The article opens with the note that it is easy to forget that Walt Disney "was once celebrated as a great artist" for his innovations in the field of animation as well as his creative abilities.  However, by the late 1940s the filmmaker's critical acclaim began to wane.  Critics began to see Disney as having sold out his talent to pander to popular tastes.  The author argues that Walt Disney's aesthetic evolved to reflect the contradictory intersection of Victorian sentimentalism and modernism, creating a hybrid style that helped mediate an important cultural shift in the United States during the 20th Century.  The author goes as far as referring to Disney as "a kind of popular Picasso" to reflect his hybrid style that combined commercial entertainment and elements of surrealism (such as fantastic imaginary settings).  In response to Disney's early modernist aesthetic, Sergei Eisenstein is quoted as having said in the early 1940s that the animator's work constituted "the greatest contribution of the American people to art."  However, as Disney's efforts grew increasingly dedicated to enhancing realism in animation, his style onscreen became firmly rooted in a sunny aesthetic that reflected the sentimental idealism of the Victorian tradition.  Disney was working at a time when other cartoonists had already developed a modernist aesthetic (often dark and surreal), and he curbed their style with his own anthropomorphic, fantastic-yet-optimistc idealism.  The author argues that Fantasia represents the embodiment of this hybrid agenda.  Abstract shapes and bizarre images set to classical music form the modernist component (especially through the juxtaposition of "high" and "low" images), while the idealistic nature scenes that form the imagery for several sequences form the  counterpoint of Victorian sentimentalism.  Many critics of the early 1940s likened Disney's appeals to the unconscious to the trickery and even drugging of audiences.

This article provides a retrospective analysis of Walt Disney's unique artistic style at the time leading up to and including the creation of Fantasia.  It is important to note the temporal distance between the realm of the article's subject (the 1930s and 1940s) and that of its author (1995).  The hindsight of this 60-year lapse enables the author to draw clear distinctions between different artistic movements in history, namely Victorian sentimentalism and modernism.  While Disney's work was criticized at the time for being too "cutesy" and commercially exploitative, this modern author re-defines Disney's style as an innovative hybrid of two conflicting artistic movements.  Thus it is in the context of these historical paradigm shifts that the author resurrects Disney as an artist.  This article relates to my thesis because the author uses historical/retrospective insight to read Fantasia as the prime example of Disney's hybrid artistic style.  While many music critics of the time condemned Fantasia for destroying the classical music at the film's center, this author uses the more than 50 years since the film was made to develop an analysis that sees the "bigger picture" of how the film fit into various definitions of art.

Watts, Steven. "Walt Disney: Art and Politics in the American Century." The Journal of American History june 82 (1995): 84-96. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 24 Nov. 2008 .

This article, written in 1946 by a professor of theater arts at the University of California at Los Angeles, weighs the merits and drawbacks of the animated cartoon as an art form.  The author notes that the beauty of the form is that, at its best, individual cartoons can be watched repeatedly and still hold the viewer's interest.  The article describes Walt Disney as the master of the animated cartoon, a man who brings infinite imagination to his work to produce rich details that warrant repeated viewings of his short films.  However, the author does not respond as favorably to Disney's feature films, arguing that they progress only in terms of technical skill.  The article mentions the shortcomings of many of Disney's early feature films, specifically describing Fantasia as an "ambitious experiment lacking over-all perfection," but still recognizes Walt Disney as a man working within the constraints of a larger industrial system that limits his art through economics.  The author argues that Disney, himself, is a genius but is unable to bring true artistic innovation to his feature films because they represent "an expensive medium for far too large a public."  The article closes by announcing two new Disney shorts to be released in the coming months, predicting that these cartoons will be able to "comment on life and society and still be entertainment" because they do not suffer the same burden of economic popularity as Disney's feature films.

Written just six years after the original release of Fantasia, this article is an example of negative critical reception of the film based on criteria that do not revolve around the film's "destruction" of classical music.  Here the author situates his disappointment in Fantasia's execution within an overall critique of Disney's feature length films.  The author's main criticism of the Disney feature length format is that it tries to cater to too large an audience and is bound by expectations of economic performance, a fact that strengthens my thesis that art is often seen as being in opposition to mass entertainment/commodities.

Macgowan, Kenneth. "Make Mine Disney: A Review." Hollywood Quarterly july 1 (1946): 376-77. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008 .

 

The author of this article argues that Disney's editing/reworking of canonical classical music pieces in Fantasia vignettes does not merely butcher these artistic compositions (as was the common outraged response from people in the field of music), but instead brings to them a new series of visual associations that make them accessible to "middlebrow" audiences.  He claims that it was the film's "technical virtuosity" that legitimized these decisions as art.  The article discusses the ideological rhetoric underlying the film, such as evolution and technological progress, and how the harmony between image and sound onscreen works to naturalize these ideological underpinnings.  The author also includes a discussion of the "Centaurettes" in one sequence that embody the racist trope of the "picaninny," characters that were self-censored out of the film in later releases, and how their presence signifies a certain racist ideology that reinforces the social hierarchy of the time.  Briefly tracing the appearance of Fantasia over time, the author also mentions Fantasia 2000 as a continuation of this musical democracy that highlights the "cutting edge" technology legacy of the film through its IMAX format.

This article provides a rare instance in which a cultural critic from the field of music actually praises Fantasia for its reworking of classical music.  However, it is significant that this positive reaction comes more than six decades after the film's initial release.  Looking back on the film as a moment in history, the modern critic is able to locate Fantasia within a particular socio-historic context.  This vantage point enables the author to comment on the sociological effects of the film, effects that comprise much of this article's redemption of the film's unorthodox usage of classical music.  The author marks Fantasia as art because of both its technical brilliance and the creativity it displays in the methods used to ideologically affect its audience.  This retrospective appreciation of the film relates to my thesis in that it provides an example of the notion that hindsight leads to Fantasia's validation as art rather than commodity.  It is also significant that this article appears after the release of the contemporary Fantasia 2000, which served to refocus attention on the film in contemporary times.  This re-emergence of the film, marketed as the resurrection of a classic, may have had a direct influence on the likelihood of a reviewer to see the original as art because of its connection to a particular moment in American history.

