Silly Symphony: Halloween
Posted on October 30, 2016 at 3:05 pm
This Disney classic includes dancing skeletons for Halloween.
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Interview: The Podcast “The Cave of Wonders”
Posted on October 8, 2016 at 8:00 am
What do you mean, the “tao” of Disney?
The ‘tao’ of Disney refers to the fact that Walt’s vision seems to have written the universal language for the animated feature. What has sprung from it is the central core of how animated features are made and ultimately what we come to expect from them. In truth, there’s Disney and then there’s everyone else. It seems to stand above the other studios in terms of their output.
What elements of Walt Disney’s original vision are most evident in the studio’s productions today?
Today they are still holding on to the emotional levels and character developments that Walt put into place. The original vision of Walt Disney can be seen most evidently in his first five animated features; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. The emotional levels are present even in films like Frozen and Zootopia but also the desire to go the extra mile. It’s the writing that has maintained Disney’s vision. Characters and ideas come first, not just the desire to jump onto whatever is popular at the moment.
You can tell me — who is your all-time favorite Disney animated character? Live action character? Song?
Uh-boy. The Disney company is 93 years old and they’ve made how many movies? I really can’t even begin to list the characters and songs that are my favorites. There isn’t one, there’s shouldn’t be. Disney has such a rich history with its characters and its music that choosing just one is impossible.
Will Disney ever return to hand-drawn animation?
At this point, no. Disney tried nine years ago to test the market to see if it would work again with The Princess and the Frog but it didn’t do as well as they had hoped. CG is the new landscape and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Which Disney movie is the scariest?
For me, the scariest Disney picture was always Pinocchio. Concept terror, of course. I can’t imagine a more frightening scenario than bad children being turned into donkeys and sent off to work in salt mines and circuses. That’s a horrifying idea! They are punished, essentially, forever. They can’t talk so their parents think that they have effectively disappeared off the face of the Earth. I didn’t see this film when I was a kid, but if I had the message would have been with me forever. Behave yourself!
The movie that made people cry?
I’m going to say Bambi for the death of his mother, but I can’t imagine anyone not being touched by Dumbo’s late night visit to his mother’s cage after she’s been locked up. At the moment moment when little Dumbo wipes his tears on his mother’s trunk I defy anyone with a heartbeat to keep a dry eye.
How do you do a podcast about such a visual medium?
Conversation and lots of it. You speak as if the listener knows what you’re talking about. Doug and I assume that our listeners have already seen the film that we are talking about. We speak of the visuals in a specific way, I don’t think there’s quite a difficulty in that. It’s like talking about movies with your friends.
If you could inspire your audience to check out one overlooked Disney gem, what would it be?
The Rescuers Down Under. I know why the movie was overlooked in 1990 but I’m not sure why it continues to get overlooked today. Most people don’t know that this film came out between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and even fewer know that it had the sad misfortune of opening on November 16, 1990, the exact same day as the release of Home Alone. That’s really too bad because this movie works on so many levels, I hate to think that anyone is overlooking it. The animation in this film is gorgeous, and the story is beautifully told as well. It’s a great adventures. It’s got great action scenes, a great villain voiced by George C. Scott, the backgrounds are breathtaking. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s a fantastic adventure film. Why are we overlooking this one?
Interview: Paige O’Hara, Belle in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”
Posted on September 26, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Broadway star Paige O’Hara provided the sweet singing and speaking voice for Belle in Disney’s classic “Beauty and the Beast,” celebrating its 25th anniversary with a gorgeous new DVD/Blu-ray edition. She is also an accomplished painter. I was delighted to get a chance to talk to her about her earliest and favorite singing roles and what it was like to appear in Disney’s most romantic musical fairy tale. She told me the exact moment when Belle falls in love – and she shared for the first time a lovely story about her favorite singer, Mary Martin.
What was the first song you ever learned to sing?
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” because my nanny used to sing that.
And did you always love performing?
My family always knew I was an actor, I’ve always been an actress. They called me “Little Sarah Bernhardt” but I didn’t know I could really sing till I turned around 12 years old and did I did the “Peter Pan” song “I’ve Gotta Crow” for a competition. And they said “Oh my gosh! That voice is huge, you’ve got to sing.” And I started singing really around 12 years old.
Were there performers in your family?
No, not really. The only singer or musical person in my family was my aunt who sing with Dinah Shore. But she fell in love and got married and left the business. But my mom was my drama eacher. She did the acting and directing for the performing arts high school. So my mom was really my teacher, she was amazing.
She’s really brilliant but she wasn’t “method” in the fact that she didn’t over-intellectualize everything. She would actually try to be organic with the direction of the characters. So the realism of my characters I think came from her teaching me about that. Do you remember the character Auntie Mame? She was like that, with the looks of Carole Lombard!
What was the first musical play you saw?
I think the first musical play I saw I was in. It was “The Wizard of Oz.” I was like a little this background munchkin person but then the next year I got to play Cinderella so that was fun.
You came to New York after high school to be on Broadway?
