Woody and Bo: We’ve Got a Friend in Them!

        With Valentine’s Day just two weeks away, I thought today I would begin a series of blogs exploring the Disney couples that are fun, entertaining, and endearing for Disney fans. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but let’s start with a more recent addition from Pixar: “Woody and Bo Peep,” from the Toy Story franchise (1995-2019). The short film Lamp Life (2020), which is about everything that happened in Bo Peep’s life in between Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 4 (2019), officially premiered on Disney + a year ago, today, January 31st, 2020, so it’s fitting we talk about them today.

Beginning in Toy Story (1995), we learn that Bo Peep has a crush on Woody in the scene at the beginning where she says “What would you say if I get someone else to watch the sheep tonight?” And Woody gushes in response. Although Woody does reciprocate Bo Peep’s feelings for him, being the leader of the whole group, he remains preoccupied with the well-being of all the other toys (Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Hamm, Mr. Potato Head, etc.). There is not much time for romance, as the film is primarily about how Woody and Buzz become lifelong friends.

Continuing in Toy Story 2 (1999), it’s clear that Bo Peep still has feelings for Woody when she reminds him how much Andy loves and values him at the beginning, and she later becomes desperately concerned when Woody is kidnapped by Al the Toy Collector. In this film, Woody becomes very self-centered when Jessie the Cowgirl, Stinky Pete the Prospector, and Bullseye open him up to how popular and financially valuable he is as a cowboy doll. Buzz and the rest of the gang later remind Woody of what truly is the most valuable thing in a toy’s life: their owner’s love. Bo Peep doesn’t appear in Toy Story 3 (2010), though it’s clear from the beginning when it is acknowledged that Bo Peep was given away to another owner, that Woody misses her terribly and regrets not giving her all the attention that she deserved. 

Woody and Bo Peep are finally reunited in Toy Story 4 (2019). They are very excited to see each other, though Woody discovers that Bo Peep has changed a bit since the last time they saw each other. She has developed a very strong sense of self-esteem as well as an independent attitude toward life as a toy, as she has become protector for all the lost toys at the antique store, which is ironically similar to what Woody did for the toys that came to live in Andy’s bedroom. At this point, Andy and the rest of the gang have been living with another owner, named Bonnie, but Bonnie has sadly lost interest in Woody, and Woody doesn’t know what to do for the rest of his life. At first, he continues to hold stubbornly to his attitude of always being loyal to his owner, but finally he realizes that he spent his whole always valuing the well-being and the happiness of all of his friends and he has finally earned the time to value his own personal happiness. Bo Peep realizes, too, that despite her independence, she has never ever stopped carrying the torch in her heart for Woody and she never will. Together, they decide to live the rest of their lives as free toys. 

Woody and Bo Peep are great couple for several reasons. They are both stubborn, but they use their stubbornness for good reasons. They always make sure that no toy is ever forgotten when experiencing an adventure of any kind, and they are both incredibly reliable. They are best friends with the rest of the toys, as well as each other, and they are also more than willing to face a new adventure every day. They both as a pair teach us a lot about the value of friends!

A Tribute to Pluto’s Playmate

        Pluto the dog is primarily remembered for being Mickey Mouse’s dog. He made his debut in the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang (1930), though he didn’t have a name at the time. He briefly appeared as a Minnie Mouse’s pet dog, Rover, in the short film The Picnic (1930), and his third appearance was in the short The Moose Hunt (1931) in which he became Mickey’s full-time pet bloodhound, Pluto. Named by Walt Disney himself after the just-named “planet at-the-time,” officially named on March 24th, 1930. He briefly spoke like a human, just like Goofy, in “Moose Hunt,” but after that short it was decided by the Disney animators that he would behave like a normal dog in general, but on occasion make human-like facial expressions. On January 24th, 1941, Pluto appeared in a short film called Pluto’s Playmate, and in honor of its 80th anniversary today, let’s explore it together.

Beginning with a brief synopsis: Pluto’s Playmate begins with Pluto playing with a red ball on the beach. At one point the ball falls into the water, and is retrieved by a baby seal named Salty, who wants to play with Pluto. Pluto rebuffs him, but Salty persists. When Pluto is later attacked by an octopus, Salty rescues and saves his life and Pluto finally agrees to share the ball with his new-found friend. 

Pluto was voiced by Lee Millar Sr. in this short film. Pinto Colvig who originated the voices of both Goofy and Pluto voiced Salty the Seal. (Colvig had briefly retired from Goofy and Pluto at the time this short was produced but he returned to both that same year.) The short was co-written written by Frank Tashlin and Earl Hurd, who both helped write other Disney classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and Cinderella (1950). It was directed by Norm Ferguson, who was an animator at Disney for nearly 30 years, contributing to both shorts and feature length movies, beginning with Mickey’s Choo-Choo (1929) and ending with an episode of The Magical World of Disney in 1956. The short also featured the animation of John Lounsbery who was known at Disney for being one of the top animators at the studio, also known as one of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men.”

