent the seven dwarfs. It was not only a popular movie in its “home country”, but became a worldwide hit, being dubbed into more than 20 languages, having its own soundtrack released, and having its own line of merchandise. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs supposedly inspired MGM to make The Wizard of Oz as Walt Disney’s film had shown how adaptations of children’s stories could be widely successful. It changed the movie industry forever and was an inspiration to so many movie makers. It was a dream come true for Walt Disney.

The final box-office result for the original run of Snow White was $8.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Hollywood film at the time. In 1939, Gone with the Wind would knock Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs off that top spot[11]! But it didn’t stop there, because Snow White has been re-released numerous times in theatres, with the first of these re-releases being in 1944, and continuing throughout the next four decades. The instant success of it set a trend for Disney to continue with theatrical re-releases. In 1993, the movie was digitally restored and re-released again. It was also released on home video in the 1990s, with DVD and Blu-Ray releases following suit in the 2000s and 2010s[12].

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs even inspired children’s playhouses. Judge Alfred K. Nippert built a “Snow White House” playhouse for his nieces in 1938 on the estate he inherited from his father-in-law, James N. Gamble of Procter and Gamble, in Volusia County, Florida. It was completed in March 1938 and Walt Disney reportedly visited the house. He loved the attention to detail and gifted Nippert eight life-sized dolls of Snow White and each of the dwarfs[13]. Walt Disney also built his children their own Snow White-inspired playhouse, with a replica dwarfs’ cottage being constructed by studio carpenters in the backyard of their home as a Christmas present to his daughters, Diane and Sharon[14].

LEGACY

Because Snow White was the very first Disney princess, and since the film was the very first Disney Animated Classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was always going to be quite prominent at the Disney Parks, especially since the movie was released in 1937, almost twenty years prior to Disneyland’s opening date in 1955, meaning there was plenty of time to think of ways of including this movie in upcoming attractions. However, it is worth noting that in recent years, and with their numerous company acquisitions, Disney now have access to many more modern, strong female characters, so it seems that Snow White and her Prince are slowly becoming less and less frequent as these newer characters come in to the fold.

But there are still plenty of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs references at the parks currently. Clips and music from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are included within many of the Disney Parks’ nighttime and fireworks shows, such as Momentous at Hong Kong Disneyland, Happily Ever After at Walt Disney World, the Harmony in Color parade at Tokyo Disneyland, and of course, Fantasmic! at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, where the Evil Queen features as the leader of the Disney Villains revolution. The characters are also likely to appear in parades, with the Evil Queen frequently appearing in Halloween-themed ones. A Snow White makeover package is also available at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutiques that exist at the Disney Parks around the world.

Four of the six Disney Parks have, or had, a dark ride going through the events of the movie, with all four of them being opening day attractions. It took guests through the story of the film in minecart shaped ride vehicles. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, this ride was called Snow White’s Adventures from 1971 to 1994. Instead of having the guests watch the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs play out in front of them, the guests were meant to feel like they were Snow White, so Snow herself made no appearance in the ride. This was also the case at Disneyland. However, when it was deemed to be too scary to have riders feel like the Evil Queen was after them, and that their ride vehicle was going to be crushed by a falling rock, Snow White was then added to the ride, and the attraction name was changed to Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I always found this attraction scary as a child, but I do scare easily. Anyone who has been on the Snow White themed dark rides at the Disney Parks will know just how horrible the Evil Queen’s transformation scene is, where she spins round quickly to face the cars as they pass her – the stuff of nightmares. The ride then continued to run at Walt Disney World until 2012, when it was closed to make way for Princess Fairytale Hall, a permanent meet-and-greet location in Fantasyland.

However, the ride does still run at Disneyland, as it has since July 1955, under the name Snow White’s Enchanted Wish. This was not the original name, however, which was actually Snow White and her Adventures, before being refurbished in 1983 to make it less scary, and renamed to Snow White’s Scary Adventures[15]. The attraction was most recently refurbished and updated in 2021, with new effects and a new “Happily Ever After” finale scene added to it. There is an interesting point to mention about the outside of the show building – if you look up at the window long enough, you may see the Evil Queen watching you… Also at Disneyland, you’ll find a miniature scene showing the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage on the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction, as well as on the Casey Jr. Circus Train which oversees the boat ride. At Disney California Adventure Park, you can even eat at the Carthay Circle Restaurant, a fine dining experience residing inside a reproduction of the actual Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, where the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs took place all those years ago in 1937.

At Tokyo Disneyland, you’ll find their version of the Snow White attraction, Snow White’s Adventures, which opened with the park in April 1983. Also, at the Fantasy Springs Hotel, the area is themed to iconic Disney movies, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), Tangled (2010), and obviously, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Disneyland Paris also has a Snow White ride, opening with the park in April 1992 and is similar to Tokyo’s version of the ride. It is named Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, the French title for the film. I have been on this version too, and I remember it being much scarier than Disney World’s one; I’m still haunted by visions of skeletons being thrust from the side of the room right at the ride vehicles. There is also La Chaumière des Sept Nains shop in Fantasyland, themed to the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage. Much like Disneyland’s ride, there is also a miniature scene of the cottage on Le Pays des Contes de Fées, Disneyland Paris’ version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

At Magic Kingdom and Shanghai Disneyland, both parks have a family-friendly rollercoaster attraction, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The coasters aren’t too wild and crazy; the ride vehicles swing from side-to-side, but the track is not too fast or twisty. There is also a nice section of the ride where you go through the dwarfs whilst they are working in the mines and can hear them singing “Heigh Ho”. Magic Kingdom’s ride then ends past the Dwarfs’ cottage, with Snow White inside and the Witch knocking at the door with her apples. Shanghai’s ride ends with the cottage in the distance and a well closer to the vehicles, where two raccoons are playing around. This is a fun ride, at least I know Magic Kingdom’s is; I haven’t been to Shanghai. Even my mum, who dislikes most rollercoasters, loves this attraction. Near Shanghai’s Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, you can visit the Mountainside Treasures shop. Also at Shanghai Disneyland is the Once Upon a Time Adventure attraction. It is a walkthrough attraction within Shanghai’s Enchanted Storybook Castle, telling the story of the film via screen projections, special effects, and designed sets.

Sadly, Hong Kong Disneyland does not currently have a Snow White dark ride, or a Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. However, as part of the walkthrough experience Fairy Tale Forest you’ll see areas themed to some of Disney’s best fairy-tale movies, with one of these being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In terms of meet-and-greet locations, Snow White seems to be quite frequently seen at all six Disney Parks. At Walt Disney World, she has a permanent meet-and-greet location at the Germany Pavilion in Epcot. The dwarfs occasionally have a meet-and-greet location at Special Events such as Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, but not always. They are very popular when they do appear. The Evil Queen is likely to be spotted at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. At the Wilderness Lodge Resort, if you dine at Story Book Dining at Artist Point, a Snow White-themed character dinner, you will see Snow White, Grumpy, Dopey, and the Evil Queen.

At the other five parks, though there are not permanent meet-and-greet locations, you will likely find Snow White, and sometimes the Prince, visiting guests around the castles and Fantasyland areas. Disneyland’s Fantasy Faire location and Disneyland Paris’ Princess Pavilion spot are good areas to see Snow White also. She is likely to be a part of any Princess character dining experience, such as Cinderella’s Royal Table at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, or Auberge de Cendrillon at Disneyland Paris. The Evil Queen, sometimes appearing as the Old Hag, is likely to be available for meet-and-greets at the Disney Halloween events, but she is sometimes seen randomly in the Fantasyland areas, especially at Disneyland, where they seem to have much more frequent, rare, and casual character interactions. Unfair…Anaheim is just so much further away than Orlando…

Finally, Snow White Grotto, a wishing well with statuettes of Snow White and the seven dwarfs standing on top and along the waterfall, is an attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, located to the side of their respective castles.

Moving on to the screen, Snow White the fairy tale has been adapted numerous times by many different film studios. Some of these include the live-action movies 20^th Century Fox’s Mirror Mirror (2012) and Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), with both putting a darker, more modern spin on the classic tale. ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) also chose to twist the story of Snow White with its retelling of the fairy tale, with Ginnifer Goodwin cast as Snow White, and Lana Parrilla as the fabulously cruel Evil Queen. These characters, including Josh Dallas as Prince Charming, and Jennifer Morrison as Emma, Snow and Charming’s daughter, drive the first six seasons of storylines.

However, Disney themselves will be releasing their own live-action version, Snow White, in 2025; it was meant to be released in 2024, but was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023. Many Disney fans are not too happy about this upcoming movie, as lead actress Rachel Zegler has caused some upset with a few of her comments around the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. By stating that her Snow White will be much more modern and not dreaming about love or needing rescuing by a prince, Zegler inadvertently offended some of Disney’s most loyal fans, leading many to claim that they will boycott the film. These comments also led to a rumour that the role of Snow White was to be recast; it was not true. I didn’t agree or like what Zegler said about the original Snow White, however, I think the furore that surrounded this incident was over-the-top and uncalled for. Another controversy surrounding the film is over Disney’s handling of the seven dwarfs. They originally reassured people that these would actually now be “magical creatures” to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes, however, an image from the movie has since been released and does not appear to show these characters being sensitively addressed[16]. We’ll have to wait and see.

On a lighter note, it is possible that the world could have seen a short animated sequel to Snow White a few years after its release. A folder of story sketches was found in Disney’s Animation Research Library, which seemed to suggest that a sequel named Snow White Returns had been in the works, and would have used two sequences that were originally meant to be included in the full film, however were cut. The story would have seen the dwarfs getting ready for their annual visit from Snow White, with them wanting to make a bed for her as a present. On returning home from their bed building, they would have found Snow in their cottage making soup. After slurping their soup down, despite Snow trying to get them to eat like gentlemen, the dwarfs would’ve gone to present the bed to Snow. Except they try to lift the bed and it won’t move, since one of the carved bedposts was not sawn off the tree. As Snow waits ages for the dwarfs to return, she falls asleep. The dwarfs find Snow asleep and decide to wait until the morning to give her the present. They instead jump into the bed and fall asleep themselves[17].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will always be remembered for being a ground-breaking piece of movie history. It paved the way for other movies of this kind to come out of the Disney Studios to be loved by millions for years to come. It truly is a very special movie.

In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter what anyone’s opinion of Snow White is, because it was the movie that sprung Walt Disney and his animators into the spotlight.

Personal opinions aren’t what’s important here. The fact is Snow White launched a legacy and a revival in cinema. Its history speaks for itself, and it will be treasured forever.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Dan Peeke, ‘Snow White And The Seven Dwarves: 10 Differences Between The Book And The Film’, ScreenRant.com, 16^th March 2020.

[2] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).

[3] Credit: Disney, “Hyperion Studios Tour”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Disney+ (2009).

[4] Credit: Disney, “Disney’s First Feature: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney+ (2016).

[5] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Some Day My Lawsuit Will Come’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th September 2022.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015). ‘Introduction’, pp. xi-xiii.

[8] Credit: Disney, “Disney’s First Feature: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney+ (2016).

[9] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt: Volume 1 (2012),’Snow White Christmas Premiere’, pp. 83-92.

[11] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).

[12] Credit: Disney, Disney Through the Decades (2009).

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Snow White, Off the Beaten Path’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 7: Christmas Edition (2018), ‘The Snow White Christmas Cottage’, pp. 21-22.

[15] Credit: Werner Weiss, ‘Snow White’s Scary Adventures: Florida Edition’, Yesterland.com, 12^th April 2024.

[16] Credit: Nikolas Lanum, ‘‘No longer 1937’: Resurfaced video of ‘Snow White’ actress Rachel Zegler continues controversy’, NYPost.com, 25^th July 2023.

[17] Credit: Disney, “Snow White Returns”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Diamond Edition DVD (2009).

10th May 202428th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#54 Big Hero 6 (2014)

BACKGROUND

Although the 2010s at Disney Animation started with a typical princess musical (Tangled (2010), the movies that followed would be a mixture of new ideas and different styles, from the video-game based Wreck-It Ralph (2012) to the comic book style of Big Hero 6.

Previously, Disney had tried to move away from their fairy-tale musicals but with little success. The 2000s spanned almost an entire decade of non-musical films, with many being classed as “adventure movies”, however, the majority of these movies flopped at the box-office with Treasure Planet (2002) even being such a financial disaster that it caused the Disney executives to ban the making of any further 2D animated movies – for a time, anyway.

Luckily, in the 2010s, non-musical Disney animated movies did resonate with audiences. That could be because audiences of today are more open to seeing a different genre of movie from Disney, or it could just be that viewing preferences have simply changed amongst younger age groups. Either way, I’m glad that Disney did, and continue, to move away from just the one format of film, and have the freedom to take us to new worlds.

I don’t read comic books and I don’t like superhero films. I’ve never seen any movie related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the only films I like that are at all related to superheroes are Sky High (2005) and The Incredibles 2 (2018). So, you’d think I wouldn’t like Big Hero 6 – but actually, I really do.

I think my problem with superhero movies is that all of it seems so far away from reality that I can’t get interested in it. This is where Big Hero 6 is different. The villain isn’t some supervillain with a plan to take over the world or destroy it, and the superheroes are just normal people using science and technology as their superpowers, using things that really exist, instead of relying on super-strength, or invisibility, or other powers that they’ve somehow gained through some bizarre event or incident. Big Hero 6 just feels real.

Big Hero 6 was a big step for Disney, as it was the first animated film by Disney to use a Marvel property, after Disney purchased Marvel in 2009. Disney had numerous live-action films based on Marvel characters in the works at this time, a full slate spanning about a decade, but making an animated film based on a comic book or a superhero character was unlike most superhero films that had existed before.

It was a risk, but one that paid off.

PLOT

Big Hero 6 is set in the city of San Fransokyo, a hybrid of the cities of San Francisco and Tokyo. Hiro Hamada is a fourteen-year-old boy who is incredibly intelligent. He graduated high school at the age of thirteen and is wasting his potential by hustling people at “bot fights”, using a small but sophisticated robot to defeat his opponents. His brother, Tadashi, is a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and tries to encourage Hiro to do something more fulfilling with his life. He takes Hiro to his research lab to show him what he could be doing. Tadashi has built a healthcare companion, basically a robotic nurse, called Baymax, who looks like a giant walking marshmallow. Hiro warms to the idea of researching and studying, before deciding wholeheartedly that he must go to this school.

