Destination D: 75 Years of Disney Animation, a Diamond Level Experience! - Completed!

[franandaj]

Sounds like a great clean-up sale! A third story? Better start work with the architect now.

I think we're going to have to work with the rotating art concept. The place won't be approved for a third story!

 

[franandaj]

After a short break our next session began. Tinker Bell: The Evolution of a Disney Character

You will have to bear with me on this one. We were not allowed to take photos during this session.

So, this presentation was hosted by Mindy Johnson who recently authored a book of similar title to the session. It was quite interesting to learn how Tinker Bell evolved from a concept to an actual character, now with her own franchise, meet and greet and movie series.

It all began with a man named Jim Barrie, and Englishman who was interested in “Fairy Pantomime” which was all the rage around the turn of the 20th century.

As a young boy, his parents would vacation at Black Lake Cottage outside of London. Along with his brother and sister and friends they would search for fairies in the woods. Barrie called the fairy that they supposedly saw a “tippietoe”. This became his inspiration later when the story would come to life.

Now a bit of a side note for trivia. Back in the day, if your “something” broke, (shoe, garden hoe, handle of your stock pot, whatever), you couldn’t just “go out and buy a new one”. You couldn’t just take it down to the local Sears appliance center and get it fixed. If you couldn’t do it yourself, you waited for the Tinkers to come to town. These were gypsies who traveled from place to place and had skills that they could fix various items. When the Tinkers would come to town, they had a bell that they would ring to help announce their presence. This sound was known as the Tinker’s Bell.

So when Jim Barries play about the faerie Tippietoe opened in 1904, there was no little floating pixie. The only way that one knew she had arrived was the cue of a Tinker’s Bell. So during the production, she was given the name of Tinker Bell.

The play was an immediate success and eventually Tink was played by a little flash of light as well as the sound of the bell. Evidently they had to give a name to the performer for the play bill so they made up the name Miss Jane Wren. Though a fictitious character, at one point the Tax Board came collecting back taxes from the actress!

He put the play in book for in 1906, and in 1911 Peter and Wendy were added to the story. In 1928 Tinker Bell final becomes a real character played by a human.

It started in 1924 when Adolph Zukor presented Peter Pan in a silent screen play. Barrie wrote the play, but they I think they might have had a parting of ways because Barrie wanted to stay true to the original. Through the miracle of modern film they were able to show tink as a little ball of light when interacting with human characters. But she had her own on screen appearance with the staging of a “drawer” for her to sit on the tip and appear tiny. I believe this is the clip that they showed us as I can see it in my mind.

I believe that this picture comes from an early production of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell is actually played by a human character, but they made giant sets and shot her scenes separately so that she appeared to be fairy sized.

From a young age Walt was fascinated with the fairy concept. He and Roy emptied their piggy banks just to see this film. Walt even played Peter Pan in the school play. So skip forward to the 1930s and Walt is working on his hydroplane camera and developing the movie studio. He always had in the back of his mind that he wanted to do something with the Peter Pan story.

At the same time the Water Sprites were in development for Fantasia. Walt had very specific ideas on what his fairies should look like. In some of the early designs for Tinker Bell they considered changing her clothes in every scene, but this was scrapped.

From the beginning, she was always animated as a nuisance. Some early sketches of her resembled Shirley Temple, and later she became a brunette, but always she was supposed to have sex appeal. She was so little that she could only handle one emotion at a time. And by 1940 there were suggestions that she should become a red head.

In 1941 the Artist Strike hit, and in 1942 the US entered World War II so Peter Pan was placed on the shelf for the time being. However before it was placed on the shelf, Walt had already changed the story line for Peter to believe in Tink.

Mary Blair only did a few drawings for Peter Pan. Following the war, Tinker Bell was still a red head and by the end of the 1940s Peter Pan was in full production. Marc Davis was chosen to animate Tinker Bell. They showed some photos here that Alice Davis had found the week before the presentation of Marc drawing Tinker Bell back in this time period. She was animated as a girl from the waist up, but definitely a woman from the waist down.

Here is Marc Davis’s Tinkerbell sketch sheet.

She didn’t “preen” herself in her screen test because she’d never seen herself before. Evidently she had never seen a mirror. At this point they introduced the two ladies who were the “top” model and the leg model. Both mentioned how there was a rigorous audition process for the sound of the bell part. When the movie was released in February 1952, Tinker Bell became an instant hit. She became a spokesperson for bread and peanut butter. She also had her own comic books.

These were some shots from “live action” sequences that they did for animating Tinkerbell

Both the top and bottom models appeared on stage, as well as the gal who was doing the voice of Tinkerbell in the latest animated feature. I found these (as well as all the others) through Google images online.

