Disney Movie Eras: The Silver Era
This month continues a new series of blogs for fans of popular culture. Whereas in the past explorations of Walt Disney films we highlighted individual works, we will now be talking about the larger groupings of movies, and the various artistic and commercial visions sought for and achieved from said movies.
A quick run though of the eras:
The Golden Age: 1937-1941
Wartime: 1942-1949
The Silver Age: 1950-1967
The Bronze Age: 1968-1988
The Renaissance: 1989-1999
Post-Renaissance: 2000-2009
Revival: 2010-Present
As you can see, the various eras are inspired by historical art movements over the year, as well as comic books. You can draw the parallel, for instance, between the Italian Renaissance, or between the iterated variations of popular superheroes like Batman and Superman.
We will also be covering Disney live action films. The list of films owned by the Walt Disney Corporation is quite expansive because it includes multiple studios and production companies, such as Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, and more. And for good measure, we will also cover animated films that released without the official Walt Disney Pictures branding, as well as films that only released via television or Disney +.
So buckle up everyone as we retread the Disney films of years passed:
Nine films are included in The Silver Age: Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), and The Aristocats (1970). The period officially covers the continuation of the studio's efforts after World War II, until the death of Walt Disney.
As previously covered, Charles Perrault's classic story existed as one of the first films Walt Disney intended to produce. Cinderella was one of the first properties Disney secured the film rights to, and the studio intended on producing the film as the true follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Plans, however, went awry as the world entered World War II. Production on other films in the workshops -Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi- took up the majority of the studio's efforts, while government mandates and budgetary concerns forced the company to switch gears and produce less expensive mini-films that released in various packages. Those hamstrung film projects became The Wartime Era of films.
During this time, work never officially ceased on Cinderella, and when all restrictions were lifted from the company, production on Cinderella entered full swing. Desperate for a big feature film, most of the animation department's focus went to the film, although some teams began work on other projects that follow suit in due time. Cinderella finally released in 1950 to much fanfare and became an immediate hit, solidifying the company's reputation as the finest house in animation.
One of the very first projects Walt Disney worked on in the 1920s was a series of black and white cartoon shorts, popularly known as The Alice Comedies. These animated shorts released between 1923 and 1927 and exist as the earliest attempts to animate the characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Time and poor record keeping resulted in several of the 57 shorts being lost over the years, though 41 have been preserved, archived, and occasionally re-released over the years. From this early interest, we can see that Disney was an early fan of Carroll's work, though this would not be his only production based on the property.
Discussions about a project based on Alice in Wonderland began as early as 1932 when Disney acquired the film rights. Pre-production work began almost immediately, though work was slow and there was little work to show for the studio's efforts. By 1941, the Disney corporation was facing financial difficulty when they approached Bank of America for backing, as mentioned in our last blog. Between growing restrictions by the federal government and a mandate by Bank of America to concentrate on films already in active production, work on Alice in Wonderland was shelved until 1946.
For several years, the studio struggled conceptually with the film, and whether the film would be partially or fully animated. By 1946, Walt made the executive decision to focus on a fully animated feature, and work anew began on the revitalized project. The animation team produced several scenes that never made it to the final film, as well as numerous songs that also ended up cut from the film, but not from promotional advertisements or merchandising. Another notable achievement was the successful advertising of Alice in Wonderland via television, making it one of the earliest films to feature television commercials in advertising. Notably, the film starred Katheryn Beaumont as Alice, in the first of her roles for Walt Disney studios. As with Cinderella, the film went on to become a Disney film classic.
Peter Pan began life as another of Disney's early pre-war projects. Disney secured the film rights by 1938 but work was quite secondary to other films already in production. As with Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, this was yet another film shuttered by the demands of World War II. Production remained shuttered until 1949, as production on Cinderella wrapped up. To head the film, Disney rehired Katheryn Beaumont to play the female lead, Wendy Darling, and for the title role, Disney turned to then-megastar Bobby Driscoll. Driscoll was another child actor who experienced wide fame under the Disney license, acting in such films including Song of the South, So Dear To My Heart, and the Pecos Bill short film. Driscoll and Beaumont both supplied additional work as live-action references for their characters, alongside others.
As with Alice in Wonderland, Disney also released a 1951 televised segment advertising Peter Pan to waiting audiences, with several of the actors assisting. The film eventually released in 1953 and was the final Disney film role for both Beaumont and Driscoll.
Lady and the Tramp began life as the recollections of Disney artist Joe Grant in 1937. The owner of an English Springer Spaniel, he shared drawings of his dog with Walt who was immediately attracted to the idea and encouraged further development. In 1945, Walt read a short story called "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog", whom would become the basis for the Tramp. The two dogs were combined together forming the first mostly-original Disney film. In 1951, Disney convinced the original author, Ward Greene, to write a novelization based on the early scripts, giving presumptive audiences a chance to become familiar with the film's premise before the planned release.
By 1953, production began in earnest, and was eventually released in 1955. Notably, the film featured star Peggy Lee, who voiced Darling, as well as several of the animals, including the feline pets of Aunt Sarah, Si and Am. Lady and the Tramp was the first film distributed by a new company, Buena Vista Pictures, wholly owned and operated by Disney to act as the distributing arm moving forward. The film was also the first animated feature to be released using the new CinemaScope format.
