Quote:
Originally Posted by Lalwendë
Disney...never liked it. The only thing I could bear for years was The Jungle Book. I have mellowed a bit now and can even permit their version of Winnie the Pooh (having read the original to ye childe, it actually has some slightly distasteful bits, so I am begrudgingly content with a sanitised version), and I love the Pixar films and things like Pirates. But Mickey Mouse etc still leave me utterly cold.
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I think there is a profound difference between Disney's silly cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, which I could never stand (I'm a Warner Bros. fan all the way -- give me a war of words between Bugs and Daffy or Pepe LePew calling for his love, "Jullio, Jullio, herefore art me, Romiette!"), and Disney's animation from his studio's classic period.
I have purchased (ostensibly for my daughter, mind) the remastered additions of everything from Disney's classic period, and the results are a stunning artistic and technological achievement in animation. It is ridiculous to even compare such artistry to Japanese Anime, which is computer generated and every character looks like a Speed Racer clone. We are talking about artists creating thousands of hand-painted cells, not Pikachu, Dragonball Z or Ghibli drek.
Look at the artwork of
Fantasia, Pinocchio or Bambi. The impressionist paintings of Tyrus Wong for the backgrounds in
Bambi are breathtaking, and who has not felt a visceral shock when Bambi's mother is shot? Like Tolkien's Sauron in LotR, Disney did not physically reveal his villain, Man, but that makes the evil all the more abhorrent. Likewise, the attack of Monstro the whale and violent actions of the sea in
Pinocchio are landmarks in animation. And finally, I still love to watch Mussorgky's "A Night on Bald Mountain" followed by "Ave Maria" in
Fantasia. Of course, one can't go wrong with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.
I think a few folks here are not giving Disney much credit, and neither did C.S. Lewis, who had a lot of gall to denigrate Disney, what with his inane hodge-podge of mythological miscellany and overt allegory in his
Narnia series. One could be just as disdainful of Lewis in that regard. Can anyone say stuffed shirt?
