Earlier this month I had the privilege of writing a piece for Storyboard, the official blog of the Walt Disney Family Museum. As readers will know, I’m a big fan of the museum so I was very glad to be able to help out. My story concerns the making of The Great Locomotive Chase, [...]]]>

Earlier this month I had the privilege of writing a piece for Storyboard, the official blog of the Walt Disney Family Museum. As readers will know, I’m a big fan of the museum so I was very glad to be able to help out. My story concerns the making of The Great Locomotive Chase, a 1956 Walt Disney production starring Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter. The Museum’s focus this month has been on Walt’s love of trains, and few of his projects better show this than Great Locomotive Chase; the “true-life” adventure tells the story of Union spies hijacking a Confederate supply train in 1862. It’s an incredible tale that makes for a fun film and it’s easy to see why Walt was interested – it gave him the chance to play around with trains!

I was especially pleased to be able to write about this particular movie as it was filmed in and around some familiar stomping grounds of mine – an area in the Appalachian Mountains between Franklin, North Carolina and Cornelia, Georgia. Both my paternal grandparents were from Franklin – my grandfather’s family has been living up there, in the same valley, for more than two hundred years. It’s still one of my favorite places to “get away from it all.” Furthermore my grandmother’s brother-in-law worked on the now-defunct Tallulah Falls Railroad, where Locomotive was filmed, and her family grew up in the wide valley overlooking where the railway passed from Otto, NC to Franklin. She had moved by 1955 when filming was underway, but her family was still there and I have always had these weird visions of them sitting on their porch while Walt Disney maniacally drove his train back and forth on the other side of the Little Tennessee River.

Local businesses still recall Walt’s visit. At the (truly fantastic, by the way) Dillard House restaurant in Dillard, Georgia, pictures on the wall chronicle the time Walt stopped there for some home cooking. In local histories, people recall seeing Walt come in to local diners and cafes and have lunch alone – just a regular guy, hanging out.

As I say in my piece, you can tell how important this project must have been for Walt – after all, Disneyland had just opened and it would take something remarkable to tear him away from his new sandbox in Anaheim.

For some more info, check out my article and others from this month at the Museum’s blog, and if you haven’t seen it I recommend you check out The Great Locomotive Chase itself. It’s nothing profound but it’s a really fun film with some great actors facing off and that really fantastic art direction you see in Disney productions from that era. You can buy it cheap from Amazon or rent it via Netflix.

After a decade of troubled development, Disney Feature Animation’s take on the Rapunzel fairy tale finally arrived in theaters last fall. Despite near-constant meddling from executives and marketing mavens during those long years, Tangled scored a hit with both critics and audiences, and is one of the most thoroughly satisfying offerings from Disney animators [...]]]>

After a decade of troubled development, Disney Feature Animation’s take on the Rapunzel fairy tale finally arrived in theaters last fall. Despite near-constant meddling from executives and marketing mavens during those long years, Tangled scored a hit with both critics and audiences, and is one of the most thoroughly satisfying offerings from Disney animators in years.

While it took Tangled‘s sizable domestic and international box office take to offset the massive costs incurred by a decade of endlessly rebooted production, the fact is that the film was a big hit – which makes it all that much more confusing that its home video release (available on DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo) is so embarrassingly sparse. There are probably about 4-5 different versions of this film that were developed in the last ten years, and barely any of that work is hinted at in this release’s extra features. The apparent disregard by Disney’s home video department for fans and animation buffs is pretty glaring by this point, and the fact that a major new release comes out with barely any supplemental material shows how far things have fallen off at the studio since the glory days of the early 2000s. That being said, the movie is still excellent and well worth your time, so you might as well give into the darkness and check out this bare bones release!

The Film

I would be surprised if a single aspect of this film – save from the fact that it tells the story of Rapunzel – made it through the gauntlet of constant retooling that marked its development. Originally the pet project of veteran Disney animator Glen Keane, and intended to be his directorial debut, the film transitioned early on from traditional to computer animation after it was decided to move all Disney animation to the digital realm. Faced with the success of Dreamworks’ Shrek, the Eisner regime mandated that the film take a more “hip and edgy” bent, and for a while it became Rapunzel: Unbraided.

With Eisner gone, the film returned to its roots and became just plain Rapunzel again, but then came the surprising news in 2008 that Keane (citing “health reasons”) and co-director Dean Wellins were surrendering control of the project. In their place came Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, to whom John Lasseter had entrusted Bolt when it was wrested from the hands of its creator, Chris Sanders.

There was more drama – casting changes, a general confusion at Disney about whether or not they were in the business of making fairy tales, and a last minute, marketing-enforced title change to the less feminine/more confusing title Tangled – but thankfully a great movie managed to emerge nonetheless. One gets the feeling that the film is filled with fleeting references to probably dozens of abandoned characters and storylines, but the narrative that emerges is sleek and far more focused than Disney’s previous fairy tale, The Princess and the Frog (a film that I enjoyed very much).

The roots of the story are simple: a young girl is kidnapped and raised by a wicked old woman who needs the magical properties of the child’s hair to keep her young. She keeps the girl, Rapunzel, locked away in an tower, and fills her young head with terrifying tales of the horrible world outside. Still, Rapunzel wonders what’s out there in the great, wide world and sees enough from her tower window to encourage her wanderlust.

Things come to a head when the improbably named bandit Flynn Rider stumbles upon her tower and tries to use it as a hiding place for his ill-gotten gains. He is surprised and captured by Rapunzel, who eventually manages to blackmail Flynn into taking her on an adventure while the nefarious Mother Gothel is away on a lengthy trip. Naturally, hijinks ensue.

There are many remarkable things about this film. One is the fact that, despite its remarkably smarmy and obnoxious ads, the film plays as very sincere and likable. Rapunzel, voiced by Mandy Moore, is an incredibly appealing character and manages to project a sweet naivete without crossing over into obliviousness. Rider, voiced by TV’s Zachary Levi, was a major concern after seeing the film’s trailers, but all of his most obnoxious moments are dispensed with fairly early in the proceedings. His “smoulder” shtick is never as funny as it seems the filmmakers thought, and there’s the occasional echo of “‘tude” from lesser animated features past, but what came off as irritating in the trailers is much less so in the film itself. Levi is an extremely charismatic guy, and as the “Rider” persona fades into the background his character becomes winning in a way that is very rare for modern Disney male heroes.

The look of the film deserves special notice; it’s colorful and lush, and avoids the plastic look that plagues so many modern computer-animated features. It’s not the “painterly” look that we were promised for so, so long, but the human animation remains leaps and bounds above anything that any other studio – including Pixar – has done before. There’s a lovely organic translucence to everything, and the backgrounds and color design deserve recognition. My only gripe in the artistic department would be with a number of secondary characters who push the bounds of caricature beyond the breaking point.

The music and a handful of songs come from Disney stalwart Alan Menken and collaborator Glenn Slater. The score is reminiscent at times of other Disney classics such as The Little Mermaid, and that helps contribute to the overall feel. The few songs in the film are enjoyable if not especially memorable, although my absolute favorite – the number that Rapunzel sings to kick off the film – is scored in a really obnoxious jangly frat-rock style that clashes completely with the film. It’s a shame, because it’s a really great song and does a fantastic job getting across the Rapunzel character to the audience.

