Shuffling the Canon REDUX: A Shuffled Disney & Pixar TL Redone

[MrCarioca]

The Little Mermaid (1937)​

Taken from "The Production of the Little Mermaid: Disney's First Success", produced 1990

Leonard Maltin: Walt had an extremely hard time choosing material for his first film. Walt has considered doing that novel "Bambi", then there was Peter Pan, the story about the boy who never grew up. Out of these two, Walt only produced Peter Pan. Some said that the reason Walt ultimately went with the Little Mermaid was due to his love for classic Andersen tales, which we can see reflected in the final film.

Fred Moore (1): When Walt announced production on the Little Mermaid, we were all like "Oh this'll never work, Walt's finally gone off his rocker!". Some people called it Disney's Folly when it was still it production and expected the film to flop. Of course, that didn't happen and the Little Mermaid would be the start of what they call the Golden Age.

Ward Kimball: We had a lot of story meetings on how to handle the ending of the film. One of our original drafts was more akin to Andersen's original tale, but Walt came in one night and said "Nah that's too dark it'll give kids nightmares!". So we scrapped that idea pretty quickly and had the Little Mermaid be revived in the end instead.

Ward Kimball: I remember seeing Clark Gable cry that night, it was crazy! The biggest Hollywood celebrities crying of a cartoon, how was that even possible?

Leonard Maltin: I think a big part of the Little Mermaid's success was the romance and the story itself as well as the side characters. We got Ariel the Little Mermaid herself who's resilient to her father's dissapproval, then there's Floppy Fish who's Ariel's best friend, and of course Sebastian the Crab himself, King Triton's majordormo. And who could forget Grimhelde the Sea Witch, such a memorable Disney villain, probably my personal favourite too.

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The name "Walt Disney Productions" had became a phenomenon by the mid-1930s thanks of the long-running Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony short series. Walt released "Steamboat Willie" which revolutionised sound cartoons in 1928 and also marked the debut of Mickey Mouse, introduced 3-strip color film with 1932's "Flowers and Trees" and truly struck gold with the 1933 short "Three Little Pigs". By 1934, Walt was looking for further, more darring endeavours. After looking for suitable material and adaptations, Walt settled on Hans Christen Andersen's "The Little Mermaid".

Despite being the first film produced and subsequently released, Walt had actually greenlit a live-action aniamtion hybird of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" starring Mary Pickford. However the difficulty of combining live-action and aqnimation, as well as the unability of crafting a coherent story led Walt to shelve Alice indefinitely. Then there were the stories of Peter Pan and Bambi, both stories never came to fruition due to difficulties in purchasing film rights (or in the case of the latter, snatch rights away from MGM). Alice and Bambi never came to reality until the 21st Century, and Peter Pan wasn't made until a period known as "The Silver Age". Walt soon announced his plans to produce a feature-length animated film in an October 1934 story meeting.

This became quite the ridicule when the announcement became public. The film was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" and many believed it would doom the Disney Studio. Walt's brother Roy and his wife Lillian tried to talk him out of it, but Walt wouldn't budge. Ultimately by 1937 and only a few months before the film's intended release date, Walt had to take a loan from the Bank of America, he only did so after showing a rough cut of the near-finished product.

The mermaid Ariel is obsessed with human life, this obsession is fueled even further when Ariel saves a young Prince named Hans. Ariel's father King Triton discovers Ariel's obsession and destroys her collection of human artifacts. Ariel then turns to Grimhelde the sea witch, who plans to use Ariel to take over Triton's kingdom. Grimhelde sets a spell that gives Ariel human legs, she must get Prince Hans to kiss her or else she will turn into sea foam and die. While Ariel reunites with prince Hans, Grimhelde poses as Princess Arianna to fool Hans into marrying her. Now Ariel and her sea friends must warn Prince Hans and save the kingdom before it's too late.

"The Little Mermaid" would become the first entry in the Disney Animated Canon and also Disney's first big success, paving the way for future Disney films and the Disney Company as a whole.

Release Date: December 21st 1937

Cast:
Adriana Caselotti (Ariel, Grimhelde as Princess Arianna)
Stuart Buchanan (King Triton)
Mel Blanc (Floppy the Fish)
Roy Atwell (Sebastian the Crab)
Harry Stockwell (Prince Hans)
Pinto Colvig (Grimsby, Hans's majordormo)
Lucille La Verne (Grimhelde)

Notable Songs:
Someday My Prince Will Come (sung by Ariel after she first meets Hans)
Music in Your Soup (sung by Grimsby during the dinner with Hans and Ariel)

(1) See the 1961 film

 

[MrCarioca]

Robin Hood (1939)​

Taken from "Oo De Lally! The Making of Disney's Robin Hood, 45 Years Later"

Ward Kimball: "The Little Mermaid" was a huge success, of course Walt would immediately come up with a follow-up. We all expected Walt to do something like Peter Pan or Snow White next, but then Walt came in with a 50 page long transcript titled "Robin Hood", and that was when we all knew what Walt have had in his mind. Of course the other films like what would eventually become Fantasia and Atlantis were all in production, in fact Walt wanted Atlantis to be his second film before he realised the complexity of the original novel.

Fred Moore: Ted Sears, the guy who would write most of our earlier film scripts, was in charge of "Robin Hood". We had a lot of story meetings back in '37 or '38 I don't quite remember, and the story was basically going nowehere. We had no idea on how Robin would deal with the sheriff and Prince John, and Robin himself was a bit of a prick and wasn't very likeable. Production came to a halt one day and Walt had us redesign all the characters and rewrite the script, it was grueling but we managed to do it anyways, after all the film wouldn't have been as acclaimed today if we didn't redo everything.

Frank Thomas: Originally we gave the film a Southern setting in America, it was pretty weird and didn't fit the film at all so we quickly scrapped it. Then there was the idea of having animals portray the Robin Hood characters, but that too was scrapped. Eventually after tossing around ideas back and forth, we settled on a winter setting. We did release the film on Christmas Day of '39 after all.

Mel Blanc: Walt was pretty impressed with what I did with Floppy back in the Little Mermaid, so he phoned me up one day and told me all about Robin Hood. Walt then offered me the role of Little John and of course I accepted, I mean why would I pass on such a wonderful offer?

Dickie Jones: When I was voicing Skippy, this little child who idolised Robin a lot, the animators would pay close attention to our mouths and how we acted during recording sessions, and use that for a reference. I remember those days a lot, it was an unforgettable oppoturnity getting to work with Mel Blanc and Walt Disney.

Leonard Maltin: It was kinda sad to see Robin Hood bomb at the box office when it first premiered, you know with World War 2 going on in Europe and markets closed down. If WW2 had not happened, Robin Hood would've most likely became a huge success like the Little Mermaid, after all the film did earn back its losses upon re-release. There's a pretty good reason why Robin Hood is one of many animation historians and fans's favourite films, the story and the humour are all done perfectly.

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The story of Robin Hood was a natural for the medium of animation you might say, especially when Walt Disney was the one adapting the classic folktale. For Walt's second outing, he initially considered "Snow White" and "Peter Pan" (1), a failure to re-write the story of Snow White and Peter Pan would end up shelving the two for quite the while. Walt soon found material for his second film when he considered adapting the tales of "Reynard the Fox". However, Reynard was too unsympathetic and the storymen had no idea how to rework his practically villainous personality. It was soon decided that the project would be re-started from the ground-up and be based on new material, going from anti-heroes (at least from the original Reynard tales' perspective), the folktales of "Robin Hood" were chosen.

In November 1937, Walt walked into a staff meeting holding a 50 page story outline, titled "Robin Hood", it was written by Ted Sears. Production started at earnest by January 1938 right after "The Little Mermaid"'s premiere, and yet the script had to be completely re-written during mid-production as it felt too much like the scrapped Reynard project. Walt initially aimed for a Christmas 1938 release, but the film had to expectedly be pushed to the later and more realistic date of Autumn 1939 and finally Christmas 1939.

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, accompanied by his strong but dimwitted sidekick (and also the film's comedic relief character) Little John and the kind Friar Tuck. During Christmas time, the evil Prince John sends King Richard off to a crusade and taxes all of Nottingham into poverty. Robin Hood and Little John spend the winter gifting the citizens of Nottingham money and food. Eventually, the Sheirff of Nottingham captures Robin Hood by luring him into an archery match and prepares to hang him on Christmas Morning, but Little John manages to break him out. The rest of the movie revolves around Robin's big escape and Prince John's defeat.

Due to European Markets being closed at the time, "Robin Hood" would flop at the box office but earn back its losses via re-releases. Today, "Robin Hood" is seen as a enjoyable Christmas movie and a Disney Classic

Release Date: December 25th 1939

Cast:
Frankie Darro (Robin Hood) (2)
Mel Blanc (Little John and King Richard)
Sterling Holloway (Friar Tuck)
Evelyn Venable (Maid Marian)
Walter Catlett (The Sheriff of Nottingham) (2)
Charles Judels (Prince John)
Dickie Jones (Skippy)

Notable Songs:
Give a Little Whistle (sung by Robin Hood at Skippy's birthday party)
Hi Diddle Dee Dee (sung by the Sheriff of Nottingham while collecting taxes)
I've Got No Strings (Sung by Robin Hood, also his de facto theme)

(1) Ferguson never brings in "Pinocchio" ITTL, so no attempts to adapt said novel were made
(2) Catlett is also Robin Hood's singing voice here, given that Darro wasn't a good singer and was the main reason why "Three Cheers For Anything" in OTL's Pinocchio was scrapped.

Notes: Instead of having the second WDAC film release in 1940, I'm having it release on Christmas Day 1939 like how OTL's Pinocchio was intended. Ultimately I chose to give TTL's Robin Hood a somewhat similar plot to OTL's counterpart but also changing enough so that it's different. For instance, Robin himself is captured by the Sheriff instead of Friar Tuck, and Robin's main motive is to spread Christmas joy during wintertime. While flopping in the box office upon release, "Robin Hood" (and the Little Mermaid while we're at it) is still an ejoyable and fun Disney Classic, even though it is absolute trash compared to what would come next...

 

[MrCarioca]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1940)​

Taken from “Sanctuary: The Production of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney’s Darkest Masterpiece”, produced in 1990

Ollie Johnston: The Hunchback of Notre Dame was an odd choice you might say. One of the earliest drafts of the film was made back in late ‘38, it originally had all the major characters die at the end. But like with the Little Mermaid, Walt and the others agreed that it was too dark and we changed it to what it is today.

Ward Kimball: Walt wanted somebody or something to lighten the tone a bit, but couldn’t figure out anything even after many story meetings. Walt considered a trio of Gargoyles voiced by the Three Stooges, but that was thrown out the window and we were back to the drawing board. Around the same day I did some doodles of this little cricket character after work, I left it in the drawer and quickly forgot about it. And then one day Walt came around and saw my drawings, and that was when the idea clicked. I was assigned to work on the cricket character, who would now serve as a comedic character as well as Quasimodo’s only companion before Esmeralda showed up. I named the little cricket Jiminy for obvious reasons, funny isn’t it?

Leonard Maltin: I think a big part of the film's praise today is due to Jiminy. Jiminy Cricket is this all-American wise-cracking little fella, always able to deflate a serious situation with a clever joke. The character resonated with American aduiences at the time, you know with the fear of war and all that.

Paula Sigman: Ned Washington and Leigh Harline co-wrote the film’s score. There were a lot of great classic songs that we still hum today, like “A Happy Go Lucky Fellow”. sung by Jiminy Cricket. Then there was “Hellfire”, probably one of, if not the best Disney Villain song, sung to perfection by Claude Frollo. And of course, “When You Wish Upon a Star”, the film’s de facto theme song and also the theme song of Disney itself.

Ollie Johnston: The film was a critical success when it premiered, but of course with WW2 still going on and the budget being way too high, the film sadly bombed at the box office. Regardless, the Hollywood stars cried even more at the ending than they did with the Little Mermaid, even Walt himself wept a bit at the premiere.

Leonard Maltin: Walt was too ambitious with production and caused the budget to overflow, he never really brought up the Hunchback of Notre Dame again except in one episode of his TV Show. Of course, the film would earn a significant fanbase and its budget back when it re-released in the 1960s and 80s, and many fellow animation historians view either this film or Fantasia as the magnum opus in Disney's lifetime.

