The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921–1968

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Contents

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• Foreword: John Lasseter
• The Last Renaissance Workshop: In Search of the Disney Style – Daniel Kothenschulte
• A Kingdom in Kansas: Walt Disney's Laugh-O-grams – Russell Merritt
• From Alice to Mickey – Russell Merritt
• A Place of Wonder: Hyperion Studios 1926–1940 – Charles Solomon
• Walt's Arcadia: The Silly Symphonies – Daniel Kothenschulte
• The Fairest Film of All – Robin Allan
• The Coming of Age of a Medium – Daniel Kothenschulte
• See the Pictures! Hear the Music! – Daniel Kothenschulte
• The Lot of Dreams: Building the Burbank Studios 1939–1940 – Daniel Kothenschulte
• The Reluctant End of Disney's Golden Age – Didier Ghez
• When Ideas Grow Wings: Dumbo, the Unexpected Masterpiece – Daniel Kothenschulte
• The Nature Poem – J.B. Kaufman
• The Latin American Films – J.B. Kaufman
• A Package of Dreams and Fantasy – Robin Allan
• The Mickey and Bongo Feature – Katja Lüthge
• Time for Melody: A Reappraisal of Melody Time – Robin Allan
• An Animator's Laughing Place – Leonard Maltin
• Two Fabulous Characters – Brian Sibley
• The Fairy-Tale Magic of Walt Disney's Cinderella – Mindy Johnson
• In a World of Her Own – Brian Sibley
• Reimagining Never Land – Mindy Johnson
• Creating Enchantment: The Making of Lady and the Tramp – Andreas Platthaus
• Walt's Moving Tapestry: The Making and Style of Sleeping Beauty – Charles Solomon
• Spot On – Charles Solomon
• A Most Befuddling Thing – Brian Sibley
• Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect in Every Way – Brian Sibley
• Willy Nilly Silly Old Bear – Brian Sibley
• The Last Hurrah – Charles Solomon
• Appendix
• Endnotes
• Selected Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Credits
• Imprint

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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Made against enormous odds, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved revolutionary: cinema's first feature-length animated film with synchronized sound. Detractors had dismissed it as "Disney's folly," but, on its release, all criticism was swept aside and Snow White was acknowledged as a triumph of cinematic storytelling. Disney originally intended Alice in Wonderland to be his first full-length film, but the eventual choice of the Grimm fairy tale was perfect for Disney's feature debut: a universally known story with strongly defined characters that lent itself to a visual presentation of comedy, pathos, romance, and terror as powerful as that of any live-action film. Sophistication in animation, subtle use of color, and stunning visual effects elevated the cartoon into an art form and established a new future for Disney and his studio.
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World Premiere: December 21, 1937 (Los Angeles)
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 83 minutes
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Cast
Grumpy / Sleepy: Pinto Colvig
Snow White: Adriana Caselotti, Marge Champion
Yodeling: Jimmy MacDonald
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Crew
Supervising Director: David Hand
Sequence Directors: Bill Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen
Supervising Animators: Hamilton Luske, Bill Tytla, Fred Moore, Norm Ferguson
Art Directors: Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor
Character Designer: Joe Grant
Animators: Frank Thomas, Art Babbitt, Eric Larson, Milt Kahl, James Algar, Les Clark, Grim Natwick, Ward Kimball, Woolie Reitherman
Backgrounds: Claude Coats
Music: Frank Churchill, Paul J. Smith, Leigh Harline

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Pinocchio
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"Disney has deftly pulled the story together and made a tight dramatic structure out of the rambling sequence of events in the (Carlo) Collodi book. Pinocchio's wish to be a real boy remains the film's underlying theme, but "becoming a real boy' now signifies the wish to grow up, not the wish to be good. Our greatest fear is that he may not make his way safely through the minefields of his various adventures to get what, finally, he truly deserves…About two years were devoted to the production of Pinocchio, easily the best film the Disney studio ever created, as well as the most fearless and emotionally charged. Over 1 million drawings appear on the screen, and this does not include tens of thousands of preliminary drawings, story sketches, atmosphere sketches, layouts, character models and stage settings…The movie contains so many memorable episodes; for example, the one in which Jiminy and Pinocchio converse in bubbling speech as they move about the ocean floor, looking for Monstro the whale, and the swallowed Geppetto…Watching Pinocchio now, I am inevitably struck by a sense of regret—of loss. It would almost certainly be impossible to finance such an enterprise today. The movie has the golden glamour of a lost era; it is a monument to an age of craft and quality in America." — Maurice Sendak, Walt Disney's Triumph: The Art of Pinocchio
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World Premiere: February 7, 1940 (New York)
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 87 minutes
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Cast
Jiminy Cricket: Cliff Edwards
Pinocchio: Dickie Jones
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Crew
Music and Lyrics: Leigh Harline, Ned Washington
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Supervising Directors: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske
Sequence Directors: Norm Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson
Animation Directors: Fred Moore, Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Bill Tytla, Ward Kimball, Art Babbitt, Eric Larson, Woolie Reitherman
Story Adaption: Bill Cottrell from the story by Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini)
Music and Lyrics: Leigh Harline, Ned Washington, Paul J. Smith
Art Direction: Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor
Character Design: Joe Grant
Animators: Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Les Clark
Backgrounds: Claude Coats

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Bambi
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This film uses the medium of animation to chart the life of a deer in the woods. We meet Bambi as a newborn fawn, observe his first efforts to walk and explore the world around him, and share both his excitement and his heartbreak as he learns important lessons in life. In the end, he assumes the leadership role previously occupied by his father: the Great Prince of the Forest. More than five years in the making, Bambi represented an enormous technical challenge for the Disney artists. The animation of the deer, in particular, was based on extensive study of the anatomy and movement of real deer. These natural principles were combined with the studio's already high standard of character animation to produce a singularly convincing brand of visual fantasy.
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World Release: August 9, 1942 (London)
U.S. Release: August 13, 1942
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 69 minutes
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Cast
Adolescent and Adult Flower: Sterling Holloway
Bullfrog: Clarence Nash
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Crew
Supervising Director: David Hand
Story Development: Mel Shaw
Sequence Director: James Algar
Supervising Animators: Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson, Ollie Johnston
Animators: Marc Davis, Bill Justice, Retta Scott
Backgrounds: Tyrus Wong
Music: Frank Churchill
Orchestrations: Paul J. Smith

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Owl learns that the new prince is born.

Thumper and his family get a glimpse at the new prince of the forest.

There are curious creatures in the forest.

Bambi and his friends reconnect in the forest.

Flower scares easily.

Flower falls in love.

Sunset in the forest.

"Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime."

Thumper gives the best advice.

"He can call me a Flower if he wants to… I don't mind."

Bambi's childhood friend peeks out from behind the grass.

The Great Prince gets to know Bambi.

"Hiya, Bambi. Watch what I can do!"

Flower is hibernating in a warm cave.

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The Disney artists, inspired by their recent trip to South America, present both new and familiar characters in four fanciful cartoon segments set in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.
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World Premiere: August 24, 1942 (Rio de Janeiro)
U.S. Release: February 6, 1943
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.37:1, 42 minutes
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Voices
Donald Duck: Clarence Nash
Goofy: Pinto Colvig
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Crew
Production Supervisor: Norm Ferguson
Story: Roy Williams, Joe Grant
Story Research: Bill Cottrell
Art Supervision: Mary Blair, Herb Ryman, backgrounds for "El Gaucho Goofy" inspired by F. Molina Campos
Sequence Directors: Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson
Animators: Fred Moore, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Woolie Reitherman, Les Clark, Bill Justice, Bill Tytla, John Sibley
Backgrounds: Al Dempster, Claude Coats, Ken Anderson, Yale Gracey
Music: Paul J. Smith
"Saludos Amigos" Lyrics: Ned Washington

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Donald Duck, representing North America, Joe Carioca from Brazil, and Panchito the Mexican charro rooster join forces as the "three caballeros" in a colorful musical tour of South America and Mexico.
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World Premiere: December 21, 1944 (Mexico City)
U.S. Release: February 3, 1945
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.37:1, 71 minutes
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Voices
Donald Duck: Clarence Nash
Narrator (The Cold-Blooded Penguin): Sterling Holloway
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Crew
Production Supervision and Direction: Norm Ferguson
Story: Bill Peet, Roy Williams, Bill Cottrell
Sequence Direction: Clyde Geronimi
Animators: Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Fred Moore, John Lounsbery, Les Clark, Milt Kahl, Hal King, Frank Thomas, John Sibley, Bill Justice, Ollie Johnston
Backgrounds: Al Dempster, Claude Coats
Layout: Don DaGradi, Yale Gracey, Herb Ryman, John Hench
Art Supervision: Mary Blair, Ken Anderson
Art Direction: Richard Irvine
Process Effects: Ub Iwerks
Music Director: Paul J. Smith