When Cinderella released in 1950 after years in production, Disney had a very performative and very popular hit on their hand. Following up on their biggest hit (as of yet) would prove a challenge. Production of Sleeping Beauty goes back as early as 1938, but no real progress was made on the film until years later in 1951. With the Cinderella team freed up, serious production began with the mission of differentiating the film as much as possible from the two earlier princess-led films.
Work on the script finished in 1952, but Disney struggled with casting for the title role, until they landed on Mary Costa. The film experimented with new animation styles, using multiple layers and basing much of their artwork on medieval paintings. As with Peter Pan, actors were brought in to serve as animation references, and much of the footage for Aurora and Prince Philip's actor remains intact. Such strides were made particularly in animating Prince Phillip, Disney decide to expand his role, giving him more lines and a greater agency in the story. Compared to Prince Florian and Prince Charming, Phillip was an active hero. Sleeping Beauty released in 1959, but critical reviews were somewhat mixed, with unfavorable comparisons to Disney's earlier films.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians can perhaps claim to be the first truly post-war Disney production. The film was based on the children's book by Dodie Smith, itself a new release in 1956. The book was hugely popular and quickly came to the attention of Walt Disney, who purchased the film rights for $25,000. Production of the film largely finished by 1959, aided by the massive production saving of new Xerox machines. Meticulous drawing of the many spots on the cartoon dogs was quite challenging, but xerox copies of the particular spot patterns allowed for a much easier translation. The animation style itself was heavily pencilled, giving the film a distinct appearance relative to the Disney films that came before it.
The film released in 1961, and despite the quick production, earned $10 million domestically, making it the highest grossing animated film to-date.
The Walt Disney Company largely enjoyed success, both critical and financial, in the overwhelming majority of its early films. The first film that could largely be considered a serious miscalculation might very well be The Sword in the Stone. As with many of the other films discussed, Disney secured the film rights as early as 1939 but serious production did not start for twenty years. The writers struggled to adapt the story to screen and faced several rewrites. As segments finished at varying points, the production team worked on casting, but this too proved a struggle. The initial choice to play the young Wart/Arthur, Rickie Sorensen, entered puberty midway through production, leaving him to be recast. Unable to find a suitable actor, the director turned to his own sons to fill in for the role, reading various lines. In several places, the two young actors even swapped places mid-scene. As such, the film featured numerous inconsistencies.
Overall production lasted about three years and the film released in 1963. Revenue was markedly down compared to 101 Dalmatians, with the film earning a paltry $4.2 million. This film was the last animated film to release under the film before the death of Walt Disney in 1966.
Walt Disney reportedly considered adapting The Jungle Book as early as 1938, but due to the various aforementioned production issues, no project surfaced until 1962, when Disney secured the film rights. Disney decided to focus the story on Mowgli, and made some additional changes, such as making Baloo more prominent and carefree. One entirely new addition was King Louie, the orangutan leader of the local monkey tribe. The story underwent a few rewrites, and some dropped scenes would later resurface in the 1994 live-action film, but we'll discuss that later.
One of the biggest distinctions about the film was a focus on music. After seeing the relative success of 101 Dalmatians' title track, and the lack of music in The Sword in the Stone, Disney decided to really jazz up the tunes. Several musical tracks were composed for the film, but there were two big highlights. The first, and perhaps most infamous, was the reported original plan to cast Louis Armstrong as King Louie. Disney marketing decided against that casting decision and instead opted for Louis Prima, a fellow New Orleans native and jazz musician (luckily for them, they didn't have to rename the character!). The second big move was Disney's attempt to hire the Beatles to portray the vultures. Opinions differ slightly as to why exactly the Fab Four did not commit; officially there was a schedule conflict, but rumors abounded that John Lennon refused for artistic reasons. That did not stop the Disney animators from basing the vultures' hairstyles on the Beatles themselves, and the song "That's What Friends Were For" was kept in the film, although the Sherman brothers changed their original composition from a rock ballad to a barbershop quartet.
The film released in 1967, a year after Walt's death.
The Aristocats was the final animated film Walt Disney had input on, released entirely after his death in 1970. The earliest production began in 1962, with Disney assigning writers Harry Tytle and Tom McGowan to conceive a film based on cats. Originally, their brainstorming was to be for a pair of live-action films, which the company was producing more of and experiencing more success in general, due to lower production costs. Cost-saving as ever, Disney demanded a singular consolidated film, with the extra stipulation that the film be set in a particular place, much as 101 Dalmatians had benefited from being set in England. Production was postponed so that the studio could focus on The Jungle Book. In hindsight, this was probably the right call to make, as the aforementioned film enjoyed the best reviews and highest profit of all the company's 1960s animated efforts.
1967 and the release of The Jungle Book renewed faith in the company and production moved forward in spite of Disney's death. Phil Harris, who had just recently voiced Baloo in the previous film, returned to portray the male lead, Thomas O'Malley the Alley Cat. Joining him was another big name celebrity in Eva Gabor, playing Duchess. Once again, the company attempted to hire Louis Armstrong for a role, but the famous musician had taken ill and was unable to contribute. Nonetheless, the film was a great success, particularly in France.
That's it for this month. Stay tuned as we next cover the early Live Action films.
Information sourced from Wikipedia.com, opens a new window. All rights reserved.
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