“Alice in Wonderland” is that rare Disney movie for which the source text is more beloved than the animated adaptation. Today I’m only looking at the 1951 Walt-Disney-overseen animated adaptation of the famous stories by Lewis Carroll, not Tim Burton’s recent live action film; perhaps I’ll return to that another day. Disney did something interesting with this film: it’s an adaptation of both “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” Bringing both stories to the screen is possible because, well, both are just the tales of Alice’s many adventures in Wonderland. Neither have a specific plot; Alice falls … Continue reading →

Earlier in the year the internet was abuzz about a fake movie poster created by French graphic artist Pascal Witaszek. It featured actor (and former Mouseketeer) Ryan Gosling with dark hair and a mustache reclining in a train car. He held a pencil poised above a drawing pad. Outside the window a cloud formed the shape of a Mickey Mouse head with ears. The poster was for a Walt Disney biopic entitled “Walt,” starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Ron Howard. It was entirely fake, but plausible enough that it really got people thinking. What would a Walt Disney biopic … Continue reading →

I went to see “John Carter,” figuring that after my disdainful consideration of how Disney handled marketing the movie, I ought to actually go see it for myself. I’ve not read the book upon which the film was based, but now I wish to, and especially to continue the series. I want to find out what happens; the film concluded on a perfect open-ended note, leaving viewers hanging but in that good, can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens-next way. Only now that Disney has to swallow $20 million over “John Carter,” I doubt that any more will be made. And that’s a shame, because “John … Continue reading →

Glen Keane announced over the weekend that he’s leaving Disney Animation. Most of us probably don’t know who Glen Keane is, even if we’ve seen his name dozens of times while idly watching the ending credits of many Disney movies. I only know him because my work on this blog has motivated me to watch and pay more attention to behind the scenes Disney films and featurettes. Keane has been an animator at Disney for around forty years. He arrived in the 1970s, in time to be mentored by Eric Larson, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston—members of the old guard … Continue reading →

Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella,” the particular version of the story adapted by Walt Disney, is another fairy-tale-as-morality-lesson. Disney ditches The Brothers Grimm when he makes “Cinderella;” even more strangely the credits cite Perrault’s story as the “original,” when in fact the rags-to-riches trope is an ancient and global motif. Even ignoring that the Brothers’ Grimm version predates Perrault’s. The reason I’m so fixated on the issue of adaptation is because I found Perrault’s “Cinderella” odious. The main moral (which cannot be mistaken; the end of the story is followed by an explanatory poem titled “Moral”) is that it doesn’t really matter … Continue reading →

This is the story of a guy called John Carter. He’s a protagonist from a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novels. The first is called “The Princess of Mars” because the book is as much about Dejah Thoris, the titular princess, as it is about Carter. Today Disney releases its adaptation of the book, called “John Carter.” Wait, what? “John Carter” sounds like an Oscar-bait movie about an unassuming middle management guy who has a mid-life crisis and learns the meaning of family, or something like that. It definitely doesn’t bring the genre “space epic” to mind. So … Continue reading →

If you like to play the Disney Vault game then I have some important news for you: one of Disney’s most famous love stories, “Lady and the Tramp,” was freed from its locked depths this month. I’m not sure how long it will be available, probably for a number of months, but if you’ve been waiting to purchase this film now’s the time to do it. Of course Disney does a bit more than just let movies out of the Vault; the company always dresses up the discs in fancy editions with special content; whether or not the content is … Continue reading →

“Bambi, A Life in the Woods” was published by Austrian Felix Salten in 1923. It topped bestseller lists in Europe and received an English translation five years later. In 1933 MGM studios purchased the film rights to the book, hoping to make a live-action version. They decided that the logistics for such a production were insurmountable, however, so they sold the rights to Walt Disney in 1937. Disney loved the book. He was excited to make his first adaptation of a recent work, and had plans to turn the novel into his second feature length animated film. However, he realized … Continue reading →

One of the favorite stories my father likes to tell about my childhood relates to Winnie the Pooh. When I was young I loved that silly old bear and watched all of my relevant VHS tapes diligently. My father loves to recall how one of my favorite moments was as the narrator was performing his task, Pooh inquires as to the mysterious voice he’s overhearing. “That,” Tigger proclaims with gusto, “is the narrator!” I collapsed into a fit of giggles every time I viewed this scene, according to my father. For whatever reason he loves to tell it, perhaps because … Continue reading →

“Pinocchio” started its life as an 100-some paged 1883 Italian novella by Carlo Collodi. Walt Disney was introduced to the story by one of his staff during production on “Snow White,” and he loved it so much he made it his next film. Given the greater length of the original “Pinocchio” than, say, one of the Brothers Grimms’ super short stories, I don’t have the space to do a full compare/contrast between the Disney film and its source text. What I’ll do instead is list the most notable differences between the two versions. Perhaps the most shocking disparities between Collodi’s … Continue reading →