To do this, Hiro creates an invention to take to the Institute’s Showcase, showcasing his idea of microbots that can do anything that the mind wants them to do, via a neurotransmitter. Robert Callaghan, the professor at the Institute, loves the microbots and invites Hiro to join the school. Hiro accepts, despite Alistair Krei, CEO of Krei Tech, wanting to buy the microbots. However, just as Hiro and Tadashi are about to celebrate with their friends and Aunt Cass, who raises them since their parents died when they were young, a fire breaks out in the building and Tadashi runs in to save Professor Callaghan. Tadashi doesn’t survive, causing Hiro to go into a deep depression. Callaghan is presumed dead too.

One day, Hiro hurts himself while in his room, and Baymax activates, alerted by Hiro saying “ow”. Hiro doesn’t want anything to do with Baymax, but finds one of his microbots from his presentation, which is moving, seemingly attracted to the other microbots Hiro created for the Showcase. Hiro assumes its broken as the other microbots were destroyed in the fire, but Baymax follows where the microbot wants to go, to try to help Hiro feel better. Hiro and Baymax end up outside an abandoned warehouse. Breaking in, they find a whole production line of Hiro’s microbots, and have to escape an attack from a black-cloaked man wearing a Kabuki mask. Scared, Hiro reports the incident to the police, but is ignored.

Hiro decides to fight his attacker, upgrading Baymax with martial arts moves and 3D printed armour, and goes back to the warehouse, but it’s empty. They track the man to the nearby docks, using the microbot again as a tracker. Tadashi’s friends from the Institute, who are trying to encourage Hiro to attend school despite his grief, show up just in time to help Hiro and Baymax escape the guy for a second time.

Hiro decides to get the four friends involved to attack the guy together. Each friend creates their own superpower, based on their scientific research. Baymax can now fly, and him and Hiro fly up to a wind turbine to scan the city to find their attacker. They track him to an island, and all of them go so they can attempt to take the mask, to stop their attacker’s control over his microbots. They discover that the island was used for a teleportation experiment by Alistair Krei. The experiment went wrong, leaving a woman missing and the government shutting down the island. Suddenly, the group are attacked. Hiro knocks off the mask revealing that their attacker is – Robert Callaghan! He had used Hiro’s microbots to shield himself from the fire at the Institute that night, meaning Tadashi died for nothing. Enraged, Hiro removes Baymax’s healthcare chip, leaving only Hiro’s attacking one, and orders Baymax to kill Callaghan. The others stop this, returning Baymax’s chip, but Hiro is furious and leaves the island with Baymax.

Hiro tries to get Baymax to kill Callaghan but he reminds Hiro that Tadashi wanted Baymax to help people, showing Hiro videos of Tadashi testing Baymax. Hiro apologies to his friends, who forgive him, and tell him that they found out that the woman who went missing in Krei’s experiment was Abigail Callaghan, Callaghan’s daughter, so he must be trying to enact a revenge plot on Krei.

Sure enough, they find Callaghan at the opening of Krei’s new campus. He has rebuilt the portals from Krei’s original experiment, and uses them to destroy the building, before planning to throw Krei in too. The group help to save Krei and stop Callaghan by getting the majority of the microbots sucked into the portals through clever distractions. Eventually, Callaghan doesn’t have enough microbots to continue attacking the group.

Baymax then detects life from inside the portal. Hiro, assuming it to be Abigail, goes in with Baymax to retrieve her. On the way out though, Baymax is damaged by floating debris. The only way to get Hiro and Abigail out is to use his rocket fist, which Hiro designed, to push them out, but Baymax cannot go with them. Hiro accepts this is the only way and tearfully says goodbye to Baymax. Hiro and Abigail are return safely, and Callaghan is arrested. Hiro then decides to go back to the university with his friends, and finds Tadashi’s original healthcare chip for Baymax in the rocket fist that Hiro kept. He rebuilds Baymax, inserts the chip, and gets his friend back. The six of them continue to protect the city as a team, calling themselves “Big Hero 6”.

CHARACTERS & CAST

The movie Big Hero 6 starts out with Hiro Tamada “bot fighting” in the slightly dodgy streets and back allies of San Fransokyo. Hiro is quite cocky at this stage and the team at Disney knew they needed the right balance of cockiness and vulnerability to match Hiro’s age. If the balance edged too much towards cocky, I presume the audience would not have found Hiro likeable and wouldn’t have been bothered by his story, but luckily, they got it just right[1]! Hiro doesn’t think anything of hustling much older, and bigger, men than him, who no doubt have connections in this underground arena. That’s how he gets himself into trouble and has to be rescued by his older brother, Tadashi.

Tadashi clearly doesn’t approve of Hiro’s choices in life; he wants him to live up to his potential and continue to improve the world with his genius ideas and inventions, because Hiro is very intelligent. Tadashi shows Hiro what he could be doing with his time instead, and by showing Hiro Baymax and all the work he’s put into that goes a long way to convincing Hiro to use his talents for good. Their parents died about ten years before, so they are very close and protective of each other. They are being raised by their Aunt Cass, living above the Lucky Cat Café, that Cass owns and runs, with her cat Mochi. Cass is concerned she isn’t raising the boys well, especially when they end up being arrested for being involved in illegal bot fighting, but she is very supportive towards them and so proud of what they’ve accomplished in life. Mochi was actually not a part of the original script for Big Hero 6, however, story artist Kendelle Hoyer wanted Hiro’s family to have a pet. She continued to draw the cat in her storyboards and eventually it was decided that the cat could stay[2]!

Tadashi Hamada is voiced by Daniel Henney, who is currently cast in the Amazon Prime fantasy series The Wheel of Time (2021-present) as al’Lan Mandragoran. Aunt Cass is voiced by comedic actress Maya Rudolph, known for her roles in movies such as Grown Ups (2010) and its 2013 sequel as Deanne; Bridesmaids (2011) as Lillian; and Disenchanted (2022) as Malvina. She rose to fame as a cast member on the sketch show Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007. Rudolph currently stars in the AppleTV+ comedy series Loot (2022-present) as Molly Wells.

When Tadashi unexpectedly dies in the fire at the Institute, Hiro sinks into a deep depression which Cass tries hard to get him out of, by encouraging him to register at school. Not that Hiro really listens, until he meets Baymax. Baymax is the best character in the whole movie, in my opinion. He is the funniest, mostly because he has no filter, and doesn’t understand how people act. Like the “fist bump” scene. Hiro tries to teach him how to “fist bump”, so he can mimic what him and Tadashi used to do; it was their “thing”. However, Baymax doesn’t quite get it right, and after the “fist bump”, wriggles his fingers a bit and goes ‘ba la la la’, so not quite the same thing! The Disney team knew this would be a funny moment in the movie, so built in more opportunities for the audience to see it. Another hilarious moment is seeing low-power Baymax, who could also be called “drunk Baymax” if this weren’t a Disney film. I’m sad there aren’t more moments of this in the movie. Baymax is a great companion for Hiro, at a time when he needs someone most. Obviously, Baymax is a “personal healthcare companion”, so wouldn’t want Hiro to be in anyway unwell, but he goes above and beyond what would be expected to help Hiro grieve and come to terms with his brother’s death – like fighting bad guys, for example! I think everyone that watched Big Hero 6 came away from it wanting their own Baymax in their lives – I know I did, and still do.

To create Baymax, the face was inspired by a traditional Japanese bell called a Suzu seen at a temple in Tokyo whilst the Disney team were on a research trip there. On the surface of the bells, there are two circles with a line in the middle, exactly like Baymax’s face. The idea for Baymax to be a “huggable” robot, instead of the traditional robot that can be found in the comic series, came from a different research trip to technological institutes, specifically Carnegie Mellon, where the team saw work on “soft robotics” including a vinyl arm. They knew that was the perfect look for Baymax[3]. Baymax’s movements were influenced by real and movie robots, and even koala bears, as well as babies and penguins. Penguins have similar body dimensions to Baymax, as in long torso and short legs, so they were a good choice to look at how Baymax would walk[4].

Scott Adsit voices the lovable Baymax. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Pete Hornberger in the comedy series 30 Rock (2006-13). Hiro is voiced by Ryan Potter, who made his acting debut as Mike in Supah Ninja (2011-13) for Nickelodeon. For Disney XD, Potter was cast as Riker in Lab Rats: Elite Force (2016). After that, he appeared as Gar Logan / Beast Boy in Titans (2018-23), then voiced the character of Kenji Kon in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020-22).

Then there’s rest of the “Big Hero 6” team, Hiro and Tadashi’s four friends from the Institute. First, there is Go Go. She is a bit reserved and quite sarcastic; she doesn’t say much. Go Go is researching maglev wheels, wheels which are magnetically suspended, so not attached to anything, and these become her superpower, allowing her to speed-skate with them on her feet, and be able to throw them at opponents. Go Go is voiced by Jamie Chung, who has appeared in movies, such as Grown Ups (2010) and The Hangover Part II (2011), and in the television series such as Once Upon a Time (2011-18) in the role of Mulan, after being a cast member on reality show The Real World: San Diego in 2004.

Honey Lemon is the other girl in the group. She is bubbly and enthusiastic, almost too much so. Her speciality lies in chemistry, and her superpower is about creating balls of potent chemicals, which can change form, plus be shot out at speed. Genesis Rodriguez provides the voice for Honey Lemon. Rodriguez began her career with roles in telenovelas such as Prisionera (2004) and Dame Chocolate (2007) before moving in to roles in the later series’ of Entourage (2004-2011) and, most recently, she played Sloane Hargreeves in Season 3 of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy (2019-present).

For the guys, there are Fred and Wasabi. Fred is the school mascot, so not a science student, though he is interested in science so hangs out in the lab frequently. He is also a comic book enthusiast, and spends a lot of time thinking about superpowers even before the group is formed. For his superpower, as the school mascot is a dragon and he doesn’t have any science talent, he has a super suit that can breathe intensely hot fire. Fred is childish and kind of gross – we hear about how many times he wears one pair of underwear, for example – but he is friendly, and not bothered by what people think of him. It also turns out that Fred has very rich parents and lives in a mansion. In an End Credits scene, we see that Fred’s dad is actually a superhero himself – and looks and sounds like Stan Lee. Nice comic-related Easter egg there! Comedian and actor T.J. Miller voices Fred. He had voiced the character Tuffnut Thorston in How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and its 2014 sequel, as well as some of the earlier spin-offs, and voiced the character of Gene in The Emoji Movie (2017). Miller also portrayed Weasel in Deadpool (2016) and its 2018 sequel. On television, Miller received a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2015 for his role as Erlich Bachman in Silicon Valley (2014-17). In recent years, Miller has been replaced in many of his recurring acting roles due to police matters.

Wasabi, on the other hand, is the complete opposite to Fred. He is incredibly organised, overly cautious, and reluctant to be involved in the group to begin with. Fred gave him the nickname “Wasabi” after he got some wasabi on his shirt one day – something that Wasabi finds annoying as it only happened one time. His superpower is based on his research around lasers, making plasma blades that are razor sharp and can cut through nearly everything. Wasabi is voiced by Damon Wayans Jr., known for starring in Happy Endings (2011-2013) as Brad Williams and for having the recurring role of Coach in New Girl (2011-2018). He also recently starred as Adam in the film Players (2024) for Netflix.

Then, there is the villain, “Yokai”, then found to be Professor Robert Callaghan, in one of those surprise villain moments that Disney and Pixar started doing in the mid-2000s. At the start of the movie, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy. He’s a bit stand-offish, and doesn’t say much, but he doesn’t seem evil, though it is clear he is one to hold a grudge; when he spots Alistair Krei at the showcase, he makes it quite obvious that he doesn’t like Krei at all, and warns Hiro away from him. It turns out Krei was the reason his daughter disappeared in a failed experiment, which seems like a fair enough reason to hold a grudge, really! Then, we see “Yokai”, who is not at all concerned that he could’ve killed all these kids who are actually his students. He is blinded to everything except his revenge plot and doesn’t care who might get hurt if they get in his way. Even when he is revealed by Hiro to be Callaghan, he isn’t apologetic at all and continues on with his plan. By the end of the movie, when he is thwarted by “Big Hero 6”, and his daughter is found to be alive, Callaghan just looks sad, as he is put into the police car. Maybe he shouldn’t have become so consumed by hate. Like most villains, Callaghan never saw himself as the villain of the piece; he felt that he was enacting some sort of justice. He is grieving in much the same way as Hiro is, and even Hiro almost resorts to violence when he sees how unfair it is that Tadashi died for no reason, and Callaghan doesn’t even care. It just shows what grief can do to a person. Hiro comes to terms with his, thanks to Baymax, who won’t allow Hiro to go down the dark path of hatred and revenge, unlike Callaghan[5].

Callaghan is voiced by James Cromwell. In recent years, Cromwell has had a recurring role in the drama series Succession (2018-23), receiving three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor. He also had a recurring role in Season 3 and 4 of Boardwalk Empire (2010-14). In the second series of the American horror anthology series, American Horror Story: Asylum, Cromwell was cast as Dr. Arthur Arden; he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries for his performance. In film, Cromwell has appeared in a range of films, including Babe (1995) as Farmer Arthur Hoggett, for which he was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at the Academy Awards; I, Robot (2004) as Dr. Alfred Lanning; The Queen (2006) as Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh; The Artist (2011) as Clifton, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) as Benjamin Lockwood.

Well-known Disney voice artist Alan Tudyk voiced Callaghan’s nemesis Alistair Krei. Tudyk had previously voiced King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) at this time, and has since gone on to have a voice part in every Disney animated feature since, including Duke of Weselton in Frozen (2013), Hei Hei in Moana (2016), and Valentino in Wish (2023), amongst many more Disney and non-Disney projects, Iike the series Resident Alien (2021-present).

PRODUCTION

The story of Big Hero 6 goes right back to the group of writers who created the original comic. The group all met while working at Marvel in the 1990s. They had been working on the X-Men series’, however, when Marvel went bankrupt, they moved over to DC Comics and worked on Superman. After a while, they decided they wanted to work on their own franchises instead, and set up their own company called Man of Action Entertainment, a writer collective. They had a big hit with Ben 10, which aired on Cartoon Network in 2006, and continued in some form, whether in television or gaming, until 2021. Man of Action were surprised to find out that Disney were making a movie based on Big Hero 6 but they were delighted with the final result[6].

