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| One Hundred and One Dalmatians: Did You Know? |
We worked with Disney author and historian, Charles Solomon, to bring you five interesting things about One Hundred and One Dalmatians many fans may not know.
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| 1. One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the first Disney animated feature set in a specific place and contemporary time: Pongo says, "My story begins in London, not so very long ago." Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are set in fairy-tale realms. Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland begin in London, sometime in the later 19th century, Lady and the Tramp is set around the same time in a fictionalized New England. Nothing indicates when Bambi takes place. The WPA-influenced scenes of the roustabouts suggest Dumbo unfolds in the 1930s, but the location in Florida remains vague. |
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| 2. It was the first Disney animated feature to have screenplay—by master story artist Bill Peet (1915–2002), who didn't particularly like the book when Walt gave it to him. "It had a deadly beginning with the people, the Dearlys, and their two dogs: Who can worry about a perfect marriage with two perfect dogs, with nothing to do but take walks together?" Peet said. "I decided to start the narrative from the dog's point of view." |
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| 3. In the film, one of Perdita's puppies seems to have been stillborn, but Roger gently massages it to start its breathing. This sequence was based on an event in author Dodie Smith's life: In 1943, her Dalmatians, Buzz and Folly, presented her with not the expected seven puppies, but with 13 (15 in some accounts). One of the puppies appeared stillborn until her husband, Alec Beesley, massaged it to life. |
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| 4. The simultaneously scary and funny Cruella De Vil dominates One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Marc Davis (1913–2000), who animated her, recalled, "I had several partial models in mind when I drew Cruella, including Tallulah [Bankhead] and one woman I knew who was just a monster. She was tall and thin and talked constantly—you never knew what she was saying, but you couldn't get a word in edgewise. What I really wanted to do was make the character move like someone you wouldn't like." |
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| 5. Critics and audiences loved One Hundred and One Dalmatians; Walt Disney (1901–1966) did not initially. As he had made only minimal contributions to the film, it may have annoyed him that it received so much praise—as Dumbo had 20 years earlier. He particularly disliked Ken Anderson's (1909–1993) art direction: The Xerox lines in the backgrounds matched the look of the characters, but reminded viewers they were looking at drawings. After the film's release, Anderson suffered two strokes. While he recuperated, Disney sent presents and kept him on the payroll. |
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| Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree: Did You Know? – Jim Fanning |
The wrong sort of bees and a very tight squeeze give Pooh Bear a bit of a bother in Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), the first of the beguiling animated featurettes to introduce the huggable bear of very little brain to the big screen. We asked Disney historian Jim Fanning to "think-think-think" of a Pooh-rade of fun facts fans might not know about Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, which was released on February 4, 1966.
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| Disney Daughter Delivers Pooh-lightful Inspiration |
Walt discovered the Winnie the Pooh books thanks to his book-loving daughter, Diane Disney Miller (1933–2013). "Dad would hear me laughing alone in my room and come in to see what I was laughing at," Diane later recalled. "It was usually the gentle, whimsical humor of A. A. Milne's Pooh stories. I read them over and over, and then many years later to my children, and now to my grandchildren." Walt sought the screen rights as early as 1937, and continued to pursue this Pooh-ticular property over the years, but it wasn’t until June 1961 that he acquired the rights. Interestingly, it was NBC that held the rights from the early 1940s. In 1947, NBC aired a live-action special called A Day in the Life of Christopher Robin, and in 1960, just before Disney obtained the rights (and right before Walt joined NBC as a new home for his weekly TV show), a puppet version was presented on NBC’s Shirley Temple Theatre.
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| The Shermans Got By With a Little Help From a Pooh Friend |
When Walt assigned A.A. Milne's Pooh stories to Disney Legends Richard and Robert Sherman (1925–2012) in 1963, the songwriting siblings found the delicate charm a creative challenge. For insight, they turned to British-born Tony Walton, who was then designing costumes for Mary Poppins (1964). "He spent several hours with us explaining how important the Pooh stories were to him while he was growing up," remembered Richard. "He identified with pudgy Pooh, who always came out on top." Suddenly, the Shermans saw the wonder and wisdom behind the Winnie the Pooh whimsy. The original books are sprinkled with Pooh's songs, called "hums." "They weren’t really songs," Richard observed. "They were like little feathers in the breeze, so we wanted to get that feel in our songs—that if Milne had written a song, he most likely would have written it that way. We wanted to be Milnesque but it had to be Disney, too."
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| Pooh Illustrations Offer Inspiration |
Walt wanted his animation team to not only preserve the whimsy of Milne's prose but also the artistic style of Ernest H. Shepard's delightful drawings—so the onscreen character designs sprang from the pen-and-ink perfection of the Pooh-sonalities as drawn by the famed illustrator. As Milne created the stories based on the stuffed animals of his son, the real Christopher Robin, so Shepard based his illustrations on the boy's real toys. But Shepard actually modeled his drawings of the little boy after his own son, Graham, while Pooh was drawn to look like Graham's teddy bear, Growler. "Growler was the original teddy, a great big yellow bear," revealed the illustrator. "He lost his growl quickly, of course, from being pressed so much." No where is the Shepard charm more lovingly preserved onscreen than in the "100 Aker Wood" endpaper map that opens the animated story—a map that in the Pooh book is labeled, "Drawn by Me [meaning Christopher Robin] and Mr. Shepard Helpd."
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| The Voice Of Kaa Was Cast Because Of Pooh |
Disney Legend Sterling Holloway (1905–1992) was voicing Winnie the Pooh when Walt Disney (1901–1966) asked the voice artist to take a crack at Kaa for The Jungle Book (1967). "Walt was such a stickler for voices," the actor recalled. "He said, 'When you finish with what you're doing today with Winnie the Pooh, fiddle around [and] see what you can do with the snake. I can't get the right voice.'" Though Sterling gave auditory life to many a Disney character (including Kaa), Pooh Bear is by far his most famous vocal role. "I had no problem with Pooh's voice," he said. "It was born with the first word I spoke. I saw what Pooh was like and what I'd like him to be, and I tried to make him that way—sincere, lovable… always hungry, always trying. Pooh would never hurt anyone or know a word of hate. He was unselfish, giving."
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| Two Favorite Pooh-lebrities Had A Delayed Debut |
Piglet and Tigger may be two of the most beloved Pooh characters, but aside from their appearance as toys in the live-action prelude and Piglet's mention in the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song, these Pooh superstars are not seen in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. The first featurette was drawn from Milne's Winnie the Pooh chapters "in which" Pooh climbs the honey tree and gets stuck in Rabbit's front door. Piglet doesn't pop up until the third chapter while Tigger doesn't bounce in until the follow-up volume, The House at Pooh Corner—so Walt and his team didn't include the timid pig and the boisterous tiger until the Oscar®-winning Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968). Some pre-Blustery Day merchandise, including books and recordings, featured a prototype Piglet and a toothy Tigger complete with lion's mane.
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| Walt Loved Winnie the Pooh, Top to Bottom |
Sterling Holloway felt that Pooh was Walt's favorite character—and the prolific producer enjoyed contributing his own ideas in story meetings to give the Milne material that special Disney touch. When reading the story in which Pooh is stuck in a very tight place (namely, in Rabbit's rabbit-hole front door), Walt wondered what Rabbit did with a teddy bear's bottom in the middle of his living room wall. Building on the Shepard drawing of Rabbit hanging towels on Pooh's legs, Walt developed a whole series of sight gags in which Rabbit turns Pooh's protruding posterior into everything from a hunting trophy to an armchair. "I think," said Walt, "it might be my funniest scene in the picture."
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| From Feature to Featurette (And Back Again) |
At first Walt planned a full-length Pooh feature. "In 1965," the Shermans wrote years later, "we had completed songs for about two-thirds of the story when Walt stunned everyone by announcing… he intended to 'platform' Winnie the Pooh into three separate featurettes." The great showman felt that the Milne stories were not as well known in the U.S. as in Europe so he decided on Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree as an introduction to the "silly old bear." Even though the following featurettes were released after Walt's passing, much of them had been developed under Walt's direction in 1963–1965. The three featurettes were linked by new animation in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), fulfilling Walt's original vision for a Pooh feature.
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| Did You Know? Unravel 8 Sneaky Facts from The Great Mouse Detective – Jim Fanning |
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| Like Clockwork: Computer Animation |
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| Ron and John Team Up |
The Great Mouse Detective marked the directorial debut of the legendary John Musker and Ron Clements. The prolific pair, who went on to co-direct such animated blockbusters as The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), and The Princess and the Frog (2009), co-directed this mousey detective yarn along with Disney veteran Dave Michener and Disney Legend Burny Mattinson. Currently, Musker and Clements are directing Moana, due to be released to theaters on November 23, 2016.
