Chapter One: Around the World (And Bambi Too)
(Here we go. Interested to see how this plays out around here)
Interviewer: So, what can you tell me about the end of Snow White? I mean, the production.
Bianca Majolie: Oh, it was like...like the last days of school. You know? The sort of slow build up to a great release, a great sense of an ending, and then at last we would all be free! And of course, nerves, a lot of nerves. I remember talking to Norman Ferguson-
Interviewer: This is Norman Ferguson who was a supervising director many films at Disney, yes?
Bianca: Er, yes, just so. I went to talk to him one day. You could tell that we were all tired because no one made a pass at me. And he told me that what he had really wanted to bring in today was a book he had been reading, a book that he thought Walt might like. And instead he'd grabbed something else off his shelf, and he'd only realized he had when he made a call back to his house and found it out. A day or so later, Walt comes in, full of praise for Norman. Which was typically brusque. I think it was something like "The book'll work, let's do it."
Interviewer: Do you remember what the book he had originally intended to give?
Bianca: I think it was Pinocchio. You know that book? I think, er, Chuck Jones did a version of it in the sixties. It was something Italian, I remember that. Anyway, at that time Walt was worried. He was worried about doing what would become Fantasia, and he had wanted to do Bambi after Snow White, but that got pushed into being our third film. Because Walt wanted to get the movements of the animals right. I think that was when he took a trip to England, hobnobbed with quite a few famous people who were interested to know how the process worked. Especially after Snow White did so well. The biggest person, I think, was H G Wells came along. He was in his dying years by then, but he and Walt just sat and talked.
Interviewer: He was famous for being a futurist. They must have had a lot to talk about.
Bianca: Yes, I think that's why Walt managed to handle the strike as well as he did. A famous English author, who had created so many great scientific works? That sort of idea managed to knock out Gunther Lessing's attempt to paint the union as a Communist plot in the making. Not entirely, but enough to negotiate a more fair agreement. But then we were hard at work at Around the World in Eighty Days, and well, you know how that went!
Extract from The House the Mouse Built Vol 1, by Leonard Maltin, 1991.
.....
The plot of Around the World in Eighty Days is similar to the book that a full breakdown does not need to be given here. Suffice to say, that quintessential English gentleman Phineas Fogg (Basil Rathbone) makes a bet with the members of his Club in London that he can traverse the world in Eighty Days and return to the club itself to collect a substantial reward, or if he does not win, pay up a substantial amount. He takes with him his new valet Jean Passepartout (Walter Catlett) and later rescues Princess Aouda (Josephine Baker) who joins them on their travels, the two falling in love over the course of the film. Opposing him are two main forces. The man who made the bet with him, James Strand (John Barrymore) who deliberately misrepresents Fogg's actions to gain him bad press and slow him down wherever he goes, and a group of police officers on the hunt for a cache of money stolen in a bank heist. Strand uses his voice to trick the police and manipulate them into giving chase to Fogg, these include Inspector Fix (Billy Bletcher) and his two bumbling sidekicks Kent and North (Billy Gilbert and Sterling Hollaway) who form the main brunt of the comedy.
Around the World in Eighty Days created a problem for the Walt Disney Company, which did not affect the critical praise the film was given nor the extensive box office takeaway. But it was a noticeable problem.
Firstly, the usual cries were heard that Disney was diluting a classic. This argument has its merits and its downfalls, but in actuality this time it could be argued to be justified. Disney was very careful, at the insistence of some animators, to shy away from any overtly racist caricatures. This included the Papuans, who were described in the book by Verne as among the lowest of the low of humanity, and an attack on a train by a group of Native Americans, who were kept mostly to the shadows and relied heavily upon mood and lighting to enhance the stress of it. It cannot be said to be solely a case of artistic merit or anti-racist beliefs, more likely it was a case of shrewd business. In addition, several actions undertaken by Fogg that have either aged poorly or paint him in a darker light than intended were either deleted or given to the pursuers. A choice made by Disney to cast the role of Aouda with Josephine Baker, with Walt arguing that they needed Aouda to stick out more against the refined English of Basil Rathbone, was not heavily touted by the company but did pick up a lot of support from various anti-racist organizations. To ruin much needed good press against the backlash by many conservatives with crudity was therefore not profitable.
Baker had met with Disney, as she was on the verge of returning to France full time. She was charmed by Disney into remaining long enough to record her lines and then left, where she became a hero to the country during the dark days of World War 2. Aouda is a complicated character when discussing Disney and the history of race. he was well played, had several decent songs, animated just as beautifully as other females (Supposedly someone had to watch Fred Moore very carefully whenever he started to draw her, and frequently grab him by the arm and snap "Not now, Fred, we're working!" to keep him on task) and took part in the aforementioned action scene on the train, there were cases where the animators downplayed her ethnicity, lightening her skin. This is true to the books for Verne to ease the mind of any particularly concerned white man as to whether or not an English gentlemen was dating someone of another colour. She was a important first step, not just as a woman or as a black character but as a black woman, but only a first step.
