The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Lady and the Tramp

  Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

The Lady and the Tramp: A Nostalgic set of Firsts

Following Peter Pan, Disney decided to do a bunch of firsts for his next movie. First, they changed distributors from RKO to Buena Vista. Second, this one would take place in the 1890s, much closer to when the movie was released (1955, for those curious), and definitely a favorite time for Walt. It was his childhood, after all, and he based the movie in his hometown of Marceline, Missouri. Third, the movie would have a heroine instead of a hero…groundbreaking for the 1950s. It was, mostly, based on a contemporary story…except for one part, which was based on an event in Walt’s life.

The Plot: One Christmas day, Jim Dear (Yes, that’s his name here) gives his wife, Darling (Again, yes that’s her name here), a gift in a hat box. She is surprised to receive an adorable Cocker Spaniel puppy that she immediately names “Lady”.

After a few…bumps regarding training the puppy, time speeds up and we cut to Lady as a beautiful adult, loved by her owners and doing dog things…like digging up the flowers (and trying to put them back), chasing rats and pigeons…and the occasional mailman. She finally gets her collar and license, and shows it to her neighbors, Scottish Terrier Jock, and Southern bloodhound Trusty. Meanwhile, our “Tramp” (mind you, this was a different use of the word then, the foreign dubs usually titled this film “Lady and the Vagabond”) is enjoying his life on the streets and being gifted bones from a local restaurant.
After this, Lady begins to notice a few changes in her home. Her loving owners have become a bit more strict. Jim dear actually hits her once! (Nowadays, we know better than to use corporate punishment on kids and dogs, but back then it was acceptable. Now it just makes animals scared of us or just genuinely confused as to what they did wrong). Trusty and Jock try to reassure her that it’s nothing that bad…an illusion that Tramp bursts out of “experience”. Her owners are having a baby, and she’s likely to be thrown out. Jock…is not amused and sends him off out of indignation.
The months come and go, and the baby is eventually born…and Lady finds she wants to protect him just as much as she wants to protect her owners. All well and good…except her owners go away for a bit and leave Aunt Sarah to look after the baby. Aunt Sarah also brought along her two Siamese cats who embody some of the most cringeworthy aspects of stereotypes for Asian people at the time (Check many of the Yellow Peril lists and you’ll find they fill most of the boxes. Ugh. On top of that, they behave nothing like real life Siamese cats, who are amongst the friendliest breeds out there…if not a bit LOUD). After a scuffle that Aunt Sarah believes Lady caused, she tries to Muzzle Lady…and Lady escapes.
Lady is saved by Tramp from three extremely aggressive dogs in a very realistic dog fight, and Tramp offers to get the muzzle off. A gopher gets it off at the nearby zoo, and Lady and Tramp go on a date where we get the iconic scene of both of them sharing the spaghetti kiss while being serenaded by the Italian chefs (Yes, stereotypical. We usually give this one a pass because they ship Lady and the Tramp together and are among the friendlier ones). After an incident where Lady accidently gets sent to the Pound, Lady’s rosy outlook on Tramp is shattered when the Pound dogs reveal that Tramp has a big weakness for females and she’s the latest one he’s loved.
Lady is eventually returned home and chained outside where her neighbors try to comfort her. Tramp reappears…and Lady tells him off in no uncertain terms. Meanwhile, the rat from earlier appears and makes it to where the baby is. Tramp gets called in and subdues the Rodent…and is mistaken for hurting the baby. Jim Dear and Darling tell off Aunt Sarah for mistreating their dog as Lady reveals the Rat and Jock and Trusty track down the dogcatcher to stop him from putting Tramp down. After a tense chase, we cut forward a few months to Christmas. Tramp is now adopted, there are now many puppies…and Trusty is healing from a broken leg.

The first scene of this movie was inspired by Walt giving his wife a puppy in a hatbox because he felt guilty for leaving her alone while doing his work. And she reacted just as much to her new puppy as Darling did to Lady. In fact, this movie actually made Cocker Spaniels a popular breed. It’s also, somewhat, blamed for much of the bad breeding that has caused some health and behavioral problems with the breed.
This is also the first Disney movie to be shot in Cinemascope, a pretty groundbreaking aspect ratio that has since continued to be used.
The story was actually going to be different, believe it or not, with another rival for Lady’s affections competing with Tramp’s. It was scrapped, but the character remains as one of the Pound dogs (the big Russian one). On top of that, the rat was originally going to be less of a menace, and more of a low grade trouble maker who spoke. He even had a name, Herman. The Cats were also supposed to react with shock at finding the rat, and believe it or not…Trusty would have died. Walt decided not to do that last one out of remembering the last time he killed a side character (After all, nobody forgot Bambi’s mother’s death).

Anyone who’s seen this movie and played video games might remember Ripper Roo from Crash Bandicoot’s laugh being similar to the hyena from this movie. They are the same sound effect, after all.

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Peter Pan

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Peter Pan: Successful Old Shame

 Believe it or not, Peter Pan was meant to be Disney’s second theatrical movie. Walt didn’t get the rights to it until 1939 when J. M. Barrie gave the rights to his play to him. Around that time, Walt began developing the characters and storylines to make it his fourth film until WWII came around and put the breaks on that, making Peter Pan the 14th entry in the Disney animated canon. This would also be the last film that all of the Nine Old Men would work on together.

Plot: In Edwardian London, one night, Mr. and Mrs. Darling are preparing for a party with Mr. being the guest of honor. The kids, Wendy, Michael and John are playing a game of Peter Pan against Captain Hook, a result of the many stories that Wendy tells to John and Michael. Unfortunately for Mr. Darling, Michael and John used his shirt front as a treasure map…and his cufflinks for treasure. A slip up with their dog, Nana and his being neglected (while the dog did slip up and fall, Mr. Darling got flung halfway across the room and plowed headfirst into the wall. Three guesses who sympathy fell on, and the first two don’t count.) forces his hand as he ties up Nana outside in the doghouse and makes Wendy move out of the nursery into her own room. Mr. Darling knows he’s being a bit on the strict side, but he’s also got a point that Wendy is now moving on from being a child and she has to grow up.
Wendy, on the other hand, doesn’t want to grow up and wants to stay a child. She remarks to her mother that she found Peter Pan’s shadow and he might come pick it up…and because a boy never growing up, even in Edwardian London, is a bit on the farfetched side…her story ends up ignored. That said, Peter Pan returns to her room with his Pixie, Tinker Bell while trying to find his shadow…and accidently wakes up the Darlings.
More than enamored with the story come to life, Wendy immediately develops a bit of a crush on Peter that Tinker Bell notices right away…and is not happy about. Peter, on the other hand, decides Wendy would make a good Mother for the Lost Boys and decides to take her and her brothers to Neverland, where they will never grow up. After figuring out how to fly…after a failed first try, they make it to Neverland by flying to the Second star to the right and straight on till morning.
Right as they make it, we cut to the pirate ship in the middle of the water at Neverland, where we meet Captain Hook and his crew of pirates who threaten mutiny on the captain because he won’t leave Neverland until he gets revenge on Peter Pan for cutting his hand off…and then tossing it to a crocodile who has since appreciated the taste of him and wants seconds.
Wendy soon finds out that Neverland isn’t quite as fun as she made it out to be. Tinkerbell tries to get the Lost Boys to shoot her down, and Tinkerbell is banished for a week by Peter Pan, she’s nearly drowned by jealous mermaids, and after a game with the resident Indians (who are incredibly painful and cringeworthy stereotypes now, but were fair for their day back then), gets stuck with the chores while her brothers get the adventures. Wendy decides she’s had enough especially when she realizes that Peter Pan won’t be able to give her the mature relationship she wants.
During all of this, Tinker Bell, still driven by the jealousy of Wendy’s relationship with Peter Pan, decides to give Captain Hook, who goes through many hilarious failed attempts to kill Peter Pan, the location of his hideout. This gets Tink stuck in a lamp as Captain Hook makes his way to it.
After the adventure with the Indians, Wendy decides to go home and realizes growing up isn’t quite as bad as it seems. Her siblings and the lost boys decide to head back with her, much to Peter Pan’s anger. His last parting words being that once you grow up, you can’t go back to Neverland…and then they head into the trap Captain Hook set up for them, with Captain Hook setting down a bomb to kill Peter Pan (He did promise Tink that he wouldn’t lay a finger or a hook on a hair of Peter’s, and he does fulfill that promise).
Tink escapes, foils the trap, and Peter Pan rescues everyone on board the ship with one last humiliating loss for Captain Hook before sending the Darlings home.

The movie was very successful…but Walt didn’t like it at all. He found Peter Pan to be very cold and unlikeable. One of the lead animators, Marc Davis, also hated the way the Indians turned out (and that’s just one of the reasons this hasn’t aged well). All in all, despite being popular at the time, Peter Pan really hasn’t aged well. Believe it or not, the story was supposed to be much darker, early drafts had this actually seen through Nana’s eyes instead of everyone else’s. On top of that, Tinker Bell was considered risqué enough that many people actually thought she had to be toned down…which she eventually was when she became second mascot to Disney.
There are also a few references to the original stage play in the animation as well. During the kid’s game, there is a brief discussion about which hand of Captain Hook’s was cut off. It was his right hand in the play, while here, it was the left to make Hook easier to animate. Hook was also voiced by the same voice actor as Mr. Darling, a tradition started in the stageplay and kept since then. This was also the first time Peter Pan was voiced by a guy instead of the usual custom of being voiced by a woman. This movie would also be the end of Disney being produced by RKO Radio pictures, with its’ next picture going with Buena Vista for a while.

