Wolfgang Reitherman: Animator to Director

Like all Disney animators, Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, always liked to draw. But unlike Disney animators, Reitherman initially was reluctant to work at Disney. He had heard that every animator at the studio had to draw the same character all the time. Thankfully, he joined Disney anyway…and did some great work!

Born in Munich, Germany on June 26th, 1909, Woolie Reitherman relocated with his family to America when he was a kid. He went to Pasadena Junior College and briefly worked as a draftsman for Douglas Aircraft before graduating from Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. 

Wolfgang Reitherman started at Disney in 1933. After working on several shorts, including the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert (1935), he got his first major assignment as supervising animator of the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was a very challenging assignment, because he had to keep the face of the mirror in the exact same position for its entire appearance in the film. Four or five tries later, he finally came up with the final design for the film. Next he animated Monstro the Whale in Pinocchio (1940), the Dinosaur Fight Sequence in Fantasia (1940) and Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo (1941). In the 1950s he animated Tick-Tock the Crocodile in Peter Pan (1953) and Tramp in Lady and the Tramp (1955). The same year as “Lady and the Tramp,” he was officially promoted to director. 

His first directing assignment was a short called The Goofy Success Story (1955). He directed two other shorts after that called The Truth About Mother Goose (1957) and Aquamania (1961). The same year as “Aquamania,” he directed his first movie for the studio, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, co-directing the film with Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton Luske. Next he directed The Sword in the Stone (1963). His two older sons, Richard and Robert Reitherman shared the voice-over role of Wart/King Arthur with Rickie Sorensen in the film. 

He later cast his youngest son, Bruce, as the voice of Christopher Robin in the very first “Winnie the Pooh,” short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) and later as Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1967). His direction of the second “Winnie the Pooh,” short, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons. Reitherman was also a huge fan of frequent Disney voice-over artist, Sterling Holloway, whom he directed on “Winnie the Pooh,” “The Jungle Book,” and “The Aristocats.” 

Besides all the films he directed with his sons, Woolie Reitherman also directed The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and The Rescuers (1977), which he co-directed with Art Stevens and fellow “Nine Old Men,” member John Lounsbery. Reitherman was also an innovator, with the creative idea of reusing animation from earlier films produced at the studio. In “Robin Hood,” there is a moment where the Houndog Blacksmith in Nottingham asks Maiden Marian for a dance. If you look closely at the scene, you notice that as the Blacksmith is escorting Marian to the dance floor the movements resemble that of Dopey escorting Snow White to dance when the dwarfs celebrate Snow White’s visit to their house in “Snow White.” In “The Rescuers,” the scene where Penny makes an escape attempt from Madame Medusa, the movements resemble that of Mowgli escaping Baloo in “The Jungle Book.” 

Woolie Reitherman’s final contribution to the studio was co-producing The Fox and the Hound (1981) again with Art Stevens and Walt Disney’s son-in-law, Ron Miller. He passed away in an unfortunate car accident on May 22nd, 1985, at the age of 75.

In addition to being a close friend, Wolfgang Reitherman was also a huge fan of Walt Disney and deeply respected him as an individual. He appreciated the fact the Walt was imaginative and creative, but at the same time, he was also very complex and career-driven. And when Walt passed away, no one was more confident that Disney animation could live on than Reitherman himself. He was determined to keep the team of animators together and did the very best he could do as a directing animator. While he didn’t work on a lot of projects for Disney other than the movies, he always managed to “keep flying through the air,” as he stayed true to heart of Disney Animation. 

Dean Jones: The Love Bug Pilot 

Dean Carroll Jones was born in Decatur, Alabama on January 25th, 1931. He attended River Side High School where he hosted his own radio show, Dean Jones Sings. He also served in the United States Navy during the Korean War and after he was discharged, worked at the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It was there that Jones developed an interest in acting. He went to Asbury University as a college student in Wilmore near Lexington, Kentucky in 1953, though he did not graduate from the university. However, despite neither graduating nor receiving any formal training as an actor, he was fortunate enough to land bit roles in movies and television including Jailhouse Rock (1957) starring Elvis Presley and Imitation General (1958) with Red Buttons. And in 1960 he landed his first Broadway play at the age of 29, opposite Jane Fonda in There Was a Little Girl.

Two years later, Jones landed the title role of Ensign O’Toole in the NBC sit-com of the same name. The show caught the attention of Walt Disney because it happened to compete with ABC’s Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1961-1969). After having seen the show, and seeing him in Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), the movie version of Jones’ Broadway role, Walt Disney signed him. Under contract from 1965 to 1977, Jones made his Disney debut in That Darn Cat! (1965) opposite Disney child star Hayley Mills who made her final Disney appearance in the film. 

