Disney’s Greatest Pairs: Part 3

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Marc Davis was the “Laurence Olivier of Animation,” given his accomplishments. If that is true, than Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy of Animation. Like Davis, they were also two members of Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” They met each other at Stanford University as art majors. Thomas came to the Disney Studios in 1934 while Johnston came in 1935 and both retired in 1978. Their friendship developed throughout their time at Disney, and their assignments were unusual, in that they always seemed to be animation of characters who were sidekicks, both heroes and villains-a fitting combination, since they were real-life sidekicks.

Frank Thomas made his debut at the Disney studios animating the scenes between Mickey Mouse and the King in the short, The Brave Little Tailor (1938). Next, he animated scenes between Mickey Mouse and the Bear in the short, The Pointer (1939). Thomas’s first Disney “ feature length film” assignment was the scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) where the dwarfs are all mourning over Snow White’s “dead” body. He also animated Pinocchio singing and dancing in Pinocchio (1940), Bambi and Thumper ice skating in Bambi (1942), and Lady and Tramp eating spaghetti together in Lady and the Tramp (1955)-a favorite of many. Prior to Marc Davis’s animation of the Disney villains, Frank Thomas served as the supervising animator of Lady Tremaine/Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (1950), the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1953), and Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955). He did, however, continue to animate supporting characters as well, including the three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty (1959), the Penguin Waiters in Mary Poppins (1964), and both King Louie and Baloo dancing in the “I Wanna Be Like You,” sequence from The Jungle Book (1967). In addition to being one of the studio’s most renowned animators, Frank Thomas was the Piano Player for the Dixieland Jazz Band who often played at Disneyland: “Firehouse Five Plus Two.” He passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 8th, 2004.

Ollie Johnston worked one many of the studios’ films, though he never worked on any of their shorts. He served as an assistant animator on “Snow White.” He joined Thomas, working on Pinocchio in “Pinocchio,” Bambi and Thumper in “Bambi,” the three Good Fairies in “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as Baloo and Bagheera in “The Jungle Book.” He animated the Evil Stepsisters (“Anastasia and Drizella”) in “Cinderella,” the King of Hearts in “Alice,” and Mr. Smee in “Peter Pan.” Before retiring from Disney, Johnston animated the characters of Bernard, Bianca, the Mouse Chairman, Orville the Albatross, and Rufus the Cat in The Rescuers (1977). Johnston animated Rufus the cat as a caricature of himself. Johnston was the very last member of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” to pass away. He died of natural causes on April 14th, 2008 at the age of 95.

After retiring from Disney, Thomas and Johnston went on to co-author Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life which was published in 1981. Their Disney careers were documented in the documentary Frank and Ollie (1995) which was written, produced and directed by Frank Thomas’s son Theodore “Ted” Thomas (Ted Thomas’s wife, Kuniko Okubo co-produced the film as well). Ted Thomas also went on to write, produce, and direct two other documentaries for Disney, including Growing Up with Nine Old Men (2013) in which he paid visits to each of the children of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” and talked to them about what it was like to have “Nine Old Men,” as fathers. He also produced and directed Walt & El Grupo (2008), which chronicled Walt Disney’s trip to South America in 1941 at the time of an unfortunate studio strike. (Thomas’s wife co-produced these films as well.) Thomas and Johnston both went on to provide the voices of caricatured versions of themselves in The Iron Giant (1999) and the Disney/Pixar Academy-Award-Winning Classic, The Incredibles (2004), both of which were under the direction and screenwriting of Brad Bird.

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston had a friendship and partnership unlike any two animators. Together, their talents brought many of the more memorable scenes from Walt Disney Animation to life. It’s fun to think of their real0life friendship, and easy to understand how it made their work great! 

The Laurence Olivier of Animation

Have you ever heard the simile “An animator is like an actor?” What that means is that in an animated movie, once the backdrops of the film have been completely painted, and the voice talent for the film has been recorded, someone now has to bring all of the characters in the film to life, in front of the backdrops, and that isn’t the job of the voice actors. It actually is the job of the animators! While the voice actors give the cartoon characters their souls, the animators give them the ability to move and cavort about the screen.  

In the later years of Walt Disney’s career, he was in an interview where he was asked by the interviewer “Mr. Disney, if you could choose one piece of animation that your studio has done today as your favorite, what piece would that be?” Walt thought about it for a moment, and he said “Well, probably the moment in Cinderella where she gets her ball gown.” That moment was animated by a man named Marc Davis. Known as one of Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” Marc Davis was one of the most renowned and prolific animators! He worked his way up from being a storyboard artist, to a character animator, to a Disney park attraction designer for the Walt Disney Studios.

When he got promoted from storyboard artist to character animator, Marc Davis worked on animating supporting characters in the feature length films such as Thumper and Flower in Bambi (1942). In the 1950s, he got further promoted to animating the princesses and leading ladies such as Cinderella in Cinderella (1950), Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Tinker Bell in Peter Pan (1953). He wanted more than anything, however, to animate the villains, and was finally able to do so with Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). (He animated Sleeping Beauty/Princess Aurora in the film as well.) His final animation assignment was the supervising animation for the character of Cruella De Vill in 101 Dalmatians (1961). 

