Destination D: 75 years of Animation: Alan Menken

The final event of Destination D 2012 was an evening with Alan Menken.  Menken was named a Disney Legend in 2001 and holds more Academy Awards than any other living person (8).  In fact, the audience was packed with legends: Dave Smith, Richard Sherman, Bob Gurr, Tony Baxer...

The performance was more like a conversation.  Menken would talk about songs and films and then play short pieces from them.  He played from his work with Disney as well from his work on Broadway and films.  It was an amazing evening and truly a highlight of Destination D!  At one point, Menken joked that he thought Oscars came in pairs - you wrote some songs for a Disney movie and they handed you two Oscars.  He has won Academy Awards in 1990 for Little Mermaid Score and Under the Sea, in 1992 for Beauty and the Beast score, and Beauty and the Beast song, in 1993 for the score for Aladdin, and A Whole New World, and 1996 for Score of Pocahontas and Colors of the Wind.  He also won Golden Globes for Mermaid, Beauty, Aladdin, and Pocahontas.  he has 11 Grammy awards (including Song of the Year for 1993).  This year, 2012, he won a Tony for the score of Newsies. Trivia: Hard Times, High Times from the film version got him a Razzie.

Prince Ali was the song Menken opened with.  We then took a journey through his career.  We heard about his work on God Bless you Mr. Rosewater and then his well known Littl Shop of Horrors.  He played us the "dark side of grease" with a song that wasn't used.

From Little Mermaid we heard Part of your World, Poor Unfortunate Souls, Kiss the Girl, and Under the Sea.

From Beauty and the Beast; Belle, Be Our Guest, Gaston, and Beauty and the Beast. He talked about how they had recorded a pop version and the version for the movie and had mistakenly sent Angelea Landsbury the pop version.  To which she said no.  Once they got her the right version, she did it in one take.  Menken also related that he had given Howard a dub tune to use for Gaston, and it turns out he used it as was; no one could beat up a character like Howard!

Aladdin was next where we heard a song cut from the movie, A Whole New World, and A Friend Like Me.  Originally there wer going for a Fat's walla style Genie.

From Newsies Santa Fe and King of New York.

From Beauty and the Beast's Broadway production: Human Again.

From Pocohantas and Hunchback of Notre Dame: Colors of the Wind, Bells of Notre Dame, and Out There.

We heard music from A Christmas Carol which played for ten years at the Gardens.

When writing for Hercules the orgianl hero was song was to be a ballad, but he threw it out nd wrote Go the distance.  He also played Zero to Hero.

We heard his work on King David.

 At one point there was talk of a prequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Who Discovered Roger Rabbit).  Menken wrote a song for the project called This Only appens in the Movies in a style that was a tribute to the old style musical.

 Home on the Range was quickly discussed "You haven't lived until you've seen a group of animators on horse back" and we hear Patch of Heaven, the Yodel Song, and Will the Sun Ever Shine Again (strongly influenced by the tragedy of September 11th).

From Sinbada's attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea we heard Compass of your Heart.

From Enchanted: True Love's Kiss, Working Song, and How Does She Know.

From the production of Mermaid for the stage Menken played Flounder and Ariel's sister's song.

He played Raise your Voice from Sister Act.

I personally was very happy to hear Menken refer to Tangled as Rapunzel and he played the first version of Rapunzel's song, and everyone has a dream.

 Menken wrote a short song for Captain America.

He talked about the phenomenon that is Newsies and played Katehrin'es Song from new production of Newsies.  We also heard about the new production of Aladdin and the Genie's song about being free.

The evening closed with a tribute to Howard: Proud of Your Boy.

Destination D: 75 years of Animation: Snow White Still Fairest of them All

Okay, here we are, the panel you've been waiting for: Snow White Still the Fairest of them All!  Tim O'Day hosted this panel featuring musicologist and historian Alex Rannie, CEO of Walt Disney Family Museum Gabriella Calicchio, and 93 year old Marge Champion who was the live action model for Snow White.

The panel began with clarfiying that the word soundtrack didn't exist in 1937 so the music was refered to as "the exclusive recordings from the actual sound film." Alex Rannie brought a variety of images of sheet music that Churchill, Harline, Morey and Smith worked on for the film.