Next, he made his first appearance with frequent co-star Suzanne Pleshette in The Ugly Dachshund (1966). After that, Monkey’s, Go Home! (1967) co-starring Maurice Chevalier and Yvette Mimieux. 1968 turned out to be Dean Jones’ busiest year throughout his time at the Walt Disney Studios, because it was the year he made the films: Blackbeard’s Ghost, which would be his first reunion with Suzanne Pleshette, The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, with Kurt Russell, and he narrated the television special The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show. 1968 would also be the year Dean Jones starred in what is arguably his most popular Disney film, The Love Bug. After “Love Bug,” Jones made The Million Dollar Duck (1971) which reunited him with “Love Bug,” co-star Joe Flynn. The following year, he made Snowball Express (1972) and four years later, The Shaggy D.A. (1976) which was his third pairing with Suzanne Pleshette. Dean Jones’ final Disney film was the third in the Disney studios series of “Herbie, the Love Bug” films, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977). Dean Jones also appeared in the short-lived Disney sit-com Herbie, The Love Bug (1982).

Besides making many beloved Disney films, in the later years of his career Dean Jones starred in two episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) with friend/fellow Disney Legend Angela Lansbury. A born again Christian, he created a one-man show on Broadway entitled St. John in Exile, which at one point was filmed live, in 1986. Jones also took on the role of the evil Dr. Herman Varnick in Beethoven (1992) which was one of the very few times in his career where he portrayed a villain. The film spawned a short-lived animated series of the same name where Jones provided the voice of the George Newton, the patriarch of the Newton family who adopt Beethoven as one of their own. (George Newton was played by Charles Grodin in the movie.) He also made bit appearances in Disney’s remakes of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1995), The Love Bug (1997) and That Darn Cat! (1997).

Dean Jones passed away due to Parkinson’s disease at the age of 84 on September 1st, 2015. He played a great deal of nice guys on Television, Broadway, and Film, and he will forever be remembered as the man who piloted Herbie the Volkswagen.  

Oscar-Winning Archives Part 3

Our first two discussions about Oscar-winners covered some records of wins and nominations, but kept the winner of the most Oscars a secret. So, finally, that answer…the individual whom has won more Academy Awards than any other personality is none other than…Walt Disney.

Of an outstanding 59 total nominations throughout his career, Walt Disney received 22 Academy Awards!, No other individual has been nominated for or awarded as many Oscars!

Three of Disney’s wins were Honorary Oscars: in 1932 for the creation of Mickey Mouse, in 1937 for the distinguished achievement that was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and in 1940 for Fantasia to recognize an outstanding use of sound in a motion picture. (The award for “Snow White,” was one big statuette surrounded by seven miniature statuettes.) Disney’s twenty-second and final Oscar win came after his death in the category of Best Short Subject, Cartoons with the short, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968).

Disney had always hoped that one of the films that he produced would win the Academy Award for Best Picture, but the only Best Picture Oscar Nomination that he would receive would be for Mary Poppins (1964) and he shared the nomination with the film’s co-producer, Bill Walsh. Sadly, they lost the award to Jack L. Warner for My Fair Lady (1964). Since then, three other Disney films have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but unfortunately they all lost as well: Beauty and the Beast (1991), which lost to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Up (2009) which lost to The Hurt Locker (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) which lost to The King’s Speech (2010). While no Disney film yet has won the Best Picture Oscar, Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo was awarded the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003, two years after the Academy first created that award in 2001. Since then, that award has also been given to The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), Wall-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), Inside Out (2015), Zootopia (2016), and Coco (2017).        

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Meryl Streep had an amazing 20 nominations for acting Oscars. Interestingly, her 19th nomination was as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the Witch in Disney’s Into the Woods (2014). That made her the fourth of four actors who have all received Best Acting Oscar nominations for performances in Disney movies, along with Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964), Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story (1999) and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pear (2003). Andrews is the only winner in that group, however Hayley Mills won the Oscar for Best Juvenile Performance by an Actor/Actress when she made her Disney/film debut in Pollyanna (1960). (Mills was the last recipient of that award. After that, the Academy began nominating child actors in the regular acting categories rather than having the separate “juvenile” category.)

Many of Disney’s nominations were in the category of Oscar short films—most, of course, animated. When he first came up with Mickey Mouse, he hatched the idea of creating Mickey Mouse cartoons with sound. Sound had never been produced in animation before! Steamboat Willie premiered on November 18th, 1928, at the Colony Theatre on Broadway and 53rd. The audience members in the theatre were completely blown away, and some of them even begged the projectionist to wait to start the movie and reshow “Steamboat Willie.” Six years later, in 1932, when Walt won his Honorary Oscar for the creation of Mickey Mouse, he won a second Oscar that year in the category of Best Short Subject, Cartoons for the short Flowers and Trees which was the first ever sound cartoon produced in Technicolor format. From then to the year 1939, Walt was awarded 8 other Oscars in the category of Best Short Subject, Cartoons for:The Three Little Pigs (1933), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), Three Orphan Kittens (1935), The Country Cousin (1936), The Old Mill (1937), Ferdinand the Bull (1938), and The Ugly Duckling (1939).       

In 1954, Walt set a new record by being nominated for six different Academy Awards in the same year. He won four: Best Documentary, Features for The Living Desert (1953), Best Documentary, Short Subjects for The Alaskan Eskimo (1953), Best Short Subject, Two-reel for Bear Country (1953), and Best Short Subject for Toot Whistle Plunk and Bloom (1953).                

