Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s ongoing series
of Disney Retrospectives, in which I look back upon the many, many animated
films that have been produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. And today,
we’ve actually come to the final part of this series as we’ll be covering the
final collection of Disney animated films that I’ve yet to address; the Disney
films that came out during the 50’s. Last time around I covered Disney’s first
11 features, which of course started with 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was then followed by the likes
of Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. But
then came World War II, which resulted in not only some of the studio’s staff
members being drafted but also certain overseas markets being cut off. As a
result, most of the Disney animated features during the 40’s were low-budget ‘package
films’, a series of animated shorts that were not usually connected
narratively. This included projects like Saludos
Amigos, Fun and Fancy Free, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad just
to name a few. It wouldn’t be until the 50’s when the studio returned to doing
full-length feature films. And I must say, out of all of the decades that make
up Disney Animation’s long history, the 50’s might arguably be the studio’s
most iconic period. Obviously nowadays the decade that most Disney fans are
probably familiar with is the 90’s AKA ‘the Disney Renaissance’. But as far as
the 50’s is concerned, while there were only five films that were released
during this time, pretty much all of them are considered to be some of the
studio’s most classic films. So with that said, it’s time to look back upon the
decade where the young woman put on the glass slipper, the girl fell down the
rabbit hole, and the boy who never grew up explored the world of Never Land. These
are the Disney Animated films of the 50’s.
CINDERELLA (1950)
You might recall that I was a really, really big fan of
Kenneth Branagh’s live-action reimagining of this film that was released last
year. One of the reasons why I was really looking forward to it was because
Disney’s original take on the story of Cinderella
was actually one of my favorite Disney films growing up. And even though
nowadays I sort of lean towards the live-action version for its improvements
over the original film, namely a more developed relationship between Cinderella
and Prince Charming, that doesn’t mean that I don’t still appreciate the great
things that came from this Disney classic. It’s got some really nice animation,
especially in regards to the creation of grand and gigantic rooms. It’s got a
great collection of songs from Cinderella’s sweet melody ‘A Dream is a Wish
Your Heart Makes’ to the Fairy Godmother’s bubbly tune ‘Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo’.
As noted before, Cinderella is generally viewed as one of the more passive
Disney princesses, with some claiming that she does nothing the whole film and
then gets rescued by Prince Charming at the end of it. But as I’ve also noted
before, I believe that there’s more to her character than that. She deserves a
lot of credit for managing to endure all of the crap that her stepmother and
stepsisters put her through while still maintaining an optimistic outlook on
life. That is why she’s one of the best Disney princesses in my opinion. And of
course this film has plenty of great side characters as well from the
aforementioned Fairy Godmother to Cinderella’s wicked stepmother Lady Tremaine
to Cinderella’s friendly mouse friends, especially Jaq and Gus. So in short, I
guess you can say that this is one of my all-time favorite Disney films; one
that now has an excellent live-action version to serve as a companion piece,
not as a replacement!
Rating: 5/5!
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1951)
Also commonly known as the film that many love to joke about
in regards to them claiming that Walt and his team were totally on drugs when
they made it, Alice in Wonderland is
exactly what you’d expect from a film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic
story of a young girl’s adventures in the wacky world of Wonderland. It’s a
world that is full of crazy characters in nonsensical situations and as a
result, this film boasts some of the studio’s absolute best animation. Simply
put, the animators perfectly captured the surreal imagery of the story as the
animation is the perfect combination of vibrant colors and zany visuals. As for
the plot, while I’ve never read Carroll’s original book, it seems as if the
film follows the same general non-linear plot of the book in that it’s mostly
just Alice getting into various situations and meeting a wide variety of goofy
characters. Speaking of characters, Alice herself is a likable lead, voiced excellently
by Kathryn Beaumont who would go on to voice another main character in the next
Disney film. And of course the film also has plenty of memorable side characters,
from the mischievous, always-grinning Cheshire Cat to the foul-tempered Queen
of Hearts, who always orders “Off with their Heads!” whenever someone gets on
her bad side. Alice in Wonderland is
generally considered to be one of Disney’s finest animated classics and I can
totally see why. All in all, it’s a very charming and light-hearted adventure through
the strange world of Wonderland complete with a fun cast of characters and the
studio’s usual excellent animation.
Rating: 4/5
PETER PAN (1953)
In 1953, Walt Disney Animation brought J.M. Barrie’s iconic
play/novel Peter Pan to life in what
is generally considered to be the most famous adaptation to date of ‘the boy
who would never grow up’. This was the final Disney animated film that was
primarily supervised by Disney’s original core team of animators AKA ‘The Nine
Old Men’. It was also notably the last film that Disney released as part of
their distribution deal with RKO Pictures. Since then, the studio has released
all of their films under their own distributor, Buena Vista. In that regard,
this is certainly a great one to end on when it comes to the Disney/RKO
partnership. That’s because Peter Pan is
easily one of Disney’s best films. It really does have it all. All of the main
characters are great, from Peter Pan to Wendy (voiced by Kathryn Beaumont in
her second major Disney Animation film role) to Tinker Bell and so on and so forth.
