As I expected, there are already Disneyana fans out there who are taking issue with the version of Disney Company history that I’ve been trying to present as part of this new JHM series.
Typical of the notes I’ve been getting is this e-mail from Cherry C. Who writes to say:
Card Walker wouldn’t greenlight production of “Space Station One” because he didn’t think Disney’s special effect artists were actually up to the challenge of this project? What, are you high, Jim?
That’s all that Disney Studios did during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Produce kid-friendly pictures that prominently featured elaborate special effects sequences. “Bedknobs & Broomsticks,” “Pete’s Dragon,””Blackbeard’s Ghost,””The Gnome Mobile,” “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”, the list goes on and on.
So why was Walker willing to let projects like that — which were loaded with special effects — go into production and yet continually hold back the start of shooting on “Space Station One”? To my way of thinking, this was probably more a case of Card not being comfortable with that movie’s script. Rather than the studio head thinking that his special effects guys weren’t actually up to this challenge.
Well, Cherry C. does bring up an interesting point. I mean, it’s clear that the then-president of Walt Disney Productions must have had some serious concerns with “Space Station One” ‘s script. Otherwise, why would Walker have had six different sets of writers take a swing at that screenplay before Card finally agreed to let production of this sci-fi epic (Which — by then — was titled “The Black Hole”) go forward?
But — that said — over the 25 years, I have spoken with a number of Disney Studio vets. And whenever I’d bring up “The Black Hole,” all these guys would talk about was how Walker continually fretted about that film. How Card would say things like “Hib wants this thing to look just like ‘2001.’ How are we going to deliver effects like that on a Disney-sized budget?”
You see, that was Walt Disney Productions’ dirty little secret in the years directly following Roy Disney’s death. In order to guarantee that virtually every picture that the studio produced eventually earned a profit, Walker wanted each of these film to be made for as little money as humanly possible.
That’s why many of the movies that were made at the Mouse Factory during this era seem to have that cookie-cutter quality. As in: They all seem to have been shot in the very same places (I.E. The Disney studio backlot, Golden Oaks Ranch and/or on the streets of beautiful downtown Burbank) and feature the very same group of performers (I.E. Dean Jones, Kurt Russell, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Joe Flynn et al). And as for these films’ special effects scenes …
Look, it wasn’t that the studio’s effects team wasn’t actually capable of delivering a better finished product. It’s just that they no longer had a guy like Walt Disney running the show. As in: An exacting taskmaster who — when he saw how poorly “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” ‘s original battle-with-the-giant-squid scene had turned out — immediately ordered that entire section of this 1954 Richard Fleischer film be reshot. With a brand new squid as well as additional wind & water effects.
You see, Walt Disney didn’t hesitate for a moment about making that decision. Sure, those reshoots wound up costing the studio an additional $200,000 as well as putting “20,000 Leagues” six weeks behind schedule. But the end result was a film that truly wowed audiences. “20K” eventually became a box office smash, not to mention earning Walt Disney Productions its first-ever Academy Award for Best Special Effects.
Whereas Card Walker … If Card had been faced with that same sort of decision (I.E. Spend an additional $200,000 to seriously upgrade the thrill factor of a new Disney film OR save the company a few bucks by sending this same picture out into theaters as is), Walker would probably have gone the more cost-effective route. As in: Sending the movie out as is.
This is supposedly why you can see so many wires in “Bedknobs & Broomsticks.” Or why all the models & mattes used in “The Island at the Top of the World” look so obvious. The then-managers of Walt Disney Productions were only willing to spend so much time & money on each individual picture. And if the studio’s visual effects artists weren’t able to deliver seamless special effects within the allotted production period and/or for that set budget … Well, that was just too bad.
Now what was particularly maddening about this whole situation was that there were still people within Disney’s visual effects department who cared. Technicians who wanted the studio’s tradition of innovation & excellence to go forward.
Case in point: Alan Maley. Maley was head of Disney’s matte department in the late 1960s. He specialized in painting these beautiful photo-realistic images on large panes of glass that — when they were combined with previously-shot film elements that were then projected onto the glass — helped create the illusion that a sequence that was actually shot in Burbank had been filmed on location in the frozen wastelands of the Arctic, foggy old Londontown and/or under the sea.
Now Alan had an idea that he thought might significantly improve the quality of the mattes Disney was using in its movies. Which involved projecting the film elements onto the front of the glass, rather than from behind. Which is what Hollywood’s matte makers have been doing since back in the silent era.
However — in order to test his front projection theory — Maley was going to need some seed money. Just a few thousand from Disney Productions’ management to fund what would eventually turn out to be a significant break-through in matte technology.
Unfortunately, when Alan went to Card looking for funding, Walker said “No.” The way Card saw things, the mattes that the Mouse Factory were already producing looked just fine to him. So there was no point in trying to improve things just for the sake of innovation. Which was why Walker told Maley that he should just forget about his new front projection idea and go back to the old-fashioned way of making mattes.
This really rubbed Alan the wrong way. Which is why Maley (circa 1971) bailed out of Walt Disney Productions. But not before appointing Harrison Ellenshaw as the new head of Walt Disney Productions’ matte department.
Now that Harrison’s last name may sound familiar to some of you Disneyana fans. That’s because Harrison’s father, Peter Ellenshaw, had preceded Alan Maley as the head of Walt Disney Productions’ matte department. Working on such memorable motion pictures as “20,000 Leagues,” “Darby O’Gill & the Little People” and “Mary Poppins.”
Anyway … Having already spent a few years working under Maley, the younger Ellenshaw knew what was expected on him. Disney management would want him to quickly (and cheapily) churn out multiple matte paintings of the San Francisco skyline for “Herbie Rides Again” and/or the rugged California coastline for “Escape to Witch Mountain.”
