Disney History Lesson: Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and the Never Fairies

Why is Peter Pan always in the air? Because he NEVER LANDS!!

The story of Peter Pan first appears in the adult novel The Little White Bird by J.M Barrie in 1902. In 1911 it was made into a play called Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Walt Disney actually played the role of Peter Pan in a school play during his childhood. In 1911 it was finally decided to be made into a novella called Peter and Wendy. The name Wendy was never used before the creation of the story of Peter Pan. There are no records of the name Wendy prior to the publication of that story.

Peter Pan was made into an animated film in 1953. Tinker Bell made her first appearance in this film though she did not talk. In 2005 Tinker Bell was given her own franchise called the Disney Fairies. This started with a book collection which began with the publication of the book In the Realm of the Never Fairies and continued with Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand, and the Fairies and the Quest for Never Land. Afterwards another series called Tales of Pixie Hollow was created which consisted of 28 books. Then in 2008 Tinker Bell had her own movie in which she spoke for the first time. Some of the characters that were in her books were incorporated into the movie and many were altered.

 Over the next few years, new fairies were introduced in each new Disney Fairy movie including Tinker Bell's long lost sister Periwinkle. There are now a total of 6 Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies movies which are only available on DVD and television premiers, the newest one being Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast which came out on March 3rd.

A new, live-action version of Peter Pan will be coming to theaters on July 24th this year and it will be called Pan. In my opinion, the best version of Peter Pan was the 1953 animated film. The animation and the story line are immaculate and really whisk you away on a magical adventure. The live-action movies and Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies spin-off series are okay but will never be as good as the original. Peter Pan was one of my all time childhood favorites and still is. It hold a certain magic that no other version has been or will be able to even slightly emulate.

Tinker Bell and the Never Fairies (2005)

The Original Tinker Bell (1953)

Disney Fairies (2008)

Disney History Lesson:Mulan

In honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year that happened last week (Februrary 19th) I decided to tell you guys about the wonders of Mulan. Let's go!                                  

Believe it or not Mulan was based on a Chinese poem called the Ballad of Mulan about a girl named Hua Mulan. The film is an incredibly accurate remake of the poem. For the English translation of the poem Click here. It is rumored that the poem is true and that Mulan was an actual person since the story has been told in China for over 2000 years. In the movie Mulan's surname is Fa instead of Hua but Wei and Zhu have also been used. Also some people in China spell Mulan's name in English as Fa Muhk Lhaan. The original story is said to date back to between 386-534 B.C.E. during the Northern Wei Dynasty but the movie takes place around 180-120 B.C.E. during the Western Han Dynasty during the invasion of the Huns. 

 Mulan was released on June 15th, 1998. It was the first Disney movie to be realsed on DVD in November 1999. It was also the first animated Disney movie to openly deal with warfare. The film was also almost rated PG because the word "cross-dresser" was used. It was the first time an animated Disney movie used that word. In all about 700 artists, animators and technicians worked on the film.

Mulan is depicted as being 16 years old. She is voiced by Ming-Na Wen for talking and Lea Salonga for singing. In the scene where Captain Shang asks Mulan what her name is she replies with "Ping" which makes her soldier name Fa Ping. This translates to "flowerpot" and is an inside joke indicating that she is not actually a man. Hua is the Mandarin version of Mulan's last name and Fa is the Cantonese version.

Li Shang is said to be 19 years old. He is voiced by BD Wong for talking and Donny Osmond for singing. Jackie Chan was Li Shang's martial arts model and later voiced him in the Cantonese and Mandarin editions of the movie.

It also should not go unsaid that Eddie Murphy was the voice of Mushu. He recorded the dialogue during his breaks from Holy Man (1998). Mushu was animated by director Tony Bancroft's twin brother Tom Bancroft.

I hope you enjoyed the history of Mulan join me next time as we uncover more Disney secrets!

Click here for the full list of cast and crew members.

Disney History Lesson: Beauty and the Beast

Since yesterday was Valentines Day I decided to uncover the mysteries of the greatest animated love story of all time, Beauty and the Beast.  