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"The Little Mermaid" and "Robin Hood" were both critically successful films, even if "Robin Hood" had flopped during its initial run. During the production of these two films, Walt was already planning on what to do after. A film concurrently in production with "Robin Hood" was an ambitious project titled "The Concert Feature", made to re-coup the financial burden of the prestigous Mickey Mouse short "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". "The Concert Feature" was initially coined for a 1940 release, but the main issues of choosing the right music pieces and anger from Igor Stravinsky over "The Rite of Spring" caused massive delays in production and wouldn't release until the next decade.

Meanwhile Walt had already decided on what would take the 1940 slot. Animator Norman Ferguson showed up to work one day in September 1937 with the book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo. Walt was disinterested and felt that a book as dark as "Hunchback" would be a risky move, considering the Hays Code was currently being implemented. However with some persuasion, Walt ultimately greenlit the film.

To say that "Hunchback" had a troubled production would be a massive understatement. Its source material was one of the darkest and most complex pieces of literature, and the Disney staff had to re-work it into a family friendly Disney film. In a November 1938 story meeting, Walt decided to include one or more comedy relief characters and had Ward Kimball design a set of three gargolyes, and yet the gargolye trio would never make it past the drawing board. It was a few initially discarded sketches of an anthropomorphic cricket drawn by Kimball that caught Walt's eye. The cricket, now named Jiminy, was set to become the comic relief and also the heart of the film.

For the songs, Ned Washington and Leigh Harline composed both the songs and the score. "When You Wish Upon a Star" caught Walt's attention and was set to become the film's general theme song, it would end up as Disney's most iconic and de facto theme song. Then there was "Hellfire", which Walt wanted to scrap but was impressed enough to keep in the film after watching a rought reel done behind his back. To compensate for the delay of "The Concert Feature", "Hunchback" would take the 1940 slot as it was nearing completetion around the same time "The Concert Feature" got delayed further.

Quasimodo is raised by his adoptive and abusive father Judge Claude Frollo, because of his hunchback and his looks, Quasimodo is rejected from society, his only friend is a righteous cricket named Jiminy. On the eve of Quasimodo's 20th birthday, he is crowned winner of the Annual Fool Festival as a "birthday gift" from Frollo, however a Romani dancer named Esmeralda saves him. Frollo, Phoebus the Captain of the Guard all gain lust towards Esmeralda, but Quasimodo is the only one who loves her geniunely. Phoebus seduces Esmeralda but is knocked out by an obsessive Frollo. Esmeralda is charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, Frollo agrees to bail her out on the condition that Esmeralda makes out with him. Esmeralda refuses and is set to be hanged at dawn. Jiminy overhears this and alerts Quasimodo. Led by Jiminy, Quasimodo alerts Clopin, the leader of the Roma. A fight breaks out where Paris is engulfed in flames. Ultimately, Phoebus succumbs to his injuries, Quasimodo is stabbed to death by Frollo, and Frollo himself plunges into the fire, seemingly the act of divine intervention. Clopin, Esmeralda and Jiminy Cricket all mourn the loss of Quasimodo before divine intervention revives him just in time for Quasimodo's 20th birthday.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was met with mixed critical reviews, being criticised for its overly religious and dark tone. With a 2.5 million dollar budget, the film would bomb at the box office and it wouldn't be until the 1980s/1990s until the film earned back its losses. Despite this, the film would recieve universal praise through its various re-releases, today it's seen as a Disney masterpiece.

Release Date: November 13th 1940

Cast:
Mickey Rooney (Quasimodo)
Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket)
Deanna Durbin (Esmeralda)
Walter Catlett (Captain Phoebus)
Stuart Buchanan (Claude Frollo)
Billy Bletcher (The Archdeacon)
Clarence Nash (Clopin)

Notable Songs:
When You Wish Upon a Star (sung by Jiminy Cricket during the titles and the opening sequence)
I'm a Happy Go Lucky Fellow (sung by Jiminy Cricket to cheer up Quasimodo)
Hellfire (sung by Claude Frollo during the fireplace prayer scene)

Notes: This is TTL's equivalent to Pinocchio/Fantasia, being one of Disney's darkest and most ambitious films. Jiminy Cricket and “When You Wish Upon a Star” from OTL's Pinocchio are in this film, as well as one deleted song from OTL’s Pinocchio and “Hellfire”, albeit tweaked to fit the 1940s. The plot is a mixture of OTL's Hunchback and the original novel, often regarded as the strongest film in the Golden Age.

 

[MrCarioca]

"Walt Disney to release film based around studio lot later this year" -New York Times, January 3rd 1941

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Taken from an interview with Walt Disney, 1959

Interview: Well Mr Disney, congratulations on finally releasing Fantasia!

Walt Disney: Yea it was a lot of hard work you know, going through World War 2 and the animator's strike. At one point I even considered shutting down production! I recall we were making an anthology films of some sorts to keep us afloat during that time period until we returned with Snow White.

Interview: Oh yes I remember. You started of with the Emperor's New Groove, right?

Walt Disney: Well not really, our first proper package film released in 1943, the Emperor's New Groove was more or less made to combat the animator's strike. We called it the Emperor's New Groove to attract audiences, and we also had two big stars at the time, Bing Crosby and Charlie Chaplin star in the movie. We actually wanted to do the Emperor’s New Clothes as a Silly Symphony short back in the 1930s, but that never happened and instead we have “The Emperor’s New Groove” today with Mickey Mouse.

Interview: Ah interesting, so what was the first package film...

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"The Emperor's New Groove" was a animated anthology film, essentially a tour around the then new Walt Disney Studio lot, ending with the titular aniamted segment.

To promote the film, the duo of Bing Crosby and Charlie Chaplin (whom Disney had used as inspiration for creating Mickey Mouse in the 20s) was brought in to star as visitors of the studio lot. The first part of the film would revolve around the duo exploring with a studio employee Doris (played by Frances Gillford). Crosby and Chaplin, led by Doris, encounter the Nine Old Men who would explain the daily routines at the studio, including animating characters, the multiplane camera an the process of Technicolor. It's at this moment when the film turns from black and white to full color (ala the Wizard of Oz). Little John from "Robin Hood" and Jiminy Cricket from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" appear on the animation cels to explain how everything works. Crosby and Chaplin meet with Walt Disney himself, who shows the duo his latest featurette: The Emperor’s New Groove

The second segment, also the most famous and iconic segment in the film, is the Emperor's New Groove. A re-telling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" starring Mickey Mouse. The tyrannical emperor Pete rules over the kingdom, three talented tailors, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy have had enough of Pete's shenanigans and decide to humiliate him with a trick. The trio presents themselves to Pete, they promise to weave him the most stylish and luxurious clothing. Every day, Pete would parade on the streets wearing the wackiest clothes possible, the peasants (including cameos from Clara Cluck, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow) all find this funny but do not dare laugh. Finally, Mickey, Donald and Goofy convince Pete to "wear" a suit that appears invisible to those who are foolish and incompetent. Pete parades on the street with nothing but his underwear. A child finally points out that Pete has nothing but underwear on, and the public laughs and humiliates Pete, who flees from the kingdom in embarassment, vowing revenge on Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

After watching the featurette, Crosby and Chaplin are prepared to leave, with Chaplin feeling a bit sorry for Pete. Suddenly, Pete appears on the rootop, asking if anybody has seen "a teensy weensy little mouse", Crosby faints in fear while Chaplin explains to Pete that he is merely a figment of his imagination.

The film would not be a commercial success, mostly due to the fact that it wasn't a traditional Disney film like the three film before it. There was also the devastating strike, one which would be known as the "1941 Disney Animator's Strike". Many talented artists such as Art Babbit, Bill Melendez and Bill Tytla left the Disney Studio after the strike and would never return. Sadly, the film wouldn't even make it to the WDAC line-up, even though the titular Mickey Mouse segment would become as iconic as the mouse himself.

Release Date: June 20th 1941

Cast:
Bing Crosby (Himself)
Charlie Chaplin (Himself)
Frances Gillford (Doris)
The Nine Old Men (as Themselves)
Mel Blanc (Little John)
Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket)
Walt Disney (Himself, Mickey Mouse)
Clarence Nash (Donald Duck)
Pinto Colvig (Goofy)
Billy Bletcher (Pete)

Notes: I may have completely butchered TTL's The Emperor's New Groove, but I can assure you that something similar will take its place down the line. Anyways, as far as changes go, the first half of the film is almost a carbon copy of OTL's The Reluctant Dragon and the original STC's Raya and the Last Dragon, while the second segment is an adaptation of "The Emperor's New Clothes" starring Mickey Mouse and friends. That idea was actually considered as a short IOTL, so I decided to implement that in here as well as a few traces of OTL's Mickey and the Beanstalk.

 

[MrCarioca]

The Great Mouse Detective (1941)​

“Walt Disney Studios going under? Disney Studio might go bankrupt if strike continues” - Washington Post, June 25th 1941

“Disney to release next film within this year, according to former Disney animator Art Babbit, the next film will be based of Sherlock Holmes” - The Hollywood Reporter, July 8th 1941

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Taken from an interview with Walt Disney, 1953

Interviewer: …now there was the Animator’s Strike back in ‘41, how did you deal with it.

Walt Disney: Well those commies were easy to deal with, it was only a matter of giving a payrise and more worker’s rights, nothing the HUAC back in ‘47 couldn’t solve. The problem was the studio itself. You know, our previous films other than Little Mermaid were all failures. We had a few projects in development back then, Br’er Rabbit, Wind in the Willows, Sleepy Hollow, what would become Dumbo and Sherlock Holmes. I think the one which saved the studio was Sherlock Holmes. We rushed production on Sherlock and changed everything, Sherlock Holmes was now a little mouse in the mouse world. A bit of a weird concept but it was a success, the only one since Little Mermaid.

Interviewer: So that's why we have the Great Mouse Detective today?

Walt Disney: Exactly. It's a bit underwhelming compared to the original epic version, but it's still a charming film.

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Taken from "The Production of the Great Mouse Detective: Disney's Saving Grace", produced in 1990

Narrator: There were moments in the Disney Studio's history which, had the stars never aligned, the studio would not exist today. Robin Hood and Hunchback were both commercial failures at the time of their release, and the folks at the studio had to get creative or it could spell the end.

Ollie Johnston: What saved the studio from collapsing was really Pearl Harbour and the Great Mouse Detective. Walt was around 4 million in debt at the time, maybe even more than that, and it was really the Great Mouse Detective's release that ultimately kept our heads above water.

Frank Thomas: Originally the film was going to be an ambitious feature like Hunchback and the Little Mermaid. However production had to be rushed after Hunchback’s catastrophic failure and the animator’s strike. We went through many many ideas, tossing back and forth. Until we settled on having mice tell the story of Sherlock Holmes, which was actually somewhat reused from an idea we had while making Robin Hood.

Narrator: For the voices of the Great Mouse Detective, Basil Rathbone would play the role of Sherlock Mouser. Rathbone was fresh out of his role as Sherlock Holmes in the 1939 films and was a natural fit for Sherlock’s rodent counterpart.

Ward Kimball: Rathbone was an amazing actor to work with. When Walt approached him, he initially turned down the offer but was convinced after the story-men showed him a preliminary script. Rathbone was also the live-action model for Sherlock, used as a reference for us animators, in fact I was the one who did most of the animation of Sherlock.

Ollie Johnston: The script itself had to be completely re-written after the film was moved ahead on production. We had to tone down a lot of things including death scenes and darker tones, saved that for Atlantis and other films to come.

Frank Thomas: We were pretty much expecting our final paychecks and the notice for us to leave. Nobody expected how much the Great Mouse Detective would save our bacon however. I can't even imagine where I would be this moment if the original draft had been made instead.

Leonard Maltin: While us animation historians have grown to appreciate the Great Mouse Detective a lot more than we did before, Walt himself was not pleased with the final product. Sure it saved his studio, but it was clear that Walt's interest and ambition was on films like the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Atlantis". The Great Mouse Detective is one of the most under appreciated Disney films, and its historical significance cannot be ignored. If the film had failed or had Disney gone with the original Sherlock Holmes film, the studio might not exist today.

