“Disney Dossiers” showcases some seldom-seen art from the studio’s animation research library

Jim Hill

18 years ago

It’s what every good Disney dweeb dreams of. Someday getting into the ARL. As in: WDFA’s Animation Research Library.

You see, the ARL is the place where — once production is completed on a particular animated feature — all the artwork is then sent. Both the finished animation drawings as well as the more conceptual material. You know? Those drawings that the studio’s artists and storymen do when they’re still trying to find their way on a film.

It’s all this amazing “What If” material that really appeals to the hardcore animation history buffs like myself. Which is why people like me dream & scheme about someday getting into Disney’s ARL. So that we can then have the chance to see what Snow White would have looked like if she were blonde …

… or what the Beast would have looked like if he had been more mandrill than man.

Or see if the Blue Fairy in “Pinocchio” would have appeared a bit more magical & majestic if she had had darker hair or worn a different crown.

Or learn if Bernard & Bianca from “The Rescuers” would have been even more appealing if they’d worn different outfits and/or looked a bit more like real mice.

Yeah, the ARL is where all of Disney’s great “What Ifs” live. And it’s extremely unlikely that any of us civilians will ever get the chance to prowl around its archives.

Which is why we should all be grateful that Jeff Kurtti has just written Disney Dossiers: Files of Characters from the Walt Disney Studios” (October 2006, Disney Editions). For this 160-page paperback seems like a pretty good approximation of what it would be like to have unfettered access to the studio’s Animation Research Library. To be able to dig through the past 80 years worth of material.

I guess I should stress here that the “Disney Dossiers” doesn’t pretend to be a definitive history of the studio or its characters. But — rather — it’s just this cleverly designed book that briefly touches on some of the more intriguing projects that the Mouse Factory has churned out since 1928.

The conceit of “Disney Dossiers” is that it supposedly reproduces this set of secret studio files. Manila folders that loosely group Disney’s films & characters into specific categories. Cats & Dogs. Royalty & Sidekicks. Villains & Extra-Evil Villains. Children & Perpetual Children.

Speaking of Perpetual Children … As you page through “Disney Dossiers,” you’ll see some wonderful pre-production art from “Peter Pan.” The richly detailed concept paintings that David Hall did for this proposed animated feature back in the late 1930s …

Which suggest what Walt originally had in mind for J.M. Barrie‘s characters …

Creating an animated feature that was to have been more in the style of “Pinocchio” and “Snow White.” Rather than what we eventually ended up with in 1953.

Mind you, Kurtti doesn’t group all of this “Peter Pan” material together. So — in order to find these gems — you really have to do some digging through all of the “Disney Dossiers” that are collected in this paperback.

But if you are paying attention, there really is some pretty wild stuff hidden in here. Like what? Well, how about a six-legged version of Elliot, the title character from “Pete’s Dragon“?

Or how about artwork from films that never actually made it off the drawing boards at WDFA? Animated features like “Kingdom of the Sun” …

… or “Sweating Bullets”?

Mind you, Jeff makes sure to spread the love around. Meaning that “Disney Dossiers” doesn’t just concentrate on the full-length animated features that WFDA churned out over the years. This book also pays tribute to some of the more remarkable shorts that the studio has produced. Great little films like “John Henry.”

As I said toward the start of today’s article, “Disney Dossiers: Files of Characters from the Walt Disney Studios” doesn’t pretend to be a definitive history of Disney Studios or its characters. All this book really tries to be is an attractively laid-out paperback that showcases some of the seldom-seen pieces of art that are stashed away in Disney’s Animation Research Library.

That (admittedly) may not be the most ambitious goal. But — that said — Jeff Kurtti still delivers in spades. “Disney Dossiers” is a doozy of a book. So if you’re a real animation fan, make a point of picking up a copy of this paperback about Disney’s ARL ASAP.