Tag: Mickey Mouse

Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives

As chronicled in the last couple of blog posts, I made a recent visit to Southern California to see Disneyland during the Christmas holidays and to visit the Reagan Presidential Library.    The Reagan Library is current hosting (through April 2013) an exhibition entitled Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives.

The exhibition is presented by the Disney Archives, and includes many unique items from throughout the history of the Disney organization.    Because of the venue, some of the items selected for the display highlight Disney’s connection to Reagan (his work for Disney included emceeing Disneyland’s opening day broadcast) or to the presidency in general (Hall of Presidents sculptures, for example).   But the exhibition is far broader than just a few tie-ins.   Some of the items have been displayed before (such as at similar exhibitions at the D23 Expo in 2009 and 2011), but some are being displayed to the public for the first time.

In the earlier galleries, we see items such as a movie poster from one of the Alice comedies. (These early films combined live action and animation and were loosely based on Alice in Wonderland).   We also see a pencil sketch of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit — the animated character that Walt developed prior to Mickey Mouse.   And of course we see the early Mickey Mouse, including some of the early merchandising efforts for the character.

Poster from an Alice comedy

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit pencil sketch

Early Mickey Mouse merchandise

There are cels here from some of the most notable early Disney animation shorts, including Academy Award winning Silly Symphonies Flowers and Trees (the first color cartoon) and The Three Little Pigs (famous for the song “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”).

Cel from Silly Symphony “Flowers and Trees”

Cel from Silly Symphony “The Three Little Pigs”

While animation buffs (such as myself) are likely to be familiar with a lot of the short features highlighted here, it was the move into feature length animation that really set Disney apart from what every other studio was doing.   One of the interesting artifacts on display was a partial Snow White costume, worn by Marge Champion when doing live action reference for the animators.

Several of the feature length animated features started in the same fashion — with a shot of a story book.   As the camera zoomed in, the story book would open, and we would dissolve into the animated scene.   Several of these storybooks (from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella) were on display, including some of the interior pages.

Also on display was Herb Ryman’s original Disneyland sketch.   The story of this sketch is that Walt needed something to show to investors, and Herb produced this very detailed sketch over the course of a weekend as Walt described what should be in the various areas of the park.

Another fascinating exhibit was a full-scale re-creation of Walt’s formal office — every detail just as he left it, right down to the ordering of books in the bookcases (including one that is shelved upside down, because that’s the way Walt had left it).

After leaving this area of the exhibit, we start seeing props and costumes from some of Disney’s most well-known live action films from the early days.   This includes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Nautilus submarine model), The Absent-Minded Professor (Model T), and Mary Poppins (Julie Andrew’s costume).

Still more costumes … we get costumes and an office set for Cruella de Vil (from the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie), Belle’s ball gown from the Broadway Production of Beauty and the Beast, several costumes from Annie Leibovitz’ Disney Dreams photo series (Tiny Fey’s Tinkerbell, Scarlett Johansson’s Cinderella, and Rachel Weisz’ Snow White), and Whitney Houston’s fairly godmother costume from a TV production of Cinderella.

Yes, we do have more costumes — here are 3 from Enhanted: Giselle’s wedding dress (Amy Adams), and costumes worn by James Marsden (Edward) and Susan Sarandon (evil stepmother / wicked queen)

We also have some props and costumes from Alice in Wonderland . . .

. . . and also from Tron (both the original and the recent sequel)

We have quite a bit from the Pirates of the Caribbean series:

Last of the movie stuff: props from Marvel movies (Iron Man 2, Captain America, and the Avengers)

We also get to see some interesting items from the theme parks: Malificient in dragon form (from Fantasmic!), hitch hiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion, a ride vehicle from Mr. Toad, and busts of all the presidents from the Hall of Presidents:

This is far from everything that is on display at the exhibit, but I hope serves to give a good flavor of the kind of items that are on display.    The Reagan Library and the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit are both worthwhile, and I really enjoyed the day I spent there.

January 7, 2013
Destination D: Day Two Morning Sessions
Wild and Wacky Disney Animation

When you ask animation buffs to describe the style of Disney animation, you’ll hear that the drawings are lifelike, the overall style realistic, the stories moving, the characters memorable. Other studios like Warner Brothers and Fleischer get the adjectives funny, wild, zany, and of course looney.