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Taken from "On the Case: The Making of Disney's Great Mouse Detective" produced 2011 for the 70th Anniversary Blu-Ray

Eric Goldberg: If you ask animation historians or even just casual fans, they’ll usually consider the Great Mouse Detective as their favourite animated film. The simplicity of the story, the gorgeous animation and the funny captivating mystery. Disney wasn’t trying to create art when he made this film, and in a way, that was what allowed him to create this piece of art.

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Doctor John W. Rodent returns from Afghanistan and rents a room with Sherlock Mouser the detective. Sherlock Mouser is visited by a client named Eric Jones, who explains that his house had been ransacked and the criminal had left a note. At the crime scene, Sherlock finds a note written in scarlet ink reading “Fear”. Sherlock deduces that the culprit was his sworn enemy Professor Rache Rat from his handwriting, and the clues lead them all to the Valley of Fear, where Rache Rat is waiting for Sherlock, having successfully misled him. Rache Rat sets up a trap to kill Sherlock but with some help from John Rodent, the trio escapes. Through clues and the use of Sherlock's chemistry set, Sherlock realises that Rache was heading towards Mousedom Palace and deduces that the kingdom is in grave danger. The rest of the movie revolves around the trio rushing to Mousedom Palace and a big fight against Rache Rat.

"The Great Mouse Detective", with a budget of $950,000, would be a huge success, the only successful film in the Golden Age outside of "The Little Mermaid". The film would earn around $2 million at the box office and earn even more through its 1949 and 1960s re-releases. While the film was critically and financially successful, the studio was still going through a turbulent period, the studio struggled to stay afloat.

Release Date: October 23rd 1941

Cast:
Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Mouser)
Dink Trout (John Rodent)
Jerry Colonna (Eric Jones)
Henry Daniell (Rache Rat)
Verna Felton (Mouse Queen)
Jimmy MacDonald (Additional Voices)

Notable Songs:
Are You a Man or a Mouse (1)

(1) A scrapped song from Dumbo IOTL

Notes: As mentioned in the test thread, I initially struggled to come up with a plot for TTL's Great Mouse Detective, given that Basil of Baker Street hadn't been written yet. Ultimately, I decided to base the plot off two OTL Sherlock Holmes stories: "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Valley of Fear", as well as taking some cues from OTL's great Mouse Detective. The film has the same significance as its OTL counterpart but its reception ITTL is the equivalent of OTL's Dumbo, known for technically saving the Disney Studio in the 1940s but still being a weaker film among the other Golden Age films.

 

[MrCarioca]

"US Declares War, Pacific Battle Widens, Manila Area Bombed, 1500 Dead in Hawaii" -New York Times, December 8th 1941

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." -Franklin Roosevelt's declaration of war on Japan, December 8th 1941

"The Walt Disney Studio confirmed to carry on production on Atlantis, other projects shelved or halted as US army occupies studio lot" -The Hollywood Reporter, December 22nd 1941

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Taken from "Diving Deep: Producing Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire", produced and aired in 1995

Leonard Maltin: Atlantis was one of the more complex films Disney did. Sure you had Robin Hood which was more light-hearted, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame which contained dark tones, but the story of Atlantis could really go anywhere.

Ollie Johnston: Back in the late 30s and early 40s, sci-fi wasn't really popular, in fact the whole craze only kicked off in the 1970s. Therefore, Walt wanted to step out of his comfort zone and try his hand at something new for his 2nd feature film. We considered Peter Pan and even Bambi, sadly Bambi never made it past the drawing board and Peter Pan would not release until much later. Walt had to move Atlantis down to his third and ultimately his fifth, and by then World War 2 had came knocking on our door and the film was destined to fail.

Ward Kimball: Walt wanted the animation to look as sophisticated and realistic as possible, as per fellow animator Eric Larson's words "not make them look like big flour sacks". That alone was the reason why I had little to no involvement, they thought I was more suited animating Robin Hood and the Great Mouse Detective instead of realistic human characters.

Frank Thomas: One of the main issues was the story itself. There weren't much sci-fi films to take inspiration, if any at all. I remember those story meetings very well, Walt would sit there and get extremely agitated and frustrated, he simply couldn't think of a proper story, even with all of us at the helm. Fortunately, the genius of Larry Morey, a scriptwriter for our films back then, saved the film from being scrapped entirely.

Fred Moore: I think one of the reasons the final product was so dark was because of some last minute edits. The military came in after Pearl Harbour happened and limited our outputs, most of our shorts were military training and propaganda shorts, intended to boost morale. Atlantis found itself affected, as some scenes outright depicted death and war, looking back I was never really too proud of those scenes, but it was a product of its time.

Paula Sigman: I'd say Atlantis is up there with Hunchback as one of Disney's darkest films, and even Hunchback had comedic relief in the form of Jiminy Cricket, here every scene feels pulled straight out of a 1940s horror movie. The only lighter scenes were from the few songs itself, composed by Frank Churchill and Larrey Morey.

Leonard Maltin: When the film premiered in 1942, America was at war with Japan and Nazi Germany. Nobody was in the mood to see Disney films, let alone darker ones. The film bombed and would've killed the studio if the military and the government hadn't been funding it. Then after the war, the 1960s and 70s came along, that's when Atlantis found its target audience. Atlantis earned double its budget through re-releases, and ended up being a commercial success, albeit years after its initial release. Sadly the budget had run dry, and the studio had to make package films

---

Set in the early 1900s, an eccentric Greek scientist named Milo Thatch sets sail on a grand adventure to uncover the lost empire of Atlantis, accompanied by his French partner Donnelly d'Arche. Milo and Donnelly sail for weeks but eventually find an inhabited island, which they deduce to be the remanants of Atlantis after cracking ancient manuscripts found on the island. Through cracking ancient code, the space-time continuum changes and reveals that the downfall of Atlantis was caused by a megatsunami, in which the evil king Rourke escapes and leaves his kingdom to perish. Meanwhile, news of Atlantis's re-discovery reaches Europe, the wealthy but notorious businessman Kenneth Sinclair desires to purchase the island and exploit its glory. Milo and Donnelly must now use the space-time continuum to save Atlantis from its fate, but also beat back Sinclair and his evil ideals at the same time.

"Atlantis: The Lost Empire" would become a box office disappointment, only grossing $500,000 on its initial release compared to a budget of $850,000. Fortunately, Atlantis would gain a significant following come the 1960s/1970s, when the sci-fi craze began. Because of this, Atlantis would become profitable through re-releases and is now seen as a classic in its own right. But in the meantime, Disney's budget had run completely dry, coupled with WW2 now having reached America, the studio could only release package features. The 6th entry in the WDAC would be the first film in the decent but also forgettable Wartime Era.

Release Date: July 30th 1942 (premeire), Augsut 7th 1942 (general release)

Cast:
Hardie Albright (Milo Thatch)
Sam Edwards (Donnelly d'Arche)
Fred Shields (King Rourke)
Edward Brophy (Kenneth Sinclair)

Notable Songs:
Little April Shower (sung by an unseen choir, heard during the rainfall scene when Milo and Donnelly fall asleep during the rain)
Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song (sung by an unseen choir, heard during the finale when Atlantis is saved)

Notes: Turns out adapting Atlantis into the Golden Era isn't as hard as I initially thought it would be. For the plot of TTL's Atlantis, I based it off on Frederick Tennyson's narrative, James Dryden's narrative and also OTL's Atlantis film. While its reception is akin to OTL's Bambi, the film is mostly seen as being ahead of its time, not really finding its fanbase until the 1970s. After this film, we'll be heading into the Wartime Era, one hint I'll give for the first package film is that plotwise it'll be vastly different from its OTL counterpart, and may or may not be somewhat controversial ITTL. Also, updates may or may not be more frequent during the Wartime Era so stay tuned.

 

[MrCarioca]

Continued from the interview with Walt Disney, 1959

Interviewer: ...Ah interesting, so what was the first package film?

Walt Disney: Well it was a bit of a controversial one. We based the first package film "The Many Adventures of Brother Bear" of the Uncle Remus stories, we were gonna do a full feature but WW2 stopped us dead in our tracks.

Interviewer: I always found that film interesting. Since the original Uncle Remus tale starred Br'er Rabbit, or Brother Rabbit as he is known in the film, why did you choose Brother Bear instead of the rabbit?

Walt Disney: Well as I said, WW2 hampered our plans significantly, so we had to trim a lot of stuff down. In fact, we were discussing of making Br'er Rabbit a live action film, with Br'er Rabbit featurettes in between. Of course that never happened for two reasons: One because of WW2, and two because the public would be in an outrage if I ever depicted black men enjoying slavery. Ultimately we scrapped those plans and only focused on the animated scenes. As for Brother Bear, I recall most of our animators and test audiences (we had the first test screenings in 1942) liking Brother Bear a lot more than both the cunning Brother Fox and mischievous Brother Rabbit. So after a short meeting, Brother Bear became the star while the other two were relegated to second fiddle.

Interviwer: I see. I'll be completely honest, I always found Brother Rabbit to be more enjoyable than Brother Bear, his tricks are always so engaging to watch. Maybe that's a reason why I like the follow-up more.

Walt Disney: Well you could say that, we did use some scrapped ideas for the follow-up...

---

"Brother Bear is an engaging and entertaining film, definately worth a watch." -The Hollywood Reporter, February 10th 1943

"The film we needed as an escape from the ongoing war" -Washington Post, February 11th 1943

---

The failures of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" had caused the budget at Disney to completely run dry, the 1941 Animator's Strike which cuased many talented animators such as Art Babbit to leave didn't help matters either. Many films in production at the time had to either be shelved or have production slow down. To add salt to the wound, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour not long after the strike, the military subsequently occupied the studio and halted production on any non-war related productions. The only feature films in production by early 1942 was "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Br'er Rabbit".

"Br'er Rabbit" started production as early as 1938, when Walt expressed interested in adapting the "Uncle Remus" stories. Walt successfully purchased film rights by 1939 and a proper adaptation was underway soon. By 1940, production had stalled and there wasn't really a clear direction as to how "Uncle Remus" would play out. While Walt could technically get away with producing only the animated "Br'er Rabbit" segments, the "Uncle Remus" story, on top of being extremely hard to produce animated, would be extremely controversial taking the story's origins into account. Some suggested turning "Uncle Remus" into a live-action film starring James Baskett, with "Br'er Rabbit" becoming aniamted segments shoved in-between scenes. This attempt didn't go far and Walt saved the live-action animation hybrid for a different film.

A second and arguably more popular suggestion was to ditch live-action completely and instead shift the focus away from Br'er Rabbit, instead the film would be told through the perspective of Br'er Bear. Many storymen and the Nine Old Men agreed that the bear was more interesting to work on, plus having Br'er Bear be the focus would minimize the questionable origins of Br'er Rabbit. Production on the new "Brother Bear" feature wouldn't start at earnets until 1941, when the military occupied the studio. Alongside "Atlantis: The Lost Empire", the military allowed production on "Brother Bear" to continue on one condition: The budget had to be spliced. Because of this and the already shrinking budget, it was decided that "Brother Bear" would serve as the studio's first package feature, three animated segments spliced together into one feature length film.

The film was divided into three segments, an unseen black narrator (James Baskett) would act as a framing device between the 3 Brother Bear tales. In the first segment "Brother Bear Goes Out on a Limb", we are introduced to Brother Bear and his morning hike to collect food for his bear family. In the second segment "Brother Bear and the Trickery of Brother Rabbit", we are introduced to Brother Bear's partner in-crime Brother Fox and their arch-nemesis Brother Rabbit. Brother Bear goes on another hike when he spots Brother Rabbit stuck in Brother's Fox trap, the rabbit tricks Brother Bear into believing that he is doing a job for Brother Fox and offers Brother Bear to take his place, of course this was a trick to allow Brother Rabbit's escape. This leads to the final segment "Brother Bear and the Laughing Place". Brother Bear seeks to take revenge on Brother Rabbit, with the help of Brother Fox, the duo successfully capture Brother Rabbit and prepare to cook him for dinner. Brother Rabbit asks for one final request: For Brother Bear to tak him to his "laughing place". The Laughing Place turns out to be a beehive which drives Brother Bear back home.