After completing work on “Dalmatians,” Davis went on to become one of the head creators of many of the most beloved Disney Park attractions, including “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Haunted Mansion,” “It’s a Small World,” and “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” He served as a mentor to animator Andreas Deja, who would go on to animate the more modern Disney villains, including Gaston in Beauty and the Beast (1991), Jafar in Aladdin (1992) and Scar in The Lion King (1994).

Marc Davis’s wife, Alice Davis, worked as a costume designer for the studio. When “Beauty,” was in production in the mid-1950’s, she received a phone call from future husband, Marc, to design a costume for Helene Stanley to wear as she performed live-action modeling for the animators for the character of Sleeping Beauty. (Stanley provided live-action modeling for Cinderella and Anastasia in “Cinderella,” and also Anita in “Dalmatians.”) After marrying Marc in 1956, Alice was ultimately hired by the studio to be a full-time designer by Walt himself in 1960. While her husband created the audio-animatronic figures for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Haunted Mansion,” etc., she created the costumes that the figures would wear in the rides. She and her husband both retired from Disney in 1978 and were married until Marc’s passing in 2000 at the age of 86. She does, however, continue to serve as a creative consultant on Disney films, including Disney/Pixar’s Up (2009). The “Up,” creative team interviewed their closest, personal friends and relatives to ask their opinions on “What are the most important things in life?” which served as their inspiration to tell the story of “Up.”

The extraordinary artwork that Marc Davis created for Disney individually and also with his wife is incredible and insurmountable! One can easily credit him as one of the world’s greatest animators, not just in the history of Disney, but in the history of animation in general as well, as evidenced by his work on screen and at the Disney parks. Marc Davis and his wife Alice’s 44-year-marriage was a true match made in heaven, and it became one of the most unique and ambitious assets to Walt Disney Animation. 

Cruella De Vill: That’s It!

Cruella De Vill is undoubtedly one of Disney’s most incredible villains! We love to hate her! For one thing, she is very cruel to animals — puppies in particular — and she is also a rich, spoiled brat who believes that her way is the only way.  We get frustrated with her frustration  — and when Cruella isn’t getting her way, EVERYONE has a rough time!  The woman we love to hate - was still a lot of fun - and furnished a lovely canvas for some talented actresses.

Dodie Smith, who wrote The Hundred and One Dalmatians novel in 1956, was inspired to create the character of Cruella De Vill, when a friend said of one of her own dalmatians (with no malice intended!), “You know, those dogs could make a lovely fur coat!” The very thought of dalmatians being murdered and skinned just to make fur coats scared Ms. Smith to death, and hence that character of Cruella De Vill was born. Disney purchased the film rights to the book the very next year in 1957, and the animated film was released 4 years after that in 1961. The film was readapted for live-action by Disney in 1996 under the production of renowned teen angst film producer John Hughes, which also led to a sequel, 102 Dalmatians (2000). The character of Cruella De Vill was even written into Disney/ABC’s hit show Once Upon a Time in the show’s 4th season. The novel was also adapted into stage musical which toured the U.S. in 2010. Throughout whether stage, screen or small screen, Cruella De Vill has had many different incarnations, by a number of different actresses.

Betty Lou Gerson voiced Cruella in 101 Dalmatians (1961). Gerson’s first Disney film was Cinderella (1950), where she provided the opening narration for the film. When she lent her voice to Cruella, she also lent her voice to one of the characters in the scene in the film where Horace and Jasper are watching the game show on television, Miss Birdwell. While Gerson provided Cruella’s voice, Mary Wickes did the live-action, referential modeling for the film. (Wickes’s final film role was the voice of Quasimodo’s gargoyle friend, Laverne in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)). In Mary Poppins (1964), Gerson appears as the creepy, elderly woman in the scene where Jane and Michael are running away from their father at the bank.   

2-time Golden-Globe-Winner Glenn Close portrayed Cruella De Vill in its first live-action treatment, 101 Dalmatians (1996). Close received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Cruella, but was beaten by Madonna in Evita (1996). Close reprised the role for 102 Dalmatians (2000). Besides playing nasty Cruella De Vill, close also lent her voice to Tarzan’s loving “ape” mother Kala in Disney’s Tarzan (1999) and also reprised that role for the direct-to-video sequel, Tarzan & Jane (2002). Close also played Nova Prime in Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and will be reprising that role for the sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017).

Rachel York originated the role of Cruella De Vill for 101 Dalmatians: the Musical, which followed the book instead of the Disney films. I had the rare privilege of seeing Ms. York perform the part when the show came to Music Hall at Fair Park in downtown Dallas. 

Susan Blakeslee, who is also voices Wanda and Mrs. Turner in The Fairly OddParents (2001-) voiced Cruella in the direct-to-video sequel, 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure (2003), and is the current voice behind many of the classic female Disney villains whenever they make an appearance on Disney channel, or in a video game, including The Evil Queen, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, and many others. 

Victoria Smurfit currently plays Cruella De Vill in Once Upon a Time (2011-). Emma Stone has also been attached to star in a live-action prequel film of Cruella’s life entitled Cruella with a released date yet to be set.  

Cruella has one of the most intriguing histories of any Disney character at the studio. She’s been played by many talented actresses over the years, all of whom brought their own unique qualities to the role. It is ironic to think that she was first created by Dodie Smith out of a comment that her friend made, rather than a person that she knew. Cruella will no doubt forever be remembered in film history as one of the most remarkable villains, not just in the history of Disney or of animation, but in films in general as well.