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This film combines the adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' story of a circus bear's journey back to nature with a revision of the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk," starring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Bongo, tired of his life as a show bear, escapes from the circus, only to find that he can't climb a tree and the noises of the forest scare him. On his way back to civilization, he meets the girl bear Lulubelle, who sends out a confusing message by hitting him. Bongo doesn't know about the old custom: when bears are in love, they say it with a slap. And little does Mickey know about the magic beans for which he traded his cow. Soon Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find themselves climbing a beanstalk, just in time to liberate a singing harp from the evil giant, Willie.
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U.S. Release: September 27, 1947
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 73 minutes
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Voices
Donald Duck: Clarence Nash
Goofy: Pinto Colvig
Jiminy Cricket: Cliff Edwards
Mickey Mouse / Lumpjaw: Jimmy Macdonald
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Crew
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Cartoon Director: Hamilton Luske
Directing Animators: Ward Kimball, Les Clark, John Lounsbery, Fred Moore, Wolfgang Reitherman
Character Animators: Art Babbitt, John Sibley, Marc Davis, Hal King
Backgrounds: Claude Coats
Layout: Don DaGradi, Ken O'Connor, John Hench
Score: Paul J. Smith, Oliver Wallace
Process Effects: Ub Iwerks

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Melody Time, released in 1948, was the last, and arguably best, of the Disney animated features to be compiled from a series of short cartoons, prior to a return to single story features two years later with Cinderella, Like Make Mine Music, the film employed a number of popular entertainers to present the musical sequences, and while its disparate episodes lack any unifying element, there is strong storytelling with the tales of "Johnny Appleseed," "Little Toot" and "Pecos Bill." The film also features the pictorially delightful "Once Upon a Wintertime." the exquisitely animated "Trees," and, in "Bumble Boogie" and "Blame It on the Samba," two of the most outrageously imaginative and vibrantly exciting pieces of experimental animation featured in the Disney studio's output during the 1940s.
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U.S. Release: May 27, 1948
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 75 minutes
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Crew
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Story: Winston Hibler, Ken Anderson, Bill Cottrell, from the book Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky and the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer
Directing Animators: Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Les Clark
Character Animators: John Sibley, Hal King
Layout: Ken O'Connor, Don DaGradi
Color and Styling: Mary Blair, Claude Coats
Associate: Paul J. Smith
Special Process: Ub Iwerks

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Cinderella
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Orphaned by the death of her father and left to live with her cruel stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and two selfish stepsisters, Cinderella exists as their maid. Caretaker to her animal friends, her beauty and genuine heart shine through. At the royal palace, the king laments his lack of grandchildren. To encourage the prince to find a wife, invitations to a ball are sent to "every eligible maiden" in the land, but Lady Tremaine thwarts Cinderella's efforts to attend, ensuring that her own daughters have a chance with the prince.
Thanks to her animal friends and a Fairy Godmother, Cinderella arrives at the ball in the grandest gown imaginable—complete with glass slippers. Love at first sight captivates Prince Charming and Cinderella, who are lost in a mist of enchantment until the garden clock begins to chime. Cinderella must flee before the stroke of midnight, for the Fairy Godmother's magic was temporary. In her haste, she loses one of her glass slippers.
A proclamation is sent across the land announcing the prince will only marry the girl who fits the glass slipper. In an attempt to place her daughters at the palace, Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella away in her attic room. Cinderella's animal friends steal the key and free her in time to try on the slipper. The wicked stepmother causes the glass slipper to break, but when Cinderella produces the matching slipper, it's a perfect fit!
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U.S. Release: February 15, 1950
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.37:1, 74 minutes
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Cast
Cinderella: Ilene Woods
Jaq / Gus: Jimmy Macdonald
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Crew
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Directors: Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi
Directing Animators: Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Norm Ferguson, Marc Davis, John Lounsbery, Milt Kahl, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas
Story: Ken Anderson, Bill Peet, Winston Hibler, from the original classic by Charles Perrault
Character Animators: Hal King, Fred Moore
Layout: Ken O'Connor
Music Direction: Oliver Wallace, Paul J. Smith
Color and Styling: Claude Coats, Mary Blair, Don DaGradi, John Hench
Special Processes: Ub Iwerks

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Alice in Wonderland
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Walt Disney had a long-standing relationship with Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: it inspired the pioneering "Alice Comedies" that helped establish his career as an animator, and he originally planned to make the book the subject of his first animated feature. The studio made repeated attempts to get Alice into production, and several scripts and visual presentations were made across two decades. Among those who worked on such treatments were novelist Aldous Huxley and talented Hollywood art director David Hall. After various false starts, the film went into production as part of Disney's '50s renaissance. Despite a striking visual design by artist Mary Blair, brilliant comic animation, and a roll-call of celebrity voice talents, the film was initially a failure, but has gone on to become an animated classic.
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World Premiere: July 26, 1951 (London)
U.S. Release: July 28, 1951
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 75 minutes
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Cast
Alice: Kathryn Beaumont
Cheshire Cat: Sterling Holloway
Dormouse: James MacDonald
Flamingoes: Pinto Colvig
Mad Hatter: Ed Wynn
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Crew
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson
Directing Animators: Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Ollie Johnston, Wolfgang Reitherman, Marc Davis, Les Clark, Norm Ferguson
Story: Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Bill Cottrell, Joe Grant, Dick Huemer
Character Animators: Hal King, Bill Justice, Fred Moore
Effects Animation: Blaine Gibson
Special Processes: Ub Iwerks
Color and Styling: John Hench, Mary Blair, Claude Coats, Ken Anderson, Don DaGradi
Layout: Ken O'Connor
Musical Score: Oliver Wallace

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Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland: In a World of Her Own

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Alice was Walt Disney's (1901–1966) problem child. Alone among the four titular heroines who debuted during his lifetime, Alice in Wonderland had a long and troubled journey to the screen, and she proved the least popular when, in 1951 she eventually arrived.

And yet, the tale of the little girl who followed a White Rabbit into a realm of wonders had captivated Disney's imagination for over 40 years. "No story in English literature," he was once quoted as saying, "has intrigued me more…It fascinated me the first time I read it as a schoolboy." On another occasion he commented, "(A)s a kid, I got a big kick out of the characters."

Since the first publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, the curious characters and topsy-turvy happenings described by author Lewis Carroll and depicted by illustrator John Tenniel had become firmly embedded in public consciousness and popular culture. It was inevitable that people would interpret the story in different media: first on stage and as lantern slides and then, with the birth of cinema, on film.

The first cinematic explorations of Wonderland were all silent, beginning with a 10-minute British picture in 1903. This was followed by two American versions, in 1910 and 1915, either or both of which the young Disney might have seen, since his family was then living in Kansas City, where he occasionally saw films, such as the 1916 silent Snow White.

Alice formally figured in Disney's career for the first time when his struggling Laugh-O-gram Films cartoon studio masterminded the pioneering Alice's Wonderland, which sent a live-action girl (loosely inspired by Carroll's character) into a cartoon fantasy realm.

The film led to the Alice Comedies series that launched Disney's career and—despite various vicissitudes—resulted in the founding of the studio where, a mere five years later, a mouse named Mickey would take the world by storm.

Over the next few years, animation techniques were constantly refined and developed through the studio's Silly Symphony shorts as part of Disney's long-term ambition to make a feature-length animated film.

Writing in The New Yorker in 1931, Gilbert Seldes reported that the former producer of the Alice Comedies was "continually receiving requests to make the original Alice in his own medium." Indeed, animator Marc Davis (1913–2000) later recalled, "All these visiting ladies would say, 'Oh, Mr. Disney, when will you do Alice?'"

Disney may have used the Seldes interview to indicate his future intention of filming Wonderland; certainly, he was investigating the availability of rights to the book. The text was already in the public domain, but Tenniel's illustrations were set to remain in copyright until 1964. since they were seen as an integral part of the work, Disney acquired the rights to use them on film. Twenty years later, he would explain that it had proved technically impossible to preserve Tenniel's style because animation required the "cross-hatched etchings" to be "re-done in clean pen line and in the brilliant hues that Technicolor can produce." As it transpired, Disney's eventual interpretation would have the most far-reaching impact on public perception of Carroll's characters since Tenniel.

Whatever Disney's plans, they were preempted by the release of the first sound version of Alice in Wonderland in 1931. While it proved a lackluster production, the following year saw a feverish new interest in Alice sweep America when Lewis Carroll's original muse, Alice Liddell—now 80-year-old Mrs. Alice Hargreaves—was invited to New York to attend an exhibition marking the centenary of Lewis Carroll's birth and to receive an honorary doctorate from Columbia University.

If may have been this Wonderland mania that initiated discussions between Disney and "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford, about making a film in which she would star as a live-action Alice in a Disney-cartooned Wonderland. Pickford was more than just the Oscar-winning "girl with the curls"; she was a force in Hollywood's film industry as one of the cofounders of United Artists.

