Fred MacMurray: Disney's Best Dad

When we think classic television dads there are many “dads” who fit that bill: Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy (1951-1957), Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), Rob Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), Herman Munster from The Munsters (1964-1966), Mike Brady from The Brady Bunch (1969-1974), and the list goes on and on. Steve Douglas, the father from My Three Sons (1960-1972), is another character who would be included on that list, portrayed for twelve seasons by Fred MacMurray on both the ABC and CBS Networks. While appearing on the show, MacMurray simultaneously began a contract at Walt Disney Studios, and became a close of friend of Walt Disney in real life. In honor of Father’s Day, I thought we could reminisce MacMurray’s Disney legacy, which includes portrayals of fatherly figures. 

Fred MacMurray made his Disney debut as Wilson Daniels in The Shaggy Dog (1959). This film co-starred Tim Considine as Buzz Miller, who coincidentally would go on to star with MacMurray as Mike Douglas in the first seasons of “My Three Sons.” “Shaggy Dog,” was a beloved hit for Disney, being Disney’s first live-action comedy to produce as well as second-highest grossing film of 1959, just under Ben-Hur (1959). His second Disney film, The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), proved an even bigger hit, becoming the very first live-action Disney film to spawn a sequel, Son of Flubber (1963). Fred MacMurray enjoyed shooting the party scene in “Son of Flubber,” because he actually plays the saxophone in the scene and MacMurray had considered a career as a saxophone player before becoming an actor. In between the “Flubber,” films MacMurray made another film for Disney entitled Bon Voyage! (1962), during which Walt Disney himself taught him how to hypnotize chickens. Whoever would have thought that was a thing?

In the first four films he made for Disney, MacMurray acted with Tommy Kirk, who played his older son in “Shaggy Dog,” and “Bon Voyage,” and the son of his main enemy in the “Flubber” films. Kevin Corcoran portrayed his younger son in “Shaggy Dog,” and “Bon Voyage.” Fred MacMurray starred in Follow Me, Boys! in 1966 and The Happiest Millionaire in 1967. These two films would be the Disney/feature film debuts of Kurt Russell and Lesley Ann Warren, respectively. Fred MacMurray later cited “Follow Me, Boys,” as his favorite of all his Disney films, having grown up a boy scout himself. 

“Follow Me, Boys,” also reunited him with Elliot Reid, who portrayed his competitor for the affection of Vera Miles in the film. Ironically, Reid had also portrayed MacMurray’s competitor for Nancy Olson’s affection in “The Absent-Minded Professor,” and in both films the ladies ultimately chose MacMurray’s character. Charles Ruggles, who also appeared in “Son of Flubber,” appeared in “Follow Me, Boys” as well. MacMurray was also sad to bid farewell to his friend Walt Disney, whose December 15th, 1966 death occurred while both “Follow Me, Boys,” and “The Happiest Millionaire,” were still in production. He made his final Disney film Charley and the Angel in 1973, once again reuniting him with Kurt Russell.

Fred MacMurray was somewhat typecast as a chivalrous gentlemanly husband/father throughout most of his career, but he did, on occasion, have roles that weren’t so gentlemanly. He was often quoted as having said his best roles ever were whenever he cast against type. His portrayals of Walter Neff, the insurance salesman who plots with Barbara Stanwyck on how to murder her husband in Double Indemnity (1944) and as Jeff Sheldrake, the womanizing corporate executive executive having an affair with Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment (1960), are two great examples of that. Another example was with Humphrey Bogart and Jose Ferrer in The Caine Mutiny (1954), where he played deceitful Lieutenant Thomas Keefer. These three films were all nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and “The Apartment,” won, but sadly MacMurray never received an Oscar or any major award nomination throughout his entire career.

