BelleFan227 writes in to ask about her favorite film:
Dear Jim,
As you might have already guessed by my screen name, I’m a huge fan of Disney’s “Beast & the Beast.” So I was wondering if you had any stories that you could share about the production of this animated feature?
Dear BellFan,
Well, me personally, I’ve always been fascinated by the stories of Disney’s earlier attempts at turning this classic fairy tale into a full-length animated feature. You know? The versions that would have predated Kirk Wise & Gary Trousdale‘s Academy Award-winner.
But until just recently, all I was ever able to do was get these friends-of-a-friend stories. As in: I never got to talk directly with anyone who’d actually worked on any of these earlier attempts. The best I’d been able to do is talk with some animator who had worked with a WDFA vet who — back in the 1940s & 1950s — had supposedly done some story work or test animation on this early, early version of Disney’s “Beauty & the Beast.” So (as you might expect) any information that I’d ever been able to gather on this production had been sketchy at best.
So imagine my delight this past weekend when — as I was burrowing through the New York Times‘ online archives — when I came across an April 1954 story which revealed that production of Disney’s new animated version of “Beauty & the Beast” was about to get underway.
According to A.H. Weiler’s article, this new feature-length cartoon was expected to cost ” … over $5,000,000″ to produce. More to the point, studio sources had told Weiler that ” … This will be Disney’s most startling approach to animation — probably Daliesque in character and unlike anything in the history of the company.” And that — provided that production went smoothly — Walt Disney Productions hoped to have “Beauty & the Beast” in theaters by 1958.
Well, obviously, things didn’t quite go according to plan. By 1955, this earlier attempt at producing an animated version of “Beauty & the Beast” had been tabled in favor of “Sleeping Beauty.” Which (again according to the folks that I’ve spoken with) Walt had hoped would be cost less than $ 5,000,000 to produce.
Copyright 1959 Walt Disney Productions
Which sadly wasn’t the case. By the time “Sleeping Beauty” finally reached theaters in January of 1959, this animated feature (Which Disney had produced in the Super Technirama 70 format in an effort to make this movie seem like an extra-special event. Something that people just had to see in theaters in order to get the full effect) wound up costing significantly more than that early, early version of “Beauty & the Beast” had been projected to. With the production costs coming in at $6,000,000 and the film’s promotion costing an additional $3,000,000.
Given that “Sleeping Beauty” only took in slightly more than $5,000,000 during its initial domestic run, the results were disastrous for Disney Feature Animation. 80% of WDFA’s staff was laid off in the weeks following SB’s release. More importantly, Walt soured to the idea of his studio producing any more films like “Sleeping Beauty.”
I’m serious, folks. In a 1965 interview with columnist Peter Bart, Disney actually said that he’d “never again” allow WDFA to make an animated film that was based on a well-known children’s classic or fairy tale, saying that:
“We do better with our own stories where we have greater latitude. People keep urging us to do ‘Don Quixote.’ We’d be crucified if that didn’t turn out just right — especially in the Latin Countries.
I got trapped into making ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ against my better judgment and it was a terrible disappointment. Frankly, I always liked the Tenniel illustrations in ‘Alice’ but I never exactly died laughing over the story. It’s terribly tough to transfer whimsy to the screen.”
Of course, what’s kind of ironic about all this is — as Walt Disney is telling Peter Bart that his studio will “never again” produce an animated film that’s based on a well-known children’s classic and/or fairy tale — what movies are WDFA staffers already working on? A feature length cartoon based on Rudyard Kipling‘s “The Jungle Book” as well as a featurette based on A.A. Milne‘s “Winnie the Pooh” stories.
Anyway … Getting back to “Sleeping Beauty” now … This animated feature performed so poorly at the box office that, for the first time since Disneyland had opened back in July of 1955, Walt Disney Productions actually lost money in 1959-1960. The company then had to tell its shareholders that it had a $1.3 million deficit for that fiscal year. Which was the first time that WDP had actually lost money in a decade.
Thankfully, Walt Disney Productions’ earnings rebounded in 1960-1961. But “Sleeping Beauty” (due to its enormous production & promotional costs) remained in the red for nearly another twenty years. Even what this animated feature earned during its 1970 re-release wasn’t enough to move SB into the black. Only in 1979, after the film’s second re-release, did “Sleeping Beauty” finally officially recover all of its original production & promotional costs and then begin earning a profit for the Mouse.
Anywho … Given how badly things had gone with the studio’s last attempt at producing a feature length cartoon based on a classic children’s story, is it any wonder that it took WDFA three decades before they’d dare to release another fairy tale-based film? Thankfully, “The Little Mermaid” was a critical & financial success when it hit theaters in November of 1989. Which is why this Ron Clements & John Musker movie effectively opened the floodgates. Allowing Disney Studios to make one final stab at producing an animated version of “Beauty & the Beast.”
Copyright 1991 The Walt Disney Company
Which (as you already know, BelleFan227) turned out okay …
Of course, if you to talk about life’s little ironies … In late 1991, as the “Beauty & the Beast” production team is running out of time to complete their film, which Disney animated classic did they wind up “borrowing” footage from? That’s right. “Sleeping Beauty.”
Next time you’re watching B & B, pay very close attention to the very last moments of that movie — where Belle is dancing with her now-transformed prince. If that scene looks familiar … Well, that’s because that sequence is just a retracing of Aurora & Prince Phillip’s dance at the end of SB.
Anyhow … As you can see, the histories of the Disney versions of “Beauty & the Beast” and “Sleeping Beauty” have been interwined for more than 50 years now. But you have to wonder what might have happened if Walt hadn’t balked at the cost of that early, early version of “Beauty & the Beast” and had kept that project in production. If B&B had done better at the box office than SB did, would Disney Feature Animation have still had that huge lay-off in 1959? What sorts of movies would we have seen if WDFA had retained its full staff and/or remained at full strength as that animation studio entered the 1960s?
Ah, I guess we’ll never know. Unless — of course — some WDFA vet were to come forward and talk about what this 1954 version of “Beauty & the Beast” was supposed to be like (Hint, hint).
Your thoughts?
P.S.
Remember when Walt said that ” … we’d be crucified” if Disney Feature Animation ever dared to put a feature length cartoon version of “Don Quixote” into production? … Well, back in the mid-1990s, WDFA actually did put an animated version of Cervantes’ classic tale into development. And the Disney Informer has some model sheets from that aborted feature on file.
So — if you want a little taste of what might have been — go check out those “Don Quixote” model sheets ASAP, okay?