Regionalism in Disney Animation: Pink Elephants and Dumbo
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Film History,Volume 4, pp. 305-321, 1990 0892-2160/90 $3.00 + 0 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved Copyright © 1990 Taylor & Francis Regionalismin Disney Animation Pink Elephants and Dumbo by Mark Langer Abstract Walt Disney's DUMBO (RKO, 1941) Kingdom in the 1930s, such outre magic was progressively is shown to contain two disparate animation tradi- excluded from the premises."4 tions operating simultaneously within the Disney By the mid-1930s, modernity in American animation studio. Sequences alternate between those presented became synonymous with the West Coast style-a style in Disney's West Coast style, an expression of the that was assumed to be the inscription of Walt Disney. classic Hollywood tradition, and an imported East This modern Disney style was described by a contempo- Coast style, which emphasized artifice, nonlinear rary observer as narrative, and "rubbery" graphics. Associated with that same delicate balance between fantasy and fact, such New York studios as Fleischer and Van Beuren, poetry and comic reality, which is the nature of all the East Coast Style in DUMBO is traced to the folklore. In Disney's studio a twentieth-century mira- contributions of specific New York-trained anima- cle is achieved: by a system as truly of the machine tors, who were able to due to operate relatively freely as Ford's at true art is own lack of involvement. The "Pink Ele- age Henry plant Dearborn, Disney's It it to is as a of produced.... gives pleasure; appeals your phants" sequence analyzed major example whereas most other films cater to the East Coast influence in the film. simplest emotions, the complex emotions born of this troubled time: your prejudices, your desires, or your curiosity. Moreover, it is moral . .5 ost literature dealing with animation during the In other words, through this style, Disney was perceived 1930s and early 1940s stresses the Disney influence as expressing cultural "truths" in the fantastic form of the on other animation studios.' Conventional wisdom has it folktale and was seen as replicating life through an artifi- that in this Walt set the for the period, Disney agenda cial process. Paradoxically, Disney's modernity lay in his animation some recent industry. Although scholarship de- ability to preserve the preindustrial conceptions of the art- fines studio as the work a Disney's production collective of ist by rendering invisible the tools and materials of the number of the talents, tendency among scholars nonethe- industrial process. less is to discontinuities within the ignore Disney opus.2 Recent scholarship has begun to chip away at the Instead confirm the existence of an unified they internally monolithic nature of the Disney style by revealing two or uninfluenced the of other style vision, by production types of discontinuity in the Disney opus. Visual disconti- animation until the artistic mantle to studios, passed nuities have been observed through Robin Allan's exami- Warner Bros. and UPA in the mid- to late-1940s.3 Disney is seen as an evolutionary step from an earlier, less sophis- Mark an associate in Film Studies at Carleton Uni- ticated style of animation. "Such healthy primitives as the Langer, professor animation and is a contribu- Fleischer brothers . filled their frames with versity (Ottawa), programs retrospectives impossible tor to a number of academic journals. Please address correspondence movements and fantastic visions .. ." writes Steven Sch- c/o Department of Film Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario neider. "But when Walt Disney began building his Magic K1S 5B6, Canada. 305 This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:34:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Mark Langer nation of the artistic influences of other media on the stu- animator]must have complete understandingand rec- dio's output. Also, J. B. Kaufman's identification of ognition of the fact that it is the emotion and mood "sub-auteurs" working as sequence directors has drawn that come first.'1 attention to discontinuitiesin productioncontrol.6 This ar- ticle attempts to unite these two streams of current Disney Graham distinguished between caricature and cartoon, scholarshipthrough an examination of an alternate mode noting that caricature was rooted in a detailed observa- of animation at the Disney studio that was inscribed tion of the physical world and natural action. Cartoon through the actions of certain key animation personnel was based on the study of other cartoons. Caricature, who had been trained in New York studios. These anima- rather than cartoon, was to be the goal of Disney produc- tors perpetuateda "New York" style within the discourse tion. l of Disney animation.7 West Coast style presents a populist and positivist ori- This New Yorkstyle was a form of discourse that pre- entation. Although Mickey Mouse began as a rural la- ceded and stood in opposition to the dominant West Coast borer in such films as PLANE CRAZY (Celebrity, 1928) style in use by Walt Disney