This presentation went waaaaaaay over time. We were a little miffed about that because it was very difficult for us to leave discreetly (with the scooter and all that). We’re not big Tinker Bell fans anyways. I think it was past 12:30 when we got out. It was supposed to be done at 12:15, and we had to be back at 1:45 to get our regular spots.

At this point, I don’t remember exactly what we did for lunch, but I’m guessing we had either brought sandwiches with us, or we went back to the room and made them. But we were back in time for home stretch of the afternoon.

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! What a great history lesson on how Tinkerbell came to be. I found both the J Barrie side and the Disney side equally fascinating.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ACDSNY]

I enjoyed the Tinkerbell update, she's one of my favorite characters.

 

[cristyhas3]

That's fascinating! Bummer it went long, tho. Thanks for telling us all about Tink!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice info about the history of Tinkerbell.

Great update.

 

[Pinkocto]

Oooooohhhhh, garage sale treasures! Any chance for some pictures?

Loved the Tinkerbell history, she's one of my favorites.

 

[dgbg100106]

What a wonderful lesson on tinker bell.


Garage sale?

 

[rentayenta]

Finally caught up. Your attention to detail is remarkable.

 

[franandaj]

WOW! What a great history lesson on how Tinkerbell came to be. I found both the J Barrie side and the Disney side equally fascinating.

Thanks for sharing.

I found the J Barrie stuff to be the most interesting, but who would have realized that there was so much to such a little character.

I enjoyed the Tinkerbell update, she's one of my favorite characters.

That's fascinating! Bummer it went long, tho. Thanks for telling us all about Tink!

Glad you enjoyed it! Hope you stick around for the rest. I need to finish this before my trip which is now only 29 days away!

Very nice info about the history of Tinkerbell.

Great update.

Thanks Bret!

Oooooohhhhh, garage sale treasures! Any chance for some pictures?

Loved the Tinkerbell history, she's one of my favorites.

They weren't anything spectacular, just some framed posters, pin sets and things. They're nice, but things we might put up in a bathroom or other room that we can't put expensive art on canvas.

What a wonderful lesson on tinker bell.


Garage sale?

I mentioned it after the previous update. We spent a couple hundred dollars buying out two ladies of their Disney stuff they had to get rid of. The thing that was nice was that I had just finished the update where Andreas Boor was the host and they had a picture he had signed.

Finally caught up. Your attention to detail is remarkable.

Actually it's called copious notes!

 

[dgbg100106]

I mentioned it after the previous update. We spent a couple hundred dollars buying out two ladies of their Disney stuff they had to get rid of. The thing that was nice was that I had just finished the update where Andreas Boor was the host and they had a picture he had signed.

Nice find....

 

[franandaj]

HEARING VOICES: A SULTE TO DISNEY VOICE ARTISTS

This session was hosted by Tim O’Day

The first person we heard from was Bill Farmer the voice of Goofy. Pinto Colvi was the original voice of Goofy. I can’t remember how long he has been doing the voice of Goofy, but he came on shortly before the time the Goofy movie came out.

For those of you who have heard this part already bear with me. Walt Disney was the voice for many of the characters in the original days of the Disney Studio. I believe that it was on one of the Disney documentaries that we watched on the cruise where I heard about how the next voice of Mickey Mouse came about. Basically Walt was just too busy to take time out of his day to come in and do the voiceovers, so he had one of his other imagineers try it, and said, “You have the job!”

Back in the 1980s when Roy Disney was in charge, it came to the attention of upper management that they had far too many people representing the voices of the characters. At one point there were nine different people doing the voice of Mickey in various areas such as TV shows, in the parks, on toys released to the public, internationally, Commercials, and other areas. They decided that only one voice should represent each character and held auditions and the best of each of the voices doing each character would become that one voice.

After a long career in stand up, and doing many different voices Bill Farmer got the part of Goofy. He demonstrated a lot of funny quotes for us and talked about how he was able to perform “Romeo and Juliet" as Goofy.

He’s a very funny and witty guy, and he also does the voice for Pluto. He is quite talented and demonstrated for us that he could also do the voice of Pluto in French and & German.
















Think about it.

Are you laughing yet?

He worked with many of the legendary character voices and shared that the actors portraying the voices of Mickey and Minnie were actually married in real life.

His first movie project was the Goofy Movie. Following the success of that project, they started a series call the Goof troop. I believe that it was a half an hour series and it took 2-3 hours just to record the dialogue for each episode. In comparison, the Goofy Movie took 2-3 years to produce.

We moved on to Lisa Davis—Voice of Anita (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961)

She had been doing some really bad “B” movies like the Queen of Outer Space starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, and she got really good at imitating Zsa Zsa’s voice. She had actually gone in to do the reading with Walt Disney for the part of Cruella, as they were looking for someone with that sort of a voice for her part.