 The Silly Song was in fact the third song written for the scene where the dwarfs entertain Snow White.  One version of the song was Never Too Old to Be Young.  There was another song called Lady in the Moon that was written before 1935.  In this song, each dwarf would sing a verse as a different anmal who was in love with the lady in the moon.  The song ends with all the animals realizing the lady in the moon is, in fact, the man in the moon.  Sleepy would have sang as a fish and Dopey a frog. One idea stuck, Sleepy still plays a fish clarient in the final film.  So the song that made it into the film was the Silly Song.   In 1935 there was the first national Hillbilly Championships in LA that inspired the yodeling.  The sound effects team worked on the Grumpy's pipe organ.  In order to get the correct sound, the team used jugs and the largest jug required so muh air, the player would pass out - only Jimmy McDonald would play that one.  At one point the song had a verse sung by Snow White!  The D23 audience was lucky enough to hear the recording session of Snow White's verse.

The Yodel Song

Never to Old

Lady in the Moon

Final Song: The Dwarf's Yodel Song or The Silly Song
(Look at the words in the box: inspired the dance craze "Doin the Dopey")

The next guest introduced was Marge Champion.  This 93 years young woman was gracious enough to come and talk to the D23 audience about her memories of being part of the team that created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  She was hired as the live action reference model for Snow White.

Marge Champion

 Marge told the story of how she was hired to work for Disney.  Her father owned a dance studio and when Disney went looking for a girl to do live action shots for Snow White, Marge was in the right place at the right time.  She believes she wasn't the first to take on htis role because the bodice of the costume had two rows of hooks and eyes, suggesting that it was fitted for some one else.  (You can see the outfit she word at the Archives exhibit at the Reagan Library).  When asked if Walt was at the audition, she said she was sure he was there, but she didn't see him.

The process from live action, to sketch, to final product

Marge also told of her life growing up: her father would go to Shirley Temple's house to teach her ballet and Marge knew Shirley.  When wanting to be excused from the dinner table, Marge was taught to say: "I've had an elegant sufficency, May I be excused?"

Marge Champion in her costumes

During her time at the studio, Marge would act to Adriana Caselotti's voice recordings.  The animators referred to the girls as Margiana Belchalotti (a mash up of both of their names).  Marge also remembers how the studio needed her to run through the forest for Snow White's frightening escape.  They hung clotheslines and attached ropes that would hit her like branches.  Ham Luske attached some to her dress.  She said it didn't take much acting because she was  terrified!  She though the whole structure would fall down at any minute.

You'd be scared too if animators made you run through ropes hung from cloteslines!

The most interesting thing that Marge remembered was that at one point, animators thought that Snow White's head should be larger than her body as was a popular style of animation in those days (think Betty Boop).  In order to test this, Marge was given a football helmet that was painted with a wig and bow.  She remembered having to wear it and under the hot lights, she became dizzy and almost fainted!

The final panelist shared some of the artwork that will be featured at the Walt Disney Family Museum when the exhibit opens this fall.  They also announced D23 would hold an event in November.  I can't wait to see some of these in person:

Destination D - 75 years of animation - Hearing Voices

 The next panel was Hearing Voices: a Salute to Disney Voice Artists.  What a collection of talent!

Bill Farmer talked about landing the role of Goofy.  He treated the audience to a little Romeo and Juliet - Goofy style.  The first time he preformed the voice was in 1987 for a D-TV Dogone Valentine show.

Up next was Lisa Davis the voice of Anita in One Hundred and One Dalmation.  Lisa's early career included a role in Zsa Zsa Gabor's 1958 Queen of Other Space.  She was always in the back because she was also a blond and Zsa Zsa was not to fond of her.  This allowed her to perfect the distinctive voice of Zsa Zsa's.  Lisa got called to read for Cruella (she pulled out her Zsa Zsa's voice).  However, halfway through reading she realized that she was more Anita and asked Walt if they could switch roles.

David Frankham provided the voice for Sgt. Tibbs in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.  He was called into to meet with Woolie Reitherman.  Fankham auditioned for Winnie the Pooh, Sword and the Stone and Robin Hood, but alas wasn't right for the parts.

Kathryn Beaumont provided the voice for Alice and Wendy.  Early in her career she was in Esther William's On a Island With You.  She talked about the differences working at MGM and then coming to Disney.  At Disney the head of the studio was part of the team, not at all like MGM.