Pickford filmed costume tests in Technicolor, but before an agreement was reached, Paramount Pictures announced a new film version of Alice that would combine episodes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Carroll's characters were played by a roll call of Hollywood luminaries—among them Edward Everett Horton, Cary Grant, Edna May Oliver, W. C. Fields, and Gary Cooper—but, despite its star-studded lineup, the 1933 film was a box-office flop, mainly because the majority of the cast members were concealed behind ugly, cumbersome facial masks.

Although a failure, Paramount's movie temporarily halted Disney's ambitions. Abandoning Alice in Wonderland, he began working instead toward an alternative subject for his first feature-length production: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In compensation, perhaps, Disney released Thru the Mirror, a 1936 Mickey Mouse short cartoon, in which Mickey falls asleep while reading the second Alice novel and dreams that he climbs through his bedroom mirror into a Looking-Glass world of anthropomorphic furniture where he has to do battle with an army of animated playing cards.

When, the following year, Disney struck cinema gold with Snow White, he moved to a new, state-of-the-art studio and embarked on an ambitious schedule of animated feature films, among them Pinocchio, Bambi and Peter Pan. In an article for The New York Times in 1938, Douglas W. Churchill revealed yet another possible (and, by now, predictable) literary contender: "Disney has hopes some day of making Alice in Wonderland, but he must wait until the version made by Paramount is forgotten." Commenting on that movie, Disney told Churchill that Carroll's book "should never have been done in the realistic medium of the motion picture… but we regard it as a natural for our medium."

At a meeting about the project, colleagues Bill Cottrell (1906–1995) and T. Hee (1911–1988) advised the boss that it was not enough to make a film of a book simpIy "on the grounds that it is a literary classic. It would be, they said, dishonest to go along with those enthusiasts who, "without thinking of the investment of time, money, and creative energy, "argued, "a motion picture of Alice in Wonderland would be 'Simply wonderful!'"

Undeterred, Disney formally registered the title Alice in Wonderland with the Motion Picture Association, and preliminary work on the project began with the filmmaker setting unequivocal guidelines: "If you can use some of Carroll's phrases that are funny, use them. If they aren't funny, throw them out. There is a spirit behind Carroll's story, It's fantasy, imagination, screwball logic… but it must be funny. I mean funny to an American audience... They wouldn't laugh at a lot of English sayings that they've never heard or that don't mean anything to them."

"There was a magic that [Mary Blair's] stuff had that nobody else's had…It wasn't overworked…beautiful color, very appealing to the eye." — Marc Davis

Studio story man Al Perkins produced a 161-page "Analysis of the Book Alice in Wonderland" based on extensive research. For example, he suggested that potential comic business for the White Rabbit might come from the character's being given eyeglasses, something he does not have in Tenniel's illustrations. In justification, Perkins quoted an 1887 article by Lewis Carroll entitled "Alice on the Stage," in which the author commented, "I think the White Rabbit should wear spectacles."

Other, more radical, proposals included depicting the Cheshire Cat as a dream version of Alice's pet cat, Dinah, who would reappear in several new scenes to help give continuity to a basically episodic story. A further suggestion was that Alice should be permanently in pursuit of the White Rabbit, leading to Perkins proposal that the Rabbit should make an appearance at the Mad Tea Party and that it should be his watch (not the Hatter's) that is found to be "two days slow" and needing "repair"—a development that would survive the decade of rewrites that followed.

Concluding his analysis, Perkins wrote, "We are going to have to change it radically all the way through…and forget almost all of the Carroll stuff."

As was standard practice at the studio, the artists were encouraged to come up with sight gags for the various sequences, such as a scene, later abandoned, in which Alice visits the Duchess and her bellowing baby in the pepper-filled kitchen. The Duchess demands a bottle for the child and then uses its cork like a trumpeter's mute to control the level of screaming.

Disney was unimpressed by the addition of what he dismissed as "Donald Duck gags" and various attempts to update the original, such as changing the famous croquet game into a football match. "I think the book is funnier than the way you guys have got it," he told the artists, instructing them to "get in and study characters and personalities...where the real humor will come from."

One of the few ideas that caught Disney's imagination was that of making Alice's "Drink Me" bottle into an anthropomorphic, potbellied character to help in early scenes where she is alone and has to soliloquize. The Talking Bottle was vividly brought to life with the arrival, in June 1939, of a newcomer to the studio.

British-born Hollywood art director David Hall was engaged to create inspirational sketches at the studio and produced concept art for Peter Pan, Bambi, and, in abundance, Alice in Wonderland. Hall is believed to have begun his Hollywood career working on Cecil B. DeMille's silent epic The King of Kings, and subsequent credits included Dante's Inferno and Shirley Temple's Wee Willie Winkie, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction.

Hall's output on the Alice project was staggeringly prolific: he made over 400 drawings, many in color, within three months. Demonstrating an easy mastery of line, Hall's pictures combine skillful observation of human and animal form viewed from an eccentric, sometimes satiric, perspective that is part of a long tradition in British illustrative art. The Mad Tea Party, for instance, takes place in a curious garden with top hats growing on trees and a hedge made of eiderdown studded with real "eyes."

Additionally, there is a cinematic sensibility in many of Hall's pictures, such as those depicting Alice's tumble down the rabbit hole, in which she drifts through subterranean caverns filled with swirling bats and cascading waterfalls.

Hall's art was used to produce a "Leica reel a process in which sequences of pictures are filmed with a rostrum camera—as many as 16 drawings per foot of film—and accompanied by a recorded soundtrack of dialogue and effects in order to convey the shape and continuity of a finished film.

Speaking for the Talking Bottle on the provisional soundtrack was the popular vaudeville and cinema performer Cliff Edwards, who would later become known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Disney's Pinocchio.

When, in November 1939, the Leica reel was screened for Disney, it had a mixed reception: "There's certain things in there that I like very much, and there are other things that I think we ought to tear right out...I don't think there would be any harm in letting this thing sit for a while. Everyone is stale now. You'll look at it again and maybe have another idea on it. That's the way it works for me…"

At a meeting a few months earlier, someone had expressed the opinion that it could be "three years before this is out, to which Disney had responded, "You're an optimist!" And so it proved. The film went back to the drawing board and, in January 1940, David Hall left the Disney studio to continue a career in art direction that concluded with an Oscar-nominated contribution to the 1965 biblical epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.

"For the cartoon medium, the characters virtwally had to be born anew, since their behavior would have to be conveyed in movement, rather than with words." — Walt Disney

Despite the studio's ongoing commitment to Pinocchio, Bambi, and now an additional feature, Fantasia, intermittent discussions about Alice continued. At a meeting in April 1941, Disney returned to a much earlier approach, remarking, "I've been wondering if we could do this thing with a live-action girl…Trying to carry the story with a cartoon girl puts us in a hell of a spot."

A possible contender for that "live-action girl" was 15-year-old Gloria Jean, who had recently costarred with W. C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, but all plans for the project went on hold when, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America became embroiled in the Second World War.

Nevertheless, Disney continued to pursue Alice—as one colleague later put it, "He had a date with destiny"—and, a few years later, Ginger Rogers was the next, some what surprising, Alice when, in March 1944, the Walt Disney Studios invited her to make a recording of Carroll's book for the Decca Records Personality Series.

Although the resulting three-record set is a straight dramatization of the original text, with music by Frank Luther, the copyright credits Decca and "Walt Disney Productions," while the cover features Rogers in an Alice-style costume and Disney art of the Caterpillar on his mushroom.

It is unclear if there were longer-term intentions to Disney's involvement in the project, but the "Along the Rialto" column in The Film Daily speculated, "Is Walt Disney talking a deal with Ginger Rogers for her appearance in Alice in Wonderland?" adding, "Presumably, Ginger would have the only human role."

Exploring other avenues, the studio sought the views of writer and critic Joseph Wood Krutch, noted for his books on Poe and Thoreau and for his psychoanalytic analysis of the Alice stories. An approach was also made to novelist Robert L. Fontaine, author of the 1945 best seller The Happy Time, who responded with what he described as a "strictly off the cuff" treatment.

Addressing what Fontaine considered the biggest stumbling block in bringing the book to the screen—the aimless nature of the story and its lack of suspense—he argued, "nonsense dramatized needs some REASON."

The treatment involved an "almost romantic" plot, with Alice dreaming that the Knave of Hearts was, in fact, an enchanted prince imprisoned for stealing the Queen's tarts. She sets out to find and rescue him, and the various nonsensical encounters in the book are then presented as stratagems by the Queen of Hearts "to befuddle, confuse, frighten and delay Alice."

At the eventual trial, Alice confronts the characters, who all turn back into cards, with the exception of the Knave, who is briefly transformed into a real, shining prince," telling his rescuer, "I'd rather have your heart than all the tarts in the world."