Fred MacMurray will forever be remembered for his “nice guy” roles, though one can definitely argue that he proved his versatility throughout his career and certainly was underrated as an actor. He retired from acting in 1978 after working for nearly 50 years, due to throat cancer and he passed away at the age of 83 on November 5th, 1991, having suffered from both leukemia and pneumonia. His adopted daughter, Kate MacMurray remembers her father being interviewed a few years before he passed away and the interviewer asked him how he’d like to be remembered and MacMurray replied “Fondly.” Taking into consideration the films he made for Disney, we certainly will remember him fondly.              

Review: "Cruella"

The character of Cruella DeVil was first introduced to the world in Dodie Smith’s novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians which was published in 1956. Five years later, Walt Disney adapted the character in his animated movie version of the novel, 101 Dalmatians, released in January of 1961. 35 years after that, Glenn Close portrayed the treacherous villainess in live-action form when Disney remade 101 Dalmatians in 1996. And on May 28th, Disney released the prequel live-action film Cruella (2021) starring Emma Stone as the character. Here’s my review:

The film introduces a young girl named Estella born with hair half black and half white. Estella immediately takes an interest in fashion, but apparently has a “cruel,” side, so her adopted mother, Catherine decides to call her “Cruella.” When mean-hearted Dalmatians chase Catherine off a cliff, to her death, young Estella is devastated and relocates to London where she meets two other orphans, Horace and Jasper, who take her in as part of their family. As Estella grows into a woman, she takes a job as a cleaning lady at the Liberty Department store, and one night while drunk she remakes a window design. Her design catches the attention of Baroness von Hellman, who employs Estella at her fashion house, and the baroness’s cruel, strict, and abusive mentorship inspires young Estella to give into her cruel side and ultimately adopt the “Cruella” name full-time.

“Cruella,” has a very depressing plot: a woman who values hatred and power rather than kindness and generosity and what precisely lead her to believe that. Taking that into consideration makes it hard to decipher what is inspiring about it, however we might at least feel compassion for her as she experiences tragic misfortune in her life, and we might also feel empathy for Horace and Jasper as Cruella bosses them around and takes away their dignity and/or self-esteem as a result. This story barely acknowledges the romance of Roger and Anita, nor Pongo and Perdita, which was disappointing, for me. However artistically, it is very well-made!    

“Cruella,” features unbelievably well-designed costumes, which were designed by Jenny Beavan who won two Oscars for her designs in A Room With a View (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The film was directed by Craig Gillespie who directed 2017’s Oscar-winning I, Tonya as well as Million Dollar Arm (2014) and The Finest Hours (2016), both of which were released by Disney. The film includes Production Design by Fiona Crumbie and Alice Felton and was co-written by Tony McNamara, all of whom received Oscar nominations for contributing the same skills to The Favourite (2018), which coincidentally starred Emma Stone!  

Emma Stone gives a brilliant performance in this film. One could maybe argue that it is an even stronger performance than her Oscar-winning turn in La La Land (2016), and she might have another Oscar nod in her future for this film. Emma Thompson is also quite brilliant as the cold-hearted Baroness. It probably won’t be long before Thompson earns the Disney Legend Award (an award an artist can earn for making legendary and/or iconic contributions to Disney), since “Cruella” is the fifth film Thompson has made released under the Disney label. (Prior to this, Thompson voiced Captain Amelia in Treasure Planet (2002), Queen Elinor in Disney/Pixar’s Brave (2012), and she portrayed P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks (2013) (another vile character!) as well as Mrs. Potts in Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast (2017)).

The supporting cast includes: “Cobra Kai’s,” Paul Walter Hauser as Horace, Joel Fry as Jasper, Mark Strong as John the Valet, Kayvan Novak as Roger, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Anita, Emily Beecham as Catherine, and Tipper Siefert-Cleveland as Young Estella. They each give exceptional performances as well. 

