Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
Konway
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Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Konway »

Hello Everyone,
What is your favorite animated film under Walt Disney? My favorite Disney animated film is actually The Black Cauldron(1985). But between 1937 (starting with Snow White and Seven Dwarfs) and 1966 under Walt Disney, My favorite is Snow White and Seven Dwarfs (1937).

Konway
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knitwit45
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by knitwit45 »

Hi Konway!

I love Snow White, followed by Cinderella, Bambi, and Dumbo.I'm a sucker for cute little critters!!!!
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MichiganJ
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by MichiganJ »

Greetings Conway,

If shorts count, The Skeleton Dance (1929); In the Bag (1955); Lonesome Ghosts (1937); Motor Mania (1950); The Old Mill (1937) and the one that started it all, Steamboat Willie (1929).

Features under Walt:
Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940)

Features post Walt (and not including Pixar):
The Lion King (1994); Beauty and the Beast (1991); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
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Konway
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Konway »

You can put the shorts of Walt Disney too. I found Pinocchio interesting especially with the scene where he smokes and how much he is affected by it. I like The Hunchback of Notredame especially because of Quasimodo and the villain Frollo.

I always wondered why people hated The Black Cauldron. I always consider as one of the finest films with a strong message.
feaito

Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by feaito »

I'd say that my all-time favorite is "Fantasia" (1940).
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Konway wrote:You can put the shorts of Walt Disney too. I found Pinocchio interesting especially with the scene where he smokes and how much he is affected by it. I like The Hunchback of Notredame especially because of Quasimodo and the villain Frollo.

I always wondered why people hated The Black Cauldron. I always consider as one of the finest films with a strong message.
I think The Black Cauldron (1985) is a very interesting film, but it has a lot of problems in its storyline. Disney tried to combine quite a bit of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series into one film and it simply did not work for me. The books are excellent for young readers (older ones too!) and I hope that one day a proper set of films are made.

As for 1937-66, its Pinocchio (1940), hands down. A dark tale that combines morality, spirituality, action, and redemption into a work of art.
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Konway »

Hello Mr. Arkadin,
It must be noted that the original cut of the Black Cauldron was "a little more" closer to the film. But it was changed due to objections from the studio executives. Deleted Scenes are available on youtube.

As you know, this is what Lloyd Alexander said about The Black Cauldron.

"First, I have to say, there is no resemblance between the movie and the book. Having said that, the movie in itself, purely as a movie, I found to be very enjoyable. I had fun watching it. What I would hope is that anyone who sees the movie would certainly enjoy it, but I'd also hope that they'd actually read the book. The book is quite different. It's a very powerful, very moving story, and I think people would find a lot more depth in the book."

So the "released" movie version is more of a unique adaptation.

I personally don't like to compare book and the film. In my opinion, the book or books should stand on their own. And the film based on the book/books should stand on its own.

I like the Black Cauldron, because of the development of the characters. It was very unique compared to other disney films.
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Konway wrote:I personally don't like to compare book and the film. In my opinion, the book or books should stand on their own. And the film based on the book/books should stand on its own.

I like the Black Cauldron, because of the development of the characters. It was very unique compared to other disney films.
I think you are missing the point of my original post. I do not dislike the film because it is unlike the book. On the contrary, there are many films I enjoy (Blade Runner [1982], Some Came Running [1958]) that are nothing like the literary works they reference. I simply gave my opinion that one of the reasons for the failure of The Black Cauldron was because they chose to incorporate two storylines, which cluttered the film and the execution of the plot was poor. I also felt the artwork for the characters seemed borrowed from The Sword and the Stone (1963) and lacked originality. As for uniqueness, I will definitely agree that this was a work that attempted to be multilayered and have depth like the early classics. Disney had discarded this element from its animated features over the last 20 years and in so doing, lost much of its audience. The movie has moments of interest and even flashes of brilliance, but ranks far below the classic era or coexisting contemporary works of Hayao Miyazaki, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) or Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) in my estimation.
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by mongoII »

My favorites are "Bambi" and "Pinocchio".
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Konway
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Konway »

Hello,
Both are interesting films, Mongo.

With Black Cauldron, I thought the film had a good plot. But that's just my opinion. Mr. Arkadin, if you are interested in reading my review on why I like The Black Cauldron, then here it is. I know you always give interesting replies. So I thought I should post my review on The Black Cauldron.

