Acquired
02:29:10 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:29:10] S1: the animated stuff. As we talked about earlier, live action doesn't feed the flywheel, at least for Disney, in quite the same way. [02:29:17] S0: Yep. They started doing nature documentaries. They did one called Seal Island shot in Alaska. They also started studying the emerging TV medium to see if they should do something here. But at this point in time decide, basically not. But we'll watch it and see. We're very interested. But Walt Hart really was in animation. He wanted to get back to making animated feature films that push the envelope. Roy, meanwhile, hates this idea since the studio is not on good financial footing. It has lots of debt. Walt ultimately has to give an ultimatum that if we don't get back to this, then we should just sell the company. Like, what are we even doing here? In 1950, Roy capitulates, and the company went and raised another $2,000,000 to finance their next film, which was Cinderella. [02:30:05] S1: The first bright spot in a long time. [02:30:09] S0: And their first full length feature film in eight years since Bambi in 1942. [02:30:14] S1: And the way they made Cinderella was quite different. Right? [02:30:18] S0: Yeah. So Walt pounds the table to make this thing, and then he kinda realizes the way they are gonna make it feels compromised to him. Mhmm. Because the budget just can't be what they were blowing before in those early forties to try to really push the envelope.
02:30:18 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[02:30:18] S0: Yeah. So Walt pounds the table to make this thing, and then he kinda realizes the way they are gonna make it feels compromised to him. Mhmm. Because the budget just can't be what they were blowing before in those early forties to try to really push the envelope. [02:30:34] S1: Yeah. There's a great quote from the animator Frank Thomas who worked on Cinderella. We planned Cinderella more carefully and shot it all in live action first so we could judge it. This was without costumes or a set. Just go on a soundstage and see whether that scene's going to work. Walt said, we can't afford to animate it and then change it. The animation has to be right the first time. Yeah. Not the mindset that they took into Snow White.
02:30:34 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:30:34] S1: Yeah. There's a great quote from the animator Frank Thomas who worked on Cinderella. We planned Cinderella more carefully and shot it all in live action first so we could judge it. This was without costumes or a set. Just go on a soundstage and see whether that scene's going to work. Walt said, we can't afford to animate it and then change it. The animation has to be right the first time. Yeah. Not the mindset that they took into Snow White. [02:30:58] S0: And this basically flips the, like, live action animation thing from a source of inspiration and study to a crutch. So they were filming every scene and then rotoscoping, effectively, like, tracing the live action footage out of the camera Right. To make it animated, which can lead to this much more rigid feeling animation. Also, once you film it, you are completely locked into that view. It's not like you can move the theoretical camera because you haven't really built the muscle to animate in that style for the film. Yep. So you're you're kinda stuck with this, like, how it looked in the camera is how we trace it on paper. It just had less of the, like, lavish detail that they put into Pinocchio and Bambi. All this ultimately leads to, like, Walt's hard is just not in it. He he kinda helps kick start the whole thing, but then is not engaged during the production of this film. It does end up being a critical and commercial huge success, though. [02:31:54] S1: Yes. I believe it makes basically the same amount of money as Snow White. I think it does $8,000,000 in film rentals in the first year.
02:31:54 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:31:54] S1: Yes. I believe it makes basically the same amount of money as Snow White. I think it does $8,000,000 in film rentals in the first year. [02:32:03] S0: Yep. On a cost of 2,200,000. Yep. So, really, this is the first big financial success for the company since before the war. It's the biggest success since Snow White. It got the company back on sound footing after a pretty gnarly [02:32:17] S1: time Gnarly decade there. Yeah. But yeah. So Cinderella is is a huge bright spot. It was a onetime financial boost to the studio that didn't solve all the company's problems, but it did get animation back on the right foot creatively. Even though Walt was no longer, you know, as deeply involved as he was in the Snow White era, it did turn things around enough that, like, at least they were making quality work again. And, like, obviously, those films still hold up today. [02:32:46] S0: Over the next few years, they then released Alice in Wonderland, which surprise ballooned over budget and did not pay back. That is in part because a lot of historians say it's a film that Walt felt like he should do because of his reverence for the source material [02:33:02] S1: Yep.
02:33:02 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:33:02] S1: Yep. [02:33:03] S0: But never quite had a clear idea on exactly what to do with it. So it's it's hard to put together these sort of disjoint vignettes into one cohesive film, but artistically, beautiful. So put a pin in that. We'll come back to it. But interesting comment on Alice from the 1951 annual report from Roy. Alice has not performed as well at the box office as Cinderella because of these circumstances, which were generally poor attendance at theaters. He actually blames the macro, which is interesting. And because Alice in Wonderland is our highest cost feature, it is not expected to produce a profit from its first release. However, it is a classic property, which should be a valuable asset to the company indefinitely. [02:33:46] S1: And, hey, he was right. Yep. Alright. So we've talked about Walt being disengaged here. What is he doing? [02:33:55] S0: So Walt is playing with trains. I mean, I Yes. [02:34:04] S1: He is. [02:34:05] S0: That's about the best way that I can frame this is he's getting really into trains and really into miniatures. Yes. [02:34:12] S1: Trains specifically model trains and miniatures like miniature furniture and, like, rooms in homes in miniatures.
02:34:12 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:34:12] S1: Trains specifically model trains and miniatures like miniature furniture and, like, rooms in homes in miniatures. [02:34:22] S0: Yeah. I mean, gosh, I said we weren't gonna dive into Walt's psyche on this episode, but I kinda think about this. This is me editorializing as this, like, soul searching half decade where he's just looking for what is he gonna get passionate about next, because he's sort of bored. Like, animation isn't doing it for him the way that it used to, and he's, like, reaching back into his childhood for inspiration. [02:34:50] S1: And the way Walt would frame this is that he was developing these hobbies to keep his mind off of the problems at the studio. That's what he would