Disney Through the Years - The 1960s: The Animated Features
Every month this year I am going decade-by-decade through the history of Walt Disney Company’s feature films. I will review each film from Walt Disney Animation Studios and rank them. I’m doing an additional feature in the series that focuses on every live action film by Walt Disney Pictures. So, there are two features each month from here on out. This piece’s focus is on the animated movies of the 1960s.
For more details on what is and isn’t included in this series be sure to check out the first entry that introduces the series.
In this entry, I’ll be reviewing the three animated movies Disney produced in the 1960s that are available on Disney+. Now, Disney+ recently removed the Disney Through the Years collection from the Search tab. But you can still follow along in the Animated Collection menu from the Search tab.
One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961)
So, 1959’s Sleeping Beauty was a new creative high for the animation studio, but it also took a loss of over $500,000. The next film was less expensive and such a success that it made up that loss and almost 10 times its budget. Based on a book of the same name published in 1956, the film tells the tale of two dalmations, Pongo and Perdita, who fall in love and have a litter of 15 puppies. Eventually, those puppies are stolen and it’s up to Pongo and Perdita to find and rescue their children.
The animation process of One Hundred and One Dalmations was a lot cheaper than its expensive predecessor, which was necessary, as the studio was once again in danger of shuttering. A new process called Xerox photography was utilized that transferred the drawings directly to animated cels, eliminating the inking process. As a result, however, the look of the film has a scratchy outline style, which Walt was most displeased with for several years. But it ultimately cut the budget in half.
What is immediately enjoyable about this film is it is the first to break from standard opening title sequences with a story book or still art. In One Hundred and One Dalmations we get lively and comical animation of spots and the credits within and around those spots. It’s a page from The Shaggy Dog’s lively animated opening title sequence and it’s certainly quite the enjoyable break in form.
One thing that’s interesting about this film unlike previous Disney animated films is it’s mostly absent of songs, despite the male lead being a songwriter. Yes, there’s the song he teasingly sings, ‘Cruella de Ville’, about his wife’s former classmate and the story’s infamous villain. But it’s fairly slight and brief and doesn’t seem to intend on measuring up to the classic songs from previous films. And music is so inconsequential to the story anyway that one would be forgiven for forgetting that there’s any.
The film plays like a comedy-turned-thriller with the first act all about Pongo and his pet, Roger, meeting and falling in love with Perdita and her pet, Anita. Once the second act starts, with the litter being born and Roger denying Cruella of the puppies the film’s tone gradually shifts darker until the final act. Much has been made about Cruella de Vil as the villain. And, certainly, it is hard to deny the hateful nature of a woman who wants nothing more than to skin dozens of puppies and wear their skin about town. However, Cruella as a character is thinly drawn and cartoonish. The real horror and danger of the film comes from her hired stooge Jasper, who happily and matter-of-factly will club the puppies to death and then skin them. You hear him openly talk about clubbing them and even swings at dogs with a crowbar. He has a job to do and will do whatever is required without hesitation to make money. Meanwhile, his partner, Horace, is a reluctant accomplice. Cruella herself is a bit odd, for we have no understanding of her relationship to Anita or Roger or why she assumes she’d be able to obtain the puppies from them in the first place. She ostensibly has one of the most horrific motivations, but we really know nothing about her. And yet, I’m less than thrilled by the prospect of a live action origin story that retcons what we do learn of her here.
What’s also strange is nothing really happens to Cruella in the end, so we’re left assuming she’d try obtaining the puppies again. What’s to stop her? But also: how did she survive the devastating car crash in the snow that destroyed her car and tore a sleeve off her fur coat? We’ve seen the Evil Queen fall to her death and Malificent impaled by an enchanted sword. Why not have Cruella and her thugs die when they collide off the snowy road? It seems Disney was only willing to kill off fairy tale villains at this point and not “people” like Lady Tremaine or Captain Hook. But Captain Hook at least had a comically satisfying conclusion.
One Hundred and One Dalmations is mostly just about rescuing puppies, lacks any character arcs, and features an underdeveloped villain, but is an otherwise surprisingly well-told story. The film would go on to ultimately save the studio for another decade.
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
This is an odd entry in the Disney animation canon. Ostensibly, it’s about a young orphan and squire and the misadventures he has with the wizard Merlin. It’s an incredibly episodic film with so many diversions that it becomes easy to forget the primary plot. But it does have imaginative character designs and an interesting concept in that Merlin has seen and visited the future. But there are so many other problems that arise from it: Why doesn’t he know Arthur’s fate? And is Archemedes a person transformed into an owl or the only animal that happens to be able to speak and is as intelligent as Merlin?