But — like Alan — Harrison wanted to do more than just maintain the status quo in Disney’s special effects department. Young Ellenshaw wanted to see what could be done to advance the science / art of matte paintings. But — since Card Walker was obviously unwilling to spend money on any experimentation and/or innovation — how was Harrison supposed to fund his effort to move this cinematic artform forward?
Ellenshaw’s opportunity finally arose when he noticed that many of the other Hollywood studios had shut down their own matte departments. As of the mid-1970s, only two studios still had artists on staff that were capable of creating feature-film-quality matte paintings: Walt Disney Productions and Universal Studios.
Given that Disney’s matte department typically saw an awful lot of down-time between projects, Harrison went to Card and suggested that Walt Disney Productions advertise that the services of the artists in the studio’s Academy Award winning matte department were now available for hire. That way … Well, Ellenshaw and his team of painters might actually make some money for the studio by taking on these outside assignments during their down-time. More to the point, all of this contract work for other studios might challenge Harrison artistically. In a way that creating a matte for a movie like “The Apple Dumpling Gang” never could.
Of course, Card Walker (being the extremely cautious man that he was) was initially slow to warm to this idea. But once Harrison pointed out that — back in the 1960s — Walt Disney himself has actually allowed his special effects artists to be hired out by other studios (EX: Peter Ellenshaw painted mattes for Universal Studios’ 1960 release, “Spartacus,” while Disney special effects whiz Ub Iwerks helped Alfred Hitchcock create those menacing flocks in 1963’s “The Birds”), Walker eventually gave his okay.
“So what was Ellenshaw’s first non-Disney matte-painting assignment?,” you ask. Harrison created mattes to Lion International Film’s 1976 release, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” And the paintings that Ellenshaw created for this David Bowie film (Particularly those that showed the view from space) caught the eye of Jim Nelson. A production co-ordinator for a little sci-fi film that George Lucas was still trying to get off the ground.
Maybe you’ve heard of it? “Star Wars”?
Anyway … A few days later, Nelson visits Ellenshaw on the Disney lot. Jim brings along some of Ralph McQuarrie’s pre-production illustrations for “Star Wars.” Harrison recalled that McQuarrie’s paintings …
” … got me excited right away. They were very, very nice – really great. (Jim) convinced me to do the mattes for ‘Star Wars’ in a little place they were putting together in Van Nuys.”
Now — to be fair here — I guess I should point out that George Lucas was having the very same sort of concerns about “Star Wars” that Card Walker was having about “Space Station One / The Black Hole.” As in: How could Lucasfilm ever possibly produce a feature film with “2001” – quality special effects on an extremely limited budget?
Of course, the advantage that Lucas had over Walker was inexperience. To explain: George didn’t know that what he was about to try & do was impossible. So he just went ahead and did it anyway.
Assembling a ragtag group of model-makers & effects artists (Some of which Lucas found by placing ads in the “Classified” section of the “Los Angeles Times”) in a warehouse in Van Nuys. Ellenshaw — at the age of 34 — was actually the grizzled veteran of the group. Everyone else was in their early 20s.
Mind you, the original plan was that Harrison would moonlight on “Star Wars.” As in: Ellenshaw was to spend his days working at Walt Disney Productions on movies for the Mouse. Then — when night fell — he was to drive from Burbank to Van Nuys to work on mattes for Mr. Lucas’s motion picture.
Unfortunately — given the primitive working conditions at this warehouse — Harrison was only able to complete six of the dozen or so mattes that he was originally hired to paint for “Star Wars” on site in Van Nuys. So Ellenshaw finished working on the other six mattes for this 20th Century Fox release in his on-the-lot studio back in Burbank.
Now you have to appreciate the irony of this whole situation. Here’s Card Walker — continuing to hold up production of “Space Station One” because he believes that it’s just impossible to produce a picture that features “2001” -quality effects on a Disney-sized budget. And yet here’s Harrison Ellenshaw, working on the Disney lot, right under Card Walker’s nose … on key components of the picture that will change forever how people view space-based special effects-laden films.
To add insult to injury, when “Star Wars” finally opened in May of 1977, a contingent of Disney executives came over the hill from Burbank to catch a screening of this George Lucas film at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
Adam Beckett, one of the effect engineers who worked on “A New Hope” remembers that story this way. It seemed like every suit who was working for Disney at that time turned out from this screening:
“Virtually the whole studio (came out) … They were planning to do a science fiction film about a mile-long spaceship that might get sucked into a black hole. They were saying things to each other, ‘Where did all these people (who made this movie) come from? We’ve never heard of these guys.’ ”
Which is kind of ironic. Given that at least half of the mattes that appeared in this original “Star Wars” film were painted on the Disney lot by a Disney artist.
Anyway … In the wake of “Star Wars” ‘s overwhelming success, Walt Disney Productions initially put “Space Station One” on hold. After all, Card Walker didn’t want the Mouse to be seen as a copycat.
But as George Lucas’s space adventure made more money and then more money and then even more money (By the time this 20th Century Fox release had finally run its course at the box office in the summer of 1978, “Star Wars: Episode IV” had sold nearly $525 million worth of tickets worldwide), Walker began to rethink his position on this whole space-based adventure thing.
Maybe now — three years after Winston Hibler initially suggested that Walt Disney Productions produce a space-based adventure — it finally made sense for the Mouse to make one of these sorts of movies. Particularly if Disney could make its super-serious “Space Station One” seem more like “Star Wars.”
Coming soon … The continuation of “By George!” Where I talk about how Winston Hibler’s dream of a science fiction epic slowly gets turned into “20,000 Leagues Under the Star Wars.”