Clague, Mark. "Playing in 'Toon: Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940) and the Imagineering of Classical Music." American Music spring 22 (2004): 91-109. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 24 Nov. 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3592969?seq=9&Search=yes&term=fantasia&term=disney&term=2000&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfantasia%2B2000%2Bdisney;gw%3Djtx;prq%3Dfantasia%2B2000;Search%3DSearch;hp%3D25;wc%3Don&item=1&ttl=68&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doBasicResultsFromArticle

Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. "Oberservations of film art and Film Art." David Bordwell's Website of Cinema. 2 Dec 2008.

In this blog entry, Bordwell speaks of Disney and his animation drawing from Neal Gabler’s biography Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. He describes the ideology portrayed in Disney’s films as able to create a specific conception of American life and society. Though many intellectuals fell out of love with Disney in the 1940s, Bordwell believes that Disney’s cartoons were still artistically very strong. These cartoons are characterized by an unsurpassed dynamism and grace of his animation, his power of expressive movement of the screen and “Mickey Mousing, ”which, according to Eisenstein, is a primal, visceral unity that could move the spectator involuntarily. Disney achieved this “absolute perfection” of animation through technological methods as well as an understanding of human thought, images, ideas, feelings, etc. Bordwell add that Disney was a “control freak.” Thus he wanted to create an idealized world, obsessively pursuing the “quality” of animation, which he could control. The result was his films and, of course, Disneyland. Technology was his reality-distortion field. Disney was able to bring animation to life for many reasons: skill with line and contour, soft caricature with an enormous bounce or vibrancy, use of color, and relationships between image and sound. Bordwell concludes that the artistic imagination displayed by Disney and his staff captivated American imagination.

Bordwell explains that Disney conveyed American ideologies mainly through animation. This brilliant animation is one of the two main components of “Fantasia,” the other, obviously, being sound. The graceful, vibrant animation that Browell describes is what truly captivates the viewer. Otherwise, the childish themes and unimpressive animation would definitely detract viewer from Disney’s films. The animation in “Fantasia” thus plays an important part in its popularity. As an “experiment,” the film sought to achieve the perfection in production that Walt Disney expected. Furthermore, it seems that perfect synchronization of image and sound really accentuate the films features. Such an entrancing combination sucks the viewer into the screen entering Disney’s world of imagination. In doing so, Disney achieves a spectacular, unique power over the audience. Though quite impressive, this captivation is the source of the many critiques of “Fantasia.” Disney taints the musical pieces with his dictated ideas, leaving the viewer trapped in Walt’s idealized world. “Fantasia” binds the viewer to a set of inflexible interpretations, negating the film’s artistic possibilities.

Disney's "Fantasia" (1940) is an innovative masterpiece combining classical music and images to form an animated concert to educate those not fortunate enough to experience classical music and all its beauty. The film represents a magical form of entertainment reinforced by Disney's technological advancements. However, the producers of the film, especially Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski, regarded the film as more than entertainment. They saw "Fantasia" as the creation of a new artistic form combining music and sound to convey ideas. Unfortunately for Disney, many musical critics disagreed with the film's use of classical music accusing the company of having forever ruined the pieces. From this disagreement arises the debate of "Fantasia's" functionality: is the film simply entertainment or does it possess a more significant artistic characteristic?

This New York Times article was written in response to the announcement of Disney's recent (2006) strategy to reintroduce animated shorts to its lineup of cinematic productions.  These short programs will appear before Disney feature films in theaters.  The author mentions that nearly half a century has passed since the company regularly produced short cartoons, a hiatus initially brought on by soaring production costs after World War II.  According to the article, the short format is making a comeback not with the hopes of turning a profit in the short run but instead as a long-term investment.  These shorts represent a relatively low-risk way of "trying out" new talent (directors, animators, especially women).  A key distinction is made between the recent animated shorts that Disney has made as a "purely artistic exercise" and the new cartoons that will be more commercial in nature.  The author notes that Warner Brothers tried a similar resurrection of an old commercial form (Looney Toons shorts), but they did not succeed in their attempt.  According to leaders within the Disney company, this new endeavor is meant to grow the studio in the same way the shorts program grew Walt's original studio more than 70 years ago.

The article is important because it highlights the resurgence of an older form of entertainment/cultural production in modern times first as art form, then as commercial product/commodity.  When the "artistic" animated shorts (''Destino,'' ''Lorenzo'' and ''The Little Match Girl'') were introduced, they utilized an antiquated format (short cartoon) to experiment with new artistic and methodological techniques.  This "new wave" of shorts provided a space for the introduction of new art forms, as opposed to the upcoming variety of short cartoons that are meant to be exercises in proficiency at conventional techniques for "new talent."  While the first wave of new shorts was intended to be an artistic experiment, some of the films even winning Oscars, the newer variety of shorts is designed purely as a cost-effective training ground for Disney animators.  This vocational transformation supports the idea that nostalgia for old commercial formats lends them an aura of art, while the familiarity of a form in current use (even one that has recently been resurrected from an older time) makes it a prime candidate for mass commercial use.  The notion that old=art and current=commodity is supported by the distinction made between the commercial plan for these two types of recent Disney shorts.

Solomon, Charles. "For Disney, Something Old (and Short) Is New Again." The New York Times 3 Dec. 2006: 22-22.

