The Nine Disney Animated Masterpieces
Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty
Time for bed and this household’s denizens settle in for the night: Geppetto under a beautifully quilted coverlet, Figaro alongside in his own little bed with its hand-carved headboard depicting an angelic haloed kitten praying and Cleo in her fishbowl’s...
Geppetto now applies the finishing touch to his new marionette: biting his tongue with concentration, he paints a wide cheerful smile across Pinocchio’s face. However, I learned early on when building a puppet “the eyes have it”, as the saying...
Having taken us into his confidence and established the story as a flashback that will corroborate the efficacy of wishing upon a star, Jiminy Cricket now launches into his narration and pries open that big book. When the end paper...
With these difficulties of design and story finally resolved, full animation on Pinocchio resumed in September of 1938. The film’s marvelous visual intricacy is due in large part to the further inspirational graphic explorations of two veterans of classic European...
Evolution of the puppet’s personality paralleled the development of his visual design. In Collodi’s book, Pinocchio, which translates as “pine eye”, is an obnoxious devious bratty little troublemaker. At Walt’s own urging, the storymen had already re-conceived him as closer...
Author of novels, short stories, plays, even an opera, Carlo Lorenzini (1826-1890) was born in Florence, Italy, but moved to Tuscany in order to attend elementary school there in the little town of Collodi. He assumed the town’s name as...
“What they can’t do these days!” exclaims Jiminy Cricket upon surreptitiously witnessing the Blue Fairy wave her sparkling wand and bring a wooden puppet to life. His direct address from the screen to the film’s viewers, almost unprecedented in animated...
This period was the high point of Walt’s involvement with animation. He was healthy, eager, endlessly creative and completely consumed. This was far more than a job. He lived these pictures every minute of the day, thinking deeply into every...
Walt Disney’s thorough undivided and detailed attention to any particular project – what is today called “micromanagement” – seems to have been the determining factor in that project’s artistic quality. Some would assert that Walt’s influence was limited mainly to...