So as you can see, throughout the history of the Academy Awards there have been all kinds of talented people who have received recognition for all kinds of different/incredible achievements in film, many of whom have been recognized more than once. It probably will be a while before someone achieves or even surpasses the record that Walt Disney holds. And whether or not a new record will be formed next year, remains to be seen. But each of the people who already have formed these records will live on in the history of film forever.

Oscar-Winning Archives Part 2

When it comes to Oscars, let’s be honest…actors get most of the credit. But, composers, makeup artists, costume designers and other non-actors have achieved great things as well, and many of them in a record-setting fashion. They contribute to a movie’s appeal, and make the actors look better! In this blog, I would like to feature some of these important contributions to film…  

One of Oscar’s biggest winners is probably someone you’ve never heard of! Rick Baker is a Makeup Artist who has won seven of 12 nominations Oscars for transforming actors into a variety of human and non-human characters on screen. Wins: An American Werewolf in London (1981), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Ed Wood (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Men in Black (1997), Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and The Wolfman (2010). In addition to winning the Best Makeup Oscar for “The Nutty Professor,” with Eddie Murphy, Baker was also the makeup artist on several other “Eddie Murphy” comedies, including Coming to America (1988), Life (1999), The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps (2000), and Disney’s The Haunted Mansion (2003). Baker also served as the Special Makeup Effects Artist on Enchanted (2007) and Maleficent (2014).

Alan Menken is a composer who won eight oscars in the categories of both Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and is credited for resurrecting both Disney’s beloved animated films, and perhaps even the American musical. Wins: Best Original Score and Best Original Song “Under the Sea,” in The Little Mermaid (1989), Best Original Score and Best Original Song “Beauty and the Beast,” in Beauty and the Beast (1991), Best Original Score and Best Original Song “A Whole New World,” in Aladdin (1992), Best Original Score and Best Original Song “Colors of the Wind,” in Pocahontas (1995). Menken also wrote new songs for the Broadway adaptations of The Little Mermaid (2008) Beauty and the Beast (1993) Aladdin (2014) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2013), and Newsies (the film of that musical was released in 1992, the same year as “Aladdin,” and was readapted for Broadway in 2012) as well as this year’s live-action film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017).

Despite never winning, Thomas Newman is a composer who received 13 Best Original Score nominations for writing the music for a variety of classic films. He was very fortunate to land his first job with John Williams, who has been a close family friend of the Newman family for years. Williams gave Newman the job of orchestrating some music for Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi (1983). His primary work in the film can be heard in the scene where Darth Vader dies. Newman’s nominations include: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Little Women (1994), Unstrung Heroes (1995), American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), The Good German (2006), Wall-E (2008), Skyfall (2012), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Bridge of Spies (2015), and Passengers (2016). Newman also co-wrote the song from “Down to Earth,” from “Wall-E,” which earned him an additional nomination for Best Original Song. Newman’s cousin, Randy Newman, has also written music for great films including The Natural (1984), Parenthood (1989), and the Toy Story Franchise (1995-2019).

Edith Head won eight academy awards for costume design in black-and-white and color films, many of which are considered classics. Wins: The Heiress (1949), Samson and Delilah (1949), All About Eve (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Facts of Life (1960), and The Sting (1973). Besides all these special accomplishments, Head designed the costumes for the holiday movie-musical classic, White Christmas (1954). She was also Brad Bird’s inspiration for creating the character of Edna “E” Mode, the designer of hero/heroine costumes in Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004). (Brad Bird wrote and directed the film and also was the voice of Edna Mode.)

John Ford is a director who won four Best Director Oscars. Before Orson Welles produced Citizen Kane (1941), he was randomly asked who his top three favorite directors were and replied “John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” Welles watched Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) 40 times as a way of preparing to produce “Citizen Kane.” Wins: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). Interestingly, in each of his first three films John Ford directed an actor in an Oscar-winning performance: Victor McLaglen as Best Actor in “The Informer,” Jane Darwell as Best Supporting Actress in “Grapes of Wrath,” and Donald Crisp as Best Supporting Actor in “How Green Was My Valley.” Victor McLaglen was also nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actor in Ford’s “The Quiet Man,” but he did not win. (He was beaten by Anthony Quinn in Viva Zapata! (1952)).

Dennis Muren is a Visual Effects Supervisor who has won nine Academy Awards for designing “imaginary” characters and worlds, making them seem real on screen—many of which have been beloved by the entire world. Wins: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Innerspace (1987), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and Jurassic Park (1993). Muren also won two Technical Achievement Awards for the effects he designed for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi (1983) as well as a Special Achievement Award for the development of a Motion Picture Figure Mover for animation photography in 1982.

We still have yet to talk about the individual who won the most Oscars ever. That unfortunately will have to come next week. Hope you have enjoyed this series so far. Please stay tuned. If you know of any interesting or surprising statistics that I haven’t acknowledged, please feel free to comment.