This is the original Three Little Pigs Silly Symphony; its duration is 8:23. It features the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, as well as the famous song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" According to a few sources, the heavily Jewish image and accent of the Wolf knocking on the brick house's door was removed for the DVD release, but it seems that this revised voice was applied to the YouTube video, even though the visual was not adjusted.

Having easy, unlimited access to the film which is the subject of my research is essential, not only for being able to form a thesis but for being able to interpret and synthesize the various resources I'll find on the subject. I can draw direct evidence as to the narrative structure, characterization, and use of color, music, and sound, and hear the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" whenever I please.

This journal article deals mainly with the series of films entitled Shakespeare: The Animated Tales, and aims to address the cliche that when portions of the plays are removed in order to make the films, the works are simplified or "dumbed down" to the point where the quality is almost completely sacrificed. It suggests that a better way to analyze the films is to examine them as films, and not as literature, and therefore acknowledge the omissions but still treat the work as a whole. In addition, this reading sees these cuts as necessary to enhance the cinematographic needs of the medium, and the choice of animation brings these valuable and culturally significant stories to a new generation.

The article goes on to cite Walter Benjamin and Sergei Eisenstein's early writings that see animation as significant and important, and claim that it serves as the experimentation necessary for the progress of cinema as a whole. A primary example of Disney's experimentation with anti-realism, according to the article, is the "Silly Symphonies" series of short animated films. The author sees experimentation in various aspects of the film, including "self-reflexivity, technical innovativeness, violation of natural spatial-temporal rules, and violence," and cites other writings which claim that part of the influence of the films lay in their ambiguous target audiences. The films were "not just children's stuff, and certainly not sugar-sweet. Whether they were for adults or children was indeterminate." It was the animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that ended this era of experimentation for Disney, and proved that cartoons could be respectable, even "antiseptic." While Warner Brothers continued to be edgy, Disney was now mainstream and accepted by the Production Code.

This article helps me prove the foundation of my thesis, that the Silly Symphonies began as experimental works that allowed Disney and its animators to try new technologies and new forms. It also helps me show that this experimentation led directly to the development of elements, like narrative, character differentiation, and others, whose perfection made the production of an animated feature-length film possible.

From 1929 to 1939, Walt Disney produced a series of 76 short animated films. "Three Little Pigs," which was released in 1933, marked the first example of the technical innovation and experimentation whose culmination would make possible Disney's future work, and the beginning of an era of feature films with recognizable characteristics for which Disney would become known. "Three Little Pigs" pioneered in the areas of narrative, character development, color, and music and sound integration; Disney set high goals for itself and achieved them in this short film.

The animated short Three Little Pigs is the focus of this paper; the author claims that this short was significant first for epitomizing the quality of Disney films in the 1930s, whose popularity can't be conceived of today. In addition, the author sees the film as crucial in character animation, paving the way for the enduring characters of the next decade. The narrative, indirectly, and the commercial success, more directly, enabled Disney's first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The article also discusses the technical achievements of the film, such as the difficulty in animating such similar characters and the effective use of color. The latter innovation, color, was used most effectively by including subtle tone changes with purpose, such as to reinforce the exhaustion of the wolf after trying to blow down the brick house by changing the colors of his face. Finally, sound was key to the film's success and influence. Written to illustrate a song that became a hit, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", the music helps differentiate characters. The character development was further aided by focusing on four characters, instead of the huge undifferentiated masses often featured in earlier Silly Symphonies.

Finally, the article addresses the metaphor of the story as two-pronged. The popularity of the film suggests the dormant, hopeful message that hard work alone will allow men to prevail even in times of doubt; this was an appealing message in the Depression. Second, audiences saw Walt Disney as a role model. It's possible that simple plots, like that of this short, helped Disney films maintain popularity over competing Warner Brothers series which today seem more appealing.

This article is key to my argument; it helps provide evidence that Three Little Pigs paved the way for Snow White and the future Disney style of creating feature-length films with the same character development, simple plots and positive, moral underlying messages that appealed to audiences.

This is a book of color illustrations and other similar primary source illustrated documents, from final screenshots to draft sketches to storyboard excerpts.  The accompanying text provides context for each picture.  It begins with a series of essays, the second of which is entitled "Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies."  The essay discusses how the emphasis on music in earlier short films such as Steamboat Willie and The Jazz Fool led directly to the initiation of the Silly Symphonies.  Many are mentioned, such as the first, Skeleton Dance, and the first in color, Flowers and Trees.  Two drawings from Three Little Pigs are featured.  The essay discusses the evolution of Technicolor, especially from the two-color to three-color system.  It also discusses the development of the art of animation, especially as driven by the inventive animator Albert Hurter.  He designed settings and main characters, and invested significant effort in developing concepts and visuals which would trigger further development and inspiration on the part of the story writers and other animators.

The essays in this book, and especially the color illustrated accompaniment, would help me intelligently discuss the efforts made at Disney studios to embrace technology and inspire animators.  Facts and examples of the development of Technicolor technology and the changes it caused in films are provided and would help me make the point that the Silly Symphonies, the focus of the discussion, were truly a place where new technologies could be tested and Disney employees made efforts to inspire each other to do great things.

Crowther, Bosley "Yes, But Is It Art?" New York Times (1857-Current file); Nov 17, 1940; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) pg. 141

Published shortly after the Fantasia's release, Crowther further discusses Fantasia (having reviewed it only days earlier). Crowther acknowledges the debate surrounding Fantasia, does the film capture a new art form, or merely a gimmick of new entertainment? Crowther highlights all the minor criticisms of the film, that sometimes the dramatic use of sound and color on screen are overwhelming, or that some segments fall short of achieving the desired dramatic effect (specifically "Night on Bald Mountain"). However, Crowther concludes that whether or not it is an art form is ambiguous, it is truly up to the viewer to decide. Some may find it to be a dumbing down of brilliant classical music, while others will appreciate it as the imagination brought to life. Ultimately, the impact it has on the viewer defines the significance of the film and whether or not it can be considered an art form or a spectacle.