Throughout the the ‘40s and the ‘50s, Pluto continued appearing in short films. Though as the studio became more preoccupied with the production of films such as “Cinderella,” Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953)—as well as Disney’s introduction into television and Disneyland—Pluto’s appearances in short films stopped for a very long time. His last short was The Simple Things (1953), and from then on he was only seen in Disney comic books until the short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol thirty years later. His first feature-length film appearance was in the direct-to-video film Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999). The “Pluto’s Playmate,” short was remade for the Disney Junior Television Series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-2016) which aired on television in 2009. Pluto also was in Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) and he even had a cameo in the Disney-produced biopic on the production of Mary Poppins (1964), Saving Mr. Banks (2013).

Pluto is always loyal to Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy—he always has their backs. The adventure he experiences in “Pluto’s Playmate,” is inspiring because it inspires kids and adults to be open to making new friends. Friends often surprise us in unique ways. It encourages us not to underestimate someone’s capabilities just because they may seem different from us.

Betty White: Disney’s Golden Girl

        The Disney Legends program was created in 1987 for those who have made remarkable contributions to the Walt Disney Company. From actors who have starred in movies and/or television, to animators who designed cartoon characters, to “Imagineers” who built theme park attractions, the award is given to anyone whose work continues to be endearing since it was originally produced. Today I’d like to tell you about someone who not only won that designation, but has enjoyed a decades long career working throughout show business. We’ll focus just on her Disney work for this blog, as a celebration of her 99th birthday: Betty White! 

Betty White made her very first contribution to Disney when she accepted the role of Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls (1985-1992). In the early 1980’s, White learned that NBC was developing a new sit-com about four elderly women who share house together in Miami, Florida and how they live the second act of their lives. Entitled “The Golden Girls,” the show was to be produced by Touchstone Television, which is now known as ABC Signature, the production arm of the ABC Television Network which is owned by Disney, and distributed by Buena Vista Television. White also learned the studio wanted her to play Southern Belle Blanch Devereaux. But Jay Sandrich, who had directed White in her other signature role, Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) and who was also hired to direct the pilot episode of “Golden Girls,” suggested that since Blanche was too much like Sue Ann Nivens, that Betty play Rose instead. White was nervous about playing an air-headed character, but the show’s creator, Susan Harris, at one point took White aside and encouraged her to play Rose as “terminally naive, someone who always believed the first explanation of something.” This role won White the third Emmy of her career, as well as four Golden Globe Nominations throughout the show’s seven-year-run. She briefly reprised the role of Rose Nylund on a spin-off called The Golden Palace (1992-1993).

The success of “Golden Girls,” led to White being named a Disney Legend in 2009, along with her other co-stars, Beatrice Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. Prior to that though, White also lent her voice to an episode of ABC/Disney Television Show Hercules: TV Series (1998), as well as the CGI/Live-Action film Whispers: An Elephant’s Tale, released in 2000. In 2008, she lent her voice to the English dub of Disney/Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo, which was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. In 2010, she provided the voice of Mrs. Claus ABC’s television short Operation: Secret Santa (2010), and lent her voice to the fourth episode of the Disney Channel Series Mickey Mouse (2013-2019). 

In 2019, Betty White lent her voice to Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4 (2019), which also featured cameos by comedy legends Carol Burnett, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks. The group all played toy parodied versions of themselves: Bitey White, Chairol Burnett, Carl Rhinoceros and Melephant Brooks, and the film won the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The group also reprised these characters for the Disney+ short series Forky Asks a Question (2019).

Though younger fans will recognize her often for her voice-over work, Betty White will forever be remembered by Disney fans for her portrayal of Rose Nylund. In addition to these roles, Betty White also starred in Touchstone-produced films, including The Proposal (2009) starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds and You Again (2010) which starred Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver. In a career lasting for nearly a century, she has made a great deal of exceptional contributions to entertainment and is an extraordinary legend. Happy Birthday Betty White! 

Rebecca Luker: Being Mrs. Banks

        When Walt Disney produced the film version of Mary Poppins in 1964, he cast Oscar nominee Glynis Johns in the role of the caring mother, Mrs. Winifred Banks. 40 years later, when Cameron Mackintosh adapted Mary Poppins for the stage with Disney Theatrical Productions at London’s West End, he cast Linzi Hateley in the role of Mrs. Banks. The success of the London stage production led to Mackintosh reproducing the show for Broadway two years later, in 2006, and for that production, Tony nominee Rebecca Luker was cast as Mrs. Banks. Miss Luker passed away very sadly not too long ago, and I thought today we could explore her career, which fascinatingly spans nearly 40 years!