Of course! I actually turned down a full scholarship at the Cincinnati Conservatory to go right to New York, but I was ready. I had been in this school with my mom and I’d been acting my whole life. It’s not really the norm for most people and I don’t really recommend it unless you’re in this circumstance that I was in. I was just ready to do it and I was lucky. I had to do those watercolors and sell them on the street to pay my rent. But within one year I had my equity card and created Della in “Gift of the Magi” on Broadway. So it was really cool.
What was your audition song for “Beauty and the Beast?”
I sang “Heaven Help My Heart” from Chess. That’s a great, great song because it shows range.
It’s a very challenging song.
I played the lead in “Chess” so I knew it really well and from the reaction from the casting director, I could tell I was getting a callback. So we went through five auditions and every audition had more people, two people, four people, all of them including Jeffrey Katzenberg. So it was crazy and it was over a span of two weeks and my husband had proposed to me, a day before I got the job. The next day I walked into the apartment and there was a message from David Friedman who was the musical director for Beauty and the Beast saying “Paige it’s David, we’ve got to get together and set keys” and I was like, “My God, my God!”
That’s how I found out. And literally like two seconds later my agent called and I said, “I know!!” It was just crazy, a pretty exciting week!
Tell me about creating the character of Belle.
I always say there’s a lot of us in Belle. We all share the role, Linda Woolverton who wrote it, James Foster and Mark Swain who animated it and then me. So it’s kind of funny that a lot of people said that the Linda Woolverton and I could be sisters. She is very much like me and like Belle she loves books and reading and I pushed that. Belle has a sense of humor and she is the oldest Disney Princess. She’s in her early 20s. They had never done it before; the other princesses are teenagers. She is an old soul, too, and her heart has got to be evident throughout the entire film; you’ve got to feel her heart. And I appreciate it more now, 25 years later, what she did being willing to give up her life for her father. I just love the fact that Belle was her own person. She wasn’t looking for a man and she had the guts to stand up to Gaston.
You were lucky enough to work with your fellow actors in recording, which is not always the case in animated films.
It was fun working with Richard Wild because he was a friend and I had known him for years, so I felt I could take it pretty far. We had the written words and everything but they said, “If you want to expand a little bit on the dialogue, you can.”
Robby Benson and I were together, too. My whole character came to fruition when Robbie was hired because I was hired a month before they found him. It was instant chemistry. I’m such a fan because I was one of the many to have crushes on him. We were the same age when he was doing his films as a teenager and he would love hearing that but he would also love the fact that I loved him in “One on One” because I’m a diehard NBA fan. I think it’s kind of disappointing he didn’t have his own song in the movie but what an actor, oh my gosh!
Belle’s feelings change a lot over the course of the story.
Yes, absolutely, from being terrified to falling in love with him. And I know the moment she falls in love with him. When the little birds jump up on this paw and she smiles and she touches him and runs behind the tree. We talked about that with the directors. That’s the moment when she realizes she’s never felt this before, and her heart is going and she knows that… She knows she’s falling in love with him at that point.
Did you meet Angela Lansbury?
Yes! I was a huge fan of Angela’s and when I came to New York she was starring in “Gypsy” on Broadway. I paid to see it once. I was so broke but then I sneaked in at intermission and came back again and again and again to hear her sing “Rose’s Turn.” Every night the audience would stand and stop the show. So it was really cool to talk to her. I pointed out that she played Mama Rose as if she was the child and Louise was the adult. She looked at me and she said, “You were the first person that ever said that and that’s exactly my intention”. And I was like, cool. I got it, I understand her theory in that role because she’s the most lovable of all the women that played that role. Because that role can be very abrasive but she was something else when she did that.
When she recorded “Beauty And The Beast” she spent all night traveling. She had gotten stuck in another city and was on the planes all night long before the session. They said they could cancel it and she could do it another day and she said, “Oh no, I’ll be there.” She gets in and she’s very nervous. She said, “I don’t know, that song has so much line, I don’t know if I can do that anymore,” they said, “Of course you can,” and lo and behold we have the whole orchestra, everybody’s there, and she’s behind the headset, and did it in one take. One take, one take and people were crying, people were crying. It was just unbelievable! It’s crazy!
And you’ve continued to play Belle into some other versions.
The thing I like about Belle, she never ages and I do. I played her again in “Enchanted Christmas” and “Belle’s Magical World.”
You have appeared on stage in so many classic musicals. Do you have a favorite?
One of my favorites of course is “The Sound of Music.” Mary Martin’s granddaughter, Heidi Hagman, Larry Hagman’s daughter, played Liesel in our show. She told Mary that I was a huge fan of hers. She said, “This Paige girl is like crazy for you, Grandma.” I got this big box sent to the theater she had pulled out her Ordinary Couple dress that was in the museum and the note said, “I want you to wear this. Love, Mary. I hear you are a lot like me.” I still have the note. I wore the dress and it fit perfectly and then I sent it back. That was like the most amazing thing. And she set it up for me to talk over phone with the real Maria.