Mention should also be made of the villain, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). It’s interesting to make your big bad a kind of passive-aggressive, smothery mother – especially since I’ve encountered a few of those myself in my time. Her big production number, in which she combines warnings about the many evils of the outside world with little asides about Rapunzel’s weight, is kind of hilarious in how it plausibly portrays how the girl has been convinced to stay in the tower for her entire life. I have some qualms with the number itself – while the song is fine, the way it’s staged is by far the most “Broadway” moment of the film and, especially considering Murphy’s stage experience, on film it comes off as very “New York” in a way that clashes. It’s funny – I really liked the song when I heard the soundtrack before the film was released, but it’s just a little over the top on the screen.

One last compliment I have is for the animal “comedic relief” in the film, warhorse Maximus and Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, Pascal. In modern era Disney films, wacky animal sidekicks are best when they’re limited to silent pantomime – witness Flit and Meeko in Pocahontas. Rapunzel builds on this tradition by keeping its animals silent, and it really works well.

It’s been a rough decade for fans of Disney animation, and it’s nice to see it end on a high note with Tangled. Much of the studio’s future remains in doubt, but if they continue to produce work of this caliber, hopefully they’ll start to receive the respect and independence they deserve. There are definite nits to pick with the film – many are probably vestiges of its long development, and there’s a particularly egregious deux ex machina towards the end, that should have been finessed in some other fashion, but the long story short is that overall it’s a fun, enjoyable, extremely pleasant film and that’s too often a rarity anymore.

The Discs

Released March 29, 2011 – Rated PG – 100 minutes
Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo – $49.99
Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo – $39.99
Single-Disc DVD – $29.99

The increasingly onerous Disney release model steps up to the plate once more with three different versions of the film available for purchase: DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo. The insanity of this scheme can be seen in the fact that if you buy the most expensive iteration, you’re getting the exact same film on four separate discs in four separate formats, with hardly an extra between them. That’s insanity.

Video & Audio

The film looks great, whether on Blu-ray or DVD, in 1.78:1 Widescreen. The Blu-ray features DTS-HD 7.1 surround audio, while the DVD comes in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Bonus Materials

Here, again, is where the release falls apart. Most of this material is promotional stuff that was released online before the film’s release, and I’m kind of baffled as to why this film didn’t get the respect it deserved. Maybe because it doesn’t feature a jumping lamp?

As usual, DVD viewers get the worst of it; the few extras included on the DVD release are marked with an asterisk below.

Features

• Deleted Scenes – Three brief deleted scenes are included in storyboard form, with introductions by the film’s directors. They hint at story elements that were cut from the final film.
• Storybook Openings * – Two takes on a traditional “storybook” opening considered for the film. I wish they had used this conceit, but the information they convey is pretty similar to that contained in the actual film’s introduction. Again, the filmmakers appear to frame the clips – too bad the camerawork is really obnoxious…

• 50th Animated Feature Countdown * – This clip, released online before the film’s release, runs through each of the now-canonical Disney animated features starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and ending with Tangled. At some point in recent years, it’s been decided to shoehorn 2000′s Dinosaur into the canon, even though it was not a product of Walt Disney Feature Animation. But this revisionist history allows Tangled to become Disney’s 50th animated feature, hence this montage.
• Extended Songs – Two slightly longer versions of songs from the film are presented via rough, unfinished animation.
• Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale – This is what amounts to the “making of” feature for this release, and needless to say it does not get the job done. Distilling ten years of development into its 12-minute running time would be impossible, but that brevity is made worse by the fact that much time is spent re-hashing the previous 49 Disney features as well as dabbling in other trivia. In fact, this piece feels more like a bunch of promotional web shorts spliced together. The one saving grace are the hosts – Mandy Moore and Zach Levi – who are extremely likable people and come off as charming despite the weakly-scripted material. With these two highly affable hosts, the making-of special could have been exceedingly enjoyable. Instead, it’s just a waste.
• Promotional Films – The disc does not include the film’s trailers, but it does include nine promotional videos that were produced for television and the web. These are actually pretty funny; some are styled as infomercial-type ads for items from the film, and manage to be contemporary without reflecting poorly on the film.

In Summary…

It’s always great to go see an animated film that pushes all the buttons with success, and it’s especially rewarding to see Disney do well. If you missed this in theaters you need to ignore the advertising and check it out; while Disney’s home video department should be ashamed of the shabby treatment it hahs given the title, the film is still fantastic despite the disc’s lack of extras. Highly recommended.

Click to buy on Single-Disc DVD, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and Four-Disc Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo

Disney’s roll-out of classic titles on Blu-ray continues with the recent release of 1951′s Alice in Wonderland in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. While the high-definition release adds little new bonus content, the slate of extras ported over from previous DVD releases means that Alice still features far more to see than most new Disney [...]]]>

Disney’s roll-out of classic titles on Blu-ray continues with the recent release of 1951′s Alice in Wonderland in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. While the high-definition release adds little new bonus content, the slate of extras ported over from previous DVD releases means that Alice still features far more to see than most new Disney home video releases.

The Film

He's late...

Alice in Wonderland isn’t exactly one of Disney’s most beloved films, but it’s one that the company almost had to make. Walt Disney kicked off his Hollywood career based on the success of his Alice Comedies beginning with Alice’s Wonderland in 1923. An combination live-action/animated adaptation of Alice was meant to be the studio’s first feature-length release in the mid-1930s, and work on an animated Alice continued after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. World War II intervened, but Alice went right back on the front burner after production ramped up again in the 1950s.

The problem was that as evocative as Carroll’s tale was, it was a highly episodic story that depended heavily on wordplay as well as contemporary references to Victorian England. The Disney story department notoriously had a hard time stitching together the events from the book into a workable film, and it seems that in the end they didn’t quite make it. The problem, for me, is not that the story is episodic – after all, many films are. The issue is that there is no real arc for Alice herself, and while Kathryn Beaumont did charming vocal work the character seems at times like a cipher to whom things just happen at random. There’s a moment, towards, the end, when she breaks down in Tulgey Wood and it’s wonderfully humanizing, but it would be more effective had she not spent the previous 45 minutes blithely wandering at random through increasingly frantic scenes and reacting with vague impatience at a series of bizarre and somewhat terrifying characters.

Perhaps if this fellow had shown up earlier in the film...

Some of this could be due to the way the film was developed, with different directors tacking the separate chunks of the story. In the commentary, it’s pointed out how this method led to Alice herself changing appearance during the film, but it also seems to have heavily affected the tone as well.

This brings me to another issue I have with this film: there’s way too much YELLING. Too many scenes in the first half of the film involve characters talking past each other, and while that’s part of the “madcap” nature of Wonderland, it just goes on way too long. Too many of these antics seem based on Carroll’s wordplay mixed heavily with old vaudeville routines – the film’s voice cast consists heavily of old-time radio and stage comedians – and at some point you want Alice to just end the nonsense by flicking the White Rabbit and Dodo into the next county.

