Changing the Reel: A TLIAW that, let's face is, was never going to be finished in a week

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    • King of the Uzbeks

    King of the Uzbeks

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    What's This?

    A TLIAW.

    Why. Why. Why.

    Because I had an idea. A most glorious idea. Some may call it…a dream.

    Dear Lord, the Font.

    Yes. The font.

    You are going to get your ass sued off.

    I try not to think about it.

    So what's the gimmick?

    What gimmick?

    Its a TLIAPOT, there's a gimmick.

    I can create a TLIA…

    What. Is. The. Gimmick.

    Well one can say the reels have been…shuffled.
     
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    • Sleeping Beauty (1938)
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    • King of the Uzbeks

    King of the Uzbeks

    Sleeping Beauty - 1938

    MPW-55834


    No one thought Walt Disney was in his right mind when he started working on the first (American) feature length animated film. For all the expansion of his studio Disney had made while making the film and all he had worked to expand the medium of animation even his own wife agreed with the nickname "Disney's Folly".

    But Disney persevered and created an enduring classic.

    The tale he told was based off of the old fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. The eponymous Princess, Briar Rose, born into a wealthy and prosperous Kingdom with loving parents. But at her baptism, where the Kind Fairy Blossom, the Happy Fairy Daisy and the Sad Fairy Forget-Me-Not plan to bless the girl the Dark Fairy arrives. Furious at being uninvited the Dark Fairy curses Briar Rose to die on her sixteenth birthday from a prick on a spinning reel. Forget-Me-Not manages to push the curse back to one of eternal sleep, breakable by true loves kiss. The fairies advise Briar Rose's parents to send her to the countryside but they refuse for some time, trying instead to destroy all spinning wheels, but to no avail. Finally they relent, just days before Briar Rose's birthday, and the fairies take the Princess away from her family, and a visiting enthrall end by her beauty and singing ability. Using her raven the Dark Fairy lures the good fairies away from Briar Rose and tricks the princess into returning, where a spinning wheel awaits, sending Briar Rose into a deep sleep. However the Fairies return and alert the Prince. They manage to avoid the Dark Fairy's shadow guards. In the process one final attack by the Dark Fairy misses and bounces back on her, sending her out of the tower to her presumed doom. The Prince kisses Briar Rose and they soon wed.

    Sleeping Beauty proved a smash hit, briefly becoming the highest grossing film of all time. While it looks dated to the modern viewer and its views on Gender Roles are even more dated it was revolutionarily well animated for the day and Disney's attention to character, especially the growth of Forget-Me-Not, has been praised.

    Fresh off of the success of Sleeping Beauty, Disney made plans for another film……
     
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    • The Sword in the Stone (1940)
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    • King of the Uzbeks

    King of the Uzbeks

    The Sword in the Stone - (1940)

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    After the success of Sleeping Beauty, Disney pushed for another film that would push the boundaries of animation even more, focusing on "more action and less singing" as one critic put it.

    Once again Disney and his staff pulled from classic tales of magic, this time from Arthurian legend. And once again they tinkered with the original format of the tales to tell the story.

    The story follows a young boy wandering the English countryside, fleeing his comically cruel Foster Father Sir Ector and his dimwitted brother Kay. The boy, Arthur, flees into the woods and discovers the wizard Merlin who recognizes him as a potential savior of the war torn land. Merlin comically turns Arthur into a series of animals to teach him lessons on how to rule. Ector eventually finds them and forcibly takes Arthur back to Camelot, where a great tournament is to be held. Kay's foolishness looses his sword and he blames Arthur, forcing the future King to find the nearest sword, which is oddly hidden in a stone. When Arthur arrives with the sword it is recognized that he is the rightful king of Camelot. Ector, who desires the throne himself, releases a fearsome Glatisant upon Arthur's coronation. All seems lost until Merlin arrives and encourages Arthur to slay the beast and banish Sir Ector and Kay. The story ends with Arthur first seeing a beautiful girl his age.

    The Sword in the Stone proved a little too dark and too deep for the expectations of animation and even by the standards of the 40's certain scenes, notably the Glatisant, were not well done. It received mixed reviews but still was a step forward for animation. Still the movie proved successful at the box office and a pride for Disney himself.

    The next film would be neither.
     
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    • Miss Teri

    Miss Teri

    Hm. And this was before the publication of "The Once and Future King", so it might raise the profile of that book.

    Will it just be Disney movies that came out during Walt's lifetime?
     
    Make Mine Music (1940)
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    • King of the Uzbeks

    King of the Uzbeks

    Make Mine Music - 1940

    latest


    Disney had envisioned Make Mine Music as a grand, bombastic affair with classic classical pieces playing behind revolutionary new animation. But the Sword in the Stone had proved expensive and the next film in the pipeline had also pushed the envelope in an enormous fashion. The animation budget had to be scaled down, and with it Walt Disney also brought down the musical bombast saying that "Mickey don't go well with Mozart." In the end Make Mine Music told classic fairy tales in unconnected segments with semi-famous music playing as a soundtrack. Disney shelved his grander plans for a later date.

