It’s time to spend another “Wednesday with Walt,” and this week we dive into the Academy Award Winning Shorts. Theo Gluck from Walt Disney Studios was our host. Theo is Director of the Studio Library, Restoration and Preservation. He took us through the process of film restoration. In early animation, each scene needed to be processed three times using a successive exposure negative. This gave it the appropriate color. To restore a film, each frame had to be looked at and given appropriate attention. Most frames had scratches that were visible when viewing on a screen. The digital restoration process is the most difficult, but the results are great. It’s almost as if the film was created for the first time.
Now we move on to the history of animated shorts, and we’re not talking about Mickey’s shorts! Disney has won 13 Academy Awards for its Shorts. When restoring the original shorts, it was kind of difficult to do because a lot of research had to be done to make sure the original title card was attached to each short. The wrong one was usually attached, and it was the “Distributed by Buena Vista Distrbution, Inc.” That title card was created in 1953 when Disney took control of film distribution. So in order to make the title sequence as original as possible, they matched what had been preserved over the years to make the restoration process easier.
Four Academy Award winning shorts were seen in this presentation: “Flowers and Trees,” “The Old Mill,” “Lend A Paw,” and “Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom.” (Note: “Flowers and Trees” and “The Old Mill” were also seen in another ‘Wednesdays with Walt’ program – “The Story of the Silly Synphony.”)
The first Academy Award Winning Short we saw was “Flowers and Trees,” the first color animated short. This Silly Symphony was originally being produced in black and white, but production was shortly changed to color with the help of new three-strip Technicolor process. In this shirt, the flowers and trees do their exercises as it is now spring time. Some trees play a tune, using vines for strings. A fight breaks out between a grouchy hollow tree and a healthier looking tree who were vying for the attention of a particular female tree. The young tree is victorious, but the hollow tree soon retaliates by starting a fire. Some birds help put out the fire by poking holes in the clouds to make it rain, but the hollow tree perishes in the flames. The young tree then proposes to the female tree, and they embrace as a rainbow forms behind them. This Silly Symphony also won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1933.
Next up is “The Old Mill.” This short depicts the natural community of animals populating an abandoned windmill in the country and how they deal with a severe thunderstorm that nearly destroys their habitat. “The Old Mill,” like other Silly Symphony shorts, were testing grounds for advanced animation techniques. The multi-plane camera was used for the first time, while realistic depictions of rain, wind, lightning, splashes, and reflections were also seen and used. Nearly everything learned from the making of “The Old Mill” was incorporated into the feature-length animated film, especially “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” This Silly Symphony also won the 1937 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.
We now move away from non-Disney character based shorts to one featuring Mickey and Pluto. “Lend A Paw” was released in October 3, 1941, and it tells the story of Pluto and a kitten. Pluto is out and about when he sees a bag floating on a piece of ice and hears a noise. He rescues the animal, but then loses interest when he find out it’s a kitten. The kitten follow Pluto home, and Mickey immediately falls in love with the kitten. Of course, Pluto isn’t too happy since the kitten is taking over his space. Pluto tries to come up with a way to get rid of the kitten. His “devil” and “angel” come out and give him advice. Pluto is still confused, but does what he can to do away with the kitten. Mickey soon hears a noise, and runs out to see what had happened. No one says anything until Bianca the Goldfish tells Mickey what happened. Mickey is upset, and tells Pluto to go outside. Shortly after, the kitten is playing with a ball of yarn, and the yarn goes outside. So the kitten chases after it, but then falls into a well. Pluto sees this, and does what he can to save the kitten yet again. The kitten gets saved but while doing so, Pluto himself falls into the well. Pluto is then rescued by Mickey, but Pluto is stuck in a big block of ice. Mickey brings Pluto inside to warm him up, and everyone ends up happy.
The final Academy Award winning short we saw was “Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom.” This short features Professor Owl and the singing birds. Most Disney fans might know Professor Owl and the singing birds best from the opening sequence to the Disney Sing-Along videos released in the 1980s and 1990s. This short was the first Disney cartoon to be filmed and released in widescreen CinemaScope. The short begins as credits roll over a stylized music shop. The names of the cast, crew and title are superimposed over various musical instruments and instrument cases. Our host for this short is none other than Professor Owl, who explains to us that all music originates from four core sounds: toot (brass), whistle (woodwind), plunk (strings), and boom (percussion.) Four cavemen represent each of the sounds. Caveman Toot discovers that blowing through a cow’s horn produces a gentle “toot.” Professor Owl lets us know that only certain horns can produce certain notes.
We then move on to Caveman Whistle. He tries to impress a cave girl by blowing on a tube of grass. He soon discovers that by adding holes to the tube that he has created a newer sound, similar to a flute. Professor Owl lets us know that holds are found in every woodwind instrument. Caveman Plunk then plucks on the string of his bow. A simple harp is then created by adding some extra strings and tuning pegs, and rearranging it all. Professor Owl chimes in again letting us know that you can either pluck the harp, or play it with a bow. Finally, Caveman Boom beats on his stomach, and the sound creates a “boom.” He also hits other parts of his body, which create other sounds. Professor Owl then takes us on a journey through history and explains how percussion instruments came to be. To end the short, the cavemen are seen wearing top hats while performing as a small orchestra.
And with that, we end another “Wednesday with Walt.” The rest of the series’ topics have been released. Visit http://www.disneyland.com/news/passholder-wednesdays-with-walt/ for the complete schedule. And for more information regarding “Wednesdays with Walt,” follow Disneyland Annual Passholders on Facebook.