What’s ironic, though, is that while this was never one of Walt’s most popular or beloved films, its characters and scenarios have become iconic and remain very prominent today in the Disney parks. A large part of this is due in no small part to Mary Blair and her legendary development work for the film; the color styling and backgrounds are critical to the film’s appeal, and explain why its look translates so well to theme park attractions.

Hmm, says Alice

While the technical aspects of the animation aren’t as polished as in the films of the golden age, there’s loads of great character work courtesy of a roster of Walt’s greatest animators. Then there’s the astounding final act of the film, when the Queen of Hearts and her cards show up and the animators really go for broke with some incredible sequences involving hundreds of hand-drawn cards. This is truly the showpiece of the entire film, with a liveliness reminiscent of Dumbo’s Pink Elephants number. If the earlier segments of the film flowed as nicely as the scenes in the Tulgey Wood and the Queen’s castle, perhaps the entire film would be more fondly remembered.

The Disc

Released February 1, 2011 – Rated G – 75 minutes
Blu-ray Combo Pack (1 Blu-ray disc + 1 DVD disc) – $39.99

While the recent trend of issuing Blu-ray and DVD combo packs has reduced the amount of extra content in certain releases (the recent Fantasia disappointment, for instance), in this case the relatively short feature film fits comfortably on a single Blu-ray with a healthy slate of bonus material. This particular release is really of use only to high-definition viewers, as the vast majority of this material was released on a 2-disc DVD release just last year.

Video & Audio

One concern with viewing any modern “cleaned-up” release of a classic film is the fidelity of the color grading with regards to the original. Disney has gotten into the habit of really cranking up the saturation of films; sometimes this is particularly artificial-looking, but with Alice being such a colorful film it’s not surprising to have bright hues popping off the screen. The Blu-ray is definitely bright, clear and saturated, but out of respect to Mary Blair and so many others I wonder how it compares to the original 1951 prints. Perhaps some Alice expert will chime in?

The film is presented here in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, although it also has the “Disney View” option that adds newly-created artwork to the unused areas on the left and the right of the screen. Audio tracks come in both a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix as well as the film’s original theatrical mix. The surround mix is nice and clear; it’s well restored without going nuts with artificial surround effects.

Bonus Materials

This disc is unusual in that its has few new features of note but ports over many very entertaining extras from the many previous DVD releases. The centerpiece of the new extras is something called Through the Keyhole: A Companion’s Guide to Wonderland, which is a sort of a combination of a making-of feature and commentary track. It runs during the film, occasionally moving the film image around the screen to make room for talking-head interviews, concept art, and behind-the-scenes footage. Introduced by Kathryn Beaumont, voice of Alice, the feature includes commentary by such worthies as Brian Sibley, Charles Solomon, Paula Sigman, Carroll expert and professor Morton Cohen, Imagineer Daniel Singer, animator Will Finn, and animation conservator Ron Barbagallo. It’s an interesting idea, and must have been a bear to produce, but while it sometimes works very well I overall would have preferred a traditional documentary feature.

This clip is one of the instances in which the commentary synchs well with the action on-screen, but there are other times, especially when the historians are talking about events outside the narrative of the film, when having the film itself running in-frame is an annoying distraction. It’s like you’re trying to watch an interesting documentary in the middle of a train station, and you wish you could just cut off the film itself and hear the interviewees speak about Carroll and Disney. It’s an interesting idea, and at times it works really well, but at other times just feels like it’s about to give you attention deficit disorder.

Also introduced by Beaumont are re-discovered pencil tests and reference footage, but some of the best bonus material on this disc consists of TV programs from the film’s 1951 release. There’s Operation Wonderland, a promotional short with great footage of Walt riding his train around the Burbank studio lot, and then there’s One Hour in Wonderland, a fantastic special that aired on Christmas Day, 1950. This was Walt’s first foray into television, and it’s a wonderful time capsule. The conceit is that Walt is throwing a part of some sort for Beaumont at the Disney studio, and for some reason invites ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppet friends Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. It’s a cornucopia of delights for people who enjoy watching puppets hit on teen-aged girls.

Anyway, it’s quite a party – Bobby Driscoll is there, and eventually they wheel out Snow White’s magic mirror who shows clips from Disney’s past. Remember that this was 1950, so seeing this material on television was an unheard-of delight. We see clips from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Clock Cleaners (with Mickey, Donald and Goofy), Bone Trouble (a Pluto short) and – gasp! – a nice long clip from Song of the South (at Bobby Driscoll’s request; he really, really admires Uncle Remus). Thankfully, despite the fact that the television special itself was broadcast in black and white, the included clips and shorts in this version are presented in color.

This special really is a hoot – you can tell that Walt is having a ball, hamming it up. And yes, there are cameos by his daughters Diane and Sharon as themselves! So the next time you see Diane Disney Miller, you can ask her about doing a Coke commercial in 1950.

One last extra I’ll mention is another television special from 1951; this time, it’s an episode of The Fred Waring Show featuring Beaumont and Sterling Holloway (the Cheshire Cat) performing a number of surreal skits and numbers from the film with Waring and his Pennsylvanians. It’s pure, glorious cheese and Mary Blair even designed the sets!

Unfortunately, many of the extras that were ported over from the previous DVD are included in standard resolution and were not remastered for high definition. The extras are all kind of dumped onto the Blu-ray in various folders, and while it isn’t necessarily difficult to find anything, it isn’t exactly pretty.

Features

New on this Blu-ray:

• Through the Keyhole: A Companion’s Guide to Wonderland – A special viewing mode that combines aspects of a documentary feature and commentary track.
• Walt Disney Color TV Introduction (1959) – Walt’s introduction to the presentation of Alice in Wonderland on his Disneyland anthology show.
• Reference Footage: Alice and the Doorknob – Kathryn Beaumont introduces and gives an optional commentary to this clip of reference footage from the film’s production.
• Pencil Test: Alice Shrinks – Beaumont introduces this brief pencil test.
• Painting the Roses Red Game – The obligatory set-top game.