The film did alright, not a big success but enough to keep the studio alive for the time being. The source material did gather some controversy but most were able to see past the more racial elements and focus on the comedic slapstick. "The Many Adventures of Brother Bear" would come right before one of the most engaging, dark and also funniest package films.

Release date: February 6th 1943

Cast:
James Baskett (Narrator, Brother Fox)
Nick Stewart (Brother Bear)
Edward Brophy (Brother Rabbit)

Notable Songs:
Everybody's Got a Laughing Place (sung by Brother Rabbit in the titular segment)

Notes: I wasn't exactly sure on how Brother Bear would work as a package film. But then I remebered OTL's Song of the South's animated segments existed, and that became the basis of TTL's Brother Bear. Plotwise, I took inspiration off "Changing the Reel"'s version of Brother Bear, as well as two of OTL's Br'er Rabbit segments.

 

[MrCarioca]

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1945)​

"Wind in the Willows and Sleepy Hollow to be Disney's next two features, packaged into one film" -The Hollywood Reporter, December 15th 1943

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Taken from "Motor Mania: Disney's Ichabod and Mr Toad", produced in 1997

Leonard Maltin: You see during World War 2, Disney didn't have the budget nor the manpower to produce epic narratives anymore, so the studio resorted to making package features, packaging multiple short stories into one "feature film". I think "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad" was the best of the package films, two stories that could not be more different but still tell compelling and humourous stories.

Ollie Johnston: We had to trim a lot of our ideas for both featurettes. In the original drafts for "Wind in the Willows", Toad actually did steal the motorcar as in the original book, of course that never came to be. Then there was the scene where McBadger gets sent to a Nervous-Wreck Ward, it was funny and we liked animating the scene, but ultimately it had to be scrapped.

Joe Grant: While "Wind in the Willows" had far more scenes that were cut, "Sleepy Hollow" surprisingly came out almost intact. The war certainly made the scenes a lot more darker, but the final product was mostly the same as the initial storyboards. You see, while "Wind in the Willows" was conceived as early as 1938, "Sleepy Hollow" didn't come about until late 1942, when Pearl Harbour happened and halted all our plans. Therefore, "Sleepy Hollow" was developed as a featurette in mind, "Wind in the Willows" required a lot more re-working.

Leonard Maltin: The film was a instant hit upon release, a welcome film for war-weary audiences. It's just an etertaining film that's very well done.

---

For the studio's second package feature, Walt considered pairing up "Mickey and the Beanstalk", "Gremlins" and "The Wind in the Willows", all of which were produced as independent feature films before World War 2 halted such plans. Out of these three, only "The Wind in the Willows" would be released as a package feature while the other two were eventually released in 1947 and 1948 respectively. Another consideration was a follow-up to the Latin American Goodwill Tour shorts which featured Donald Duck, Goofy and the new Brazilian character Jose Carioca. The shorts were popular enough for Walt to consider producing a package feature revolving around Donald's adventures in Latin America. However enough revenue was generated by the shorts alone that there simply wasn't a need for a full Latin American feature.

Meanwhile Walt had seen the increased patriotism in the US during World War 2. Naturally it would be a good decision to produce a feature film or featurette based on popular Americans legends. Walt would go on the make a package film revolving around said concept, but one legend in particular caught his eye: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Production would start in late 1942 only because Walt convinced the Bank of America that an American legend could boost war morale and also bring some optimism.

As for "The Wind in the Willows", it was conceived as early as 1938 as its own feature film. Walt purchased film rights shortly after "The Little Mermaid" but found the story too corny for his tastes. Story artist James Bodero successfully convinced Walt to put the film into production and the earliest story meetings would start in 1940. About half of the animation and songs were produced before Pearl Harbour happened, the only projects that went on were “Atlantis” which was near completion anyways and “Br’er Rabbit” which became “The Many Adventures of Brother Bear”. By 1943, there were discussions to continue limited production on films that were put on hold, which included “The Wind in the Willows”. Walt decided to convert “The Wind in the Willows” into a featurette and pair it with "the Legend of Sleepy Hollow", giving the feature its name: "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad".

Jiminy Cricket from "the Hunchback of Notre Dame" serves as a framing device. The first featurette was "The Wind in the Willows", narrated by Edgar Bergen (1). J Thaddeus Toad gains a new motor mania after he witnesses a motorcar drive by Toad Hall. Toad's friends, the righteous Mr Rat, the loyal Mole, and the caretaker of Toad Hall Angus McBadger all try to contain Toad's mania but to no avail. Toad gets himself into hot water when he is framed for stealing a motorcar annd locked up in prison, in reality Toad sold Toad Hall to a gang of weasels led by the bartender Winky in excahge for the motorcar. The jailer's daughter helps Toad escape and the gang must take the deed back from Winky and the weasels, culminating in a perilous gun fight.

The second featurette was "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", narrated and sung by Bing Crosby. The schoolmaster Ichabod Crane arrives at Sleepy Hollow and captures attention from the town, including that of Brom Bonnes, the self-proclaimed hero of Sleepy Hollow. Soon after, the daughter of the rich Mr Tassel, Katrina, arrives in Sleepy Hollow and attraacts Ichabod and Brom. Ultimately this culminates into a ballroom party at Katrina's house, where Brom Bonnes tells the story of the Headless Horseman to scare Ichabod and embarass him. Ichabod returns home, but meets the Headless Horseman himself, who chases Ichabod down the lane and throws a pumpkin, seemingly killing Ichabod. Brom Bonnes marries Katrina in the end and Ichabod fate is left ambiguous.

All work was completed on December 21st 1944, a mere 6 weeks before its premiere date. The film did surprisingly well, earning $1.2 million on its intial release. The war ended soon after but Disney continued making package features for the time being, not ready to return to epic narratives just yet.

Release Date: February 3rd 1945

Cast:
Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket)
Edgar Bergen (Himself)
Eric Blore (Mr Toad)
Basil Rathbone (Mr Rat)
Colin Campbell (Mole)
Pinto Colvig (Angus MacBadger)
Oliver Wallace (Mr Winky)
Bing Crosby (Himself, Brom Bonnes)
Claud Allister (Ichabod Crane)
Dinah Shore (Katrina Van Tassel)

Notable Songs:
Ichabod and Mr Toad (sung by an unseen choir in the opening credits)
The Merrily Song (sung bu Toad during the horse carriage scene, the song would become the main motif of "the Wind in the Willows")
Ichabod Crane (sung by Bing Crosby to introduce Ichabod Crane)
Katrina (sung by Bing Crosby to introduce Katrina)
The Headless Horseman (sung by Bing Crosby/Brom Bonnes to scare Ichabod during Van Tassel's party)

(1) Charlie and Mortimer do not appear here

Notes: Since OTL's Ichabod and Mr Toad is also a package film, this one was naturally an easy one to knock out. The only changes were parts of the cast and the featurettes, with some scrapped ideas from OTL's Wind in the Willows featured here, and the overall film having more war-like scenes due to it releasing in WW2. Now the next film will be a hard one as I am still trying to think of suitable material that'll work as featurettes. Stay tuned for that.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from a staff meeting in the Walt Disney Animation Studio lot, December 22nd 1944

Walt Disney: So, Wind in the Willows and Sleepy Hollow is finally complete. Thus lies the question folks: What should we do next?

Ward Kimball: Well we haven’t resumed work on Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk yet, maybe we could package those two as well?

Norman Ferguson: Actually, I think I have an idea. You fellas familiar with Lovecraft?

Walt Disney: That strange fella? I’m not sure if his works are the best for a featurette…

Ollie Johnston: Maybe we should make another Brother Bear and Brother Rabbit film, the first one did pretty well, a second feature could expand on Brother Rabbit or Brother Fox.

Walt Disney: We’ll discuss it more later, I’ll have to think about Lovecraftian horror for a second…

---

For the studio's next two featurettes, Walt could not have chosen a more clashing combination. Smashing a continuation of the Brother Rabbit tales from "Brother Bear" with H.P Lovecraft's "The Hound", "The Fox and the Hound" started production immediately after "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad" premiered. Initally having Jiminy Cricket as the framing device like in the previous film, the dark tone of "The Hound" scrapped said plan and an unseen narrator would serve as the framing device instead.

The first segment was a follow-up to "The Tales of Brother Bear", this time focusing on the cunning Brother Fox and his various schemes to capture Brother Rabbit. Brother Fox and Brother Bear construct a "tar baby" as bait for Brother Rabbit. But when he is captured, Brother Rabbit convinces Brother Fox that throwing him into the Bramble Patch is the most painful death for him, which of course allows his escape. In another attempt, Brother Fox and the hungry Brother Vulture team up. Brother Vulture holds Brother Fox in its talons and allows Brother Fox to swoop down and capture Brother Rabbit, but the rabbit comes up with a plan: Convince Brother Vulture to drop him in the boiling river below, claiming that it'll boil him alive. Brother Fox is not amused but the vulture is convinced enough, of course Brother Rabbit escapes once more.

The second segment was easily the darkest and most jarring featurette Disney ever made. Based off H.P Lovecraft's "The Hound", two robbers, Gatsby and Mortimer, decide to dig up an ancient grave to retrieve a ruby amulet. They spot an apparition of a hound and decide to make a run for it, but not before stealing the amulet. Over time, the two robbers are haunted by the howls of the hound, as well as spotting its shadow sparingly. The climax comes when Gatsby is murdered, prompting Mortimer to return the amulet. However, the grave is nowhere to be found and Mortimer is seemingly attacked by the hound, leaving his fate to the viewer’s interpretation.

Needless to say, the film wasn't very popular and didn't do too well. The Brother Fox segment was fine and received praise, but "The Hound" was expectedly the most controversial part. The Brother Fox and Brother Bear segments would be re-issued on TV throughout the 1950s, while "The Hound" was never re-released until the film's 1999 VHS release.

Release Date: April 20th 1946

Cast:
James Baskett (Narrator of "Brother Fox", Brother Fox)
Nick Stewart (Brother Bear)
Edward Brophy (Brother Rabbit)
Nestor Paiva (Brother Vulture)
Ronald Reagan (Narrator of "The Hound")
Candy Candido (Gatsby)
Hans Conried (Mortimer)
Jimmy MacDonald (the Hound)

Notes: TTL's "The Fox and the Hound" is easily one of the darkest Disney films. For "The Hound" segment, I initially wanted to do the scrapped Inspector Bones project or even "The Hounds of the Baskervilles", but then remembered "The Great Mouse Detective" had released 5 years prior.

 

[MrCarioca]

"Walt Disney and Orson Welles to release live-action film based off "The Little Prince", releasing later this year" -The New York Times, February 1st 1946

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An animated adaptation of "The Little Prince" had been in filmmaker Orson Welles's mind since its 1943 publication. Welles had already purchased film rights as early as 1943 and was ectastic to direct the film. Of course, the only suitable studio to do an animated film would be the one which dominated the industry: Walt Disney Animation Studios. Welles and Disney didn't really get along. Their ideas (and political beliefs while we're at it) often clashed and Disney almost ended collaboration with Welles after a brief arguement. Ultimately, the film was to be shot in live-action, with animated segments shoved in between. The film was christened with the title "Encanto" to emphasize on the Little Prince's main goal in the film.

An aviator crashes his plane into a strange deserted planet, where he meets the titular Little Prince. The Little Prince recalls his adventures across multiple planets prior to meeting the aviator, trying to find the most enchanted and whimsical planet that he dubs "Encanto". Throughout his journey, the prince experiences run-ins with a drunkard tippler, a lamplighter, a king with no subjects, and a conceited man who only wants praise from others (all of which are animated). The Little Prince soons encounters the rose, who he believed to be unique and special. However when he visits Earth, roses are found everywhere and the Prince is heartbroken to find out about the truth. The Prince realises that "Encanto" was his home planet all along, and seeks to return to the rose.

Many, including Walt himself, expected the film to flop. However the film did surprisingly well both financially and critically, earning praise for both its casting and its faithfulness to the source material. The film would go on to earn a modest $3.4 million under a $2 million budget on its intiial release, its all time revenue would amount to a total of $65million.