Beauty and the Beast was released on November 13th, 1991. It was the first animated movie to earn over 100 million dollars at the box office and the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, unfortunately it lost to Silence of the Lambs. The movie was also declared a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film" in 2002 by the Library Congress and was therefore selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry. Walt Disney himself tried to create the film twice, once in the 1930's and once in the 1950's, but his writers felt the story was too difficult to adapt.

Beauty and the Beast takes place in France in the 1700's. Beauty and the Beast was originally a traditional French fairy tale that was widely known in varying forms throughout Europe. In 1756 it was finally written and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. It was called La Belle et la Bete which is French for Beauty and the Beast. Other versions that inspired the film were Zemire et Azor (Zemire was the name for "beauty" and Azor was the name for "beast") which was an operatic version of the tale that was written by Marmontel and composed by Grety in 1771. There was also a play called Amour pour Amour (meaning love for love) written by Nivelle de la Chaussee in 1742 which was based off of Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villenueve's version which was more complex and detailed than Beaumont's more popular version. 

However the biggest influence on the animated film was the live-action French version of Beauty and the Beast, La Belle et la Bete, which was released in 1946. The idea of a rival love for Belle (Gaston who was called Avenant) who tried to kill Beast and ultimately ends up dying originated from this movie. The objects in Beast's castle coming to life was also derived from this movie.

Belle was voiced by Paige O'Hara. Belle is portrayed as being 17 years old. Belle's personality was based off of Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Jo March in the 1933 movie Little Women. Belle's physical appearance was based off of Sherri Stoner who was also Ariel's reference model. Belle was also modeled after Vivian Leigh and Audrey Hepburn. In the movie, Belle is the only character in town who wears blue. Animators did this to represent Belle's uniqueness and to show how she is different from the towns people. And in the scene where Beast dies, Paige O'Hara was actually crying.

Beast was voiced by Robby Benson. Beast's name is actually Adam but this is never mentioned in the movie. We can infer from the prologue that Beast (or Adam) is in fact 21 years old because it says that "the rose will bloom until the prince is 21". We can also infer that Adam was 11 years old when he was turned into Beast because in the song "Be Our Guest" Lumiere sings "10 years we've been rusting..." Animators used a number of different animals for Beast's appearance. He has the mane of a lion, the beard and head of a buffalo, the brow of a gorilla, the tusks of a wild boar, the body of a bear, and the legs and tail of a wolf. Only his eyes remained human. 

A lot of celebrities were considered for different roles in this movie, Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid was considered for Belle. Regis Philbin, who holds the Guinness World Record for most time spent in front of a television camera, was turned down for the voice of Adam (Beast). The character Cogsworth was written specifically for John Cleese, who is a renowned British actor, comedian, writer, and film producer, but he turned down the role. Patrick Stewart from Star Trek almost voiced Cogsworth but he had to turn down the part due to scheduling conflicts. Julie Andrews turned down the role for Mrs. Pots. Rupert Everette, the voice of Prince Charming in Shrek 2 was turned down for the role of Gaston because Disney Studios felt his voice was not arrogant enough. Jackie Chan provided both the talking and singing voice of Beast (Adam) in the Mandarin version of the film.

The dancing scene at the end of the movie is reused and recolored footage from the dancing scene in Sleeping Beauty. Also, the smoke used in the scene where Beast turns back to Prince Adam is actual smoke, it is not animated. 

For a full list of cast and crew click here

For the Beaumont version of the traditional story click here

  

Tale as old as time

song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

Disney History Lesson:Cinderella

This blog post is dedicated to the live-action remake of the classic Cinderella coming to theaters in March 13th.

Cinderella (Cenerentola in Italian) was first written by Giambattista Basile in 1637 Charles Perrault then rewrote it in French (Cendrillon) in 1697. It was then re-written by The Brothers Grimm as tale number 21 in their book of fairy tales in German (Aschenputtel). The "most accurate" version of Cinderella or the one that the Disney film was mostly based off of was Charles Perrault's version.

Cinderella was premiered in Boston on February 15th 1950 and was officially released on March 4th.