The villains are absolutely terrific. The notorious Captain Hook and his main
lackey Mr. Smee are two of Disney’s most hilarious villains. They work off each
other so well as the two bumbling buffoons that they are. Just look at the
scenes in which Hook tries to avoid being eaten by a hungry crocodile. The
soundtrack is excellent as well. The main theme ‘You Can Fly’ is simply iconic
but ‘Following the Leader’ is a pretty darn fun song as well. Sure, in
hindsight the film gets a lot of flak nowadays for its arguably fairly
racist/stereotypical portrayal of Never Land’s Indians and it’s completely
understandable if some people are offended by this. But aside from that, it’s
pretty easy to see why Peter Pan is
commonly regarded as one of the most famous films in the Disney canon. It’s
just a really fun adventure that is guaranteed to capture the imaginations of
young and old.
Rating: 5/5!
LADY AND THE TRAMP (1955)
Sandwiched in between two of the most famous Disney animated
films of all-time is 1955’s Lady and the
Tramp, which is actually based off of a story titled Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog that was written by Ward Greene and
published in Cosmopolitan magazine.
The film focuses on the romance that develops between Lady, the beloved cocker
spaniel of an upper-class family, and Tramp, a stray mutt. The romance that
forms between the two of them is pretty nice, highlighted by the iconic ‘Bella
Notte’ sequence in which they share a romantic candlelit spaghetti dinner while
being serenaded by the owner of the Italian restaurant that provided them the
food. Simply put, this is one of the most iconic ‘love story’ moments in the
history of film. But the rest of the film is quite solid as well. One of the
most interesting elements of the story is the fact that the majority of the
film is seen from the perspective of the dogs. Lady refers to her owners as
‘Jim Dear’ and ‘Darling’ because that’s what they frequently call each other
from her point of view. And when they have a baby, Lady doesn’t initially
realize it at first when she finds that they start to become rather distant and
we also see how the baby’s arrival ultimately affects her relationship with her
owners. Granted, I wouldn’t really call this one of Disney’s absolute ‘best’
films. The story is rather simple and it is sort of like Alice in Wonderland in that it’s mostly just a random collection of
moments involving the main characters. Still, with a likable lead duo, a
solidly developed romance, and the usual nice Disney animation, Lady and the Tramp is still a pretty
darn classic entry in the Disney canon.
Rating: 4/5
SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959)
From an artistic perspective, Sleeping Beauty is definitely one of the most beautifully animated
films that Disney has ever made. It was the second film that they’d ever shot
in widescreen, after Lady and the Tramp,
and the results really are fantastic. The grand landscapes that come from the
format are excellent and have an excellent painting-like quality to them. The
film also has some excellent music, which was adopted from Tchaikovsky’s 1890
ballet of the same name. ‘Once Upon a Dream’ is definitely a classic Disney
love song. But when it comes to the writing, admittedly it’s rather flawed in
some parts, namely the main characters. Princess Aurora is unfortunately one of
the weaker Disney princesses, though that’s mostly just due to the fact that
she spends a good chunk of the film asleep. Her prince, Phillip, is also a bit
underwritten at times; in fact, once he goes off to rescue Aurora he never says
anything for the remainder of the film. But despite a rather underdeveloped
pair of leads, the film does have a great cast of side characters. The three
fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are an excellent trio who work off each
other well when it comes to the three of them trying to raise Aurora in secret
without the help of their magic. And of course, there’s the main villain,
Maleficent. Sure her motivations are rather weak, as she does what she does
only because she wasn’t invited to the party celebrating the birth of Aurora,
but her elegance and magical abilities easily make her one of Disney’s greatest
villains. In short, Sleeping Beauty may
not be perfect but it’s still a very enjoyable entry in the Disney canon. While
it doesn’t really do much for its two main protagonists, the main villain, side
characters, music, and animation do make up for that for the most part.
Ultimately, though, Sleeping Beauty was
actually an underperformer at the box office upon initial release, effectively
resulting in Disney moving away from adapting fairy tales until The Little Mermaid three whole decades
later.
Rating: 4/5
And with that, Rhode
Island Movie Corner’s ‘Disney Retrospective’ series officially comes to a
close. As always, be sure to sound off in the comments below in regards to your
own thoughts on the films discussed here today and be sure to also check out
the previous Disney Retrospectives that I’ve done in the links below. However,
this is not the end of my discussion of Disney Animation for now. You may have
noticed in a few of the previous ‘Disney Retrospectives’ that I mentioned that
I have something BIG planned for next month. Well, since we’ve reached the end
of these Retrospectives, I figured that it’s time to finally reveal my big
plan… so be sure to check back tomorrow for the big announcement of what is
coming to Rhode Island Movie Corner this November.
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