Overall, there are some things to like about “Cruella,” but also some disappointments. I wouldn’t rank it as an all-time favorite or as one of Disney’s best. The film might either help you hate the character of Cruella DeVil more than you already did, or you might still dislike her but at the same time feel compassion for the rough life that she had. On the whole, I’d say that the more superior films would either be the original cartoon “101 Dalmatians,” or the live-action version with Glenn Close (who was an executive producer on this film.)   

Samuel E. Wright Tribute

When Disney produced The Little Mermaid (1989), released on November 17th, 1989, they assembled an unbelievably talented voice cast. The star lineup included Jodi Benson as the voice of Ariel, Christopher Daniel Barnes as Prince Eric, Pat Carroll as Ursula the Sea Witch, Paddi Edwards in the dual role of the eels Floatsam and Jetsam, Kenneth Mars as King Triton, and Buddy Hackett as Scuttle. Disney was also fortunate enough to cast Samuel E. Wright as the voice of Sebastian the crab. Sadly, we recently lost Sam, so I thought today’s blog could be a tribute to his interesting legacy at Disney.

Although a native of Camden, South Carolina, Wright adapted a Trinidadian accent when he was cast as Sebastian. Today people continue to mistake it for Jamaican, but Wright himself verified that it was, in fact, Trinidadian. He mastered the accent beautifully when singing the songs “Under the Sea,” and “Kiss the Girl,” both of which received the Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Song (“Under the Sea” won). He reprised the role of Sebastian for the direct-to-video sequels, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000) and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (2008) as well as the Disney Channel Television Series, The Little Mermaid (1992-1994) and Disney’s House of Mouse (2001-2002).

Although Sebastian will forever be Wright’s best-known role at Disney, in 1997, Wright was cast in the Original Broadway Production of The Lion King in the role of Mufasa, the role made popular James Earl Jones in the movie. Although Jones’s Mufasa didn’t sing, a song that Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice had originally written for the film called “The Morning Report,” was included in the Broadway show for Mufasa to sing, along with Zazu and Young Simba. Mark Mancina and Jay Rifkin also collaborated with Lebo M on new music for the Broadway version and they wrote a new Mufasa song titled “They Live in You.” Wright scored the second Tony Nomination of his career for his performance as Mufasa.

After his run as “Mufasa,” Wright later returned to the Disney Studios to voice Kron the Iguanadon in the CGI film Dinosaur (2000). Max Casella, who co-starred with Wright in the Original Broadway Company of “Lion King,” originating the role of Timon, voiced Zini the lemur. The role of Kron was a villain, different from the good-natured Sebastian, and it didn’t require Wright to adapt an accent, but to make the character seem more threatening, he deepened his own natural voice.

Samuel E. Wright passed away due to prostate cancer on May 24th, 2021, at the age of 74. His legacy at Disney is as remarkable as it is legendary knowing that few actors get to portray iconic Disney characters both in film and on Broadway. “The Little Mermaid,” was adapted for Broadway in 2008 with Titus Burgess portraying Sebastian, and Disney is currently filming the live-action version of The Little Mermaid in which the role of Sebastian will be assumed by Tony Award Winner, Daveed Diggs, who won his Tony for doubling in the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the Original Broadway Company of Hamilton. Samuel E. Wright will live on, however, as the voice that made Sebastian such a beloved character. 

 

   

The Hauntingly Interesting Origin of the Hatbox Ghost

On August 9th, 1969, The Haunted Mansion attraction opened in the New Orleans Square at Disneyland. If you’ve visited the attraction, you probably remember that attraction is known for having “999 happy haunts.” In today’s blog, I’d like to tell you about the fascinating history of one of those many “haunts,” that originally was part of the attraction upon opening but was removed not long after. Thankfully, it was restored on May 9th 2015, six years ago today: “The Hatbox Ghost.”

When WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering) designed The Haunted Mansion, they designed “The Hatbox Ghost,” as the highlight of the “attic scene” in the attraction. His head design was the same as Ezra the Hitchhiking Ghost. He was to appear directly across from the Bride Ghost and a special lighting effect was designed to make his head disappear from the top of his body and reappear in the hatbox he held. Although the effect worked perfectly fine in early tests, everyone at WED felt that it wasn’t quite as impactful due to guests viewing it from different angles and the other lighting of the attraction. Hence, the apparition was removed within weeks of opening, and the “Bride Ghost” took over his spot.

However, on April 10th, 2015, it was announced that “Hatty,” (his fan-given nickname) would return to his original spot at The Haunted Mansion, in honor of Disneyland’s 60th anniversary. When he was restored, everyone at Walt Disney Imagineering made improvements on the character. The original “Hatty’s” only moving body part was his shaking hand that held his cane. The 2015 “Hatty” can move all of his body parts. His signature move starts with his face being projected on a blank head, then it falls down his body and is re-projected in the hatbox, then after seconds is back on his shoulders. Corey Burton, who has done significant voice work for Disney (he is the current voice of Donald Duck’s uncle, Professor Ludwig Von Drake), provides the character’s voice, succeeding the original voice, Paul Frees, who coincidentally originated the voice of Professor Ludwig Von Drake.

Although the Hatbox Ghost does not appear in the Disney World version of The Haunted Mansion, when guests get their picture taken during the Haunted Mansion’s “Portrait Hall” sequence, the pictures show the Hatbox Ghost overlooking their “Doom Buggies.” He is also known for making guest appearances on Disney’s House of Mouse (2001-2003), The Haunted Mansion Comic Book series, and he is a prominent feature in “The Haunted Mansion Holiday,” in which The Haunted Mansion is decorated for Halloween with a theme inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), which has been a tradition of the park for almost 20 years. The ghost appears with a Halloween pin on his hat.

“The Hatbox Ghost,” certainly is a special asset to The Haunted Mansion. It’s a shame that it was removed not long after the ride had initially open but it’s great news that Walt Disney Imagineering was able to improve upon it and make it more fun than ever before. Who would have thought a ghost like that could also have such an intriguing history at Disney? 

 

 

Review: "22 vs. Earth"

Disney/Pixar’s Soul (2020) was very fortunate to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar last Sunday, April 25th, 2021, along with the Oscar for Best Original Score. On April 30th, 2021, Pixar released a new short, and a prequel film to “Soul,” on Disney+. Titled 22 vs. Earth (2021), it tells a story of Tina Fey’s “Soul 22” character’s time in “The Great Before,” before she meets Joe Gardner’s soul, and acknowledges why she doesn’t want to go to Earth. Here’s my review of this short film.

The short opens with Soul 22 explaining why she doesn’t want to go Earth. As she speaks to another random soul, she says she doesn’t want to go because she believes that it’s a “dirty, wet, and lonely” planet and that it’s just not worth visiting and she decides to rebel against going to Earth by rounding up five young souls to steal the inspiration of life from other souls in “The Great Before.” However, even when the five young souls steal the inspiration from the other souls, they wind up becoming inspired themselves and going to Earth, abandoning Soul 22 in a humorous way.

Just like “Soul,” the movie, “22 vs. Earth,” is inspiring because it reminds us that life on Earth can have all kinds of different meanings and/or inspirations. But beyond that, it shows that life’s many inspirations make life on Earth worth living. People often question the true meaning of life, but the truth is, life can have all kinds of different meanings.

“22 vs. Earth,” continues the beautiful visuals of “Soul.” Going on this 3D Animation journey, we get to see a bunch of different “souls” that couldn’t be more cute to look at, and by the time we see them head off to Earth, it’s as though the audience is in outer space. It’s a brief, but fun adventure.