    Make Mine Music consisted of 4 segments:

    Little Red Riding Hood

    Goldilocks and the Three Bears

    The Pied Piper

    The Three Little Pigs

    Make Mine Music doubted and promptly flopped. It failed to generate the interest of the previous films and lacked the story that had appealed well previously. It wasn't well received by critics, and made little money. But Walt Disney had already moved on to his next film, hardly ever mentioning his failed dream for Make Mine Music as a grand spectacle as the new film, based off of a classic book, hit theaters.
     
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    • Clorox23

    King of the Uzbeks said:
    Make Mine Music - 1940

    latest


    Disney had envisioned Make Mine Music as a grand, bombastic affair with classic classical pieces playing behind revolutionary new animation. But the Sword in the Stone had proved expensive and the next film in the pipeline had also pushed the envelope in an enormous fashion. The animation budget had to be scaled down, and with it Walt Disney also brought down the musical bombast saying that "Mickey don't go well with Mozart." In the end Make Mine Music told classic fairy tales in unconnected segments with semi-famous music playing as a soundtrack. Disney shelved his grander plans for a later date.

    Make Mine Music consisted of 4 segments:

    Little Red Riding Hood

    Goldilocks and the Three Bears

    The Pied Piper

    The Three Little Pigs

    Make Mine Music doubted and promptly flopped. It failed to generate the interest of the previous films and lacked the story that had appealed well previously. It wasn't well received by critics, and made little money. But Walt Disney had already moved on to his next film, hardly ever mentioning his failed dream for Make Mine Music as a grand spectacle as the new film, based off of a classic book, hit theaters.
    Click to expand...
    This is not how I wanted to find out this movie existed, holy crap, I think Fantasia's going to get screwed over...
     

    woweed

    King of the Uzbeks said:
    Make Mine Music doubted and promptly flopped. It failed to generate the interest of the previous films and lacked the story that had appealed well previously. It wasn't well received by critics, and made little money. But Walt Disney had already moved on to his next film, hardly ever mentioning his failed dream for Make Mine Music as a grand spectacle as the new film, based off of a classic book, hit theaters.
    Click to expand...
    You're just mocking my guesses now, aren't you?
    woweed said:
    Or Snow White. Maybe Alice in Wonderland? Peter Pan? Speaking of Which, i'd love to see what 1940s versions of those would have looked like...
    Click to expand...
     

    woweed

    housemaster said:
    I going with Alice in Wonderland as my guess.
    Click to expand...
    That would make sense. Walt didn't really have much great affection for my other guess, Peter Pan, as its faith to the source (or lack thereof) should tell you, though he had planed a version of it back in the late 30s/early 40s that got interrupted by the War. However, Alice? Walt loved Alice. His history with that story goes all the way back to before he moved to LA and was just a simple Kansas City animator making the Alice Comedies and heading the failing (soon-bankrupt) Laugh-o-Gram Studios along with his friend Ub Iwerks(the creator of Mickey down the line), so-named because they featured a live-action little girl "interacting" (for lack of a better word) with animated characters. Throughout his life Walt made no less then three failed attempts to adapt the story to a full movie, all of which got postponed or diverted due to a certain European event that was mentioned a few sentences ago.
     
    Alice in Wonderland (1941)
  • Index
    • King of the Uzbeks

    King of the Uzbeks

    Alice in Wonderland - 1941

    Alice in Wonderland was a classic children's book that was made into a classic film by Disney and his animators. Somewhat of a deliberate cash in on the Wizard of Oz the film nonetheless was a major gain in abstract animation with its absurd plot and characters making for an odd trip through a strange world.

    In the film Alice flees her pompous older sister and ends up falling down a rabbit hole into a strange world called Wonderland. After growing and shrinking to various sizes she accidentally enters into a strange race overseen by a Walrus and a Carpenter, who tell her a tale of eating oysters. She then follows the mysterious Cheshire Cat to Tea with the Mad Hatter and the more famous March Hare at an unbirthday party for someone. After another transformation into a giant and another shrinkage she meets the smoking caterpillar who, in conjunction with the Cheshire Cat, sends her to the Duchess, a stern old women finding morals in anything and everything. The Duchess drags Alice along to croquet with the Queen of Hearts, the decapitation crazy monarch. Alice is soon arrested for conspiring with the Knave of Hearts to commit high treason and steal tarts. In the midst of her trial Alice once again grows to an enormous size before waking up next to her sister in a field.

    Fans of the book note that the film could not quite capture the zanyness of the novel, but that said the film was extremely well animated. Most famously the Unbirthday Party which came right out of old school slapstick.

    Financially the film did OK, the war disrupted European markets with caused it to not fully capitalize on its potential. Its large budget kept Disney from making a huge amount of money, but it didn't sink the studio.

    The next film was designed to shore up his finances once and for all.
     
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