The Birth of a New Icon
In 65 years, Walt Disney had numerous credits and achievements to his name: the creator of Mickey Mouse, the visionary behind feature - length animated films, the winner of 22 Oscars from 59 nominations, which made him the most awarded and nominated person in Oscars history, the mastermind behind Disneyland. And this is just a taste of his 40 year career. And yet, two things in his life meant more to him than all the rest of it put together. Sharon and Diane, his daughters. Despite the fame and success his job gave him, it never stopped him from taking his role as a father incredibly seriously. Apparently, he adored his girls as much as they adored him. He and his wife, Lilian kept his daughters completely out of the public eye, such was their desperation for the girls to have as normal an upbringing as possible. And in a curious twist, it was Walt devotion to his children which would inspire two of his most beloved works.
One of the girls’ favourite things was reading, especially Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers and Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. And when Walt discovered this, he promised them that the Disney studio would adapt both novels one day; and he spent TWENTY YEARS trying to fulfil that promise. And the “Best Father” Award goes to…
In 1938, Walt expressed interest in getting film rights to Winnie the Pooh from A. A. Milne, but was bluntly turned down. Milne had sold the American and Canadian TV and merchandising rights to producer and licencing pioneer Stephen Slesinger, who feared, rightly, that a Disney animated film might monopolise the brand. After Slesinger died in 1953, and Milne three years later, Walt tried his luck again, Slesinger’s widow finally gave him the film rights in June 1961, and he immediately started planning the film.
Perennial Disney collaborators Larry Clemons and Ken Anderson were assigned to fleshing out a script and storyboarding potential sequences, but later, when they showed two thirds of those storyboards to Walt, Walt remembered an inescapable fact that this book was much less well known in America than in Britain and Europe. So, fearing that America wouldn’t warm to a new property, Walt decided to shelved the plans for a future film and split the project into three animated shorts to be played as featurettes before Disney live - action films. By introducing Pooh and his friends through shorts, Walt would then feel better about a future full - length film. And, personally, knowing what I know now, it breaks my heart that he never lived to see that day.
THE STORY
Our first story begins with the narrator introducing us to Winnie the Pooh, or Pooh for short, who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood under the name of Sanders, which means he has the name over the door in gold letters and lives under it. We see him doing his “stoutness” exercise and upon finishing that, he hears a bee buzzing around his head before he sees it flying back to its tree. He attempts to raid the hive, but fails miserably. So he goes to vist his friend Rabbit, eats him out of house and home, and gets stuck in Rabbit’s front door.
Our second story begins when the east wind trades places with the west wind, and a very blustery day hits the Hundred Acre Wood, in which Owl’s tree is blown over and his house destroyed so, a new house must be found for him. Then the blustery day turns into a blustery night, which then sees Pooh united with one of the Wood’s most beloved inhabitants, Tigger, who warns Pooh about Heffalumps and Woozles who might try stealing his honey. Then the blustery night turns into a rainy night during which Pooh dreams about having to protect his honey, which then develops into a flood all over the place.
Our final story finds Rabbit getting increasingly tired of Tigger’s bouncing, so he, Pooh and Piglet make a plan to “unbounce” him, which culminates with Tigger getting stuck up a tree.
******************
This brings us to the late 70s and a time when the studio was still pretty anxious about releasing new animated films. Despite the success of Robin Hood, the big guns at Disney decided to play it safe and go back to the inexpensive package films of the 40s. By stitching three shorts together, they were able to keep costs to a bare minimum.
For Pooh’s voice, Walt turned to iconic Disney voice over artist Sterling Holloway. As the illustrations by E.H. Shepherd in Milne’s books were considered iconic in the UK and Europe, Walt instructed his people to keep their character designs consistent with Shepherd, while also in line with typical Disney animation style. Pooh’s red shirt was adopted from Slesinger’s products and a new Disney mascot was born.
Walt brought back the Sherman Brothers to write the music for all three shorts, and fie tracks were crafted, including a theme song which quickly became synonymous with Disney’s whole Winnie the Pooh brand. For the instrumental score, Buddy Baker drew a lot of inspiration from Peter & the Wolf by Prokofiev and assigned each character an instrument in the orchestra; Pooh had the baritone horn; Eeyore, the bass clarinet; Rabbit, the oboe; Kanga, the flute; Roo, the piccolo; Owl, the horn. Oddly, Milne wrote a collection of songs in the books, but I suppose the Sherman Brothers thought they could do better or something.
Then the shorts were all linked together through being framed within the same book, much to the chagrin of Milne purists who know that such a book does not exist. We open on a live - action bedroom and enter into the animated world of that book. And throughout the shorts there are several occasions on which the animation goes meta and interacts with the text on the pages of the book, which further connects the framing device.
MY VERDICT
There are diehard fans of the novels who think this film is a bastardisation. Personally I find it to be charming, silly, sweet and a timeless classic. And I’m a diehard fan of the novels too.
Is the Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh a Disney Classic? This film proved once again that animation was the nerve centre of the Disney studio and, while it’s easy to dismiss as another cheap package film, it’s impossible not to enjoy. Plus it cemented Pooh as a Disney icon, so I would certainly call it a Disney Classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment