Progress City, U.S.A. » Walt Disney Feature Animation

Finding The Groove

Michael — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:29:47 +0000

Not so very long ago, the Disney company made lots of animated films – some of which were drawn by hand by real people. They made big pictures; after the success of The Lion King, the goal of Disney Feature Animation was to make sweeping epics – always hoping for another shot at Oscar gold. Hot off his success with Lion King – then the highest-grossing animated film ever – director Roger Allers began to develop a new project. This film, which eventually was called Kingdom of the Sun, was a South American twist on the old “Prince and the Pauper” tale set within the ancient Incan empire. There was drama, romance, comedy, and magic – it was a big film.

As producers tried to mimic everything they thought might have contributed to Lion King‘s success, they lined up yet another famous British singer/songwriter to compose songs for the film. As part of the deal to persuade Sting to sign on the dotted line, Disney had to give his wife a job filming all the behind-the-scenes material for the film’s eventual DVD. And so Trudie Styler, wife of Sting, began filming the creative process as Kingdom of the Sun kicked into production.

And then it all went pear-shaped.

The collapse of Kingdom of the Sun, and its resurrection under a different director as The Emperor’s New Groove, was captured by Styler’s cameras but never made it to DVD. When New Groove emerged on a feature-laden DVD in 2001, little mention was made that the film once featured completely different plotlines, characters and songs. Styler turned her material into a documentary, The Sweatbox, which was released in 2002. Disney actually owns the rights to the film, which – perhaps unsurprisingly – they have done their best to bury. The documentary has never been released, has never been included on any of the New Groove releases, and for twelve years I’ve tried to find a copy.

Yesterday, it appeared on YouTube.

Watch the production fall apart. Watch the carefully crafted dreams of filmmakers dashed by glib executives. Watch Sting become increasingly bored as he progresses from one palatial residence to another. Be warned, it appears to be an unfinished assembly edit and has a timecode at the bottom – it also has a couple of naughty words, if the kiddies are in the room. Watch, while you can:

Now wasn’t that interesting? This all happened at an interesting point in time, as the animation studio was well on its way into being mismanaged into oblivion by some of the executives you see in the documentary. Note that Michael Eisner appears not once in the film – even when he was present for events being depicted. It’s an incredible time capsule as you see all these important filmmakers and animators flit in and out, many of whom are no longer at Disney. We even get to see the dear departed Joe Ranft, who must have popped in from Pixar to help pitch story ideas.

I feel conflicted watching this film, as I always do when thinking about Kingdom in the Sun. I’m actually a big fan of The Emperor’s New Groove – I remember being shocked at the time that it turned out so well. I had followed the tortured development and had been shocked at what I thought was an absolutely awful name change, but the film turned out to be really fun.

At the same time, I’ve always wanted to see how Kingdom would have turned out. I’m a fan of animated epics, and Allers’s version of the film had some really compelling elements. I like some of the songs Sting had written for that version (which was much more of a traditional musical), and as you can see from this documentary, the loss of Andreas Deja’s work on Yzma was a huge blow. Without seeing the reels from this earlier version, it’s hard to say how well it flowed, or how compelling it was, or if it was a mess or not. But you can’t look at the clips from the prologue, or Deja’s musical number with Yzma, and tell me we didn’t lose some special things. I really, really would love to see more of that material (if you have access, drop me a line).

It’s a shame this documentary isn’t more readily available. It, better than anything I’ve ever seen, shows the truly gut-wrenching process of animation development in the modern era. And it shows more of the process than any DVD documentary Disney has released in at least a decade. I wish there was a film like this for Sweatin’ Bullets/Home on the Range, Rapunzel/Tangled, American Dog/Bolt, and even the forthcoming Frozen. When a film is in development for a decade, there are stories to tell. And, as you can see here, fully fleshed-out characters, songs, and scenes. That work – especially when you see work the caliber of Deja’s – doesn’t belong in a vault somewhere. It deserves to be seen.

Also, if we didn’t realize it before, Sting is absurdly rich. And rides ponies. And wears silly hats.

Finally, because I absolutely never get tired of looking at them, are a few of John Watkiss’s incredible concept pieces for Kingdom of the Sun:

And Now, Some Stills From Wreck-It Ralph

Michael — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:07:30 +0000

A few pieces of art have emerged from Disney animation’s upcoming (and awkwardly-named) 2012 release, Wreck-It Ralph. The computer-rendered film tells the story of an 8-bit era video game villain in the Donkey Kong vein who has to deal not only with living in the modern digital world but also the fact that his heart just isn’t in villainy anymore. It’s a film that has been in turnaround a few times (its original titles was Joe Jump, and then Reboot Ralph) and its original creator has since left the company, but the story reels that were shown at the D23 Expo in 2011 were quite promising.