Release Date: November 12th 1946

Live-Action Casting:
Bobby Driscoll (The Little Prince)
Orson Welles (The Aviator)

Animated Casting:
Sterling Holloway (The Tippler)
Edgar Bergen (The Lamplighter)
Eric Blore (The King)
Ed Wynn (The Conceited Man)
Ruth Warrick (The Rose)

Notable Songs:
Zip a Dee Doo Dah (sung by the Little Prince and the Aviator)
How Do You Do (The Little Prince's theme song)

Notes: I wasn't sure on how to make Encanto work 75 years earlier, granted OTL's counterpart does take places in 1950s Colombia but still. I did some reseach and it turned out that a "Little Prince" collaboration between Orson Welles and Disney was actually proposed but scrapped. Since the title "Encanto" could fit the theme of "The Little Prince", I figured it might work after all.

 

[MrCarioca]

"Walt Disney starts production on Jungle Book" -The Hollywood Reporter, December 18th 1945

---

Taken from "The Story Behind the Jungle Book", produced in 1997 for its 50th Anniversary VHS release

Leonard Maltin: Personally, the only true contender to "Ichabod and Mr Toad" was "The Jungle Book". To keep his successful films going, Walt was always looking for new material to adapt into feature films, and then Walt stumbled upon “Elephant Boy”, a 1937 film, and that was when he had this idea of making the Jungle Book.

Frank Thomas: I think it was around the time we finished "Ichabod and Mr Toad". Walt suddenly came to us as said "Listen up folks, we are going to do the Jungle Book next." Now most of us weren't really familiar with the Jungle Book, so it was a bit of a challenge to adapt the book into a feature film.

Ollie Johnston: The story of the Jungle Book is a bit episodic. Mowgli is supposed to learn these life lessons and decide whether he wants to live in the jungle or the man village, but most of these lessons come from his animal friends instead of himself. That's the main part which we needed to fix, it wasn't an easy job trust me. I remember the crew tearing their hair apart just trying to fix the main structural issues.

Narrator: The film was divided into four segments, each representing Mowgli's adventures in the jungle.

Ollie Johnston: One of the scrapped ideas we had for the second segment was having Kaa be the antagonist. Kaa was gonna hypnotise Mowgli and we were gonna have this chaotic battle between Kaa and Bagheera. Of course that never happened and Shere Khan became the central antagonist, tying the segments together. Then there were the elephants, they were gonna play a bigger role but ultimately we had to trim them down to only one segment, it was a package film after all.

Leonard Maltin: When the film premiered in 1947, it was an instantaneous hit with audiences and was a success. Most people enjoyed the nice slice-of-life film after World War 2, just a nice simple film about a boy’s adventures in the jungle.

—-

The film was divided into four segments. Bagheera the Black Panther acts as a framing device by recalling his adventures with the “Man-Cub”.

The first segment was “Life Begins for Mowgli”. Bagheera recounts his first encounter with Mowgli as an abandoned baby. He takes Mowgli in and has the wolves raise him. Ten years later, Mowgli grows into a young boy and Bagheera insists on taking him to the human village. Meanwhile, Shere Khan the murderous tiger returns to the forest and threatens jungle life, leading Bagheera to protect Mowgli at all costs.

The second segment was “Mowgli and the Pachyderm Parade”. Mowgli meets Premier Pachyderm and his parade. Mowgli joins in the fun but is soon spotted by Pachyderm, who despises humans due to a poaching incident years prior. Mowgli is almost killed when Bagheera arrives and save him. Bagheera is now more insistent on sending Mowgli away than ever.

The third segment was “Adventures with Baloo”. Mowgli wanders off and meets Baloo the laid back bear. Baloo teaches Mowgli to forget about his worries and live the sweet life. However, their worries return when a group of Bandar-log monkeys kidnap Mowgli and use the boy as entertainment. Fortunately, Kaa the snake scares the monkeys away and Baloo is able to rescue Mowgli. As a result, Bagheera berates Baloo and prepares to send Mowgli to the man village at night.

The final segment was “Encounters with Shere Khan”. At night, Shere Khan spots Mowgli and prepares to attack and eat him. Baloo and Bagheera wake up just in time to rescue Mowgli. The two parties battle but ultimately Shere Khan is knocked off a cliff and is seemingly eaten by vultures. Mowgli makes the bold decision to stay in the forest, but reverses his decision when he sees a pretty girl his age. The film then ends with a reprise of “Bare Necessities”

"The Jungle Book" premiered in 1947 paired alongside the musical short "Peter and the Wolf". With a small budget of $450000, the film would end up grossing an estimate of $1 million on its initial release. Most package films were successes both financially and critcally, yet Walt was still $4 million in debt. Walt had to think of a solution and fast

Release Date: September 27th 1947 (premiere), October 29th 1947 (general release)

Cast:
John Sutherland (Bagheera)
Bobby Driscoll (Mowgli)
Candy Candido (Premier Pachyderm)
Pinto Colvig (Baloo)
Billy Gilbert, Clarence Nash, Jimmy MacDomald (Bandar-log Monkeys)
Sterling Holloway (Kaa)
Thurl Ravenscroft (Shere Khan)
Shirley Temple (Girl)

Notable Songs:
Say It With a Slap (sung by Baloo)

Notes: Given its source material, it was easy to translate the Jungle Book into a package film. Here, it's seen as the strongest film in the package era next to "Ichabod and Mr Toad". Sterling Holloway is the only vocie actor to be featured in both versions of the Jungle Book. The next film would be unexpected, even though I have planned how it'll go ITTL.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from an interview with the Nine Old Men (excluding the deceased members), 1988

Interviewer: So Mr Kimball, can you tell us one of your personal favourite works?

Ward Kimball: I think it would either be Mr Toad in "Wind in the Willows" or Pecos Bill in "Big Hero 6". Walt didn't give me any instruction on Pecos Bill, he just gave me the basic outlines and told me to go wild. I loved animating that segment, the sheer energy and fluidity Bill had, it was amazing and possibly my favourite peice of animation that I had ever done.

Interviewer: Interesting to hear. Speaking of Big Hero 6, how did that movie even come to be anyway? It was odd seeing a collection of shorts bundled into a quote-on-quote movie.

Frank Thomas: Well it was during the war when Walt had this idea of a patriotic film. Walt wanted to do a film with American legends, and it even got approved by the military folks at the studio. I think the John Henry segment was always Walt's personal favourite, which can also be said for the civil rights activists in the 1960s.

Interviewer: That's nice to hear, anyways that's all the time we have for today...

---

Even though what would becomne "Big Hero 6" wasn't finished until three years after World War 2, the sense of patriotism was extremely high in the sense of "if you're not with us you're against us". This patriotic spirit extended to the animation industry, more specifically Walt Disney Animation Studios. The military had comissioned Disney to produce patriotic and military training shorts to educate the public on the war and increase war support. From here, an idea stemmed where Walt would produce a series of animated shorts or featurettes based off American legends, packaged into one feature film. There were a lot of potential suitors when it came to actually choosing material for featurettes. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was most notably considered before ultimately produced and released as a part of "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad". Ultimately Walt settled on six American legend featurettes, hence the title "Big Hero 6". Thanks to production delays and other projects such as "The Little Prince" and "The Jungle Book", "Big Hero 6" ended up far behind in production and wasn't released until 1948.

The film starts with Buddy Clark narrating George Washington's life story, depicting the American Revolution and the events of the Boston Tea Party. Dennis Day then comes in with "Johnny Appleseed". The segment follows John Chapman/Johnny Appleseed's journey to plant apple trees across America before ascending to heaven to plant trees there. "Big Hero 6" continues with Roy Rogers narrating "Pecos Bill", following the titular cowboy and his love Slue Foot Sue. "Big Hero 6" comes to a halt with Ed Wynn narrating "Casey at the Bat". Based off the 1888 poem of the same name, the arrogance of baseball player Casey causes him to ultimately lose the big game. Jerry Colonna then narrates "The Brave Engineer", depicting the tale of Casey Jones and his heroric attempt to save (or at the very least, reduce the effects of) a crash. The film the ends with "John Henry", with James Baskett narrating and voicing the titular character.

The film released in 1948 paired with the Donald Duck short "Blame it on the Samba", starring Jose Carioca and had music performed by Ethel Smith. performed in the middle of the road, not a big success but also not a failure. But if there was one thing audiences liked about "Big Hero 6", it was "John Henry". The aforementioned segment would become a pop culture icon within the civil rights movement. Sadly, James Baskett would pass away only 6 weeks after the film's release, making this his last film role. Meanwhile, Walt was about ready to return to classic fairytale storytelling, starting with a certain German fairytale he had had on his mind for quite some while.

Release Date: May 27th 1948

Cast:
Buddy Clark (Narrator of "George Washington")
Dennis Day (Narrator and voice of "Johnny Appleseed" and his guardian angel)
Roy Rogers (Narrator and voice of "Pecos Bill")
Ed Wynn (Narrator of "Casey at the Bat")
Jerry Colonna (Narrator of "The Brave Engineer")
James Baskett (Narrator and voice of "John Henry")

Notes: Considering OTL's "Big Hero 6" released in 2014 and has sci-fi elements as the main focus, there is no way it will be the same in 1948. Hence why I used the original pitch of OTL's "Melody Time" as the basis here. Before we get to the Silver Age, we'll have to see what 1949a has in store for us first.

Spoiler: One small hint for 1949a

Like Big Hero 6 and Encanto, 1949a will be another OTL Post-2000 title that is nothing like its OTL counterpart

 

[MrCarioca]

"Disney and T.H.White to collaborate on next live-action film" -The Hollywood Reporter, February 20th 1948

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Taken from a meeting between Walt Disney and T.H.White, January 1947

Walt Disney: So Mr White, what brings you to the studio?

T.H.White: Mr Disney, I am quite the admirer of your work and I approach you today with a proposition: I have this unpublished script about a Lilliputian World and I've been thinking of reviving it as a collaboration between me and you. After "The Little Prince", maybe we could turn this old script into a live-action film of some sorts.

Walt Disney: Hmmmm, I'm not so sure. I think I purchased rights to one of your novels a few years ago, I think it was "The Sword in the Stone". Maybe we could work this out and discuss about both projects, shall we?

---

Like its title, "Strange World" had a very strange and complicated production. The main story was initially conceived as a children's book by English author T.H.White, however due to complications with developing a proper and coherent story, White scrapped said plans and never considered reviving them until he saw Disney's "Encanto: The Adventures of the Little Prince" in theaters. Realising the potential of a live-action Disney production, White contacted Disney in January 1947 and production was put in full swing by October.

Of course, Walt Disney himself was no stranger to T.H.White. Disney had previously purchased film rights to White's 1938 novel "The Sword in the Stone" but the outbreak of World War 2 and other projects put a stop to those plans. "The Sword in the Stone" wouldn't become reality until the 1980s, and Walt had his full interests on White’s new collaboration. While the original script had the name “Mistress Masham’s Repose”, Walt gave the film a new title: “Strange World”. The reasoning was due to the more absurd and weird aspect: The Lilliputians and their whimsical world.

The story centers around the orphan girl and inherited owner of a luxurious mansion Maria Masham. Maria's only friends are the home cook and the retired Professor Bill, who try to protect her from Maria's strict governess Miss Brown and Maria's guardian Mr Hatter. After a heated arguement between Maria and Miss Brown, Maria runs away and discovers a colony of Liliputians, led by the head King Lilliput. Initially trying to win them over by sending gifts, Maria realises that she must come to respect the Lilliputians in order to win them over. Maria and the Lilliputians must then bond together to take down Miss Brown and Mr Hatter, who have also discovered the Lilliputian colony and intend to exploit them for their own greed.

"Strange World" opened to mixed reviews and a disappointing box office return, most people agreed that the hybrid between the animated Lilliputians and the live-action cast was a downgrade from "Encanto: The Adventures of the Little Prince". "Strange World" had flopped, yet Walt was about to release perhaps his biggest success since "the Little Mermaid".