Crowther makes some key points about Fantasia and directly addresses the issue examined in this project, why Fantasia is significant. Crowther believed that for all its short comings, the final product was in fact an art form, and was successful at doing what had never been done before. Fantasia was a pioneer in animation, it was the first of its kind and marked a turning point for the continued use of music in animation. The concept of illustrating the imagination in time with classical music was unheard of, and the subsequent freedom given to the animators and collaboration between graphic and musical artists was unprecedented.

The film reintroduces the audience to classical music, hoping to improve upon the works that history has already demonstrated to be significant and universal in appeal. Disney intended the music to be considered as equal in importance to the animation, and his investment in Fantasound was an attempt to reach this goal. Crowther writes that in very few places did the music ever seen "subjugated" to the animation. Fantasia was based around a unique concept, changing the role of music in animation and illustrating pure imagination, and the resulting impact on production was a need to break the traditional mold. Crowther believes Fantasia was significant because it was a novel experience, captivating the audience on a deeper level than a traditional film. There are many elements of Fantasia that made it ground breaking and significant at the time of its release, but its legacy demonstrates that it is clearly a defining work of American Film.

 

Clague, Mark "Playing in 'Toon': Walt Disney's Fantasia and the Imagineering of Classical Music" JSTOR: American MusicVol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 91-109

This article authored by Mark Clague was published in 2004 in the journal American Music. Clague takes a look back at Fantasia, and the pieces that came together to produce the film. Specifically, Clague goes into great detail about the significance of the use of classical music as the background for the animation. On even a purely technical level, Disney had to modernize classical music to bring it into his film. The production team rerecorded the music with multichannel and stereophonic systems in order to optimize sound quality, demonstrating the further emphasis on the music being considered an equal player in the piece to the animations. The importance placed on the quality of the music is one of the factors that would lead Disney to adapt Fantasound for the release of the film despite the expense. Clague also notes that Disney's choice of classical music played a major role in the future significance of the film. Classical music is something that has withstood the test of time, we are all familiar with it and it has demonstrated its ability to captivate audiences through its own longevity. Disney chose something elegant and appealing for the animators to work with, and thereby heightened the impact of the film, tying its lifespan to the music it was accompanying.

Clague's article grants excellent insight into a major aspect of the film that has contributed to its significance. Disney clearly put emphasis on the music itself, investing in recording and playback sound equipment. The production team considered the music itself to be at least as central as the animation itself, something that had not occured before. The choice of classical music and the focus on the music being a major player in the piece rather than just another layer of polish were revolutionary concepts and the the film that first employed these techniques, Fantasia, has changed the way music in animation is viewed to this day.

DeCroix, Rick "Fantasia" Journal of Popular Film & Television; Summer 1996; 24, 2; Alt-Press Watch (APW)
pg. 103

This article, published in the Journal of Popular Film and Television and written by Rick Decroix, discusses Fantasia in light of its (at the time) upcoming sequel. Written in 1996, Decroix notes that whether or not the audience enjoys Fantasia, it is something to be commended. The film is art, taking the sound medium of music and creating its analog on the silver screen. Decroix acknowledges that Fantasia 2000 can't be the groundbreaking spectacle that the original was, but he is hopeful that it will prove to be in line with the intention of the original, to bring together two art forms into something entirely different.

The author of this review acknowledges the legacy of Fantasia. He claims that the original movie possessed an undeniable "artistic genius". Decroix recognizes the influence and importance of Fantasia 56 years later, with the added contemporary insight granted by having seen the films effects over half-a-century and knowing that Disney is working on a sequel.

Sequels are mixed bag in Hollywood, some fail to capture the success of the original, some are remarkably successful, some are just more of the same, and some destroy the integrity of the original. Fantasia however, had no plot or recurring characters. Therefore, the only element linking these two films is the concept behind them. Fantasia was based around an idea, to animate classical music to add an extra sensory level and help the audience connect. This was an entirely new idea at the time of its conception. Let alone the unprecendented levels of freedom the animators were given, technological improvements, and levels of collaboration that went into the film, the film was founded on a revolutionary concept. The very basis of Fantasia was to connect music and animation, with no regards to traditional plot or character development. The movie was entirely about the music, and this driving force alone made the film unique and pioneering. Fantasia's legacy is long-lived, having taken a whole new approach to what can be done with music, animation, and imagination.

"Disney's Fantasia" JSTOR: The Musical TimesVol. 82, No. 1183 (Sep., 1941), p. 349

This review of Fantasia, printed in The Musical Times in September 1941 is a mixed criticism of the film. The author is nothing short of brutal in his detraction, commenting on audience members walking out of the film and going so far as to call the film a "failure". The critic acknowledges the bold attempt Disney is making at marrying the two art forms of animation and music, but feels that the patterns in one do not translate well to the other. The author of the review makes one great exception however, the sorceror's apprentice (the famous sequence involving Mickey Mouse himself) was incredibly well recieved. The critic thought the piece was well concieved, the animation matched wonderfully with the piece and goes so far as to say that "it is as if Dukas' little masterpiece has been waiting all these years for Disney to complete it."

This review from the film's original release is excellent in answering the question of Fantasia's significance because it looks at the piece with a focus on the music. The author goes through each sequence and detracts for the most part, understanding Disney's intent in linking animation to music to create something better than either media lone, but states that the film simply fails to hit the mark. It was a noble effort but a failure in the end. Where the critic does praise the film is where its significance is really shown. When Disney does get it right, he creates a masterpiece, something that fits with the music so naturally that it is as though the piece was originally concieved with the accompanying animation in mind. Fantasia blended music and animation on a level never before achieved, and the result was something revolutionary that not everyone initally approved of, but has had an undeniable impact on animation and a powerful legacy.