Wreck-It Ralph arrives in theaters on November 2nd, 2012.

Wreck-It Ralph glumly contemplates the building which he is tasked to destroy day in and day out

"Hero's Duty", a modern "Halo"-esque shooter, is one of the more modern games that Ralph escapes into in his quest to become a hero

"Sugar Rush" is a kart racing game into which Ralph escapes, and it is the source of a threat that will imperil the entire arcade

Eyvind Earle, A Biography

Michael — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 03:05:25 +0000

One of Disney’s great, iconoclastic artists was Eyvind Earle, a master painter responsible for bringing a stylized flair to midcentury Disney animation. Earle was heavily involved in the unique backgrounds and production design of Sleeping Beauty. I would elaborate on his biography, but thankfully we are able to see his life through his own words.

Cartoon Brew posted a link to an autobiographical video written, produced, and narrated by Earle before his death in 2000. It’s a wonderful artifact, and I wish more of the great Disney artists had the foresight and means to leave similar documents.

The artwork is, without a doubt, astounding, as is his animation work.

The video is in three parts, linked below.

Surprise Snowstorm

Michael — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:26:20 +0000

Funny story…

So last week I headed over to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a neat 100th birthday tribute to artist Mary Blair. It was a fun show, hosted by the always-delightful Alice Davis, and featured a panel of artists who discussed Blair’s work.

A rather surprising fact-drop occurred when moderator Charles Solomon introduced panelist Mike Giaimo as “art director of the upcoming Snow Queen.”

So… we’re on again with that?

This isn’t even the first time I’ve been startled by a casual re-announcement of Snow Queen during a presentation of something else. At the 2009 D23 Expo, veteran animation producer Don Hahn included artwork from the film in one of his presentations. You can trace back the rather bizarre history of this project through random stories we’ve posted over the years; the film has been re-incarnated so many times and in so many formats that it must be trying to wrest the title of “most tortured development” from Rapunzel/Tangled.

The last we’d heard was early last year, when the film was allegedly shelved again. But now, apparently, it’s back. Of course when I tweeted about this I was greeted with “Duh, you didn’t know that?” So maybe everyone else knows. Maybe you know. But I’m telling you anyway.

This is pretty exciting news. Hopefully it’ll be traditionally animated. That hopper is kind of empty now that Pooh has passed. Of course the way projects are constantly popping in and out of existence, I can’t keep track of this merry-go-round anymore.

I’m glad Giaimo is on board. A fan of Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle, he served as art director for Pocahontas and created that film’s unique look. Hopefully we’ll get a hand-drawn film with a unique and stylish visual flair.

Maybe they’ll stick to their guns this time. After the highly enjoyable Princess and the Frog and Tangled, I look forward to what they can come up with.

Improving On Homer, 1934

Michael — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:30:31 +0000

One thing that’s often forgotten nowadays is the fact that in Walt’s heyday – the golden age of Walt Disney Productions – the studio was a favorite of intellectuals and “serious” artists the world over. In recent decades Disney is often derided by cultural commentators, who view it as a vast hegemonic and homogenizing corporate force, and its products are (with certain exceptions) typically dismissed by self-appointed guardians of the culture.

Way back when, though, things were different. In the period between Steamboat Willy and, roughly, the time of the bitter animators’ strike in 1941, Disney’s films were darlings of the elite. And this was an age when the elite truly were elite. Mickey’s fans ranged from Charlie Chaplin to Sergei Eisenstein and René Clair; Salvador Dalí famously worked with the Disney studio, as did, briefly, Oskar Fishinger. And the “star” of the first Disney live-action film, The Reluctant Dragon, was Algonquin wit Robert Benchley.

One could debate the reasons that upper-crust perceptions of Disney changed after World War II, although a second wave of thinkers would eventually embrace the Disney theme parks when they later emerged (think James Rouse, or Ray Bradbury). Or, perhaps, society as a whole was different – after the war, the role of noted columnists, essayists, “wits”, or radio pontificators changed as well.

This piece, however, comes from the time when Walt was still the talk of intellectuals on both coasts, and it comes from one of the most hallowed of them all – author and essayist James Thurber. Writing in The Nation on March 28, 1934, Thurber penned this paean to Disney’s creations and made some suggestions for the studio’s future projects. Could Thurber’s piece have been slightly tongue-in-cheek? It’s possible, and considering that it’s Thurber writing that possibly can’t be discounted. But, more than likely, the essay reflects a sincere appreciation of Disney’s work.

And, let’s face it, of all the fans who have tried to send in their ideas for proposed projects to Disney over the years, I’ll bet Thurber’s didn’t get sent back unread by a pack of vicious lawyers.

Here’s the piece, in its entirety:

The “Odyssey” of Disney

I HAVE never particularly cared for the “Odyssey” of Homer. The edition we used in high school – I forget the editors’ names, but let us call it Bwumba and Bwam’s edition – was too small to hide a livelier book behind, and it was cold and gray in style and in content. All the amorous goings on of the story were judiciously left out. We pupils might, at that age, have taken a greater interest in T. E. Shaw’s recent rendering, the twenty-eighth, by his count, in English; for bang-off in Book I the third sentence reads: “She craved him for her bed-mate: while he was longing for his house and wife.” But there wasn’t any such sentence in old Bwumba and Bwam. It was a pretty dull book to read. No matter how thin Mr. Shaw has sliced it, it is still, it seems to me, a pretty dull book to read.

The fact that the “Odyssey” is the “oldest book worth reading for its story and the first novel of modern Europe” makes it no more lively – to me, anyway – than does the turning of it into what Mr. Shaw’s publishers call “vital, modern, poetic prose.” There are too many dreary hours between this rosy-fingered dawn and that rosy-fingered dawn. The menaces in ancient Jeopardy were too far apart, the hazards prowled at too great distances, the gods maundered and were repetitious. Ulysses himself is not a hero to whom a young man’s fancy turns in any season. The comedy of the “Odyssey” is thought by some students to be unintentional and by others to be intentional, and there must not be any uncertainty about comedy. But whatever may be said about it, the “Odyssey” will always keep bobbing up, in our years and in the years to follow them. The brazen entry into the United States of Mr. Joyce’s “Ulysses” has most recently brought the “Odyssey” again into view; as the magazine Time points out to its surprised readers, “almost every detail of the ‘Odyssey’s’ action can be found in disguised form in ‘Ulysses.’” So, many a reader might naturally enough ask, what? So nothing – that is, nothing of real importance in so far as the “Odyssey” or “Ulysses” itself is concerned. The ancient story just happened to make a point of departure for Mr. Joyce. He might equally well have taken for a pattern Sherman’s campaign in Georgia. Nevertheless, here is the old tale before us again not quite two years after Mr. Shaw went over the whole ground for the twenty-eighth time in English.

My purpose in this essay is no such meager and footless one as to suggest that it is high time for some other ancient tale to be brought up in place of the “Odyssey” – although, if urged, I would say the “Morte d’Arthur.” My purpose is to put forward in all sincerity and all arrogance the conviction that the right “Odyssey” has yet to be done, and to name as the man to do it no less a genius than Walt Disney. A year or two ago Mr. Disney made a Silly Symphony, as he too lightly called this masterpiece, entitled “Neptune.” Those who missed seeing it missed a lusty, fearsome, beautiful thing. Here was a god and here were sea adventures in the ancient manner as nobody else has given them to us. The thing cannot be described; it can be rendered into no English. But it was only a hint of what Mr. Disney, let loose in the “Odyssey,” could make of it.

The dark magic of Circe’s isle, the crossing between Scylla and Charybdis, the slaying of the suitors are just by the way; and so are dozens of other transfigurations, mythical feats of strength, and godly interventions. Mr. Disney could toss these away by the dozen and keep only a select few. For one: Ulysses and his men in the cave of the Cyclops. That would be that scene as I should like my daughter to know it first, when she gets ready for the “Odyssey,” or when she is grimly made ready for it – I presume one still has to read it in school as I did, along with “The Talisman” and “Julius Caesar.” Picture Mr. Disney’s version of the overcoming of the giant, the escape tied to the sheep, the rage of Polyphemus as he hurls the tops of mountains at the fleeing ship of Ulysses and his men!

But I think my favorite scene will be (I’m sure Mr. Disney will do the “Odyssey” if we all ask him please) that scene wherein Menelaus and his followers wrestle with the wily Proteus on the island of Pharos. You know: the Old Man of the Sea comes up out of the dark waters at noon to count his droves of precious seals all stretched out on the beach. In his innocence of treachery or of any change in the daily routine, he unwittingly counts Menelaus and his three men, who are curled up among the seals trying to look as much like seals as possible. It doesn’t come out, by the way, in any rendering I’ve read, and I’ve read two, just what the Old Man thought when he found he had four seals too many. Anyway, at the proper moment Menelaus and his followers jump upon Proteus. In the terrific struggle that ensues the Old Man changes into – here I follow the Shaw version – “a hairy lion: then a dragon: then a leopard: then a mighty boar. He became a film of water, and afterwards a high-branched tree.”

How only for Walt Disney’s hand and his peculiar medium was that battle fought! His “Odyssey” can be, I am sure, a far, far greater thing than even his epic of the three little pigs. Let’s all write to him about it, or to Roosevelt.

James Thurber

OK, so maybe Thurber was having a bit of sport, but you never know.

This was, of course, three years before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuted, so Thurber had hardly seen Disney at the full extent of his powers. It’s amusing, though, to think of a time when the only place you could see spectacles of the sort that Thurber outlines was in a Disney film. In a way, Disney was the Industrial Light and Magic of the day; such a perspective really does help one understand why Walt’s films caused the sensation that they did.

Here’s the Silly Symphony that so inflamed Thurber’s imagination:

Deja News

Michael — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:51:41 +0000

Andreas Deja with Eric Larson, 1980

Disney animation stalwart Andreas Deja has set up his own blog with which to share his vast collection of vintage artwork and stories of working with the legends of Disney animation. I’ve no doubt it will be a project to follow with great interest…

Real-World Recruiting

Michael — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:25:56 +0000

Since we’ve seen my home-made attempt at a Disney recruitment brochure, why not a peek at the real thing? Courtesy of John Donaldson, here’s the cover of a Disney recruiting flier from the 1970s:

Why does this feel like some kind of awkward “health and hygiene” literature that would be distributed to teenagers?

Arts And Crafts: Now Hiring Animators!

Michael — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:49:53 +0000

I was one of “those” kids.

I suppose that some are born into Disney fandom, some achieve fandom, and others have fandom thrust upon them; I’m not sure which of these categories I fall into, but my Disney predilection certainly manifested itself early. Perhaps it was the smuggled copies of Disney News in my elementary school knapsack, or the scribbles of Spaceship Earth and monorails in the margins of my notebooks, but my personal obsession was well-known and acknowledged by all. People signed my yearbook “See you at EPCOT!”, and I recently found a document from my 8th grade graduation that predicted what the denizens of Shelby Middle School would be doing in the distant year of 2010. Whoever put together those prognostications suggested that I would be working as Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World; I recall being incensed by the suggestion at the time – nothing against the Character Zoo, but I was convinced that by 2010 I would be well on my way to replacing Eisner as Chairman.

But the full weight of my early fandom – and the realization of how truly unbearable I must have been – didn’t hit me until I was at home over the holidays and came across several boxes of old papers and school things from elementary and middle school. To even my surprise, it appears that hardly any assignment crossed my desk without me finding some backwards way of working Walt Disney World into the mix. There seems to have been a general tone of resentment that I was being asked to do busy work when I could be in Orlando or, at the very least, thinking about Epcot Center and reading about water hyacinths purifying waste water.

I could probably put together a whole book of my bizarre attempts to insert Disney into my schoolwork, from doodles of Epcot pavilion logos to vocabulary assignments where I managed to come up with a sentence about wanting to be at Walt Disney World for every single vocabulary word. Naturally, I also worked my tendencies into various school projects – sadly, I have never been artistic, or I would have been one of those genius kids who builds scale models of theme parks. Instead, I mostly wrote (surprise). I remember doing a biography of Walt very early on in school, but what inspired me to post today was this hilarious brochure for Disney Animation that I whipped up for some long-forgotten assignment.

I don’t even know what this was for, or when, although I would guess late elementary school or very early middle school. That would place it directly before or right on the cusp of Disney’s animation renaissance with The Little Mermaid in 1989 (although I had, of course, dutifully seen The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company in theaters). The fact that this pre-dated everyone’s swanky renegotiated contracts in the 1990s makes it even more funny.

While I was raised on a steady diet of old footage of hijinks with the Nine Old Men, I don’t recall ever really thinking that Disney Animation was a worker’s paradise (until, again, the 1990s); I’m therefore going to chalk up this brochure’s insane level of overstatement to the fact that we were supposed to be “selling” something for this assignment. And sell I did. I’m sure I figured that I knew way more about animation than my teachers, so I could say whatever I wanted and they wouldn’t know that every animator didn’t get a huge private office of their own. I’ll also say that, knowing my young self fairly well, this brochure smacks of a “done on the morning-of” effort (it’s far more primitive than a brochure for the parks that I did for an assignment in 8th grade), which would account for its rather unimpressive nature. Again, I probably figured that the teacher would be so impressed by my reputation in this particular field that I would never be questioned!

So here’s my representation of Disney Animation, circa the very late 1980s. Perhaps some of our readers from the animation industry can vet its veracity? Just don’t tell my teachers if I got it wrong!