The film’s villain is purported to be Madam Mim. However, she only participates in the film by happenstance and it’s largely only to give her ego a boost by proving she’s a more powerful wizard than Merlin. So, her inclusion in the story is largely inconsequential, despite being a bright spot in the film.
Overall, The Sword in the Stone feels like a short film interjected with a series of animated shorts that have very little cohesion with each other or the larger plot. It is almost as slight as The Reluctant Dragon and nearly as forgettable. Apparently, audiences agreed, as the film made less than $2 million above its $3 million budget - that’s less than a third of Dalmations’ $14 million box office!
The Jungle Book (1967)
This is easily the best of the decade, right? After handing off creative control to Bill Peet for One Hundred and One Dalmations and The Sword in the Stone - the former being a creative disappointment for Walt, the latter being a critical disappointment and a modest financial success - Walt decided to step in for The Jungle Book, the last animated film he produced before his death.
Peet did a treatment of the adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli stories, but it was too episodic, too dark and faithful to the stories for Walt’s liking. So, Peet was removed from the project and the story was then trimmed down to its basic and most straightforward elements. Peet’s basic characterizations and ‘Bare Necessities’ song were retained. The voice cast and the new writers went from there and what we have is a sort of free-wheeling, loose, and joyful film. I think the last time an animated film by the studio felt substantive and fun was probably 1953’s Peter Pan. And, similarly, we have just as memorable and fully-realized characters - and without any casual racism! I think a lot of people actually forget that The Jungle Book features the first protagonist of color in Disney’s library, that being Mowgli from a village in India. And there’s no real reference to his race throughout the film; it just is. He is a “man-cub” and that’s literally all that matters about him, because that very fact alone threatens his life, as the tiger Shere Khan is searching for and desires to kill Mowgli.
There are two major elements that make The Jungle Book one of the best films of Walt’s career as a producer. The first is the cast. Now, very few would understand this now, but The Jungle Book was the first to use recognizable voice talent. George Sanders (Shere Khan) was a character actor in such films as All About Eve, Rebecca, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and the Pink Panther movie A Shot in the Dark. He would actually pass away 5 years after this film. Phil Harris (Baloo) was actually well-known as a band leader and radio personality from the ‘40s. He would pop up in 2 more Disney animated features. Louis Prima (King Louie) was a very well-known jazz singer and musician. ‘Pennies from Heaven’ and ‘Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody’ are probably his most recognizable and used songs (David Lee Roth would famously cover the latter). Prima passed away in 1978. The rest of the main cast were staples of the studio’s voice work:
Sebastian Cabot as Bagherra (The Sword in the Stone and Winnie the Pooh shorts),
Verna Felton as Winifred (Dumbo, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty) The Jungle Book would be her last role, as she passed away almost a year before its release.
Sterling Holloway as Kaa (Dumbo, Bambi, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh),
J. Pat O’Malley as Col. Hathi (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, One Hundred and One Dalmations, Mary Poppins)
All of these amazing voices help make The Jungle Book such a colorful and distinctive film.
The other element that brings this film together is the music. Now, George Bruns (Davy Crockett, One Hundred and One Dalmations, The Sword in the Stone) scored the picture, which was really great, because he also helped finesse some of the songs, as well. The Sherman Brothers would eventually become legendary, but they sort of came up in the ‘60s, creating the songs in many of the films Disney would release that decade. There’s a particular live action film they struck gold with that we’ll get to in the next article, but The Jungle Book was the first animated film where they really hit on something that stood up be among the best in Disney’s song catalogue. As a matter of fact, this film has 3 or 4 songs that have been ingrained in our pop culture. I would argue you’d have to go all the way back to Pinocchio to find a film with so many great songs. And The Jungle Book’s music is a lot happier and fun. It’s fair to say that it would take until the late ‘80s for the studio to have a film with a songbook that rivaled this one.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that, while the film threatens to be as episodic as The Sword in the Stone with its first act, the film largely dodges that feeling the rest of the way, a calculation in the adapted screenplay away from the source material. It’s better for it, as the story becomes less about “which characters we’ll run into on our way to the man village” and more about “what characters want to do with the man-cub”.
Ultimately, The Jungle Book is one of Walt’s most irresistible, feel-good, and greatest animated efforts.
The Ranking:
The Jungle Book
One Hundred and One Dalmations
The Sword in the Stone
What are your thoughts?
How would you rank the decade’s animated movies? Which is your favorite?
Keep an eye out for the second feature of The 1960s: Live Action Features! That’ll be interesting, as I go through 18 films… I’ll try to keep the reviews short. And then, next month, we go back to the animated movies with The 1970s: Animated Features.