The first chapter of this book, written by Jack Zipes, discusses Disney's role in animating fairy tales and essentially making an industry out of it. Disney drew much of his inspiration for his films from various fairy tales, and in some cases as the book asserts, imposed new meaning to these tales. The chapter explores the history of fairy tales as means of passing morals, essentially having an indoctrination function. Literacy changed the audience and served a class-separation role, among other roles, all the way through the late nineteenth century. Zipes suggests Disney continued the tradition of putting fairy tales into "book" form through its animation department. Given his early success and the development of the animated film industry, Disney was able to implement and perfect other forms of technology to become a leader in animation.

While little credit is attached to where Disney got his inspiration from, the chapter is relevant to the thesis. It outlines some of the similarities, potentially directly drawn from German Expressionism in Disney's work. It was the revolutionary technology that put Disney's work above the rest. A couple of these techniques, which may have been borrowed from European animators on one of Disney's many trips, were experimented on by Reiniger, one being the multiplane camera. The use of this camera to create depth out of two-dimensional images is noted in several of Disney's early works. Reiniger used an early form of the camera to create an illusion of depth in her silhouette images, too. Furthermore, Reiniger's inspiration for using the Arabian Nights' tale was derived from the familiarity the audience would have with these tales and the artistic match between the Expressionist film and the fantastic tale.

Bell, Elizabeth. "From Mouse to Mermaid." Indiana University Press, 1995. (Chapter 1 by Jack Zipes).

The article exclusively discusses the technological aspects of animation, particularly in Disney. Chadwell argues that technology drives illusion, which is the "foundation of animation." Disney was interested in the technological aspects of animation; the entire team that worked on a film was essentially an assembly line, with each member contributing their little part to the whole. In the end it is the complete product that viewers are interested in; therefore, the credit too went to the company or a major figurehead rather than the individual animators. Furthermore, he points out that the multiplane camera's primary role was to create the illusion of depth to make the film more realistic. Essentially, Disney's investment in Snow White was predicated on the use of new technology, which eventually led to the success of this film and future ones, as well.

The article is relevant to the thesis, albeit in a limited fashion, because it deals with Disney's use of the multiplane camera in the making of his first feature film. Reiniger established a similar technique a decade earlier. By lighting a background image less, the main action and characters are brought to the forefront while detail of the backdrop still remains, thus creating an illusion of depth. Obviously Snow White was a technologically superior film given the decade to perfect this piece of technology, yet Reiniger's influence on Disney is once again apparent. The misshapen evil characters of many Disney films are also influenced by Reiniger's jagged, stylized demons and sorcerers. All together, Reiniger's influence was derived not only from her work on Prince Achmed, but the experimental nature and abundance of her work.

Chadwell, Sean. "Technological Determinism and the Poisoned Apple: The Case of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Reconstruction 8.2, 2008.

"Walt's Masterworks: Fantasia" The Walt Disney Family Museum (Nov. 30, 2008)  Retrieved from http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/collection/masterworks/fantasia/index.html

This article taken from the Walt Disney Museum website gives an overview of the production of the film Fantasia. The film actually started as a relatively smaller scale work, just another of Disney's ongoing "silly symphony" series. As production progressed, Walt and the animators realized that they had too many ideas for just a minor film, and it was decided to create a film based entirely around music, one that could showcase all of the animators brilliant and creative ideas. Disney himself had high ambitions for the film, he toyed with pumping smells into theaters to make the film a complete sensory experience, but instead opted to invest in "Fantasound." Fantasound was an expensive and elaborate new sound system, and Disney felt that it would help to put the music at the forefront of the audience's attention and truly definite it as the revolutionary piece he intended. Though RKO forced disney to cut the piece down to 81 minutes from his original 125, the core elements of the film remained intact and the pioneering work was produced.

Fantasia recieved mixed critical reaction. It was a dramatic turn from Disney's traditional style and many felt the disparity between highbrow classical music and the mass-appeal of animation to be too jarring to be enjoyed. Though Disney's intent to illustrate the imagination as it listens to music may have been initially missed, the films legacy has proven that it was in fact the revolutionary piece he intended it to be.

This is an excellent starting place for my project. Coming from the company itself, the article gives an account of the production of the film, Disney's intent, and the legacy of the film. If one is to answer "Why was Disney's Fantasia so significant?", all aspects of the film must be examined; its production, its initial reception, and its legacy are all crucial factors.

This newspaper article commends Disney for not continuing in the direction of Steamboat Willie, but instead “fleshing out” individual characters., giving them “soul” and “color.” The author cites Three Little Pigs as a major turning point for Disney, especially in that it was the first Disney film to have a real plot. The relation of each pig to his house and its construction differentiates and enriches each character. The article includes a quote from Chuck Jones on the subject of Three Little Pigs which comments on character differentiation, saying that in the past, different characters looked different, but in this film, similar-looking characters were differentiated using elements other than visuals alone. The quote also clearly states Jones’ belief that Three Little Pigs was a turning point.

The article mentions music, color, and style as contributing to the success of the film, and states that these factors and the short’s popularity led Disney to another plane. His animated work was, as a direct result of this film, treated seriously, as art, and this can possibly be seen as the beginning of the “Disney empire.” The production of subsequent films, shorts and features, served to codify the Disney style, epitomized by the first Disney feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

This article provides a primary source: animator Chuck Jones states that Three Little Pigs was a turning point. Also helpful is the discussion of why the short was so important, with a focus on characterization and plot. An interesting view expressed here but not elsewhere is that not only did Three Little Pigs serve as an internal bridge from experimental to feature-length fairy tale, but it also launched Disney’s fame externally in the eyes of critics and film journals, and in this way contributed to Disney’s future dominance.