For whatever reason she was failing miserably at reading Cruella’s part, so she asked Walt if she could try the “part that he was reading?” And she got the part!

Just as a little side note, she mentioned that she met her husband on the set of the “B” movie that they had both been working on, and that they had their first date at Disneyland.

In keeping with 101 Dalmatians, they moved on to David Frankham—Voice of Sergeant Tibbs Lisa had worked with him before. Willie Reitherman auditioned him. Generally Walt never wanted to “see” the auditionees, he just wanted to “hear” them. David studied his own cats for days before the audition. Willie took him around the story boards prior to the audition, so he felt prepared to give it a go when he was up.

After that the discussion moved on to Kathryn Beaumont—Voice of Alice (Alice in Wonderland, 1951) and Wendy Darling (Peter Pan, 1953). When she came to America, she was under contract with MGM. She mentioned that the way MGM worked was just how she “thought the Movie world worked”.

Walt was looking for a voice in Alice that would be pleasing to British and American audiences, so he pursued Kathryn for this role. When she finally signed on with Disney should couldn’t believe the difference between Disney and MGM. She was astonished that Walt was actually “part of the team”. She said that she loved working like that. He got her involved in all sorts of promos and even did a show called “An Hour in Wonderland”.

She had also worked with Sterling Holloway (who played the Cheshire Cat, Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo). Kathryn was new to voice work and everyone was in the room during the reading. Nowadays, it’s not usually done like that, each person reads their lines in a room all by themselves, but because they were able to talk over their scenes, it really helped her out as a kid.

Just a side note: Wreck-It-Ralph actually let Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Penelope (Sarah Silverman) record their lines together and it caused for much better interaction and more funny interplay.

The next voice we “met” was Chris Sanders—Stitch (Lilo & Stitch, 2002).

He was the director of the film and did the voice of Stitch. At first they didn’t want Stitch to have any speaking lines. However, during the filming, he started to grunt. When they were pitching the movie, Chris would just fill in the voice at the presentations, so when it came time that he actually had to have lines, Chris was very leery about doing it.

He gave a little bit of background on the whole Lilo and Stitch story. He had worked on Mulan, and they talked about killing off villains at the end of the movie. They thought for once it would be nice to have a movie where they didn’t kill off the villain. That’s how the whole “turn around” for Stitch came around in the end of the movie. The idea of him saying that “Ohana means no one ever gets left behind” made Stitch a reformed villain and they didn’t have to kill him off. This also meant that Chris would definitely have to speak.

They also got a whole new franchise, and a bunch of sequels out of it, even if they went direct to video!

Next we heard from Bruce Reitherman—Voice of Mowgli (The Jungle Book, 1967) and Christopher Robin (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, 1966)

His audition took place, “around the dining room table”, as he was the son of Willie Reitherman. He admitted that he was a little intimidated by whole voice over concept but since his father was working on these productions, that’s how he got into it. As a young kid, they put him in a HUGE room (designed for a 100 piece orchestra) with just two people, bright lights, very intimidating.

The other voices in the Jungle Book had to be HUGE personalities. He had to be an innocent 12 year old deciding if he was going to grow up or not.

I know they talked about Winnie the Pooh, but I don’t have anything in my notes about it. I must have been getting tired at this point and my notes are slipping!

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! How cool to put real faces to the voices of the animated characters.

Absolutely fascinating update and I enjoyed reading every word and looking at everyone.


Oh.....and WOOF! (Hey - I can say that in English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese. Note to self....remember to take up Russian!).

 

[franandaj]

WOW! How cool to put real faces to the voices of the animated characters.

Absolutely fascinating update and I enjoyed reading every word and looking at everyone.


Oh.....and WOOF! (Hey - I can say that in English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese. Note to self....remember to take up Russian!).

Don't forget Swahili!

 

[dgbg100106]

Lovely update.

Even with note taking that is a lot of information.

And cute too with all the back stories

 

[Pinkocto]

Very cool update! I always love hearing how involved Walt was with everything.

 

[ACDSNY]

Lovely update. Did they have anything on Jim Cummings who does Pooh and Tigger?

 

[franandaj]

Lovely update.

Even with note taking that is a lot of information.

And cute too with all the back stories

Thanks, this has been a tough report to write because it's been so full of information!

Very cool update! I always love hearing how involved Walt was with everything.

I know! It's no wonder he came up with such a great company, pretty much everyone who came in contact with him thought he was a tremendous person.

Lovely update. Did they have anything on Jim Cummings who does Pooh and Tigger?

No, I think it depends on who they can book and get on the stage and they don't talk about much else other than who is there and the subject at hand. Maybe next time....

 

[franandaj]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Still the Fairest of them All

This next session was all about little known facts from the creation of the landmark film that changed the way the world viewed animation.