Release Date: January 11th 1949

Live-Action Cast:
Luana Patten (Maria Masham)
John Beal (Cook)
Harry Carey (Professor Bill)
Beulah Bondi (Miss Brown)
Burl Ives (Mr Hatter)

Animated Cast:
Ken Carson (King Lilliput)
Jimmy MacDonald, Billy Gilbert, Billy Bletcher and Pinto Colvig (Various Lilliputians)

Notes: Like with "Encanto", it was quite hard figuring out how the second most recent film in OTL's WDAC would work in the 1940s. Since IOTL, "Mistress Masham's Repose" was an actual proposed feature in the 1980s, I figured it would be suitable material for an analogue to "So Dear to My Heart". Here, the situation of the "Mistress Masham's Repose" novel is akin to OTL's Dumbo book, initially scrapped and forgotten but gained relevancy through a Disney film.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from "Rags to Riches: The Making of Disney's Snow White", produced in 1993

Narrator: By 1949, Walt Disney was 4 million dollars in debt. If he couldn't find a solution and fast, then it would spell game over for the studio.

Ollie Johnston: We were about ready to pack up and be handed our walking papers, half expecting the studio to shut down. Of course that didn't happen, and it's all thanks to the runaway success of Snow White.

Narrator: For Disney's version of the fairytale, each of the seven dwarfs would have unique personalities to seperate them apart.

Ward Kimball: Back in the old Silly Symphony days and even when we started doing feature films, most side characters looked alike and had almost the same personality. If you look at Robin Hood, most of the residents of Nottingham had similar looks and we couldn't really tell them apart. And now we have these seven different individuals, all having unique personalities that defined their characters.

Joe Grant: In the earliest drafts of Snow White back in the 1930s, we had loads of dwarf names being thrown around. There was Wheezy, Jumpy, Sneezy, Baldy, Sleepy and Gabby just to name a few. Ultimately we settled on these seven: Doc, Bashful, Lazy, Happy, Deafy, Grumpy and of course, Dopey. These seven dwarfs were what made the film so successful and memorable.

Ilene Woods: One of my songwriter friends Jerry Livingston asked me to record a few songs from the film, I think it was "So This is Love". Walt happened to have heard my recording and the next thing I knew, I was cast for the voice of Snow White.

Ward Kimball: When the film premiered, there were people crying and sobbing at the casket scene. I couldn't believe it! It was just a cartoon and everyone's crying!

Leonard Maltin: The film was a huge success and saved the Disney Studio from any potential bankruptcy. With the amount of money earnt by Snow White, Walt was finally able to pay off the $4 million debt and work on his passion projects such as the incredible artistic experiement of Fantasia.

---

"Walt Disney's Snow White a huge hit, earns $5 million in first weekend." -The Hollywood Reporter, October 14th 1949

"If this isn't your best masterpiece, it is very close to the top" -Review by producer Hal Wallis

"Snow White is an engaging re-telling of the original fairytale, Disney and his animators really hit it out of the park with this one!" -Time Magazine, October 1949 issue

---

The German fairytale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" had long been considered as material for an animated feature by Walt Disney, with its history tracing as far back to 1934. Snow White was one of Walt's considerations for his first feature film, storyboards and a few songs were composed before the film was ultimately dropped in favour of the Little Mermaid. Snow White was ultimately shelved for a later date, with the outbreak of World War 2 halting any plans of bringing Snow White to the big screen. Later in 1946, Walt was looking for ways to return to classic storytelling after doing package films. After considering the French tale of Cinderella, James Barrie's play Peter Pan and Walt's childhood favourite novel Alice in Wonderland, he decided to revive Snow White instead. Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland would both be made after another few series of economic turntoil and Peter Pan was pushed past Snow White in terms of production, but for now Snow White would go on to save the Walt Disney Studio.

For Walt's take on Snow White, he had to make it worthwhile and special. The seven dwarfs would have unique personalities that set them apart, Snow White was aged up to at least 18, and the prince was to be given a bigger role in the story compared to the original tale. Of course, the film had some of its scenes trimmed out as to not affect the overall pacing. The two most notable examples were "Bluddle Uddle Um Dum" and "Music in Your Soup", both of which were included in the 1930s story outline. "Music in Your Soup" was kept for "The Little Mermaid" while "Bluddle Uddle Um Dum" was scrapped forever and would not be shown until an episode of "Walt Disney Presents: Disneyland" in 1956. For the film's score and songs, Walt decided to re-use a few songs Frank Churchill had composed for the original 1930s attempt, most notably "One Song". The rest were composed by studio music director Charles Wolcott.

The beautiful Snow White is orphaned at a young age and lives with her evil step-mother Queen Agatha, who is jealous of Snow White's beauty and forces her to become a scullery maid. Snow White meets with Prince Florian one day and falls in love, singing "One Song". When Agatha's magic mirror proclaims Snow White to be the fairest of them all on Snow White's 18th birthday, Agatha plots to kill Snow White by sending her loyal huntsman to kill her. The huntsman ultimately sets Snow White free and she runs off to a nearby cottage, the house of seven miner dwarfs. The dwarfs discover Snow White at night and take her in, vowing to protect her from the evil queen. Meanwhile, Agatha captures Prince Florian and creates a potion to transform her into a witch to fool Snow White. The prince escapes and must now work with the dwarfs to save Snow White before it's too late.

The film was a phenomenal success, wiping Disney of all his debt and allowing him to produce the classic feature films he had wanted to create for the longest time. Snow White would kickstart the Disney Silver Age, lasting until Walt's death in 1966 and the film released shortly after.

Release Date: October 9th 1949

Cast:
Ilene Woods (Snow White)
Harry Stockwell (Prince Florian)
Eleanor Audley (Queen Agatha)
Luis van Rooten (Doc)
Bill Thompson (Bashful)
Ed Wynn (Happy)
Pinto Colvig (Grumpy)
Sterling Holloway (Lazy)
Billy Gilbert (Deafy)
Mel Blanc (Dopey) (1)

Notable Songs:
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (sung by Snow White in the start of the film)
One Song (sung between Snow White and Prince Florian, reprise later heard in the coffin scene)
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo (sung by Snow White during the house cleaning scene)
Heigh Ho (sung by the Seven Dwarfs during mining)
The Dwarf's Work Song (sung by the Seven Dwarfs during the bed building scene, contains parts of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes) (2)
You're Never Too Old to be Young (sung by the dwarfs to Snow White during the cottage party scene)
So This is Love (heard during the "Dancing in the Clouds" sequence)

(1) Mel Blanc never signs the exclusivity contract with Warner Bros, therefore he is allowed to voice Dopey here
(2) Known IOTL as The Work Song from Cinderella

Notes: Plotwise, TTL's Snow White is almost identical to OTL's version, but the prince has a more active role by the end, Snow White is aged up significantly, and both the bed building scene and the dancing in the clouds sequence are kept. Starting from this film, I will be listing Notable Songs from each film so I won't have to include them in the notes section. Stay tuned for what the Silver Age will bring.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from "Taking Flight: A Special 40th Anniversary Documentary of Disney's Dumbo", produced 1990

Ollie Johnston: The story of Dumbo had a complicated history. The book it was based on was almost scrapped, then the feature film itself had an equally troubled production. Walt wanted Dumbo to be his 5th or 6th feature, but production was heavily scaled back as bigger projects like "Atlantis" took its slot. By the time the preliminary script was completed, Pearl Harbour happened and Dumbo was pushed back even further, way into the late 1940s.

Frank Thomas: I think it was '48 or '49 when Walt finally started designing character model sheets and actual storyboards. As you can see from these model sheets, Mrs Jumbo originally had a bigger role. And then there was this mouse sidekick for Dumbo, but we scrapped it as it strayed too far from the original story. Ultimately we kept the robin character in, and that's how Dumbo's little feathered friend Rusty came to be.

Ward Kimball: Compared to Atlantis, Hunchback and Snow White before it, the characters in Dumbo were less realistic. In fact we initially envisioned Dumbo as sort of a long Silly Symphony. Walt assigned me to a lot of characters, everybody else was quite jealous as they were stuck with the more realistic characters of Snow White and Atlantis, while I had loads of fun animating the goofy ringmaster and Rusty. In fact I designed the ringmaster around myslf, so he's really a self-caricature of me.

Narrator: To cut costs, watercolor paint was used to paint the film's backgrounds, the first film to do so since the Little Mermaid. This gave the film a unique style, making it so most scenes looked like paintings shown on the screen.

Leonard Maltin: One of my favourite things about Dumbo is how the animators managed to create such a beautiful film without using the extravagant effects. It didn't have the same visuals as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and certainly couldn't comapre to Atlantis and Fantasia, but it's still such an artistic masterpiece without trying to be an artistic masterpiece.

Narrator: Dumbo was released in the summer of 1950 to critical acclaim. Dumbo had followed Snow White as a success, and it was only the start of a long streak of successful films, known today as the Disney Silver Age.

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"Walt Disney soars with his new hit "Dumbo"!" - Taken from the New York Times, August 1st 1950

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Dumbo the baby elephant is delivered to Ms Jumbo by a stork. Dumbo is immediately ridiculed for his long ears and ruins the big act, causing the big top to come crashing down and injuring the other elephants. A small robin named Rusty takes pity on Dumbo and cheers him up by drinking “water” together. They both get drunk and dream of pink elephants, waking up on a tree where the wise Doctor Crow resides. Doctor Crow deduces that Dumbo’s large ears are for flying. The rest of the film revolves around Rusty and Doctor Crow training Dumbo for his ultimate big act: The Flying Elephant.

The film was another success for Disney. With a mere $850000 budget, the film grossed more than double of its budget, earning $2 million in its initial release and more during its subsequent re-releases. With two financial successes, the Disney Studio was officially back on track.

Release Date: July 26th 1950

Cast:
Jimmy MacDonald (Dumbo) (1)
Sterling Holloway (Stork)
Verna Felton (Ms Jumbo and the Elephant Matriarch)
Luis van Rooten (The Ringmaster)
Dink Trout (Rusty Robin) (2)
Cab Calloway (Doctor Crow)

Notable Songs:
Casey Jr (sung by the Mellomen)
Look Out for Mister Stork (sung by the Mellomen during the stork's delivery of Dumbo)
Baby Mine (sung by Ms Jumbo when caressing Dumbo)
Pink Elephants on Parade (sung by the Mellomen during the drunk scene)

(1) Dumbo doesn't actually speak, Jimmy MacDonald only provides additional voice effects for the character.
(2) Dink Trout's final film role before his death.

Notes: Since Dumbo appears only 9 years after OTL, I didn't want it to be the exact same film as it is IOTL. Here, the storyline follows the original book more closely and the rousatabout scene is cut for obvious reasons. Doctor Crow still garners some controversy but the scene here isn't as stereotypical as OTL's Dandy Crow.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from "A Christmas Miracle: The Making of Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas", produced 1993

Ollie Johnston: I'm not sure where Walt got the idea of combining Christmas and Halloween into one film. I think it was Norm Ferguson who pitched the idea back in the 1930s, most of our film ideas came from Ferguson anyways. We started developing a storyline when 1941 rolled around and shelved the film as World War 2 came and went.

Frank Thomas: A lot of ideas were tossed around during our story meetings. For one, the film was originally centered around the villain Jack Skellington. Skellington was to have this idea where he would bring Christmas to Halloween Town, we all liked the story except for Walt, who felt that Skellington was far too unlikeable. So for the second draft, we made Skellington the villain and centered the film around Santa Claus. Before the film went into full production, we added this little girl character named Karina so the film feels more fleshed out.

Narrator: For the voice cast, Walt wanted a voice that sounds English enough to make Karina more dignified, but also American enough to not put off Americans. Walt found the voice in the form of Kathryn Beaumont.

Kathryn Beaumont: I think the most memorable part about working with Disney was how they used actos as a model for the animators. Not only did I voice Karina, I also helped model her in a few scenes. Watching the film now, it's like I'm watching a younger version of myself run around and battling Jack Skellington.

Narrator: When production wrapped up on the Nightmare Before Christmas, Walt couldn't decide on whether to release the film on Halloween or Christmas, so he made a compromise: The film would release around Thanksgiving.

Ollie Johnston: Walt himself wasn't too thrilled with the final product either, he only re-released the film after his death.

Leonard Maltin: When the film first premiered, it was a box office bomb. Not many people praised the film and the critics of 1951 tore it apart for its lackluster plot. Despite this, the film would garner a huge following after its 1974 re-release. A lot of people really enjoy this film, even to this day. Families gather around to watch the film in Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or anytime they want. It's a timeless film that's extremely entertaining.

