Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

Walt Disney's Great New Plans (Continued from p~ge 48) it as a permanent attraction, that it moved one usually saturnine columnist to hail it as the greatest gift to the world since the Armistice — all these are vastly less important to him than, for instance, the new method he has found to eliminate "jitters" from his human figures. The extravagant tributes of President Conant of Harvard, "... a magician who has created a modern dwelling for the muses . . ." and of President Seymour of Yale, ". . . originality characteristic of genius . . . creator of a new language of art . . . achiever of the impossible . . ." are not so sweet to his ears as the melody of a new score that rings right for a sequence he is planning. LlKE all true artists, Walt Disney knows that it is fatal to look back. So the triumphs of "Snow White" rate very small pumpkins beside the problems of three other features in the make at the Disney studios — "Pinocchio," "Bambi" and an untitled animated portfolio of classic musical favorites which Leopold Stokowski will conduct. "Pinocchio" will finish first, so it will be Walt Disney's next gift to an impatient world — sometime around next fall. Recent rumors in Hollywood put "Bambi" ahead of "Pinocchio," but they arose, and falsely, from a characteristic Disney gesture. A few months ago Walt scrapped $250,000 worth of work on "Pinocchio." He couldn't, nor could his workers, see the characters clearly enough yet, he said, so he guessed the best thing to do was to start all over. "Pinocchio" (pronounced Pin-okey-o) stems, of course, from Italian Collodi's delightful children's classic, written in the late 1800's. The story should be well enough known to omit its telling. But to explain its attraction for Walt Disney you have only to imagine what his artists and animators will do to two big adventure sequences. In one, Pinocchio plays hookey from school with his truant playmates and lands in Bogey Land. The other and greatest challenge to Walt Disney's artistry is an undersea sequence. After escaping from Bogey Land, the sadder but wiser Pinocchio discovers that poor old Geppetto has somehow been swallowed by a whale. He sets out to find him and the search leads to the bottom of the ocean where Geppetto has made himself at home in a cozy corner of the whale's stomach. The marine motif, as a background for Pinocchio's adventures, is challenging Disney's staff to effects that he hopes will make "Snow White" pale by comparison. Animators are working now on a brilliant storm-under-the-sea scene. nS in all Disney features, a darkhorse character looms as the likely picture-stealer. At this stage Dopey's "Pinocchio" counterpart seems very likely to be Jiminy, the cricket. From a hint in the original story, Disney has invented Jiminy, a supercilious fuddyduddy, dressy dude in silk hat arid flopping green tails who hops about after Pinocchio like a conscience, clicking good advice in his ear at crucial moments of temptation. In the end, Pinocchio becomes a better little boy for it all and is rewarded with a real-flesh body by the Blue Fairy — thanks to Jiminy. The finest talent in motion pictures is now so interested in Walt Disney's work that it is volunteering its services to Walt. From now on, casting of voices looks more like a matter of selection rather than search. Cliff Edwards has been cast as the voice of Jiminy, the cricket. He is the only "name" so far definitely cast, although many people are being auditioned. John Barrymore wants badly to do a Disney voice and Helen Hayes has said that she'd love to, too. Right now Franklin, one of the screen's finest directors, is working with Walt on "Bambi," minus pay, simply because he is so deeply and genuinely interested. Franklin was, in fact, the one who suggested Felix Salten's tender nature story to Walt. IT is no secret around the Disney lot that "Bambi" is Walt's favorite and pet of the two productions now in work. "I don't care," he has said, "how long 'Bambi' takes. It has to be done right. This is one picture we won't rush." Already reels of sixteen millimeter film, plates of still photographs and pads of sketches have brought the mountain beauties of Big Bear, Chico, the Big Trees and mountain regions of California into the studio. Disney's artists have been in the woods for weeks, personally filming and sketching. It is perhaps the only way a cartoon company can go "on location." So far the research, sketching and building of models have concerned only the backgrounds and scenery, which indicates how much time Walt Disney is spending on that phase of "Bambi." Although, since the deer arrived, squads of artists headed by Walt himself traipse across the street where the runways stand to squat and stare for hours at the infinite grace of their movements and the tiniest expressions of their wild personalities. For "Bambi" is essentially the saga of