Walt Disney Feature Animations of the Golden Era (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

I'd be curious if there is interest to discuss the Disney animated films of that early era of 1937 to about 1965. And then perhaps the relative quality of the DVD releases. The release of the 50th Anniversary Sleeping Beauty DVD got me interested.

I don't really know these films. I've seen them maybe once and many I don't remember. And I grew up during the later of that era of the 1960's. I saw Jungle Book in the theater as a kid. And I'm more familiar to The Looney Tunes shorts as I did see those and admire many of those, but that's a totally different studio, I know.

I have a view that his films of the classic fairy tales are his vision of them, so they have a certain characteristic that's perhaps too idealized or sickly sweet or too something. Can't quite put my finger on this as I have not really seen these films as an adult! Maybe Shrek would be a lot funnier to me if I saw these films!

I took a look at my collection and I realized that I had bought several of these films. I have two versions of Fantasia, the big blue box laserdisc set from the 90's and the Fantasia Anthology DVD set from 2000. Both still in the shrink wrap! I knew this was a landmark film, which is why I got those.

I also forgot I bought Alice in Wonderland The Masterpiece Edition, don't know the year of this release. And I have Sleeping Beauty Special Edition too from a few years ago! Both still shrink wrapped. I thought I had Snow White, Pinocchio and Peter Pan too, but I have not found them yet. These are the big landmark films I think of when I hear the name Disney.

The bigger films are what I remember hearing about or referenced to growing up. I know Disney had quite a few films during the late 30's and through out the war years. I'd be interested in hearing of them, but I am most familiar with the bigger titles and am most interested in those.

Obviously these films are classics and have been influential, whether you like Disney or not. Thanks and I look forward to comments!

 

[SilverWook]

It's a darn shame Disney doesn't do theatrical reissues of these anymore. The last one I remember seeing on the big screen was Pinocchio in 1992.

 

[Nelson Au]

I found my still shrink wrapped copies of Snow White Platinum Edition, Pinocchio Limited Edition and 101 Dalmations Limited Edition. I'll have to check them out after all this time, though I'm not that enthusiastic of 101 Dalmations yet.

 

[Brian D H]

Certainly, and I'm glad that you found your DVDs. I'm about your age (my first movie was Peter Pan when I was 2), but I think that I did see most of them in re-releases in the 70s and 80s. Now that I have 2 daughters I'm catching them all again.

Why don't you give them a spin and let us know what you think? - It's your thread; you should be the one to start off with your thoughts. --- One caveat: Make a mental note of the year each film was made as you watch it. The style of the voice-acting and the songs are greatly influenced by the time periods, and may appear a bit jarring if you look at them with 21st century expectations. (Especially Snow White and Pinocchio)

 

[Nelson Au]

Brian-

Thanks for the suggestion! You're right, I really should look at these discs first.

What I think makes sense is to watch these in chronological order starting with Snow White.

Can't help thinking with a 2008 mindset what the name Snow White means today! I am thinking of Aliens and Vasquez comment about Ripley. So your warning is well taken to keep in mind the time period these films were made. I think that's one of the things that I find interesting about these older animations. I was looking at Amazon for titles I don't have yet like Dumbo and Peter Pan. One reviewer warned that in some areas, Dumbo is not allowed to be seen by children because it's not politically correct. I guess there's a scene where Dumbo gets drunk. And in Pinocchio, people are seen smoking.

One question then as I set about trying to find some titles. Dumbo wasn't high on my list. I see two versions, the 60th Anniversary and The Big Top version which is newer. Some of the comments was that the 60th Anniversary has extras the newer Big Top version is missing. I figure though the Big Top version should have a nicer transfer.

Any other warnings appreciated. But I see on Amazon, most available titles are recent ones anyway, so not much choice.

Thanks!

 

[Brian D H]

Yes, and it's a big "Pink Elephants" musical number (that was literally traced frame-by-frame for Winnie the Pooh's "Hefalumps" scene). Also, the crows in Dumbo are racial stereotypes that IMO are much worse than anything in the banned "Song of the South*".

That being said, I somewhat like Dumbo and have no problem letting my kids watch it (to them the crows are just birds; and the alcohol is consumed by mistake - the consequences are clear). My main problem with Dumbo is where it drags and the somewhat annoying songs that REALLY need to be left in their proper time period.

Pinocchio is a masterpiece. The smoking scene is depicted as a vice with dire consequences.

(*Good luck forming any opinion on "Song of the South" unless you're willing to track down a Japanese laser-disc, VHS tape, or bootleg.)

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Brian. I agree with your thoughts regarding the social attitudes of the times in which these films were made. I refer to the racial stereotypes and as you said, smoking and the consequences. I have a vague memory of that sequence and to me, they were just birds. Let's see if I can even get a copy of Dumbo!

 

[Martino]

I collect all of the Disney animited titles, and keep them in order. (1-51 on the attached list)

Another one of the non-PC examples is from Peter Pan - the Indian number in not PC, with lines like "Why is the red man red?, When did they first say UG?"

Enjoy the films. One of the other things you might pick up on, especially on DVD, is the clean up mistakes that occur when there were not any computers.

Some examples of this - there are "extra" perspective lines that sometimes show up on Winnie the Pooh - ane it is really bad on the Aristocats


List of Disney animated movies - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for the added info Martino. You're a real fan!

I am interested in discovering the oldest titles. The animation and artwork, from what I've seen in stills is so very rich, which is what I really appreciate. I don't think I'll go beyond the 1950's, and limit the 1960's with Jungle Book.

Of course, during the modern era, the Pixar films are terrific for the most part.

 

[Brandon Conway]

The classic Disney animated films are best seen for their craftmanship, as well as solid straightforward storytelling. All of the from Snow White to 101 Dalmatians (save the compilation releases of the WW2 years) show great technical ability to convey a narrative through animation. Styles are established, changed, and by 101 Dalmatians, discarded in order to embrace a new method.

