The Walt Disney Family Museum
Asheley Gao
The
opening ceremony of 2012 Summer Olympics showed a great chunk of time to
British children’s literature by creating an epic battle between the inflatable
representations of villains and dozens of flying, identical Mary Poppins. As if a
thirty-foot tall Lord Voldemort is not scary enough, The Queen of Hearts,
Captain Hook and Cruella de Vil joint forces to haunt the dreams of the poor
children who live in the hospital. Even though the director of the opening
ceremony, Danny Boyle, picked the most representative evil characters in
British literature, he must have had a horrible time making their inflatable
images as recognizable as possible while not getting sued by Disney (or Warner
Brothers). The names and stories of these villains were created by the words of
brilliant British authors; their images, however, became universally
recognizable under the paint brush of Walt Disney and his studio. We are so
accustomed to these characters that, even without a context, we can call out
their famous lines or their theme songs from the Disney movie. This kind of magic does
not happen easily, not with modern technology, and definitely not when Walt
Disney first opened his studio almost a century ago.The Walt Disney Family
Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco brings the audience back to the beginning
when Oswald the Lucky Rabbit introduced the magic charm of Disney to the world.
Unlike
Disneyland, this museum evolves around the history of the Disney family instead
of the famous works. Starting from the life of Walt Disney’s father to the
death of Walt Disney himself, the exhibitions document the family’s struggle to
invent, develop and prosper in animation industry. The first floor gallery
displays numerous early sketches of Walt Disney including the first theatrical
release under the name of “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio”, Alice’s Day at Sea. The second floor gallery may appear more
familiar to the audience since it introduces the behind-the-scene process of
some early Disney classics, for instance, Steamboat
Willie, Three Little Pigs, and Fantasia.
As the company gradually expanded, Disney family extended their business into
other industries including theme parks, resorts, and cable TV, becoming quite successful under the leadership of
Walt Disney through his death in 1966.
The
museum decides to display an interesting time period for the Disney family, a
time period that is mostly unknown to even the most ardent Disney fans. From
1923 to 1966, Disney revolutionized the world of animation one movie at a time,
with each frame meticulously drawn by hand and each sound carefully
synchronized. There is a wall on the second floor gallery that is dedicated to Steamboat Willie, displaying the original sketch of each
scene in that movie, where Micky Mouse first made his appearance. The lush,
rich, tapestry-like colors were applied through the tip of the paint brush, scene by scene, in Disney’s studio. The fairytale series, including Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty pushed
Disney to unprecedented fame as well as established a high standard that is
difficult to reach for future productions. When One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released, Disney presented to the
world its first movie that was not just a fantasy. Walt Disney had to let go of
the romantic style that he loved so much and welcome a more modern and
abstract approach to the characters and the background. The paint was thinner,
the set design more asymmetric and random, and the music was more jazzy than
the usual orchestrated symphonies. Even though so many traditional elements of Disney
animation were abandoned in this movie, the extreme attention to detail
remained unchanged. While other companies wouldn’t even bother to animate an
animal with a pattern on its fur, Disney studio decided to make one hundred and
one of them come to life. Each Dalmatian puppy has thirty to forty spots on
average, which means there are at least three thousands spots moving simultaneously in one scene. Walt Disney took this project at the very late
stage of his career; witnessing the coming of Xerox technology, he had to let
go of some of his finest inkers in the studio and attempted new techniques,
including the screen technology which combines real people with cartoon
characters in Mary Poppins.
The
museum explores no further than the death of Walt Disney in 1966. It preserves
the most original and traditional Disney elements which enchanted the audience
long before the invention of computers, electronic sound mixing and other
modern technology which we take for granted. It reminds us of a time when
magic was made under the tip of a paint brush instead of a click of the mouse.
Many were saddened by the release of Tangled
as it marked the end of an
era for 2-D Princess Fairytale series. Unfortunately, the most recent Disney
Princess production, Brave, did not help to regain the magic of any
previous fairytale either. Even though Disney (and Pixar) invented three
softwares just for the flaming locks of Merida, its technological progress
failed to save the weak and problematic plot which lacks the originals' creative spark. If there
comes a day when the audience wants an escape from this technological saturated
animation market, they can always find their way back to this little family
museum in the Presidio woods where the magic all began.
The Culture Columnist, Asheley Gao:
My name is Asheley Gao and I’m a junior at Cal, majoring in History of Art and minoring in French. I grew up in Asia, the land of dragons and jasmine green tea, as a kid with too much imagination. Indulging myself in exploring different cultures and what they have to offer (art, movies, cuisine, you name it!), I’m on my way to becoming a woman whose country is the whole world. Along with all the excellent writers at Unleashed, I would love to share with you my adventure and take you all around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment