“Why do we have to grow up?” animator, visionary and entrepreneur Walt Disney once asked.
Disney’s life and work were a challenge to the idea that people have to “grow up” as they get older. His animated features were emblematic of the intangible magic of childhood, leveraging boundless talent and creativity for the simple purpose of engendering a laugh or a smile ““ or at least that’s what they used to be, one UCLA professor would argue.
“None of Disney’s latest have been particularly good films. There is a difference between creating characters or a film that people will love, and starting with a product and making the film a big commercial for it,” said former animation critic turned UCLA Professor Charles Solomon, who is teaching a class this quarter titled “Disney Feature: Then and Now.”
Disney died in 1966, and since then Disney Animation Studios has grown up. Recent films such as “Brother Bear” and “Home on the Range” have scripts stuffed with pop culture references, and the characters are stuffed ““ literally ““ for merchandising.
“Those movies have been really disappointing. They seem to be less focused on the story and more focused on being as successful as possible. I think they’re really commercial,” said Joshua Mills, a fifth-year women’s studies student and an avid Disney fan, as well as one of the students taking Solomon’s class.
These films have lacked iconic, name-brand characters such as Aladdin or the Little Mermaid, leading to lower box office numbers.
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” alone grossed an impressive 8 million dollars (about 100 million when adjusted for inflation) at the box office in a time when the price of admission for children was a dime, while “Brother Bear” and “Home On the Range” together grossed less than 130 million dollars, even with modern admission charges.
“Disney doesn’t have the field to itself anymore. With the success of studios like DreamWorks and Pixar, everyone’s into CGI now,” Solomon said.
The field of animation is changing, and Disney is struggling to change with it. There hasn’t been a popularized Disney character in years, and not a single Disney character created in the last 10 years is included in the daily Parade of Dreams at the Disneyland Resort.
However, according to Solomon, there is hope for the now seemingly impotent animation giant. His course traces the history of the Disney Company and examines the factors behind its success.
“Disney is such a pervasive influence on popular culture today, and one of the driving forces behind the history of animation,” Solomon said.
“The idea is to give the students a better understanding of Disney and how they’ve taken their place in popular culture.”
The class, which meets once a week, consists of lectures about the history of the Disney Company, the life of Walt Disney, and the animated features themselves, one of which is shown at the end of every class.
For many students, the class has revealed surprising dimensions to the Disney they had been exposed to as children.
“When I thought about Disney before, it was just Disneyland and the princesses, so it was really interesting when the professor showed us clips of when they did anti-Nazi propaganda for the U.S. government,” said Rachel Malixi, a third-year anthropology student.
Disney’s place in history cannot be summed up with just box office data and a few movies. Much of the course’s material deals with the interaction between the first animation studio and major historical events. According to Solomon, the history of American animation is itself the history of Disney animation studios.
“The first animated features that Walt made, the “˜Big Five’ ““ “˜Snow White,’ “˜Pinnochio,’ “˜Dumbo,’ “˜Bambi,’ “˜Fantasia’ ““ these are the standards by which all animation is judged,” Solomon said.
“Walt Disney was more than an animator. He was on the cutting edge of animation, but not only that, he was a filmmaker on the cutting edge of filmmaking. As the old saying goes, there are as many camera angles in “˜Dumbo’ as there are in “˜Citizen Kane.'”
The Disney of the past succeeded through the multi-talented genius of Walt Disney. What Disney needs now, according to Solomon, is something very simple: someone who can provide the same unifying vision.
“In recent films where too many executives and vice presidents were involved in the creative process, a lot of the individual edges and quirkiness of the films were taken out. They have to restore the feeling of individual vision to their films,” Solomon said.
The recent merger between Disney and Pixar in May 2006 may provide that much-needed vision.
John Lasseter, the creative talent behind such Pixar hits as “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo” and lauded as the modern-day Walt Disney, has returned to the company he was once fired from. Lasseter’s “Pixar dust” may be just what the company needs, according to Solomon.
“Most of the good stories in animation nowadays are coming from Pixar and people like (Hayao) Miyazaki (“˜Spirited Away’) ““ stories driven by passion,” Solomon said.
“Meet the Robinsons” is the first product of this new Pixar-Disney entity and Solomon’s first assignment for his class. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but UCLA students like Rachel Malixi are finding the new Disney surprisingly entertaining.
“I wouldn’t have watched it if the professor hadn’t assigned it, but I really liked it,” she said.
According to Solomon, “Meet the Robinsons” represents a time of transition for Disney ““ and hopefully for the better. After Michael Eisner ““ the creative force behind Disney classics such as “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” ““ left the company in 2005, Lasseter has big shoes to fill.
“”˜Meet the Robinsons’ will be a transitional film. It’ll be a few years before we’ll see the results of Lasseter’s leadership,” Solomon said.
However, with Lasseter’s combination of Pixar-powered passion and pure Disney spirit, he may be able to continue to give Disney what it has faithfully given to children for the last 60 years: a happy ending.
“(Disney movies) are the movies that kids are watching now,” said fourth-year communications studies student Heather Weingart. “And these are the movies I’m going to show my children.”