"We decided that…Alice's curiosity was the only possible prime mover for our story and generator of the necessary suspense." — Walt Disney

Next to take a crack at Alice was Aldous Huxley, the English author of the dystopian classic Brave New World, who had earlier contributed to Hollywood versions of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Adding to these credentials was the fact that when his mother, Julia Arnold, was a child she had been photographed by Lewis Carroll.

Disney story man Dick Huemer reflected that engaging Huxley "seemed to be a good gesture: to have one of the great living English writers do the great English classic."

By 1945, when Huxley was contracted to be paid $7,500 to write a treatment for Alice, Disney was, once again, thinking in terms of a mostly live-action film, the recently released The Three Caballeros having demonstrated the studio's capability to sustain such an approach—with the added potential for animated sequences. Song of the South was currently in post-production, and one of its young stars, eight-year-old Luana Patten (1938–1996), was now being mooted as the latest Alice.

Huxley's treatment, entitled "Alice and the Mysterious Mr. Carroll," was delivered in November 1945 and was so complex that, in the words of veteran Disney story man Joe Grant, it "only compounded the confusion!"

"I learned a big lesson [animating the Cheshire Cat]. Actions that are supposed to be violently crazy are sometimes not as mad as more subtle, underplayed treatments." — Ward Kimball

Ostensibly based on events in the life of the pseudonymous Lewis Carroll and his real identity—Oxford mathematics don Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—Huxley's script is unadulterated flimflam. The convoluted plot features the chancellor of Oxford University and assorted dons, Alice (and her bullying harridan of a governess), and Carroll's friend the Victorian actress Ellen Terry.

The drawn-out live-action drama is punctuated with animated sequences cued when Miss Terry explains to Alice that the purpose of theater is to "take people out of Dull Land and Worry Land and carry them into Wonderland." This wildly preposterous fantasy finally concludes with a deus ex machina arrival by Queen Victoria.

Huxley's treatment and a draft script were discussed at a series of story meetings, although, according to Dick Huemer, every time the author started saying anything, "he never got anywhere because Walt did all the talking and had all the ideas."

Huxley did manage to propose Fanny Brice for the role of Ellen Terry (opposite Disney suggestion of Cary Grant as Dodgson and Carroll), but the novelist was mostly reduced to the occasional non sequitur, as depicted in a contemporary cartoon by Joe Grant of Huxley confounding Disney and his colleagues by suddenly singing "Here the conquering rabbit comes!" to the tune of a chorus in Handel's Judas Maccabaeus.

Despite the investment of time and money, Aldous Huxley's script was just another version of Alice that was not to be. In the words of Dick Huemer: "Huxley contributed not one thing to our Alice in Wonderland."

The next, and final, script was the work of the studio's team of 13 credited writers, who began by eliminating several episodes from earlier drafts. As Disney explained in an article attributed to him in Films in Review, "Some (characters) were pretty callous and several were depressingly lugubrious. The child that turns to a pig in Alice's arms was revolting…the sad and weepy Mock Turtle and Gryphon were without other compensating interest."

However, the script retained many suggestions from the earlier Al Perkins-David Hall interpretation, including new scenes for the Cheshire Cat to help drive the plot and the addition of Alice's motive for following the White Rabbit: "Because I'm curious to know where he's going." While the Talking Bottle did not survive, it inspired, instead, an alternative character: a Talking Doorknob with a memorable line in punning dialogue: "You did give me quite a turn... Rather good, what? Doorknob? Turn? Well one good turn deserves another…"

The story's episodic format led to the film's having 10 directing animators: all of Disney's "Nine Old Men" (Les Clark (1907–1979), Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston (1912–2008), Milt Kahl (1909–1987), Ward Kimball (1914–2002), Eric Larson (1905–1988), John Lounsbery (1911–1976), Wolfgang Reitherman (1909–1985), and Frank Thomas (1912–2004)) plus veteran Pluto animator Norm Ferguson (1902–1957). The opportunity offered by Carroll's larger-than-life characters, and various ambitions and rivalries within the group, encouraged the artists in outdoing one another for screwball inventiveness. The result: a film with what Disney later described as "the tempo of a three-ring circus."

Ward Kimball preferred to describe Alice as having "turned out to be a vaudeville show and he was, arguably, chiefly responsible for that being the case, with his frenetic, showstopping "turns." Scarcely 13 minutes into the picture, Kimball is let loose with his manic, bouncing-ball characterizations of Tweedledee and Tweedledum and their music-hall recitation of "The Story of the Curious Oysters." Half an hour later, Kimball virtually brings the film to a standstill with the raucous knockabout clowning at the Mad Tea Party, a hysterically paced sequence that feels as if a Disney feature had suddenly collided with a vintage Warner Bros, short.

The film's breathless pace (each scene treading on the heels of the last) and the imbalance between character and plot were further heightened by a cast of voices strongly associated with the broad humor of vaudeville, burlesque, and 1940s radio and film comedy.

Speaking for the didactic Caterpillar with his hieroglyphs of colored hookah smoke was Richard Haydn (1905–1985), who was well known for his revue act as the nasal "fish impressionist" Edwin Carp; another crazy Kimball character—the pink-and-lilac-striped Cheshire Cat, who is, quite often, "not all there"—had the high-pitched voice of Sterling Holloway (1905–1992), whose numerous film roles included the Frog Footman in the Paramount Alice and several Disney voices. Presiding over a table of musical teapots was the madcap duo of legendary vaudevillian and radio comic Ed Wynn (1886–1966) as the Mad Hatter and Bob Hope's mustachioed sidekick Jerry Colonna (1904–1986) as the March Hare.

Supporting players included radio stalwarts Verna Felton (1890–1966), as the apoplectic Queen of Hearts, and Bill Thompson (1913–1971), double-cast as the dithering White Rabbit and the nautical Dodo. A touch of British humor was added by Lancashire-born J. Pat O'Malley (1904–1985), who provided all the voices for the sequence featuring the Tweedle twins and the Walrus and the Carpenter, delivered in the inimitable style of fellow Lancastrian George Formby.

Determined to have an English actress in the title role, Disney cast Kathryn Beaumont, a youngster spotted in MGM's 1948 Esther Williams movie On an Island with You.

Beaumont played Penelope Peabody, an aspiring child actor who auditions for filmmaker Jimmy Buckley (played by Jimmy Durante), only to be rejected as being "too British." Turning to her grandmother, Penelope asks, in impeccable English, "How can one possibly be too British?"

Beaumont's accent certainly was not too British for Walt Disney, and her crisply enunciated dialoque cuts cleanly through the often frenzied banter of the assorted comics and character actors.

"Alice...is a rosy-cheeked, ruby lipped darling.. the music is tuneful and sugary... Watching this picture is something like nibbling those wafers that Alice eats." — Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, 1951

In addition to recording the dialogue, Beaumont—along with Wynn, Colonna, Holloway, and Haydn—filmed live-action sequences to provide the artists with reference footage for their animation. Indeed, many of the Hatter's wackiest lines were the inspired ad libs of a seasoned comic, such as his response to the March Hare's suggestion that mustard might help fix the White Rabbit's watch: "Mustard?! Don't let's be silly!!—Lemon, that's different…"

The live-action filming involved many complex mock-ups, such as having Kathryn Beaumont suspended in a parachute-shaped dress to simulate the fall down the rabbit hole or wedged inside a framework house to replicate the scene where the giant Alice is trapped in the White Rabbit's cottage.

Despite the film's many disparate elements, there were three vital unifying factors: Beaumont's strong vocal portrayal, Marc Davis' superb but unshowy animation of Alice, and the preparatory work of concept artist Mary Blair (1911–1978), who had previously styled Cinderella and contributed to the revolutionary look of Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, and Melody Time.

"The March of the Cards,' derived from dozens of (Mary] Blair's small paintings, is as visually exciting as anything in the Disney canon." — John Canemaker

Blair's art was refreshingly modern: an impressionistic response that defined characters with bold shapes and blocks of primary color set against backgrounds using a palette of often startling contrasts, such as green and purple or red and gray. The gardens, woods, and seashores of Blair's Wonderland lack the naturalism of earlier features. Instead, responding to Carroll's concept of Wonderland as being "under ground," Blair's depiction—largely carried through to the film—takes the form of a darkened stage set dotted with stylized cutout scenery and spotlit with pools of intense illumination.

The film's style is prefigured in the title cards by Blair's colleague John Hench (1908–2004), who combined pen-and-ink sketches and vibrant color washes in place of the conventional "opening storybook" featured in several films from Snow White to Cinderella.

Hench had worked closely with Salvador Dalí in 1946 on the aborted Disney film Destino, and there is a strong surrealist inspiration to the styling of the climactic chase sequence with its surreal imagery and running figures in a landscape of lengthening shadows that recalls Dali's work for Hitchcock's Spellbound.

The film was quite advanced when a key episode was dropped from the storyboards. The Tulgey Wood sequence originally featured Alice encountering the Jabberwock, a zany creature with fiery eyes and a chimney for a nose who was to have been voiced by comedy recording artist Stan Freberg (1926–2015).