When Don Hall had finished working on Winnie the Pooh (2011) as co-director, he decided to pitch an idea for an animated movie based on a Marvel property. He had always wanted to make a Disney movie based on a Marvel comic, and now that Disney had bought Marvel, he knew he had the opportunity. Hall stumbled upon Big Hero 6, which he hadn’t heard of before, but liked the style of. The characters from this obscure Marvel comic book called Big Hero 6 first appeared in a 1998 three-issue miniseries called Sunfire and Big Hero 6. They would then appear again in a 2008 five-issue miniseries called Big Hero 6. Both of these comic series use the same characters, but the second one would mostly be the basis for the Disney movie. However, Disney did not generally use much information from the original comic, apart from the character names[7]. They were told by Marvel to make it their own, so they used the original characters, but changed the story quite significantly. One of the first changes was for Baymax to be built by Hiro’s brother, Tadashi, who was created for the movie, instead of by Hiro’s father, so they could have a storyline about brothers. Hall held a “brothers’ summit” to learn about his team’s experiences with their brothers.

Much like with many Disney animated movies, the film was screened every twelve weeks to collect feedback and reaction, meaning that scripts had to be rewritten and new scenes would have to be drawn, and others thrown out. For example, some of the deleted scenes include a prologue which would’ve recounted Hiro’s journey as a prodigy child, skipping grades at school and graduating early, before making robots and new technology with his brother. Baymax was also originally going to be presented at the showcase by Tadashi, with Fred being used as the patient, however, Disney felt Tadashi introducing Hiro to Baymax in his lab would make it more of a special moment for the brothers, strengthening their relationship. The first introduction of “Yokai” was going to be more menacing too[8].

In terms of the location, the team wanted to use the US geography of San Francisco and combine it with the cultural feel and vibe of the city of Tokyo, especially as this would represent Big Hero 6’s comic anime style. This made the city of San Fransokyo, which was created as a futuristic thriving metropolis full of people. The team spent around three years developing a rendering tool called Hyperion, to provide realistic lighting effects to the scenes, and give huge levels of detail and artistry in each shot. They also developed software called Denizen to create their characters, as they had 14 main characters to bring to life, the largest cast of main characters in a Disney film at the time, as well as over 700 unique supporting roles, more than any other Disney film that had come before. The Visual Effects team was expanded to tackle the numerous anime-influenced action sequences, going from thirteen on Tangled (2010) to forty for Big Hero 6.

As well as recreating the cities closely, by using Hyperion to generate the 83,000 distinct buildings, and include additional touches such as 215,000 street lights, specific details, like milk bottle boxes being stacked on the sides of buildings in Tokyo, alongside all the characters, to make San Fransokyo to feel like a heavily-populated area, the Effects team spent an entire day sat on top of 555 California Street in San Francisco, the second highest building in the city, to study the light’s effect on the city and the landscape, as it progressed from sunrise to sunset[9].

MUSIC

For the music, Henry Jackman composed Big Hero 6’s score. Jackman had composed music for both action films and Disney films prior to Big Hero 6, including Kick-Ass (2010) and its 2013 sequel; Captain Phillips (2013); Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its 2017 sequel, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its 2019 sequel. For Disney, he had composed the score for Wreck-It Ralph (2012), for which he won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production in 2013, prior to Big Hero 6, and went on to compose for Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Strange World (2022).

As the movie only contains the one song, Jackman’s score really had to sing here. The piece “First Flight” is particularly good, and accompanies the scene of Baymax and Hiro flying over San Fransokyo for the first time, after Hiro’s upgrade to Baymax, mimicking Hiro’s initial fear of flying for the first time before settling in and enjoying the ride. Disney knew they always wanted this scene to exist, even from the very start of production[10]. The piece “I Am Satisfied with My Care” is my favourite though, which plays as Baymax and Hiro say goodbye before Hiro leaves the portal with Abigail and says the heart-breaking line “I’m satisfied with my care”. Disney scores just have a way of making endings even more emotional with the music they use.

The only song in the movie and soundtrack is called “Immortals”, performed by American rock band Fall Out Boy. It’s quite out there for Disney, using a rock song, though it’s more electronic and pop than hardcore rock. It’s a great song, and gets stuck in my head often, but very different to most Disney songs, which is probably what they were looking for as Big Hero 6 is different to most Disney films. It suits the action feel of the movie well. It plays during the scene of the group testing out their strategies and superpower skills before they face “Yokai”.

RECEPTION

Big Hero 6 was released in November 2014, but debuted as the opening film at the Tokyo International Film Festival on 23^rd October 2014. In theatres, Big Hero 6 was released alongside a new Disney short, Feast (2014), about a dog and his owner’s shared love of food and how that changes with the owner’s new relationship.

Despite Big Hero 6 being quite a shift away from what audiences expect from Disney Animation, the movie did very well both at the box-office and with critics. It grossed over $650 million worldwide, making it the fourth Disney release of 2014 to do so, with the others being solely live-action films: Guardians of the Galaxy, Maleficent, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Three out of the four of these films were “superhero movies”.

Big Hero 6 also became the highest-grossing animated film of 2014, which is quite an achievement considering DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon 2 was also released that year, as were The Lego Movie and The Book of Life. Within Disney records, in 2015 Big Hero 6 became the third highest-grossing Disney animated film release in the US and Canada, after Frozen (2013) and The Lion King (1994) for a time.

Critics were impressed with the action-packed storyline, but were also pleasantly surprised to find that Big Hero 6 dealt with difficult topics, like grief and emotional healing, so it didn’t just appeal to superhero fans, but was universally relevant. It was also funny and Baymax as a character was a huge hit with audiences.

Big Hero 6 won Best Animated Feature at the 87^th Academy Awards, which was good for the Disney Studios to see as, apart from Frozen (2013) winning the category the year before, Disney Animation had not won ever since the category began in 2001, with Pixar having a great track record there instead. Big Hero 6 also won five awards at the Visual Effects Society Awards; won Favorite Animated Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards; and won an Annie Award for Animated Effects in an Animation Production. It sadly was not able to win Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes or the BAFTAs, though, with those wins going to How to Train Your Dragon 2 and The Lego Movie, respectively.

LEGACY

But this reaction to Big Hero 6 showed just how much of a success the movie had been, and continued Disney’s run of animated hit films. In terms of what came next, there have been talks about a theatrical sequel to Big Hero 6 since its release, however, nothing has been confirmed so far.

Still, Big Hero 6 did get a spin-off television series called Big Hero 6: The Series, which took place right after the events of the film, and ran from 2017 until 2021. Many of the voice actors reprised their voice performances for the series. This then spanned a comic book series. The film also inspired a Japanese manga adaptation. Then there was the series Baymax! released on Disney+ in 2022, which consists of six ten-minute shorts detailing Baymax’s encounters with other citizens of San Fransokyo and his attempts to help them. I just watched them this week; they were funny, cute, and sweet – I loved them. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to get a second series.

At the Disney Parks, just after the release of Big Hero 6 in 2014, Baymax and Hiro were meeting guests at The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. At Disneyland, the two were seen in Tomorrowland, where a sneak peek of Big Hero 6 was also been shown at the Magic Eye Theater.

These meet-and-greets later closed, but Baymax could still be seen at Walt Disney World at Epcot Character Spot from 2015, however this area closed around 2019 as part of Epcot’s big refurbishment plans for its 40^th anniversary, so currently at Walt Disney World, there is nowhere that you can meet Baymax or any of the Big Hero 6 group.

Luckily, Disneyland have much more respect as they have a whole area dedicated to Big Hero 6, when they refurbished the Pacific Wharf area of Disney California Adventure and transformed it into San Fransokyo Square. It opened at the end of August 2023. Here, you can meet both Hiro and Baymax, and even go to Aunt Cass Café or the Lucky Fortune Cookery for some food. There are also shops such as San Fransokyo Maker’s Market, however, there are no rides or attractions here. Also at Disneyland, in 2023 a fireworks show debuted called Wondrous Journeys, which included a real Baymax flying over the castle, but when it returned in 2024, Baymax had been removed from the show. Yokai was seen as part of the Disney Villain franchise at the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party in 2023. He was also seen during Disneyland After Dark: Villains Nite in 2021.

At Tokyo Disneyland, they do have an attraction, The Happy Ride with Baymax, which is a whip-around ride, much like Alien Swirling Saucers at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree at Disneyland. During the summer season 2024 at Tokyo, there will be a roughly 30-minute performance where Baymax will be riding in a parade float spraying mist and water to cool down guests. Tokyo Disneyland seem to have a lot of these types of events during their summer season, and Baymax seems to have been involved in a similar show in 2023. It doesn’t look like Baymax has a dedicated meet-and-greet location here though.

Shanghai Disneyland doesn’t seem to either, but in recent years, there has been a stage show called Baymax Super Exercise Expo where Hiro and Baymax lead a mini exercise or dance class for guests. It is unclear if this is still going, but I’m thinking not. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Baymax and Hiro have met guests previously, but it would seem not recently.

Strangely enough, though Disneyland Paris does not have a dedicated meet-and-greet for Baymax, him and Hiro were seen at Disney+ Day in 2022, and in 2018 for the FanDaze event all six members of Big Hero 6 were seen, and so was the villain Yokai. For Halloween 2018, there was also a show called Big Hero 6: Yokai’s Revenge!

Merchandise for Big Hero 6 is quite popular, with items such as Funko POP figurines, mugs, pins and clothing being available previously. As 2024 is the 10^th anniversary of the movie, I’m sure more items will be released towards the end of the year.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Big Hero 6 is a movie with a lot of compassion, many strong characters, and an interesting and exciting plot. It was a new direction for Disney, and continued their long line of successes in the 2010s. When Big Hero 6 was released, it’s quite clear there was a lot of hype around it, especially given the fact that it was based on a Marvel property, after Disney’s heavily-publicised purchase of Marvel, and that it was Disney Animation’s first superhero movie. However, I feel like after a few years, it was overshadowed by other Disney hits, and hasn’t been given as much credit as it deserves.

It is a movie that talks about friendship and being able to do anything you want, being free to use your imagination to create anything. Like Disney wanted, it tells the audience that technology and science provide hope for the future. But mostly, the theme around loss and grief is what gives Big Hero 6 its heart.

As we see Hiro deal with his grief at losing his brother, we learn the most important message, which can be difficult to remember in the moment: that nobody is ever truly gone; your loved ones will always be with you as long as you remember them. Something I’m sure many people need reminding of from time to time.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Deconstructing “Big Hero 6”’, Oscars.org (online), 2014, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Big Hero 6’, pp. 160-162.

[3] Credit: Disney, The Origin Story of Big Hero 6: Hiro’s Journey (2014).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Big Hero 6’, pp. 160-162.

[5] Credit: Disney, The Origin Story of Big Hero 6: Hiro’s Journey (2014).

[6] Credit: Dorothy Pomerantz, ‘Meet The Guys Behind The Original ‘Big Hero 6’’, Forbes (online), 7^th November 2014.

[7] Credit: Joshua Rivera, ‘’Big Hero 6’ strays far from its source material – – and that’s great’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 10^th November 2014.

[8] Credit: Disney, The Origin Story of Big Hero 6: Hiro’s Journey (2014).

[9] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Deconstructing “Big Hero 6”’, Oscars.org, date unknown.

[10] Credit: Disney, The Origin Story of Big Hero 6: Hiro’s Journey (2014).

3rd May 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#2 Pinocchio (1940)

BACKGROUND

Becoming just the second Disney animated classic to ever hit the movie screens, Pinocchio had a lot to live up to after the huge success that the Disney Studios had with their first ever full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

Snow White was great, with its traditional fairy-tale format and plenty of additions of that magical storytelling, strong characters, and bright music that we all associate with Disney Animation today. It’s hard to imagine that acclaim being replicated so easily.

In actual fact, it really was that easy.

Pinocchio wasn’t just as good as Snow White had been; it was even better.

Pinocchio was released in 1940 to very positive reviews from critics, saying that Pinocchio surpassed Snow White in almost every way – the music was apparently not as great, but that is debated nowadays.

But the animation is where Pinocchio really shines, as the Disney animators knew they had made mistakes in Snow White, and found that they needed ways of improving those shortcomings for future movies. So, with the profits from Snow White firmly in Walt Disney’s pocket, he set about using those funds to make Pinocchio the most artistic and innovation film that those at the Disney Studios could make. It certainly shows off the quality of animation and proves that animation is just as impressive as any live-action movie, more so in some cases.

Now, that’s what the critics all say – back in the 1940s and even in retrospective reviews from the current decade. But that’s not me, because I have to admit something.

I have a big fear of dolls, anything with a human face that isn’t alive really. Therefore, unsurprisingly, I have an incredibly negative bias towards Pinocchio, and I really do not enjoy watching it. I have multiple theories of how I came to have this “strange” fear: maybe it was that episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch with the “Molly Dolly”; perhaps it was my sister moving my toys when I left the room and hiding under the bed so I’d think they moved by themselves; maybe it was seeing the adverts for the Goosebumps on old Disney VHS tapes; or perhaps it was from watching Toy Story.

I have no idea. It could’ve been from watching Pinocchio when I was younger for all I know, though I don’t remember seeing it, but I’ve been informed I did watch it back then.

Anyway, my point is I have major personal issues with Pinocchio. I appreciate that Pinocchio was a momentous moment in both the history of the Disney Studios and generally in the history of animation, but I really don’t like this film, and never will, no matter how many times I force myself to see it.

PLOT

For anyone that does not know the story, and I don’t blame you if you don’t or can’t remember it because you had to wipe any memory of it from your mind so as not to be scarred for life, Pinocchio revolves around a wooden puppet, carved by the wood carver Geppetto. Geppetto wishes on a star for this puppet to be a “real boy”, as he never had a child of his own, though he does have two pets, a cute cat named Figaro and a sassy goldfish called Cleo. As Geppetto sleeps, his wish partially comes true. Pinocchio is alive, but not a boy yet; he’s still a wooden puppet. As the Blue Fairy states, Pinocchio must prove himself to be “brave, truthful, and unselfish” for that to happen. Geppetto wakes up to find Pinocchio alive and is overjoyed. Jiminy Cricket, who basically broke into Geppetto’s home to warm himself by the fire, reveals himself to the Blue Fairy. She says that Jiminy should help Pinocchio on his way to becoming a real boy, to be his conscience and show him right from wrong. Jiminy readily agrees and he is given a smart, snappy suit to wear to match this new important position.

