Lefou, I'm Afraid I've Been Thinking...

Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast by Charles Solomon. 2010

Charles Solomon is a well-respected author and animation historian. The Disney That Never Was and Disney Lost and Found are two of his more recent Disney-related titles. Each one takes the reader on an amazing trip into the Animation Research Library (also known as The Morgue) to ferret out animation that never made it into production. Charles was approached by Don Hahn about writing a thoughtful and accurate portrayal of what it was like to produce Beauty and the Beast.

Charles succeeded and produced a beautiful look at a film that changed both the animation and the animators that created it forever.

With a film as wildly successful as Beauty and the Beast, you would think that there wasn't much left to write about. Charles does a fantastic job of interviewing the animators and digging up storyboards, sketches and artwork that relate the story of creating the film. Living in a post-Beauty world, it is hard to imagine the effect this film had. Tale as Old as Time does a fantastic job of bringing that story to life.

Charles looks at the beginnings of this particular fairy tale and follows it all the way to Disney's production on Broadway. The most touching parts of the work deal with the artists and their struggle to capture a story that would resonate on film. You gain a unique insight as to how a group of animators and producers came together to actualize such a moving and resonating film. One of the most telling aspects is when Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken are brought in to revitalize the project. It really is true that Ashman and Mencken gave the film its soul.

This book is an amazing companion to the Blu-ray release of the film. The documentary Beyond Beauty, that is featured on the second disc, follows a similar path as the book. They complement each other and provide hours of cognizance for the Disney enthusiast and Beauty and the Beast fan. Where the documentary diverges is the ability to see early animated cartoons and to see the passion that the production crew had. The book offers magnificent reproductions of the artwork and Charles' amazing research and writing skills.

The artwork does steal the show yet not to the chagrin of the author. Beauty and the Beast is as compelling today as it was in 1991 and Tale as Old as Time reinforces the love that is held for the film. Production sketches, animated cels and background artwork fill every page. Some of the artwork provided is breathtaking.

Tale as Old as Time is perfect for the animation and Beast fan. And Belle fan. Heck, it's a great read for everyone who has seen the film.

The Disney That Never Was

The Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art of Five Decades of Unproduced Animation by Charles Solomon. 1995, 214 pp.

Charles Solomon is a well-known name in animation history and criticism circles. H e has authored articles for Rolling Stone, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, the New York Times and many other publications. He is also the author of two other well-known Disney and animation-related titles: Disney Lost and Found: Exploring the Hidden Artwork from Never-Produced Animation and Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation.

The Disney That Never Was takes us into the Animation Archives to see and read about unproduced shorts and feature films. Solomon has collected sketches, storyboards, concept art and the stories behind the artwork. As stated in the title, we follow the history of unproduced films throughout the studio's long and storied past. Solomon divides the book by genre as opposed to strict chronological order. The groupings are logical when looking at the artwork: Mickey, Donald and Goofy; fairy tales; wartime films; Fantasia and its successors; and miscellaneous films.

Reynard from Chanticleer by Marc Davis

I enjoyed this book and found it wistful and exciting. Solomon explains that the unproduced animation and artwork could have been shelved for any number of reasons: perhaps the story wasn't strong enough; there weren't enough artists to complete the pictures; the characters might not have had the appeal; or it never made it past an initial meeting. The Disney Studio has always well-documented their meetings and has preserved almost all stages of artwork from the animated films. In particular, the Disney artists have always found it inspirational--and helpful--to study the original animation from Snow White and other classic films. When you read this title, you can only imagine how different the animation landscape might look if some of these films had been produced. Some cases make you wonder why the animation was halted.

Goofy from How to Be a Commando, artist unknown.

The Disney That Never Was is a reference tool that you will enjoy studying and reading for many years to come. Solomon is able to provide a fantastic look at how the animation process works and how the studio functioned during the animation heyday of the 1930's and 1940's. In some instances, ideas were shelved and used much later or were the inspiration for other projects. The sections on Chanticleer, Don Quixote and Hiawatha were eye opening about the process--animation-wise and politically--that the animation takes on its circuitous path to the big screen or as it is derailed.

Snake-villain from Hootsie the Owl, artist unknown.

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of Disney animation, then you need to own this book! Charles Solomon has raided the Animation Archives, interviewed animators and researched the stories to bring us some of the most exciting information about Disney animated films that were never produced. Although we only gain glimpses of some films--almost like a tease--there is not another resource that tells this many stories about the films we never saw or heard about until this book.

Disney Lost and Found

Disney Lost and Found: Exploring the Hidden Artwork from Never-Produced Animation by well-regarded animation historian Charles Solomon has arrived in bookstores and it offers another illustration-rich peek into the Disney Studios fabled Animation Research Library. Solomon provided a previous tour of that archive in his extensive 1995 book The Disney That Never Was. Slighter in text and pages than that earlier exploration, Disney Lost and Found still remains a joyful experience and a welcome addition to any Disney history library.

In the book's first section, Visions Lost and Found, Solomon presents artwork and conceptualizations from classic features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and The Rescuers. The chapter is essentially a collection of either deleted scenes or abandoned concepts. Especially revelatory were early concept designs for Sleeping Beauty by Bill Peet that demonstrated a dramatic contrast from that film's ultimate realization, and an extensive amount of material showing two early and very different story ideas for The Rescuers.

The remainder of the book focuses specifically on two more recent abandoned projects from Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Predating Chicken Little by a number of years, Wild Life was intended to be the studio's first foray into a wholly CG animated feature. Solomon notes, "Wild Life began as a Pygmalion story designed to show children the shallowness of the world of glitz and fashion. But over the a period of months, it turned into a more cynical story set in the club scene of Big City, a fictionalized 1970s New York, the era when David Bowie and The Velvet Underground hung out with jet-setters in urban clubs." Designs by artists such as Hans Bacher, Floyd Norman and Greg Killman reveal a concept that was indeed a very dramatic departure for Disney. Alternately stunning and outrageous (and sometimes both), the designs for Wild Life clearly extended beyond what was considered appropriate for a Disney feature and it is not difficult to understand why it was ultimately shelved. As Solomon notes, " . . . insurmountable problems arose, especially between the decadent milieu of the later versions and the requirements of the traditional Disney audience."

Much more regrettable is the abandonment of My Peoples. Solomon's description of the proposed feature indicates what might have been a wholly original and visually stunning film:

"The idea for My Peoples grew out of Barry Cook's interest in American folk art. The co-director of Mulan, Cook imagined a tale of star-crossed lovers set in Appalachia in the late 1940s. Old Man McGee swears to keep his daughter Rose away from Elgin Harper because of an old feud and the superstition that 'bad things happen' when Harpers and McGees get together. The 'Peoples,' folk-art characters Elgin crafts from found objects, come to life to bring the young lovers together."

The interesting twist to the film's design was that the Peoples would have been rendered in CG in contrast to the film's overall presentation in traditional animation. The artwork revealed in the book foreshadowed what could have been an amazing and visually arresting final film. A careful reading between the lines indicates that executive-level interference ultimately doomed the project, but Solomon does note that "Some artists still hope that My Peoples will be revived one day."

One common characteristic among Disney enthusiasts seems to be the hunger to see that which might have been. Disney Lost and Found serves up a veritable feast that satisfies and manages to squelch a least some of that hunger.