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| Eric Larson, The Ninth Old Man |
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| Vincent’s Priceless Vocalizations |
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| Voices Veteran and Versatile |
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Movie Maestro Makes Great Mouse Music
Academy Award®-winning movie composer Henry Mancini (1924–1994), well known for classic movie scores like Touch of Evil (1958), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Victor/Victoria (1982), as well as Disney's Condorman (1981), composed the musical score for The Great Mouse Detective. This marked Mancini's debut composing for an animated feature, although his iconic score for The Pink Panther (1963) became the theme for the cartoon character who first appeared in the film's opening credits. "It's different working with these little figures up there rather than people," Mancini said of making music for animation. "Everything goes so fast. The pacing, the story, just zips along." Mancini's Great Mouse Detective music incorporates themes for each of the story's personalities. Basil's musical signature is heroic, conveyed through instruments like the French horn, while Ratigan's theme is dominated by such dark-colored instruments as the bassoon.
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| Disney Animation Proves Itself |
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| Sherlock Holmes Himself Doesn’t Appear. Or Does He? |
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| Did You Know? 9 Furry Facts from The Fox and the Hound – Jim Fanning |
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| In the Tradition of Bambi |
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| A Timely Subject |
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| Look Familiar? |
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| Kurt Russell |
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A Colorful Vocal Cast of Disney Favorites
Character actor Dick Bakalyan (1931–2015), Kurt Russell's comical-but-crooked nemesis from Disney's Dexter Riley films, voiced the excitable sparrow Dinky. In fact, The Fox and the Hound vocal cast is dotted with familiar Disney favorites, such as Paul Winchell (1922–2005), the bouncy voice of Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh featurettes, as Dinky's bird-brained pal, Boomer. Academy Award®-nominated actor Mickey Rooney (1920–2014), who just a few years earlier played Lampy in Pete's Dragon (1977)—and much earlier had appeared in caricatured animated form alongside Donald Duck in The Autograph Hound (1939)—voiced adult Tod, while Sandy Duncan, Jeanette Nolan (1911–1998), John Fiedler (1925–2005), and Pat Buttram (1915–1994) had also all previously appeared in Disney productions. In many ways the heart of the matter, the big-hearted owl named Big Mama was voiced by a newcomer to Disney, Pearl Bailey (1918–1990). The animators studied the multi-talented stage and screen performer as she recorded her vocal characterization. "I tried to incorporate aspects of how an owl moves and combine that with how Pearl Bailey would move and fuse those together," explained Ron Clements.
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| Buddy Baker, Music Man |
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| Frank and Ollie's Last Hurrah |
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| In Classic Style |
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| New Generation |
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| Did You Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Fun and Fancy Free – Jim Fanning |
A circus bear, a crooning cricket, and a certain Mouse are the leading animated luminaries in Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free. Released 70 years ago today, this unique mélange of song, stars, and cartoon favorites was one of Walt's "package features"—post-World War II animated features made from "packaging" together shorter featurettes.
Fun and Fancy Free packages together two featurettes—"Bongo," the story of a big-top bruin who runs away from the circus to get back to nature, and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as the collective hero of the Disney version of "Jack and the Beanstalk"—all tied together with an eclectic collection of appealing performers, both live-action and animated. The result caused the show-biz "bible" Variety, to opine, "All of it adds up to one of Disney's finest achievements." Read on to learn more about this fun-filled, fanciful animated anthology film, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.
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| 1. "Mickey and the Beanstalk" was Originally Planned to be a Full-Length Feature |
Almost from the start of his transition to feature production, Walt had planned on spotlighting his short-subject superstar Mickey Mouse in his own feature-length epic. But what project would best fit the Mouse's giant-sized knack for adventure? As early as September 1938—the same month in which the feature-like Brave Little Tailor (centering on Disney's diminutive hero's battle with a supersized foe) was released and less than a year after the premiere of his first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)—Walt started developing an adaptation of the famous "Beanstalk" tale, to star not only Mickey but his frequent co-adventurers, Donald and Goofy. "The Goof is the sap, the Duck is the one who gets into scrapes, gets mad, and has to be quieted down" noted Walt in a 1938 "Mickey and the Beanstalk" story conference. "Mickey is comparable to Harold Lloyd," Walt added, equating the Mouse with the great silent comedian known for his comically daring exploits. "The situations he gets into make him funny." In envisioning this feature for his favorite star, Walt told his animation team, "I think this story has great possibilities for the fantastic things. I would like to see it done in such a way that would really put feature quality into it." Animation began, and hopes were high for Mickey's very own feature film. But production on "Mickey and the Beanstalk" was halted by the start of World War II.
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| 2. Fun and Fancy Free Returned Mickey To the Screen in Style |
After the war, projects that had been shelved for the duration were revived, and Walt had a special reason for resurrecting the "Beanstalk" production. Mickey had not been seen in a theatrical cartoon since the early 1940s, and a spectacular showcase was needed to return Disney's biggest star to the screen. "Mickey and the Beanstalk" fit the bill and was put back into production. Top animators, such as Woolie Reitherman (1909–1985) and "Mickey master" Fred Moore (1911–1952), were assigned to the project, and new animation was created to complement the completed pre-war footage. Fun and Fancy Free returned Mickey to movie screens one week before his first short in five years, Mickey's Delayed Date, was released on October 3, 1947.
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| 3. Dinah Shore Sings |
Walt had banked on the built-in box office appeal of Dinah Shore (1916–1994) for his first postwar "package" picture, Make Mine Music (1946), and he turned to her again to narrate and sing the "Bongo" segment of Fun and Fancy Free. Later known for long-running primetime variety series of the 1950s and 1960s and her daytime talk shows in the 1970s, this celebrated songstress was the most popular female vocalist of the 1940s, racking up 80 charted popular records by 1957. Dinah's sweet voice is the perfect aural complement to the story of the sweet-natured circus bear.
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| 4. Little Luana Listens In |
In the film, one of Disney's first child stars, lovely little Luana Patten (1938–1996) (pictured above), winningly listens to the unfolding story of "Mickey and the Beanstalk." In fact, the story is told at a party thrown in her honor. Walt was ever on the lookout for a showcase for his young contract player, and Fun and Fancy Free gave fans of the young star of Song of the South (1946) and the soon-to-be star of So Dear to My Heart (1949)—a chance to see her on screen as she commented on the unfolding story. In Walt's next package film, Melody Time (1948), Ms. Patten was paired with frequent co-star and fellow Disney contract kid, Bobby Driscoll (1937–1968), to hear the story of "Pecos Bill."
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| 5. Gesundheit, Willie the Giant |
A veteran of many a comedy classic, including A Night at the Opera (1935) starring the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), Billy Gilbert (1894–1971) was cast as Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) when the comedic character actor launched into his renowned sneezing routine—seen in such films as Million Dollar Legs (1932) with W.C. Fields—in Walt Disney's office. Soon after, when Walt gave the bombastic Billy another vocal role as Willie the Giant in "Mickey and the Beanstalk," he made sure that Willie had a gigantic sneezing attack thanks to Mickey's spilling of the giant's snuff box.
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| 6. Jiminy Hops Into a New Career |
In an unprecedented move, Walt took a character from one feature and put him in another when he made Jiminy Cricket the Fun and Fancy Free headliner. The only character who appears throughout this package film, Jiminy Cricket hopped in from Pinocchio (1940) as one of the newer film's biggest surprises, singing "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow," composed by Pinocchio Academy Award®-winning tunesmiths Leigh Harline (1907–1969) and Ned Washington (1901–1976). Fun and Fancy Free was the beginning of the cricket's career as a Disney star in his own right. From there, Jiminy leaped into his role as a narrator, educator, or emcee, especially on the original Mickey Mouse Club television show, where the little bug with the outsized talent was given his own regular segment. He also hosted episodes of Disney's hour-long prime time anthology series—starting with 1955's "Jiminy Cricket Presents Bongo," in which the crooning cricket took Dinah Shore's place to sing Bongo's story. Through it all, Disney Legend Cliff Edwards (1895–1971) provided Jiminy's pitch-perfect voice.
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| 7. Bongo Rides Again on the Printed Page |
Walt's early 1940s acquisition of screen rights to the 1930 short story "Little Bear Bongo," by acclaimed American author Sinclair Lewis, was reported as big news within the film industry. As of April 1941, "Bongo" was planned as a feature-length film. Development began, but like "Mickey and the Beanstalk," production on the tale of the wonder bear was halted during World War II. When "Bongo" was released as part of Fun and Fancy Free five years later, it seemed appropriate that the unicycle-riding bruin backpedaled onto the printed page. In addition to starring in story and activity books, Bongo became a headliner in Disney comic books. The lovable little bear was also enshrined as the title character in one of the very first of the Disney Little Golden Books, published in 1948.
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| 8. Where in the World is Minnie? |
Missing Minnie as you watch "Mickey and the Beanstalk"? There’s a reason for that. Minnie was initially slated to be the Queen of Happy Valley in "Mickey and the Beanstalk." (After all, someone must live in that big castle besides the Singing Harp!) As originally planned in the feature-length version of the story, it was Queen Minnie who traded the magic beans for Mickey's cow. This explanation of where in the world Mickey gets the beans, which is unexplained in the completed film, was eliminated when poor Minnie was dropped from the story entirely when the film was tightened to featurette-size for Fun and Fancy Free.
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| 9. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Tell The Tale |
Walt's friend, actor and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (1903–1978) (pictured above), along with his wisecracking sidekick dummy Charlie McCarthy, were the long-running stars of one of radio's most popular comedy show when they were invited to narrate "Mickey and the Beanstalk." Bergen was a natural fit to relate the fanciful tale for he often told stories on his radio program, frequently interrupted by Charlie with an irreverent quip. In addition to being among radio's top talents, Bergen and McCarthy were also film stars (Edgar Bergen was presented with an honorary Academy Award—a wooden Oscar® statuette complete with a hinged jaw—for the creation of Charlie McCarthy in 1938), so they too—along with another of Bergen's wooden characters, country bumpkin Mortimer Snerd, lent some movie-marquee luster to Fun and Fancy Free. Having appeared with Bergen and McCarthy on their radio shows in the past, Walt appeared on the September 21, 1947, episode to celebrate the release of Fun and Fancy Free. Just three years later Bergen and McCarthy returned to Disney to star in Walt's first television production, One Hour in Wonderland, broadcast on Christmas Day 1950.
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| 10. Mickey's Voice Changes |
The original voice artists behind Donald and Goofy, Clarence "Ducky" Nash (1904–1985) and Pinto Colvig (1892–1967), once again stepped up to the microphone for "Mickey and the Beanstalk." As for the main Mouse, Walt originally recorded the dialog for his animated alter ego in the spring and summer of 1940. However, when production resumed in 1946, things—and Mickey's voice—changed. Disney's sound effects whiz Jimmy Macdonald (1906–1991) (pictured above) recalled: "The animators and the director in charge of the sequences that needed Walt's voice on Mickey approached him and said, 'Walt, we need you on the stage [for "Mickey and the Beanstalk"]. He said, 'I'm too busy, I just can't do it. Call Jim up here.'"
In the end, the vocal performance heard in "Beanstalk" is part Walt, part Jimmy. But from that point on, except for a few occasions when Walt wanted to step back into Mickey's shoes, Macdonald performed the fa-mouse voice from then until 1977—when he turned over the vocal role to his sound-effects apprentice, Wayne Allwine (1947–2009), who voiced Mickey for more than 30 years. Today, Bret Iwan carries on as the official voice of Mickey Mouse, or as Jimmy Macdonald would have it, is "filling in for the Boss."
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| Our 15 Favorite Easter Eggs from Enchanted – Megan Deppe |
Let's face it—some of our favorite moments when watching a Disney movie come from discovering the little Easter eggs that have been dropped in to appeal to the "Disnerd" in all of us. Those details not only make us squeal with delight, but they point to how much work went into creating the magical world of the film. To celebrate its 10th anniversary between 2017 and 2018, we went back and watched Enchanted, which is stuffed full of Easter eggs, and picked out our absolute favorites!
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| 1. The Storybook Opening |
Enchanted literally opens with an Easter egg, zooming in on a storybook that opens and begins our journey into Andalasia. This is a callback to many of Disney's earliest films, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, and The Sword in the Stone, reminding us just how much we love Disney, then and now!
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| 2. Prince Edward Statue |
While Giselle sings "True Love's Kiss," she sits on the lap of a homemade statue of Prince Edward, dreaming of the day her prince will come for her. Ring a bell for you? It should—the statue resembles the one of Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, which Ariel sings to in her cave of trinkets from the human world.
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| 3. Dopey in the Sky with Diamonds |
While Giselle creates her dream prince statue, she grabs two blue jewels to use for his eyes. She holds them up to look through them, and BANG—throwback to Dopey doing the same with the jewels he got in the mine!
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| 4. Riding off into the Sunset |
Before their wedding day, Prince Edward saves Giselle from the troll and they fall in love, ending the scene by riding off into the sunset—a throwback to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which ends with Snow White and her prince doing the same.
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| 5. A Most Evil Queen |
One of the more obvious Easter eggs is the disguise that Narissa wears when she chooses to banish Giselle from Andalasia: She takes on the form of an old hag with a poison apple as her weapon of choice. While her design is not quite the same as the Evil Queen from Snow White, we all know who she's emulating in her quest for the throne!
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| 6. Jodi Benson Appears in the Film |
Easter eggs continue to hatch when Giselle falls into the real world, where fans can spot cameo appearances by some of the actresses behind our favorite Disney princesses! The first is Sam, Robert's secretary, who is played by Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid! Looks like she finally got her legs after all! And keep an ear out for the moment when Giselle looks through a fish tank in the office and an instrumental version of "Part of Your World" plays in the background.
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| 7. "Happy Working Song" and Cinderella's Apron |
While Giselle stays at Robert's apartment, she decides to call on her animal friends to help her clean up, singing "Happy Working Song" while she does so. This harks back to Snow White's "Whistle While You Work" number as she cleans up the Dwarfs' cabin. There is also a moment where a group of birds lift Giselle's dress and tie it into an apron—much like Cinderella's birds do as she gets ready for her day! The Cinderella references continue when Giselle scrubs the floor and bubbles float up around her, as they float around Cinderella in the "Sing Sweet Nightingale" sequence.
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| 8. Hidden Mickey Dress? |
Did you notice any Hidden Mickeys in the movie? If you take a close look at Giselle's blue dress made from curtains, you'll notice some tiny pink flowers stitched on. Now, look even closer—those pink flowers bear a striking resemblance to our main mouse! Coincidence?
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| 9. Poison Caramel Apple |
While dancing around in Central Park, Giselle is offered a caramel apple by Nathaniel. When she hesitates to take it, you can see that the caramel has dripped down the apple to form the same poisoned apple symbol that dripped down the apple meant for Snow White. Caramel may be a bit sweeter than the green stuff that the Evil Queen used, but we would still suggest that Giselle walk away!
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| 10. Belle's Hill Run |
During "That’s How You Know," there's a moment when Giselle runs up a grassy hill with her arms spread and she makes a cute little twirl to flare out her dress. Fans of Beauty and the Beast will remember that Belle did the exact same thing while singing "Belle (Reprise)" and running away from her provincial life.
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| 11. Paige O'Hara |
And speaking of Belle, guess who makes an appearance on TV while Edward is flipping channels? There are several references to other Disney movies while Edward listens to the "magic mirror," including characters named after several cast members from Beauty and the Beast (1991). But the only one who makes an on-screen appearance is Paige O'Hara, the voice of Belle. There is also a moment where the distinct score of Beauty and the Beast plays over her—just in case you don't recognize her without her signature yellow dress.
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| 12. Bella Notte Restaurant |
In a fun little reference that isn't from a princess movie, Edward searches for Giselle downtown while she is eating at the Bella Notte restaurant, a reference to the adorable scene from Lady and the Tramp. Did she order spaghetti to share with Robert?
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| 13. Judy Kuhn |
We run into an additional Disney princess while meeting Robert's neighbors: Edward is greeted by a mother and several children, and who might that mother be? Surely it isn't Judy Kuhn, the singing voice of someone who can paint with all the colors of the wind? That's right—Pocahontas is hanging out in New York City now! (Incidentally, Pocahontas had an outdoor premiere in NYC's Central Park in 1995!)
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| 14. Beauty and the Beast Sweeping Shot |
As Giselle and Robert dance at the ball, there's a shot that sweeps down over a chandelier to focus on the couple falling in love. This is a callback to the most iconic scene from the tale as old as time, as Belle and Beast share their first dance. It looks just as beautiful in 2007 and it did in 1991!