---

First proposed by animator Norman Ferguson, The Nightmare Before Christmas would be the studio's first Holiday film and also their first semi-original film. Initially set for a 1941 release, difficulties in developing the story caused the film to be pushed back and shelved until 1948, when Walt revived the film alongside Dumbo. The plot went through 2 revisions before the final storyline was set, based off the Christmas poem "The Night Before Christmas", the 1939 booklet "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". There was an internal studio competition to see whether Dumbo or The Nightmare Before Christmas would wrap up production first, ultimately Dumbo was fast-tracked to become the studio's 12th feature while the latter was set for a 1951 release.

On Christmas Eve, a young girl named Karina wishes to catch Santa in the act. Karina falls asleep waiting for Santa and gets woken up by Elfonso, Santa's second in command. Karina and Elfonso travel to the North Pole where the elves reveal that the North Pole has been attacked by the Pumpkin King Jack Skellington. Karina visits Santa and offers help to take down Skellington and save Christmas. Karina and Santa explore Halloween Town and meet the quirky but terrifying residents of Halloween Town, including Professor Spooks, Sally the Stitched Witch, the Zombie Trio and Oogie Boogie the Bogey-man. Karina and Santa spot Jack Skellington commanding the troops of Halloween and take them down with help from the elves. The rest of the film revolves around Karina and Santa saving Christmas by delivering gifts around the world with Ruldoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The film first released in 1951 alongside the animated short "The Walrus and the Carpenter", based off the Lewis Carroll poem of the same name. It wasn't the success the animators nor Walt was hoping for. The film received mixed reactions from audiences but critics practically tore the film apart. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" wouldn't receive a significant following nor re-coup its financial losses until its 1974 and subsequent re-releases.

Release Date: November 20th 1951

Cast:
Kathryn Beaumount (Karina)
Candy Candido (Elfonso, Oogie Boogie) (1)
Jimmy MacDonald, Pinto Colvig and Clarence Nash (Elves) (2)
Bill Thompson (Santa Claus)
J Pat O'Malley (Jack Skellington)
Richard Haydn (Professor Spooks)
Eleanor Audley (Sally)
Ed Wynn, Jerry Colonna and Mel Blanc (The Zombie Trio)

Notable Songs:
Beyond the Laughing Sky (sung by Karina during the film's opening scene) (3)
March of the Halloween Troops (instrumental only, played during the march of Jack's Halloween Troops) (4)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (sung by the Disney Studio Chorus during Rudolph's flight)

(1) Candy Candido's voice is pitched up for Elfonso, but remains unedited for Oogie Boogie
(2) In addition to voicing various elf characters, Jimmy MacDonald also provides the voice for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
(3) Since Beyond the Laughing Sky is here, TTL's Peter Pan will not include the Second Star to the Right
(4) Known IOTL as "March of the Cards/Painting the Roses Red", here only the instrumental part is used

Notes: And here we have the first OTL Non-WDAC film shuffled into TTL'S WDAC. As I mentioned, the plot is a combination of "The Night Before Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Alice in Wonderland". Reception and legacy-wise, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is essentially an analogue to "Alice in Wonderland", most notably bombing in the box office and hated upon release despite being seen as one of Disney's greatest films in his lifetime.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from "The Story Behind Disney's Dark Tale: The Black Cauldron", produced 1990

Narrator: After three consecutive comedic and charming films including "Snow White" and "Dumbo", Walt decided to try something new. With the help of the creative folks at the studio and some inspiration from Welsh mythology, Walt crafted "The Black Cauldron".

Frank Thomas: "The Black Cauldron" was a complete tonal whiplash after the three previous Silver Age films. Here instead of supprotive sidekicks like Rusty from Dumbo, we have all sorts of villainous characters stopping and shocking our heroes. Of course, Ollie and I had tons of fun animating those freaks, all of them made for memorable villains in their own right that's for sure.

Ollie Johnston: The titular Black Cauldron was initially a character itself, acting as the de facto comic relief in an otherwise horror film that provides free reign to the villains. Halfway through, Walt scrapped the initial script and has the storymen refine it so it's more mature and dark. The titular cauldron became the main goal for our heroes and it's really where the story revolved around.

Narrator: To increase the film's tone and ambition, it was decided that all songs written and recorded for the film would be cut.

Frank Thomas: There was the villain song which had vivid visuals and striking lyrics, originally sung by Dame Giragina titled "The Cauldron Song". Ultimately it was cut and it's really a shame to see something so wonderful and vivid being omitted from the final release.

Narrator: Production on "The Black Cauldron" wrapped up in December 1952 and "The Black Cauldron" premiered on February 5th 1953.

Ward Kimball: Many people called this film "Disney's New Folly" when it was first released. They're not entirely wrong, the film performed only so and so financially but crtically? People loved this film, especially its use of strong visuals, excellent characterisation and equally impeccable voice acting.

Leonard Maltin: Because of the film's critical success, it spawned a whole new genre of dark-fantasy animation and media. Films, books and shows we see today all contain elements derived from this very film. Even Disney's later films produced in the 80s had some darker and more mature tones which directly call back to those seen here. "The Black Cauldron" was a risky idea which Walt executed perfectly, and that's why it's still such a classic today.

---

"The Black Cauldron" was the result of Walt's ambition to make a dark fantasy feature. Walt first came across the idea of mythology told through animation when he was selecting music pieces for early production on Fantasia. "Ride of the Valkyries" and "The Pastoral Symphony" were both considered before being omitted from the final product, but this sparked an interest in mythology for Walt. Walt and his team considered adapting the tales of Hercules (which would later become the basis of a 1990s feature), Norse mythology and even Arabian and Chinese folktales. Ultimately Walt settled on Welsh and English myths. Intended for a 1942 or 1943 release, the film's budget and ambition, coupled with World War 2 caused delays in production. The film ended up far behind in production and wouldn't be completed until 1952.

The film starts off with the Welsh legend Lludd ruling over Wales. Lludd and his brother Llefelys soon depart for a journey to France in order to help Llefelys marry the fair princess. In their journey, Lludd comes across the town of London plagued with illnesses and demons. This was the doing of Dame Giragina, a wicked witch who curses London with three deadly plagues and demons before planning to conquer all of the British Isles with the Black Cauldron, which she uses to raise the undead and brew plagues. Lludd and Llefelys must travel through the Dark Lands and face off against demons and the infamous Black Wizard before taking out Giragina, destroy the Black Cauldron and restore peace to London and the Isles.

"The Black Cauldron" premiered on February 5th 1953 alongside the documentary short "Bear Country". With an approximately $3.5 million budget, the film grossed little over $3.75 million, not the big success Walt had hoped for but it wasn't a financial failure either, it performed right in the middle of the road. Critically, the film was met with tremendous praise, mostly for its strong characterization and voice acting, with more than compensated for the film's lack of songs.

Release Date: February 5th 1953 (premiere, February 18th 1953 (general release)

Cast:
Larry Roberts (Lludd)
Robert Ellis (Llefelys)
Eleanor Audley (Dame Giragina)
Jimmy MacDonald (Demons and other creatures) (1)
Candy Candido (the Black Wizard)
Kathryn Beaumount (The Princess) (2)

(1) Jimmy MacDonald only provides voice effects for the demons and other creatures, not actual voice lines
(2) Beaumount only has one to two lines in the entire film

Notes: Since OTL's Chronicles of Prydain (which OTL's Black Cauldron was based off) more or less took cues from Welsh mythology, I based TTL's Black Cauldron off exactly that. Despite me saying that the film doesn't have any songs, its score actually takes cues from both OTL's Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, with a darker tone to fit the film's storyline more

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from an interview with Walt Disney on Disneyland's Opening Day, July 17th 1955

Interviewer: ...and Mr Disney the kids here are equally excited for your next feature as they are for Disneyland.

Walt Disney: Yes indeed they are. In fact the boys over at the studio are working hard on our next feature, which will release this year so I do hope everyone is as excited was we are over at Walt Disney Studios.

---

Taken from "Lion Around: How Disney's Lion King Came to Be", produced 1994

Narrator: Walt Disney had wanted to craft an animal-centric film for a very long time. Ultimately after 15 years of work, the idea finally became reality as "The Lion King".

Joe Grant: During the earliest development stages of "The Lion King", Walt wanted to make "Bambi" and even "Bongo", which was a little story about a circus bear living in the wild. The storymen and I essentially took that concept and crafted an entirely new story based around another species of animals. We were thinking of dogs, cats, bears, a lot of other animals before we settled on lions for the final cut.

Frank Thomas: We wanted to make the animation look as smooth and realistic as possible. Therefore Walt brought in all sorts of animals for reference, except for the lions, we had to go to a zoo for that one.

Ollie Johnston: Even though we did make "Bongo" in the 60s and 70s,we took a lot of inspiration from that and "Bambi" for the main storyline. We made a few drafts for the original dog version back in the 1940s, but ultimately the storymen and Walt felt that the draft lacked charm and was overall boring. That and World War 2 was why we shelved the project until after we did "The Nightmare Before Christmas", when Walt revisited the idea with lions.

Frank Thomas: In the first 1950s draft, Simba initially had parents who raised him in the zoo. There was this one scene where Mufasa causes a stir in the zoo and was shot, which ultimately causes Simba to run away in the first place. We had to cut that scene and Simba's parents in general, as it affected the plot tonally and dragged the film on.

Ward Kimball: I was wondering who would get the juicy job of animating Scar, and then I heard that Walt wanted me to do it. Since I specialised in animating the wackier stuff, animating a semi-realistic lion was pretty challenging.

Leonard Maltin: "The Lion King" is a gorgeous film with amazing animation and story. It's just an entertaining timeless classic that every Disney fan and animation fan in general should watch.

---

Walt had experimented with animals in animation for a very long time, considering his biggest stars were Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Unlike the former trio however, Walt wanted to produce a fully animal-centric feature. Initially considering both "Bongo the Circus Bear" and "Bambi: A Life in the Woods" with the latter even having a few storyboards created, a failure to re-write Bongo and MGM producing their own version of Bambi (1) would scrap Bambi entirely while Bongo was shelved until at least the 1960s. After multiple story meetings, the storymen settled on crafting an original plot which took cues from the former two existing stories.

The main hurdle was what animals would be the stars of this feature. The earliest drafts dating back to 1940 depicted dogs as main characters, with a few early models even appearing in the live-action segments of "The Emperor's New Groove". Walt scrapped these plans as dogs weren't engaging enough for a feature film. On December 7th 1941, the first draft that resembled the final film was finished, this time centered around lions., Unfortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbour happened that same day, causing the film to be shelved until the early 1950s. During production, Walt brought in a few other animals for reference and organised trips to the zoo to observe the lions themselves.

Simba is a young lion cub raised in a small local zoo. The other zoo animals, especially a laidback meekrat named Timon, educate Simba about the differences between zoo life and wildlife. As Simba grows, he gets more adamant about being the "King of the Jungle", ultimately he breaks out his cage with the help of Timon and escapes to the wild, where they meet the lionness Nala. Simba and Nala fall in love and Simba greatly enjoys wildlife until he crosses paths with Scar the vicious tiger. When Scar threatens to kill Nala and Timon and terrorise the wild and possibly the big city after Simba's arrival, Simba must prove himself and his title of "King of the Jungle" by saving the day.

As the initial release window of June 1955 approached, Walt realised that he needed more time to set up the new Cinemascope format in theaters, as some couldn't support the new format at the time. As a solution, Walt delayed the film by a few months and would release two versions of the film: One in Cinemascope and one with normal aspect ratio. "The Lion King" polarised critics when it first released. The film simply couldn't live up to the hype of "The Black Cauldron" before it, and yet it's use of Cinemascope was what made the film stand out and earn its praise. Nowadays, "The Lion King" is a classic in its own right.

Release Date: September 5th 1955

Cast:
Mel Blanc (Simba)
Bill Thompson (Timon)
Barbara Luddy (Nala)
Taylor Holmes (Scar)

Notable Songs:
Bella Notte (sung by an unseen choir during the opening credits and when Simba and Nala fall in love)

(1) Sidney Franklin goes through with the plans of a live-action Bambi film and releases it in either 1938 or 1939.