This cracks me up for many reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t remember it at all and I have no idea where I got any of these “facts” (and statistics!). I’m sure I completely made up the projected increase in demand “by 1995″, but strangely enough that probably turned out to be an underestimation. I just wish I knew if the “Walt Disney is looking for talented young artists!” bit was an intentional shout-out to all those famous old ads from Walt’s time.

Good pay, good hours, free art supplies, and the prestige of working for the Walt Disney Company?? Sign me up!

May At The Walt Disney Family Museum

Michael — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:25:37 +0000

It’s a fascinating month in May at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, with showings of the 1941 classic Dumbo and a look at the Disney Studios during World War II. There’s even an extremely rare screening of 1943′s Victory Through Air Power! Good stuff. As always, you can find out information about the museum at its website, and be sure to subscribe to its blog.

The Walt Disney Family Museum
May 2011 Events Calendar

Join us for Dumbo-themed screenings, classes, activities and fun!
Plus a Salute to Walt Disney Studios during World War II

SCREENINGS + DISCUSSIONS

FILM OF THE MONTH – May 1–May 31
Dumbo (1941)
1:00pm and 4:00pm daily, Theater
(except Tuesdays and May 21 + 22)
Tickets available online

May 21 – World War II: Fighting the War with Ink and Paint
3:00pm, Theater
Tickets available online

It was the day after Pearl Harbor when the U.S. Army moved into the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, California. Not only was the Studio a convenient storage facility during World War II, but Walt Disney himself was recruited by the government to create training and propaganda films, which made up more than 90% of the company’s production.

Join noted Walt Disney Family Museum historian and author Paul F. Anderson as he chronicles Walt’s contributions towards the War effort. Relive this pivotal time through never-before-seen images, rare video clips, and moving stories—and through this narrative, discover how Walt Disney whole-heartedly devoted himself and his organization to winning the war. Paul’s presentation is sometimes funny, often emotional, and thoroughly uplifting.

May 22 – Screening – Victory Through Air Power + Conversation
2:00pm, Theater
Tickets available online

Walt Disney Family Museum historian Paul F. Anderson will offer a visual presentation on the making of the film, and the resulting impact the film had on Allied war strategy. This brief presentation will be followed by a screening of Walt Disney’s Victory Through Air Power (1943), after which we will open up the floor to any questions.

MUSIC

May 15 – Volti: A Musical Presentation
4:00pm, Special Exhibition Hall
Tickets available online

Join us in our Special Exhibition Hall to hear Volti’s professional vocalists, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary. The ensemble encourages, fosters and showcases contemporary American music and composers, to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences.

CLASSES + ACTIVITIES

May 7 – Inside the Studios: A Day in the Life of a Studio Member
1:00—3:00pm, Gallery 5
Free with paid Museum admission

Our Inside the Studios Series allows visitors to experience what it’s like to be a member of a studio team, through live demonstrations in our Galleries. This month, we’re kicking off the series by focusing on “the Animator”. Stop by Gallery 5 where you will see an animator hard at work and you can ask questions while watching the artist impart life into their drawings.

May 21 – Voice-over Class: Intermediate
Workshop #1: 10:00am—1:00pm, Learning Center Media Studio
Workshop #2: 2:00pm—5:00pm, Learning Center Media Studio

This intermediate class by Disney voice-over artist, Ned Lott is a follow-up course to our introductory workshop. This class will focus on performance for different applications in the art of voice-over acting. You will receive further training on how to use your body as the instrument to help further develop your own creative character voices. Don’t miss this fun and inspiring class. Registration required. Email education@wdfmuseum.org or call 415.345.6814.

Price: Members: $55 // Non-Members: $60

MAY DISNEY DISCOVERIES! + LOOK CLOSER SERIES

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Saturday, May 14 + Sunday, May 22
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center Art Studio
Create your own magical feather! In honor of the film of the month, we will use a variety of materials to make your special charm that’ll help you fly like Dumbo!

LOOK CLOSER:
May 28 + May 29 – Look Closer: World War II Disney Insignias
3:00 pm, Lower Lobby
Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts, behind the scenes information, or just additional information during the 5 to 8-minute gallery talk.

Tangled!! Photos! Here! Rapunzel! Flynn Rider! Maximus! Pascal!

Michael — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:35:25 +0000

Typically, when a new animated film is released, I post some artwork in case anyone’s out looking for that sort of thing. I didn’t get around to it when Tangled hit theaters, but since it’s back in the spotlight with its recent DVD release, I thought I’d post some pretty pictures for you to enjoy. Film stills, development art, and character art await…

Stills

[Show as slideshow]