    Rebecca Luker was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 17th, 1961, though she grew up in Helena, which was not far off. Her mother, Martha, had been a high school treasurer and her father, Norse Doak Luker Jr., was a construction worker, so show business didn’t necessarily run in her family. She, however, grew up a lover of music, singing in her church choir and marching in her High School band. She decided to pursue a career in theater when she entered a beauty pageant while she was in High School, singing the song “Much More,” from The Fantasticks. The performance won her a College Scholarship as the first runner-up to Alabama’s Junior Miss.

    The scholarship brought her to the University of Montavello and she graduated with a BA in Music, though she took a year off in 1984 to perform in the Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This production fortunately led to Luker making her Broadway debut in The Phantom of the Opera in the leading role of Christine Daae in 1988, becoming the very first actress to succeed originator Sarah Brightman in the role. When she completed her “Phantom,” run in 1991, she went straight into the original production of the musical The Secret Garden, a show that she was in for two years.

    In 1994, Luker was cast in the role of Magnolia in Broadway’s third revival of Jerome Kern’s and Oscar Hammerstein the 2nd’s Show Boat, which earned her very first Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. This also made Luker the very first actress ever to receive a Tony Nomination for playing the role of Magnolia. She later starred as Maria Rainier Von Trapp in Broadway’s first ever revival of The Sound of Music in 1998, a role for which she was understudied by Laura Benanti. (Benanti later played Baroness Elsa Schrader in NBC’s production of The Sound of Music Live! with Carrie Underwood as Maria.) Prior to starring in this show, Luker also lent her voice to part of the chorus in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997), Disney’s direct-to-video sequel to Beauty and the Beast (1991).

    Rebecca opened up the 2000’s, starring in the role of Marian Paroo, the Librarian in the first Broadway revival of The Music Man, starring opposite Craig Bierko as Harold Hill. This role earned her her second Tony Nomination. That same year, she also married fellow Broadway actor, Danny Burstein. She also appeared in the CBS Movie Cupid & Cate (2000) and in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2004. She also performed in various solo concerts, including one that was part of the American Songbook Series.  She made her solo cabaret debut at Feinstein’s, receiving extremely positive reviews and winning the Bistro Award for Best Debut Concert. The New York Times even compared her to Julie Andrews and Barbara Cook, whom ironically had originated the role of Marian the Librarian in the Original Broadway Production of “Music Man,” in 1957.  

    When Luker was finally cast as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins in 2006, she was given a new song to sing called “Being Mrs. Banks,” a song that was composed for the West End Production by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, replacing the film’s original song “Sister Suffragette,” written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. The song was composed to be an expression of Mrs. Banks feelings about the difficulties and the burden of being a wife and mother of a business-preoccupied husband and two unruly children. The song was written to be sung in the show’s first act, along with a reprise in the second act. Luker’s performance as Mrs. Winifred Banks won her her third Tony Nomination, though first in the category of Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. I had the privilege of getting to see her play Mrs. Banks in March of 2008.

    Luker continued acting on Broadway, replacing Victoria Clark in the role of Crazy Marie/Fairy Godmother in the Original Broadway Production of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella from 2013-2014. Her last Broadway appearance was temporarily succeeding Judy Kuhn in the role of Helen Bechdel in the Original Broadway Production of the musical Fun Home in 2016. While she sadly never won a Tony Award, in 2001, she was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame, along with Truman Capote as well as the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

    Rebecca Luker passed away due to ALS on December 23rd, 2020 at the age of 59, with her husband and stepchildren by her side. She will always be remembered for her leading lady roles. Ironically, she did an interview with Playbill in which she stated “I am so not a musical theater person. I love rock music and jazz. I love the ‘70s stuff I grew up with.” Who would have thought that musical theater would be her career success?  

Dodie Smith: Is an Exceptional Writer 101%

        It’s a known fact that many classic Disney films began as books. Mary Poppins (1964) was based on the Mary Poppins book series written by Pamela Lyndon “P.L.” Travers, the first of which was published in 1934, and The Jungle Book (1967) came from a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling in 1894. But before Disney produced those films, they produced 101 Dalmatians in 1961. “Dalmatians,” was based on a book that had been published five years earlier, in 1956, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, and the book was written by author/playwright Dodie Smith. Smith’s story is worth telling because in addition to writing several books and plays, she and Walt Disney became friends. And in addition to all of that, on January 25th, 2021, “101 Dalmatians,” the film will turn 60 years old!

