It might have been wiser of me to let this sleeping thread lie--though since wizards are meddlers and bearers of ill news, perhaps not--but I have found a nugget of information about Tolkien and Disney and it has stuck in my mind since as needing to be added to this thread for the sake of the historical record.
My source is
The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Chronology (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. The entry for
1939 includes the following:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Scull & Hammond
C.S. Lewis twice sees the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the cinema (premiered in Britain in 1938). On the second occasion he is accompanied by Tolkien, who finds Snow to be beautiful but dislikes the Disney Studio's treatment of the Dwarfs.
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Scull & Hammond, 224
Scull and Hammond are unable, in such a massive work, to provide a source for every entry, but it is clear from the context that the source in this case must be C.S. Lewis--possibly his diaries.
While this does not negate the
possibility that Tolkien encountered Disney illustration in books, it confirms beyond a trace of reasonable doubt that he had seen
Snow White. Interestingly, Tolkien found "Snow White to be beautiful" and it is the Dwarves specifically to whom he objects, which is consistent with his concerns about the Disnification of a
Hobbit film.
The index to
The Chonology lists a further seven pages with references to Disney. The first is from May 1937 and is a reference to his correspondence regarding the illustration of
The Hobbit, as does a Dec. 1946 reference. In 1955, when Tolkien visits Italy with his daughter, "filthy Disney figures and Mickey mice" is the unflattering comparison he gives for the products of a glass factory he visits. Disney is again an unflattering reference in 1959 when referring to the dramatisation of
The Hobbit (a play, however, rather than a film, which suggests the treatment of plot or theme rather than a visual characteristic). July 1964 is the entry that I will quote the entry in full here:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Scull & Hammond
?15 July 1964 (postmark) Tolkien finds an unfinished letter to Miss J.L. Curry begun in April but then neglected. He now completes it, apologizing for the delay. He expresses his dislike of Disney's films: 'Though in most of the "pictures" proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them is to me disgusting. Some have given me nausea' (quoted in Sotheby's, English Literature, Childrens & Illustrated Books & Drawings, London, 10 July 2001, p.123). He criticizes Disney's business practices, and would not have given a film proposal from Disney any consideration at all
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And then there is a reference, 5 April 1966, in the midst of the matters surrounding the preparation of the Second Edition, to a radio broadcast of
The Lord of the Rings in the states that has been sent "to Walt Disney see if the studio might be interested in a film adaptation, but they have replied that this would be too costly an enterprise."
There is little enough commentary for me to add to these bare references, beyond the fact that Tolkien gives the impression of having seen more than one Disney film (though "pictures" could, in fact, be argued to mean "more than one image"--i.e. in a single film). It also seems arguable that his impression soured over the years as Disney came to be identified with fairy-tales, from a mixed reaction to
Snow White to a general antipathy to everything they stood for.