This website provides an index, in chronological order of release, of what looks like all of the Silly Symphonies shorts ever produced. Each entry includes the characters featured, the names of the director, producer, animator, and author, the run time of the short, the release date, and, for many, links to watch the original cartoons. Many also have summaries and information about the cartoon's production, often including original film posters and other pertinent images.

This resource would be key for watching each of the Silly Symphonies, especially Three Little Pigs but also those before and after it.  Watching the films in order also helps develop a sense of the trends in style and other aspects, such as use of color, sound, animation quality, and narrative and cahracter development.  With reference to Three Little Pigs, the site includes key information such as the fact that the film won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1934, was animated by Fred Moore, Norm Ferguson, Art Babbitt, Dick Lundy, and Norman King, and was released on May 27, 1933.

This is a blog entry, but it seems to be of high enough quality for use. Its thesis is that the Republican reading of hard times in Three Little Pigs, both the Depression of the 1930s and even today's housing crisis, is "undercut by various elements of subversion." Characterization helps to differentiate between the lazy pigs and the responsible pig, and these personas are echoed not only in the pigs' actions but the objects they use to decorate their houses. But the author argues that the lazy pigs are so likeable that the message is somewhat obscured, and hypothesizes that much of the Wolf's animosity and the pigs' fear may resemble the corporate structure and relationship between Walt Disney and animators. The primitive use of color contributes to the dream-like quality of Disney, a "surreal," sometimes uncanny vibe which contrasts sharply with how Warner Brothers cartoons, especially today, appear "secular, straightforward, unpretentious, urban, and ethnic.”

This resource would be helpful for showing the effective use of characterization. Its specificity in mentioning how characters are differentiated, through their actions, attitudes, and possessions as well as through color, would be useful. A new look at the short film’s allegorical power, namely, its relevance in today's US economy, is also interesting, as is its comparison of the dreaminess of Disney as compared to the reality of Warner Brothers animated shorts.

Thesis: While Disney films are animated to be effectively realistic and in three dimensions, the silhouette film is two-dimensional, stylized, and mutable; this enhances the film's Expressionist nature. Furthermore, Reiniger's film experiments with techniques that would later be refined and used by Disney and other animators and filmmakers. Therefore, Lotte Reiniger's Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) influenced Hollywood, specifically the genre of animation and the Disney company, through its Expressionist style and its technological advances.

This article specifically delves into German influence on Disney. The article points out how Expressionism was a reaction to realism in film and often depicted science-fiction, dystopian or otherwise fantastic settings. Expressionism also relied on stylized sets and character expressions to convey the overwhelming mood. Reiniger's film is no different, though the detailed expressions she creates with cardboard cut outs is beyond impressive. The article gives more examples of Disney films with Expressionist influence.

Although slightly redundant with the material in Allan's book, this article is relevant to the thesis in a similar fashion as that book. Reiniger began work on the film in 1923, during the heart of Expressionism in Germany. She studied and worked with Max Reinhardt, among others, who influenced her style and the style of Hollywood after their escape from Nazi Germany. The Adventures of Prince Achmed was highly stylized to emphasize the setting in a fantastic world. Although they are essentially shadows, the characters gesture in expressive manners. Incredible detail is in each shot as the silhouettes move across the constant background. The Expressionist techniques highlight the exoticism portrayed in the film.

Penny Starfield, "Film and Art : On the German Expressionist and the Disney Exhibitions" Transatlantica, 2006:2, Jan 23, 2007.

Allan, Robin. Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1999. (Chapter 2)

Robin Allan's book discusses European influences on Disney animated feature films. In particular it discusses the role German Expressionism played in Disney films of the 30s and 40s. The book details how Disney's frequent trips to Europe, and the immigration of Europeans, particularly Germans during the rise of the Nazis, specifically influenced the style of Disney films. Later in the book he discusses Expressionism in Fantasia at length, but the European influence on Disney is apparent in this chapter.

This book is relevant to my thesis because Lotte Reiniger's films exhibited many Expressionist features. The Adventures of Prince Achmed was highly stylized to emphasize the setting in a fantastic world, as can be seen by the Nosferatu-like hands. As with many of the early films, the plots were derived from stories people would have known; in this case, Reiniger's tale is from 1001 Arabian Nights. Also, Expressionist techniques could highlight the exoticism portrayed in the film. Reiniger's use of cardboard cut outs with multiplane cameras also was borrowed by Disney for his later features. The effect of Reiniger's silhouette stop motion animation was to create shadows and various degrees of lighting, both of which were common effects of the German Expressionist movement.

This has a chapter on the Silly Symphonies.  I should go read it.

    Susan. “Confronting Master Narratives: History as Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s Cinema of De-assurance.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 9.2 (2001): 467-493. 

    Susan Napier’s article discusses the cinematic master narratives in the context of Japanese cinema and the larger global cultural consciousness. Its main subject is Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, though his work is described in view of his contemporaries and influences. Napier begins by discussing the broad ideas of modernization vs. history and the role of cultural identity in art and cinema. She asserts that films have the power to “write history” and “create national identity” on the global stage. She points to the crucial post-WWII period in Japan when Japanese cinema first made its mark. Specfically, she credits Akira Kurosawa and his jidaigeki, “period films,” with their realism and dazzling visual aesthetics, as being the most influential Japanese filmmaker at the time. In his films, Kurosawa both “exploit[ed] and deconstruct[ed] the mythology of samurai.” His films powerfully brought humanity to the Japanese traditions and brought the past into the contemporary discussion of Japanese identity. Similarly, the animator Miyazaki, of the title of the piece, created scenes and characters that while being decidedly Japanese are individual in their personalities and actions. Notably, this characterization can be seen in Miyazaki’s many female protagonists, who stand out from their group-oriented traditional counterparts. The article then focuses on Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke, comparing it to the English powerhouse animation counterpart, Disney.