The next morning, Geppetto sends Pinocchio off to school, with a book, an apple, and of course, Jiminy Cricket. But on the way to school, “Honest” John the fox and Gideon the cat delay Pinocchio and tell him all about the wonders of becoming an actor. Jiminy tries to warn Pinocchio away from these two creeps, but it does not work, and Pinocchio is instead sold to puppeteer Stromboli to become a cabaret slave in his travelling show. To be fair to Pinocchio, Geppetto had not given him the whole “stranger danger” warning so no wonder he was led astray; that’s just bad parenting on Geppetto’s part. “Bad Dad” award.

Although everything seems great at Pinocchio’s debut show, as he is the star attraction and the crowd love him, it soon becomes clear to Pinocchio that Stromboli is not a good guy. Stromboli has made tons of money from Pinocchio’s show today and plans to take him on tour, so when Pinocchio asks to go home, Stromboli angrily locks him in a birdcage, saying he can never go home. Jiminy arrives and tries to free Pinocchio from his prison, but to no avail. Luckily, the Blue Fairy appears. Pinocchio, embarrassed by the predicament he’s got himself in, begins to lie to the Blue Fairy about what happened, causing his nose to grow and grow. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio she can free him and return his nose to normal size if he promises to return to his original mission: of being brave, truthful, and unselfish. Pinocchio agrees to this and is free to go home.

But once again, “Honest” John and Gideon intercept Pinocchio, as they have been ordered by the Coachman to round up young boys to go to a shady, mysterious place called Pleasure Island – in exchange for money, of course, not out of the “goodness” of their hearts. After some convincing and ignoring the advice of Jiminy yet again, Pinocchio agrees to go. He befriends a boy called Lampwick and the two experience the wonders of Pleasure Island together, where they can drink alcohol, smoke cigars, play pool, get into fights, and do all sorts of bad things. Jiminy eventually finds Pinocchio again, and tries to convince Pinocchio to leave this place, but he refuses as he’s having so much fun there. Jiminy is about to leave the island when he learns that the boys on this island end up cursed, becoming donkeys and are then used by the Coachman as slave labour. Jiminy rushes back to save Pinocchio. At the same time, Pinocchio sees his friend Lampwick turn into a donkey right in front of him. Pinocchio is horrified – and it gets worse, because Pinocchio soon sprouts donkey ears and a tail! Pinocchio manages to escape the island before the curse can fully transform him.

Jiminy and Pinocchio finally return home, but find the house empty. Outside, they receive a note from the Blue Fairy, saying that Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo all went looking for him on a raft but they were swallowed by a huge whale called Monstro, where he currently remains. Pinocchio and Jiminy jump into the sea and swim until they find the whale. Monstro swallows Pinocchio and Jiminy, where they are reunited with Geppetto. Pinocchio comes up with a plan to make Monstro sneeze, by starting a fire inside the belly of the whale, so that they can escape. As they are sneezed out of the whale – eww – Monstro chases after their raft and smashes it to pieces, leaving them flailing in the water. Pinocchio saves his father by pulling him into a cove. Monstro then crashes into the rock face, and Geppetto washes up on the beach, alive, with Figaro and Cleo. Jiminy then washes up on the shore too. Sadly, Pinocchio is found face-down in the water; he has drowned and died.

Back home, Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo all mourn the loss of Pinocchio. However, as through this act, Pinocchio proved himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish, the Blue Fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy – minus the donkey ears and tail – at last. The group celebrates. Jiminy thanks the Wishing Star, which is also the Blue Fairy, and is rewarded with a badge for all of his good work, which certifies him as an official conscience.

After all that, you can hardly say Pinocchio is a feel-good children’s film, can you? It’s much more of a morality play than anything else. If you’re looking for family-friendly entertainment to escape from how terrible the world can be, this is not the Disney film to choose! I suppose, providing it doesn’t traumatise the children first, some of the messages about being a good, honest person might be absorbed, at least for a little bit, though.

Disney did their very best to tame their movie compared with the original source material, the book The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The name Pinocchio comes from the two Italian words “pino” and “occhio”, which mean “pine” and “eye”, an appropriate name for a wooden puppet. The Adventures of Pinocchio was originally published as a serial as part an Italian children’s magazine. Disney used some of the same plot points, for example, the boys turning into donkeys on Pleasure Island, though it is named the Land of Toys in the original story; Monstro swallowing Geppetto; the Fox and the Cat tricking Pinocchio, but other than, it is so much more terrifying! Pinocchio is incredibly badly-behaved too: kicking Geppetto as soon as his feet are carved; running away from home, where the police arrest Geppetto as they assume Pinocchio has been mistreated by him; having his feet burnt off by the fireplace; squishing the Talking Cricket with a hammer; being hung from a tree by the Fox and the Cat[1]. It just gets worse and worse! Although, Disney’s Pinocchio is already quite terrifying to watch, imagine if they hadn’t strayed from the original source. How awful would that have been….

CHARACTERS & CAST

Collodi’s version of the puppet Pinocchio was actually very unlikeable and cocky, nothing at all like Disney’s character because Walt Disney knew they had to make Pinocchio like an innocent little boy, so that the audience would want him to succeed in his journey to becoming a real boy, and that they should be concerned about the distressing situations Pinocchio ends up in. I don’t think I would’ve cared about Collodi’s Pinocchio at all if I’d read the book, but I certainly care about Disney’s little Pinocchio who is so naïve and easily persuaded that you have to feel sorry for him when all these terrible things happen. It is also clear that Pinocchio genuinely cares about his father and doesn’t want to disappoint him. Pinocchio becomes a real hero at the end of the film, sacrificing his own life to save Geppetto’s, for which he is given the ultimate reward: to finally be a real boy.

Originally, the character was designed to be very geometrically-shaped, like a real wooden puppet, but Walt Disney didn’t like that, so he asked for the character to be redesigned. Pinocchio had to look like a sweet little boy, so that is what the animators did; he became more boy than puppet. Child actor Dick Jones provided the voice for Pinocchio, but he had already been cast in numerous minor screen roles before then. In 1939, he appeared in the movies Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Destry Rides Again. During voice recordings for Pinocchio, at one point the Disney team were struggling to figure out how to make it sound like Pinocchio was underwater searching for Geppetto, so they had the bright idea of having Jones lie down on a table and have he read his lines out as water was poured into his mouth! As he almost drowned from this, they soon worked out that putting a filter on the microphone would be a sufficient alternative to make the character sound like he was underwater[2]! After Pinocchio, Jones appeared in a few episodes of the series Annie Oakley (1954-57). In 1955, Jones starred as the title character in the Western television series Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955-56). His final film role was in 1965 in the Western film Requiem for a Gunfighter. Jones passed away in 2014 at the age of 87.

Of all the characters in Pinocchio that have dialogue, Jiminy Cricket is my favourite. I also really like the suit he wears. I’d completely forgotten that he doesn’t start the movie wearing it; he actually shows up looking bedraggled and homeless, and the Blue Fairy gives him a new suit, the proper uniform to be a “conscience”, apparently. Jiminy isn’t overly helpful to Pinocchio throughout the film, though that is made worse by the fact that Pinocchio ignores him a lot…He tries his best but if someone just won’t listen to you, what more can you do! Jiminy also says what the viewers are likely all thinking, which makes me laugh. For instance, whilst in Geppetto’s workshop at the start of the film, he gets frustrated by the sound of the cuckoo clocks, which I agree are so annoying, and he has some great lines, like “Conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to.” That’s quite true!

The Talking Cricket as the character is known in the original book is a very minor character, who only shows up a couple of times in the story: once when he gets killed by Pinocchio after attempting to give him advice, and again when he comes back as a ghost. The team at Disney decided that having the cricket as a main character would give Pinocchio a sidekick, and bring some friendship and humour to the otherwise dark story. In the end, Jiminy’s wise-cracking ways dominate the screen, and as such Jiminy Cricket has become one of Disney’s most memorable characters. Being an official conscience will do that for you. Ward Kimball was assigned the task of designing Jiminy Cricket, which was quite difficult as crickets are not the cutest insects and Walt Disney wanted something cute. So, Kimball drew multiple designs of this walking-talking cricket, until eventually they got the design that we now know as Jiminy Cricket – who looks very little like an actual cricket.

Cliff Edwards, who was also known by the name “Ukulele Ike”, due to his performances playing the ukulele, voiced the character. Edwards first popularised the song “Singin’ in the Rain” after performing it in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 musical film, alongside The Brox Sisters. Edwards had a few movie roles, with one being in the comedy film His Girl Friday (1940). Edwards voiced one of the crows in Dumbo (1941) and reprised his role as Jiminy Cricket often for other Disney projects up until his death in 1971.

Geppetto is Pinocchio’s kindly father. He wants nothing more than to have a child of his own, and so Pinocchio coming into his life is a great gift. Geppetto doesn’t feature all that much in the film, just at the beginning and at the end, because this film is all about Pinocchio, but you can see how devoted he is to Pinocchio by the fact he goes out to sea to find him and ends up being swallowed by a whale… Although Pinocchio is an Italian story, Geppetto speaks with an Austrian accent. That is because Christian Rub was an Austrian-born actor. He made Geppetto soft-spoken and calm, even in the face of adversity, which is a nice contrast to all the evil villainous men in this film. Rub had appeared in numerous movies, with his film debut being in The Belle of New York (1919) and his final film role being in Something for the Birds (1952). Also in 1940, Rub was cast as Thoren in RKO’s Swiss Family Robinson, not to be confused with Disney’s 1960 live-action film. Apparently, Christian Rub was a Nazi sympathiser, which made working with him quite difficult, given the time of Pinocchio’s development.

Whilst on the subject of Geppetto, I also have to say that I absolutely love Figaro, Geppetto’s black and white cat. He’s so cute! Disney really got the temperament of the cat spot on because Figaro has two emotions: moody and needy. He’s the best character in this film, no question. Because Figaro was so popular, and supposedly Walt Disney’s favourite character in the film, Figaro became Minnie Mouse’s cat after this. Clarence Nash, famous for voicing the character of Donald Duck, “voices” Figaro here. Cleo, Geppetto’s goldfish, is also quite cute, but is no Figaro. I did see one of the deleted scenes though, which would have seen Figaro trying to eat Cleo whilst stuck in the stomach of Monstro; that wasn’t nice to watch. Bad Figaro.

Now let’s get to the despicable villains. I like Disney Villains, but I draw the line at these four. They are just awful and horrible to watch. “Honest” John, or John Worthington Foulfellow to give him his full name, which just sounds incredibly pretentious, and his mute sidekick Gideon are the two con artists who use Pinocchio to make themselves richer. They bother Pinocchio twice, and sell him to Stromboli and then to the Coachman, basically. You’d think Pinocchio would have learnt to stay away from them after the first incident, but nope! John is quite persuasive and charming, which is how he is able to convince Pinocchio to do bad things, but generally, the two of them are quite bumbling and relatively comedic. Apparently, “Honest” John was partly inspired by Walt Disney’s brother, Ray, who sold insurance. He wanted animator Ward Kimball as a client, but whenever Ray came to the Studios, Kimball always tried to hide from him, even hiding in an armoire at one point[3].

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny for the Looney Tunes, was originally going to be the voice of Gideon, but Disney decided that Gideon should be mute, so the only “line” that Blanc managed to voice here was Gideon’s hiccup[4]. Walter Catlett voiced “Honest” John. Catlett had appeared on stage in musicals like the 1920 production of the Jerome Kern musical Sally, and Lady, Be Good by George and Ira Gershwin in 1924. Catlett also appeared in various movies, including Bringing Up Baby (1938) as Constable Slocum, and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) as Morrow, the Poet.

Finally, the last two villains are Stromboli and the Coachman. Both of them are greedy and abusive, with the Coachman happily sending boys to an island to be cursed so that he can get some cheap donkey labour, and Stromboli planning to use Pinocchio like some dancing slave. I really don’t like either of them and find them the scariest and most repulsive characters in the film. Charles Judels voiced both characters.

MUSIC

Let’s move on to something brighter, like Pinocchio’s soundtrack. The songs were composed by Leigh Harline, who also co-scored the movie, with Ned Washington contributing the lyrics. After Pinocchio, Washington went on to write the lyrics to the songs in Disney’s Dumbo (1941), earning an Academy Award nomination for “Baby Mine”, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “High Noon” from the 1952 film High Noon. There are five original songs in Pinocchio, though more were written for the movie and ultimately not used. One of these is Jiminy Cricket’s song “I’m A Happy Go Lucky Fellow” which instead was used in the animated film Fun and Fancy Free (1947).

To be honest, I’m not a fan of any of the songs from Pinocchio, although if I had to pick a favourite it would either be “Give A Little Whistle” or “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee”. I remember hearing a variation on “Give A Little Whistle” in the former Walt Disney World parade Celebrate a Dream Come True so that’s probably why I don’t mind that song. It is performed by Cliff Edwards and Dickie Jones as Jiminy teaches Pinocchio how to whistle so that he can call for help, and reminds him to “always let your conscience be your guide”. “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee” is performed by Walter Catlett as “Honest” John as he tries and succeeds in convincing Pinocchio to be an “actor” in Stromboli’s puppet show. For a villainous tune, it’s quite catchy and bouncy. It is briefly reprised as John speaks to the Coachman in the inn.

There is also a short song called “Little Wooden Head” sung by Christian Rub as Geppetto, as he tries out his new wooden puppet Pinocchio and walks him around the room. I already find the scene creepy – because, puppets – and the repetitive mechanical sound to the music is a little bit irritating to me, so I don’t like this song. It’s also sad how little Figaro is being tormented by Geppetto as he moves Pinocchio towards him. Poor kitty. I also don’t like “I’ve Got No Strings” because there are even more puppets here! Pinocchio’s singing isn’t great either, but I can appreciate the different variations of the song that were written to match the nationality of the puppets that join Pinocchio on stage.

But the most remembered song is obviously “When You Wish Upon a Star”, which is performed by Jiminy Cricket at the very start of the film, during the opening credits and then the opening scene of Jiminy sat atop the Pinocchio storybook. There is also a reprise of it at the end of the film. It is a sweet song and it basically became the Walt Disney Company’s theme song from this moment on, as it sums up their message about wishes and dreams being able to come true. Sadly, I don’t love this song either, maybe because I’ve heard it too many times – or maybe because I just don’t like the film – but it is iconically Disney.

Leigh Harline had previously co-scored Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), alongside Paul J. Smith, with the two scoring Pinocchio together. Harline had also scored many of the Silly Symphonies cartoon shorts in the 1930s. Smith contributed to the scores of many of Disney animated feature films from this point on, including Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), and Cinderella (1950), as well as some of the True-Life Adventures nature documentaries in the 1950s.

Within the score, I think “Clock Sequence” is quite clever, as it is a symphony of all the cuckoo clocks going off at once, but making them chime in harmony with each other. It is a bit annoying after a while though! “Coach to Pleasure Island” has quite a jazzy feel to it, which is in complete contrast to what we now know happens over there; it sounds fun and exciting, not like somewhere where these boys are ultimately going to meet their doom. It’s not my favourite score, but it adds tension, hope, and happiness when it needs to.

Pinocchio was the first Disney feature to win an Academy Award, actually winning two awards: one for Best Original Score and the other for Best Original Song with “When You Wish Upon a Star”. It wouldn’t be until Mary Poppins (1964) that these honours were received again, and then another thirty-odd years until The Little Mermaid (1989) would do so once more, from which point four other “Disney Renaissance” films also would[5].

PRODUCTION

After Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the Disney Studios had to make another picture just as good, if not better. Initially, it was decided that the animators would set to work on Bambi (1942), and that that would become their second full-length animated feature. However, Walt Disney was unsure how to go about making that movie, as he wanted the animation to look as realistic to nature as possible, so Bambi was set aside.

Luckily, during production on Snow White, animator Norman Ferguson had brought in Collodi’s book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, and gave it to Walt to read. The book had become very popular since its publishing in 1883 and had been translated into numerous languages. Because of the story’s episodic nature, since it had been published in a magazine first and not as a full story, there were ample choices for their movie. They could choose to avoid the darker, crueller elements of the story, and focus on the moral message of the story, of how to become a better person, and recognising right from wrong, which would be especially good for the children who would be watching the movie.

This structure to the plot, giving Pinocchio many adventures and interactions with different characters, meant that the animators had even more opportunity to develop their character animation, giving each character a distinct personality. This was also the opportunity where many of those who came to be known as the “Nine Old Men” really got to shine. Frank Thomas, for example, animated the sequence of Pinocchio as a marionette at the start of the film, after being carved by Geppetto; Ollie Johnston worked on the sequence of Pinocchio’s nose growing as he is trying to explain his predicament to the Blue Fairy. As mentioned, Ward Kimball designed Jiminy Cricket after having his work on Snow White cut from the final edit; and Eric Larson animated Figaro. John Lounsbery did some animation of “Honest” John, whose animation was being supervised by Norm Ferguson. From this point on, the “Nine Old Men” became a huge influence in the animated movies that came afterwards. But older animators, like Bill Tytla, Art Babbitt, and Fred Moore also contributed to Pinocchio’s characters, animating Stromboli, Geppetto, and Lampwick respectively.

Snow White had given the world an animated fairy tale that looked magical. The team wanted to have the same artistic approach that had been used in that film for Pinocchio, to make the film reminiscent of Old-World storybook illustrations, many of which had been created by German artists. Gustaf Tenggren was the concept artist responsible for Pinocchio’s setting of an Alpine village. Tenggren had made many drawings of Bavarian town Rothenberg ob der Tauber as inspiration, with Geppetto’s house in particular closely matching the Hotel Altfrankische Weinstrube there. Tenggren was also influenced by Germanic architecture for the interior locations, such as Geppetto’s workshop with its numerous cuckoo clocks and music boxes. Too many if you ask me. How many does one man need? Has Geppetto struggled to sell them? This is why, despite Pinocchio being an Italian story, the backgrounds seem to replicate Bavarian and German areas[6].

However, despite taking some ideas from the making of Snow White, Walt Disney and the rest of the Studios’ staff knew that they had made mistakes, and knew how they wanted to improve the artform and cinematography. Using the profits from Snow White, Walt could now invest in new technology and more complex animation. One of their biggest technological advancements was their creation of the multiplane camera, designed by Disney Studio technician Bill Garity. At over twelve feet tall, the camera used multiple layers of back, middle, and foregrounds placed at different heights to add depth and space to the animated sequences. For example, one particular sequence known for its use of the multiplane camera is the sequence of Pinocchio going off to school, where the camera sweeps over the village, gradually getting closer and closer to the streets, before settling on Geppetto’s house. This was actually done using a horizontal plane instead of vertical, and replicates the action that a dolly track camera would do nowadays. This sole sequence cost $45,000 back then to make, which is almost $1.8 million today. Another good example of this type of shot is when the camera pushes through wisps of mist and moves closer and closer into the Red Lobster Inn, where John and Gideon are meeting the Coachman[7].

For character animation, maquettes, making 3D models of character designs, really became standard for the Disney Studios during the making of Pinocchio. They had been used a bit for Snow White, but the models were predominately first used on Pinocchio. These maquettes were useful for the animators to be able to accurately capture all angles of their characters. There were also other models made of things like Stromboli’s wagon and the coach to Pleasure Island, as well as Geppetto’s cuckoo clocks, with these models being useful to animate realistic movement of the objects[8]. Live-action reference material was also taken, of actors like Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy, who was also the voice of the character. Venable was also the original model for the “Torch Lady” logo that appears at the start of Columbia Pictures films. Disney’s live-action reference footage could be used as a guide for the animators, again, to capture realistic movement. A Pinocchio puppet was also built as an animation model, but was lost for fifty years. It was eventually discovered in one of the studio cabinets[9].

The Effects Department were able to push forward with more impressive techniques as well. The water effects are a particular focus during discussions around Pinocchio’s animation, as they were able to replicate the waves of the sea, splashes, bubbles, and foam, with all of these being used in the sequence with Monstro the whale. It was very complex work as it was all hand-drawn. The magic effects of the Blue Fairy were also hand-drawn.

All of these additional animation techniques pushed the artform forward, and now Pinocchio is famed for its innovations.

RECEPTION

Pinocchio premiered in New York City on 7^th February 1940 at the Center Theatre. According to Hollywood legend, as part of promotional activities for the premiere, eleven men were hired and dressed up as Pinocchio. They were placed on top of the theatre marquee for the day and were told to interact with the crowd. At lunchtime, they were given refreshments, including beer. A few hours later, the men were all naked, burping, shouting obscenities at the crowd, and generally behaving very “un-Pinocchio-like”. They refused to put their costumes back on and come down, so the police were called. They brought the men down using pillow cases to cover up their modesty[10]. I have no idea how true this story actually is or not, the veracity of this story is debated, but I have seen screenshots of people dressed as Pinocchio on top of the theatre, so at least that part was true. Actor David Niven wrote this story in his memoir Bring on the Empty Horses (1975), where it has taken on a life of its own. It sounds like a very funny publicity stunt gone wrong, but news articles from the time don’t go quite as far as Niven, instead simply saying that the men had just got bored, and started smoking and playing dice on top of the theatre.

After that possible disaster of a premiere, Pinocchio was released in theatres in the US on 23^rd February 1940, where it received outstanding reviews from critics, with many stating that Pinocchio was technically better than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as having a more powerful story. Although more contemporary critics have said that the story may be too heavy for a children’s film, they all agree that Pinocchio is one of the best animated movies of all time, with memorable songs and characters.

Randomly, after Pinocchio’s release, the nephew of Carlo Collodi, the author of the original book, Paolo Lorenzini apparently begged the Italian Ministry of Popular Culture to sue Walt Disney for libel for portraying Pinocchio in such a way that the character could be mistaken for American instead of his authentic Italian heritage[11].

Pinocchio cost $2.6 million to make, which, adjusted for inflation, would be over $50 million today. This means Pinocchio cost almost twice as much as Snow White did. Unfortunately, due to the start of World War II and a lack of access to European markets as well as those in Asia, Pinocchio did not do well financially on its original release, bringing in somewhere around $1.5 million. This would have been very disappointing at the time for Walt Disney. As Walt Disney put it in a 1956 archive interview, Pinocchio was released “at a time when the world was kind of collapsing”, which is unfortunate[12]. The Disney Studios then lost staff members when the US joined World War II in 1941, and were required to make propaganda films for the US government, so they had to slow down progress on their full-length feature films. Only three more feature-length films were released by the Disney Studios, between 1940 and 1942, and after that, the “package feature” films came to be.

Luckily, when Pinocchio was re-released in theatres for the first time after the war in 1945, and then many times after that including in 1954, 1962, 1971, and 1978, the movie was able to make the money it deserved to. It was also then released on VHS, followed by DVD and Blu-Ray re-releases on its milestone anniversary dates[13].

LEGACY

Considering Pinocchio was released over eighty years ago, the movie and its characters continue to have relevance at all the Disney Parks across the world. For example, the characters have featured in parades and as walkaround characters for years. Jiminy Cricket hosted the nighttime shows Wishes and the SpectroMagic parade at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in the 1990s and 2000s. Jiminy also appears in the Festival of Fantasy parade here, as does Pinocchio who is riding on the float that looks like Monstro the whale covered in the fabric of Aladdin’s magic carpet. Pinocchio has also been seen around the Walt Disney World Resort with Geppetto recently, and Jiminy Cricket has been known to meet guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park occasionally. Gideon and Honest John have also been spotted at special events before, like at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Lampwick and Stromboli have been meet-and-greet characters at times here as well.

Let’s also not forget Pinocchio Village Haus quick-service restaurant in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom. It was meant to look as accurate to the film as possible, and the Imagineers got the detail down so precisely that the view from above resembles the overhead opening scene of the village in Pinocchio. This would’ve been visible to guests riding on the Skyway from 1971 to 1999, when it closed. The dining location, serving Italian food such as pizzas and pastas, is themed to Pinocchio’s village both in its interior, where it looks like an outdoor village courtyard, and its exterior, which resembles multiple houses clustered together. There are many dining rooms themed to characters from the movie, and one even overlooks the it’s a small world attraction[14]. Similar dining locations can be found at Shanghai Disneyland, under the name Pinocchio Village Kitchen, and at Disneyland Paris as Au Chalet de la Marionette. There are slight differences in theming, but more obvious differences in food selection. At Shanghai Disneyland, alongside pizza and pasta, rice and noodle dishes are also available, whereas at Disneyland Paris, the food is vaguely German-themed, not Italian, strangely, serving hot dogs, pretzels sandwiches, and roast chicken.

Disneyland Paris doesn’t stop there with its Pinocchio theming, as they have La Bottega di Geppetto, a merchandise location made to look like Geppetto’s house and workshop, as well as the dark ride Les Voyages de Pinocchio, which opened with the park on 12^th April 1992, which takes guests through a shortened version of the movie’s story. In terms of character experiences, Geppetto and Pinocchio have been seen most recently in the park, as well as in the Disney Stars on Parade, with Pinocchio also being a possible character at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant character dining experience. Jiminy Cricket has been seen at this park before, as well as Gideon and Honest John.

At Disneyland, a miniature Alpine village scene from Pinocchio can be found on the Storybook Land Canal Boats, and on the Casey Jr. Circus Train. Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket dolls were also added to the it’s a small world attraction here. The Blue Fairy and Pinocchio feature during the Magic Happens Parade, and the Blue Fairy even got to fly across the castle during the original run of the Wondrous Journeys nighttime show. For walkaround characters, Blue Fairy, Pinocchio, Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket were all seen together as part of Throwback Nite in 2023. Disneyland also has a dark ride based on Pinocchio, called Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, which opened in May 1983. It is extremely similar to the one at Disneyland Paris, and the one at Tokyo Disneyland. Tokyo Disneyland’s ride, which has the same name, first opened with the park on 15^th April 1983. The ride was designed to first be installed at Disneyland, however, the project was put on hold and not revived until designs for Tokyo Disneyland were being decided. Disneyland then received their ride a month and a half later as part of their “New Fantasyland” refurbishment.

Tokyo Disneyland also includes some small themed areas, such as the Pleasure Island Candies shop, Stromboli’s Wagon store, and Cleo’s food stand, named after the goldfish, but don’t worry; it doesn’t serve fish…I don’t think… The Blue Fairy has a featured float within the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights, and Pinocchio, Geppeto, Jiminy Cricket, and Honest John have also been seen here in recent years.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, and similarly in Shanghai Disneyland, it is unclear how frequently, if ever, characters from Pinocchio appear to meet and greet guests. There was in 2017 during a Halloween event a walkthrough attraction called Maze of Madness: The Nightmare Experiment Continues at Hong Kong Disneyland which featured a “face character” Pinocchio, which looks even creepier than his costumed look…

In general, Pinocchio’s characters and music from the film are likely to appear during current or future parades or shows at the Disney Parks, as well as on the Disney Cruise Line, since this was such a big movie for the company that continues to be popular.

On screen, Jiminy Cricket reappeared in the Disney animated “package feature” Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and he also hosted a series of educational short films for the Mickey Mouse Club television series from the 1950s through to the 1970s. He also hosted the Disney Sing-Along Songs VHS tapes, and played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past in Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). Jiminy is a popular choice of Disney character to host anything, since he is an official “conscience”.

There was also a live-action made-for-television movie which aired on ABC in 2000 called Geppetto, which told the story of Pinocchio from Geppetto’s perspective, with Drew Carey playing Geppetto, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as The Blue Fairy. More recently, Disney made a live-action remake of Pinocchio, which was released straight to Disney+ on Disney+ Day on 8^th September 2022. It starred Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, and Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John, and was directed by Robert Zemeckis. It received mostly negative reviews. It should also not be confused with another Pinocchio adaptation released in 2022, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which is a stop-motion animated film, and a darker version of the story, though it received much better reviews than Disney’s live-action remake, even winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Outside of traditional Disney work, Pinocchio, Geppetto, Jiminy Cricket, and The Blue Fairy all appear as supporting characters in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time (2011-18), with their characters being used most in the first couple of seasons.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Pinocchio really showcased the artform of animation, and proved the high-quality of the artists at the Disney Studios. Although Pinocchio struggled on its release due to the outbreak of World War II, over the decades, it has been re-released numerous times both for home release and in theatres and has more than made up for that initial box-office floundering. Families have been watching the film together for over eighty years.

Although Pinocchio is not one of the Disney Animated Classics I treasure, or will ever like, I can appreciate just how well it was made and how much work went into it. Perhaps this movie would speak to me more if I was part of an older generation that had not been spoilt by the so-called “Disney Renaissance” era and their musical-theatre style, which I prefer. Everybody has a favourite Disney film, and we’re all different.

Pinocchio remains a favourite of many – just not with those with a fear of puppets, like me.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Tom Chapman, ‘Pinocchio is a lot darker than the story you think you know’, DigitalSpy.com, 10^th December 2022.

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

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

[4] Credit: Disney, The Making of Pinocchio: No Strings Attached (2009).