What do you hope families will talk about after they see the movie?
It’s timeless. It’s one film where every single factor came together. I get so much fan mail from of little girls because they don’t feel like a geek anymore because Belle loves to read. The message is just timeless, it’s relevant now. Beauty comes from within.
Descendents 2: First Look
Posted on September 19, 2016 at 8:00 am
The story deepens in the music-driven sequel to the global smash hit “Descendants,” as the teenage sons and daughters of Disney’s most infamous villains — Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay (also known as Villain Kids or VKs) — try to find their place in idyllic Auradon. When the pressure to be royally perfect becomes too much for Mal, she returns to her rotten roots on the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, the daughter of Ursula, has taken her spot as self-proclaimed queen of the run-down town. Uma, still resentful over not being selected by Ben to go to Auradon Prep with the other Villain Kids, stirs her pirate gang including Captain Hook’s son Harry and Gaston’s son Gil, to break the barrier between the Isle of the Lost and Auradon, and unleash all the villains imprisoned on the Isle, once and for all.
To keep up with the latest on the sequel, follow this hashtag: #D2Deets
Interview: Chris Glass of “The Jungle Book”
Posted on August 29, 2016 at 3:45 pm
“It’s kind of funny,” Glass told me, “because Jon Favreau, Bill Pope, Rob Legato, me, everyone working on the movie, all of us come from the same philosophy where more practical is better. You know we talked about CG movies, movies that were mostly done on the computer and the shortcomings or the strengths, what works and what doesn’t work, and then it’s kind of ironic because we’re making a movie that’s 98 percent computer generated. But I think that is actually good that we all had this healthy skepticism of the technology. Rob Legato is a master of the technology and so is Andy Jones the animator and Adam Valdez and Dan Lemmon. So really what we needed on this movie was kind of that spirit of doing things practically but yet we knew that a lot of it wasn’t going to be practical. But having said that there was a lot of practical stuff but it was all snippets and slices of sets and a prop sometimes like a cow bell would be real, like the stuff around Mowgli inside King Louie’s Temple next to him is real. We had some real fruit on the ground. We threw real fruit out of a fruit launcher when he throws the fruit down on the ground. But there’s some CG. You don’t know where the line begins or ends and that was kind of our intention. Jon wanted to blur the line between reality and what we create in the computer. We wanted to be fooled ourselves.”
In a non CG film you can see the footage immediately after it has been filmed. But because of all the effects, the crew would not see what the scenes looked like for months. “It wasn’t like the next day you would see the finished shot; it was an iterated thing. So our challenge was to see if we could fool one another and there were times when we were fooled, and sometimes it would be the reverse, sometime Jon would be like, ‘Oh that is so fake’, but it would be real. I would say, ‘No that’s actually my set.’ He would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the fakest part’ and I’d be ‘Oh no.’ It felt sometimes like it was backwards. There were literally times I was designing sets after we had already shot the scene physically and edited it then I would design the set; it was very odd.”
Ultimately the real and virtual worlds were so integrated that it was hard to tell where the line was. “Basically anything Mowgli is touching is mostly real. If his feet are touching it or his hands are touching it, but not always. The animals aren’t real, some trees are definitely not but a lot of the plants and the things he’s walking through are, and even the grass he is walking through when he is talking to Bagheera. We built a little strip of grass like 4 feet wide for him to walk through. Technically it served the purpose of giving him interaction. If you have to animate everything that the kid is touching and everything it would have made his task even more daunting than it already was. And if you do end up replacing stuff it’s a great lighting reference and physical interaction reference for the animator so that they can copy that when they are doing the rest of it so that it behaves in the same way or looks the same.”
Glass was very impressed with Neel Sethi, the young actor who played Mowgli, and how natural he was even when he had to imagine how it would all look. “A lot of the stuff he did do completely with nothing but blue and he did a great job. I think even well-seasoned actors have more trouble. A kid is pretending and he’s cool with it. He was talking to the puppets and it worked.”
Glass had been to India and other jungles before. “And we did have a team that went out and took at least 80,000 photographs of India. We had research that were on for many, many months; we just researched everything that we could. We used the Internet, we used books, we called consulates, we talked to directors who were shooting. There was the “Monkey Kingdom” movie that was shot in Sri Lanka and India. We talked to them about monkeys, how they behave and what kind of places they lived and they showed us their footage. We discovered the pangolin, the weird-looking scaly animal that’s highly endangered and I said, ‘Oh let’s put that in the movie.’ We took some liberties but we really tried to keep everything as something that could be realistically found in India. Now obviously we have exaggerated sizes, and we created a world that was more like the composite of India because the kid really couldn’t walk from a really jungle area to a really desert-y area overnight like that. In reality that would take months and weeks. And we looked at the Disney ’67 movie and we had to incorporate the feeling much of that film, too. It’s more colorful, with more flowers, more whimsy and I had to bring that into the real rendering of the plants and things. We tried to find the balance of where it starts to looked too weird, where it looked good. So it was all just a lot of experimentation and a lot of research.”