Dickie Jones was not able to make the presentation.

Stich's voice was provided by Chris Sanders.  at the base he is a villain but he becomes a hero.  Sanders mused that Stich wouldn't be invited to the heroes party, nor to the villain's party.

The last panelist was Bruce Reitherman who played Mowgli and Christopher Robin.  The last name should look familiar - his father was animator Woolie.  As a boy, Bruce payed a Paige boy in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and was an original Little Rascal.

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Destination D - 75 years of Animation - Tinker Bell

The next panel was Tinker Bell - The Evolution of a Disney Character and was hosted by Mindy Johnson author of the upcoming Tinker Bell book (2013).  She explained that Tinker Bell orginally started in the play with a nickname picked after a brother's trait of clapping his feet.  It was decided that the character would be voiced by a bell, so stage hands would call: cue the tinker bell, and that name stuck.  There is a tradition that when the show is played the playbill names Jane Wren or Jenny Wren as the actress who plays Tinker Bell.  The Britsh Tax Board mailed letters to collect taxes from the actors, including Wren.
The play was very successful and it wasn't long before it was brought to film.  In 1924 Mary Pickford wanted to play Peter, but didn't get the role in the film version of Peter Pan.  So when Disney started the working on the ideas for Peter Pan, they looked back at a variety of different fairies in the Disney family including Fantasia and the Blue Fairy (modeled by Marge Champion).  If you have a very quick eye you can see Tinker Bell as a red head in the model shop scene of The Reluctant Dragon.
The next guest to join the session was an ink and paint girl Ginni Mack.  She was often called upon to pose in pictures of celebrities with famous people touring the studios including Bing Crosby (to help promote Ichabod).  When called upon to do a photo shoot with Walt, she was nervous and was told, just look at my ears and pretend I'm Clark Gable.  That lightened the mood.  Mack was one of the first they called to model for the pixie's face.  The most amazing part is they had pictures of her with Roy Williams but they only identified Ginni Mack as the woman this June.   She talked about how important it was for the artists to learn to float paint, no brush strokes could show.  They worked on 10 to 12 cells at a time.  The paint to add the shimmer to the wings was so specialized, it had to be kept refrigerated. Kathernie Beaumount also did some modeling for the pixie.
The next guest was Margaret Kerry - also known as the best legs in the world.  Then Peggy Holmes (in charge of the latest spin off movie) and Mae Whitman (voice of Tink in the newest movie).
Tinker Bell has a life well beyond Peter Pan and (in my humble opinion) all the crazy spin-offs.  She was introduced to the world in the 1951 Christmas Show (with the magic mirror hosting).  She opened Disneyland, the Wonderful World of Color, and the Wonderful World of Disney.  There were Tinker Bell souvenirs all over Disneyland, and in 1958 she flew into the Hollywood Bowl (a 70 year old woman no less!).  She did marking for NBC bread, American Dairy Association, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter.  She also appeared in the Black Cauldron and Roger Rabbit.  In 2008 she became a wax figure in Madame Tussauds and has a Hollywood star.
Sorry for the lack of pictures - none allowed this session.

Destination D - 75 years of Animation - Drawing with Personality

The morning continued with Disney animator Andreas Dejas taking the stage.  He brought art from Les Clark, Freddie Moore, Bill Tyla, Woolie Reitherman, Ollie Johnson, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas, John Lounsbery, and Milt Kahl.  Dejas treated the D23 audience with some insight into the creative process by drawing some of the charaters he worked on: Mickey Mouse (worked on the Mickey that appeared in Roger Rabbit), Crazy Mickey in Runaway Brain, Scar, and Jafar.  He even brought some drawings that Eric Larson drew for him after they met to help Dejas understand some of the important principals of animation.  After the lunch lesson, some of the lucky audience members found themselves the proud new owners of a drawing from Dejas.

Mickey draw by Dejas

Reitherman

Mickey draw by Dejas.  He told a funny story of wearing a production shirt from Runaway Brain before it was released while he was overseas - possibly Disneyland Paris- and the cast member was so offended by the shirt she demanded he get rid of it.  He couldn't get across to her it was a new project and politely moved on.

Hands drawn by Milt Kahl