Disney didn’t mess around when it came to their villains — and especially the demise of many of them. The same holds true for Gaston in Disney’s 1991 masterpiece, Beauty and the Beast.
When Gaston and the Beast are locked in combat upon the ramparts of the castle, they hung on the edge of a turret. But just as the wounded Beast made his final attempt to save Belle, Gaston could hold no longer and fell down, down, down into the misty darkness. Disney animators wanted to make sure that every detail spoke of this villain’s demise, and therefore added tiny skulls into Gaston’s pupils as he is falling. The moment is incredibly quick, so much so that unless you pause the film at just the right moment, you will most likely miss it. All the same, animators have used this subtle detail in response to fans theorizing that Gaston did not die in the fall, by stating that those skulls are confirmation in and of itself that there was only one outcome for him. What’s a Warner Brothers character doing in a Disney movie? In 1964, Warner Brothers released “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” staring the hilariously talented (and future Disney veteran) Don Knotts. The story, partly animated and partly live-action, follows the story of one Mr. Limpet and how, after falling into the ocean, he is magically changed into a fish and becomes a WWII hero, using natural sonar to aid allied ships in the war effort. The film was a hit, but what does Disney have to do with all of this? Mr. Limpet’s character designer and animation director was Disney veteran Vladimir “Bill” Tytla, well-renowned for bringing to life such Disney legends as the demon Chernaborg in Fantasia, the puppeteer/villain Stromboli in Pinocchio, and even when baby Dumbo takes a bath in Dumbo! Later on, in the late 1980s, when Disney was hard at work on the Little Mermaid, animators working on the film couldn’t help but pay homage to a legendary artist who helped inspire them to carry on the legacy of animated excellence. Thus, at the end of the “Under the Sea” number, when all the fish are in their frozen pose, one can spot the incredible Mr. Limpet among the school of fish. But Mr. Limpet’s story doesn’t end there! Later on, when imagineers were building “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure” attraction at Disney’s California Adventure, a Mr. Limpet animatronic gets to play his part as well!
In the “Under the Sea” scene, just after you past Ariel, behind and to the right, hidden behind a clamshell and seaweed is the indelible Mr. Limpet, watching with his iconic Don Knott’s grin as Flounder dances with the Carmen Miranda fish. Disney believes in its past and is optimistic for its future. It remembers those who played a role, even if they have gone on to other things, and continues again and again to pay homage to the people who laid the groundwork for what they are accomplishing today! It was 1958 when Walt went on a trip to Switzerland in order to help get started on the new live action film, Third Man on the Mountain. Before leaving, he stopped by one of his imagineers, Vic Greene. “Vic,” he said, poking his head into the office door. “I want you to get brainstorming on some new attractions to put in Tomorrowland. Something big. We’ll talk more about it when I get back from Switzerland.” When Walt arrived, he and director Ken Annakin took a train to the little town of Zermatt which has an amazing view of the Matterhorn. Walt was entranced. He rushed into a gift shop and purchased a postcard with a picture of the Matterhorn on it and on the back scrawled a simple message: “Vic, build this! Walt.” The day the postcard arrived in Vic’s office, he started designing. Walt moved on to Germany and became interested in the bullet-shaped trains that rode around there. In turn he had another idea for a train much like them - a monorail. Finally, though, Walt had one more ride that he was brainstorming. Following the success of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Walt wanted to take people on a Submarine Voyage. With this three attractions in mind, Walt returned home and hit his first speed bump - his own brother Roy. Roy didn’t want any new rides until the Disney company was out of the debt that Disneyland put them in in the first place. Walt tried to convince him but Roy was immovable. In a couple of years they could think about it, but not now. After the end of the argument, Roy left to Europe to try and gain some foreign investors. Meanwhile Walt called together his imagineers. His opening statement was right to the point, “We’re going to build the Matterhorn, the Monorail, and the Submarines.”
The imagineers were already well aware of Roy’s opposition to the projects. “What will Roy say?” one of the imagineers at the table asked. “Don’t worry about Roy,” Walt said. “We’re going to build ‘em. Roy can figure out how to pay for ‘em when he gets back.” Walt might have had to go behind Roy’s back, but thank heavens he did because those three rides were sensational when they opened. Sometimes Walt was the only person to see the bigger picture. The idea for the 1966 film Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. came to Walt as he was on an airplane. The story was loosely based on the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, but with many changes. For example, Friday (Crusoe’s companion) was turned into a monkey. And there is much more interaction with native tribes than in the original story. Above it all, the story was modernized so that Robin Crusoe, played by the hilarious Dick Van Dyke, was in the United States Navy. Walt wrote the idea for the story on a piece of paper and brought it to the studio. When the movie was made, he demanded credit for the story and so in the credits, a line reads “Original Story by Retlaw Elias Yensid,” which just so happens to be his own name backwards (except for his middle name.)
You could always count on Walt to focus on the little details which added fun and wonder to everything he did. Belle is presented with a glorious smorgasbord of food during her first night in the Beast's magical castle. Among the dishes served is the Grey Stuff, it’s delicious! Disney released the recipe and it is a cookies and cream pudding mixture on top of a sugar cookie base. You start out with crushed Oreos, then add vanilla pudding, chocolate pudding, and whipped topping. All of that goes piped onto a cookie and is topped with crushed Oreos and sprinkles. |
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