The Walt Disney Company is uniquely tied to family entertainment and is thus as closely protected by armies of public relations troops, this despite having for decades produced R-rated films and other adult entertainment by subsidiaries such as Miramax and Touchstone studios. Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse are icons of wholesomeness and the company’s protectiveness of its family friendly image makes the release of three recent surprisingly honest documentaries that are about periods of the company’s history and the gifted people who worked in it. They cover decades from the 1940s, into the 1990s and shed bright light on the sometimes tortured creative process that has resulted in so much brilliant entertainment.
Walt and El Grupo (2008) As the US inched toward involvement in World War II, the government asked Walt Disney to undertake a goodwill tour to South America which was being wooed by both the Allies and Axis countries. With his wife Doris and a small group of his most talented artists, Disney embarked on a months-long tour starting in Brazil and continuing on to other countries including Argentina and Chile. Made with the cooperation of the Disney family and including an artfully woven together collection of color film footage, stills and other artifacts, the film evokes the “grupo’s” immersion in the Latin culture and natural beauty of the continent. Letters sent to and from the group’s family members describe experience of cross cultural discovery and the missing of separated husbands, wives and children. At the center of course is the charismatic Disney, whose arrival at various countries was a cause for excitement and celebration. The man who created Mickey Mouse and other internationally beloved characters brought his down-to-earth American personality and his curiosity about their countries to a tour that really was beneficial in strengthening relations with Latin American neighbors. Two animated films eventually came out of the tour, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, the uneven nature of which reflected the difficulty of the group’s translating their own immersion in the colorful cultures in a way the Disney animators at home could understand. Though it lags in pace at times, this is an important story about communication across borders and cultures and how American entertainment could serve an ambassadorial purpose at a crucial historical moment. Available on Netflix streaming.
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story (2009) Disney animated features had, from Snow White on, featured musical numbers that became classics. Two men, Robert and Richard Sherman, or Bob and Dick, became the studio’s in-house composers during the 1960s and beyond. Their greatest achievement, the songs of Mary Poppins, were the soundtrack of a generation of pre-teen Baby Boomers. Son of a songwriter who told his sons to make their music “simple, singable and sincere,” they fit perfectly in the Disney vision of all ages appeal. Younger brother Dick, the instinctive composer of merry music was balanced by Bob’s more adult and downbeat personality and his lyrics were often characterized by a romantic longing and just a streak of melancholy that kept the music from becoming too saccharine and sentimental. Though their composing was often quickly produced, it was also characterized by conflict that eventually resulted in Bob’s separating himself from his brother-partner, not unlike the breakups of rock band members who are too close for comfort. Watching the film was both a revelation about the creative process in this era of Disney’s final decade and a bit of trip through my childhood’s best movie memories. Available on Netflix streaming.
Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009) After Disney’s passing in 1966, the company soldiered on without its namesake visionary and creative sparkplug, producing live and animated features that raised the question of whether the legacy of its founding genius could be perpetuated beyond his death. The dwindling animation department’s output needed a charge and the documentary tells the tale of how the right people were hired to turn the company around and revive the brilliant animation by, ironically, giving up on trying to guess “what would Walt think of this?” that kept the studio backward looking instead of creating for a new day. The main players in the film are Roy Disney, Walt’s nephew and keeper of the family heritage who knew that a change was necessary to return the company to greatness. The hiring of Michael Eisner from Paramount as CEO and Jeffrey Katzenberg to oversee filmmaking signaled the slow turnaround of the ship that would result in Disney’s becoming one of the world’s largest media companies and a series of acclaimed animated films. Starting with The Little Mermaid, and continuing onto Beauty and the Beast, Alladin and The Lion King, the Disney brand was restored as the premier animation studio. But as with the Sherman brothers, brilliant art arose out of conflict and the film doesn’t stint from tracing the acrimony, jealousy and human pettiness that eventually brought an end to the creative era. Beyond the film’s scope lies the next chapter, of how Pixar inherited the mantle of Disney’s creative vision (told mostly in The Pixar Story and available as part of the special features on the Wall-E DVD ). Available as disc rental from Netflix.
The three film’s candid stories, rather than taint the Disney image, provide a more rounded and realistic perspective on the hard work and difficult human struggles that were part of achieving the Disney “magic.”