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| 15. Maleficent / Dragon |
The Evil Queen isn't the only villain that Narissa chose to study in her quest to rule the world—the final battle shows that she also took a page from Maleficent's book. Not only has Narissa studied her ability to create green fire, but she's learned the secrets of turning into a dragon to crawl up the skyscraper and fight the heroes.
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| Fly Around Disney Parks with Peter Pan |
Faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust was all it took for audiences to fall in love with the boy from Never Land who didn't want to grow up. Peter Pan has been one of Disney's most beloved characters for years, both on screen and in Disney parks. Here are some of the many ways that Peter and his faithful companion, Tinker Bell, spread Disney magic throughout Disney Parks.
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| Peter Pan's Flight |
One of Disneyland's most iconic attractions is Peter Pan's Flight—an original attraction that debuted on Disneyland's opening day. The dark ride takes guests into the story of Peter Pan via flying pirate ship, as they soar out of the nursery, above the darkened streets of London, and over Never Land. Peter Pan's Flight was so popular that it was re-created at Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland, though each put their own touch on the magical story.
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| Other Attractions |
You can find Peter Pan in other attractions at Disney parks, as well. The Storybook Land Canal Boats at Disneyland journey past the London Park that Peter and the Darling children fly over on their way to Never Land, and you can spot both Peter Pan and Tinker Bell in it's a small world at Disneyland and at Hong Kong Disneyland. For a musical adventure, join Peter as he takes Donald Duck on a flight through London during the "You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly" segment of Mickey's PhilharMagic in Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, Disneyland Park at Tokyo Disney Resort, and Hong Kong Disneyland.
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| Meet Peter Pan |
It's possible to meet Peter Pan face-to-face, if you know where to look! The leader of the Lost Boys greets guests in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom Park, near Pirates' Beach in Adventureland at Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris, at the main entrance of Tokyo Disneyland Park, and in Fantasyland at Hong Kong Disneyland.
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| Pixie Hollow |
Tinker Bell brings plenty of pixie dust to Disney parks, too. Tink and her fairy friends meet guests at Pixie Hollow in Disneyland Park, and you can find her at Town Square Theater on Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom Park. At Hong Kong Disneyland, you can come face-to-face with your favorite fairy at Fairy Tale Forest in Fantasyland.
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A Pirate's Life for You
If you're feeling really brave, you can encounter Captain Hook in Disneyland Paris' Adventureland, at the main entrance of Tokyo Disneyland Park, and in Fantasyland at both Magic Kingdom and Shanghai Disneyland. Captain Hook greets guests at Walt Disney World's Beach Club Resort, and at Disney's Contemporary Resort, you can meet Hook and Smee as you set sail on a cruise of Seven Seas Lagoon during the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Dessert Voyage. Live the life of a pirate as you sing sea chanteys and take in the salty air before watching the fireworks and, upon your return, look for a special guest waiting to welcome you back to dry land!
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| Peter Puts on a Show |
No matter what Disney park you visit, there's always an amazing parade or nighttime spectacular to take your breath away—and Peter and his friends are right there to be part of the magic. You can count on Peter and pals sprinkling pixie dust on the Magic Kingdom's Festival of Fantasy parade, Tokyo Disneyland's glowing nighttime wonder Dreamlights, Hong Kong Disneyland's Flights of Fantasy Parade, Disneyland Paris' Disney Magic on Parade, or Shanghai Disneyland's Storybook Express Parade. Tinker Bell flies over Magic Kingdom's Happily Ever After castle projection show to share her magic with everyone!
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| On the High Seas… |
Guests sailing on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder can enjoy a truly magical experience featuring Peter Pan: the musical Disney Dreams—An Enchanted Classic. Through stunning special effects and a collection of some of your favorite classic Disney songs, Peter and a host of Disney characters spotlight the power of dreams and family in the dazzling stage show (which also features a very special cameo appearance by Tinker Bell!). All of Disney's cruise ships also feature unique character experiences with Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, and Mr. Smee, from a special send-off by Captain Hook, "Remember the Magic: A Final Farewell" on the Disney Magic; a Pirate Night with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee on the Disney Wonder; and an amusing apprenticeship, "So You Want to Be a Pirate" on the Disney Wonder, Disney Dream, and Disney Fantasy.
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| Did You Know? 10 Tuneful Facts About Walt Disney's Melody Time – Jim Fanning |
Melody Time is not just a Disney classic. It's seven Disney classics in one. Celebrating seven decades of delighting audiences with its animated delicacies, Melody Time is one of Walt Disney's "package films," comprised of several short animated pieces "packaged" together to form one feature. With its cornucopia of varied stories, dynamic characters, and compelling artistic approaches, it’s one of the most entrancing of Walt's omnibus features. Featuring the enduring talents of big-time stars of its day, Melody Time premiered on May 27, 1948, at the prestigious Astor Theatre in New York's Times Square, and, in one form or another, Disney's 10th full-length animated feature has entranced audiences ever since. In honor of 70 years of music and movement, color, and characters, here are 10 melodious facts about Melody Time.
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| 1. Mary Blair Lends Artistic Flair to "Wintertime" Charm |
Looking at once like an old-fashioned greeting card and a cutting-edge experiment in modern design, "Once Upon a Wintertime" is the Victorian-era tale of cute-couple Jenny and Joe who find unexpected adventure on a sleigh ride-ice skating expedition. Set to the title tune sung by velvety voiced radio and recording star Frances Langford (1913–2005), this nostalgic segment was produced as a concerted effort to bring the distinctive graphic stylings of Disney Legend Mary Blair (1911–1978) to the screen. Disney Legend Ken O'Connor (1908–1998) championed Blair's highly stylized designs. A veteran layout artist, O'Connor arranged to have the animators draw "in a decorative… design-y way" reflecting Mary's conceptual art, while also enlisting Disney background artist Art Riley (1911–1998) to paint the story's settings in Blair's non-rounded contemporary style. The result is a charming yet striking reflection of the unique Blair artistry treasured by Walt Disney (1901–1966) himself.
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| 2. Get Them Apple Trees A-Growin': "Johnny Appleseed" |
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| 3. Starring The Voice(s) of Dennis Day |
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| 4. Donald and José Reunited To Take on the Samba |
First teamed up in Saludos Amigos (1943) and The Three Caballeros (1945), Donald Duck reunited with his Brazilian parrot pal, José Carioca for "Blame it on the Samba." The wacky Aracuan Bird (introduced in The Three Caballeros) introduces the duo to the infectious Brazilian dance in colorful animation blended with live action of Hammond organist Ethel Smith (1902–1996). This segment was originally envisioned as part of a projected third Latin American feature, and Ethel Smith was recorded performing the segment's title song (on a rented electric organ installed on the Disney Studio's sound-effects stage) in 1945. The third feature never came to be, but "Blame it on the Samba" was revived for inclusion in Melody Time and Smith returned to the Disney lot in February 1947 to film her live-action performance—which was then combined with the animation starring Donald and José—for a wildly imaginative follow-up to Disney's two previous South American romps.
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| 5. The Buzz About "Bumble Boogie" |
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| 6. I Think I Shall Never See a Poem as Lovely as "Trees" |
Another sequence intended for a new Fantasia, "Trees" is musicalization of the famed poem written in 1913 by Joyce Kilmer. Using only evocative images with little character animation, this visual tone poem draws its striking imagery from the pastel story art of Disney stylist Dick Kelsey. It was Melody Time's unsung hero, Ken O'Connor, who decided to use cels with a "frosted" surface to capture the vibrancy and texture of the original pastel story sketches. The camera, thanks to careful layouts and clever editing, provides most of the actual movement. The strength and beauty of Kelsey's unique art are conveyed to emotional effect, all underscored with the haunting choral work of Fred Waring (1900–1984) and His Pennsylvanians.
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| 7. Three-Part Harmonies in New York Harbor: "Little Toot" |
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| 8. A Tall Tale as Only Disney Animation Can Tell It |
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| 9. It Took a Roundup of Stars to Tell Pecos Bill's Tall Tale |
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| 10. Melody Time is Timeless |
Though Melody Time was never theatrically rereleased, many of its segments were issued as separate featurettes. While "Trees" was released to schools as an educational piece celebrating music, art, and poetry, it was television that became the greatest showcase for the Melody Time sequences. For example, the Mickey Mouse Club TV series presented "Once Upon a Wintertime" as a Mousekartoon on December 20, 1956. On his primetime television anthology series, Disneyland, Walt featured "Johnny Appleseed" as one of the "Four Fabulous Characters" in 1957, while Pecos Bill was honored with his own episode (sharing billing with a certain Magic Kingdom) that same year in "Disneyland, The Park (and) Pecos Bill." In 1972, "Bumble Boogie" was showcased on Ward Kimball's wild Laugh-In-like TV series, The Mouse Factory. Today, with the film’s availability on DVD and eventually streaming services, more Disney fans than ever before can now enjoy Melody Time. For, as the lyrics to the film's title song has it, "It's time to swing along, to a happy land of song, where love is the thing… It's Melody Time!"
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| Did You Know? 11 Pixie-Dusted Facts About Tinker Bell – Jim Fanning |
"All the characters in Peter Pan are in some way touched with magic," Walt Disney once observed, and this was particularly true of the 1953 classic's breakout star. He added, "The little fairy Tinker Bell glows like a firefly and leaves a trail of pixie dust behind her as she flits about with the speed of a hummingbird." Walt well knew that the tiny pixie with the outsized personality would enchant audiences, and for 65 years, this sweet and saucy sprite has done exactly that. In her book-length celebration of the shimmering little fairy, Tinker Bell: An Evolution, author Mindy Johnson stated, "The lasting impact of this pint-sized pixie has proven remarkable—she has captivated the world. Filled with earthly humors and human frailties, she is the sheer embodiment of magic and fantasy… through Walt Disney's persistent vision, J.M. Barrie's darling Tinker Bell has become the most recognized and best loved fairy of all time." To celebrate nearly seven decades of Tinker Bell enchantment, here are 11 sparkling sprinklings of pixie dust sure to have you thinking nothing but happy thoughts about everyone's favorite fairy.
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| 1. A Pixie Priority |
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| 2. Does This Ring a Bell? |
Walt determined that Tink would "speak through the sound of bells," as had traditionally been done on stage. To get every bit of expressiveness and personality out of the silvery notes, the great showman turned to Disney Legend Jimmy Macdonald. The Disney Studio's maestro of sound effects met one of his greatest challenges as he carefully selected exactly the right bells from his extensive sound-effects library. Still, Walt felt an extra special touch was needed, so he signed on master bell musicians Bernard and Dorothy Mason who, under Macdonald's supervision, used their own equipment to create a "vocabulary" for Tinker Bell's dialogue.
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| 3. Pure Pantomime |
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| 4. Miss Bell's Body Language |
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| 5. The Fairy's Face |
If Kerry delivered the body language that inspired Tink's behavior then Ginni Mack provided a particular inspiration for Tink's pixieish countenance. Among the most skilled of the painters in Disney's legendary Ink & Paint Department, Mack was a well-regarded Paint Lab artisan when Marc Davis chose her as inspiration for Tink's face. Her twinkly eyes and elfin face, as well as her signature blonde hair—most often tied in a bun with bangs swept to the side—were a major influence on Tink's sprightly style.
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| 6. Little Star, Big Screen Debut |
It was long believed that Disney's production of Peter Pan was the first to portray Tinker Bell as a human figure, but Virginia Brown Faire had portrayed her in the 1924 silent film version. However, she was seen in only a few fleeting close-ups, appearing throughout the remainder of the film as the traditional spot of light. In producing his screen version of the classic play, Walt noted, "On stage, Tinker Bell has always been represented by the flash of a spotlight, but we [through the art of animation] can make her glow like a firefly as she darts through space." When Variety reviewed the brand-new animated feature on January 14, 1953, the critic opined presciently, "The picture also brings to life, for the first time, the character of Tinker Bell, that gold dust-sprinkling sprite of Never Land who, in her decidedly feminine nature as depicted by Disney artists, is certain to capture audience fancy as much, probably more, than any of the Barrie characters."
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| 7. Tink TV |
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| 8. Tinker Bell in Comic Books |
In addition to paying a visit to Pixieland in the deluxe Peter Pan Treasure Chest comic book in 1952 (before Peter Pan was even in theaters) and hosting the giant-sized Disneyland, U.S.A comic book in 1960, Tinker Bell winged her way onto the pages of her very own comic book in 1958. Preeminent Disney comic book artist Al Hubbard illustrated Adventures of Tinker Bell and the New Adventures of Tinker Bell. Some of the lighthearted stories featured within showed Tink interacting with other fantasy folk, such as elves and gnomes.
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| 9. Pages and Pages of Pixies |
The popularity of this iridescent imp has only increased over the decades. In 2005 Disney Publishing announced that Tinker Bell would headline a new franchise, Disney Fairies. Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, the first novel in a trilogy written by Newbery Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine, was published in 45 countries and 32 languages and became a New York Times bestseller.
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| 10. Tink Talks |
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| 11. Tinker Bell Superstar |
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| Did You Know? 9 Stuffed-With-Fluff Facts About Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day – Jim Fanning |
An eventful "Winds-day," a bothersome rainstorm, a nightmare-full of honey-hungry hallucinations, and the first appearance of a very bouncy buddy—all of these elements combined to help create Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. A whimsical sequel to Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Disney's second visit to the Hundred Acre Wood was even more popular than the first. So break open a new "hunny" pot, watch out for Woozles, and savor nine smackerals of behind-the-scenes celebrating 50 years of blustery fun.
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| The Pooh-rade Marches On |
Although Walt Disney (1901–1966) first envisioned his animated adaptation of the books by A.A. Milne as a feature, the savvy showman ultimately felt that American audiences were not sufficiently familiar with the British stories, so he decided to split the burgeoning story into three parts and release each as a separate featurette. With the popularity of Pooh's initial featurette, Walt looked forward to producing the second, certain it would be an even bigger hit. After Walt's death in late 1966, Disney executives decided in late summer 1967 that Blustery Day would be the first animated film to be put into production without Walt, and so the new Pooh project commenced under the working title of Winnie the Pooh and the Heffalumps.
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| Five Nine Old Men Walk Into the Hundred Acre Wood |
John Lounsbery (1911–1976) and Eric Larson (1905–1988) of the legendary team of the Nine Old Men, animated on the first Pooh featurette, which was directed by fellow Nine Old Man Woolie Reitherman (1909–1985). Lounsbery and Reitherman continued in their roles for the next installment, while signing onto a Pooh project for the first time were Ollie Johnston (1912–2008), Frank Thomas (1912–2004), and Milt Kahl (1909–1987). Thomas and Johnston were particularly happy to be on Team Winnie the Pooh as they were fans of the original books and the Ernest H. Shepard illustrations. "I liked the Shepard drawings very much," said Johnston, "but you have to go with what you can do in animation that requires the characters to do things they don't have to do in a story illustration." The animators kept in mind Walt's edict that Shepard's illustrative charm be maintained in the featurettes. Said Thomas of the designs in general and Pooh in particular: "If you take a design like that as your model and then get the personality just right, and with all the help of Sterling Holloway's voice as Pooh, the audience accepts it as being the same as the original design because they're swayed by the way he moves and the way they thought he should move."
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| Tigger Bounces Onto the Scene |
For his Disney animation debut, Tigger was animated almost entirely by master Milt Kahl. Though the first Pooh book, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published in 1926, Tigger was not introduced until the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, was issued in 1928. The hyper tiger was inspired by a new addition to son Christopher Robin's menagerie of stuffed toys, but Milne based the manic personality of Tigger on Chum, a Spaniel who was always jumping onto people and just about everything, causing all kinds of chaos for his owners. Walt had considered Disneyland Park performer Wally Boag (1920–2011) for Tigger's voice, but ventriloquist-actor Paul Winchell (1922–2005) was ultimately cast as the voice of the trouncy, flouncy tiger. "Paul did a great job, his voice was full of life," said Johnston. "His vocal performance really inspired Milt to get that real brisk timing into Tigger." The bouncy critter's famed so-long statement, "TTFN—ta-ta for now" was ad-libbed by Winchell.
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| Tigger Sings with a Spring |
One of the most wonderful things about Tigger is his upbeat signature tune. "We wrote a song about Tigger which exemplifies exactly what he did," said Richard Sherman about the Sherman brothers song "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers." "It was a fun song to write, especially that last line: 'The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'm the only one.'" Though sung with infectious gusto by Paul Winchell in Blustery Day—and heard on some of the Pooh record albums as performed by Sam Edwards—the second verse of the Shermans' "Tigger" song was never performed onscreen until The Tigger Movie (2000).
