Disney Movie Eras: Live Action Films Thru 1969
This month continues a new series of blogs for fans of popular culture. Whereas in the past explorations of Walt Disney films we highlighted individual works, we will now be talking about the larger groupings of movies, and the various artistic and commercial visions sought for and achieved from said movies.
A quick run though of the eras:
The Golden Age: 1937-1941
Wartime: 1942-1949
The Silver Age: 1950-1967
The Bronze Age: 1968-1988
The Renaissance: 1989-1999
Post-Renaissance: 2000-2009
Revival: 2010-Present
As you can see, the various eras are inspired by historical art movements over the year, as well as comic books. You can draw the parallel, for instance, between the Italian Renaissance, or between the iterated variations of popular superheroes like Batman and Superman.
We will also be covering Disney live action films. The list of films owned by the Walt Disney Corporation is quite expansive because it includes multiple studios and production companies, such as Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, and more. And for good measure, we will also cover animated films that released without the official Walt Disney Pictures branding, as well as films that only released via television or Disney +.
So buckle up everyone as we retread the Disney films of years passed:
Alright folks, stay tuned for a bit because we've got thirty years of live-action movies to cover in three months. Let's start with the 1960's.
When last we discussed the live-action Disney films, we left off on 1959, in many ways a pivotal year for the company. Walt Disney Pictures was at the height of its' career, as of yet. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as popular as it and other 1940s films were, proved to be somewhat of an 'essay of the craft', once Disney released Cinderella. Cinderella was the first of many big successes for the company, and the company expanded, and started working on making live-action films as well. Disney was becoming the cornerstone of popular media and family film. However, as the decade wore on, many of the live-action films produced saw little success. In many ways, it almost didn't matter, because for every ten live-action films produced, Disney could release a single animated film and recoup practically all of the proceeds and marketing good will.
Ask a casual fan nowadays, and most people are probably unaware Disney even made live-action films back then, is how well known their animated offers became; it was an eclipse effect.
So it may surprise you to learn that there was a massive, almost unprecedented production of FORTY EIGHT live-action films between 1960 and 1969. Wow!
It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss every single live-action film ever produced by the company to that extent, so let's go through some highlights!
Starting off the decade was another film based on a popular book. After the success of 20,000 Leagues and Treasure Island, their next big film would surely be a hit, and so nobody was surprised at the commercial success of Swiss Family Robinson.
Based on the popular book by Johann Wyss, an 18th century Swiss family gets stranded on an island in modern-day Indonesia. Abandoned by captain and crew, the family takes matter into their own hands, salvaging the ship and its contents in order to survive. While not the first attempt at a film based on the book, the Disney version proved to be far more popular, and remains the most popular version of the story in the industry. The film crew actually did their work on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean, including shipping in quite a few animals.
Perhaps the most famous Disney live-action film of them all, Mary Poppins has earned a quite a bit of praise over the years. Based on the novel by P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins found immediate success in its two stars, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, this being Andrews' first film. Mary Poppins is usually heralded as the first film combining live-action and animation, but that distinction belongs to another film as well. Of note, author Travers rowed with Disney over including animated sequences at all in the film, which formed the basis of the biopic Saving Mr. Banks. We'll discuss that film in due time.
Babes in Toyland has a storied history with Disney, pun absolutely intended. Walt Disney picked up the rights to the film back in the late 1940s. Originally, he intended to produce an animated featurette based on the famous opera, however the company could not decide on anything. Babes also enjoyed a spot so far down on the project list, that it was one of the many projects that got shelved during World War II and the late 40s budget cuts. Not until 1955 did Disney officially announce the project. The final film ended up being almost entirely live-action, with only the toy soldier segment being stop-motion animation.
Though Technicolor was all the rage in the 1940s and 50s, there were still films being produced in the classic (and less expensive) black and white. The Absent-minded Professor was one such film. Originally based on a short story, it relates the tale of a chemist with a fantastic new discovery of a bouncing substance! A commercial success, it was the first Disney film to receive a sequel (Son of Flubber), as well as a 1986 re-release in Technicolor. In 1997 it even got a full remake in the form of Flubber, another film we'll be discussing later.
Let's get together! Few live-action Disney films found the utter popularity of 1961's The Parent Trap! Based on a 1949 children's novel called Lisa and Lottie, the film follows the misadventures of two twin girls, reunited for the first time since infancy while at summer camp. The twins, realizing who and what they are, decide to switch places, at first just to get to know the rest of their family, and eventually to force a reconciliation between their parents. The film found special recognition by casting a single actress, Hayley Mills, in the role of both girls. Scenes that involved the two of them were filmed in mirror format, combining reversed footage of the actress in the different roles and positions. To assist in filming these scenes, body double Susan Henning assisted. The film received three direct sequels over the next thirty years, before finally getting a remake. We'll discuss that one later!
Another novel, another film adaptation. Sure seems to be a trend at this point, huh? Originally published in 1961, The Incredible Journey was immediately picked up by Disney, and released just two years later! As in the book, the trio of pets: a bull terrier, a lab, and a Siamese decide to trek across the Canadian wilderness to reunite with their owners. And again, this would be another film revived in the 1990s for a remake, to be discussed later!
The Love Bug started a franchise of its own in 1968. The film stars Herbie, a sentient car owned by former racecar driver Jim Douglas. While the movie proved cute enough, connecting two would-be lovebirds over their fondness of an automobile, the film got extra miles in the form of a franchise, releasing a handful of sequels, and eventually yet another 90's remake.
We are far from finished on our road trip through the Disney film eras. Stay tuned next time when we venture into the 1970s!
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