All that survived into the film were some of the curious creatures and the opening verse of Carroll's poem in the form of the Cheshire Cat's "'Twas Brillig song, which replaced an earlier number entitled, "I'm Odd." Inexplicably, an image of the Jabberwock found its way into a booklet accompanying a record version of the story, and pre-release publicity persisted in crediting Freberg as the voice of the now deleted creature. Original sketches by Tom Oreb for this lost sequence were later published in the 1993 picture book Jabberwocky.

Disney heavily promoted the still-to-be-completed movie, beginning with a TV special, One Hour in Wonderland, sponsored by Coca-Cola and broadcast on NBC on Christmas Day, 1950. Disney acted as host, with Kathryn Beaumont (in Alice costume), Bobby Driscoll (star of Song of the South and the upcoming Peter Pan), and guests Edgar Bergen (1903–1978) and his famous ventriloquial dolls Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Among the featured film clips was a preview of the tea-party scene from Alice.

The program grabbed a 90 percent viewing figure, and industry commentators noted Disney's prescience in using TV to promote his forthcoming film—a tactic that, within a few years, he would be employing weekly to publicize not just his movies, but also his latest venture, Disneyland.

Further TV promotion followed in March 1951, when Kathryn Beaumont and Sterling Holloway appeared on The Fred Waring Show to join Waring's Pennsylvanians, in costumes and settings designed by Mary Blair, to premiere the music from the film, including the orchestrally dynamic and visually arresting "March of the Cards."

Some 30 songs were written for the film, and of the 19 that made it into the eventual score (more than in any other Disney film), several are heard for only a few seconds. Others—notably "I'm Late," "The Unbirthday Song," "In a World of My Own," and Sammy Fain's title number—quickly became popular standard, while Oliver Wallace (1887–1963) would receive an Oscar nomination for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

After some 50,000 man-hours and some 70,000 drawings, Alice in Wonderland ("The all-cartoon Musical Wonderfilm!") was finally completed.

To boost publicity, as the studio had done with the hard-to-sell compilation movies of the 1940s, the star voice talents of Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, and Jerry Colonna received—along with Kathryn Beaumont—billing on the film's posters. It was something that would not happen again until the release of The Jungle Book in 1967.

In July 1951, Disney and Beaumont attended the world premiere in London and recorded a special dramatized telling of the story for the BBC. Alice had been a long time coming, but was it, as one poster claimed, "Worth its wait in wonders"?

The critical response in Britain was less than favorable—not helped by the misspelling of the author's name as "Lewis Carrol" on the title cards.

When, years earlier, Disney was warned that English devotees might object to the film, he had retorted, "To hell with the English audiences or the people who love Carroll. Now he received a savage drubbing from those very same English devotees, many of whom knew the book's quotable passages by heart and were shocked by what they saw as a vulgar Americanization of Alice.

"(Disney's) idea, declared the New Statesman, "is all chocolate-box and music-hall; and anything more remote from the original—indeed idiotically at odds with it—would be very hard to imagine. From the choicest fruits has issued the most nondescript jam…This million-pound ineptitude deserves nothing but boos."

The American critics were no less harsh. Life magazine objected to Disney's "leering loony faces," and The New Yorker protested about "the introduction of shiny little tunes, and touches more suited to a flea circus than to a major imaginative effort."

To add to Disney's chagrin, another film version of Alice preempted his American release by several days. Produced by French filmmaker Lou Bunin, it featured actress Carol Marsh as Alice interacting with a cast of grotesque marionettes and was preceded by an absurd live-action prologue—with similarities to Aldous Huxley's script for Disney—in which Lewis Carroll meets Queen Victoria.

Disney had already prevented Bunin from using Technicolor—resulting in the film's being shot in the highly inferior Ansco Color process—now he sought an injunction to delay the distribution of Bunin's version for 18 months, arguing that two films with the same title would confuse the public. Disney lost the case, with the presiding judge ruling that "competition should be encouraged rather than suppressed," Bunin's film was released first, but fared poorly with the critics, The New York Times referring to its puppets as "ugly and lifeless" and the whole production as a "hodgepodge" and a "nightmare."

Despite costing almost $4 million, Disney's Alice in Wonderland earned only an estimated $2.4 million on its first U.S. release and within three years was relegated to an edited screening on the Disneyland TV show.

Faced with the film's failure, Disney turned his back on Alice. "We had a classic we couldn't tamper with," he said. "I resolved never to do another one. The picture was filled with weird characters you couldn't get with. Even Alice wasn't very sympathetic. I wanted to make the White Knight a romantic figure and have him always popping up through the story saying, "What, ho!" Alice could have tried to help him out. But I was talked out of it."

In The Story of Walt Disney, we read that Disney "had been dubious about Alice" and that this uncertainty was due to his inability to laugh at intellectual humor—preferring stories that "hit him over the heart." The book quotes Disney directly as saying, "I don't think that anything "without heart' is good or will last. To me humor involves both laughter and tears."

"I always liked the Tenniel illustrations in Alice but I never exactly died laughing over the story. It's terribly tough to transfer whimsy to the screen..." — Walt Disney

The truth, however, was that, despite being "dubious," Disney had spent almost 20 years determined to make the film. "He had that vision," said Joe Grant, "and he was going to complete it. Once he had an idea to do something, even if he found all kinds of obstacles in his way, he did it."39 And, having done so, never made another film like it again.

Writing in the company's 1951 Annual Report, Disney acknowledged the film's failure (reflected in a drop in profits of more than $270,000) but noted that Alice was "a classic property which should be a valuable asset to the company indefinitely."

Even he might have been surprised by the film's finding a new cult status 20 years later, when the studio—inspired by its earlier psychedelic re-release of Fantasia—created a campaign aimed at the student culture, with "trippy posters featuring the White Rabbit trumpeting, "'Tis Brillig!" and such comic advertising copy as, "Nine out of ten leading dormice recommend Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland for visual euphoria and good clean nonsense."

The film is memorialized by attractions at Disneyland and the company's other parks Disney fleetingly returned to Carroll's writing in the 1959 educational short Donald in Mathmagic Land in which the irascible Duck is transformed into Alice to learn about chess from the Red Queen.

Few would argue that the film is without flaw: its pace is often too frantic, its pitch frequently too loud, and it lacks that elusive quality identified by Carroll biographer Florence Becker Lennon as "the calm transference of the preposterous and magical into the everyday."

Nevertheless, 60 years on, it has grown in stature and come to be accepted and admired as a unique work of visual exuberance, unrivaled graphic brillance, and extraordinary ingenuity.

Despite its problematic past, Disney's Alice is now also widely—and deservedly—regarded as the most satisfying of the many film versions of Lewis Carroll's book.

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Peter Pan
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On the brink of adulthood with her final night in the nursery, Wendy Darling discovers Peter Pan and his tiny fairy companion Tinker Bell searching to recover Peter's shadow. Enraptured by the tales of Peter's adventures, Wendy and her brothers Michael and John are whisked away from their London home, flying past the "second star to the right and straight on 'til morning" to Never Land.
Extraordinary wonders await the Darling children within Peter's enchanted home without grown-up rules. Mermaid lagoons, Indians, Lost Boys, and even a band of black-hearted pirates led by the villainous Captain Hook, populate Never Land. Swords clash when Peter and Hook face off for one final battle, but with the help of Wendy and the boys, a defeat of the pirates and a safe return home is assured.
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U.S. Release: February 5, 1953
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.37:1, 77 minutes
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Cast
Tinker Bell's Jingling: Jimmy MacDonald
Wendy Darling: Kathryn Beaumont
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Crew
Directors: Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Directing Animators: Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Wolfgang Reitherman, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, John Lounsbery, Les Clark, Norm Ferguson
Story: Bill Peet, Winston Hibler, Bill Cottrell, from the play by Sir James M. Barrie
Color and Styling: Mary Blair, Claude Coats, John Hench, Don DaGradi
Backgrounds: Al Dempster, Eyvind Earle
Layout: Ken O'Connor, Ken Anderson
Character Animators: Fred Moore, Bill Justice
Effects Animation: Blaine Gibson
Special Processes: Ub Iwerks
Musical Score: Oliver Wallace
Songs by: Oliver Wallace, Frank Churchill, Winston Hibler

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Walt Disney's Peter Pan: Reimagining Never Land

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"All children, except one, grow up." James Matthew Barrie's famous opening line continues to introduce generations to one of the most renowned theatrical and literary characters of the 20th century, Peter Pan. The mythical boy who never grew up first appeared to audiences on December 27, 1904, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, and quickly be came an overnight sensation.

Derived from the many afternoons Barrie spent pretending to be swashbuckling pirates, brave Indians, and spiteful fairies with the young Llewelyn Davies boys in Kensington Gardens, Peter Pan evolved over many years into an enchanted stage production that took the world by storm. As with all great adventure stories, the magic of Peter Pan lies within the fantastic journey that unfolds. Generations of theatergoers fell in love with their two hours in Never Land, where "all the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust," and they could return to their childhoods, think happy thoughts, fly off past the second star to the right, and profess, once more, their belief in fairies.

