PREFACE
I'm always interested in how people perceive art. I recall I once wrote a paper on Salvador Dalf during high school.He was one of the first artists whose work I liked andfelt some connection to.For my research, I had a bunch of Dalf books spread out all over our kitchen table. I loved the melting clocks, giant eyeballs, and the confusing abstract imagery.
My very sweetand very funny grandmother, who wasbornin Italy in l902, sat with me at the kitchen table while I showed her what I was working on. I adored my grandmother, who wasan open-minded and curious woman. Shewasa realrock for me.
She looked at page after page of the books I showed her. She kept looking and turning the pages. She didn't dismiss anything. She took it all in.
Finally, she said, "What sort of mind thinks of this?"
And that's when it occurred to me that my affection for Dalf might be outside of the ordinary.
Years later, when I was leading Disney Animation, I was delighted to find that Dalf andWalt Disney had been both creative collaborators and friends.It was a complete surprise to me because I. like so many people, had a fairly singular view of Walt that centered on his American Main Street aesthetic.
It therefore makes sense that this connection of Dalf with Disney typically turns heads and raises eyebrows-because it belies the conventional wisdom that a man of Walt's broad popularity just couldn't also be intellectual, or sophisticated, or an important artist. But Walt. it turns out. frequently sought out who might be considered unusual collaborators.
For example, English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley worked for Walt on a script for a film called AliceandtheMysterious Mr. Carroll. Another, American_ artist and muralist Thomas Hart Benton, developed an early version of Davy Crockett for Disney.For Fantasia, Walt brought German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter Oskar Fischinger to the studio.
Even aerospace engineer and space architect Wernher von Braun developed a series of television programs for Walt in the I950s.Walt's curiosity and desire to collaborate with great minds was vast.
By thetime Dalf came to the studio in 1945 to work on what would become Destina, Walt had brought the surrealist possibilities of animation to lifein the "Pink ElephantsonParade"sequence in Dumbo and the Oscar-winning short DerFuehrer's Face. Aherward, surreal and fantastic animation would continue to be featured in projectssuch as TheThreeCaballeros,MelodyTime, and AliceinWonderland.
The marriage of Dalf's highly imaginative, unusual, and grandiose visual world withthe filmmaking touch of Disney's seemed to fit perfectly with Walt's notion
that "Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive."
After their initial meeting, Dalf and Disney quickly developed a productive working relationship and ease of collaboration.Work between the two moved smoothly, with little conflict reported between them.Walt's typical demand for absolutecreative control changed, and-for the first time-his studio staff felt the influence of other artistic forces. Walt's affection for Dalf was out of the ordinary, too.
Sadly, the realities of the film business and the studio's need for more surefire commercial success spelled the end of the Destina project.Walt later said that it was "no fault of Dalf's that the project was not completed-it was simply a case of policy changes in our distribution plans."
It all might have just been an obscure and curious footnote in Disney history, if not for Walt's nephew and the godfather of the renaissance of Disney animation, Roy E. Disney. His passion for the art of animation, understanding of the importance of the Dalf work that remained archived at the studio-and most of all. commitment (much like his uncle's) and belief that, in some cases, profitability cannot be the sole motivation for filmmaking-were all vital.
Completing this long-agovision of two artistic giants, and getting the story of its making and the stunning artwork created for it in front of the public, became a passionate enthusiasm of Roy's, and in many ways is emblematic of the culture of the Animation division at the Walt Disney St_udios under his stewardship.
It was also a point of great controversy. Just as Walt had been encouraged to shut the project down, Roy was under great pressure from corporate forces to do the same years later.
In this volume, Dave Bossert has recounted the full arc of the creation of this one-of-a-kind film, plus covered the talents, personalities, and relationships that weave through that story from the 1940s to today. For animation fans, it is no surprise-and for students it should be a lesson-that there is no better source for what we were up to in the latter era of Disney Animation than Dave Bossert.As Roy E.Disney's trusted colleague and a veteran of countless films, Dave has the clearest POV (point of view) on all things Disney Animation of anyone I know.
I think that aher reading this authoritative and entertaining work, my grandmothermighthave a clearer answer toher question 'What sort of mindthinks of this?"
Thomas Schumacher President, The
WaLt Disney
Theatrical
Group New York, NY February 2015