[5] Credit: Disney, The Making of Pinocchio: No Strings Attached (2009).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Other Secret Stories of Walt Disney World (2017), ‘Pinocchio Village Haus’, pp. 7-8.

[7] Credit: Lucas O. Seastrom, ‘A Machine for the Imagination: Walt Disney’s Pinocchio and the Multiplane Camera’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 18^th September 2016.

[8] Credit: Disney, The Making of Pinocchio: No Strings Attached (2009).

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Pinocchio’, pp. 4-6.

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #270’, CartoonResearch.com, 8^th July 2016.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Pinocchio’, pp. 4-6.

[12] Credit: In Walt’s Words: Pinocchio, Disney+, date unknown.

[13] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Pinocchio Premiered’, D23.com, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, Other Secret Stories of Walt Disney World (2017), ‘Pinocchio Village Haus’, pp. 7-8.

26th Apr 202427th Jun 2024 by The Disney Purist

#50 Tangled (2010)

BACKGROUND

After the disappointing box-office results of The Princess and the Frog, hailed as the Disney Studios’ return to traditional hand-drawn animation, Disney Animation did a complete turnaround, discarding 2D animation, and decided to only make computer-generated movies from that point on – with one minor exception being Winnie the Pooh (2011).

Luckily, they didn’t do a complete 180 and go off the rails with their story format. Instead, we got another fairy-tale musical, the kind we all know and love, something that the audience would have been expecting.

Tangled is generally considered to be the start of a whole new era for Disney, the “Disney Revival” era. Not only did 2010 begin Disney’s primary use of only CG for their movies, but this was also the point where Disney Animation made some very popular movies, with Tangled starting this all off, and giving people a reason to watch Disney animated movies again.

Tangled was a huge hit with a wide audience, and has made its way into the hearts of many. However, I’m not exactly one of those.

At the time the movie was released in theatres, I loved it. I thought it was amazing, and romantic, and exciting. I particularly liked the soundtrack and the dashing character of Flynn Rider. But that was then, back in 2010.

Sadly, a few years later, I’d fallen out of love with Tangled. I blame myself though, not the film, for just simply over-watching it. For some reason, British television decided to air this movie every festive period for at least five years and I just had enough of it!

Having re-watched it, I discovered that I have never disliked Tangled; it just doesn’t hold up to some of my other favourites. I think I find the journey that Flynn and Rapunzel take on their way to see “the floating lights” is just a bit too long for me and overly action-packed. I’m guessing Disney wanted to show off the capabilities of CGI over hand-drawn animation, by demonstrating how Rapunzel’s extremely strong hair is seemingly able to pull levers, carry people of varying sizes, and act as a rope swing, as well as heal injuries and glow on demand! Once they get to the Kingdom of Corona, I enjoy it more from that point on.

That’s just my opinion though, and I am well aware that Rapunzel and the story of Tangled continue to be very popular and relevant in the wonderful world of Disney today.

PLOT

The plot of Tangled follows the fairy tale of Rapunzel, but Disney’s version of the story. In this film, we start with a full prologue, narrated by Flynn Rider. He tells us that “this is the story of how I died”, quickly adding that actually it’s quite a fun story. Well, that’s alright then.

The prologue starts saying that the Queen of the Kingdom of Corona fell ill while pregnant. The King and the guards went in search of a legendary flower, formed from a drop of sunlight, that could heal any illness. They did not know that an old woman, Mother Gothel, had been hoarding the flower’s power for her own, to make herself young whenever she sang to it. She had hidden the flower to protect it from being taken by others, but one day the King’s guards found it, brought it to the Queen and it healed her. Their daughter Rapunzel was born, with beautiful golden hair. Mother Gothel found the child, and believed that the hair still held the magic powers of the flower. Mother Gothel cut some of the child’s hair, thinking she could take it away with her so that her “anti-aging” spell could be enacted again. However, the cut hair turned brown and lost its magic power. Mother Gothel instead stole the girl from the palace, isolating her in a tower in the middle of the forest so no-one could find her. Despite years of searching, she is not found, and continues to be raised by Mother Gothel, who shields her from the outside world, never letting her leave the tower. To keep hope of finding their daughter again, the King and Queen decided to release lanterns up into the sky every year on her birthday.

The movie skips forward to eighteen years later, when Rapunzel is bored of being isolated in this tower, having to constantly sing for Mother Gothel and pull her up the tower by her incredibly long hair, because obviously it can’t be cut or it would have no powers. The only friend she has is a chameleon called Pascal. Despite years of isolation, Rapunzel has one wish – to see the floating lanterns in person, the ones she always sees every year, only on her birthday out of the tower’s only window. Mother Gothel refuses to take her, telling her that she should do as she’s told and stay inside, as the world is a horrible place, full of cruel, selfish people. Rapunzel realises if she wants to go, she’ll have to find a way herself.

Luckily, a thief called Flynn Rider makes his way into the tower, believing it to be empty as he is escaping the king’s guards after stealing the crown of the lost princess. Boy, did he choose the wrong tower to hide in, because Rapunzel hits the intruder with a frying pan, knocking him out. She ties him up and hides him in a closet. Mother Gothel returns to the tower and announces that she has brought back parsnips to make Rapunzel’s favourite: hazelnut soup. So, hazelnuts aren’t the primary ingredient of this meal? Weird. Rapunzel tries to explain that she has a thief tied up in the closet, but Mother Gothel won’t listen to her, and instead screams that she will never leave this tower – ever. Rapunzel is devastated by her mother’s outburst, so instead asks for a different birthday present, paints made from white shells her mother once brought her. Mother Gothel agrees to go on the three days’ journey to get them for her.

With Mother Gothel gone, this gives Rapunzel an idea. Once Flynn wakes up to find himself tied up – in hair – Rapunzel interrogates Flynn. She hides the crown he has stolen from the palace, and makes a deal that if he takes her to see the lanterns, he can have it back. So, they set off on a mission to fulfil her dream. Initially, Rapunzel is scared about leaving the tower, but she soon finds herself enjoying her new life – and then feels guilty, then is happy again, then guilty; you get the idea. Eventually, Flynn, tired of these mood swings and just wanting his crown, decides to try and get Rapunzel to quit and go home, as she is scared of every strange sound around her.

Flynn takes her to the Snuggly Duckling, a nice-sounding pub. Inside though, Rapunzel finds the pub full of ruffians and thugs. They aren’t interested in her, they want Flynn Rider, because there are “Wanted” posters littered all over the area saying anyone who gives him over to the guards gets a cash reward. As the ruffians fight over him and call for the guards, Rapunzel hits one of them and orders them to give back her guide, asking them to consider the importance of her dream. This causes some emotional shift in the men, and all the ruffians and thugs start to talk about their hopes and dreams and their hobbies, like baking, piano-playing, mime, interior design, and even collecting ceramic unicorns. They agree to leave Flynn alone and let Rapunzel go live her dream.

Except the guards are already here. Using a secret tunnel out of the pub, Flynn and Rapunzel flee the Snuggly Duckling and come to a ravine. Still being pursued, the two head for a small cave, but a dam bursts and the cave becomes flooded. As the two are about to drown, not being able to find a way out of the dark cave, Rapunzel remembers something – her hair can glow when she sings to it; that’s handy! With the light from her hair, Rapunzel and Flynn find some loose rocks and scramble out of the cave. They reach solid ground.

Meanwhile, Mother Gothel encounters a palace horse without its rider and is concerned for Rapunzel’s safety. She discovers Rapunzel has escaped the tower, and finds the stolen crown along with one of Flynn’s “Wanted” posters. She makes her way to the Snuggly Duckling and sees the guards pursuing someone. Mother Gothel makes a deal with two thugs, the Stabbington Brothers, who were double-crossed by Flynn at the start of the story, that she will give them a way to enact revenge on Flynn Rider if they help her.

Back with Flynn and Rapunzel, Rapunzel sees that Flynn’s hand is injured and uses her hair to heal him. Flynn then tells Rapunzel about his childhood, that Eugene Fitzherbert is his real name, but wanting to be worthy of something, he took the name and persona of an action hero from a storybook and began to live the life of a thief. Rapunzel says she much prefers Eugene to Flynn Rider, and that he should just be himself. Mother Gothel then appears when Rapunzel is alone and tries to convince her to come home, saying that all Flynn wants is the crown and once he has it, he’ll leave her in a heartbeat. Rapunzel doesn’t believe that’s true and says she’ll return it to prove Mother Gothel wrong.

The next day, the palace horse that Mother Gothel saw, Maximus, who is dead-set on bringing Flynn back to the palace for punishment, finds Rapunzel and Flynn – or is it Eugene now? I don’t know what to call him, I prefer Flynn and it’s quicker to type so let’s go with that! Rapunzel begs Maximus to leave Flynn just for today, as it is her 18^th birthday. Maximus begrudgingly agrees and goes with them to the Kingdom of Corona for the day, as they await the lantern ceremony that will take place that evening. They have a fun day celebrating this festival within the town and slowly, Flynn and Rapunzel begin to fall in love.

That evening, Flynn takes Rapunzel out on a boat so that she can experience the floating lights. She’s concerned that it won’t be everything she hoped for, and that she’ll then have to find a new dream. But she doesn’t have long to dwell on that as the ceremony begins and the sky fills with amazing lights. Rapunzel is overjoyed that she’s finally got to see them in person. As this is the end of their trip, Rapunzel hands over the crown to Flynn. but he doesn’t care about that anymore, saying that Rapunzel is much more important to him. As they row ashore, Flynn sees the Stabbington Brothers. He goes to give them the crown and offer an apology, not wanting to be in the thieving business anymore.

Rapunzel waits for Flynn but he doesn’t come back. She sees someone approaching her, but it turns out to be the Stabbington Brothers. They tell her that Flynn told them about the girl with the magic hair, and that he has run off with the crown. Rapunzel is crushed by Flynn’s supposed betrayal and flees the two brothers. Luckily, Mother Gothel is there to knock them out and she takes Rapunzel home, telling her they can forget all about this and go back to the way things were. Flynn is arrested, after being knocked out and put on a boat sailing to the palace, and is sentenced to death. However, Maximus and the ruffians, clearly having had a change of heart, rescue Flynn. Flynn goes to find Rapunzel.

Back at the tower, Rapunzel looks over the walls of the tower, sad about being stuck in the tower again. She then looks at the emblem of the Kingdom of Corona on a flag she took home. She sees this sun, and then notices that she has subconsciously incorporated it into all her paintings. The sun, the lanterns on her birthday, it all makes sense; Rapunzel realises she is “the lost princess”. Rapunzel is angry at having been forced to live a lie her whole life and confronts Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel isn’t scared of Rapunzel though and ties her up, not wanting to lose the magic hair, saying they’ll go somewhere else, somewhere far away, where no-one will ever find her.

Flynn makes it to the tower and is brought inside by Rapunzel’s hair. On entering the tower, he is instantly stabbed in the side by Mother Gothel. He sees Rapunzel tied up but is too weak to help her. Rapunzel is dragged away by Mother Gothel but she begs to heal Flynn, and then says she’ll go anywhere with her. Mother Gothel agrees to this, so Rapunzel is allowed to help Flynn. As she begins to wrap her hair around Flynn’s wound, he reaches for a shard of glass and cuts Rapunzel’s hair. It instantly turns brown and loses all of its magical qualities. Mother Gothel ages quickly, as the years she’s forced away with the magic hair come back to haunt her. She trips over Rapunzel’s hair – or I should say, is tripped by Pascal with Rapunzel’s hair – and falls from the tower, turning into dust.

As Flynn slowly dies, having not allowed Rapunzel to heal him first and then quickly cut her hair like he perhaps should have done, they both say how they were going to be each other’s new dream. Rapunzel mourns the loss of Flynn with one of her tears falling on to his body. The tear travels down to the wound, and, still containing the flower’s magic, revives Flynn. The two then travel to Corona to reunite Rapunzel with her parents in a tearful moment. The whole kingdom celebrates, with the ruffians also now becoming good citizens and living out their dreams. The movie ends by saying how Rapunzel and Flynn are engaged to be married and will live happily ever after.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Disney’s Rapunzel is one of the few strong-minded, independent female characters that existed in Disney movies before 2010. Within the 1990s, there were the occasional ones like Mulan and Pocahontas, however, Rapunzel and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, really set the standard for this new kind of “princess”, and now, Disney are much more current with their characters and their personalities, to fit in with today’s society. A complaint among many was that the previous Disney princesses were meek and timid, with no dreams other than finding love, a complaint I don’t agree with, however, it is good that these characters have more opportunities for adventure than the “traditional princess”. Tiana, for example, has dreams of owning her own business, and Rapunzel’s dream is to go out and see the world, not to stay inside and not live her life.

Although Rapunzel does in fact find love, Disney are clever in how they show this: unlike Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989) for example, who makes it obvious that she is in love with Eric, and we don’t know how he feels about her for a while into the movie, Tangled instead clearly shows Flynn (or Eugene, as he’s later known) falling in love with Rapunzel, in scenes such as when Rapunzel heals the cut on his hand, and they have a heart-to-heart about their lives before they met, and during the floating lanterns/”I See The Light” scene, where he refuses the crown from Rapunzel and wants to enjoy the evening, seeing her live her dream[1]. Although Rapunzel needed to be naïve, they had to show that she was brave enough to leave her tower, and to find her parents, and her true love. She is self-sufficient, and clever to find ways of entertaining herself whilst isolated in the tower: by baking, reading, and painting, which she is especially talented at. She didn’t spend her time sitting around waiting to be saved, or feeling sorry for herself. Disney certainly created the role model with girl power that they were looking for[2].

Rapunzel was made to feel like the “girl-next-door” and to be very down-to-earth. Other actresses like Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Reese Witherspoon, and Natalie Portman also auditioned for the part, but Mandy Moore was selected[3]. Moore had appeared in movies like The Princess Diaries (2001) as Lana Thomas; Chasing Liberty (2004) as Anna Foster; and in License to Wed (2007) as Milly Wilder before being cast in Tangled. Also for Disney, Moore voiced the character of Nita in Brother Bear 2 (2006). After Tangled, Moore went on to voice the character of Mara in the television series Tron: Uprising (2012-13). More recently, Moore starred in the critically acclaimed drama series This Is Us (2016-22), where she received a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2013, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2019, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series in 2017, as well as being frequently nominated for this role at the People’s Choice Awards. She also continues to reprise the voice role of Rapunzel for Disney projects.

