Progress City, U.S.A.

So, here’s something that I just found out.

While doing a little bit of fact-checking for my recent spiel about the 2003 Disney short Destino, I found that it was suddenly and mysteriously absent from Disney’s home video release slate. The film had previously been announced as part of this November’s Walt Disney Treasures Wave VIII release:

“Destino,” began in 1946 as a collaboration between Walt Disney and the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali. A first-hand example of Disney’s interest in avant garde and experimental work in animation, “Destino” was to be awash with Dali’s iconic melting clocks, marching ants and floating eyeballs. However, “Destino” was not completed at that time. In 2003 it was rediscovered by Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, who took on the challenge of bringing the creation of these two great artists to fruition. In addition to the completed “Destino”, this exciting addition to the Walt Disney Treasures line also includes an all-new feature-length documentary that examines the surprising partnership between Dali and Disney plus two new featurettes; “The Disney That Almost Was,” an examination of the studio’s unfinished projects; and “Encounters with Walt,” which addresses the surprisingly diverse group of celebrities and artists who were attracted to Walt Disney’s early work.

Well, it seems that Disney Home Video has updated their press release and Destino is nowhere to be found. The two other planned releases, The Chronological Donald, Volume Four and Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow, remain on target for their November 11th debut. So what happened to Destino?

Judging from statements by the host of the Treasures series, Leonard Maltin, it appears that early fan concerns were correct and there just wasn’t enough material present for this title to support a 2-disc Treasures release. Destino had originally been planned as a one disc “Legacy Series” release, only to be promoted to the Treasures line when the “Legacy” brand was abandoned. Destino was an odd fit for the Treasures line, and apparently despite the fact that the supplemental materials they announced sound fascinating, it all wasn’t enough to wrap a 2-disc DVD set around a six minute animated short.

Luckily, Maltin has been quoted as saying that Destino will receive its home video release in a one disc format later this year. This is great news as the short definitely deserves its time in the spotlight and I’ve been eager to get a copy for years. I only hope they take care to include all the planned extras from this set; they all sound very interesting.

In the meantime, Treasures fans need not despair - according to Maltin, a replacement release, centered around Annette Funicello, will readied in time for November. The once imperiled DVD line looks to continue next year, as well; Maltin hopes for a release of Zorro episodes in 2009.

Progress City has ground to a standstill over the last several weeks as I’ve traipsed up and down the eastern seaboard on various adventures. The true Disney scholar, however, is never off duty, and I was thankfully able to get my Disneyana fix on several occasions during a week-long stay in New York City.

Our first encounter was at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, which is hosting a traveling exhibition of illustration art to celebrate the recent 65th anniversary of the Little Golden Books series. The exhibit featured the work of several artists with Disney ties, most notably Swedish illustrator Gustaf Tenggren and Disney legend Mary Blair.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the only posted prohibition was on the use of camera flashes, someone swooped down on my camera and I and put the nix on my photography before I could get any good pictures of the amazing Tenggren artwork or the whimsical Blair pieces.

The exhibit was small but fascinating; a variety of artists were represented and many of their most famous works were covered. Personally, I had no idea that Tenggren had illustrated the best-selling Poky Little Puppy.

From Mary Blair’s illustrations for the classic Little Golden Book I Can Fly

Another museum, another Disney encounter: MoMA is hosting an exhibition of art and media by renowned surrealist Salvador Dalí. Dalí: Painting and Film, which runs until September 15th, covers the entire span of Dalí’s career, but of interest to us is a very unique period in 1945-46 when Dalí found himself in California working for Walt Disney. Thankfully, MoMA devoted an entire section of the exhibit to their collaboration, Destino.

Dalí was an unconventional talent, to say the least, and many might be surprised to find that he had ties to the Disney Studios. Yet Dalí was an avid fan of Disney’s films and, after meeting at a party at Jack Warner’s house, Dalí came to the studio to work on Destino.

Dalí spent eight months at the studio, working with artist John Hench on storyboards and concepts for various sequences. According to Hench, Dalí would come up with the idea for a sequence or one of his trademark visual matches and it was up to Hench to help link those scenes within the larger work so that the transition between sequences would not be too jarring.

Storyboard sketches for the baseball sequence

Eventually a tale emerged of love lost and found, with many of Dalí’s trademark images in place and featuring a ballet that used baseball as a metaphor for love. Disney’s plan was to pair the animation with vocalist Dora Luz’s performance of Armando Dominguez’s Spanish-language ballad Destino for inclusion in a future package feature along the lines of Make Mine Music or Melody Time.

Sadly, the Disney Studios was suffering financially both during and immediately after World War II, and the package features were no longer profitable or desirable. By 1950, Disney would return to narrative features with Cinderella; there was neither money nor need for Destino. Hench tried to convince Walt to continue funding the project; 15 seconds of animation were completed to try and pique Walt’s interest. While Walt was still intrigued by the project, the money wasn’t there and so Walt canceled production. According to Hench, in later years Walt would regret that they had abandoned the short. Yet Destino remained unfinished, and most animation scholars assumed that it was lost for all time.

