D23 Presents Destination D: 75 Years of Disney Animated Features - Day 2
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Saturday, August 11 and Sunday August 12, 2012
DAY TWO
WACKY AND WILD DISNEY ANIMATION
The second day of Destination D: 75 Years of Disney Animation began on a comic note with the presentation Wacky and Wild Disney Animation. Billy Stanek, co-host of D23’s Disney Geek blog welcomed Jerry Beck and Eric Goldberg to the stage. Beck is a well-known author and blogger on the history of animation, and Goldberg is a Disney animator, writer and director. Together they took an amusing historical tour through some of Disney’s wildest animated moments.
Beck began by pointing out that while audiences associate humor in animation with Warner Brothers, Disney (especially in the early shorts) was just as funny and inventive as their Burbank rivals. Further, Beck said, Disney had an undeniable allure as the top animation studio in Hollywood.
The first wild and wacky example was drawn, fittingly, from the first Mickey Mouse short presented to the public, Steamboat Willie. The sequence selected was one that was altered in later prints, to tone down some of Mickey’s antics with the various animals aboard the boat. A surreal sequence from The Barn Dance also illustrated Mickey’s early, more callous personality. Dancing with Minnie, his feet grow ever larger, as he causes her pain with his clumsy dancing.
Disney’s use of caricature was showcased in Mother Goose Goes Hollywood. The character design appeared heavily influenced by Hirschfeld, especially in Ward Kimball’s sequence with the Marx Brothers as the three men in the tub. After showing a section of Through the Mirror, Goldberg pointed out that it was part of a series of Alice in Wonderland references that appeared periodically through the history of the Disney studio, starting with the silent Alice comedies, and appearing most recently in Tim Burton’s live action version.
The panel then jumped to Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, the first animated film in Cinemascope. Ward Kimball’s inventive stylized animation was well displayed in the sequences shown. The influence of character designer Joe Grant was next showcased in the Dance of the Hours sequence from the original Fantasia. Nearly 60 years later, Grant’s continuing influence was seen in the Carnival of the Animals section of Fantasia 2000. Eric Goldberg was well suited to discuss this animation, as it was his own work. He pointed out the vivid use of color by the art director, his wife Susan Goldberg.
Both Goldberg and Beck identified the next film, Dumbo, as their favorite by Disney. Pink Elephants on Parade, they said, was unlike anything seen in a Disney film. Indeed, they added, it was more akin to the surreal work of the Fleischer brothers. After viewing it, Beck quipped, “It looks like the whole studio was on drugs.”
Surrealism was again on display with After You’ve Gone, from Make Mine Music. Goldberg pointed out that the art movement was of great interest in Hollywood at the time, and that one of its most famous proponents, Salvador Dali, was actually consulting on a cartoon for Disney.
Beck and Goldberg both agreed that the craziest character ever devised by Disney was the Aracuan Bird from Melody Time. His appearance in the Blame It on the Samba sequence pitted the zany antics of the crested bird against Disney’s top animated star, Donald Duck.
Eric Goldberg was, again, well suited to discuss the next zany character, the Genie from Aladdin. As lead animator, his first task was to convince the then rising stand up comic Robin Williams to agree to provide the voice for the character. The producers, Musker and Clements, had been writing the character with him in mind, despite the fact that he hadn’t been approached for the role. A pencil test was created, utilizing existing audio from some of Williams’ recordings. Goldberg exclaimed that making Robin Williams laugh at the results was the highlight of his professional life.
As the discussion came to end, Goldberg suggested, “Let’s look at Ward Kimball.” He described him as Disney’s most eccentric animator, and Beck agreed, adding he was a rare non-conformist in a studio noted for conformity. His month’s long work on the cut soup eating sequence from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was shown in pencil test form. “Funny drawings, that’s what Ward did,” was one comment. Next up was his work on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Goldberg stated, “Ed Wynn was a great inspiration.” The comic performance during the filming of the live action reference was so much better than Wynn’s work in the recording studio that Disney ended up using the former, despite the fact that the audio quality was slightly different. Kimball’s work on Tweedledee and Tweedledum was next delineated, as his animation was first run in slow motion, and then at full speed.
To finish the panel, and the discussion of Ward Kimball’s work, a selection from Three Caballeros was screened. You Belong to my Heart was run without comment, because, as the panelists admitted, “You can’t explain it.”
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