This month continues a series of blogs for fans on films by Walt Disney Pictures. 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:
From the earliest years of the company, Walt Disney had a vision to bring classic stories to life, in animated form, on the big screen. There were several projects he considered over the years, and with the help of his brother Roy, the studio acquired the rights to quite a few works. After the earlier films of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi, several other titles began production, including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and more.
Unfortunately, the company struggled a bit over the early 1940s, and the outbreak of war certainly did not help the animation company. As the involvement of the United States in the global conflict seemed inevitable, the federal government agreed to assist the company, in return for the company participating in a goodwill mission with the State department, resulting in two theatrical films advertising the charms of South and Central America to the USA.
The State Department first commissioned Saludos Amigos. Wary of rising German influence in South America, the United States created a new program called 'the Good Neighbor policy.' This policy was seen as a reintroduction of the Monroe Doctrine, insinuating American hegemony of the western hemisphere, in a good natured and friendly way. The government packed up several Disney animators and sent them on a tour across several countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, acting as goodwill ambassadors and using their artistic skills to capture what life was like in these countries, to display abroad. It remains to be seen how much of these countries the Disney animators actually viewed and captured, but the result was a success, introducing numerous cultures to the United States, while vastly improving the popularity of Disney, particularly Donald Duck, elsewhere. By the time the movie hit theaters, Japanese forces had attacked Pearl Harbor and most production plans came to a screeching halt.
The outbreak of war did not totally curtail production at the Disney animation studios. The United States State Department had already invested funds for a second Good Neighbor film, and it was needed more than ever now. While the studio experienced a tremendous curtail on production and reallocation of resources, one of the only projects to retain full funding was The Three Caballeros. Disney again returned to South and Central America ala Donald Duck, celebrating his birthday party along two of his best friends/cousins, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoleer. The trio tours through Brazil and Mexico, the two most prominent of these countries in the western hemisphere, all in an effort to build camaraderie (and resist the un-shown and unreferenced menace of Germany). In the end, both films were a success, both publicly and financially, though critics retained mixed opinions.
The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought a halt to most of Disney's projects. The federal government took control of the company, and what staff did not volunteer or draft into the armed forces was put to work producing films for the military. Several of these films and cartoons became training aids for new recruits, while several others served as propaganda leveled at citizens and enemy states alike. The largest effort came in the form of a bonds program that sponsored Victory Through Air Power.
Victory Through Air Power served as a fundraiser, selling viewers the notion that World War II could only be won through the production of overwhelming numbers of aircraft, particularly heavy bombers. The goal of course was to convince government organizations to reallocate promised funding back to the army air corps, as well as convince civilians to invest in bonds to this effect. The film had to compete with other programs scrambling for funding, but being an animated feature certainly helped matters for its own plans.
The film never received a stand-alone video or DVD release by itself, however, years later it was finally released along with numerous of the instructional videos and propaganda shorts, collectively titled Victory Through Air Power. More of an archival release, this collector's item has been fairly pricey and hard to find over the years. It is currently unavailable on Disney+.
As the war progressed into 1944, the economic health of the country improved. While the D-Day Normandy Invasion and the bombing of Japan remained in the future, most politicians and economists at the time agreed that victory was inevitable at this point, if only through superior logistics. In the meantime, the Walt Disney studios lacked the manpower, finances, or support to produce anything beyond a fifteen minute runtime. In order to make profit and stay solvent as the war drew to a close, the few animators who remained worked on various short projects. In the same vein as Fantasia, they produced numerous smaller features, most of which scored to classic or popular music. The best of these were collected into 1946's Make Mine Music!, which became the first Disney film released after the war ended.
The end of the war also returned Walt Disney Studios to ordinary operations. Fully staffed and out of government oversight, the company could return to its various paused projects. While a few more compilation films would come out over the next few years, production did finally resume on the delayed Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
1948's Melody Time brought seven more animated segments to film, including two American tall tales, in the form of Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill. Mostly produced during the war, these animated shorts were finally compiled now for a second release. In the aftermath of the war, the film proved to be more popular and lucrative than Fantasia, and helped the company stay fiscal while production picked up on its overdue feature projects.
Fun and Fancy Free differed somewhat from the other animated short film collections. The film originally began live as a Silly Symphony-style short called The Legend of the Happy Valley, essentially a Mickey Mouse short covering the classic fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Production of the film faced difficulty due to World War Two, and the project was so far behind that the film did not get the same protection and backing that Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland got. Resultingly, work was slow on the film, and even once the company returned to full capacity, most of Disney's top talent went to work on Cinderella. As such, the Mickey cartoon went to the proverbial B-team of animators, and the final project was changed to a short film of about thirty minutes. In the end, the company decided to follow suit with the other compilation movies by pairing "Mickey and the Beanstalk" with another short film called "Bongo" about a circus bear who gains his freedom. Accompanying the movie was a narrative story involving a young girl's birthday party, a ventriloquist, and Jiminy Cricket.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
The final film put out in the 1940s was the highest production of all of the compilation films. For their wartime production finale, Disney combined their two most developed short film projects into one feature, The Adventures of Ichabod (Crane) and Mr. Toad (billed in pre-production as Two Fabulous Characters). The first segment is a narrative based on The Wind And the Willows, narrated by Basil Rathbone (rather famous actor in the 1930s and 40s, well known for portraying Sherlock Holmes), in which Mr. Toad must thwart a conniving bartender and his hooligans from cheating him out of his home. The second film is a retelling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with the massively popular Bing Crosby serving as narrator and musical performer. The two short films enjoyed increased budgets and production quality compared to the rest of the shorts, and has remained the most notable and popular of the features and segments since release.
That wraps up our coverage of the Wartime films. Stay tuned next month when we cover The Silver Age.
Information sourced from Wikipedia.com, opens a new window . All rights reserved.
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