A still from the fifteen seconds of animation completed for Destino in 1946

Years passed. In 1999 while working on Fantasia 2000, Roy E. Disney began to consider the possibility of completing Destino. Allegedly working in part behind the back of Disney’s then-CEO Michael Eisner, Roy Disney delegated the project to French animator Dominique Monfrey and the animation staff of Disney Studios France. With the intent of including the short in another Fantasia sequel, animators began to piece together Dalí’s notes and storyboards. John Hench, still working with Disney fifty-odd years later, was able to help interpret the notes and explain Dalí’s visual metaphors. When plans for Fantasia 2006 fell through, it was decided to release Destino as a short. The film finally premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in the summer of 2003 - 58 years after it was greenlit.

Still from the completed Destino

While Dalí’s art was impressive, I found the highlight of the exhibit to be the completed Destino itself, which aired continuously on one of the walls of the gallery. I’ve wanted to see the short for five years now to no avail, so the MoMA gallery was a fantastic setting and occasion to finally sit and watch it.

The short was worthy of the acclaim it has garnered since its release; its animation manages to be both modern and classical at the same time, and although I quibble slightly with the decision to incorporate computer animation I feel that it was as effectively done as possible. The character animation is intriguing, as it tries to find a medium ground between Disney and Dalí’s styles - the result is vaguely reminiscent of Aeon Flux. I’ll admit that I’m an easy audience - I got chills at the simple title card, which consisted merely of Dalí and Disney’s trademark signatures side by side. All in all, a good day at the museum.

Kronos, God of Time, in this conceptual painting for Destino

From culture to commerce - our last stop on our New York tour:

This place is surreal. You go straight from midtown Manhattan into some Disney marketing fever-dream, and before long you feel you’re right on the shores of Lake Buena Vista. Sitting on Fifth Avenue near its intersection with 55th Street, the World of Disney has three floors of Disney merchandise divided into various departments. The selection isn’t too much different from what used to be found at the typical Disney Store, and sadly their selection of new Walt Disney World merchandise was nonexistent. It was nice to soak up the atmosphere a bit, though, and there was a selection of NYC-specific Disney merchandise.

Scary.

As the book and video selection wasn’t as fleshed out as I’d like, the highlight for me was the Art of Disney gallery on the third floor. The typical selection of figurines and fine art was present, and although their in-stock poster selection was disappointing they did have one of the “print on demand” kiosks. Having not seen one of these in action before, I was a little too excited at the variety of old attraction posters they’ve made available via this service. This won’t be good news for future paychecks. They also had these amusing fine-art pieces on show, which I hadn’t seen before:

The store was a nice slice of Disneyana and they even had a room where kids could get their pictures taken with costumed characters. Donald was walking around in his NYFD uniform, which was a little weird, but whatever.

So that’s it - New York City for the Disney obsessive. As I said to Teddi when we were having Bastille Day dinner in a French restaurant, “this is almost just like being in the real EPCOT!” She tolerates me - it’s cute.

Till next time…

Walt Disney Pictures recently released the first official promotional image for its upcoming CG-animated film Bolt. The film, set to be released on November 26th, 2008, emerges from a troubled development process and it appears that new director Chris Williams and team have completely reworked the design of the film since the departure of former director Chris Sanders. This shift has caused something of a ruckus in the animation community, with some Sanders fans incensed at the alteration of his very personal project and others insisting that fans keep the faith with John Lasseter and the Disney “Story Trust”.

I have mixed feelings on the issue, many of which are caused by a general lack of knowledge as to what happened to cause Sanders’ departure. Lasseter has intimated in interviews that Sanders was either unable or unwilling to work within the framework of the Story Trust to resolve story problems with the film. Without knowing specifics of these problems, it’s hard to tell how severe they were or how much stemmed from disagreements in tone. Rumors trickle out that it was thought that the film was “too quirky for its own good” and that Lasseter was not a fan of Sanders’ trademark wackiness.

While I certainly have faith in Lasseter’s story sensibilities, and the notoriously individualistic Brad Bird has shown that it’s possible for vocal directors to work within Pixar’s collaborative style, I am a fan of Sanders’ quirkiness and find his voice and style to be both interesting and valuable. Lilo and Stich was a breath of fresh air for animation fans, and a rare bright spot in a very dark time for Disney watchers. Bolt, formerly titled American Dog, was Sanders’ pet project and brainchild, and it’s upsetting to see a project taken from its creator given Pixar’s aspirations to a “director-driven” system.

For me, the question is not whether the film will be good or not - I too have faith in the new Story Trust and am sure this will be no Chicken Little - or whether Sanders’ departure dooms the film. After all, Lasseter took Jan Pinkava off of Ratatouille and that became a masterpiece; directors were also pulled off of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Kingdom of the Sun (which became the highly enjoyable though lightweight The Emperor’s New Groove). My question, as I look at the very homogenized design in the publicity still, is whether there’s room for distinctive or unique artistic visions in the framework of Disney Feature Animation.

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