Features from the previous DVD release:

• Reflections on Alice – A 13-minute featurette with a number of Disney historians and artists discussing the production of the film.
• Operation Wonderland – A 1951 featurette with singer James Melton providing a fictionalized tour of the Disney studios hosted by Walt (remastered in high definition).
• One Hour in Wonderland – The 1950 Christmas television special.
• The Fred Waring Show (Excerpt) – Clips from the 1951 television show featuring Kathryn Beaumont and Sterling Holloway.
• “I’m Odd“ – Beaumont introduces this song, one of many numbers written for the film and discarded. Jim Cummings provides the voice of the Cheshire Cat for the reconstructed number.
• Pig and Pepper – A deleted scene.
• From Wonderland to Neverland: The Evolution of a Song – The story of how a song intended for Alice in Wonderland became The Second Star to the Right in Peter Pan.
• Deleted Storyboard Concept: Alice Daydreams in the Park
• Original Song Demos: Beware The Jabberwock, Everything Has A Useness, So They Say, Beautiful Soup, Dream Caravan, If You’ll Believe In Me
• Walt Disney TV Introduction – Walt showed Alice several times on his anthology show, since he saw it as less valuable for re-release. Included are Walt’s introductions from 1954 and 1964.
• Original Theatrical Trailers – 1951 & 1974
• Thru the Mirror – The famous 1936 animated short takes Mickey on a wacky trip through the looking glass (remastered in high definition).
• Alice’s Wonderland – A truncated version of Walt’s original 1923 short.
• Art Gallery

In Summary…

Alice in Wonderland isn’t one of my favorite Disney films, but I must say that this presentation, along with all the vintage DVD extras, is definitely worth a look if you don’t own one of the previous releases. The highlight, for me, was all the old Walt-era television material; when combined with the information that the esteemed Disney historians contribute to the film’s commentary, it makes a pretty engrossing package overall. The film itself has moments that continue to amaze, and it remains a wonderful example of Mary Blair’s incredible design sense.

Click to buy

Oh Disney, what have you done?

Walt Disney’s 1940 masterpiece Fantasia and its millennial sequel Fantasia 2000 have been re-released in a “2-Movie Collection Special Edition” on both Blu-ray and DVD. Originally planned as part of the “Diamond” series of classic film releases, this “Special Edition” is anything but, skimping on the extras and [...]]]>

Oh Disney, what have you done?

Walt Disney’s 1940 masterpiece Fantasia and its millennial sequel Fantasia 2000 have been re-released in a “2-Movie Collection Special Edition” on both Blu-ray and DVD. Originally planned as part of the “Diamond” series of classic film releases, this “Special Edition” is anything but, skimping on the extras and omitting almost all of what made the “Fantasia Anthology” DVD release from 2000 so special.

The headliner for this particular edition is the long-awaited release of the 2003 short Destino, an abandoned collaboration from 1946 with artist Salvador Dali. The short, along with the feature-length documentary Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino, were originally planned for release in Roy Disney’s “Legacy Collection” line of DVD releases many years ago. That line was abandoned, though, and the material has sat on the shelf until now. It’s exciting to finally get to see it all, but seeing as it was essentially “found” material it doesn’t exactly earn much credit for this new release. In fact, what supplemental material appears on this release is all of great interest and quality, it just doesn’t all necessarily have much to do with Fantasia. This is especially galling in the light of the early promos for the release (when it was still a “Diamond Edition”), which promised a load of Fantasia-related material and something called “Fantasia World”, which we assumed to be the four shorts originally produced for the never-finished Fantasia 2006.

But the real measure of this set’s shortcomings is in how incredibly far short it falls of 2000′s Fantasia Anthology. There’s a nearly endless stream of fascinating material from the various Fantasia projects, but it’s not to be found here.

The Films

Fantasia

Do I really need to sell you on Fantasia?

One of the classics of Walt’s golden age, it’s had a complicated history in theaters and on home video. The original, 125-minute release from 1940 was too far ahead of it’s time, as all but a handful of theaters could support its proprietary Fantasound multi-channel sound system. This original “roadshow” presentation was chopped to 81 minutes by distributor RKO when the film went into wide release in 1941, omitting not only a 15 minute intermission but also the entire first animated segment and all the live-action interstitials featuring host and musicologist Deems Taylor.

The deleted animated footage was returned for subsequent releases, but the host segments remained mostly unseen for decades as various edits of the film were presented for re-release. In 1982 the film’s entire score was re-recorded by conductor Irwin Kostal – the first time a soundtrack had been digitally recorded – and the Taylor narration was completely eliminated. The original degraded elements of the Stokowski score were cleaned and restored for the 50th anniversary re-release in 1990, although the digital restoration of the film still omitted the live-action interstitials. These were finally restored for the 2000 DVD release, which returned the film to its original running time. But even that’s not the whole tale.

The 2000 release was billed as “complete and uncensored” which, of course, was untrue. There remained slight edits to the live-action material surrounding the intermission, and the film continued to feature digital censorship in the Pastoral Symphony segment to omit an offensive racial stereotype. The original sound elements for the Taylor scenes had degraded years before, so while the visuals for these segments were restored they were dubbed over by Disney voice artist Corey Burton. This new release restores all remaining live-action edits but still includes the censorship of the Pastoral Symphony and the dubbed Burton narration.

Believe me, that’s the abbreviated tale of all the changes made to the film over the years. And it doesn’t even include the film’s complicated history and development, as well as all the plans to continue the Fantasia experience with new segments over the years. Walt had big plans for his great animated experience, but sadly none came to pass.

Fantasia is still extraordinary, and it shines in Blu-ray. One wishes that the advantages of branching technology could have been used to explore the different cuts of the film, and to even give viewers the option of viewing the film without digital censorship. Even more desirable would be the option to hear what elements remained of the original Taylor narration.

Still, the film is in its most complete home video presentation ever and still manages to amaze. The animation is, simply speaking, spectacular. The effects animation in the Nutcracker Suite, the science-factual planetary formation and dinosaur battles from Rites of Spring, the incredible Vlad Tytla animation in Night on Bald Mountain, and Mickey at his best in Sorcerer’s Apprentice – it all holds up. The abstract imagery of Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor, inspired by the works of filmmaker Oscar Fischinger, who actually briefly worked for Disney, makes one wonder where Disney animation could have gone had the film initially succeeded.

While it’s hard to endorse this half-hearted Blu-ray release, one can’t deny the appeal of Fantasia itself.

Fantasia 2000

One of the most exciting theater-going experiences in my life was settling down in the Muvico IMAX in Orlando in January of 2000 to see Fantasia 2000 on the big screen. Because of my love of Fantasia, and the excitement of seeing a sequel finally arrive after sixty years, it’s rather difficult for me to be subjective about the film.

It isn’t perfect, of course, and it can be inconsistent at times. Not all sequences are, animation-wise, up to the quality of the original film. But the sequel’s successes far outweigh its shortcomings; the Rhapsody in Blue segment alone is worth the price of admission, and the Firebird Suite gives me reason again to lament that the brothers Brizzi are no longer working for the studio. Sadly the film’s low point comes during the showcase for Donald Duck, Pomp and Circumstance, which is oddly timed and loosely animated and fails to take advantage of the humor potential of its premise and lead character. This carries over to the loosey-goosey character animation during the interstitial segments, which follows the off-model trend in modern interpretations of classic characters.

One of the potential concerns of the sequel was replacing the single narrator of the original with various “celebrity” introductions in the live-action interstitials. Thankfully, these turned out pretty well and the live-action segments of the film have a pretty classy and well-designed atmosphere; the orchestra seems to be floating in space with a virtual orchestra shell swooping in and billowing above like sails. These effects managed to re-create the vibe of the original while updating it with a modern aesthetic and the result was quite impressive on the IMAX screen.

All in all it’s a worthy sequel to the original and again I must lament that the grand Fantasia experiment was not continued afterward.

