What Johnny Depp just did for “Rango,” Kathryn Beaumont did for Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” back in 1950

Jim Hill

14 years ago

Are you looking forward to “Rango” ?

I know that I am. And not just because this project reunites Johnny Depp with his “Pirates of the Caribbean” director, Gore Verbinski. Or because this Paramount Pictures will be ILM‘s first-ever animated feature (though – not to be a nit-picker here – but wasn’t 1983’s “Twice Upon a Time ” really Lucasfilm Ltd.‘s first full-length animated film? Anyway …).

No, the reason that I’m looking forward to “Rango” is that the way that Gore decided to record all of the character voices for this animated feature. Rather than have his actors perform their lines alone in a sound booth (which – to Verbinski’s way of thinking, anyway – gives these sorts of films a less spontaneous sound & feel), Gore gathered Depp & Co. together on a soundstage. And – over a 20-day-period, using a limited amount of props, sets and costumes – he had “Rango” ‘s vocal cast act out this entire movie in front of video cameras.

Taking this approach to recording “Rango” ‘s dialogue actually served two purposes for Verbinski. It not only gave his first animated feature a unique sound & energy, but it also gave ILM’s animators access to some amazing live-action reference footage.

Now where do you suppose Gore got an idea like that? Putting voice actors in front of cameras during the preproduction phase of an animated feature?

Well, given the months that Verbinski spent on the Disney lot shooting scenes from “The Curse Of The Black Pearl,” “Dead Man’s Chest” and “At World’s End,” one has to imagine that Gore heard about those live-action reference films that Walt himself had shot on these same soundstages for animated features like “Alice In Wonderland” and “Peter Pan.”

I recently got the chance to chat with Kathryn Beaumont Levine (i.e. the Disney Legend who voiced “Alice” ‘s title character as well as Wendy in “Peter Pan”). Kathryn’s been out doing publicity for the 60^th anniversary edition of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” (which Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is releasing on Blu-ray & DVD February 1^st). So I asked her what it was like to work on those live-action versions of “Alice” & “Peter” that Disney animators then used for reference while working on these animated features.

“Well, it was quite different from my days of working at MGM. When I was a contract player in Culver City, I got used to how huge MGM was. With its dozens of soundstages and thousands of workers, it was almost a factory town. By contrast, when I signed with Disney back in June of 1949 …

11-year-old Kathryn Beaumont signs her two-picture-
deal with Walt Disney Studios as Walt looks on.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

… the lot only had two soundstages on it at that time,” she recalled.

Beamont was also struck by the differences between the way these two studios operated. At MGM, when she was shooting “On an Island with You,” “Challenge to Lassie” and “The Secret Garden,” Kathryn was never given a full script to work with. She was just given the pages that her character appeared on and was then expected to learn her lines for those scenes.

“But when I was at Disney, suddenly I was sitting in on story sessions. Where Walt would be asking his story men ‘Well, what if Alice did this? Or if that character had this bit of business?,’ ” Kathryn remembered. “I was given access to all sorts of material. Sketches & storyboards. They obviously thought that it was important that I knew as much about this movie, as much about the character that I’d be playing as possible before I went before the cameras.”

Wilfred Jackson walks Miss Beaumont through “Alice in Wonderland” ‘s “All in a Golden
Afternoon” sequence. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Mind you, the reasoning behind all this advance preparation became clear once Kathryn actually began shooting “Alice” ‘s live-action reference footage. When she suddenly found herself dressed in her Alice dress on a virtually empty soundstage …

… where – working with the bare-bones sets & props that the Studio Mill had put together – Beaumont was then expected to act out all of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland for the cameras.

As you might expect, this was fairly lonely work for an 11-year-old girl. Which is why Kathryn genuinely looked forward to those days when there were other performers on the “Wonderland” set. Veteran character actors like Sterling Holloway …

… or famous radio comedians like Jerry Colonna ..

… or “The Perfect Fool” himself, Ed Wynn.

Mind you, it wasn’t all fun and games while these famous character actors & comedians were working on the live-action reference version of “Alice.” Beaumont says that while Holloway, Colonna and Wynn were wonderfully silly whenever the camera was on, they were also quite quiet & thoughtful whenever that camera was turned off.

“Mind you, they were all very nice to me off-camera. But as a young performer, it was fascinating for me to watch these veteran funnymen work with the director,” Kathryn explained. “Watch them look for new ways to take what had already been storyboarded for this movie and find some different twist or turn of phrase that then made this scene even funnier.”

That – when you get right down to it – is Kathyrn Beaumont Levine’s one regret when it comes to Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan.” That so few people ever actually got to see those live-action reference versions of these films that she, Holloway, Colonna, Wynn et al worked on.

“I’m told that only 200 people or so – which, I’m guessing, was the size of the crew working in the animation department at Walt Disney Studios while ‘ Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Peter Pan’ were being produced – ever got to see that live-action reference footage,” Beaumont continued. “Which is really a shame. Because I think people today would be fascinated to see what we the actors went through back then …

… the strange poses that we sometimes had to strike in order to give the Disney artists something to work with.”

Mind you, The Walt Disney Company seems to be softening its stance when it comes to this live-action reference footage that was shot for some of the Studio’s most famous animated features. Where once Disney’s official party line was to keep this stuff locked up in the vault and officially deny that this footage ever existed … Nowadays, the Mouse is taking a far more enlightened approach to its own history.

Which is why the 60^th anniversary Blu-ray edition of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” …

… includes a bonus feature which allows you to watch the live-action reference footage that was shot for this animated feature’s “Alice and the Doorknob” sequence.

And if you like seeing this sort of never-supposed-to-be-seen-by-the-public, behind-the-scenes stuff, then you should definitely pick up the Blu-ray of Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” …

… which includes a bonus feature that asllow you to watch this entire Robert Zemeckis film in motion capture form. Which – in essence – allows you to watch Jim Carrey’s performance as Ebenezer Scrooge & the three Christmas Ghosts who haunt this miser in their raw form.

Which makes you kind of hope that – three to four months after “Rango” is released on theater on March 4^th – that someone on the Home Entertainment side of things at Paramount Pictures gets the very bright idea to include the live-action version of this animated feature that Gore Verbinski shot as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray & DVD.

Because based on what I’ve seen so far …

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp5S3C367zc&NR=1]

… this live-action version of an animated film starring Johnny Depp looks very entertaining. In a funky, low tech, home-made sort of way, that is.

Your thoughts?