The relevance of this article to my project is found beyond the simple citing of Kurosawa’s influence and works. The real insights came from the comparisons of Miyazaki’s style and that of Kurosawa. Miyazaki is cited as criticizing Kurosawa’s formulaic depictions of good and evil in his samurai films. However, it seems clear in the larger sense that Kurosawa’s humanism did anything but adhere to clichés. He brought life into historical stereotypes. Furthermore, Princess Mononoke is praised as being “history as vision,” or representing in a new light a “historical reality,” recognizable yet distinctly unique. What style could better apply here than that of Kurosawa and his Rashomon-effect. Rashomon deals entirely with the reconstructions of identity through deceit and the power of perspective on redefining historical fact. The two directors offer a great deal of illumination to one another.

The goal of my research is to take a close look at Disney's history of successful feature animated and live-action musicals to demonstrate that these movies are the source of Disney's success and should be their current focus as well. I am specifically interested in the recent movie High School Musical, and I plan to use it as a case study about how musicals in general are a better source of entertainment for children. Disney's marketing of High School Musical made use of many new forms of media and took advantage of the cross-platform media available to such an all-encompassing conglomerate. I also will look at research studies concerning children's attentiveness to different forms of media to show that they are more likely to show repeated interest in and remember songs than standard dialogue. How many of your favorite childhood songs were from Disney movies?

    The 2006 Annual Report from The Walt Disney Company summarizes the financial status of the company in comparison to the past two years. It is sent to every shareholder and available online as well. While reading through their statistics, I was looking to see if they made mention of “High School Musical” as having any amount of effect on their success and to see how much they specifically credited made-for-TV movies or feature animation as key to their survival.
    Disney has their hands in a large variety of markets, from their parks and resorts to movies to cable TV channels, international markets, and consumer products, and their newest endeavor with the Walt Disney Internet Group. Each of these components contributes to their overall financial success. Featured on the title page of the the section on “Media Networks: Cable Networks” is a two-page spread picture of the cast of “High School Musical,” claiming that nearly 90 million viewers have seen the movie since its debut on the Disney Channel.
    Overall, the company boasts revenues at $34,385 million for the year, a seven percent increase since 2005. For perspective, 2005’s revenues were a four percent increase from those of 2004. Their net income weighed in at $3,374 million, which is thirty three percent higher than last year’s income. The percent difference between 2005 and 2004 was only eight percent (p.57). Obviously they’re heading in the right direction, up. But when I was looking at the numbers for their Media Networks section, nothing seemed unusual or different from the previous year. The eleven percent increase to revenue of $14,638 million is close to the twelve percent increase last year (p.59). The increase specifically from cable networks (as opposed to broadcast television) was ten percent, whereas last year’s revenues increased by thirteen percent (p.60). At least when looking at the numbers, it doesn’t look like the cable networks experienced any sort of huge jump from previous years.
    The note about Disney’s purchase of Pixar, however, shared some relevant insight into the company’s philosophy of the nature of feature animated films: “Disney believes that the creation of high quality feature animation is a key driver of success across many of its businesses and provides content useful across a variety of traditional and new platforms throughout the world.” (p.83) Not only do they consider feature animation important in its own right, but they see the multitude of possibilities that it creates in their other markets. Disney is already used to the idea of cross marketing, because they’ve existed across so many different forms of media for a long time already. I’m glad to see that they’re sticking to tradition in putting feature animation at the top of their priorities, because it has been proven to be their most successful endeavor as well as a valuable fuel for the rest of their departments.

Note: Page numbers are based on the print version of the Annual Report. To download a PDF copy, click on the tab labeled “Financials.”

Throughout Smith and Clark’s catalog of one hundred years of Disney endeavors, one particular element of their success is consistent: feature animation musicals. At practically every turning point in the company’s history, the great success that brought the studio back out of the red was always a successful feature animation, and not just that, but a musical too. Disney’s initial success in the business of cartoons was with Steamboat Willie (1928), which was the first “synchronized sound cartoon” and put Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse on the map (p. 24). Soon after, Walt and Roy Disney formed their own recording company to make back the money they spent on sound equipment. The world’s first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was also the first film whose movie soundtrack was created using the original movie soundtracks, and it was the first film to have a merchandising campaign established to coincide with the release of the film into theaters. Everyone left the theater singing one of Snow White’s songs.
    The nineteen forties left Disney headed toward failure with the loss of their international markets because of the war. They invested everything they could in a new feature animation: Cinderella (1950), and they ended up with a huge success. The fate of the company rode on the success of the movie because of all of the labor and money put into creating it, and with both its score and the song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi Bo” nominated for Oscars, Disney realized that their salvation was in the creation of more feature animated musicals.
    Of course not every feature was as profitable. Disney invested over six million dollars in creating Sleeping Beauty (1959), its “most lavish and costly” film up to that point, but its initial release did not do as well as they’d hoped (p. 85). Luckily, Mary Poppins (1964) flew in with her umbrella and created a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious film that received thirteen Oscar nominations and five awards.
    The authors mark 1984 as the lowest point financially for Disney theatrical releases in thirty years. Under the new leadership of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, though, the company started turning around. By 1989, The Little Mermaid put Disney back at the top. It was the first of five Disney feature animations in a row to win the Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Song, and it caused for “renewed excitement in the animation and musical genres” that set Disney straight for the next decade (p. 151). Beauty and the Beast, which was also nominated for Best Picture in 1991, Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), and Pocahontas (1995), followed equally strongly, and reinvigorated Disney’s animation department. Again, the cause for success was feature animated musicals that brought back both audiences and awards.
    Following the entry for the final year, 1999, the authors take a look into the future at what Disney has planned for the upcoming century. They spelled out every bit of advance information they could get their hands on, and looking back, they were pretty dead on. Two of the major disappointments that they could not have anticipated were the movies Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002). Their predicted success was based on the fact that they would have the same directorial and production staff that made the movies of the early nineties so incredibly successful. The missing piece? Music.