a deer's life cycle, with its drama, romance, adventure and poetry. It starts with the birth of Bambi and his inheritance from his father, a noble stag, of the princedom of the forest. It is about the dangers and delights of his life until he, too, passes on the baton to son that this whole naturepictui-e of the forest is woven. Both "Bambi" and "Pinocchio" will be produced in color, of course, and both will be rich in music. Disney musicians are already hard at work on the score and lyrics. I HE third big project of Walt Disney's is, in a way, more daring and crammed with more exciting possibilities than either "Pinocchio" or "Bambi." The idea of combining good music with animated cartoons really just grew, Topsy fashion, although it can be traced, actually, back to Walt Disney's childhood. When he was a kid in Missouri, Walt wasn't interested in good music. When he went to concerts he fidgeted; he was bored. Recently he remembered that and wondered why. He decided it was because he was forced to keep a straight face. He never got a chance to laugh. "I would have liked it," he told himself, "if they had just let me have some fun with it." So, with the conviction that the screen was growing riper and riper for good music, Walt engaged Leopold Stokowski to conduct "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse. It was to be a short. THE NEWEST STAMP ACT! I HE latest romance-bound question: Janet Gaynor's mother has put her stamp of approval on Gilbert Adrian, Hollywood designer, and Janet's number one beau. "He is one of the most charming men I have ever met," Mrs. Gaynor told friends, and hinted a marriage between the two would receive no opposition on her part. Adrian, himself, makes no secret of his adoration for "bright as a button" Janet; so, even as you read this, the GaynorAdrian nuptials may be completed. One day Leonid Massine, the Russia) Ballet dancer, visited Stokowski a work. He said he thought "The Pet roushka Suite" by Stravinsky wouli adapt itself nicely to a Mickey Moua animation. Soon eager kibitzers fron all over were suggesting other popula classics which they thought would fo swell. Before Walt knew it, the ide; had snowballed to feature length. Ai animated sequence will go with eacl piece in the portfolio of five more nov planned. Among the works considerec are Ravel's "Bolero," Debussy's "Gain de Lune," Rimsky-Korsakov's "Tht Flight of the Bumblebee" and "The Entrance of the Fauns" by Pierne. Jus imagining the color, movement and cartoon "business" that those suggest ha; the whole studio lying awake nights. OINCE "Snow White" captured th( world's fancy, Walt Disney has beer flooded with suggestions from Hollywood and all over the world about what to produce. The suggestions are always well-meant — but few of them are prac tical. He is always searching for ideal sub jects for features. But they have to be just that — ideal, for each, when once undertaken, means a year's work by Disney's whole studio and a sizeable chunk of cash. "Snow White" cost $1,500,000. Since "Snow White's" success Walt has been forced to be very cagey about his production plans. The minute it is] hinted that he is interested in any' story the price skyrockets. The im pression, not only in Hollywood but everywhere else, is that Walt Disney is personally a very rich man. Nothing could be more untrue. "Snow White" is expected to gross around seven million dollars before it is played out. But the money is slow to come in and, when it does, it is not all Walt's by any means. The Disney studio is owned by Walt and his brother, Roy Disney, and their wives. But it has always operated on a bonus plan. The more money the studio makes, the more also do its employees. The great profits of "Snow White" will pour everywhere else but into Walt's private pockets. It ALT has always put his profits back into his business. He is doing that with the harvest from "Snow White." Often the money he puts in vanishes in futile experiments, constant and costly striv I ings to achieve perfection, such as the $250,000 he recently dropped on "Pin I occhio" advance work. Contrary to gen j eral opinion, many of Disney's short | subjects, especially his most artistic ones, make little profit; often they take a loss. "The Old Mill," which won the Academy Award last year, cost more than it brought in. • Besides all this, Walt Disney is busy preparing for the time, coming sooner or later, when the world's demands on his studio will prove too great for its comparatively tiny size. The other day he bought a tract of land out in the San Fernando Valley where, when he can afford it, he will build a new, larger and more efficient studio. Ground will be broken soon, but the studio will go up gradually over a period of two years. Walt Disney pays his way as he goes and he can't afford to build a new workshop all at once. Even if he could, he'd think he couldn't. That's the kind of a chap he is. 70 PHOTOPLAY