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Alice in Wonderland

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Alice in Wonderland: The Oddball

Believe it or not, Walt Disney was a very big fan of Alice’s adventures in wonderland. It sure helped with his Alice comedies when he was breaking into the field of Animation, and Disney had wanted to make an adaptation of it decades earlier. Someone else got to it first, so Disney decided to wait it out until it was done…not exactly helped by WWII. 1951 was when Disney released it, and it became much like the Emperor’s New Groove (more on that one later…much later). As a result of its’ inherent strangeness and a few liberties taken here and there, it’s definitely one of the stranger movies in the Disney Canon.

The Plot:

One day, Alice is taking reading lessons from her older sister and begins to dream of a land where everything is the opposite and what makes sense here, doesn’t make sense in that world. Just as she finishes describing her “Wonderland”, she spots a rabbit in a waistcoat panicking about being late.
Curiosity overwhelms Alice at the situation, and she chases him, falling down the rabbit hole in the process. Shortly after, reality takes a lunch break as Alice marvels at just how…otherly this place is. Between drinks and small tarts that make you shrink and grow, respectively, caucus races that never end, and are presided by Dodos, flowers that sing and talk, and hookah smoking catterpillars, Alice gets lost trying to find the White Rabbit.
Not helping matters are the Mad Hatter, March Hare and Cheshire Cat, with the former two just confusing her, and the latter getting her into trouble with his riddles and every appearance until she swears off the madness and wants to go home. A run in with the tyrannical Queen of Hearts (a mix between said character, the Duchess, and the Red queen from Through the Looking Glass), puts her on the run before she realizes Wonderland is all a dream and promptly wakes up.

Even though the movie was fondly remembered by audiences, the movie was the first box office failure of the silver age, and Walt actually agreed with the outcome. Between the nonsensical plot, several changes with characters, omitting many of them (The Mock Turtle, Gryphon, Duchess and her cook among a few), and more than a few cut songs, it made for a fairly confusing story. There was going to be an entire sequence involving the Jabberwocky that was cut for being too scary, and one of the songs, “Beyond the Laughing Sky” was repurposed into the intro song for another movie altogether (For those of you who are curious, “The Second Star to the right”, the very movie after this one).

Much of the Un-birthday, sequence was also ad-libbed by Ed Wynn, and this movie would be the grand introduction of Kathryn Beaumont in her first big part in a movie (among a few others in Walt Disney movies). Between the experimental plot, ad libbing and much of the cut material, it was quite clear that this movie was done mostly for the art, although without it, we sure wouldn’t have those teacup rides…or many of the other songs we now know and love like the Un-birthday song and the march of the cards, an impressive set of animation that still holds pretty well today!

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Cinderella

  Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Cinderella: Start of the Silver age

  After the golden age, many of the animators (along with a sizeable chunk of the country) were drafted because of World War 2. Because of this, Disney couldn’t make the lavishly animated features he had made earlier and instead made several features that were made of shorts, kind of in the spirit of Fantasia. After the war ended, Disney went back to making feature films and started the silver age in 1950, back to where Disney excelled: Fantasy. Walt decided instead of using the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, that he would use a different one instead, by Charles Perrault.

Plot: Cinderella used to live in a loving household with a noble parentage…until her mother died. Her father was heartbroken until he found another wife named, Lady Tremaine, who had two daughters of her own that he thought would get along fine with Cinderella…at least until he died too. After that, Tremaine and her two daughters showed their true colors as petty and abusive. They reduced Cinderella to a servant in her own house while Lady Tremaine spoiled her two daughters rotten. Through this, though, Cinderella kept a relatively sunny attitude with her animal friends (need I remind you, this is still a Disney princess movie. gotta have those).

Meanwhile, the king of the land decides he wants to have a royal ball for his son, Prince Charming. The king isn’t getting any younger, and he wants his son to be wedded and happy like he was…and he really wants to have grandkids.

The news of this ball reaches everyone in the land that every eligible lady should attend. It reaches Lady Tremaine and her daughters…and the news reaches Cinderella as well. Lady Tremaine allows her to go…provided she actually has something to wear. As luck would have it, Cinderella does have something…it’s just not finished yet. One of her mother’s dresses was left to her and she has been restoring it. That said, Lady Tremaine and her daughters saddle her with so much work that she has no real way of finishing it in time…a feat her animal friends decide to take on their own.