As for Flynn Rider, he is certainly more memorable, and funny, than other prince-types, which was the whole point, and though he comes off at the start as quite arrogant and full of himself, obsessed with using his “smoulder”, which never fails – except on Rapunzel – you can’t help but like him. He’s a lovable rogue. Then as the two spend more time together, you see that Flynn Rider is actually quite vulnerable and uncertain of himself. We find he is an orphan, whose real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. He grew up not thinking he could ever amount to anything, so came up with the persona of Flynn Rider to make himself feel like someone else, someone more worthy. Rapunzel tells him that she much prefers Eugene to Flynn, and calls him by his real name for the rest of the movie – though I don’t because Flynn is a much nicer name to go by, I think. From that point on, you have to root for the two of them to be together and to be happy.

Animator Glen Keane said that there was actually a struggle in designing the rugged, handsome Flynn. The designs came out as either too macho or too “pretty boy”, and he didn’t seem to have anything else about him. In the end, they organised a “Hot Man” meeting with some of the female workers at the Studios so they could review some of the character designs and have their inputs into what Flynn Rider should really look like[4]!

Originally, Disney only wanted British actors for Flynn, or at least actors able to put on a good British accent. Zachary Levi auditioned for the role using an English accent, and got the role. He was later told to just use his natural accent instead when the character background was changed[5]. Levi was nominated for Choice Animated Movie Voice at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards for Flynn Rider, but lost to Johnny Depp for his voice role in Rango (2011). Levi has most recently starred as the title character in Shazam! (2019) and its 2023 sequel, and voiced the character of Rocky, taking over from Mel Gibson, in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023). He also had a recurring role in Seasons 2 and 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-23). Levi also appeared as Fandral in Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), as well as being cast as Toby Seville in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), his proudest acting achievement, I’m sure. On television, he starred as the lead role of Chuck Bartowski in the action-comedy series Chuck (2007-12), and he won a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor: Action in 2010 for this role. Levi also continues to reprise his voice role as Flynn for Disney.

Mother Gothel is a great Disney villain. She’s evil for her own purposes, not because of some sad backstory. She is selfish and vain, wanting Rapunzel only for her hair and the qualities it possesses and how they can help her. At times, at the start of the movie, you can almost believe that Mother Gothel has grown to care for Rapunzel after eighteen years of raising her, but then you realise that Rapunzel has been left alone while Mother Gothel goes about her day-to-day business, and that she makes mean remarks about Rapunzel, like comments on her weight, telling her she’s too weak to cope with the “real world”. In reality, Mother Gothel is just a narcissist, who’s jealous of Rapunzel’s youth and scared of what will happen if Rapunzel finds out who she really is.

It’s quite obvious that the relationship between Mother Gothel and Rapunzel is similar to that of Frollo and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Mother Gothel spends most of her time trying to convince Rapunzel that life outside in the real world would be horrible and too much for her to handle so to just listen to her and stay inside, as Frollo does, under the illusion that they are trying to protect them, when actually they just want to keep them trapped and helpless. Mother Gothel is particularly evil at the end of the movie, as she has Rapunzel tied up in chains, prepared to drag her somewhere else to hide her away again, and stabs Flynn in the side – no wonder this film is a PG, setting a trend for future Disney films. That’s one of the most open acts of violence within a Disney film, similar to Gaston stabbing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast (1991). She’s a good villain anyway, and gets her “just desserts” by falling out of the tower to her death, joining the exclusive club of Disney villains who meet their fate that way – like Gaston.

Donna Murphy voices Mother Gothel. Murphy has starred in numerous musical theatre productions, and won two Tony Awards for her roles as Fosca in Passion from 1994 to 1995, and Anna Leonowens in The King and I from 1996 to 1997. After this, she played The Witch in Into the Woods in 2012, and was cast Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! from 2017 to 2018, alternating with Bette Midler. In film, Murphy played Scarlett Johansson’s mother in The Nanny Diaries (2007); Rosie Octavius, Doctor Octopus’ wife, in Spider-Man 2 (2004), and appeared as Dita Mandy in The Bourne Legacy (2012). On television, Murphy appeared in the comedy series What About Joan? (2001) with Joan Cusack, and most recently, as Caroline Schermerhorn Astor in The Gilded Age (2022-present). Murphy has also returned to Disney to voice Mother Gothel when required.

Outside of the three main characters, we can mention some of the thugs and thieves. Firstly, the Stabbington Brothers, who are betrayed by Flynn after they help him steal the crown from the palace. He simply leaves them to get captured by the palace guards, so naturally the two brothers want to get back at him. In the end, they just end up working for Mother Gothel though, and don’t come across as particularly scary or evil; they don’t get much screen time really. Only one of the Stabbington Brothers actually speaks, and that voice is provided by Ron Perlman, who has had a long history of voice acting. He is the narrator of the video game Fallout (1997-present), as well as Lord Hood in Halo 2 (2004) and Halo 3 (2007). Perlman has also voiced Optimus Primal for the series Transformers: Power of the Primes (2018) and the film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023). In 2004, Perlman was cast as Hellboy in the film of the same name and its 2008 sequel. In 2022, he also appeared as Podestà in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022). He has reprised the voice role of the Stabbington Brothers for Disney when needed.

For the thugs at the Snuggly Duckling, Brad Garrett’s voice is probably the most recognisable as Hook Hand, the one who dreams of being a concert pianist. Garrett starred as Robert Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), alongside Ray Romano, for which he won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Known for his distinctive, deep voice, Garrett has voiced many characters for Disney and Pixar, including Dim in A Bug’s Life (1998), Bloat in Finding Nemo (2003), Gusteau in Ratatouille (2007), and Eeyore in Christopher Robin (2018). He also appeared in the movies The Pacifier (2005) with Vin Diesel, as Vice Principal Murney, and Music and Lyrics (2007), with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, as Chris, Hugh Grant’s character’s agent.

Finally, another big-name casting to mention is Jeffrey Tambor, as Big Nose Thug – nice name for a character – whose dream is to find true love. Tambor has had film roles such as Mayor Maywho in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000); Tom Manning in Hellboy (2004) and its 2008 sequel; and Sid Garner in The Hangover trilogy (2009-13). On television, he appeared in the television series Arrested Development (2003-19) in the recurring role of George Bluth Sr. Tambor has also voiced characters for other animated movies, such as King Neptune in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), Carl Murphy in Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), and King Peppy in Trolls (2016).

Other than that, many other characters do not have any dialogue, with some of the thugs like Ulf, who likes mime and obviously can’t talk, not have any lines at all. Only Vlad, voiced by Richard Kiel, and Paul F. Tompkins as Short Thug, have lines out of the rest. There are also the animal sidekicks of palace horse Maximus, who acts more like a dog, sniffing out trails and relentlessly pursuing criminals, and Rapunzel’s little pet chameleon Pascal who isn’t much of a talker! One of the Disney animation artists, Kelly Lewis, had actually bought a chameleon around the time that this new Disney sidekick was being named, and named it Pascal, so Disney did the same. I’m glad Disney decided not to have the animal sidekicks talk for a change, but it might have been nice for Rapunzel’s parents, the King and Queen of Corona. to have had at least some dialogue. Even Aurora’s mother, Queen Leah, got a couple of lines in Sleeping Beauty (1959)!

MUSIC

After The Princess and the Frog (2009), a much-welcomed return to the Disney fairy-tale musical format, Disney Animation continued with this idea, developing Tangled as another Broadway-inspired musical. Once more, Alan Menken was brought in to write the music for this new feature. Menken had huge success composing for the majority of the “Disney Renaissance” films, such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), alongside Howard Ashman, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) with Stephen Schwartz, with the two also writing the music for Enchanted (2007).

For Home on the Range (2004), Disney’s final traditionally hand-drawn animation movie, Menken worked alongside lyricist Glenn Slater. Slater later wrote the lyrics for multiple stage productions, such as Sister Act the Musical, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals School of Rock and Love Never Dies. For Disney, Slater had also written additional lyrics for the stage adaptation of The Little Mermaid (2008). Menken and Slater were asked to work together again for Disney’s Tangled. The two would also collaborate again on the Tangled spin-off series, Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure (2017-20).

The first song we hear is performed by Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, and it appears straight after the prologue, so we get straight into the music, which is something I like to see in movies. It is called “When Will My Life Begin?”, and it details Rapunzel’s life stuck in her tower, trying to find things to do to fill her days. We learn that Rapunzel has a dream to see “floating lights” that appear in the sky every year on her birthday, wanting to get out and see the world, but concerned her mother won’t let her. This song also has two reprises, with the first not appearing in the movie, only on the soundtrack. It sounds very hopeless, with Rapunzel almost accepting her isolation. The second reprise is much more fun, with Rapunzel finally being out of her tower, and feeling very proud of herself. I love how it builds towards the end, as she lists off all the things she can now go and do.

We also get a villain’s song in Tangled, performed by Donna Murphy as Mother Gothel. Perhaps a bit disappointingly, it does not sound scary or threatening, because it’s very theatrical, like Mother Gothel, and quite upbeat, even as she details all the horrible, awful things Rapunzel will experience in the world if she leaves the tower, and lists off Rapunzel’s flaws and weaknesses to her. It’s a funny villain’s song, at least, so I don’t mind it so much. I like the reprise more though, because that is actually more cruel, as Mother Gothel begins to show her true colours to Rapunzel. She tells Rapunzel she has “invented” her romance with Flynn, and that nobody could ever like her. When Rapunzel refuses to go home with her, Mother Gothel gets more and more angry, before storming off.

On a brighter note, there is also “I’ve Got a Dream”, performed by the thugs at the Snuggly Duckling. When you first watch it, it’s hilarious to see these “tough guys” singing about their hopes and dreams in such a sincere, innocent sort of way. But this is now my least favourite song in the movie, I think because the novelty wore off quite quickly; it’s clearly just supposed to be a comic relief moment for the kids, so it’s a bit one-dimensional.

For many, their favourite song in the film is the typical love song “I See the Light”. The scene is beautiful, with all the colourful lanterns. It is a very sweet song, and I did really love it when I first saw the film. Now, I realise that there are other Disney love songs that I personally prefer, but it’s obvious that this is one of the most popular ones that Disney has ever created for one of their animated movies. As more and more of Disney’s films have begun to veer away from romance, I feel like there will be less and less of these. If you think about it, other than the ones in Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019), i.e., “Love is an Open Door” and “Lost in the Woods”, there haven’t been any other love songs since Tangled.

“I See the Light” was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 2011, but lost to “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3. I remember really wanting “I See the Light” to win the Oscar and it still irks me to this day that it didn’t. Toy Story 3 was an excellent film, but in my mind, there is no way “We Belong Together” is better than “I See the Light”. The song was also nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes in 2011, but this time it lost to Burlesque’s “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me”. Don’t worry, though; “I See the Light” did get some of the recognition it deserved by winning the Grammy for Best Song Written For Visual Media in 2012.

The last song in the film is the usual End Credits song. This time it’s a soft rock song called “Something That I Want”, written and performed by Grace Potter from the rock band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. It’s not a bad song by any means, and it does match the happy note that the movie ends on, but I’m not a big fan of this song.

Of the score, I have a few instrumental pieces that I particularly like, as is typical for me with an Alan Menken score. I particularly like “Kingdom Dance”, as it has a folk music feel to it, to match the fact it is being performed by the townspeople within the Kingdom of Corona. At this point in the film, Flynn and Rapunzel are looking around the kingdom and are then basically forced to join in with a group dance in the town square! This then leads in to “Waiting for the Lights”, which I really like as well, especially when the lanterns are released by the King and Queen, and the piece becomes hopeful and powerful, like all of the kingdom are praying for the return of their lost princess. Finally, I like the party atmosphere of “Kingdom Celebration”, which plays as we learn that everyone is now happy together in the Kingdom of Corona, finally achieving their dreams. Again, it’s quite folk-like in sound.

PRODUCTION

The idea to make Tangled first came from Disney animator Glen Keane. After a few years of developing the idea, Keane pitched the idea to Disney CEO at the time, Michael Eisner, in 2001, where the project was approved, but only on the agreement that it be computer-animated instead of hand-drawn. In 2003, an announcement came from Disney stating that the movie would be released in 2007 under the title Rapunzel Unbraided. The movie was going to be more like DreamWorks’ 2001 hit Shrek than the traditional Disney fairy-tale. But in 2006, the project was shut down.

Not for long though. When Disney and Pixar merged, John Lasseter took over as Chief Creative Officer of the Disney Studios and insisted that Rapunzel Unbraided go back into production. Unfortunately, in 2009, Glen Keane stepped down as director due to ill health, so Bryon Howard and Nathan Greno took charge instead, with the project now being known as simply Rapunzel, with the final film being very different to Keane’s original idea[6]. Greno had worked as Head of Story on Bolt (2008), with Howard directing the movie.

At some point around 2009 or early 2010, Disney decided to change the name of the movie from Rapunzel to Tangled. This led people to speculate that the title had been changed to give the movie a wider appeal, as one of the reasons that The Princess and the Frog (2009) potentially struggled at the box-office was because having the word “princess” in the movie title may have been off-putting to boys, cutting off half of the market. The directors stated that it was actually because they decided that the film was no longer just about Rapunzel anymore. Their reasoning was that the film had been created for a duo, the movie following both Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, so they needed a title that represented that. Others claim that as the trailer pushed Flynn Rider front and centre that this was further evidence that Disney were trying to market Tangled as a movie for boys as well as girls. Greno and Howard said that the film did not change at all from the first screening, and the idea was always going to follow both Flynn and Rapunzel together[7]. It is quite clear that Disney moved quite far away from the original tale of Rapunzel, so to me, it seems fair to change the name to something snappier and to distance themselves from from the typical fairy-tale format.

The basic idea of Tangled is based on the Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel, who were in turn inspired by an 11^th century tale from Persia, and a French fairy tale of the 1600s. Other than the general idea of a girl with long hair being locked in a tower and meeting a prince, Disney’s story varies significantly. In the original tale, Rapunzel is not royalty, but the daughter of peasants who give up their daughter to a sorceress in exchange for a healing plant, known as rapunzel. After many years, a prince is drawn to the tower by her singing and climbs up to meet her. The two make a plan to run away together after discovering Rapunzel is pregnant, however, Gothel finds out before they can get away, cuts off Rapunzel’s hair, and banishes her into the wilderness. Gothel then tells the prince when he arrives to take Rapunzel away that he will never see her again. Devasted by this news, he falls from the tower, and though he survives, he falls into a thorn bush and is blinded. Eventually the two find each other in the woods, and her tears cure his blindness. The Sondheim musical Into the Woods more or less uses this original story for their own Rapunzel character, with Disney’s Into the Woods (2014) only making minor changes to it.