So, with that in mind, I say all of these below are must-sees in order to appreciate all that:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Cinderella (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Peter Pan (1953)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
101 Dalmatians (1961)

 

[Rachel Bowman]

What I loved about Dumbo was that - with the inclusion of the crows (who are clearly black American characters) - Walt was taking a very firm stand *against* racism. Like Dumbo, who is made an outcast due to his physical appearance, isn't it wonderful of Walt to have made Dumbo's best friends (indeed, the group that leads him to his salvation) a group of characters based on an American societal group who are also struggling due to their physical traits, i.e. skin color.

I think its outrageous that today, people watch Dumbo and they can't put two and two together and see what Walt was doing -- we're all in such a hurry to charge racist this and offensive that, we've lost our cognitive ability to analyze and take a step back and (in this case) see the individual trees for the forest.

Yes, animation from the 30's and 40's was full of racial stereotypes. There isn't a single major American animation studio working at that time that didn't produce work free of racial stereotypes. Rather than react in an immediate and reflexive way whenever an ethnic character appears in a classic animated film, I think it serves history better to actually pay attention to what those characters were doing and what their functions were.

Dumbo is anything but racist, and I think a wonderful discussion can be raised with young people after watching it vis a vis why the only social group that comes to Dumbo's aid are a group of poor black crows, and what that means in context with Dumbo's own problem -- prejudice towards him based on his appearance.

 

[Nelson Au]

Brandon-

Thanks for the list. That list has a few more then I was interested in, but the ones I do want to see are pretty much what you have.

My memory of the later animated films are as you said, of a different style. So I'll have to have a proper look to see how they evolve and change styles.

edit: Rachel, thanks for your thoughts, for some reason it was posted after I posted this post, but ahead of this post! I ordered Dumbo and a few others and they are on the way. So I'll start viewing as soon as I find a free evening!

 

[Brian D H]

Nelson,

Seen any yet? Thoughts?

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Brian!

I have to admit that I got sidetracked. But I did manage to collect the titles I didn't have yet. I added Peter Pan, Dumbo, Bambi and Cinderella. I think that's all the main ones, plus the ones I mentioned above.

I plan to watch Snow White first, followed by Pinocchio.

 

[rich_d]

I think that goes too far. First, Walt Disney didn't write the story or animate the film, he produced it. So to go on about Walt's choices of this or that or Walt's stand against racism is a bit much.

"Poor black crows" ... where are the rich black crows? I mean I like some of your ideas but turning them into a "social group" that comes to be Dumbo's "best friends" is not substantiated. They are just some great characters that further the story while contributing to one of the best scenes and best songs in animated film history.

 

[Pete-D]

I'm an 80s kid/90s teenager ... and I've seen all of those movies multiple times as a kid.

I just kinda figured every kid did.

 

[Brandon Conway]

You won't get a greater contrast in styles than Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians, but both are astounding.

The backgrounds in both Snow White and Bambi are equally astounding for totally opposite reasons - one exquisitely detailed, the other impressionistic.

But Pinocchio is perhaps the finest accomplishment in animation history. When you watch the Monstro sequence at the end of the film, and realize it was all hand drawn animation....

Just.... damn. It's numbingly remarkable.

 

[Nelson Au]

With all the excitement of the new Star Trek movie with previews and imagery, I finally took time out to see Snow White.

This is the first time I've seen it. I kinda knew the story, but didn't know that the Queen did the deed of putting Snow White to sleep. And I didn't know that the, "Mirror, Mirror on the wall" line was from this film. I knew the line, but never placed it!

Amazing, isn't it! And I grew up in the 60's.

My reaction was how cool the artwork was. The background artwork was terrific! I was particularly impressed by how fluid and smooth Snow White moved. I had an idea of how they did that based on documentaries I had seen years ago.

The other thing that struck me, watching this as an adult, was how much some of the score sounded like Frankenstein. The 1931 James Whale version of course. And the Queen's dungeon had the same design as the castle/lab of Dr. Frankenstein.

After I saw the whole film, I watched the Making of Doc and it mentioned how much influence Disney took from the European illustrators and imagery, and I could definitely see that. The impressionist influence of the forest sequence was there! The look of the film was certainly of the the time.

The humans were really well done, looking and moving realistically. The forest animals were what I called that Disney cute-ness. Nothing wrong with that, they were very endearing.

The Queen's movements after she turned into the old hag was also amazingly well done!

I was impressed with how they animated the rain water as it flowed off the rocks, ground and the bodies of the forest animals.

As far as the story goes, I never read Grimms original tale. One of the things that caused me to resist watching the Disney films was that I had the impression that they were colored by Disney's take on the story. So I don't know how faithful the story was. But the story was really good and the range of emotions it elicited worked very well on me. It was really sad at the end until the Prince came to kiss her!

I guess the message that when you're beautiful, there will be those who hate you. But also, the world is also wonderful for you because for the beautiful people get what they want. And I liked that Snow White, while beautiful, was also a very kind and sweet soul, beautiful inside too. All the animals of the forest and the dwarfs all fell in love with her.

I'm curious now how the state of the art improved with Pinocchio next.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Great impressions.

 

[Richard--W]

Don't forget to check out the Silly Symphonies and other cartoon shorts from the late 1920s up through the 1940s. They are a constant revelation which reward repeated viewings, not only for the animation, but also for the stories, which achieve a very high standard of writing. And of thinking. The stories are too easily under-estimated.

Don't forget Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which, when paired together, were long enough to be a feature in 1948.

Why did you leave out the last film Walt Disney worked on, The Jungle Book ? I consider it a classic and as indispensable as the others on your list.