With a dress fitting the Ball, Cinderella makes her way there…only for her step sisters to ruin her work and tear the dress to shreds, ensuring she has nothing to go to the ball with. Feeling rightfully defeated, Cinderella weeps in the garden until her Fairy Godmother comes along and decides to help her out. Her dress gets a makeover, her animal friends become chauffeurs and a resident pumpkin gets turned into a carriage fit for a princess. This comes with a warning: She can dance to her heart’s content until midnight, when the spell wears off. With this, Cinderella makes her way to the ball.

We cut to the prince who is unmoved by any of the candidates (especially Anastasia and Drizella Tremaine)…until he meets our heroine and is instantly smitten, asking her for a dance. Tremaine and her daughters suspect something is up, but can’t put their finger on things…and as luck would have it, they can’t. The midnight bell rings and Cinderella makes a mad dash to get home, with the Prince trying to find out her name. In her haste, she leaves a slipper behind and just barely makes it home in time for the spell to wear off.

The king is comically angry that the Duke let Prince Charming’s date get away and decides to make the Duke search the entire kingdom for the woman who fits the glass slipper that was left behind. Again, news of this spreads through the kingdom until it reaches Lady Tremaine’s ears…and she decides to take a more proactive role in keeping Cinderella away from the Duke…by locking her in her room.
Cinderella’s animal friends help unlock the door just in time for her to catch the Duke’s eye after the hilarious failures of the Tremaine sisters’ attempts to fit the slipper on their feet. Lady Tremaine, through subtle manipulation (Subtle being “making the man with the slipper trip) ensures the slipper is destroyed and there is no way to test it against Cinderella…until Cinderella reveals she has the other one. Thus, Cinderella and the Prince end up together, happily ever after.

This is the first film in which all of Disney’s Nine Old Men, the men who started Disney’s animation department with Snow White, worked together as animation directors…and it really shows. It was the biggest success since Snow White and it was the picture that reversed Disney Studios’ fortunes after its’ string of flops during the Golden Age. It netted them such a great profit, that the proceeds went to help Disney’s Florida project, which eventually became Walt Disney World.

 

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Bambi

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Bambi: End of the Golden Age

If any film tied Disney to a cutesy, family image, it’s this one. Bambi is based off of the book “Bambi, a life in the woods” by Felix Salten. Believe it or not, the film is much, much lighter than the book ever was, and the film was meant to recover more losses from the last movies. Instead of having a linear storyline, it has a bunch of episodic plots with overarching themes of friendship, love and growing up.

Plot: We start out with a stunning shot of the forest (in a single shot, that was impressive especially for 1942). We then meet some of the citizens of the forest, who witness the birth of a fawn named Bambi. Bambi is said to be the next prince of the forest, who is to guard the animals from hunters. He meets many friends, including Thumper the rabbit, and flower the skunk…before his curiosity gets the better of him and he is also introduced to Man…who nearly shoots him. The Great Prince of the Forest scares Man off and escorts Bambi back to his mother.
Cut a few months to Winter, and Bambi and Thumper are playing in the snow while Flower is busy hibernating. During a gathering trip, Bambi and his mother encounter Man again, and while Bambi makes it away safely, his mother does not, in which is the most remembered scene of the movie. The Great Prince takes pity on Bambi and takes him in, before revealing he’s Bambi’s father.
Cut to another year away, and it’s mating season. Everyone begins to get “twitterpatted” and Bambi meets a beautiful doe named Faline…along with another stag named Ronno who challenges Bambi for Faline’s affections…and loses.
Cut a few more months ahead, and Bambi wakes up smelling smoke. Turns out some hunters have made a camp. Bambi and his father make it out unscathed, but Bambi is separated from Faline until he finds her cornered by some hunting dogs. Bambi wards them off, and the hunters’ fire accidently catches to other parts of the forest, and causes them to flee far away to the shelter at the riverbank. Spring comes back, Faline gives birth to twins, and the cycle begins again.

Much like the rest of the movies released in the Golden age of Disney, Bambi lost the studio some money. To be honest, WWII was going on, which cut Disney off from the European market, however its’ failure to earn back more money effectively killed off any other attempts for lavishly animated pictures until a little later…and then well into the 90s. Probably the biggest point of contention people had between this movie and the others, was the lack of fantasy. As one might expect, many outdoorsman saw this movie as a pretty good insult. Ironically, Bambi’s creation and loaning to the US government for a year (For fire safety) led to the creation of another widely celebrated mascot in the US, Smokey Bear.