“22 vs. Earth,” also continues the clever humor of “Soul.” It was written by Josh Cooley, who won the Best Animated Feature Oscar last year for his direction of Toy Story 4 (2019) and the short was directed by Kevin Nolting who edited “Soul,” as well as Disney/Pixar’s Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015), both of which were awarded the Best Animated Feature Oscar and written and directed by “Soul,” director Pete Docter, who also executive produced the short. Reprising her role from the film as the voice of Soul 22, Tina Fey appears alongside Richard Ayoade and Alice Braga, as the Counselor Jerries. The short film was scored by Trent Raznor and Atticus Ross, who won both the Best Original Score Oscar and Best Original Score Golden Globe for “Soul,” awards they shared with Jon Batiste.

“22 vs. Earth,” is a beautiful animated short film. As it reunites many of the same talent from “Soul,” along with the same visuals, it continues the same inspiring message from “Soul,” that life is full of all kinds of meaningful inspirations. Hats off to Pixar for making both a film and a short with such a unique message!

   

The Origin of the Best Animated Feature Oscar

In honor of the fact that tonight is Oscar Sunday, I thought today’s blog could be about the history of one of my favorite Oscar categories: The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Feel free to let me know in the comments section of which is your favorite of these movies.

Beginning with its history, the Oscars have been around since 1929, although the Best Animated Feature category has only been a part of the show for the past 20 years. Up till that point, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were reluctant to create a category for animated films. The reason? Prior to 2001, the Academy felt that there were enough animated films produced that could honestly be considered award-worthy, other than those produced by Disney. The Academy had given a Best Picture Oscar Nomination to Beauty and the Beast in 1991, and a Special Achievement Oscar to Toy Story in 1995.

By 2001, however, due to the advancement of new animated film companies competing against Disney, the Academy decided to create the category for Best Animated Feature Film. It was presented for the first time at their 74th show, and the very first film to receive the award was DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek (2001). “Shrek” beat Paramount Pictures' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) and Disney/Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. (2001), though “Monsters, Inc.,” did manage to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, “If I Didn’t Have You.” The following year, Spirited Away (2002) won; It was produced by the Japanese Animation Studio, Studio Ghibli (though released by the Disney label). It’s rather ironic that Disney didn’t win the first two awards in the category!

The first Disney/Pixar film to be awarded the Best Animated Feature Oscar was Finding Nemo, released in 2003. The Incredibles (2004) won the year after that, and that film also took home the award for Best Sound Editing. In 2006, the Best Animated Feature Oscar was given to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) co-directed by Steve Box and Nick Park. (Park also won Best Short Film, Animated Oscars for the Wallace & Gromit short films, The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995) and Box was an additional key animator on Chicken Run (2000), also co-directed by Park.) In 2007, George Miller took home the Oscar for the direction he gave to Warner Bros.’ Happy Feet, beating Sony Pictures' Monster House (2006) and Disney/Pixar’s Cars (2006). 

Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007) won the Oscar in 2008 and was written and directed by “Incredibles,” writer/director, Brad Bird. (Bird is also known for providing the voice of Edna Mode in “The Incredibles” and the Ambrister Minion in “Ratatouille.”) The next recipient was Wall-E (2008), which was written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who also wrote and directed Finding Nemo (2003) and voiced Crush the Sea Turtle in that film. When Wall-E (2008) was released some people were resentful of the fact that it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture of the Year, leading to the controversy of whether or not it was robbed of that chance. 

This controversy was somewhat resolved when Up (2009) won the award the next year, and was also nominated for Best Picture. While The Hurt Locker (2009) received the Best Picture Oscar that year, “Up” also took home the award for Best Original Score written by Michael Giacchino, who has scored several different Disney films, including “Incredibles” and “Ratatouille.” “Up” was written and directed by Pete Docter who also wrote and directed “Monsters, Inc.” He received another Oscar for writing and directing Inside Out (2015) and is nominated again this year for Soul (2020).