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| Milne or Sherman OR Gilbert and Sullivan? |
The songwriting team of Richard and Robert Sherman (1925–2012) composed the five songs heard in Blustery Day during 1963 and 1964, along with the other Winnie the Pooh songs. Said Richard: "The books are so charming and so filled with whimsy. We wanted to get that feel in our songs—that if Milne had written a song, he most likely would have written it that way. We wanted it to be Milnesque but it needed to be Disney, too. For the sequence featuring Pooh and Piglet swept away by the flood, we wanted a Gilbert and Sullivan quality. That's very British and very apropos. So we had the words repeating—'the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down'—a whole sequence of pure singing [by a chorus] with pictures. And the animators loved it."
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| Trespassers William Would be Proud |
Tigger wasn't the only new character to join the cuddly citizens of Christopher Robin's "enchanted neighborhood" in this new Pooh film. Pooh Bear's very good and very timid friend Piglet swept onto the scene, sweeping leaves and being swept into the sky by the blustery wind. "To take something like a little rag doll, which is Piglet, and try to give him enough acting that communicates with the audience was a real challenge," said Frank Thomas. The Disney animators gave Shepard's Piglet design a rounder face complete with cheeks that could express emotion in animated movement. Piglet's endearingly hesitant voice was performed by John Fiedler (1925–2005), perhaps most famous as one of the poker players in The Odd Couple (1968) and as Mr. Peterson, one of Bob's patients, on The Bob Newhart Show. Fiedler performed the voice of Piglet longer than any of the other members of the original Pooh cast. His last performances as the very small animal included Piglet's Big Movie (2003) and Pooh's Heffalump Movie, released in 2005, the year this prolific, piglet-like character actor passed on.
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| They're In, They're Out, They're All About! |
Along with Piglet and Tigger, some imaginary honey-hoggers showed up, too. In the Milne original, the Heffalumps and Woozles were not described or shown (except one Shepard illustration of an elephant haunting Piglet's dream), so the filmmakers had free reign to creatively convey these silly yet scary creatures dreamed up by Pooh. In composing the "Heffalumps and Woozles" song, Robert Sherman remembered that "there were no rules, really, so we could do whatever we wanted to do." Explained Richard Sherman: "We very much wanted to do kind of a fun, spooky kind of a thing. Heffalumps and Woozles were a wonderful concept of Milne's. We loved the play on words." The Shermans' imaginative song inspired Disney animators to new heights of surrealistic creativity in visualizing Pooh's wild nightmare. "It's an outstanding sequence," observed Richard Sherman.
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| Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day Blows Into Theaters |
In anticipation of Pooh skipping back to the screen, Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty proclaimed October 25, 1968, as "Winnie the Pooh Day." Direct from Disneyland Park, Pooh and his pals made personal appearances at Sears stores in 25 U.S. cities to tie in with its famous line of exclusive Pooh clothing and merchandise that began with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. In each of the cities lucky enough to have Pooh visit, including Seattle, St. Louis, Atlanta, Buffalo, Boston, and Washington, D.C.—the bear of very little brain and company arrived via the Disney company plane to attend tea parties and fashion shows, appear on local TV programs, and visit children confined to hospitals. Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was released on December 20, 1968, on the same bill as The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit starring Dean Jones and Kurt Russell. Advertised as "All-Nooh," alerting audiences that this was not a re-release but a fresh visit with the lovable residents of Pooh Corner, Pooh's latest big-screen adventure was a sweet sensation.
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| Winnie the Pooh Wins Big |
Though production began after Walt's passing in 1966, the story and songs had been created with Walt's full engagement. According to Richard Sherman, who along with his brother was actively involved in the story sessions, "Every single note and every word was okayed by Walt." On April 14, 1969, the new Pooh featurette was awarded an Oscar® as Best Cartoon Short Subject of 1968 at the Academy Awards® ceremony. Director Woolie Reitherman accepted the award on behalf of Walt Disney from presenters Tony Curtis and the Pink Panther, his voice cracking with emotion as he spoke of "another memorable moment we've all shared with Walt." Winning an Oscar is quite the accomplishment for anyone, let alone a "silly old bear," and Pooh and his plush pals were now firmly established in the Hollywood firmament—while at the same time winning Walt a final, posthumously earned Academy Award.
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| Did You Know? 10 Wizard Facts About Walt Disney's The Sword in the Stone – Jim Fanning |
Timeless in its humor, music, and classic Disney animation, The Sword in the Stone ascended the throne in 1963 as Walt Disney's 18th full-length animated feature. A scrawny 12-year-old boy nicknamed Wart, who is in actuality the future King Arthur, sets ancient England on its ear when the mystical but lovably muddled Merlin—"the incomparable wizard," as Walt called him—uses wit and wisdom, as well as wizardry, to teach the boy who would be king life lessons that will ultimately lead him extract a mighty sword from an enchanted stone. A sparkling holiday gift for fans of Disney animation, The Sword in the Stone was released on Christmas Day, 1963. Let's crown our celebration of 55 years of animated enchantment in 2018 with these royally magical facts.
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| 1. A Legend is Sung of When England Was Young |
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| 2. Walt Was an Inspiration for Merlin |
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| 3. Milt Kahl, Master of Magic in Motion |
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| 4. The Voice of the Wizard |
Voicing the role of absentminded Merlin was versatile performer Karl Swenson (1908–1978). Skilled at creating vocal characterizations from his extensive career as an actor during the golden age of radio, Swenson was also in more than 100 television show episodes, and is most well-known for his recurring role as Lars Henson on Little House on the Prairie. The actor returned to the Disney Studios to appear with Ron Howard and Vera Miles in The Wild Country (1971).
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| 5. The Wizard, the Owl, and the Rabbit |
Junius Matthews performs the crotchety voice of the educated but irritable owl Archimedes. In addition to many appearances on the Broadway stage and television, this multitalented actor performed hundreds of varied vocal roles on radio. Karl Swenson recommended Matthews to Walt pointing out the versatile actor had provided the voice of a potato on a radio program. However, he was originally cast as the voice of Merlin, but then switched roles with Swenson and became the voice of Merlin's owl. Following The Sword in the Stone, Walt cast Matthews as the voice of Rabbit in the Winnie The Pooh featurettes.
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| 6. Laughing it Up with Archimedes |
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| 7. A Magical Menagerie |
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| 8. Three Voices, One Wart |
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| 9. Boy Meets Girl Squirrel |
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| 10. Sword, Sorcery, and Sherman Songs |
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| 7 Lessons We Learned from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas – Megan Deppe |
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, which turns 20 this year, shows us that Christmas is a wonderful time to step back and remember what's truly important. We took another look at this cherished holiday "tale as old as time" and were reminded once again what Christmas is all about.
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| 1. Christmas is about the people you love. |
Of course, Chip's obsession over getting the perfect tree leads the gang into a bit of a disaster. The Enchanted Christmas reminds us that the holidays are not about the holiday trimmings. If you don't have the perfect tree or accidentally burn the cookies, don't worry about it—as long as you're with the people you love, it's still Christmas.
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| 2. Teamwork gets the job done. |
Despite their frequent friction, we all know Lumiere and Cogsworth are a great team. The Enchanted Christmas gives them a cute little song to emphasize their teamwork, "A Cut Above the Rest", to prove that if they work together, they can do basically anything. Two heads are better than one!
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| 3. Remember to have fun. |
Beauty and the Beast showed us Cogsworth's comedic chops with his iconic line, "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!" Enchanted Christmas also gives Cogsworth another chance to have some pun, er, fun with words. One of the best lines of the film is easily his scolding the dinnerware with, "Don't whine, glasses."
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| 4. The more the merrier. |
Forte's entire existence revolves around the fact that in his organ form, he feels useful to his master, Beast. He would do anything to keep it that way, even if that means keeping Beast and Belle from falling in love. Maybe if Forte branched out a little bit, he wouldn't have turned into a creepy villain organ with glowing green eyes.
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| 5. Stories are the best kind of magic. |
Belle has always been an avid reader, and that's also true in this film. Her song, "Stories," pulls viewers into a world of "mermaids, kings, and sunken treasure," reminding us that we can take inspiration and draw strength from the stories we read and travel to worlds that might otherwise have been beyond us.
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| 6. Don't mix bells with holly. |
Take Angelique's word for it: that's an amateur move. Also, be careful to find the right balance of holly and mistletoe; there is such a thing as too much. But take pride in your decorations—it's part of the fun of Christmas!
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| 7. Celebrate the magic of the season. |
Christmas is a time for hope and for believing in magic. Sometimes when everything seems to be going wrong, it's easy to forget that, or to focus on the bad times like Beast does. But take a page from Belle's book and stay hopeful, because believing in the magic of Christmas will help guide you and make the world a better place.
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| 11 Royal Facts You Might Not Know About Sleeping Beauty – Jim Fanning |
Released on January 29, 1959, Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty is celebrating 60 years of timeless characters, magnificent music of the classical kind, and dazzling animated artistry. One of the most elaborate animated features ever produced, this enchanting epic tells the spellbinding tale of a lovely princess cursed by an evil fairy to fall into a sleep that can only be broken by love's first kiss from a handsome prince. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of this treasured classic between 2018 and 2019, awaken to these 11 entrancing facts about this treasured Disney classic.
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| 1. Once Upon a Fairy Tale |
"From the time I started making motion pictures," Walt Disney once said, "I dreamed of bringing Sleeping Beauty to life through the medium of animation." Disney registered Sleeping Beauty as a planned production title on January 19, 1950, perhaps in anticipation of the success of Cinderella, which was to be released that February. Walt envisioned Sleeping Beauty, based on the 17th century version of the famous tale by Charles Perrault, as the ultimate in the art of Disney animation.
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| 2. Wondrous to See: The Art of Eyvind Earle |
Determined to make this new film a Disney animated feature like no other, Walt assigned stylist Eyvind Earle as production designer. Creating a stylized approach that was a radical departure from previous Disney animated features, Earle combined Gothic French, Italian, and pre-Renaissance influences with his own abstract style of realism to create the formalized elegance and stylish design seen in Sleeping Beauty. To create the sumptuously stylized panoramas for this widescreen spectacle, Earle painted dozens of backgrounds in his distinctive style, some of them 15 feet long. Animation artist Tom Oreb skillfully incorporated the strong horizontal and vertical planes of the backgrounds into the character design, so that they had the Earle flair.
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| 3. Hail to the Princess Aurora |
With the gift of beauty bestowed on her by the Good Fairies, it was essential that Princess Aurora be a truly lovely sleeping beauty. Animator and designer Marc Davis explained, "We had decided to do Sleeping Beauty as what Walt called a 'moving illustration' so ... we stylized the drawing of Briar Rose." The willowy delicacy of newly minted movie star Audrey Hepburn influenced the early Oreb designs of Briar Rose, Aurora's peasant persona during her stay in the woods. To further marry Briar Rose to her stylized settings, Oreb drew vertical lines into the folds of her peasant garb and graphically integrated two-dimensional swirls into Briar Rose's long golden hair.
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| 4. An Animator Fit for a Princess: Marc Davis |
The perfect choice to oversee Briar Rose, Marc Davis was the final word on animated princesses at Disney. "I didn't come to the Studio to do female characters," Davis recalled, "but because of my early work with Grim Natwick on [the character of] Snow White, I ended up doing several of them." Marc had been a directing animator for the character of Cinderella, so his was to be the guiding hand in infusing this new Disney with graciousness life. Walt explained that the animators "used living models more carefully than ever before, in order to give the artists inspiration, to help them shape the anatomy of movement and expression of the cartoon figures," but Davis was careful to point out that the live-action footage of Briar Rose was only for reference and was never traced.
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| 5. Every Frame a Work of Art |
Sequence director Eric Larson recalled the conscious effort to strive for Sleeping Beauty perfection. "Walt told me after one story meeting that he didn't care how long it took, but to do it right," he said. Walt challenged the more than 300 Sleeping Beauty artists and technicians to make each frame an independent work of art. Because of the intricate stylization of the characters, the assistant animators had to work carefully with exacting specifications, even down to the exact thickness of the pencil lines. In the case of the carefully designed Briar Rose, it took one full day to create one cleaned-up animation drawing. For the jewel-like colors selected by Eyvind Earle, the Disney Paint Lab developed new hues using additives that gave the pigments a glow on the screen unseen in any animated film that had come before.
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| 6. Is She Not Most Wondrous Fair? Mary Costa |
Although Briar Rose/Princess Aurora appears for fewer than 18 minutes in the film, her scenes are unforgettable, due in no small part to voice artist Mary Costa. Walt had been seeking the ideal ethereal voice for his newest princess for three years when Costa sang at a party in an impromptu performance. As a result, the young singer found herself auditioning for the part of Princess Aurora. Walt personally cast Costa, although she didn't actually meet the famed producer in person for two years. "He didn't want to be influenced by my facial expressions and movements, he only wanted to hear my voice," she explained. After voicing Aurora, Mary became an acclaimed opera singer, performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and at opera houses around the world. "But Sleeping Beauty is the thing I'm most proud of in my entire career,” she has said. “It's a beautiful film to be associated with, and I was thrilled to be able to do it."
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| 7. The Mistress of All Evil: Maleficent |
In an unusual design role, Davis not only was the directing animator of the royally beautiful Briar Rose, he was also the artistic force behind the epitome of evil, Maleficent. Inspired by a religious painting from a Czechoslovakian art book, Davis artistically experimented with flamelike shapes and patterns of triangular color (as seen here in Davis's concept art). Basing Maleficent's headdress on goat horns and the material framing her face on bat wings, the artist gave her flowing garment a reptilian quality, foreshadowing the dragon into which the Evil Fairy will later transform herself.
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| 8. Dream Prince: Prince Phillip |
"If there's anything that's really tough to animate, it's the male hero," admitted Walt. "It's hard to make him interesting and not have him come out looking like Dick Tracy and Buck Rogers." He instructed his artists to "make the characters as real as possible, near flesh-and-blood," and this was especially important for Prince Phillip, as he had such a large role to play. The masterful animation of Phillip resulted in a prince who is not only valiant but also likable with good-hearted humor. "That was done by Milt Kahl," noted Marc Davis of his fellow animator, acclaimed for expertly bringing to life difficult-to-animate human figures. "The expressions and things that work there—I've always been very pleased with that."
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| 9. Their Magic Can Only Be Used to Bring Happiness: The Three Good Fairies |
Knowing that the success of the story depended on Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather and their efforts to shield Aurora from Maleficent's curse, Walt appointed two "fairy godfathers" to the characters—Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—to bring the trio of good-hearted do-gooders to life. Thomas and Johnston studied old ladies at wedding receptions and shopping at grocery stores, while stylist Don DaGradi found the key to the characters' movements by observing that many older ladies wore their hats flat on top of their heads and toddled along briskly wherever they went. The result: three sparkling personalities who have been endearing themselves to audiences for six decades.
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| 10. The Gift of Song: The Music |
According to sequence director Woolie Reitherman, "Walt wanted to match the eloquence of the music with the same visual perfection"—and he found the ideal musical score in the Sleeping Beauty Ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1890. In order to adapt the exquisite Tchaikovsky melodies for use in the animated story, composer George Bruns searched through the ballet's score note by note for just the right themes for each scene in the film and for each of the songs. "It would have been much easier to write an original score," stated Bruns. "But it is rich in melody, as much of Tchaikovsky is, and it was a matter of choosing which melodies to use." Conducting the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, George Bruns recorded the enchanting music from September 8 through November 25, 1958, in Germany, where the best state-of-the-art six channel stereo equipment was available. The exquisite score was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Music (Scoring Musical Picture).
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| 11. I Just Love Happy Endings: Release |
Sleeping Beauty played only in carefully selected movie theatres specially equipped to project the film in widescreen Technirama 70 and six-track-stereo sound. It has since become one of the most artistically acclaimed features ever produced. "Sleeping Beauty is the most beautiful film we have ever made," said Walt in 1959. "It has been a definite challenge but thanks to our talented staff of artists and technicians, it has been met. They have now developed the process of animation to the point where it can truly be called 'the art of enlivened, moving painting.'"
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| Did You Know? Seven Swinging Facts About Disney's Tarzan – Jim Fanning |
One of the most iconic heroes ever created swung to dynamic new life when Tarzan was released on June 18, 1999. Disney's 37th animated feature brought the famed ape-man to life as never before through the art of Disney animation. Tarzan follows the extraordinary adventures of an orphaned infant raised by a family of gorillas who matures into a young man with the instincts of a jungle animal and the physical prowess of an athletic superstar. When he encounters humans in the form of a beautiful Englishwoman, her ape-expert father and a duplicitous hunter, he must determine who is his true family. To celebrate this Oscar®-winning film's 20th anniversary in 2019, here are seven tantalizing tidbits to tell us why Tarzan will always be in our hearts.
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| 1. Tarzan's creator envisioned his story as an animated feature |
With 47 previous movies, Tarzan is one of most filmed subjects in Hollywood history. By producing the first Tarzan animated feature, Disney realized a dream long held by Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote Tarzan of the Apes in 1912. As early as 1936, the author seriously considered animation as the medium that could more faithfully bring his hero to life on the screen. "The cartoon must be good," he wrote as he envisioned an animated ape-man. "It must approximate Disney excellence." Flash forward to 1995 when Disney artist Kevin Lima was invited to direct an animated Tarzan. A lifelong fan of gorillas, Lima read Burroughs' book and immediately saw how ideally the story was suited for animation. He enlisted fellow artist Chris Buck (who would go on to co-direct Frozen, 2013, and the forthcoming Frozen II) to direct the film with him. "When we first began looking at the book, we asked ourselves what do we want to say that's different from what other Tarzan movies have said," Lima said, explaining that he and Buck wanted to fully explore the jungle man's relationship to his adopted gorilla family.
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| 2. Tarzan is voiced by the grandson of Walt Disney's friend and colleague |
Vocalizing the central role of Tarzan, actor Tony Goldwyn is by coincidence the grandson of Walt Disney's (1901–1966) friend and fellow independent producer, legendary filmmaker Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974). Well-known today to TV audiences for his presidential performance on ABC's drama series Scandal, this heir to Hollywood royalty brought both dramatic skill and a sense of humor to the jungle adventurer. Goldwyn was especially motivated by the artists' concept art. "Once I began to see the final Tarzan [designs] and understand who he was, I found it extremely helpful to have that image in my head. Increasingly, I would see how he moved. To get a visual image of the character was extremely important and inspiring." At the same time, Goldwyn's vocalization inspired the animators. "Tony's voice has real depth," noted the character's supervising animator Glen Keane. "There's a lower register quality that has almost an animal sound to it. It really works well for the character." Ironically, it was Brian Blessed, the voice of the villainous hunter Clayton, and not Goldwyn, who performed the famous Tarzan yell.
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| 3. Glen Keane was inspired by extreme sports in animating Tarzan |
As Tarzan's supervising animator, Glen Keane worked with a group of 13 character animators at Disney Animation's Paris Studio. "The Tarzan described in Burroughs' book was incredible and nothing like the one I've seen in the Hollywood films," observed Keane, then a 24-year Disney veteran responsible for creating such characters as Ariel, the Beast and Aladdin. To shape the thrill-seeking persona of Tarzan, Keane drew inspiration from his own teenaged son and his love for skateboarding and other extreme sports. "Burroughs describes a Tarzan that is like a wild man, somebody that the adrenaline had to be pumping through, and I thought, he's an extreme sports guy. What if he's a tree surfer instead of swinging on the vines?" The directors were concern that Tarzan would be portrayed as a "surfer dude," but Keane revealed his test animation and the approach was approved. In the "Son of Man" sequence, renowned skateboarder Tony Hawk inspired Tarzan's movements. "When I saw the Disney film, it was such a thrill to finally see my grandfather's characters portrayed as he truly wrote and described them in his books," said Danton Burroughs. "He described these wonderful scenes where Tarzan would just leap and fly, grabbing branches wildly like in a tornado and Glen Keane has captured that movement in his scenes."
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| 4. Disney developed a new technology to help Tarzan swing through his animated jungle |
The filmmakers' desire to integrate the tree-surfing Tarzan into sweeping jungle backgrounds led to the development of a 3D painting and rendering technique known as Deep Canvas, a term coined by artist/engineer Eric Daniels. This technique allows artists to produce CGI backgrounds that look like traditional paintings, according to art director Daniel St. Pierre. Following Tarzan, Deep Canvas was utilized in such films as Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002). In 2003, Disney received an Academy Award for developing the Deep Canvas technology.
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| 5. The Tarzan Filmmakers Went on a Very Special Safari |
In March 1996, the Tarzan directors and a group of artistic supervisors embarked on an African safari. Touring the animal reserves in Kenya, visiting the mountain gorillas in Uganda, and observing Bwindi's "Impenetrable Forest" proved to be invaluable background for the filmmakers. So overwhelming and enveloping were such locales as the Bwandi Forest that the Disney artists conceived Tarzan's jungle as an all-encompassing environment, almost a character in itself. One of the trip's highlights occurred when the group visited the Sweetwater Chimp Sanctuary and park manager Vince Smith's five-year-old son, Oliver, played with a family of chimps that roamed freely on the property. "The trip to Africa was life-changing for those of us who went and a critical step in developing the film," Chris Buck recalled. "I don't think we could have made this movie if we hadn't gone. It gave us a tremendous appreciation for the beauty of the jungle and a sense of the special family relationships that exist among the gorillas."
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| 6. Minnie Driver "drove" the character development of Jane |
In defining Jane Porter, the Victorian lady who impresses Tarzan with her creativity and enthusiasm, the Disney artists were inspired by real-life jungle conservationists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, who both lived with and studied gorillas and chimpanzees. But it was the vocal performance of Minnie Driver, the English actor who is perhaps best known today for the ABC comedy Speechless, that truly inspired supervising animator Ken Duncan. "She would have a lot of exaggerated mouth shapes and her eyes would light up," says Duncan. "She was really expressive and we took that and put it into the design." The scene where Jane describes meeting Tarzan to her father was improvised by Driver, resulting in Duncan animating one of the longest animated scenes ever. The scene took seven weeks to animate and 73 feet of film.
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| 7. Phil Collins had to be convinced he was the music man to drum up the songs for Tarzan |
For the film's score, Lima and Buck decided to emphasize percussion as a way to distinguish their jungle-set film from the choral sound of The Lion King (1994). Feeling that the percussion-driven music of Phil Collins was a perfect fit, Lima, Buck and Disney executive music producer Chris Montan flew to Switzerland to persuade the reluctant Collins to sign on. The singer/songwriter/drummer was apprehensive about writing story-telling songs needed for a Disney musical. However, once the filmmakers assured him they wanted the "Collins touch," he agreed to try. Finding Burroughs' book a revelatory inspiration, Collins begin writing almost immediately and soon, he had composed "loads and loads of music" including three songs heard in the final film ("Son of Man," "Trashin' the Camp" and "Strangers Like Me"). "You'll Be in My Heart" was written during Christmas dinner at a neighbor's house, where the composer scribbled the chords and melody on a piece of wrapping paper. "You'll Be in My Heart" won the Academy Award for Best Song, while the Tarzan Original Soundtrack Recording was awarded a Grammy as Best Soundtrack Album.
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| 6 Enchanting Cinderella Facts Fit for Royalty – Jocelyn Buhlman |
Who among us hasn’t been enchanted by the timeless tale of Cinderella? One of Disney's most treasured animated classics, Cinderella will celebrate 70 lovely years in 2020. In honor of this milestone anniversary, the film is joining the Walt Disney Signature Collection, an assemblage of groundbreaking films, created or inspired by the imagination and legacy of Walt Disney (1901–1966) himself. You can have a ball in celebration of this special release right now.
We've rounded up six of the most fascinating facts we could find on Cinderella to share with you… and don't worry, they won't disappear at midnight!
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| 1. You know Jaq and Gus… but what about Mert and Bert? |
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| 2. There is no given name for Prince Charming. |
Cinderella has been declared "as lovely as her name," but what about the prince? While he may be named in published versions of the story, Cinderella's intrepid shoe-discoverer is only known as "Prince Charming" in the film, much as the prince in Snow White is only known as "The Prince."
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| 3. A sinisterly familiar voice |
Maleficent may be the "mistress of all evil" when it comes to villainy, but when it comes to being the mistress of evil voices, look to none other than Eleanor Audley (1905–1991). In Cinderella, she voices the cruel Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's wicked stepmother who forces her stepdaughter to act as a servant. Does Lady Tremaine's villainous voice sound familiar? Audley also provided Maleficent’s voice in 1959's Sleeping Beauty, and Disney Parks guests can hear her reciting incantations as Madam Leota in Haunted Mansion—although Leota's face is not Audley's, but instead that of the character's namesake, Imagineer Leota Thomas.
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| 4. The live-action Cinderella you've never seen |
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| 5. Marketing for the film referenced a "Disneyland" before the theme park was completed |
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| 6. Setting the stage for future Cinderellas |
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