Apparently even before most of us began recycling our garbage, Disney was recycling its animation. Of course, it makes sense when back in the old days animation took a long time. So, we see scenes from older Disney movies like Snow White (1937), The Jungle Book (1967), or Sleeping Beauty (1959) being reused in later movies like Robin Hood (1973) and Beauty and the Beast (1991).
This new video from Movie Munchies highlights some of the way that Walt Disney recycles animation. It is pretty cool, so check it out.
Saving Mr. Banks, coming to a theater near you in December, features Tom Hanks portraying Walt Disney’s struggles to make Mary Poppins (1964). The challenge for Disney, though, was convincing the book’s protective author P.L. Travers to trust the Disney empire to commercialize her book. In a recent interview, director John Lee Hancock explained that his movie does not “sugarcoat” the legendary Walt Disney. In the trailer, the interplay between Hanks and the wonderful Emma Thompson as Travers makes this one look worthwhile. Plus, you get to see Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the famous Sherman brothers who wrote so many Disney classics.
Bonus Trivia Question: Robert and Richard Sherman wrote what became Walt Disney’s favorite song for Mary Poppins. What song was it? Answer here. FYI, the “Mr. Banks” in the movie title is George Banks, the father who hired Mary Poppins.
Will you see Saving Mr. Banks? Leave your two cents in the comments.
A 1968 silent anti-war film, “Mickey Mouse in Viet Nam,” has been circulating on the Internet recently. In the video, which runs not much more than a minute, Mickey heads off to war in Viet Nam, and the ending is not happy.
Milton Glaser and Lee Savage created the very short film for an Angry Arts Festival. While there were rumors that a Disney lawsuit kept the film underground, the truth, as explained on Slate, was that Glaser and Savage just moved on to other things after creating the film for the festival. For example, Glaser created the “I ‘heart’ NY” logo and founded New York Magazine. And, there was no Internet in those days to keep videos circulating. Today, though, we do have the Internet, so check out “Mickey Mouse in Viet Nam.”
What do you think of “Mickey Mouse in Viet Nam”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Robert Sherman, who with his brother Richard Sherman co-wrote numerous Walt Disney classics, has passed away at the age of 86. The Sherman brothers composed music for such films as Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Jungle Book (1967), and other films. They also composed the oft-played, “It’s a Small World After All.” Among their many awards, the brothers received Academy Awards for the score of Mary Poppins and for the best song, which also was from that film, “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”
Richard’s brother Robert has explained that among their classic songs was Walt Disney’s favorite song, “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins.
It is a beautiful song that is unusual for a children’s movie. The song is not about dancing and happy animated creatures, but instead it is about a poor (homeless?) woman taking care of birds. One commentator has argued that the scene has religious overtones about “stewardship” and “a responsibility on humanity to care for nature.” It’s an interesting argument that reflects on the pivotal role of the woman feeding the birds in contrast to the children’s capitalist father who balks at the children spending their money on bird feeding. Wikipedia recounts how when Walt Disney first heard the song, he recognized that it was the central meaning of the film about charity and caring for others.
As a child, I found the scene both scary and intriguing (the latter of which might have been from the mystery to my American ears about what Julie Andrews sang when she sang “tuppence a bag”). Speaking of caring for others, the woman who played the small part of the bird woman was Jane Darwell, who had played Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Disney coaxed her out of retirement to play the part in Mary Poppins, which was her last film and which had some similar themes to her role in The Grapes of Wrath. Not a bad message from her or the Sherman brothers. RIP. In their honor, be nice today.
On today’s date of February 18 in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh — an Illinois-born man in his early 20’s working at Lowell Observatory in Arizona — discovered a moving object on photographic plates taken weeks earlier. The object turned out to be Pluto.
A number of scientists had earlier theorized about the existence of the object, and Tombaugh was part of the observatory’s quest to find a mysterious Planet X they predicted existed. After further investigation confirmed Tombaugh’s discovery, news of it was released in March.
The discovery created excitement around the world, and the object’s name came from a suggestion by an eleven-year-old girl in Oxford, England — Venetia Burney — who had suggested the name to her grandfather who had passed it on to various contacts.
In recent years, scientists have changed the classification of Pluto because of its small size, so that the International Astronomical Union no longer classifies it as a “planet.” Instead, it is classified as a “dwarf planet.” For various reasons, including some that are sentimental, others have argued that Pluto should still be regarded as the ninth planet in our solar system.
There is another famous Pluto, i.e., Pluto the pup from Walt Disney. Like the debate about whether Pluto is a planet, there is no consensus on how Pluto the dog got his name. The cartoon dog was created in 1930 around the same time as the “planet” was named, although people dispute whether the planet was named after the cartoon, or whether the cartoon was named after the planet, or whether it is just a coincidence they have the same name. Cartoonists there at the creation are not sure where they got the name.
At least Pluto the dog does not have to worry about being downgraded from a cartoon. So let us celebrate the Pluto in the sky with the Pluto of our childhoods. Pluto is one of the more interesting Disney characters in that the cartoon character is portrayed as an animal. He does not talk, unlike the talking mice (i.e., Mickey and Minnie), talking ducks (Donald), or the talking dog Goofy. Enjoy.