The Discs

Released November 30, 2010 – Rated G – 125 minutes (Fantasia), 75 minutes (Fantasia 2000)
4-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (2 Blu-ray discs + 2 DVD discs) – $45.99
2-Disc DVD – $39.99

Per usual, this film has been released in Blu-ray and DVD editions; the Blu-ray “4 pack” contains both discs of the DVD edition. While a nice touch for early Blu-ray adopters, this strategy leads to a lot of duplicated material – if you hear “4 disc set” you might not expect something as bereft as extras as this release. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that this is a two-film edition – instead of getting a full disc of extras you just get one Blu-ray for Fantasia, one for Fantasia 2000, and one DVD for each as well. Compare this to the 2000 release, which contained three feature-packed DVD discs for the same two films.

Video & Audio

At least the films look good. The original Fantasia is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, while Fantasia 2000 is presented in 1:78.1. The original film has been restored several times now, and its sequel benefits from the digital production pipeline from whence it came.

Audio on the Blu-ray is in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 “Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix”, while the DVD features the 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix.

Bonus Materials

This, of course, is where this collection falls flat on its face. Fantasia has perhaps more potential supplemental materials than any Disney film, and my interest in the film’s development is endless. With all the unreleased material created for Fantasia and its sequels, and the film’s position in the Disney canon, it deserves the highest possible quality release. Instead, we get this.

What’s ironic is, as I’ve stated, what is here is quite good. A lot of this material ties in with the Walt Disney Family Museum, and it’s great to see Diane Disney Miller involved in an “official” Disney home video release. I’ve been waiting for years to see the included documentary about Destino, but again – where’s all the Fantasia stuff? Where are the deleted segments, and the finished but unreleased segments for Fantasia 2006?

As is typical, the DVD release contains fewer features than even the sparse Blu-ray edition. In the list below, I’ve denoted with an asterisk those features which do appear on the DVD.

Features

• Fantasia
• Audio Commentary * – with Disney historian Brian Sibley
• Disney Family Museum * – This five-minute short takes a look at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, via a brief tour by Diane Disney Miller. Along the way, Diane points out some of the museum’s artifacts pertaining to Fantasia.
• Disney View – This feature apparently is intended to make the 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the original film palatable to “these kids today.” It fills the rest of the 16×9 widescreen frame with artwork by a Disney artist, but this tends to just prove more distracting than it’s worth. Just watch the movie!
• The Shultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure – This 14-minute feature is a real treasure of this set, as it discusses the recently rediscovered “Shultheis Notebook” of Disney filmmaking secrets. Herman Shultheis was an effects man on the original Fantasia, and kept a detailed notebook describing how the film’s elaborate and groundbreaking visual effects were created. Many of these techniques were lost to memory before the notebook was discovered in Shultheis’s estate. It has since been purchased and restored by the Walt Disney Family Museum. This is a fascinating feature, and underlines how truly innovative Fantasia was, but it would have been nice to be able to read the notebook itself!
• Interactive Art Gallery – A limited amount of production art from the film is presented in an “interactive” gallery that is way, way more complicated than it needs to be.
• Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection – The only carryover from the original 2000 DVD set, these two commentaries are well worth checking out. The first features executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, animation historian John Canemaker, and Scott McQueen, manager of film restoration. The second contains interviews and story note recreations by Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker.

• Fantasia 2000
• Musicana – Walt’s Inspiration for a Sequel * – This is another fantastic extra; the ten-minute featurette chronicles the development of Musicana – a Fantasia sequel focusing on world music that was planned and eventually abandoned in the late 1970s. It features a load of new artwork that I’ve never seen before, including lots of story sketches by Mel Shaw that were used to pitch and structure the project. I’ve never seen this much about Musicana in one place, and for the first time I really believe that this would have been a wonderful project and highly enjoyable. Get to work, Disney! This material is golden.
• Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino – This feature-length documentary chronicles the brief period in the late 1940s when surrealist Salvador Dali took up a residency at the Disney studio. At a whopping 82 minutes, this documentary is actually longer than Fantasia 2000 itself! One could question whether this historical incident deserves more than an hour of scrutiny, but remember that this was originally intended as a separate home video release in the abandoned Legacy Collection line. And while the movie spends too much time early on recounting the early life of Walt Disney and trying to draw parallels with Dali, the stories of the Disney-Dali relationship themselves are amusing and interesting, and the later segments of the documentary discussing the 2003 revival of Destino are also intriguing. As usual it makes one miss Roy Disney, who championed oddball legacy projects like this in the later part of his career. It also reminds us how many truly interesting things were cooking at Disney animation just a brief decade ago.
• Destino – The seven-minute short, finished in 2003, began with a collaboration between Disney and Dali in 1946. While intriguing, I can’t help but wish some of the digital elements had been omitted in favor of traditional methods. Budget issues also played into the decision to use limited animation at times, but it’s still an intriguing artifact and a rather amazing piece of history. It’s hard to get out of your head.
• Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection – From the 2000 collection, come these commentaries. The feature has a commentary from executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, and producer Don Ernst, while each segment features commentary from its own directors and art directors.

In Summary…

Fail. This is a total failure on the part of Walt Disney Home Entertainment, and shows how far the bar has fallen since the halcyon days of 2000. There are some truly worthy featurettes on the disc, and it’s good to see Destino and its attendant documentary, but this package is far from what it could and should have been. Long story short, if you have the Fantasia Anthology from 2000, be sure to hold on to it. If you don’t, it’s time to hit eBay.

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The third of the new documentary releases we’re reviewing, Waking Sleeping Beauty looks at the animation renaissance that occurred at Disney in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Directed by longtime Disney producer Don Hahn, the film is an absolute cannot-miss must-see treat for any fan of animation. The quality of the film itself [...]]]>

The third of the new documentary releases we’re reviewing, Waking Sleeping Beauty looks at the animation renaissance that occurred at Disney in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Directed by longtime Disney producer Don Hahn, the film is an absolute cannot-miss must-see treat for any fan of animation. The quality of the film itself is enhanced on home video with a slate of great extras that really flesh out the story presented in the film.

The Film

The 1975 graduating class at CalArts helped pave the way for the Disney renaissance. Future animators of note in the class included John Lasseter, Brad Bird and Jon Musker

In my original review of the film from its theatrical release, I said that it is rather remarkable that Waking Sleeping Beauty exists at all. The odds were against such a complicated story being told, especially with the willing and apparently forthright participation of the principal players in the saga. The fact that Hahn and producer Peter Schneider (himself the former Disney studio head) were able to corral Michael Eisner, Jeff Katzenberg and Roy Disney into telling their stories becomes even more astounding when you begin to realize the level of acrimony that slowly ratcheted up on the Disney lot even as the animation unit continued to reach new levels of success.

Peter Schneider, Roy E. Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg in the good ol’ days

I have said that The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story was the very definition of bittersweet, and for the devout animation fan a sense of melancholy pervades Waking Sleeping Beauty as well. This is odd, as the film itself is a tale of triumph, renewal, and success, but for those who know how it would all eventually end, it’s rather like watching all the pageantry at the Titanic’s christening. And yet the course of the film follows Disney animation from its historic low point, with The Black Cauldron getting beat out at the box office by The Care Bears Film, to its greatest triumph with The Lion King. The film ends around the time Katzenberg departed the studio in 1994 following the death of Frank Wells, which is really when the wheels started to come off. Still, the overall story of the film is of a young generation of filmmakers re-building an empire against the odds, and the tug of war they often played with Disney’s new and ambitious management team.

