Art of the Day #443: The Raspberries Challenge

Part One:  The Golden Age

O1 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by RaspberriesWH Source [2]

Give it up, Honest John; as if Nick Wilde doesn’t know a hustle when he sees one,

02 – Pinocchio by RaspberriesWH Source [3]

This, I believe, is taken from the Beethoven Pastorale sequence .

03 – Fantasia by RaspberriesWH Source [4]

04 – Dumbo by RaspberriesWH Source [5]

Zootopia dropped a Bambi Easter Egg in the scene where Judy is assigned to Parking Duty.  When Bogo walks out the door, what does she do with her foot again?

05 – Bambi by RaspberriesWH Source [6]

Part Two: The War Years

None of Disney’s World-War-Two Era animated films were feature-length efforts in the style of the Golden Era.  They were either a sort of animated travelogue, (Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros.) or collections of shorts, (everything else. )  The closest thing to a full-length feature during this period was the Ichabod / Mr. Toad film.

06-Saludos Amigos by RaspberriesWH Source [7]

07 – The Three Caballeros by RaspberriesWH Source [8]

08 -Make Mine Music by RaspberriesWH Source [9]

09 – Fun and Fancy Free by RaspberriesWH Source [10]

10- Melody Time by RaspberriesWH Source [11]

11 – The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad by RaspberriesWH Source [12]

Part Three: The Silver Age

Cinderella was the movie that literally saved Disney Animation from extinction.  As mentioned above, except for Snow White, every animated feature released during the Golden Age was a commercial failure, (most notably Fantasia.)  By the time Cinderella came along the studio’ had its back to the wall; if this movie flopped, it would mean the end of Disney Feature Animation, possibly even the end of Disney as a corporate entity; Walt had staked that much on his new film’s success.

Happily, Cinderella was a box-office smash–but there was price to pay.  Because of the need to keep expenses to a minimum, the animation quality was notably less dazzling in any of the Golden Age movies…and things never improved afterwards.

12 – Cinderella by RaspberriesWH Source [13]

13 – Alice in Wonderland by RaspberriesWH Source [14]

One thing you have to give the Silver Age; it produced some of the best–and funniest–Disney villains of all time.  A personal favorite of mine was Captain Hook.   Some bad guys are bumbling idiots while others are scary and menacing.  Peter Pan’s nemesis was one of the few that managed to be both at the same time.

14 – Peter Pan by RaspberriesWH Source [15]

Perhaps the most parodied scene in any film, Disney or otherwise.

15 – Lady and the Tramp by RaspberriesWH Source [16]

16 – Sleeping Beauty by RaspberriesWH Source [17]

101 Dalmations was the first Disney film I saw on its initial release…and Cruella DeVille was the first Disney villain that I truly loved to hate.

17 One Hundred and One Dalmations by RaspberriesWH Source [18]

Madame Mim from Sword in the Stone was another Disney baddie that was funny and scary all at the same time.  She was so good, Disney even paired her up in a comic with the Beagle Boys. (Remember them?)

18 – Sword in The Stone by RaspberriesWH Source [19]

19 The Jungle Book by RaspberriesWH Source [20]

Part Four: The Bronze Age

The Aristocats was the first Disney animated feature produced after Walt’s passing. (Jungle book was released after his death, but produced while he was still alive.)  When it hit the theaters, it didn’t do nearly as well at the box office as the studio had hoped…and it was the beginning of a long, sad trend.

20 – The Aristocats by RaspberriesWH Source [21]

Yes, I know, this was the film that would later inspire Zootopia.  Even so, it wasn’t one of the Mouse’s better efforts…or one of the Disney Studio’s more profitable outings.

21 – Robin Hood by RaspberriesWH Source [22]

22 – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by RaspberriesWH Source [23]

23 – The Rescuers by @RaspberriesWH Source [24]

Disney’s second film where the fox was the good guy.

24 – The Fox and the Hound by RaspberriesWH Source [25]

Part Five:  The Dark Age

The Black Cauldron was one of the most infamous flops in the history of Disney Animation.  How much of a flop? It made less money than the Care Bears Movie, released that same year…and it set the tone for what was to follow.  Afterwards, Disney Animation cut back even further in the quality department…for the first time employing watercolor and CGI backgrounds in their animated features.

But there was a light at the end of the tunnel–in the persona of the new head of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg…who brought with him an entirely new approach to making animated feature-films; henceforth the studio would pattern their efforts after Broadway musicals.

25 – The Black Cauldron by RaspberriesWH Source [26]

26 – The Great Mouse Detective by @RaspberriesWH Source [27]

27 – Oliver and Company by RaspberriesWH Source [28]

Part 6: The Renaissance

With the release of the Little Mermaid, Disney Animation finally found it’s footing once again.  It had all the elements of a Disney Classic, great visuals, a great story, great songs…and oh yes, a great Disney villain.  And much more brilliance was soon to follow.

28 – The Little Mermaid by @RaspberriesWH Source [29]

This one was something of a milestone; the first-ever sequel to a Disney animated feature.

29 – The Rescuers Down Under by RaspberriesWH Source [30]

The first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar

30 – Beauty and the Beast by @RaspberriesWH Source [31]

With Robin Williams as the Genie, this one was practically a guaranteed instant classic.

31 – Aladdin by @RaspberriesWH Source [32]

Disney Animation’s biggest hit to date.   And yet…from here on out, things began to go downhill.  Even as Disney was killing it at the box office, trouble was brewing in the front office.