Even as the author of Peter Pan's adventures, Barrie himself marveled at the journey he embarked on, as he noted in his dedication to the Llewelyn Davies boys 25 years after the play's debut: "Perhaps we do change; except a little something in us which is no larger than a mote in the eye, and that, like it, dances in front of us beguiling us all our days." Finally quantifying the illusive magic of Peter Pan, Barrie stated, "That is all he is, the spark I got from you." That spark, set within the imagination of a master storyteller, changed and evolved over the course of many years to become a true masterpiece of make-believe, fantasy, and adventure.

Throughout countless permutations, Barrie worked and reworked his fairy pantomime—adding and eliminating characters, rewriting scenes, creating props—to achieve the right balance of imagination, magic, and adventure. Some changes derived from amusement while others were born of necessity. Initially, all that was required to achieve flight with Peter Pan was to "think happy thoughts." But in a later draft of his play, Barrie supplemented the story with a key element, thereby providing a magical solution to a perplexing problem. In a letter to his friend and secretary Cynthia Asquith, Barrie wrote, "After the first production I had to add something to the play at the request of parents. about no one being able to fly until the fairy dust had been blown on him—so many children having gone home and tried it from their beds and needed surgical attention."

In 1906, the adventure continued when Barrie expanded his narrative of Peter's world into book form with Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Continuing to explore the realms of Never Land, in 1911 Barrie crafted a novelization of his stage production entitled Peter and Wendy, which quickly became a standard storybook within every household. These reexamined adventures of the boy who wouldn't grow up continued to captivate imaginations, including that of a young boy growing up in Missouri.

"Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small… they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time." — J.M. Barrie

The world of make-believe has always delighted and absorbed me, ever since I was a little boy," Walt Disney (1901–1966) once wrote. In 1913, when the American touring company of Peter Pan traveled through Marceline, the promise of adventure quickly sparked the imagination of young Walt Disney. "It took most of the contents of two toy saving banks to buy our tickets, but my brother Roy and I didn't care," Disney noted in a studio release. "For two hours, we lived in Never Land with Peter and his friends. I took many memories away from the theater with me, but the most thrilling of all was the vision of Peter flying through the air." Shortly after their theater experience. young Walt's vision became reality as he "flew" to Never Land by portraying Peter Pan in his school play. As Disney declared, "No one ever identified himself with the part he was playing more than I." Sparked by his own firsthand experiences in Never Land, stories of magic, adventure, and make-believe later became consistent themes throughout Walt Disney's extraordinary career as an animation storyteller. But, just as J.M. Barrie experienced, the illusive magic of Peter Pan required many years of adjustments, changes, and growth before Walt Disney's telling came to fruition.

Nearly a decade later, as a burgeoning cartoon impresario in 1924, Walt Disney saw Herbert Brenon's silent film version of Peter Pan in a local movie theater in Hollywood. A cinematic triumph for its day, Brenon's interpretation featured state-of-the-art visual effects as well as a real live Tinker Bell. But rather than explore the potential for expanded fantasy within Barrie's dream child, Brenon's take adhered to many of the conventions of the original stage production—a frustration that Barrie railed against while writing to Cynthia Asquith: "I saw the Peter Pan piece of film today with all the cuts I had made in it carried out and I thought decidedly more favorably of it, but so far it is only repeating what is done on the stage, and the only reason for a film should be that it does the things the stage can't do."

Ten years passed and Walt Disney was now a successful storyteller whose animated shorts were a worldwide phenomenon. While traveling in Europe with Lillian, Roy, and Edna in 1935, Walt Disney purchased hundreds of books. This treasure trove of literary and artistic sources marked the beginning of the Disney studio's research library, which provided stories, visual references, and inspiration to Disney artists for future animated productions. Most notably included within the bulky crates that arrived at Walt Disney Studios were multiple copies of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

The 1937 success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs assured financial stability for the young animation storyteller, and Disney quickly placed a number of possible story concepts into development. "Of all the characters in the fairy tales…next to Snow White, I cared most for Peter Pan," Disney noted. Initially intending for Peter Pan to be his second full-length feature, he recalled, "When I began producing cartoons, Peter Pan was high on my list of subjects." Walt began exploring the elusive story rights as early as 1935, but it would be another 10 years before Walt could begin to shape his vision of Never Land.

"All of the characters in Peter Pan are in some way touched with magic...they exist only in the land of fable and can be brought to life in pictures only through the arts of animation." — Walt Disney

Though these two master storytellers never met, Walt Disney keenly understood why Barrie's Peter Pan was such a satisfying story experience for children and adults alike:

"All of the characters in Peter Pan are in some way touched with magic, even the villainous Captain Hook and the clownish Smee. The little fairy Tinker Bell glows like a firefly and leaves a trail of pixie dust be hind her as she flits about with the speed of a hummingbird. No crocodile that ever prowled a riverbank would even nod to the grotesque reptile that terrifies Hook. The Indians in their camp, the Lost Boys—who don't even know what a mother is—beloved Wendy and her brothers—all are creatures of enchantment. They exist only in the land of fable and can be brought to life in pictures only through the arts of animation."

Just like J.M. Barrie, Walt Disney knew that his telling of Peter Pan could not be rushed. It would require the time it needed to be imagined. "Peter Pan is a work of sheer magic, Disney wrote, "and you do not create magic to order." Mindful of the importance of the story of Peter Pan's adventures to multiple generations, Disney noted, "We had, somehow, to recreate the essence of make-believe, and do it in such a way that millions of people who have known and loved Barrie's play since it was first performed in 1904, would recognize it and approve of what we had done." Yet more important to Walt was that his telling of Peter Pan would adhere faithfully to the intent, spirit, and story line of the original author, J.M. Barrie: "We had to get into the mind of the man who wrote it, as well as the entertainment elements of the creation itself. We had to get at Barrie's motivation, for no distinguished story teller ever has more closely identified himself with his works than this Scottish-born, British-knighted novelist, poet, playwright."

"The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it once before." — J.M. Barrie

It took Barrie nearly a quarter of a century to achieve the right balance of magic and adventure before finally committing his stage production to a printed form. It was evident to Disney that even while writing his fairy pantomime, Barrie felt the limited range of the theater: "I really believe that if Barrie were alive today, he would write his fantastic adventure in the Never Land directly for the screen. Despite his canny stagecraft, the theater never quite satisfied him. He kept on groping for and devising new effects behind the footlights as long as he was associated with the staging."

Animation was the perfect medium, Disney declared: "There is no miracle the mind can conceive that the cartoon animation technique cannot create." Unlimited freedoms beyond the stage could now be granted to Barrie's characters—Peter could fly through the air without pulleys and rope; Tinker Bell could become a fully embodied pixie; her pixie dust could induce potent magic wherever it was cast, and the ever-doting Nana could truly be a dog while believably retaining her unique anthropomorphic tendencies. Disney recognized the integral link between fantasy and animation, noting, "We had one great advantage over the author... We could define Never Land…very much as we pleased. The camp of the Indians, the pool of the mermaids, the trails of the Lost Boys, the lagoon of the pirates' ship, the cave and Skull Island and all the mysterious landmarks of Barrie's fanciful geography—all could be established with our own imaginations."

Dorothy Ann Blank, the woman who developed the classic fairy-tale story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for Walt's animated telling, did the earliest story research for Disney's adaptation of Barrie's Peter Pan. She analyzed characters, studied scenario options, and explored the feasibility of various elements in translating Barrie's classic stage production and novelizations of Peter Pan into an animated feature film. Blank worked extensively to unlock the essence of Barrie's timeless story. From Barrie's own stage directions, play notations, and personal scribblings throughout rehearsals, the desired insights into their author's vision for his production emerged. As Walt Disney noted, "We found the key to our approach in the words of Barrie himself, 'Nothing of importance ever happens to us after we reach the age of twelve. And he also once wrote the heartfelt plea, 'Oh, that we might be boys and girls all our lives.'"

Just as Barrie spent years reimagining his Never Land, so too did Walt Disney as he set his various story teams off in different directions to explore various possibilities. The talents of Joe Grant (1908–2005), Bill Cottrell (1906–1995), Bianca Majolie, James Bodrero, Earl Hurd, John Parr Miller, Fred Moore (1911–1952), and several others were directed to conceptualize a number of story ideas within Peter Pan's adventures. Preliminary versions included Nana traveling along with the Darling children "past the second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." Another approach sought to have Nana provide a voice-over interpretation of her adventures accompanying the children with Peter Pan. Other ideas explored opening the film in Never Land and establishing Tinker Bell's jealousy of Peter with the mermaids. The studio writers also examined the idea of having Wendy bring her copy of the story of Peter Pan along with her to help them understand their adventures. When the book falls into the hands of the pirates, Hook and his band of pirates almost discover the location of Peter's hideout, but through a series of mishaps, the key page containing the location ends up as lunch for the crocodile. This clever story-within-a-story approach offered a number of exciting possibilities, but was later discarded.