The film is narrated by Hahn, who does a great job and manages to draw credibility from his obvious place in Disney history without crossing the line into making the story about him entirely. His presence is welcome and affable and really gives the documentary a personal touch. Interviews with the surviving major players are included, and it’s rather remarkable to hear Katzenberg and Eisner speak so honestly. A metric ton of documentary audio, video, and photography is included, and the narration and audio interviews are integrated especially well considering that it’s done without relying on “talking head” setups. It must have been a bear getting clearances for this film, because rather than just hearing about events we’re often shown footage from the time, straight from contemporary news reports. As always, I continue to appreciate the Disney tradition of filming everything, because there is so much documentation of specific events and meetings that would otherwise be lost to time. The only drawback is that a lot of this was filmed on video; I hope there’s someone at Disney that’s backing up all this stuff digitally.

In any case, the film is stylish and classy from its opening frames straight through to the end credits, with production values that even carry over to the DVD menus.

Director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider at an editing session for the film

The film begins with animator Randy Cartwright’s home movies from the Disney lot in 1980 and 1983. It’s eerie to see the sleepy lot, with then-chief Ron Miller wandering the halls and a slew of future household names like John Lasseter, Tim Burton, Glen Keane, Ron Clements and John Musker wandering the halls looking for something to do. We’re walked through the process of Disney animation’s near-collapse, the uncertainty following the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, and the slow, hard-fought return to greatness that followed. It wasn’t an easy process; the “new guys” knew nothing about animation and the culture clash was pronounced.

Perhaps the biggest revelation of the film concerns two rather unsung talents, and the scope of their contributions to the Disney resurgence. Everyone knows that Frank Wells was half of the executive team that is widely credited with reviving Disney in the 80s. But because he shied away from the limelight and did not seek credit, it really is hard to understand how fundamental a role he played in events until you hear people from that time talk about how much they loved and respected him, and about how he made real contributions to projects aside from just signing the checks. It makes one wish that more would be written about the guy.

Even more shocking is the discovery of lyricist Howard Ashman’s absolutely crucial contributions to the films that defined this era – The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. It was obvious that the time that Ashman, and his songwriting partner Alan Menken, were extremely talented and a major part of the films’ success, but until now I never understood Ashman’s considerable story contributions and his larger role in shaping what the films became. It makes one really wonder what would have happened had he lived, and also makes one wish that more would be written about him as well.

I could just go through this film talking about each little bit, but in the end all I can do is strongly recommend you check it out yourself. As always, the highest compliment I could pay to a documentary is that I wish it was a 10-part miniseries, and I can only hope that some day we get another film to flesh out the time between the story of Waking Sleeping Beauty and the second collapse of Disney animation that is chronicled in Dream On, Silly Dreamer.

The DVD

Released November 30th, 2010 – Rated PG – 86 minutes – $29.99

Video & Audio

A sketch by Kirk Wise shows the aftermath of a contentious story meeting that he and co-director Gary Trousdale had with Howard Ashman during the production of Beauty and the Beast

It’s funny with documentaries, because you can have some that use materials from the 1930s that looks great – because it’s on film. Waking Sleeping Beauty draws a lot of its material from the 1980s and 90s, aka the godless era of videotape. The degraded video elements drawn from newscasts and internal Disney sources make one lament the generation of documentation that’s being lost as surely as nitrate film stock. The film draws from many different sources, presented in a number of ways, but overall it’s all assembled very well. It also wisely draws on the talents of the animators, who recorded and commemorated many events both funny and stressful in an endless stream of gag sketches.

The film is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, and in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Bonus Materials

The bonuses on the disc contain a number of nice treats, many of which are longer cuts of videos that are excerpted in the film itself. We get Randy Cartwright’s three tours of the Disney animation building, some truly great footage of Howard Ashman (although I wish his full speeches were included!), and tributes to Wells, Ashman, Roy E. Disney, and storyman Joe Ranft.

Features

• Why Wake Sleeping Beauty? – Overview featurette
• Deleted Scenes – Black Friday, Howard’s Lecture, Losing Howard, Recording ‘Part of Your World’, Research Trips, To Sir With Love
• The Sailor, the Mountain Climber, the Artist and the Poet – Celebrating Roy Disney, Frank Wells, Joe Ranft and Howard Ashman
• Studio Tours – Personal video footage from animator Randy Cartwright documenting the Animation Studio in 1980, 1983 and 1990
• A Reunion – Rob Minkoff and Kirk Wise
• Walt – What would Walt do? A comparison of Walt’s era and the current era
• Audio Commentary – View the film with commentary by director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider

In Summary…

Waking Sleeping Beauty is really good. Really, really good. It’s an emotional and funny film full of historic goodies for any fan of Disney or animation. It makes one marvel at what was, what could have been, and what can happen when that unknowable alchemy of creation, artistry, and business takes place. It makes one hopeful that it could all happen again. Highly recommended.

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The Disney documentary train rolls on, with this rather remarkable look at Richard and Robert Sherman – longtime staff songwriters at Walt Disney Productions and composers of some of the best known ditties ever. Much like Walt & El Grupo, The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story is a family affair. Cousins Gregory V. Sherman [...]]]>

The Disney documentary train rolls on, with this rather remarkable look at Richard and Robert Sherman – longtime staff songwriters at Walt Disney Productions and composers of some of the best known ditties ever. Much like Walt & El Grupo, The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story is a family affair. Cousins Gregory V. Sherman and Jeffrey C. Sherman have teamed up to tell the complicated and surprising story of their fathers’ lives, which is far from what even lifelong fans might suspect.

Robert and Richard Sherman

The Film

Bittersweet is a word that tends toward overuse due to a lack of alternatives, but nevertheless if you looked it up in the dictionary you would more than likely find this film.

Any Disney fan word their salt knows the Shermans well; in fact, you’d probably be hard-pressed to find anyone anywhere in America that, even though they don’t know the Sherman name, doesn’t know one of their songs. Their body of work is so vast as to be absolutely absurd, and any collection of their music can only really begin to scratch the surface. The Shermans were the staff songwriters at the Disney studio during its most prolific decade – the 1960s – and in that time they wrote for animation, live-action film, theme parks and pop singles. Their career stretches from Tin Pan Alley standards to 21st century Broadway, and their names and faces have been a familiar and comfortably avuncular presence in Disney circles for fifty years. If the Shermans hadn’t existed, Walt would have had to invent them.

The Progress City Connection: In the studio with Walt, performing There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

So, after all these years of seeing the brothers pounding away at the keyboard together and crafting countless familiar melodies, it came as a shock to nearly everyone when this film emerged and disclosed a remarkable fact – not only did the brothers lead very different and separate lives, but for the last 40 years they have been almost completely estranged outside of their work.