32 – The Lion King by @RaspberriesWH Source [33]

Part Seven: The Decline

There are any number of reasons that the quality of Disney’s animation began to slip following the Lion King.  First, Disney’s #2 man Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash the year of its release.  Shortly thereafter, Jeffery Katzenberg left Disney to help found Dreamworks SKG.  Almost immediately, he began luring animators and other staff away from from his old studio for the Dreamworks’ animation division.  There was no way Disney Animation wasn’t going to suffer in the face of such difficulties, and it did.

33 – Pocahontas by @RaspberriesWH Source [34]

34 – The Hunchback of Notre Dame by @RaspberriesWH Source [35]

34a – The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 by @RaspberriesWH Source [36]

Hercules was the film that almost checked The Decline…thanks to the amazing visuals inspired by Gerald Scarfe, (the artist behind Pink Floyd’s The Wall, ) and James Woods’ brilliant turn as Hades.

35 – Hercules by @RaspberriesWH Source [37]

36 – Mulan by @RaspberriesWH Source [38]

37 – Tarzan by RaspberriesWH Source [39]

Part Eight: The Second Dark Age

By now, the Walt Disney Corporation was being torn apart by an internal political struggle…and it showed in the features they put out.  Even wonder why the heck they put a Pomp and Circumstance sequence in the Fantasia follow-up?  That was done at Michael Eisner’s insistence; either the animation department agreed to include it, or he’d refuse to greenlight the the project.  That was par for the course at The Mouse in those days.  With Wells deceased, Katzenberg gone, and his successor Michael Ovitz basically reduced to the status of a drone, there was no one left to hold Eisner’s often impulsive tendencies in check.

38 – Fantasia 2000 by @RaspberriesWH Source [40]

Dinosaur by @RaspberriesWH Source [41]

Yeah, the Emperor’s New Groove is cult classic now…but at the time of its release, it was regarded at a stinker.

40 – Emperor’s New Groove by @RaspberriesWH Source [42]

41 – Atlantis: The Lost Empire by @RaspberriesWH Source [43]

The one bright spot in Disney’s Second Dark Age was Lilo and Stitch

42 – Lilo & Stitch by @RaspberriesWH Source [44]

Would you believe Treasure Planet was first pitched as a project in the same session as The Little Mermaid?  Yep.

43 – Treasure Planet by @RaspberriesWH Source [45]

44 – Brother Bear by @RaspberriesWH Source [46]

Here was where Disney Animation reached its nadir…releasing back-to-back films that were two of the biggest bombs the studio ever produced.  After Home on the Range, it would be five years before another hand-dawn Disney feature hit the screens.  That may not seem like a particularly large gap, but during the Renaissance, they were releasing a new one every year.

45 – Home on the Range by @RaspberriesWH Source [47]

This was the first Disney computer animated film not produced in conjunction with Pixar.  It was another dud, and yet…it would Disney Animation’s CGI division that would ultimately usher in the second Renaissance.

46 -Chicken Little by @RaspberriesWH Source [48]

Part Nine: The Recovery

When I went into the theater to see Meet The Robinsons, I had no idea what to expect.  It turned out to be a much better film than I expected; funny, poignant, and with not one, but TWO great plot twists at the end.  Afterwards, I was certain that Disney’s in-house animation studio was about to give Pixar a run for their money.  (Took longer than I expected but it happened.)

47 – Meet the Robinsons by @RaspberriesWH Source [49]

48 – Bolt by @RaspberriesWH Source [50]

The last hand-drawn animated film ever released by Walt Disney Studios…although rumors persist they may try it one more time.

49 – The Princess and the Frog by @RaspberriesWH Source [51]

Part Ten:  The Second Renaissance (Up to the Present)

Tangled was the film where future Zootopia co-director Byron Howard first began to come into his own.

50 – Tangled by @RaspberriesWH Source [52]

51 – Winnie the Pooh by @RaspberriesWH Source [53]

And here is the movie where Rich Moore first began to strut his stuff.   It was also the film where Disney Animation’s world-building skills really began to shine.

52 – Wreck-It Ralph by @RaspberriesWH Source [54]

52a – Wreck-It Ralph by @RaspberriesWH Source [55]

This was it; Disney animation’s biggest hit ever up to that point, and the film where they finally took the crown from Pixar.

53 – Frozen by @RaspberriesWH Source [56]

This, of course, was one of the bootleg movies Duke Weaselton was peddling.

54 – Big Hero 6 by @RaspberriesWH Source [57]

Annnnd, here is where we came in.  Note the Tame Collar Nick is wearing and the topknot on Judy’s head; that marks this as a scene from the discarded ‘Zistopia’ version of the movie.

55 – Zootopia by @RaspberriesWH Source [58]

This was supposed to be Disney Animation’s big animated movie of 2016.  And while Moana was a great film it was still bested by Zootopia at both the box office and the Oscars.

Moana by @RaspberriesWH Source [59]

The last movie Rich Moore ever directed for Disney; makes me sad to think about it now.

57 – Ralph Breaks the Internet by RaspberriesWH Source [60]

And finally…
Here it is, Disney’s biggest animated hit ever; a film that did almost as well commercially as the Zootopia sequel is going to perform.  (Are you paying attention, Mr. Chapek?)

58 – Frozen 2 by @RaspberriesWH Source [61]

Until next time…stay safe and be well.