 

Toy Story 3 (2010) was nominated for both Best Animated Feature and Best Picture, and it won the latter along with the award for Best Original Song “We Belong Together,” written by Randy Newman. In addition to Newman’s win for the song “If I Didn’t Have You,” in “Monsters, Inc.”, Newman also received nominations for the songs “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” in “Toy Story,” “When She Loved Me,” in Toy Story 2 (1999) and “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” in Toy Story 4 (2019). In 2012, Warner Bros.’ Rango (2011) took home the Oscar, but Disney struck Oscar gold for the next six years in a row, with Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), “Inside Out,” Zootopia (2016), and Coco (2017). “Brave,” was a “big first,” since one of the film’s directors, Brenda Chapman, became the first woman director of an animated film ever to win an Oscar. “Frozen” and “Coco” both won the Best Original Song Oscars: “Let It Go,” and “Remember Me,” respectively.

The Oscar was next given to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018, beating Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Disney’s sequel to Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (2018). “Toy Story 4,” was last year’s winner, and Disney and Pixar both make history tonight, as it is the first time both have a had a film in the running simultaneously for Best Animated Feature: Onward (2020) and “Soul.” “Soul,” is also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Sound.  

    Disney and Pixar have been very fortunate to have won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for 14 beloved movies (Ten of which were produced by both Disney and Pixar, and four were produced by Disney.) Their competition tonight, includes Netflix’s Over the Moon (2020), Aardman Animation’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020), and Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers (2020). How things will officially turn out will be acknowledged at 7:00 pm Central Time on ABC.

Review: "Big Shot"

You might remember John Stamos best for his role as Uncle Jesse Katsopolis on Full House (1987-1995) and its reboot series Fuller House (2016-2020). He received Emmy Nominations for his role as “Blackie Parrish” on General Hospital (1963-present) and for Executive Producing the miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family (2000), and he even portrayed leading male roles in Broadway musical revivals including “The Emcee/M.C.” in Cabaret (1998) and Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie (2009). This past Friday, April 16th, 2021, Disney+ released the pilot episode for a new show called Big Shot (2021) starring Stamos. Here’s my review of the show:

in “Big Shot,” Stamos plays Marvin Korn, a divorced and disgruntled Basketball coach, who was forced out by the NCAA for having a bad attitude as a coach but was instead hired to coach the basketball team at an all-girls high school. He is not thrilled by his new assignment at all, and he makes that clear to the team, along with rudely criticizing some of them, which they take personally. However, as he gets to know their assistant coach, Holly Barrett (played by Jessalyn Gilsig), she tells him that he can’t be rude, but she also notices that despite his crankiness, he actually does have potential to be a good coach, and encourages him to inspire the team. Korn ultimately coaches them at the very first game (which they loose), but he inspires the team, and it’s pretty clear that they’re just getting warmed up.

What’s inspiring about this show is that it’s about how important it is to always have a good attitude, especially on the ball court. Marvin has to improve on his own personal attitude toward coaching basketball, but the team also has to improve on their playing skills, as well as respecting their coach. Clearly, both Marvin and the team are learning that you can choose if you want to be a “big shot” or not, but if that’s what you choose, it can make you a jerk.

The show is also very funny. It was co-created by David E. Kelley, Dean Lorey, and Brad Garrett. Kelley and Lorey are both known for executive producing drama/comedy series like Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and Arrested Development (2013-2019). Garrett won three Emmys for his performance as Robert Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), but he also produced the romantic comedy series ’Til Death (2006-2010).

Furthermore, the show includes the supporting cast of Yvette Nicole Brown as the High School’s Dean of Students and Keala Settle will have an upcoming role as one of the team member’s mothers. Brown previously played Aunt Sarah in the Disney+ remake of Lady and the Tramp (2019) and Settle portrayed Lettie Lutz in The Greatest Showman (2017), the role that made a worldwide sensation of the Oscar-nominated song “This Is Me.”

“Big Shot,” definitely has good potential. It combines the creative vision of accoladed television personalities, along with well-written humor and versatile actors. And it’s also about a man who will inspire girls to have confidence in themselves, not just as a team, but individually too, and that’s perfect for today. Let’s hope we see more of that good in the episodes to come.