Comments on: Disney Recycles

By: Jess

Jess — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:10:22 +0000

I’m pretty sure there were two categories of animated movies during Disney’s life: those where the studio went all out, money was no object, and that they rarely if ever made a profit on (e.g. Snow White), and those that were made to be as churned out as cheaply as possible so that they could make back the money they’d lost on the other kind of movie (e.g. Aristocrats).

By: Jay H

Jay H — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:09:25 +0000

No big surprise. Disney keeps an extensive archive of old animators’ drawings – they refer to it as “the Morgue.” Why reinvent the wheel, after all?

What was interesting is how much the films from the late 60s (Jungle Book) and early 70s (Robin Hood) relied on Morgue drawings – it’s an indication of how uninvolved Walt was in the animation process by that point, having moved his attention to the company’s live action wildlife films. (Of course, he died in late 1966 while Jungle Book was in production, so his input into 70s films like Robin Hood was understandably less. )

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:32:09 +0000

Mm, no, I think they were basically tracing and reusing old cels to get movies out quickly on a tight budget.

By: Happysin

Happysin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:17:01 +0000

Huh, I just figured stuff like that was just inside jokes by the creators and artists.

By: LP

LP — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:26:18 +0000

This is really kind of a relief, since it means the fact that I regularly mix up scenes and characters from the Disney universe is NOT a sign of creeping senility. Right?

By: Matthew Yglesias » Culture in the Balance: Commercial or Non-Commercial

Matthew Yglesias » Culture in the Balance: Commercial or Non-Commercial — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:14:28 +0000

[...] Via Julian Sanchez, a neat video mashup of different dance scenes from different Walt Disney animated films, that shows the reuse and recycling of certain motion patterns and tropes. Check it out: [...]