This is astounding for many reasons, not the least of which is that they managed to successfully hide this fact from the public while remaining fan favorites throughout. Most remarkably, though, is that they managed to keep working together with a high quality of output while having precious little to do with each other. Living only a few blocks apart, their families remained rigidly separated in private and in public, and cousins Gregory and Jeffrey Sherman were only reunited as adults before they made this film.

The reasons for this separation are as complicated as they are vague, and if there’s a flaw in this film it stems from this issue. The brothers were always very different people, living separate lives, but it seems that even then there remained some level of contact between the two young families. Only after an event in the late 1960s, during which elder brother Robert Sherman took a break from the partnership – and, indeed, from his family for a few days – did the two households truly go their separate ways. This is obviously still a very painful subject for the participants – even the usually ebullient Richard Sherman – and we never really find out what actually happened and why it was so significant.

One could argue that this has nothing to do with the real reason we care about the Shermans – their wonderful music – and that any further interest is sheer gossipmongering. Nor is it reasonable to root for the filmmakers to aggressively pry for more painful details from the elderly brothers when they’re visibly upset; I certainly wouldn’t care to do it, and I’m not as close to the situation as the interviewers. But if the issue is to be made a part of the narrative, and it really is a point that the film hinges upon, than it would make sense for viewers to have a better idea of why those events cast such a long shadow.

The brothers, in recent years

As the term bittersweet would indicate, though, the Shermans’ story is far from tragic. Born into a musical family, the two brothers were showmen from an early age. Their father, Tin Pan Alley songwriter Al Sherman, was an extremely prolific and successful composer in the early 20th century. At first the brothers seemed destined for different paths; older brother Robert was far more serious and literary, with ambitions to write the great American novel. Younger brother Richard was the first to dabble in the musical realm, and unlike the more reserved Robert he remains a font of constant motion, thought, and activity. As commentator Bruce Gordon points out during the film, the only real analogue to the two could have been if Lennon and McCartney had themselves been brothers.

The film charts the early lives of the two, through youth and beyond as Robert joins the service and witnesses the horrors of war; the trauma of his injuries, and the sights he encountered while liberating Nazi death camps, are evident even today. Economic necessity eventually forced the brothers into sharing living quarters, and with the encouragement of their father they slowly began to embark on a life as songwriters. Success came fairly quickly, but when one of their songs, Tall Paul, became a hit single for Annette Funicello in 1959, it led to career-defining staff positions at the Disney studio.

Directors Jeffrey Sherman (L) and Gregory Sherman (R) flank everyone’s favorite funnyman Dick Van Dyke

I could go on at length recounting the tales of the Shermans, as this film really does seem like an endless stream of amusing or interesting anecdotes about the brothers and their work. As I always do with any good documentary, I feel like this could have been expanded into five different films and I would have been satisfied. An endless stream of commentators, historians, and participants appear to help tell the stories and discuss the music; off the top of my head, participants include Roy E. Disney, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Jeff Kurtti, Bruce Gordon, Leonard Maltin, John Lasseter, Angela Lansbury, Hayley Mills, Leslie Ann Warren, John Davidson, Debbie Reynolds, Alan Menken, John Williams, Randy Newman, John Landis (!), Kenny Loggins (!!) and Ben Stiller (!!!). And that’s just off the top of my head.

The real joy of the film, of course, is seeing the brothers themselves, in both new interviews and a wealth of archival film. Richard remains as sunny and energetic as always, banging away on his piano in his stream-of-consciousness fashion. He also has a seemingly infinite recall of every number the brothers ever wrote. Robert, having moved to London after the death of his wife, remains pensive and at times almost haunted; he focuses now on his career as a painter. Still, despite their occasional barbs and bristles, the footage of the brothers working together remains endlessly entertaining and one gets a hint of the sheer creative energy that must have been a constant presence in the Disney studio of the 1960s.

The Shermans on the Disney lot in swankier times

The DVD

Mercifully, the documentary hits DVD with a suite of interesting extras that flesh out the story of the film.

Video & Audio

Another documentary, another variety of source materials. The newly-filmed interviews consist mostly of “talking head” segments, but the film also extensively uses archival photo, film, and video to flesh out the tale. These are, naturally, of varying visual quality but everything looks pretty good except for elements that were obviously filmed on video in the 1980s.

The film is in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (Spanish).

Bonus Materials

The extras on this disc fall into two main segments. Eight extended segments focus on certain topics with more detail than in the film itself. Then there’s the “Sherman Brothers’ Jukebox”, which features eight individual segments focusing on specific songs. Of special note here is a collection of hilarious sketches that Disney storyman Roy Williams used to slip under the brothers’ office door to illustrate whatever the brothers were up to at the time.

Features

• Extra Scenes – Why They’re “The Boys”, Disney Studios in the 60′s, Casting Mary Poppins, The Process, Theme Parks, Roy Williams, Bob’s Art, Celebration
• Sherman Brothers’ Jukebox – Chim Chim Cher-ee, Feed the Birds, There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, Jolly Holiday, Up, Down and Touch the Ground, A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Ugly Bug Ball

In Summary…

Clip-n-Save Drop Quote: “THUMB A RIDE WITH THE BOYS!! – ProgressCityUSA.com”

The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story would seem to be a natural for any Disney fan who has ever hummed a Sherman tune; that would be, well, pretty much all of you. Two very interesting and very different individuals managed to live separate lives while maintaining a public facade that cloaked their personal acrimony, but in this time they also achieved unheard of professional success; during their thirteen years on Disney staff alone they received four Oscar nominations for their more that 200 songs. All told, their work graced 27 Disney films and two dozen television productions, and their post-Disney work includes such family standards as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Charlotte’s Web. It’s a remarkable body of work by two remarkable people.

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Last week saw the release of three prominent Disney-related documentaries. The only of these that I had not seen in theaters was Walt & El Grupo, so I was naturally eager to check out director Ted Thomas’s (Frank and Ollie) recounting of Walt Disney’s 1941 South America trip (Thomas’s father, animator Frank Thomas, was [...]]]>

Last week saw the release of three prominent Disney-related documentaries. The only of these that I had not seen in theaters was Walt & El Grupo, so I was naturally eager to check out director Ted Thomas’s (Frank and Ollie) recounting of Walt Disney’s 1941 South America trip (Thomas’s father, animator Frank Thomas, was one of the studio personnel on the tour). Taking place during the infamous animation strike of 1941, and ending shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the “El Grupo” trip in many ways marked the end of innocence for Walt Disney Productions; after the trip, the Disney Studio, its films, and its artists would never be the same.

The Film

Produced by Walt Disney Family Foundation Films, Walt & El Grupo was made by people very close to the Disney legacy and it is perhaps best enjoyed by those of us who know these artists and their work well. I noted a great deal of criticism when this film was release that decried its slow pace and decision to not explore certain aspects of the story in detail. I understand those criticisms, and indeed feel that there are a number of other ways this film could have been successfully made, but that’s just not the kind of film that this is.

Instead, I think of this film as the perfect companion to J.B. Kaufman’s truly excellent book South of the Border with Disney: Walt Disney and the Good Neighbor Program 1941-1948. Kaufman’s book really digs into the the nuts and bolts of the trip, how it came to pass, and the artistic output that resulted. Thomas’s film gives a sense of what it was like on the road with El Grupo, revisits a number of their ports of call, and even finds several South American residents whose paths crossed with the Disney party.

Walt Disney cuts a rug (and cuts up) with members of the Andrés Chazarreta folk dancer troupe in the rooftop garden of the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires. Amazingly, the filmmakers actually found the dancer on the right – Miguel Gramajo – in Argentina and interviewed him for the film.

It is indeed a slow-paced film; for me, the relaxed tone matches the tropical scenery of both the modern day on-location scenes as well as the archival film from 1941. Music plays a key role in the film, with several segments matching various native melodies to snapshots from the Disney trip as well as a variety of sketches and artwork.

This, perhaps, is the film’s greatest strength – the filmmakers’ level of access allowed them to include lots of art from the Disney Animation Research Library, clips of Disney films, and a great deal of rarely-seen film shot by Disney and his artists. A number of children and descendants of the Disney party take part, often reading letters that the artists sent home to loved ones. Even Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt and Lillian Disney, takes part in the proceedings; her on-camera presence is, as always, welcome and she remains an eloquent and appealing spokesperson for her family’s legacy.

Additional on-camera contributions are made by Kaufman and animation historian John Canemaker; both are dependable and authoritative sources about the subject matter. While other voices would have been welcome to discuss various members of El Grupo, it’s hard to fault these choices.

The film takes its time going where it wants to go, and for the most part I was happy to let it do the driving. There are a few threads that seem tangential to the narrative, and which would be perhaps best relegated to the DVD extras; on the other hand there are some points that are left hanging or which seem to trail off, and perhaps more detail could have been spared in these areas. One particularly glaring point is when a local begins to tell a story about three myths that Argentinians believe about Walt Disney, but we only hear of one before the film moves on. More time could be spent on the artists as well, as many of them do not receive their full due. But, as I said originally, when viewed in concert with Kaufman’s book many of these concerns evaporate.

Departing the plane in Rio de Janeiro: Hazel and Bill Cottrell (Hazel was Lillian Disney’s sister), Ted Sears, Lillian and Walt Disney, Norm Ferguson and Frank Thomas. El Grupo split up their travel arrangements because Walt’s life insurance mandated that he could only fly with six of his employees at the same time!

The DVD

Walt & El Grupo comes to DVD with a fairly respectable slate of extras – more than what many of the studio’s releases receive these days. Most notably there’s an entire extra film – the entire, uncensored 1942 release of Saludos Amigos for the first time on DVD.

Video & Audio

The film combines a number of media, so a variety of picture qualities should be expected. After all, when your film incorporates 16mm film shot seventy years ago there are going to be some issues. Still, the archival material has been cleaned up to a remarkable degree and the film shot by El Grupo, as well as other vintage footage of the Disney lot, looks excellent. The older footage is shown windowboxed in the 1.78:1 frame of the film itself.

The rest of the film looks good, with a number of neat effects used to incorporate vintage photographs with modern-day scenes of South American cities. The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 in both English and Spanish.

Bonus Materials

As stated, the film contains some worthwhile extras. There’s an audio commentary by director Ted Thomas and author J.B. Kaufman that helps flesh out the details behind the film’s story, and the two maintain the very affable mood that pervades the film itself. There are three deleted scenes, a featurette about the film’s use of vintage photos, and, of course, Saludos Amigos.

Features

• Audio Commentary – With director Theodore Thomas and historian J.B. Kaufman.
• Photos in Motion – A demonstration showing the technical process of how photos from the original trip came to life for a unique viewing experience.
• From the Director’s Cut – Three deleted scenes from the film.
• SALUDOS AMIGOS – The original release from 1942 is one of the films inspired by Walt & El Grupo’s trip.
• Original Theatrical Trailers – For Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.

In Summary…

Walt & El Grupo is a thoroughly pleasant documentary tracing the steps of one of the most fascinating adventures in the Disney Studio’s history. The wealth of archival film and artwork presented makes this a natural for any fan, and provides an excellent companion to Kaufman’s book on the same topic. The number of participants that Thomas managed to unearth in the various South American cities visited by El Grupo is remarkable, and also is a testament to the impact that this single, short trip had. While certainly not an unobjective assessment or rigorous analysis of the Disney Studio in the prewar era, it doesn’t seem meant to be. It’s part triptych and part time machine, and a very enjoyable one at that.

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I just wanted to post a brief note that The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story is now available for download on iTunes. I never gave this film an official, full review after seeing it last year at the D23 Expo, but it’s fantastic. Directors Gregory V. Sherman and Jeff Sherman do an excellent job [...]]]>

I just wanted to post a brief note that The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story is now available for download on iTunes. I never gave this film an official, full review after seeing it last year at the D23 Expo, but it’s fantastic. Directors Gregory V. Sherman and Jeff Sherman do an excellent job at relating a very personal tale that will surprise even the most devoted Disney fan.

I recommend that you seek it out any way you can, but for now it can be found on iTunes here.

Back in the 1980s, home video was a big deal. And, increasingly, Disney began to enter into a market that it had been reluctant to consider before. The first waves of live-action home video releases were basically trial [...]]]> Somehow this evening I stumbled across a particular piece of video that instantly brought back some memories.

Back in the 1980s, home video was a big deal. And, increasingly, Disney began to enter into a market that it had been reluctant to consider before. The first waves of live-action home video releases were basically trial balloons, and consisted of a mix of A-list titles and forgotten flops. The Disney animated canon was slower to emerge on the home market, as the company remained intent on sticking to its age-old theatrical re-release strategy (a concept that continues to influence the absurd “Disney vault” concept today).

Anyway, those video releases of the early 1980s were heavily branded; from the signature clamshell cases to the awesome “neon Mickey” logo, there was a great deal of comfortable familiarity with each release.

One of the other elements included on each videocassette was this fantastic little advert, which served to promote all the other films that Disney had released for rental. It’s so wonderfully of its era, and it flashes me back to those exciting trips to the local video store to rent some Disney films for the weekend. Would it be Swiss Family Robinson or The Absent-Minded Professor? That, a collection of Donald Duck cartoons, and a rental of Metroid for the NES and I’d be good to go.

This is one of those bits of video that, even though one might not have seen it in years upon years, is still as familiar as if you’d seen it five minutes ago. The kicker is that this promo was actually put onto the Disney videocassettes after the main feature! Disney was content not to force the ad on viewers, and the heck of it is that I remember watching through the end credits of films specifically to watch this compilation. It helped that those older films had little or no end credits, and the ad could begin immediately after the title card announcing “THE END – A Walt Disney Production”, but it’s still pretty amazing that they’d stick it at the end of the tape instead of the beginning.

Take a look and feel the nostalgia. Also, note that there was a shorter and more common version of this promo, which I could really probably recite in my sleep. Quite a difference from the promos Disney puts on their releases today, eh?