Jim on Film: Great Expectations
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These are people who are passionate artists, creating out of love for their craft and at the top of their game. People may look at what they do as a kids’ movie, but that doesn’t mean they themselves look upon it as such. In the long run, that’s what really matters.
And that is why I wish people would give Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear (not to mention DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt) a closer look before dismissing them as children’s fodder. And not only that, but I wish those financing the films would allow themselves to once again produce films with such substance.
It has often been asked, what would Walt Disney have done if he had not been interrupted by World War II. After the genius of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi, the studio couldn’t afford to produce traditional single-story features, so the following years resulted in a string of endearing package films that are all brilliant in their own right. When I watched those movies again in sequence as part of my Chronologically Through the Canon series several year ago, these films—Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad—impressed me again with their richness in visual creativity and experimentation. There is experimentation in storytelling and narration, considerable use of expensive animation techniques and details—such as use of the multiplane camera—not to mention some very creative visuals; from the Baia segment to Bumble Boogie to the climax between Ichabod and the Headless Horseman, there is much to be impressed with in these films.
And that is something I wish Disney would return to, that sort of experimentation with visuals, music, and storytelling, the sort of thing Roy Disney did with Fantasia 2000 and was starting to do with the follow-up film that has been manifested in the shorts Destino and Lorenzo. There are plenty of other artists out there playing with the art form—just looking at the snippets from short films during the Academy Awards verifies that—but there is no one out there producing such things with the amazing talent pool at Disney or with their distribution potential. Walt Disney and Salvador Dali themselves couldn’t get Destino anywhere, but the final film completed under the guidance of Roy Disney was amazing.
Perhaps that is the next ground to be broken in animation, to push the visuals beyond the literal, beyond the traditional, to tell great stories in new and refreshing ways. But the artists need the opportunity to develop themselves in that vein, to push the art form farther. A key to this development, however, is that there needs to be a non-feature outlet to develop this. Walt Disney used his Silly Symphony series to develop his storytelling and artistic ambitions, and even with the post-war package films, it is clear he was continuing to stretch and grow. For an artist to grow, there has to be a time of experimentation, and the pressure to make $300 million a picture is probably not the best time to do that.
If people would look, would really look at the succession of films from The Great Mouse Detective all the way to Brother Bear, they would see such growth, such potential. Whatever one may think of the post-Tarzan movies up until Brother Bear, you see a pushing and pulling of the art form, the stretching and the creation of new muscles, be it the integration of technology and the use of visuals in Fantasia 2000 or the daring, zany comedy of The Emperor’s New Groove or the storytelling forms stretched in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet or the psychological depth of Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet or the literary nature of Treasure Planet and Brother Bear or the non-traditional storytelling of Brother Bear. Considering the rumored-to-be oppressive management under which these films were created, it’s amazing to see so much great work done. And best of all, many of these artists are still at Disney, still ready to create great things, and now, they have a leader willing to allow them to do just that.
There is so much potential to move and touch audiences using the art of animation, but the key is that critics and audiences need to understand that it can do so much more than have a good fart joke to make the kiddies titter with glee. Animation fans need to be open to more fresh storytelling techniques and to avoid the cocky, know-it-all, vituperative, and dismissive demeanor that pollutes some people’s perspectives.
It has often been asked, what would Walt Disney have done if he had not been interrupted by World War II. I think that it’s possible in fifty years, people will look back on the string of films from The Great Mouse Detective through Brother Bear with the same expression of regret. Unfortunately, for today, the skill of Disney’s talented artists may have outgrown the perception of today’s audiences and critics.
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-- Jim Miles
With a love for animation discovered from watching Oliver & Company in 1988, Jim Miles has actively been studying animation and storytelling through animation since the fifth grade. In addition to his column for the Laughing Place, Jim has written two novels, both of which he hopes to revise for publication sometime before he dies. His love for great literature and the theatre has also driven him to write a libretto for a dramatic musical entitled Fire in Berlin as well as to start a musical comedy, City of Dreams. Jim will soon move to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time writing career.
The opinions expressed by Jim, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted May 16, 2006