Cinderella is portrayed as being 19 years old. She is voiced by Ilene Woods who beat 309 girls for the part and was modeled after Ingrid Bergman. Prince Charming is said to also be 19 years old and was voiced by William Phipps for talking and Mike Douglas for singing. He was left unnamed.

Cinderella's dress is actually white in the movie and her hair has and orange-red tint but she is shown as being blonde and wearing a blue dress on merchandise and later remakes. She also looses her shoe a total of three times in the movie. Once when she is delivering breakfast trays. Then when she runs away from the ball. And finally when she is walking down the steps after her marriage with Prince Charming.

Walt Disney used subtle evidence to indicate Cinderella's location and time. The movie takes place in June in France because the sun rises at approximately 6:00 A.M. at the beginning of the movie which shows that it is a few weeks before the summer solstice and that also means that a pumpkin would have grown 20-40 pounds by this time.

Make sure to watch the all new version of Cinderella coming to theaters March 13th! I'M SO EXCITED!!

Watch the trailer here-

For a full list of cast and crew members click here
For a full list of cast and crew member for the NEW Cinderella click here

To read the French version of Cinderella click here
To read the Italian (and shortest) version of Cinderella click here
To read the German version of Cinderella click here

Thank you and make sure to join me on the next Disney History Lesson.

Disney History Lesson:Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty is probably the most underestimated Disney movie of all time. This is because the concept of the movie was considered generic even for its time.

Sleeping Beauty was released on February 6th 1959. Disney spent $6 million dollars to make this film which makes it the most expensive cartoon Disney has ever made. Despite this, it completely failed in the box office raking in approximately $51 million which was not enough to measure up to production value and expected income. Even though Sleeping Beauty is regarded as a classic nowadays, back then critics believed the movie was slow and lacked character development. Part of the reason is because Aurora only has 18 minutes of screen time. Also during this time, Walt Disney was busy creating Disneyland and focusing on television shows which were a top priority and probably effected the movie's quality. Due to its failure Sleeping Beauty put a halt on the Disney Princess Industry for 30 years. The next Disney Princess Movie was The Black Cauldron which came out in 1985 and turned out to be even more underestimated than Sleeping Beauty was.

The original Sleeping Beauty has mixed origins all of which were incorporated into the film. The first versions of the story cropped up around France and Germany in 1330 and was called Perceforest, Disney based most of the romance between Aurora and Prince Phillip off of this version. The second version was written by Charles Perrault in 1696 and was called The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood (in French- La Belle au bois dormant). Disney took away the fairy tale aspect from this version. Finally The Brothers Grimm published a version of the story in 1812. It was called Little Briar Rose (in German- Dornroschen) and was tale number 50 in their collection of fairy tales. Disney based most of the plot off of this edition. Also the name Aurora which was used in the movie was also used in Perrault's version of the story but in the movie when Aurora is hiding from Maleficent she uses the name Briar Rose.

The story doesn't have a specific time period or location but is most likely somewhere in Germany or France anytime during the 1300's-1600's.

Aurora was voiced by Mary Costa. Aurora is said to be 16 in the movie She was modeled after Audrey Hepburn and Helene Stanley. Helene Stanley was also the live action model for Cinderella and Anita from 101 Dalmatians. Surprisingly Mary Costa had a very prominent southern accent which almost prevented her from getting the job but she was able to prove that she could do a sufficient British accent for Aurora's character. Mary Costa was also a professional opera singer at the time. she preformed at John F. Kennedy's memorial at the request of Jackie Kennedy who had heard her sing the Star Spangled Banner at the Academy Awards. She was also one of the original Chrysler Girls.

Prince Philip was voiced by Bill Shirley. Prince Philip was named after the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When Sleeping Beauty was released they had been married for 12 years and Queen Elizabeth II had been queen for 7 years. He was modeled after
 Ed Kemmer and it is said that he is 18 in the movie.

That's it for this Disney History Lesson! Look out for the next one!

If you want to read Little Briar Rose by The Brothers Grimm click here
If you want to read The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood click here
For a summary of Perceforest click here

Also keep in mind that there is a spin off version of Sleeping Beauty called Maleficent which was released in 2014 and stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent.