Sleeping Beauty at the El Capitan
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The only sour note was poor George Pennacchio’s inept management of the panel discussion. Mr. Pennacchio is the entertainment reporter for ABC-TV Channel 7 here in Los Angeles, and anyone in the house last night who was previously unconvinced that Disney’s acquisition of ABC is a load-stone of a mistake walked away a convert by the time Mr. Pennacchio was finished. Among his finer moments was referring to Andreas Deja as Andreas "Dehas" after having just exclaimed "anyone who’s ever had a chance to talk at length with this gentleman as I have…" Where? Under water?

The saving grace was that the panelists themselves all rose above the din of dim witted questions and delivered some very articulate and often moving observations on the film. Chief among these was Mary Costa, whose true grace makes it seem for all the world like she has some angelic key-light that follows her. Ms. Costa gave the house a rare insight into Walt Disney’s real genius last night. Even during his most distracted and attention-divided time at the studio which was occurring over the six years "Sleeping Beauty" was in production, Walt was able to provide the kind of sensitive and careful direction that, as described by Ms. Costa, proved how rare and gifted a talent he truly was.

Mary Costa

"Mary," he said, "inside every one of us is a rich and rare palette of colors. Every one of us has our own set, unlike anyone else’s. I want you to focus on your colors. I want you to understand what Princess Aurora feels when she meets Prince Phillip in the forest, and what she’s dreaming about when she sings to the birds and other animals, and dances with the mock prince. See those colors, feel your colors, and then let those colors drop down into your voice, into your vocal delivery and into your singing."

According to Ms. Costa, Walt repeated that message when after one recording session for the film he commented that she wasn’t at her best that day. Crushed at his remark, she asked Walt what he meant, and he said "You didn’t sound like yourself. You sounded like an imitation of yourself. Mary, you weren’t paying attention to your own, unique colors. And I never want you to be an imitation of anyone, especially not an imitation of yourself."

I think you’d be hard pressed to find a director in modern musical theatre with that kind of insight and instinctive ability to nurture and coach the best out of a young performer.

Ollie Johnston

Ollie Johnston holds a special place in the hearts of Disney fans. His presence last night was proof of how privileged we are to have him in our company, and how fragile those moments are. Listening intently, and with the most authentic voice on the stage, Ollie had a remarkable moment when he quietly recalled the late Marc Davis’s self-critique of his work on Maleficent. Davis had seen her as difficult to imagine and animate with any interest, as he saw her as "a speech maker."

"I think the problem we had," said Johnston, "was that Maleficent was so strong, and such a powerful presence as Marc Davis animated her. I think Marc was wrong to be so harsh on himself. Maleficent is a powerful and frightening character and if anything, that made it all the more difficult to act against her (referring the work he and Frank Thomas did as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather)." Humility aside, Johnston clearly had given this some thought, and you could see the respect and admiration he had for Davis when he recalled him by name. And it’s even more wonderful that Alice Davis was there last night to see and hear it, too.