JSTOR: Music Educators Journal: Vol. 32, No. 5, p. 18-19. April 1946

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4321%28194604%2932%3A5%3C18%3AMOTAP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O

    This article analyzes the use of music in animated cartoon movies, contrasting its use with that of live action films. Since animated movies are more exaggerated and are filled with constant motion, a composer needs to make his music do the same. Rodriguez begins by examining the role of music in movies more generally. He defines the difference between a screenplay with music and a musical by stating that screen plays use music to enhance the emotion of a scene or clarify a point to the viewer, but they keep the plot is still the central focus of the movie. In musicals, however, the plot can be completely swept to the side to make room for a musical number that has little to do with the actual story of the movie but is there for pure entertainment.
    Because cartoons are by their nature based in fantasy rather than reality, Rodriguez states that a composer working on a score for an animated movie has a much greater task ahead of him than if he were working on a live action film. The actions of the animated characters are timed down to the frame, which is 1/24th of a second. In order to fit the action perfectly, then, a composer must change his frame of reference from the usual beats per measure approach to beats per frame. This argument seems to work for live action as well, since in the end everything is broken down into frames to be projected, but Rodriguez claims that synchronization of action with music in live action films is coincidental and unlikely while it is “almost a rule of life with animation composers.” (p. 19) The music must be constantly active and moving, simply because the characters are. A good composer must know how to make his music as humorous and exaggerated as Donald Duck of Goofy but also be able to convey the tenderness and emotion found in many animated films. Rodriguez specifically mentions Dumbo, Bambi, and Pinocchio in the latter category.
    Although the subtitle of the article reads, “Will ‘Cartoon’ films have a place in music education?” the author only mentions music education in passing in his last paragraph. He laments that not enough researchers or critics are writing about how well cartoons can teach music to children. His idea of music instruction is creating an animation that is didactic in nature, instructing children about notes, musical structures, harmonies, and other complicated elements of music that are not easily explained otherwise. The fact that music can be added to animation would only serve to illustrate the different sounds that would be taught in the animation. In my opinion, his focus on education is quite limited to high level music theory and could be extended much further. Rodriguez mentions Fantasia in a reference to animation set to pre-composed music, but he failed to note how the animation visually conveyed the different elements and tones in the music, making the music’s qualities apparent both to the ear and to the eye.

 

Steven Watts argues a positive view of Disney’s importance in American history, although acknowledges the difficulty of understanding his impact on modern American culture. Many critics believe that Disney’s commercial success and popularity mean that his films cannot have cultural significance. In addition, the strong contradictory opinions of Disney make it difficult to simply look at his impact in order to gain understanding rather than to criticize or admire his work. Watts looks at Walt Disney as an artist of sentimental modernist films and as a promoter of American ideals, qualities that are evident in Disney’s rendering of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

America’s original perception of Disney was of a serious artist, inspired by both modernist art and sentimental realism. These two often contradictory influences show in his work. He blurred the line of reality and imagination by creating worlds where animals could talk, plants were animated, and household objects felt emotion. In Snow White, the forest through which the banished girl flees has trees which try to grab and trip her, but nearby, kind animals prepare to comfort her. In addition, he incorporated dreams often in his work. Walt Disney encouraged naturalism to a degree unheard of in animation and cartoons. He insisted that his animators take evening art classes and he invented the multiplane camera, which created the illusion of depth in Snow White and his other animated feature films.

Disney also used his films to imbue hope and to promote certain virtues to his audience during the depression. His films in the 1930’s remind Americans that they will overcome the hard times through vigor and virtue. Two Disney films in the ‘30s stand out in particular for encouraging the persistence and courage of underdogs. Three Little Pigs (1933) features the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” while the dwarves in Snow White (1937) merrily sing “Heigh Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go.” Snow White, too, exhibits a hard-working demeanor both in her house and the dwarves’. Disney claims that “wisdom and courage is enough to defeat big, bad wolves of every description, and send them slinking away.” Through his films, he encouraged self-reliance, a quality that he had exhibited since his youth.

 Nesbet analyzes Disney’s impact on Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, especially the similarities between style of Snow White and Eisenstein’s film. Like Disney, Eisenstein valued full understanding of the characters and stories he portrayed on film. He studied Ivan’s story from multiple angles, from folklore to histories, to do just that. Eisenstein admired Disney for the comfort he brought to America and the world through his films. He believed that Americans were trapped in a world of torment and injustice, and Disney offered a temporary escape from that. Even though Disney films seem to support a form of obliviousness to the misfortunes throughout the country, he gives the nation something else that they need: laughter. One critic cited the American proverb: “A laugh a day keeps the doctor away,” which certainly brings to mind the similar proverb about an apple, and how it connects to the stepmother in Snow White and her deceptively beautiful poisonous apple that leads to “sleeping death.” Nesbet wonders if Disney has played the role of the apple for Eisenstein, irresistible to the Russian director.

            Eisenstein valued animation as a medium, due to its versatility of form. It allows for metamorphoses and transformations otherwise unachievable on film. The fire behind the mirror’s mask in Snow White, for example, also exhibits “flowing diversity of forms.” Shadow, too, has this quality. In Snow White, the dwarfs’ shadows occasionally move independently. At one point, Doc’s shadow turns and motions for quiet from Dopey’s shadow. Soldiers’ shadows in Ivan also seem to occasionally move independently across the wall. Disney uses the versatility of form to create comedy. However, occasionally malleable forms seem more grotesque than comedic, so certain characters had to be drawn more realistic than others. It was acceptable for the dwarfs to have unusual and exaggerated features, but Snow White could neither be comedic nor grotesque, so Disney based her motions off those of a real actress.