"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it." — J.M. Barrie

In an early draft exploring story ideas within Never Land, Peter, Wendy, Michael, and John discover the pirates' hidden treasure within the foreboding confines of Skull Rock. In an early draft exploring story ideas within Never Land, Peter, Wendy, Michael, and John discover the pirates' hidden treasure within the foreboding confines of Skull Rock. The concept pieces drafted to outline these various directions convey a darker and more sinister approach to the characters and the world of Never Land. As the story teams explored even more dramatic elements, they countered with levity provided by a mischievous band of fairies serving Wendy and the Lost Boys a feast, but this idea was later abandoned. Based on the events within a May 1939 treatment, one concept was to start with the birth of Peter Pan on Bird Island. Attempting to provide an early explanation of how Peter came to be, this approach was deleted a few weeks later when Walt decided to remain true to Barrie's telling and begin in the Darling nursery.

With the film rights finally obtained in 1939, early conceptualizations of Peter Pan's epic adventures continued as story artists started to storyboard their interpretations of J.M. Barrie's fairy play. In the spring of that same year, David Hall, a young art director from the world of live-action cinema, arrived at the Walt Disney Studios. He would spend just over a year applying his distinctive artistic talents to the world of animation.

Born in 1905 to naturalized American citizens and raised in Ireland, David Hall displayed a distinctive artistic talent as a young boy. Making his way to Hollywood in the early 1920s, young Hall continued his art studies in Los Angeles and found side work as a magazine illustrator. Hall quickly established himself as an accomplished art director and production designer in the burgeoning film industry. In the spring of 1939, Hall began working at Walt Disney Studios to apply his talents to the world of animation. In his brief tenure, Hall's affirmed sense of staging and narrative detail was applied to development on several Disney projects.

After extensively exploring early concepts for Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland, David Hall turned his sights to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan adventures. Under Hall's interpretations, the story's characters came to life with a European influence reminiscent of the Arthur Rackham illustrations that Barrie commissioned for the lavish first edition of the initial novelization of his Never Land character, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Hall was a prolific artist, and his masterful Peter Pan illustrations instantly evoke a fairy-tale world. In his interpretations, Peter is a cherubically boyish Pan filled with magic and childish mirth, while his impish sidekick Tinker Bell is defined as a dainty ballerina fairy whose elongated wings frame a girlishly sophisticated form. Together, within Hall's explorations, Peter and Tink cause completely charming chaos in the Darlings' structured Victorian home before they are off to Never Land.

As a boy, David Hall had a strong interest in pirates, and his father gifted him with Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates to foster his enthusiasm. Pyle's artwork had a strong influence on Hall's later artistic renderings as he incorporated a realistic presence and quality within his interpretations of Captain Hook and the pirates. David Hall's Never Land is a far more realistic and sinister world of high-seas adventure and swashbuckling skullduggery than would be seen in the final Disney film, but within these visual masterpieces, Peter Pan's world began to take form.

Additional explorations of Never Land continued. Animator Fred Moore, known for his alluring drawings of young women, created definitive concepts for the mermaids basking in Mermaid Lagoon, while various story artists defined the Indian encampment and Hook's ship of pirates moored off the shores of Never Land. One of the key creative decisions Walt Disney and his story teams made was to reexamine the penultimate scene of Peter's plea to the audience to save Tinker Bell. While this climactic moment would work well in a live theater setting where audiences could easily be cajoled into professing their belief in fairies, this might not work in a movie theater. Again, as Barrie experienced, changes were made and the story teams resolved that it should be Peter's own declaration of belief that resuscitates tiny Tinker Bell.

By 1941, the basic story structure was defined, a script was drafted, and songs were being written while model sheets and maquette sculptures of the primary characters were formed. Peter took shape as a dark-haired boy, tiny Tinker Bell became a sprightly redhead, and young Wendy's brunette pigtails framed a much more girlish form to match the younger form of Peter. Animators were assigned to particular characters and production was about to get under way. Yet with Europe engulfed in war, the animated adventures of Peter Pan were soon in jeopardy.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States became fully embroiled in the Second World War and all feature-length productions at the studio were shelved, including Peter Pan. To remain open, the studio shifted to the production of military training films. Years passed before feature-length production finally returned to the studio's storyboards. Echoing J.M. Barrie's early Peter Pan frustrations, Walt Disney noted, "It was a long time before we began work on the story. In the first place, I was unwilling to start until I could do full justice to the well-loved story. Animation techniques were constantly improving, but they still fell short of what I felt was needed to tell the story of Peter Pan as I saw it."

"Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." — J.M. Barrie

Following the box-office success of Cinderella, Walt Disney was once again able to return to feature-length animated productions. He quickly placed Peter Pan back into development and assigned the studio's leading concept artist, Mary Blair (1911–1978), to explore Barrie's scenario. Working with Claude Coats (1913–1992), John Hench (1908–2004), and Don DaGradi (1911–1991), Blair would inspire the color palette and stylization of many of Disney's classic films and eventual theme-park attractions. Legendary animator Marc Davis (1913–2000) placed Blair's use of color on par with Matisse's, recalling, "She brought modern art to Walt in a way that no one else did. He was so excited about her work." Blair's work was deceptively simple, yet richly complex in its bold use of color. Many felt it was the simplicity that Walt identified with, recognizing Blair's ability to relate to children through her wide-eyed, innocent portrayals.

Mary Blair's adventurous and vibrant style signals a journey to a world held only in the imagination. Her color choices were well suited to define a place "past the second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." With Blair's vision, each unique corner of Never Land featured a palette unlike any other sequence in the overall film. Through the strong inspiration of Blair's conceptual work, Disney made a concerted effort to create a Never Land as rich, vivid, and colorful as the inhabitants of this far-off place.

The lively hues of the Indian encampment reflect the brilliance of a western sunset, while the muted pastels of Mermaid Lagoon provide a vibrant contrast to the dense foliage surrounding the tropical regions of Never Land. Early concept sketches of Cannibal Cove take on a dark and foreboding tone; earth tones dominate the palette of the Lost Boys' tree house and Peter's famed hideout; while Captain Hook's sturdy pirate ship—the Jolly Roger—is envisioned in simple studies of regal reds, purples, and golds.

"This linkage of what people dream about in their youth and have to live with in maturity, so tellingly dramatized by Barrie in his most famous work, is what has given the story of 'the boy who refused to grow up' its power to stir the heart and the imagination throughout its long life." — Walt Disney

Translating concept artwork to final backgrounds illustrates the intricate details that Disney's artists explored in achieving the vivid reality of such exotic locales. Al Dempster (1911–2001)'s background team, including Eyvind Earle (1916–2000), Thelma Witmer, and Brice Mack, brought Never Land to life. The lush, foliage-laden mountain forests hide the Lost Boys' tree house; the dark and sinister domain of Skull Rock keeps curious treasure seekers away; and the soft, whimsical quality of Mermaid Lagoon adds to the flirty playfulness of the mythical creatures living there. Each imaginative depiction of these Never Land settings becomes a reflection of the colorful inhabitants of the island, advancing the magic of Disney's animated telling.

Additional adjustments were still being made to the story before the studio moved on to animation. In one of the final narrative decisions approved by Disney in 1948, George Darling was added to the Never Land adventures to provide a fatherly presence. With a healthy application of Tinker Bell's magical pixie dust, Ken O'Connor (1908–1998)'s storyboards captured the thrilling excitement of flight as Wendy, Michael, and John soar to new heights. Sweeping past the Tower Bridge and perched high on the large hand of Big Ben, Peter and the Darling children are finally off to Never Land.

Revisions continued throughout production as studio stalwarts Clyde "Gerry" Geronimi (1901–1989), Wilfred Jackson (1906–1988), and Hamilton Luske (1903–1968) were placed in charge as the film's directors and animation was under way. Peter Pan holds a unique place in animation history, as it is one of the rare feature films to contain animation by all of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men." Marc Davis, Woolie Reitherman (1909–1985), Milt Kahl (1909–1987), Ollie Johnston (1912–2008), Frank Thomas (1912–2004), Eric Larson (1905–1988), John Lounsbery (1911–1976), Ward Kimball (1914–2002), and Les Clark (1907–1979) constituted the top artists at the Walt Disney Studios.

These seasoned veterans were now masters of their craft and assured in their work. In their book, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston noted, "By the time we were starting Peter Pan, we had learned to get further away from any actual use of the live-action scenes, restaging them after seeing weaknesses, using the film as a starting point from which to build and invent and enrich. We had been shown the way to go, but we had to do the 'going' ourselves, and the picture was better for it. We recaptured much of the fantasy and magic in the features made before the Second World War."