Originally, Disney wanted to do a traditional illustrated storybook opening, like they had done for many of their other fairy-tale films, with an invisible female narrator. Much of the information from the prologue was the same as the final film, of the healing flower and Rapunzel being stolen by Mother Gothel, but in the end, it was decided they wanted something different and original for this contemporary take on a fairy tale[8]. Certainly, having someone start a film by saying “This is the story of how I died” gets people’s attention!

Having Tangled be completely computer-generated was an excellent opportunity to experiment with the technology which had been tested on various Disney movies throughout the years, mixing CG with 2D traditional animation. With improvements to the technology when Tangled was in production, it was much easier for the animators to work together with the software, and to be able to move the characters in more realistic ways, and be more daring with the imagery. For example, when Flynn and Rapunzel are being chased by guards through that rocky canyon, this whole sequence looks almost like a computer game, showing just how adventurous Disney could now be with their ideas.

Another important aspect to Tangled was Rapunzel’s hair, a particularly tricky feature. Rapunzel was the first computer-generated Disney princess, but her hair alone is 70ft, or 21m, long. It took three years and a whole new software program to animate it. Glen Keane had done multiple rough model sheets to show how Rapunzel might play with her hair to express her emotions[9]. The animators knew that the hair had to always look beautiful, that it had to swoop and twist as natural hair does, not just sitting in one position. The final image ended up having over 100,000 individual strands of hair! Glen Keane had been no stranger to designing and drawing characters with hair problems. He was determined to draw Ariel for The Little Mermaid (1989) her hair always being like a cloud of red; the Beast had all this fur; and Pocahontas’ hair was being moved by the wind. Even with these characters, the hair helped communicate their personality and their desires. With Ariel’s hair always floating around, it shows her dreamy side, and how she wants to be somewhere else; Pocahontas’ hair with the wind shows her spiritual side. Rapunzel’s hair had to communicate how self-sufficient and strong she is, and that she has a destiny, literally tied to her hair.

For the scenery and backgrounds, they are full of colour for the most part. Rapunzel’s tower is even beautifully decorated and there are many scenes of lush landscaping. Within the Kingdom of Corona, lots of purples, golds, and blues are used to make the town look visually appealing. One of my favourite scenes in Tangled is the montage we see of Flynn and Rapunzel enjoying their day at the kingdom on her birthday, because it’s so bright, and it’s interesting to see all the different styles of architecture within the kingdom’s buildings. The sun setting also shows the buildings in new lights as the day turns to evening. I also especially like the scene when Rapunzel finds out she is the lost princess, and she is looking at all the paintings around her room. She suddenly realises that the sun shape, the crest of Corona, is hidden within all of her paintings, and that’s when she knows that is where she belongs, and her whole life has been a lie. It looks brilliant.

The floating lanterns are particularly impressive too. In that one sequence there are 45,000 lanterns. The Disney team used inspiration from similar ceremonies that are held in the Far East and in Indonesia, where thousands and thousands are released at once. The directors knew something like that would look great in CGI[10].

RECEPTION

Tangled was released in November 2010, just in time for Thanksgiving and the festive period. Disney fans in other countries had to wait a little bit longer, with Tangled not being released in certain countries until 2011. In the UK, it was not released until 28^th January 2011, so it missed out on the Christmas and New Year crowds in some areas. There were 3D showings for Tangled at the theatres as well. I believe I watched Tangled in 3D at the cinema and the floating lanterns did look pretty good in that format.

It turns out 2010 potentially was not the best time for Disney Animation to release a movie as there was huge amounts of competition. In animation, DreamWorks had released How to Train Your Dragon in March 2010, which would become just one movie in a major franchise for the studio, and Despicable Me was released in July 2010, with this also being the first film of a huge franchise. Shrek Forever After was also released by DreamWorks in May 2010, and Tangled received internal competition from Pixar’s Toy Story 3, which hit theatres in June 2010. Outside of animation, and with a more direct threat, we can’t forget that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 was released roughly a week before Tangled. It was a big year for cinema, especially for families and children.

But have no fear, because Tangled, with an estimated budget of $260 million, made just over $200 million domestically, so perhaps a bit disappointing, but ended its run on a worldwide total of around $590 million, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2010 at the worldwide box office; Toy Story 3 was top of the list.

Tangled did receive many positive reviews, with critics praising the visual look of the movie in particular, with one even calling Tangled the best-looking Disney animated feature film since Sleeping Beauty (1959) [11]. The story and script contained a good mix of humour and adventure and many also stated that they liked the new direction Disney had taken in creating a more powerful, driven female character, instead of the typical princess. The supporting characters were also praised, and most were a fan of Disney’s newest villainess. There was the odd negative comment, such as the film potentially not being “good enough” to stand up as Disney’s 50^th animated classic, but those were few and far between.

When Tangled was released, the public were quick to compare it to the previous Disney animated release, The Princess and the Frog (2009). These comparisons were more favourable to Tangled in general, showing it had wider appeal. However, of the two, I personally prefer The Princess and the Frog, because the return to traditional 2D animation, after a number of CGI flops, and the “Broadway musical style” was welcomed by myself. It also made people sit up and pay attention to Disney Animation again. But that’s just my opinion, and I can see that Tangled perhaps did more to confirm that Disney Animation did in fact have the attentions of the public again.

However, despite this positive reception, Tangled was not nominated in the Best Animated Film category at the Academy Awards, surprisingly, with there only being three nominees in total in this category. Those were How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, and Toy Story 3, which won the award. At the Annie Awards and the Golden Globes, Tangled did receive nominations in this category, but lost out to How to Train Your Dragon at the Annies, and to Toy Story 3 at the Golden Globes, missing out on any major awards for the movie.

LEGACY

But Tangled kept its status as one of Disney’s most popular contemporary hits, especially at the time, and successfully spanned a huge franchise. On screen, we were first treated to Tangled Ever After, a short focusing on Flynn and Rapunzel’s wedding where Pascal and Maximus have to hunt for the wedding rings over the kingdom. This was released in 2012 with the 3D theatrical re-release of Beauty and the Beast (1991). It tied up the events of the movie nicely, giving Rapunzel her own “fairy-tale wedding” fit for a princess.

This short then led to a made-for-television Disney Channel Original Movie in 2017 called Tangled: Before Ever After which is set between Tangled and Tangled Ever After, specifically six months after the events of the first film, as Rapunzel is set to be coronated as Princess of Corona. From this, there was then a spin-off television series called Tangled: The Series, renamed after Season 1 to Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, continuing on from the television film story. There were three seasons of the series, running from 2017 to 2020. The series won five Daytime Emmy Awards, for its animation, its writing, its main title, and its music. and one Annie Award for character design.

So, if you wanted to watch all the Tangled projects in chronological order, you’d need to watch Tangled, then Tangled: Before Ever After, then Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure and finally Tangled Ever After. Given all the interruptions and difficulties that Rapunzel and Flynn face during the television series, it’s probably not too much of a surprise to find that Tangled Ever After, their wedding, apparently takes place three years after the events of Tangled – despite being released only two years later than the film, and five years before any other spin-off. No theatrical sequel to Tangled itself has ever been announced.

Despite many fans of Tangled calling for Disney to make a live-action version of the film, a Tangled remake has not yet been confirmed. As Disney basically announced that they were going to remake practically every animated feature they have ever made at one point, this has led many to speculate it is just a matter of time, with some fans enjoying posting their choice castings on social media.

In early April 2024, a social media post, which was soon deleted, stated that Milo Manheim, who plays Zed in Disney’s ZOMBIES (2018-present) franchise, was screen testing for the part of Flynn Rider. Manheim had previously expressed interested in playing the part of Flynn in an interview promoting ZOMBIES 3 (2022), potentially alongside his ZOMBIES co-star Meg Donnelly as Rapunzel. However, this post stated that Avantika Vandanapu, who recently starred as Karen in Mean Girls (2024), was actually screen testing for the part of Rapunzel alongside Manheim. Despite the post reportedly being purely fan-led, and Disney never confirming that a live-action Tangled is even in the works, this led to many stating their views on the casting choice, with a handful expressing anger at Avantika Vandanapu for “not looking anything like Rapunzel”[12]. The exact same thing happened when Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel for the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and frankly, it’s ridiculous. I really wish people would stop doing this. If you don’t like the casting choice for any film, for whatever reason, then just don’t watch it. You don’t need to vent your feelings on social media, because it is insensitive, disrespectful, and offensive to the actors that you are talking about. Just don’t do it. It’s hard enough being in the public eye without being attacked for stupid reasons like this.

At the Disney Parks, there are a few references to Tangled with more coming in the next couple of years. At Walt Disney World, in Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland, strangely enough, there is an area dedicated to Tangled – it just happens to be restrooms! In this heavily-themed area, opened in 2013, Rapunzel’s Tower can be seen high above the area, with the actual restrooms being themed to houses from the Kingdom of Corona, complete with bunting. You can also spot the various Pascals that have been hidden around there. It’s a very popular area to sit down and charge your phone too, as the benches have charging points. This area was a much-needed redesign of the old Skyway station that had ceased operation in 1999. Aside from toilets, Rapunzel, Flynn, and the ruffians appear during the Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire stage show to perform “I Have a Dream”. Rapunzel and Flynn did meet guests regularly in the years after Tangled’s release, either at Epcot or Magic Kingdom, but they are harder to see together now. They used to be at the Bon Voyage Adventure character breakfast at Trattoria al Forno at Boardwalk, but this has not returned since the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapunzel has been known to still appear by herself at Fairytale Hall at Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom though. There is also a very pretty Tangled mosaic mural at Disney’s Riviera Resort.

At Disneyland, as part of Storytelling at Royal Theatre in Fantasyland, you can watch a retelling of the Tangled story. Rapunzel and Flynn are also regularly spotted meeting guests at Disneyland, and Rapunzel may be one of the visiting princesses at the Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure character breakfast at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort. Mother Gothel has even been seen at the Oogie Boogie Bash at Disney California Adventure for the Halloween season in 2022 and 2023.

At Disneyland Paris, as part of their rebranding of the Walt Disney Studios Park to Disney Adventure World, it was announced that they are looking to add a new Tangled attraction. To be called Raiponce Tangled Spin, it will be a typical teacups attraction, but with guests sitting in gondolas, like the one Rapunzel and Flynn ride in to see the “floating lights”. A miniature scene of Rapunzel’s Tower, complete with her hair braid coming out of the top window, can also be seen on Les Pays des Contes de Fées, the Paris version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats. For meet-and-greets, Rapunzel and Flynn were seen at the Passholder Party in March 2023, but are not regularly seen in the parks.

At Shanghai Disneyland, there is a whole scene of Rapunzel and Flynn with the floating lanterns within the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto ride. Within the show Mickey’s Storybook Adventure, Rapunzel also sings “I See the Light” as part of the Princess Trio section, with Mulan and Moana. Though this overall show is generally the same as the one in Hong Kong Disneyland, Mickey and the Wondrous Book, in this case, Hong Kong’s version actually shows Rapunzel singing “When Will My Life Begin?” alongside Ariel and Merida. Also at Hong Kong Disneyland, a section of the walkthrough attraction Fairy Tale Forest is dedicated to Tangled. In terms of meet-and-greets, Rapunzel and Flynn have been seen in the park recently, with Mother Gothel appearing in 2021 for Halloween.

But the most exciting Tangled addition arrived in June 2024 at Tokyo Disneyland. As part of their Fantasy Springs expansion for Tokyo DisneySea, an area dedicated to Frozen, another to Peter Pan, and a final one especially for Tangled were added to the park. In the area themed to Tangled, there is a quick-service restaurant called the Snuggly Duckling, named for the tavern in the film, as well as a dark ride called Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival. The boat ride does not follow events from the movie exactly, but focuses on Flynn and Rapunzel’s romance instead. The animatronics look great and the lantern scene in particular looks amazing. Since the Germany pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot was supposed to have a boat ride when it first opened, and because Rapunzel is a German fairy tale, I think Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival would fit nicely there… The Fantasy Springs Hotel with also see some Tangled theming, as well as some from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Rapunzel and Flynn have been seen at Tokyo Disneyland previously, but are less frequently seen now. They should be more available here now that Fantasy Springs has opened.

Generally, due to the popularity of the film, songs and clips from Tangled have appeared in nighttime shows including Disney Dreams! in Disneyland Paris, Disneyland’s Fantasmic!, and Happily Ever After at Walt Disney World. The characters also appear in parades, such as Festival of Fantasy at Walt Disney World, which includes many of the ruffians and Ulf the mime, and Harmony in Color at Tokyo Disneyland, where Rapunzel is even swinging by her hair! Not her actual hair, obviously. That would be a health and safety issue. Any children that want to dress up as Rapunzel can also do that at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique locations that exist in the Disney Parks around the world.

FINAL THOUGHTS

All this shows just how popular Tangled is, not only as a film but an entire franchise. I do like Tangled, and I like the majority of the characters: Mother Gothel is a great Disney villain, there are lots of fun moments between Maximus and Flynn, and Rapunzel and Pascal, plus the gang of ruffians. The film also looks visually amazing.

The best thing though is that it certainly continued to spark a new direction for Disney Animation which has gone on to make many more brilliant movies and push the boundaries of more contemporary stories, and technological advancements since 2010.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Kaitlyn Nickol, ‘Celebrating 10 Years of Tangled: How Rapunzel Modernized The Disney Princess’, Atom (online), 24^th November 2020.

[2] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Tangled’, pp. 148-150.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale”, from Tangled (2010) Blu-Ray (2011).

[5] Credit; Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Tangled’’, Yard Barker (online), 4^th November 2022.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Tangled’, pp. 148-150.

[7] Credit: Adam Markovitz, ‘How did Rapunzel become ‘Tangled?’ Directors Nathan Greno and Bryon Howard set the record straight’, Entertainment Weekly (online), updated 24^th November 2010.

[8] Credit: Disney, “Storybook Openings”, from Tangled (2010) Blu-Ray (2011).

[9] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016).

[10] Credit: Disney, “Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale”, from Tangled (2010) Blu-Ray (2011).

[11] Credit: Helen O’Hara, ‘Tangled Review’, Empire (online), 2^nd January 2011.

[12] Credit: Edward Segarra, ‘Avantika Vandanapu receives backlash for rumored casting as Rapunzel in ‘Tangled’ remake’, USAToday.com, date unknown.