Toon Talk: 100 Years of Magic - 100 Movies, Part One - Nov 26, 2001

Toon Talk: 100 Years of Magic - 100 Movies, Part One
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#31. DANCING BEARS, MAGIC BEANS

Jiminy Cricket returns to the silver screen to introduce the tales of Bongo the circus bear and Mickey and the beanstalk in Fun and Fancy Free (September 27, 1947). This film marked Walt's last vocal performance of Mickey.

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#32. CAVALCADE OF SONG, PART TWO

Legendary American folklore heroes Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill, along with a Bumble Boogie bumble bee and Little Toot, come to musical life in Melody Time (May 27, 1948), the tenth animated feature.

#33. TRUE LIFE ADVENTURES

Walt sent photographers to Alaska to gather footage of nature, and the results were Seal Island (December 21, 1948), the first True Life Adventure featurette. Original distributor RKO was leery of such an untested venture as a half-hour nature film, but Walt persisted and the film went on to win the Academy Award. Six more featurettes and six full-length features followed in the critically lauded (eight total Oscars) series, highlights of which were compiled into the 1975 feature The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures.

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#34. A BOY AND HIS LAMB

So Dear To My Heart (January 19, 1949) was one of Walt's personal favorites, as it reminded him of his childhood growing up on his family's farm in Marceline, Missouri. The film earned an Academy Award for it's young star, Bobby Driscoll.

#35. TWO FABULOUS CHARACTERS

Meet J. Thaddeus Toad in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (October 5, 1949), the last of the "package" films.

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#36. THE SHOE FITS

And not just the proverbial glass slipper. Cinderella (February 15, 1950), with it's endearing characters, magical songs and a happily ever after, was a perfect fit for post-war audiences and a huge hit for Disney. How important was the success of this fairy tale of "girl meets boy, girl loses shoe"? Put it this way, if Cinderella had turned into a pumpkin at the box office, you probably wouldn't be reading this now.

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#37. A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME

After World War II, English currency regulations prompted Walt to open a new chapter in his film making legacy: the all-live action film. Treasure Island (July 19, 1950), based on Robert Louis Stevenson's literary classic, was filmed entirely in England. Disney will return to this story, with a sci fi twist, in next year's animated Treasure Planet.

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#38. DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Twenty-seven years after the Alice Comedies, Lewis Carroll's fanciful story of a little English girl's journey through the trippy, bizarre Wonderland finally received the feature film treatment in Alice in Wonderland (July 28, 1951). Walt's original idea for his first feature was for screen legend Mary Pickford to star as the live action Alice in an otherwise animated film, a project that was derailed due to Paramount's all-star Alice in Wonderland in 1933.

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#39. PIXIE DUST AND PIRATE SHIPS

James M. Barrie's high-flying stage play was turned into Disney's animated musical adventure Peter Pan (February 5, 1953). The film introduced Tinker Bell, seen only as a spot of light on stage; she went on to be seen at the beginning of each episode of the Disneyland television series and it's subsequent incarnations. Disney will Return to Never Land next year with a new theatrical sequel.

#40. PEOPLE AND PLACES

Filmed at the same time as Seal Island, the footage of The Alaskan Eskimo (February 18, 1953) became the first People and Places featurette, a series of 17 travelogues released through 1960. Continuing the excellence of the True Life Adventures, the shorts won two Academy Awards, including one for this film.