Dodie Smith was born May 3rd 1896, in Whitefield, Lancashire, England. Her father, Ernest, worked as a bank manager, but he regularly attended theater. He sadly passed away when Dodie was two years old. Her mother, Ella, had aspired to be an actress, but to no success, the only exception playing walk-on parts (parts with no dialogue). It was because of both her parents that Dodie herself wanted to be an actress, though she also developed an interest in writing, and she wrote her first play when she was ten years old. 

As a teenager, Smith began acting in small parts at the Manchester Athenaeum Society. Her mother remarried when Dodie was 14, and the new family relocated to London. By the time she reached young adulthood, Dodie discovered that she was going to have better success as a writer rather than actress. She took a job at Heal and Son’s furniture store in London in 1923 and it was while working there that she wrote her first play, Autumn Crocus, which she wrote under the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Surprisingly, the play caught the attention of London’s Lyric Theatre, who agreed to stage the show. It opened on April 6th, 1931, to huge success.

She wrote another play, Call It a Day, which opened at London’s Globe Theatre in 1935, playing a total of 509 performances, making it her longest-running play. She married Alec Macbeth Beesley in 1939. He had been a co-worker Heal and Son’s furniture store, but also became her business manager. She was hired to write the screenplay for the movie The Uninvited released in 1944. The couple relocated to America when Beesley wanted to avoid legal complications for choosing to be a conscientious objector (one who refuses to serve in the military). While living in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, she wrote her first novel I Capture the Castle in 1948. She and her husband became friends with writer John Van Druten who adapted the novel Goodbye to Berlin into a play. (“Goodbye to Berlin,” later became the musical Cabaret, which opened on Broadway in 1966).

Beesley and Smith relocated to London again in the 50s, and in 1952, she wrote the play Letter From Paris. Prior to that, she also wrote the screenplay for the film Darling, How Could You! (1951). Around this time, Smith began to think about writing a children’s novel about dalmatian puppies. She and her husband both owned and adored dalmatians, having a family of nine of them at home. (Their dog family’s patriarch was named Pongo, just as in the film.) At one point, she saw that a friend of hers had seen a group of dalmatian dogs nearby and she overheard her friend say, with no evil intended, “those dogs would make a lovely fur coat,” and that triggered the plot to tell the story of a family of dalmatian dogs who successfully evade a woman who wants to do just that, The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

  The novel was a hit, and it wasn’t long before it slid across the desk of Walt Disney in December of 1957. Disney knew instantly the book had the “animated movie potential,” despite the fact that at this point his career, he was more focused on producing live-action films as well as the Disneyland theme park. He wrote Smith a letter asking her about turning the book into a movie, and though it took lengthy negotiating, Smith was only too happy to sell him the rights. In response, she wrote to Walt acknowledging that she had hoped that he would make a cartoon film because she had fantasized about how some of the scenes in the book would look in cartoon when she wrote it, and even sent him an autographed copy of the book. In response, Disney sent her some of the early production sketches of the film.

When the film finally premiered in January of 1961, Smith and her husband attended a private screening and she and her husband both loved the movie, which Disney was glad to hear. Pongo stretching by Roger’s window at the very beginning of the film was her favorite movie frame. She had only a small complaint, which was that her name was small and briefly flashed on the screen during the film’s main titles. She had preferred her name be big and on screen for longer. She wrote to Walt Disney about that. Disney sincerely apologized, and as token of apology, he sent Smith original full-color photos from the movie. At this point, Smith and he were also talking about her writing another story that he would turn into a movie, and he assured her that her name would be bigger, but sadly their second collaboration never came to fruition. Though they never actually met one another in person, they continued being pen pals until Walt’s passing in December of 1966.

Smith wrote a play called Amateur Means Lover which premiered the same year as the film. She wrote a sequel to “Dalmatians,” entitled The Starlight Barking in 1967, and wrote four autobiographies: Look Back with Love: A Manchester Childhood (1974), Look Back with Mixed Feelings (1978), Look Back with Astonishment (1979) and Look Back with Gratitude (1985). She passed away at her home in Essex, England on November 24th, 1990 at the age of 94. Since her passing, Disney readapted “Dalmatians,” for live-action in 1996, and her novel “I Capture the Castle,” was also made into a movie in 2003. (Disney also made sequels to “Dalmatians,” that have no connection whatsoever to “Starlight Barking,” though they do acknowledge Smith’s name in the opening credits: 102 Dalmatians (2000) and 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure (2003)).

To say that Dodie Smith is a good writer is an understatement. She wrote several  stories throughout her career, but the most beloved is undoubtedly “The Hundred and One Dalmatians.” It is amazing that she was able to develop the extraordinarily vile Cruella DeVil from something that a friend said. In addition to being a humorous and heartwarming story, the book also does a great job of conveying to us humans that we should never underestimate a dog’s capabilities. And Walt Disney’s 1961 film version of the book helps the story continue to be endearing today, even 60 years later.