Around the World in Eighty Days came out in 1940, capturing a vast zeitgeist of yearning to go off hunting or exploring or rescuing a beautiful woman, combined with deep nostalgia for happier days and a fascination with the British culture and making sure that it earned it's money back and then some. Critics at the time praised it for it's acting (Particularly Rathbone, Catlett and, begrudgingly, Baker), it's animation (Generally regarded as a step up in realistic terms, save for the characters of Kent and North who befitting their status as comedy characters were more broad), it's score and it's attempt to hold as adapt as much of the book as possible. Criticism was given to the tone, which seemed to veer from relatively serious to slapstick that jarred a little more, and for the two comedy relief characters who, while not hated and generally considered serviceable, had appeared to have walked out of another movie entirely.
CAST
Basil Rathbone as Phileas Fogg
Walter Catlett as Jean Passepartout
Josephine Baker as Aouda
Billy Bletcher as Detective Fix
John Barrymore as James Strand
Billy Gilbert as Constable North
Sterling Hollaway as Constable Kent
Charles Judels as Mr Thornton
Stuart Buchanan as Mr Godfrey
Moroni Olsen as Old Mr Tiberius
With that under way, Bambi was put into production and would become the third film in the Disney Canon, as it would later be termed. The film was less controversial in a political sense, and more in a "You've emotionally devastated my child" kind of way with the death of Bambi's mother. What these three movies, Snow White, Around the World and Bambi, had done was establish animation and Walt Disney in particular as someone who could create works for children and adults respectively.
CAST
Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi
John Sutherland as Adult Bambi
Dick Jones as Young Thumper
Jackie Coogan as Adult Thumper
June Foray as Young Flower
Sterling Holloway as Adult Flower
Marilyn Harris as Young Faline
Ann Gillis as Adult Faline
Paula Winslowe as Bambi's Mother/Pheasant
Will Wright as Friend Owl
Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
Now, with the first few films he had planned completed, Walt turned to other sources to find his next film.. And with the storm clouds gathering over America, Walt was not sure where this business would take him, or indeed if it would take him anywhere.
Interviewer: So, what can you tell me about the end of Snow White? I mean, the production.
Bianca Majolie: Oh, it was like...like the last days of school. You know? The sort of slow build up to a great release, a great sense of an ending, and then at last we would all be free! And of course, nerves, a lot of nerves. I remember talking to Norman Ferguson-
Interviewer: This is Norman Ferguson who was a supervising director many films at Disney, yes?
Bianca: Er, yes, just so. I went to talk to him one day. You could tell that we were all tired because no one made a pass at me. And he told me that what he had really wanted to bring in today was a book he had been reading, a book that he thought Walt might like. And instead he'd grabbed something else off his shelf, and he'd only realized he had when he made a call back to his house and found it out. A day or so later, Walt comes in, full of praise for Norman. Which was typically brusque. I think it was something like "The book'll work, let's do it."
Interviewer: Do you remember what the book he had originally intended to give?
Bianca: I think it was Pinocchio. You know that book? I think, er, Chuck Jones did a version of it in the sixties. It was something Italian, I remember that. Anyway, at that time Walt was worried. He was worried about doing what would become Fantasia, and he had wanted to do Bambi after Snow White, but that got pushed into being our third film. Because Walt wanted to get the movements of the animals right. I think that was when he took a trip to England, hobnobbed with quite a few famous people who were interested to know how the process worked. Especially after Snow White did so well. The biggest person, I think, was H G Wells came along. He was in his dying years by then, but he and Walt just sat and talked.
Interviewer: He was famous for being a futurist. They must have had a lot to talk about.
Bianca: Yes, I think that's why Walt managed to handle the strike as well as he did. A famous English author, who had created so many great scientific works? That sort of idea managed to knock out Gunther Lessing's attempt to paint the union as a Communist plot in the making. Not entirely, but enough to negotiate a more fair agreement. But then we were hard at work at Around the World in Eighty Days, and well, you know how that went!
Extract from The House the Mouse Built Vol 1, by Leonard Maltin, 1991.
.....