My Personal Favorite Disney Film

When I heard the bad reviews about the film, I thought I should skip it. But later, I decided to watch it, because some people liked it a lot.

After I watched the film, it ended up becoming my favorite Disney film. We all know that this was a very different Disney film, because it has a serious touch to it.

I can see when people say the film is too slow. I thought the first 15 minutes was slow. I did find the characters interesting. I also can see why people see Taran annoying. But I liked Taran, because he is a bored innocent kid whose strong attachment towards the dream of becoming a warrior. But unlike other Disney heroes, there is one thing that is missing in Taran in the "beginning" of the film - the lack of experience. Let me take Disney hero - Aladdin. In the beginning of the film "Aladdin", Aladdin is an expert thief who has great deal of experience in stealing food and escaping the soldiers.

But with Taran, he wants to fight in the war. But due to his lack of experience, he doesn't realize the seriousness of war. This can be seen when Dallben says to Taran "War isn't a game. People get hurt." And we immediately see Taran getting hurt, because of the hot pot.

But he stayed with his dream of becoming a warrior. We see him dreaming about becoming a warrior by looking into the river. I feel that he has an ego inside him due to his dream of becoming a warrior. But not in a harmful way. I liked Taran, because I myself can connect to him. I was a bored kid who had lots of dreams about my future. I remember not taking certain things seriously when I was young. Through my experiences in my later years, I began to take them seriously.

Back to the subject. After that, his pig gets captured by dragon birds and the story becomes very serious. Through his journey, he meets Gurgi, a princess named Eilonwy, and FFlewddur.

I found the relationship between Taran and Eilonwy interesting. After the escape from Horned King's castle, Taran tries to take the complete credit for the escape. Eilonwy points out the importance of her role in escaping the castle. Taran and Eilonwy quarrel and leave in 2 separate ways. Later, Taran comes and expresses his gratitude towards Eilonwy for getting out of the dungeon. I think this was the first step towards his character development. After they get into the kingdom under water, Taran decided to go to Molva to find Black Cauldron so that he can stop the king. Taran requests Eilonwy to come with him. This was a "small" scene. But it is very important, because Taran now acknowledges the importance of Eilonwy's presence with him. He is more matured now.

Later, Eilonwy supports Taran when his confidence becomes low. We see the beginning of their romance. This is very different from Disney, because hero and heroine falls in love the moment they see each other. Snow White & Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. are great examples. But in this film, it takes time.

I like Gurgi. His voice kinda reminds me of the voice of Donald Duck. Gurgi immediately escapes whenever he sees trouble. But in time, he begins to acknowledge the value of the friendship and tries to help the ones he cares. In the end, we can see the loneliness of Gurgi when he says he has no friends. He dies for the ones he deeply cares. Through a "small" character like Gurgi, Taran begins to realize the value of friendship.

In the end, Taran could have taken his sword instead of Gurgi. But he didn't, because he understands the value of true friendship and he also understands that there is far more greater things in life than just becoming a warrior and a hero. He learned this through his experiences.

All ambitions we see in Taran in the beginning of the film are gone by the end. He isn't disappointed by it, because he is completely happy and completely satisfied with what he has now.

I thought John Hurt did a great job playing Horned King. I thought Horned King was a terrifying villain. I loved the animation in the film especially with the scene where Dragon birds take the pig in the beginning of the film. I think its the small details in The Black Cauldron that makes the film great. For Example, the relationship between Taran and Eilonwy. The small scenes that develops into their romance with the help of Gurgi at the end of the film. The relationship isn't elaborated like other Disney films. I think this helps the audience to analyze their relationship.

In the beginning, Taran had nothing but dissatisfaction. But in the end, he has nothing but satisfaction. In the end, he has friends like Gurgi and Fflewdder. And finally, there is Princess Eilonwy to love him.

My request is always give another chance to this film especially because of the effort they put into this film. You may have been dissatisfied with the film when you first saw it. But I think repeated viewings can fill you with nothing but satisfaction. 10 out of 10.