Notes: I wasn't expecting to be able to get "The Lion King" out this early, considering OTL's version was more or less an original story. TTL's Lion King despite being obviously inferior to what we got IOTL, is still a Disney Classic in its own right, being the substitute and analogue of "Lady and the Tramp". Storywise, it takes cues from "Bongo", "Bambi", OTL's "Lady and the Tramp" and even the original STC's "Lion King". And yes, TTL's Lady and the Tramp would not feature dogs as main characters, or animals at all.

 

[MrCarioca]

Fantasia (1959)​

"Walt Disney's Fantasia, Magnum Opus or Swan Song?" -The Hollywood Reporter, January 15th 1959

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Taken from an episode of "Walt Disney Presents", produced December 1958

Walt Disney: Good evening everybody. Before I start today's episode, I'd like to share with you all our latest feature: Fantasia. Fantasia combines both mirthful music composed by Bach, Mussorgky and Tchaikovsky with the artform of animation. When you watch Fantasia, you'll experience the joy of both music and art. So I invitie you to join in on this new experience and milestone in animation, Fantasia. Now, on with the show!

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Fantasia was easily Walt's most ambitious and riskiest feature. The origins of Fantasia traces all the way back to 1937, when the popularity of Mickey Mouse was starting to decline. To boost Mickey's popularity, Walt decided to produce a deluxe Mickey Mouse short set to Paul Dukas's "L'aprenti Sorcier". Soon, Walt found a collaborator in Leopold Stokowski, whom he had coincidentally met during lunch and who had offered to conduct the short for Walt. Recording sessions with the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra commenced on January 9th 1938. As production on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" continued, Walt realised that there was no way the short alone could ever earn back its budget. After discussions with Stokowski and the studio, it was decided that the short would be expanded and incorporated into a feature film with other segments set to classical music, titled "The Concert Feature".

"The Concert Feature" was initially set for a November 1940 release. However, anger from composer Igor Stravinsky over "The Rite of Spring" and troubled production with "The Pastoral Symphony" caused delays. Ultimately "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" took the 1940 slot with the now complete "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" releasing alongside the film. "The Concert Feature", now re-titled "Fantasia", was now set for a 1942 or 1943 release. However Walt, Stokowski and the storymen at Disney Studios couldn't select the appropiate music pieces in time and couldn't reach a compromise. By then, Stokowski's contract had expired and World War 2 had came to America. "Fantasia" was shelved indefinately while the studio focused on package features.

By 1950, the econimic situation had stabled in the Disney Studio and Walt was ready to return to "Fantasia". Because of Walt's ambition, the skyrocketing budget and production coinciding with other features such as "The Black Cauldron" and "The Lion King", production on "Fantasia" spanned across the entire 1950s decade. The Philadelphia Orchestra returned for a final time to record the last pieces in December 1953, animation work started in Summer 1954 and ended by Christmas 1957 (the film's initial release window), and all remaining work (including live-action sequences) was done by the end of 1958. To familiarise audiences with such a darring film, Mickey Mouse would be a co-host alongside Walt and Leopold Stokowski (1) and Donald Duck would star in Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance". Adn to enhance the viewing experience, Walt decided to film "Fantasia" in the new Technirama 70mm format, dubbed "Fantasma 70" in advertisments (2).

For the music segments itself, many pieces were thrown back and forth, notable examples include "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Adventures in a Perambulator". Ultimately Walt settled on these eight pieces:

Fantasia starts with Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", depicting the instruments of the orchestra merging and becoming one with light and color. Next up was Tchaikosvky's "The Nutcracker Suite", pixies and flowers come to life and dance within nature, all while the seasons rapidly change. The third and arguably most famous segment was Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance", a re-telling of Noah's Ark with Donald Duck as the main star. Mussorgky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" would be the last segment before the intermission, it depicts painting and sculptures coming to life in both a comical yet serious tone.

Fantasia resumes after the intermission "Meet the Soundtrack" with its fifth segment "Danse Baccahnale" and "Night on Bald Mountain". Skeletons and demons come to life and party before Chernabog the God of Evil summons ghouls and commands the demons to his liking. Tchaikovsky returns with "Sleeping Beauty Waltz", a medival couple falls in love before being torn apart by war between both kingdoms. (Funnily enough, Disney would make a Sleeping Beauty Feature only a few decades later) Fantasia then ends with its most ambitious and artistic segment "The Firebird Suite" by Igor Stravinsky, depicting the Spring Sprite experiencing birth, life, death and renewal all within the four seasons.

To advertise Fantasia, Walt employed the use of television, assuring audiences that this was no package film. After 2 decades of work, Fantasia premiered in both Broadway Theatre and Radio City Music Hall on January 29th and February 1st respectively. Almost immediately Fantasia was met with near universal praise, mostly coming from the gorgeous visuals and the performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra. With a final budget of $6 million, the film would run for another 4 months thanks to its increasing popularity, earning a total of $5.5 million in its initial run. Fantasia was a success, yet it was a box office bomb. Today, Fantasia is seen as Walt's crowning achievement.

Release Date: January 29th 1959 (Broadway Theatre premiere), February 1st 1959 (Radio City Music Hall premiere)

Cast:
Walt Disney (Himself)
Jimmy MacDonald (Mickey Mouse)
Leopold Stokowski (Himself)

(1) Walt was able to get Stokowski back for Fantasia in 1957 as a co-host.
(2) An analogue to OTL's Fantasound

Notes: TTL's Fantasia is more or less the same as OTL reputation-wise. I decided to swap out "The Rite of Spring" due to Igor Stravinsky's disapproval of said segment IOTL, "Dance of the Hours" and "The Pastoral Symphony", with the latter being too long for my tastes IOTL. I decided to include "Pictures in an Exhibition" as it was considered IOTL and I even threw in "Sleeping Beauty Waltz". Like OTL's counterpart and Sleeping Beauty, the budget of Fantasia was simply too high for it to ever re-coup its losses, at least until its subsequent re-releases, yet it was a success upon release and still is seen as Disney's crown jewel in his lifetime.

 

[MrCarioca]

Taken from "You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan", produced 1998

Leonard Maltin: Animation was really the ideal medium for "Peter Pan". Here you could aniamte and imagine the character flying and all the whimsy of Neverland that a live-action film couldn't replicate.

Narrator: Walt Disney started development on "Peter Pan" after the release of "the Little Mermaid". Here are some never-before seen original drafts and concept art, dating back to 1939. These drawings were inspired by the Little Mermaid and later "Robin Hood". However, the sheer complexity of the project was enough for Walt to scrap "Peter Pan". It would not be revived until the late 1950s, when Walt decided to use the new Xerox method to bring Peter Pan to life.

Narrator: To cast the voices of Peter Pan, Wendy and Captain Hook. The voices of Tommy Kirk, Hayley Mills and Hans Conried were chosen.

Leonard Maltin: Hans Conried was sort of inspired casting, he was a prominent actor through the 1950s and who Walt considered voicing Scar in "the Lion King". In a way I guess the whole idea came full circle. Conried also voiced Mr Darling the father, keeping the tradition of the original play.

Frank Thomas: I was wondering who would be the one to animate Captain Hook, and then I heard Walt wanted me to do it. You see, Hook was a more elegant character compared to Peter Pan. Full of manners, etiquette, all sorts of fancy stuff. And yet he's the villain of the story, that's why I had so much fun drawing and sketching Hook, trying to figure out what fancy gestures Hook could do

Fred Moore (1): I was in charge of animating Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell was visualised as a ball of light who moved around in the background, but in animation we couldn't animate just a ball of light and call it a pixie. I got creative a designed a new character for Tinker Bell, she was this little pixie, jealous of other girls and was also pretty petty herself.

Leonard Maltin: Tinker Bell was originally a mute character, but Kathryn Beaumont, one of the voices who auditioned to be Wendy was so memorable to Walt, that he ultimately casted her as Tinker Bell. There was a rumour that Tinker Bell was modeled after Marilyn Monroe, which was a story most people believed. However this wasn't really factual, considering the family friendly image Walt had to keep for Peter Pan.

Narrator: "Peter Pan" released on January 25th 1961, sadly audiences didn't like nor enjoy the film.

Leonard Maltin: Because of the largely inferior Xerox animation style, most people didn't like watching the film. They found the animation and backgrounds too scratchy and ugly, couple that and criticisms towards the characters themselves, the film sadly failed critically despite being a box office success. And yet today, many people like it enough for the film to be a classic.

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The production on Walt's version of "Peter Pan" was troubled to say the least. First conceived in 1935 as the studio's second feature, issues with developing a coherent story, the sheer complexity of Neverland and its characters, plus the unlikability of the title character himself caused the film to be pushed down to the studio's third or fourth film, intended to release in the 1940s. Ultimately Walt shelved the film due to the aforementioned issues plus the onset of World War 2. By 1957, Walt was looking for new material to adapt and chose to revive "Peter Pan". Due to development of Fantasia, the new Xerox method, albeit inferior, was used to animate Peter Pan. Despite approving this decision, Walt was never a fan of the Xerox method, claiming the animation of Peter Pan and the later film to be "scratchy and ugly".

The film starts with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell arriving at the Darling household to take the eldest child, Wendy Darling to Neverland. Wendy convinces Peter to take her brothers John and Michael as well as the dog Nana along. When they arrive at Neverland, they are immediately attacked by Peter's nemesis Captain Hook. Peter instructs Tinker Bell to lead Wendy to Neverland, yet she flies away and instructs the Lost Boys (Peter's men and orphaned children) to shoot Wendy down. Peter arrives just in time and banishes Tinker Bell for a week, he brings Wendy and Nana to see the mermaids while the Lost Boys invite John and Michael to a make-believe dinner. After a run-in with Hook and his lackey Mr Smee in Mermaid Lagoon, Hook devises a plan to get the jealous Tinker Bell to reveal Peter's hideout. Hook breaking into Peter's hideout to capture the Lost Boys and plants a bomb in Peter's hideout to kill him. Tinker Bell manages to warn Peter just in time for him to rush to Hook's pirate ship and rescue everyone before it's too late.

"Peter Pan" premiered on January 25th 1961. While its box office returns were successful enough to re-coup the losses of "Fantasia", its reception was particularly negative. Audiences liked the Xerox style well enough, but critics tore it apart, noting the film's ugly animation and less than stylish backgrounds, and this was right after the release and success of "Fantasia". The design of the mermaids and Tinker Bell, credited to Fred Moore (1), was criticised and panned for being too revealing. Lastly, Peter himself was noted to be an unlikeable protagonist, with fans of the film today generally rooting for Captain Hook instead. The film’s reception would improve through its 1970s-80s re-releases, but Walt was dismayed by the initial reviews of Peter Pan and never really brought it up again in his lifetime.

Release Date: January 25th 1961

Cast:
Tommy Kirk (Peter Pan)
Hayley Mills (Wendy)
Kevin Corcoran (John)
Matthew Garber (Michael)
Kathryn Beaumont (Tinker Bell, Mermaids)
Lisa Davis (Ms Darling)
Hans Conried (Captain Hook, Mr Darling)
Bill Thompson (Mr Smee, Pirate Crew)
Pinto Colvig, Jimmy MacDonald (Pirate Crew)

Notable Songs:
You Can Fly (Sung by an unseen choir during the flight to Neverland)
Never Smile at a Crocodile (Sung by Mr Smee and the Pirate Crew in the background during Tick Tock’s first appearance) (2)
The Pirate Song (Sung by the Pirates to persuade Wendy and the Lost Boys to join their crew) (2)
Your Mother and Mine (Sung by Wendy to comfort John and Michael)

(1) Fred Moore survives the car crash
(2) Both are deleted songs from OTL

Notes: Storywise, Peter Pan here is mostly the same. I decided to exclude the Native Americans for obvious reasons, kept the idea of Nana joining the trip to Neverland and also gave Tinker Bell voice lines. I also kept Conried and Thompson as Hook and Smee respectively, simply because I couldn’t imagine anyone else voicing the two. The negative reception on Peter Pan will mark the end of the Silver Age. Starting from 1963, we’ll be heading for a Disney Dark Age so stay tuned for what the 60s, 70s and the 80s will offer.