But in the long history of Disney animation, there have been many wild and crazy bits of animation, and this morning’s session set out to provide that Disney can be just as wild and wacky as any animation department.

The evidence:
- A clip of deleted material from Steamboat Willie, described as NSFW, and definitely NSF PETA members. Mickey engages in various forms of animal abuse to create music.
Steamboat Willie deleted scene
- A segment from The Barn Dance. Mickey and Minnie are dancing, and he keeps stepping on her feet. Oblivious, he walks on her feet, flattening them and then proceeding to her ankles and right up the leg, which is getting stretched out and starts being dragged across the floor behind them. Eventually her tortured leg gets so long that she has to tie a knot in it to shorten it back to length, and then cuts off the excess.
- Mother Goose Goes to Hollywood, a caricature piece featuring many Hollywood notables (Katherine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep, the Marx Brothers, etc.)
Little Bo Peep
- Thru the Mirror, in which Mickey Mouse has an Alice in Wonderland experience.
- Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, a history of musical instruments
- The Fantasia Dance of the Hours segment, featuring dancing hippos and alligators.
- The Fantasia 2000 Carnival of Animals segments, in which a flamingo masters the yo-yo (and asserts his individuality over the flock)
Flamingo with Yo-Yo
- Pink Elephants on Parade, from Dumbo
- “After You’re Gone” segment from Make Mine Music
- “Blame it on the Samba” from Melody Time
- A bit of early Genie animation. When Disney wanted to get Robin Williams to play the Genie, they wanted something to show him. So they used audio of Robin performing his stand-up act and animated the Genie to that as a demo.
- A few clips of never completed Alice in Wonderland scenes
- The soup eating scene from Snow White (this is a bonus feature on one of the DVDs)
- Donald’s dream sequence from Three Caballeros.
The verdict: Disney can indeed be pretty wild and wacky.

Drawing with Personality

This was great to watch, and a write-up just won’t be able to do it justice because it was so visual.

Animator Andreas Deja brought a number of pencil drawings of well-known Disney characters drawn by top animators.   His comments were insightful, pointing out where certain poses really showed strength of line, or pointing out various things that make a drawing “work”, but that a non-artist would not likely notice.   (One thing that comes across again and again in all these presentations is the tremendous respect that the current animators have for those that preceded them … there is just such a legacy there, and it seems they never lose sight of that and are incredibly respectful of it).

Seeing so many great drawings from the archives was interesting, but the presentation really took off for me when Andreas picked up a marker and began drawing some of the characters he was the supervising animator for.

A gallery showing these drawings is here.

Tinker Bell: The Evolution of a Disney Character

Frankly, going in this was a session I was not really interested in … Tinker Bell isn’t a favorite of mine, and knowing that at least some of the talk was covering “modern” Tink (3D graphics and she talks! The horror!) I was tempted to duck out and take in a few rides.   I’m glad I stayed … although it wasn’t my favorite talk of the weekend, it was very well researched, contained some surprises, and was worthwhile.

The presenter, Mindy Johnson, is author of an upcoming book from which most of this presentation was drawn.   (The book, Tinker Bell: An Evolution, will be coming out in fall of 2013 so don’t go looking for it yet).

The presentation started with the earliest ideas about Tink in J. M. Barrie’s writing and early stage adaptations of his works.     Tinker Bell was represented on stage by just a light effect and the sound of a bell.   (Specifically a bell such as would be used on a tinker’s wagon to alert customers, not unlike an ice cream truck’s music or horns).   The character, originally called Tippy Toe, thus became Tinker Bell.

We saw early concept art of Disney’s Tinker Bell as a redhead before Marc Davis drew the character we know today.    We heard from Margaret Kerry, who was the live action reference model for Tinker Bell, and also from Ginny Mack, an ink and paint girl who was recruited as the facial model for Tink.

Moving on to the modern era, we also heard from Mae Whitman, who has voiced Tinker Bell in recent releases, and director Peggy Holmes, director of Secret of the Rings, the next film in the Tinker Bell series.

That was it for the morning panels … come back tomorrow to hear about the afternoon panels.
August 21, 2012