I do not remember the first Disney film I saw or where. As a
kid in the Seventies, Disney was everywhere.
They had a few TV shows Wonderful World of Disney, Mouse Factory, and
The New Mickey Mouse Club. The thing
that kids today would not get is, in pre-Video Tape or DVD Disney would
re-release their films every few years into the Theaters. I saw films released in the 1930’s in the
1970’s and 1980’s. That changed with the
advent of the video store and the ability to buy personal copies of the
films. During the Seventies, the video
store was not quite an entity. Video
tape machines were expensive and rare.
If you wanted to see a Disney Film you either watched it heavily edited
on Television or went to the Theater.
The quality of film prints was variable depending on the source. In the early Eighties the Disney Channel was
a premium cable channel like HBO. They
were where you could see various Disney films unedited on Television. Unlike now, there were no commercials on
it. Enough of the history lesson, let’s
get to my relationship with Disney.
There are two films that are inexorably linked to my
childhood. They were the ones I wanted
to watch over and over again. They may
not have been my first Disney films.
They were the most influential.
The first was Jungle Book. The
story of a boy raised by wolves and his attempt to reconnect with humanity was
something that spoke to me. At the time
I had no clue as to why. In retrospect
it seems to be, because I felt isolated from humanity. The reason for that was I felt that I was so
different that I was all alone. That was
not necessarily the reality, I had family who cared and loved me. The songs also stuck with me. I Wan’na Be Like You and The Bare Necessities
are songs that still speak to me.
The next film was 1973’s Robin Hood, the animated film. It did not hurt that Roger Miller was
Alan-A-Dale. Roger Miller was one of my
Dad’s favorite Country musicians and we loved Oo De Lally, the main song of the
film. The Anthropomorphic story of Robin
Hood I found interesting. The use of
certain animals to represent these characters had lasting affect on me. To this day I am fascinated with animal
symbolism in various cultures. This is
where it all started. I have always had
a soft spot for the Robin Hood story.
The Theme of breaking the rules to do the right thing made sense to a 5
year old me.
I watched other Disney films over the next few years. Winnie
the Pooh, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and
the Seven Dwarves, the Aristocats, the Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan,
Pinocchio, and The Rescuers. Now I had a
contentious relationship with Dumbo. As
a child my ears protruded and the kids in my neighborhood referred to me as Big
Ears or Dumbo due to this. It is a
wonderful story, I just had some problems with the image as it was as to
respect of my personal history.
Pinocchio freaked me out. The
whole scene where the bad boys became donkeys, messed with my young head. I was a good kid, but the idea of things like
that happening to me if I stepped out of line scared me straight. I liked the shorts as a kid, but even then I
preferred the Looney Toons shorts.
I watched the Wonderful World of Disney till I was in High
School. I had seen quite a few of the
live action films as well. My mom grew
up on the original Mickey Mouse Club so we watched all the Disney and
non-Disney Annette Funicello films. I
liked the Kurt Russell teen films growing up.
The Live Action films were fun and my parents saw them as safe. Some of
the stuff I enjoyed from the Wonderful World of Disney were Swamp Fox, the Tall
Tales shorts, Davy Crockett, Doctor Syn, Zorro, Kidnapped, Treasure Island and
the other adventure films and shows from the 50's and 60's. Those works led to my love of Zorro and all
things from the golden age of Piracy.
Growing up in Southern California I saw
all the real life settings for the Zorro show.
In my teen years I was not that much into Disney, they were
for kids. Although I thought Tron and Something
Wicked This way Comes were cool. I even
went a saw Fantasia as a teen. I loved
it, but I always loved art. I did not
get back into the Disney Animated films until college. It restarted with the Great Mouse
Detective. They had me at Vincent Price
as the villain. I never saw Oliver and
Company, but I was there for the Disney Renaissance for the late 80’s and early
90’s. I have followed most of the
movies since. I still have a handful I
have not seen but I enjoy them. Barbara,
my ex, used to admonish me for watching something intended for children. Honestly they are intended for the whole
family.
In the 1980’s Disney got into Television animation with a
splash. They started with Duck Tales and
Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers then later with Tale Spin, Darkwing Duck, Goof
Troop. Aladdin and Gargoyles. They had
more, but the ones I listed were the ones I watched. Duck Tales was the animated adventures of
Scrooge McDuck which before then were limited to Carl Bark’s comic books. Theses shows did not have the same level of
Animation the theatrical animation had however were still quality shows. I enjoyed Gargoyles because of the writing
and the wonderful cast that came from Star Trek: The Next Generation and other
Sci-Fi Shows. After Gargoyles ended I
stopped watching their Television shows till Tron: Uprising. Tron: Uprising’s animation was reminiscent of
Aeon Flux.
I fell in love with Pixar’s work back in the late 80’s I
followed the progress of Computer animation with films like Tron and the Last
Starfighter. I watched various shorts
including the classic Grinning Evil Death.
I saw the various short from Pixar, which I had know as part of ILM and
Lucasfilm. They proved that computer
animation could have character. As of
now I have seen all but Monster
University
I may no longer be what many consider the target demographic
being over forty without kids. Good is
good and one’s situation does not keep you from appreciating it. Some of the Disney films over the years have
fallen flat for me. That is OK. You cannot like everything. That Is My Not So Humble Opinion.
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