What do you think about the review? Also Does anyone have any Disney animated film that you dislike? This can also include animated films after 1966 too. It would be interesting to hear your opinion on it.
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by mrsl »

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My favorite has always been Cinderella. In fact, last time it was released, along with the Barbie doll dressed in the ball gown, I bought a DVD and doll for my grand daughter, and also, one for myself and I often sit and watch it on a dull and dreary day, or when I'm in a funky mood. It always lifts my spirits, especially when the two mice are on screen.
.
Anne


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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Lzcutter »

Walt got interested in animation after he returned from serving in France as part of the Red Cross Ambulance Corp during World War I. His first company, in Kansas City, was Laugh-O-gram Films and he talked his friends, Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harmon, Rudy Ising and Carl Stalling among a few others, into joining him in the business. They made a series of short films based on famous fairy tales but with a modern twist. When the company had to declare bankruptcy two years later, those films were part of the bankruptcy. After Walt struck it big with Mickey Mouse, those films became of interest to unsavory distributors who put new title cards on the films, kept Walt's name on them and then released them with new titles. The films were long thought to be lost until they were discovered under their later titles at MOMA in New York and restored.

After his company declared bankruptcy, Walt left Kansas City and headed to Hollywood with a suitcase, a few dollars in his pocket and a reel of film that he and his friends had begun called Alice's Wonderland. This film featured a young girl who, like Alice in the famous book, has an adventure. Walt's Alice entered an animated world filled with animals and had a series of encounters and adventures before the final fade-out.

This film caught the attention of M.J. Winkler, one of the few female distributors in the business. Winkler became Walt's distributor and Walt and his brother, Roy, finished the film and entered into an agreement with Winkler to make series of films based on the premise of a live-action girl in an animated world. It wasn't long before Walt's Kansas City co-horts made their way to Hollywood and the Disney Brothers studio (as it was known then) and went to work on the Alice comedies.

The series only lasted a few years as Walt became more and more interested in animation instead of the combination of live action and animation. Winkler had married Charles Mintz and retired from the business, letting her husband run it.

As the Alice comedies were coming to an end, Mintz approached Walt about coming up with a new cartoon character. Walt (and some say Ub Iwerks) created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald proved to be a very popular character (and a fore-runner to Mickey Mouse, sharing many of the same characteristics). Unfortunately, for Walt, while he thought he owned the rights to Oswald, he discovered much to his dismay during a meeting with Mintz in NYC that the rights to the character belonged to Universal who distributed the cartoons.

Mintz not only told Disney that Universal owned the Oswald character but he also told Disney that he had signed away all of his animators (with the exception of Ub Iwerks) and they were going to work for Mintz. Walt could join them or walk away. Disney chose to walk away.

As he and his wife, Lillian, boarded the train for the cross country trip back to Hollywood, Walt sent a telegram to his brother, Roy, telling him not to worry that everything was okay.

During the train trip, Walt came up with the idea for a new cartoon character (one that he would own the rights to), a mouse. He wanted to call the mouse Mortimer but Lillian thought the name too pretentious. She suggested Mickey instead and an icon was born.

Once back at his small studio on Kingswell Avenue in Silver Lake, Walt working with Ub, came up with the idea for the first cartoon starring Mickey, Plane Crazy which was meant to cash in on the Charles Lindbergh craze sweeping the country.

Distributors were cool to the new cartoon. Sound pictures were gathering steam and Walt quickly realized how valuable it would be to produce the first synchronized sound cartoon. Ub began work on drawing the new cartoon and Walt got to work on cracking the conundrum of adding sound to animation.

It took two recording sessions in NYC (the first one was a failure and Walt wired his brother Roy advising him to sell Walt's car, a Moon Roadster, and wire the money from the sale. With that money, Walt arranged a second recording session that was successful.

With that, Steamboat Willie was completed and when it premiered at the Colony Theater in NYC on Nov. 18, 1928, it was successful beyond even Walt's wildest dreams.
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Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Konway wrote:What do you think about the review?
Although my opinion remains the same, I enjoyed reading your thoughts and I think you managed to cast light on the more positive aspects of the movie. I think you would really like the books.
Konway
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Konway »

I am glad you enjoyed reading my review. I will definitely look into the books.
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Re: Walt Disney and his animated films (1937 -1966)

Post by Rita Hayworth »

feaito wrote:I'd say that my all-time favorite is "Fantasia" (1940).
Same Here ... Definitely Number One in my Book!
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