Based on the original author's mandate, the lead role of Peter is traditionally portrayed on the stage by a woman, and many noted women of the stage portrayed young Peter Pan over the years. Walt's animated telling opened the possibility of several options, as he noted in a 1952 studio news release: "But Peter is a boy, (and) we felt that a clear boy's voice was needed… For the first time in the long history of the play, we have cast a boy—or at least his voice—for the part of Peter."

"For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face." — J.M. Barrie

Popular child star Bobby Driscoll (1937–1968), who had costarred in several of Walt Disney's previous live-action films, including So Dear to My Heart, Song of the South, and as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, was cast in the lead role. As Walt stated, "We think that his personality is in perfect keeping with the cartoon character." Dancer Roland Dupree provided live-action reference for the film's directors, and legendary animator Milt Kahl was assigned to bring the lead character of Peter Pan to animated life. Often acknowledged as the greatest draftsman at Disney Studios, Kahl was given one of the true challenges: to animate a sense of weightlessness as Peter floated in midair. With Kahl's superior draftsmanship and a little animated pixie dust, Peter is indeed airborne.

The voice of Alice from Walt Disney's 1951 film Alice in Wonderland, Kathryn Beaumont had matured to the age—and voice—of Wendy Darling, "I went directly from finishing Alice and immediately started working on the voice for Wendy," Beaumont noted. As Walt confirmed, "I think you'll like her even more as Wendy." From her years of experience on Alice in Wonderland, Beaumont was well versed in the importance of live-action reference modeling. "They'd give you a sort of layout and you followed that layout and movement, giving it your interpretation of the action," Beaumont noted. "They were exploring."

Perhaps the most remarkable character, second only to Peter Pan in Walt Disney's version, is the tiny fairy Tinker Bell. In the art form of animation, Peter's fairy companion could be defined in form and fully realized instead of being portrayed merely with a glimmering flash as in the stage productions. Legendary animator Marc Davis noted, "she was visualized as a spot of light. But in our medium, you couldn't just use a spot of light." Walt Disney's enthusiasm for creating the definitive Tinker Bell was clear: "We could make the little sprite…glow like a firefly as she darts through space and have her speak with the sound of bells." Yet, before her animated debut, the transformation of this diminutive character had been evolving for well over 15 years."

During her lengthy development, Tinker Bell grew from a tiny, winged ballet dancer, florally bedecked and dainty as a cherub, to a mischievous, high-tempered, and stocky little vixen. With years of transitions explored, Tink became one of the costliest animated characters ever developed to that point. "She's a pure pantomime character, recalled Marc Davis, "She didn't talk, but you know what she's thinking." Taking inspiration from the earliest concepts of David Hall and story artist John Parr Miller in the late 1930s, Marc Davis found his final fairy in a young blonde Ink and Paint artist named Ginni Mack. Often called to demonstrate the artistry of the Ink and Paint Department for visitors and frequently featured in photographs, Mack received a request to do a little modeling. "I was told she was a pixie. That's all they said." Mack recalled. "I used to have bangs that I'd sweep to the side and frequently wore my hair in a bun. From basic head poses, Marc Davis and a small team of artists created rough drawings of Mack for preliminary character designs of Tinker Bell. "Turn this way. Look up, look down," Mack recalled. "They had me stand on a stool at one point to have me pose for flying."

Marc Davis designed Tinker Bell to be a little girl from the waist up and a woman from the waist down. Young Kathryn Beaumont was on contract and provided the earliest live-action reference movements. "There wasn’t any dialogue," noted Beaumont. "It was just movement and actions...and they were exploring the awareness of things within a twelve-year-old girl as opposed to an eighteen-year-old woman." To add womanly wiles to the blend of childlike innocence in Tink's movements, dancer and actress Margaret Kerry was cast. Ultimately, the combination of these three distinct women provided key elements for master animator Marc Davis to find the final form of Walt Disney's fairy, Tinker Bell.

"In approaching the fantasy for our cartoon medium, we had to get at the mind of the man who wrote it…" — Walt Disney

Early concept explorations formed a foreboding Captain Hook as he becomes a dark and more sinister foe. Then, as the film was placed into production, veteran animator Frank Thomas delighted in being given the "juicy" role of Hook. Thomas' approach to the conniving captain was shaped with the inspired casting of renowned radio, stage, and screen actor Hans Conried (1917–1982) in the role of Peter Pan's nemesis. Charming, devious, and rotten to the core, with a foppish wardrobe and comic vanity, Hook was definitively captured in the final model sheets and character studies. In the great tradition of the stage play, Conried also managed the traditionally dual role of the portly Victorian father, George Darling. Yet, a glimpse of the little boy hidden in the posh, stuffy father peeks out when the sailing ship is sighted making its way past the second star on the right: "I have the strangest feeling that I've seen that ship before. A long time ago, when I was very young."

Mr. Smee, Hook's bungling sidekick, was portrayed by familiar Disney voice artist Bill Thompson (1913–1971), who brought this lovable stooge to life, while artist-comedian Don Barclay provided a clever portrayal of Smee for the live-action footage referenced by animator Ollie Johnston. The first in line to carry out his captain's evil plots, Smee somehow always manages to say or do something wrong and inadvertently spoils Hook's best-laid wicked plans.

A wide range of studies were considered for the portrayal of Hook's nemesis, the Crocodile. Disney chose to incorporate an actual crocodile versus the offstage ticking sound used in the play version. This heightened the imaginative terror of Croc's ominous lurking whenever the sound cues signalled his presence. Animator Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman gave the Crocodile a friendly, perpetual grin, creating a memorable character who is at once a source of pending doom and a great comedic delight.

"Our mechanics of fantasy are certainly different from the ones Barrie had at his command. Disney declared, "but I think that in some ways we have come closer to his original concept than anyone else has." After nearly a decade of early development, a handful of years sitting on the shelf, and more than 24 months of actual animation—with over a million separate drawings of scenes and characters transferred to 800,000 cels hand-inked and painted by several hundred artists—Walt Disney's animated production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan finally debuted on February 5, 1953, on theater screens around the world.

Nearly a half century after J.M. Barrie's beloved character first dazzled audiences on the stage, Walt Disney's imagination and technology cast this timeless story far beyond the limitations of Barrie's day. Disney recognized that some stories are worth the wait, noting, "It is the greatest pleasure to me, now, to be able to make Peter fly wherever he wants to go, for as long as he wants to stay there."

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Peter Pan

Tinker Bell

Peter Pan and Wendy Darling

Nana

The Lost Boys

John Darling

Captain Hook

The Darling family

Wendy Darling

Peter Pan and Wendy Darling

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Bella Notte
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Lady and the Tramp
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Lady and the Tramp is an "opposites attract" story: in the early 20th century, a female Cocker Spaniel from a good home in an elegant residential neighborhood falls in love with a mutt from a poor neighborhood on the other side of the tracks. The stray's free-spirited nature fascinates the spoiled Lady, and she delights in their outings in the new-to-her world of the slums and their spaghetti-dinner date. Lady disregards the warnings from her purebred dog friends, but when the two are captured while on an adventure together and held prisoner in a pound, Tramp's carefree nature puts Lady's affections to the test. However, when Lady's human owners' newborn baby is threatened by a rat that gets into their home, Tramp proves himself a hero and, in the end, is accepted by Lady's friends and family.
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World Release: June 16, 1955 (Chicago)
U.S. Release: June 22, 1955
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, CinemaScope, 76 minutes
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Crew
Directors: Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Directing Animators: Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, Hal King, Les Clark
Story: Don DaGradi, from an original story by Ward Greene
Character Animator: John Sibley
Backgrounds: Claude Coats, Al Dempster, Eyvind Earle
Layout: Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor
Music Score: Oliver Wallace
Special Processes: Ub Iwerks

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The Jungle Book
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The last animated feature Walt Disney personally oversaw, The Jungle Book marked a transition in the studio's approach to filmmaking, as the artists shifted from polished storytelling to an emphasis on character moments. A perennial fan favorite, the film is celebrated for the extraordinary animation by four of the studio's "Nine Old Men": Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, John Lounsbery, and Frank Thomas. Younger generations of animators continue to study the subtle acting and deeply felt relationship between Mowgli and Baloo, and the freewheeling fun of the duet between Baloo and King Louie. The film was criticized when it was released for taking liberties with the original Kipling stories. Audiences proved untroubled by those liberties: the film scored a huge hit, especially in Europe, and its popularity has never waned.
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U.S. Release: October 18, 1967
Technical Specifications: Technicolor, 1.33:1, 78 minutes
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Cast
Kaa: Sterling Holloway
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Crew
Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
Directing Animators: Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery
Story: Larry Clemmons, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry, inspired by Rudyard Kupling's Mowgli stories
Character Animation: Hal King, Eric Larson
Background Styling: Al Dempster
Music: George Bruns
Songs: Robert B. Sherman and Robert M. Sherman

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