Productions. While West and STEAMBOAT WILLIE (Powers, 1928), the charac- Coast animation was more consistent with the codes of ter emerged in the early 1930s as an exemplar of an up- classical Hollywood cinema, the New York style violated wardly mobile middle class. In 1931, Louella Parsons those codes through its emphasis on the artificialquality of noted: animation. Rather than replacing this earlier discourse at the Disney studio, the West Coast style coexisted with it. Today, Mickey is the perfect illustrationof every Cin- When conditions were right, such as during Disney's early derella tale ever written .... He has his own visiting disinterest and later absence from the studio while cards. A tiny automobile painted yellow, with a paint- DUMBO (RKO, 1941) was in production, the New York ing of Mickey, stands in a miniature garage. Minnie, style became more prominent. Through examination of his sweetheart, too has her garage, but as yet no car the place of the "Pink Elephants" sequence in DUMBO, fills the empty stall. But soon, Mr. Disney promises, the existence of this counterstylewithin the Disney studio Minnie will have her own motor.12 will be examined as an interaction of two discursive sys- tems and their related regional institutions. Usually employed in a minor managerial or professional capacity (Mickey conducts an orchestra in THE BAND WEST COAST STYLE CONCERT [UA, 1935] and MICKEY'S GRAND OP- ERA [UA, 1936], works as a scientist in THE WORM TURNS or the team of and The West Coast style was a series of visual and narrative/ [UA, 1936], supervises Goofy Pluto in CLOCK CLEANERS the ideological conventions that have become associated with [RKO, 1937]), by mid-1930s has the accoutrementsof and the films of the Disney studio, although these conventions Mickey position consistent with the of a Horatio char- are also exhibited, in varying degrees, by the production property goals Alger of other studios such as MGM or Warner Bros. The West acter. to "We like to have a to our Coast style incorporateda number of strategies, primary According Disney, point not an obvious moral but a worth-whiletheme."'3 of which was the emulation of the narrative and stylistic studies, films were invested with normative codes of classical cinema. As Bordwell and Staiger have Consequently, Disney middle-class values. pointed out, animation adopted the conventions of "depth ideological meanings, endorsing Moral homilies were common in these such as compositions, complex crane shots, and goal-orientedpro- pictures, Snow White's counsel to "whistle while work" in tagonists."8To this should be added the creation of coher- you SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS ent screen personalities and the replication of lifelike (RKO, or the "I'll be safe and movement. Cases in point are the study of live models, 1938),14 hard-workingpig's adage be when the wolf comes to door" in such as deer for BAMBI (RKO, 1942), and Disney's en- you'll sorry, your THE THREE LITTLE PIGS couragement of the use of mirrors by which animators (UA, 1933).5 West Coast a nativist, rural orienta- could study their expressions and invest their characters style incorporated tion. Richard Koszarski has out that "the com- with similar personality cues.9 In the words of Don Gra- pointed mon of west coast cartoons is sur- ham, who trained animators at the Disney studio, the ani- setting [is] 'barnyard' mator roundings . they are populated with barnyard creatures-ducks, pigs, rabbits, and so on."'6 While both still must go back to a natural action as his East and West Coast studios intermingled animal and hu- source. The important thing to remember is that man characters,West Coast studios were far more likely to every primary action must be the result of a thought use them as continuing stars-Mickey Mouse, Donald process either subconsciousor conscious. He [the Duck, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Flip the Frog, Tom and 306 This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:34:19 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Regionalismin Disney Animation -O Figure1. Enjoyingthe accoutrementsof position and prosperity,Mickey Mouse supervises Goofy in MICKEY'S SERVICE STATION(UA, 1935). © WaltDisney Co. Jerry, Droopy, and so forth. Such human characters as TORTOISE AND THE HARE [UA, 1935], and Willie Whopper and Bosko did inhabit West Coast films, DUMBO). The Story Department was the organ of Dis- but they were used relativelyinfrequently. The Disney stu- ney's control of production.'8 Consequently, during the dio was particularlyrigorous in its definition of separate 1930s, Disney narratives became highly structured, as worlds for animals and humans. The two rarely interacted seen in such films as MICKEY'S SERVICE STATION on the same level, as would Betty Boop and Bimbo, or (UA, 1935), THREE ORPHAN KITTENS (UA, 1935), Farmer Al Falfa and Kiko.17 MOVING DAY (UA, 1936), or CLOCK CLEANERS, Disney films exhibited linear narrativesthat tended to which break the action down into three different subplots deal with such children's concerns as relations with the and return these subplots to a single climax.