This feature rates up there with many other great films of it's time.

There were many firsts for this. “Exclusive Recordings from the actual sound film” were issued. The word Soundtrack did not even exist until Pinnochio.

When he came up with the idea and pitched it to his staff, Walt gave everyone 65¢ to go out and buy dinner. When they came back, Walt related the entire project to them, songs and all. Our secondary host shared original manuscripts of the songs with us.

This is the original manuscript of “Whistle While you Work”.

In this photo you will see from left to right.

Frank Churchill. Walt had wanted to use George Gershwin or Irving Berlin to write the Three Little Pigs Song which was a huge hit in the 1930s, but instead Frank Churchill wrote the three little pigs. He wrote the “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolfe” Song.

My notes say for the second photo “Composer – When you wish” which I know is short for When you Wish upon a Star and that would be Leigh Harline.

OK thank god for Wikipedia. Now it all makes sense. Picture #3 is of Paul Smith and this is what I found on Wikipedia.

The songs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composed the incidental music score

The fourth picture shows Churchill at the piano.

Now this picture is from the footage they shot to animate the dance scene in the movie.

And then how it was used to do the animation.

They pointed out to notice the fish clarinet that one of the dwarves is playing. I also know from the Snow White Exhibit at the WD Museum, that Walt wanted all the dwarves instruments to look “handmade”.

This was a song called Yodel. They played it for us. Grumpy had a pipe organ and everyone blew jugs of varying sizes to make it work.

In 1935 there was actually the First National Hillbilly Championships that took place in LA. And they did yodeling there as one of the activities. The Disney folks went and studied these guys for role models for the dwarves!

You’ll have to excuse me for those who don’t read music, I find this part fascinating especially since my undergraduate degree had an emphasis in Historical Musicology. Back to more sketches.

Eventually the title Yodel became “The Silly Song”.

There was a song that got cut from the movie, it was about a Lady in the Moon. Each Dwarf would have made a different noise of an animal and all the dwarves fought over the lady in the moon, until they figured out that it was a Man in the moon. The only thing that ended up carrying over from that was the fish clarinet that we were supposed to notice earlier.

One of the other things that I learned at the Snow White Exhibit at the Disney museum was that Walt was constantly trying to get his animators to come with gags to add humor to the movie. He offered bonuses for those who came up with good ones that were used. In the end most of the gags were dropped because they didn’t add to the story line, but a couple stayed in, especially in the Silly Song.

As a lead up to the release of Snow White, theaters used to do all kinds of promotional marketing which included comic strips in local papers, ads at theaters and one of the things that the Walt Disney Company came up with was a dance called Doin’ the Dopey. Evidently there were seven distinct dance moves, but now they are all lost to history.

 

[franandaj]

For the next segment of the discussion they brought out Marge who was the original model for Snow White. She is now 93 years old and quite in good shape for a woman of her age! Back when they were looking for models, a talent scout came to a few dance schools in the area in March of 1933. Three girls were picked to audition and she was one of them. She never heard anything back from them all summer, and started the next school year at Hollywood High School.

She enrolled in the drama class there. Her drama teacher taught her to improvise which was not a comfortable subject for her, but she did things like “picking daisies” and all sorts of other moves that they would come up with. The class helped to take away her stage fright. Also her British upbringing helped her to eventually get the job because she was so polite.

Eventually she was offered the job and realized that the reason it had taken so long for them to get back was that she was not the first choice for the job. However that person didn’t work out and luck would have it that she did!

Marge’s father taught a Dance school, and her father gave a scholarship to Marge’s (unbeknownst husband-to-be) and his mother was so grateful that she encourage her son to take Marge dancing on the weekends. She mentioned that he went off in the war and came back all grown up.

Marge was the live action model. Though the movie was fully animated, they studied her movement to understand the drawing.

At the premiere of Snow White, she had to sit in the balcony because Walt was afraid if the public knew there were live action models, people would think they had traced the entire movie.

Around this time Shirley Temple was being honored for being the most long running movie star, so she was a celebrity at the Snow White Premiere.

They talked about some of these promos and the staging of the filming. The forest that she ran through in the filming was actually just clotheslines with rope hanging from it, but they had things that would catch on her dress so that the animators could accurately depict a scary forest scene.

Because cartoon characters have larger heads in proportion to the body, they put a football helmet on her head, painted it black and then painted a ribbon on top of it so that they could accurately portray her body size to her regular size in the live action film. She said that it was so heavy that sometimes she couldn’t even perform properly because the helmet caused her to be so off balance!

That was pretty much the end of the discussion of the making of Snow White, but it segued into the next discussion which was the Walt Disney Family Museum and the Snow White exhibit (which now that so much time has passed I have had the opportunity to actually go and see over the last Christmas holiday).