Behind the Scenes of Disney’s “Once Upon a Studio”

“A hundred years of history is so hard to encapsulate in eight-and-a-half minutes,” explained Dan Abraham at a press day for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ new short, Once Upon a Studio. Conceived of by writers/directors Dan Abraham and Trent Correy, the idea was to celebrate the studio’s centennial. The short will premiere tonight on ABC as part of The Wonderful World of Disney at 8/7c, a presentation hosted by Kelly Rippa that also features the network debut of Encanto. “Every person that's ever worked at this studio should be in the credits because we're standing on the shoulders of greatness… There's so much history, and there are so many people. We focused on the characters, but we tried to also pay homage to the artists, as well.”

“Early on, we sent out a request form of, who would you like to see in the short,” revealed Trent Correy about a character selection process that resulted in at least one character from all 62 animated classics (including Wish), plus a few live-action/animation hybrids (like Mary Poppins and Pete’s Dragon), and some memorable shorts. In total, there are 543 characters in the short, so when you’re talking about a studio with a voice actor good luck charm, the logical question was how many voices does Alan Tudyk provide? “There were a lot of requests of having an Alan Tudyk room that someone walks into,” Trent recalled. You’ll hear Tudyk in the short, although he won’t be reprising his roles from Frozen, Zootopia, or Moana. Instead, he’s filling in for Ed Wynn as the voice of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, a fitting choice since Tudyk was inspired by Wynn when he voiced King Candy in Wreck-It-Ralph. Similar to the inside joke of a conference room full of Alan Tudyk characters, Dan Abraham also shared that similar pitches included a room rull of Sterling Holloway characters (Mr. Stork in Dumbo, Adult Flower in Bambi, Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Kaa in The Jungle Book, Roquefort in The Aristocats, and the original voice of Winnie the Pooh).

The majority of the responses to the character questionnaire were for that artist’s favorite character, often one associated with a defining childhood memory. For executive producer Bradford Simonsen, who holds a soft spot in his heart for Bambi, he can’t get over the moment when Bambi, Thumper, and Flower spring to life early on in the short. “I literally giggle every time,” Bradford shared. “It's just so cute and so fu, and it was so brilliant.” The directors recently got to share the short with the original child voices from Bambi, whose original dialogue was reused in the short. Speaking of kids, since Once Upon a Studio began production from home, children of Disney animators got to see an early look. “One of our artists was working, and their little one looked over their shoulder and saw one of the characters in the building. They had been to our building, so they turned to their mom and said, ‘Mommy, do the characters live in your building?’”

“You only have three seconds with these characters, so they need to look, feel, and sound exactly how you remember them,” added Trent Correy. When possible, dialogue from the original films and shorts was mixed into the soundtrack. If a voice actor had passed on, a soundalike would be brought in for any new dialogue needed, but in most cases, the original voice actor came back to lend their talents. “We really wanted the characters to be hand-drawn on paper, and the CG characters to look like they do in the films, and living in that environment together. That was probably the thing we talked about most. How do we make them look just as they did in their original form, but live in this world together with this set?” Painstaking work was involved in keeping each character’s look consistent with their era. For example, characters from films that used the Xerox process (101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, Robin Hood) will have that rougher, scratchier esthetic than their cel-inked predecessors or the CAPS esthetic of the Disney Renaissance.

“This has been so emotional,” reflected Dan Arbahams. “Every time we'd see the rough animation come in, we were seeing our friends again for the first time. Oh, it's Belle and Beast, and they're still together, and they're still in love. And it's just that rough animation.” For both Dan and Trent, one of the biggest pinch-me moments of the experience was having Disney Legend Richard Sherman revisit the piano in Walt Disney’s office to record “Feed the Birds” for the short. It’s the piano that The Sherman Brothers first pitched the songs from Mary Poppins to Walt, and it’s the one he would ask them to play “Feed the Birds” on every Friday afternoon. “It's been unreal. I think we've all cried with happiness while making this.”

As someone fortunate enough to have seen Once Upon a Studio several times, including at Annecy Festival and Destination D23, I can attest to the fact that tears are an invited part of the experience if you’re a big Disney fan. The short is designed to play your heartstrings like a harpist in Fantasia. “These films are always a lot of work to make, but every time I watch it, I'm just so proud,” concluded executive producer Yvett Merino. “This is our history. This is our past hundred years. And knowing the stories that we're telling today and the stories that we're telling in the future, we're a part of that. I'm so looking forward to the next hundred years. I won't be here, probably. But it's a representation of everywhere we've been, but looking forward, it's also a launch into the next generation.”

Don’t miss your first chance to see Once Upon a Studio tonight at 8/7c on ABC, airing as part of The Wonderful World of Disney presents “Disney's 100th Anniversary Celebration."

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