The plot of Around the World in Eighty Days is similar to the book that a full breakdown does not need to be given here. Suffice to say, that quintessential English gentleman Phineas Fogg (Basil Rathbone) makes a bet with the members of his Club in London that he can traverse the world in Eighty Days and return to the club itself to collect a substantial reward, or if he does not win, pay up a substantial amount. He takes with him his new valet Jean Passepartout (Walter Catlett) and later rescues Princess Aouda (Josephine Baker) who joins them on their travels, the two falling in love over the course of the film. Opposing him are two main forces. The man who made the bet with him, James Strand (John Barrymore) who deliberately misrepresents Fogg's actions to gain him bad press and slow him down wherever he goes, and a group of police officers on the hunt for a cache of money stolen in a bank heist. Strand uses his voice to trick the police and manipulate them into giving chase to Fogg, these include Inspector Fix (Billy Bletcher) and his two bumbling sidekicks Kent and North (Billy Gilbert and Sterling Hollaway) who form the main brunt of the comedy.
Around the World in Eighty Days created a problem for the Walt Disney Company, which did not affect the critical praise the film was given nor the extensive box office takeaway. But it was a noticeable problem.
Firstly, the usual cries were heard that Disney was diluting a classic. This argument has its merits and its downfalls, but in actuality this time it could be argued to be justified. Disney was very careful, at the insistence of some animators, to shy away from any overtly racist caricatures. This included the Papuans, who were described in the book by Verne as among the lowest of the low of humanity, and an attack on a train by a group of Native Americans, who were kept mostly to the shadows and relied heavily upon mood and lighting to enhance the stress of it. It cannot be said to be solely a case of artistic merit or anti-racist beliefs, more likely it was a case of shrewd business. In addition, several actions undertaken by Fogg that have either aged poorly or paint him in a darker light than intended were either deleted or given to the pursuers. A choice made by Disney to cast the role of Aouda with Josephine Baker, with Walt arguing that they needed Aouda to stick out more against the refined English of Basil Rathbone, was not heavily touted by the company but did pick up a lot of support from various anti-racist organizations. To ruin much needed good press against the backlash by many conservatives with crudity was therefore not profitable.
Baker had met with Disney, as she was on the verge of returning to France full time. She was charmed by Disney into remaining long enough to record her lines and then left, where she became a hero to the country during the dark days of World War 2. Aouda is a complicated character when discussing Disney and the history of race. he was well played, had several decent songs, animated just as beautifully as other females (Supposedly someone had to watch Fred Moore very carefully whenever he started to draw her, and frequently grab him by the arm and snap "Not now, Fred, we're working!" to keep him on task) and took part in the aforementioned action scene on the train, there were cases where the animators downplayed her ethnicity, lightening her skin. This is true to the books for Verne to ease the mind of any particularly concerned white man as to whether or not an English gentlemen was dating someone of another colour. She was a important first step, not just as a woman or as a black character but as a black woman, but only a first step.
Around the World in Eighty Days came out in 1940, capturing a vast zeitgeist of yearning to go off hunting or exploring or rescuing a beautiful woman, combined with deep nostalgia for happier days and a fascination with the British culture and making sure that it earned it's money back and then some. Critics at the time praised it for it's acting (Particularly Rathbone, Catlett and, begrudgingly, Baker), it's animation (Generally regarded as a step up in realistic terms, save for the characters of Kent and North who befitting their status as comedy characters were more broad), it's score and it's attempt to hold as adapt as much of the book as possible. Criticism was given to the tone, which seemed to veer from relatively serious to slapstick that jarred a little more, and for the two comedy relief characters who, while not hated and generally considered serviceable, had appeared to have walked out of another movie entirely.
CAST
Basil Rathbone as Phileas Fogg
Walter Catlett as Jean Passepartout
Josephine Baker as Aouda
Billy Bletcher as Detective Fix
John Barrymore as James Strand
Billy Gilbert as Constable North
Sterling Hollaway as Constable Kent
Charles Judels as Mr Thornton
Stuart Buchanan as Mr Godfrey
Moroni Olsen as Old Mr Tiberius
With that under way, Bambi was put into production and would become the third film in the Disney Canon, as it would later be termed. The film was less controversial in a political sense, and more in a "You've emotionally devastated my child" kind of way with the death of Bambi's mother. What these three movies, Snow White, Around the World and Bambi, had done was establish animation and Walt Disney in particular as someone who could create works for children and adults respectively.
CAST
Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi
John Sutherland as Adult Bambi
Dick Jones as Young Thumper
Jackie Coogan as Adult Thumper
June Foray as Young Flower
Sterling Holloway as Adult Flower
Marilyn Harris as Young Faline
Ann Gillis as Adult Faline
Paula Winslowe as Bambi's Mother/Pheasant
Will Wright as Friend Owl
Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
Now, with the first few films he had planned completed, Walt turned to other sources to find his next film.. And with the storm clouds gathering over America, Walt was not sure where this business would take him, or indeed if it would take him anywhere.
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