Disney – Four artists paint one tree
An evening pause: This short was aired in 1958 on the Disney children’s television show, Disneyland. I emphasize children because this is the kind of material I was offered as a child.
Today it would be considered too sophisticated, and definitely unacceptable because it doesn’t indoctrinate the young on the importance of “racial justice.” My god, all the artists happen to be white!
Yet I know from experience that kids under six would love it just because it is fun to watch the artists work, while older children would find the narration by the artists themselves fascinating. I can say this with confidence because I am certain Disney showed this clip more than once, and I saw it multiple times as a child, watching it with pleasure at different times and ages.
And then there’s the main point. As Walt Disney himself says in the opening, “Don’t imitate anyone. … Go forward with what you have to say, expressing things as you see them. … Be yourself.”
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Clearly a representation of colonial oppression and racism, they were all white artists.
And today? It’s all very different and very diverse in race, orientation and everything else.
Progress was made.
Hearing that familiar music brings me back and I happily remember. Sunday you ate dinner early, had your bath, you got into your PJ’s, and you and your siblings got your pillows and sat yourself in front of the TV and you watched Marilin Perkins on Wild Kingdom, then Disney and then Bonanza. Sundays were perfect in that respect.
No Twitter or Facebook, no Google, no Youtube, no iPad or iPhone.
Certainly, a simpler time and a simpler life.
great selection Mr. Z!
“Walt Disney’s MultiPlane Camera” (1957)
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/the-evening-pause/walt-disneys-multiplane-camera/
“Cartoons That Time Forgot: The Ub Iwerks Collection”
[Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971)]
https://youtu.be/p3FjWIvvisU
1:09:44
Wayne –
We have to hack the system…This is the new politics now…Let’s take back our Country…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vHAO_LglKU
Ludzie nie powinni bać się swojego rządu. Rządy powinny bać się swoich ludzi.
I think Orwell would agree.
These for men couldn’t be more diverse.
The first painting would appeal to modern snobs…the third looks of William Blake…the fourth is out of Dore’s Wood of the Suicides.
To me, the second painting is best.
Diversity comes from within.
The Ambassadors in the UN may look different…but cut them open….and they all bleed the quicksilver that results from a lifetime before a mirror.
Origins of American Animation collection (1900-1921)
Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/collections/origins-of-american-animation/
Very interesting. My recollection resonates with Cotour.
I wonder if the insertion of computer graphics in so much of animation, makes the coordination, teamwork and discipline necessary among individual artists shown in the piece no longer necessary.
Related: This was a very interesting picture that looks like it was painted by a Disney artist, but its real.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/mount-everest-from-space-1-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all
Mout Everest shot by the space station.
“It Is Very Cold, In Space….’
Khan Noonien Singh
https://youtu.be/5vwHLMs04XA
0:19
“. . . may look different…but cut them open….and they all bleed the quicksilver that results from a lifetime before a mirror.”
Oooh. I like that. Original, or quote (even paraphrased)?