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Credit: Inside the MagicThe Walt Disney Company is at a turning point. Once an entertainment behemoth, things like Disney animated films and Marvel superhero blockbusters are falling short at the box office, chipping away at the steadfast hold the House of Mouse has had on the pop culture canon for years.
Walt’s business was built on animation, but reports find that the material that gave the studio its foundation has been destroyed… by none other than the animators themselves.
Disney animated films have been around for decades and have given adults and children a plethora of adventures to be part of. From the bewitching tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to the ice world of Arendelle in Frozen (2013) to the magical origin story of the Wishing Star in the upcoming centennial movie Wish (2023), audiences have been whisked far and wide, under the sea and above the clouds.
At present, though, the cornerstone of family-friendly entertainment that Disney has established itself as being since even before Snow White, with the Alice Comedies and Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928), is at risk. Recent flops like Strange World (2022) and the Disney and Pixar Animation Toy Story spinoff, Lightyear (2022), have called into question Disney’s storytelling, with the latest Pixar movie Elemental (2023) also proving troublesome at the box office.
After 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, which marked the studio’s last 2-D movie, Disney animated films have transitioned into computer-generated 3-D animation (Wish will be unique in the way it will feature a hybrid animated style). What was once sketched out, hand-drawn on paper, is now created through computer-generated technology, which means the handling and saving of this vital work is much easier all around.
Back in the 1930s and 40s, when Disney animators used animation canvases to create the much-beloved stories we know and love today, the drawing of these characters and the scenes they inhabit was a much riskier process. But, it wouldn’t be workplace accidents that would cause damage to the now-timeless pieces of art, but the workers themselves.
Arthur “Art” Stevens was a producer at Walt Disney Productions and started his career at the Mouse House inbetweening — the process of animating in-between scenes — for the 1940 classic movie Fantasia (1940). Before his directing work on the Disney movie The Rescuers (1977) and The Fox and the Hound (1981), Stevens received his first screen credit as a character animator for Peter Pan (1953).
The late artist once revealed that those working on Disney animated films would toss canvases to the ground once they had finished with them, even going so far as to use the work to slide around the studio. The years of these animators destroying their own work has left a gaping hole in Disney’s heart — over 95% of the animation, the vintage canvases that animators threw to the ground and stood upon, has been lost and is unlikely to be restored.
There have been efforts to restore damaged animation film cels, including a conservation movement researching the material in which Disney animators inked their work in order to uncover the best way to repair it.
It is easy to be frustrated at the lack of care these animators showed something that has become such an integral part of popular culture and people’s lives, but, alas, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
And speaking of Disney animated films, the copyright for the Steamboat Willie incarnation of Mickey Mouse is soon set to expire. January 2024 will see Steamboat Willie enter the public domain in the United States, and while the trademark will remain with The Walt Disney Company, the loss of the character from Disney’s complete grasp will be a significant moment in history.
What do you think of this history of Disney animated films? Do you think Disney animation should have been treated more carefully? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!