“Without the wonderful drawings of Heinrich Kley, I could not conduct my art school classes for my animators." - Walt Disney
During the roughly 30 year period in which Walt Disney produced full-length, animated features—beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and ending with The Jungle Book—the vast majority of films could trace their origins to a European source. Walt Disney and his stable of studio animation artists and directors were inspired by several European authors and artists. Disney returned from a 1935 European trip with over 300 illustrated books of fairy tales and folk stories that, in some cases, made their way to the silver screen. One European artist in particular, Heinrich Kley, inspired Walt Disney so greatly that he collected several original pieces of Kley’s art; some of which are currently on display in The Walt Disney Family Museum's theater lobby. As the quote above acknowledges, Walt Disney was influenced by Heinrich Kley’s art and used Kley’s work to share his vision with Disney animation artists.
On Saturday July 14, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker, author and animation historian, John Canemaker, presented a behind-the-scenes look at how Walt Disney was inspired by Kley and other European artists, and how their art was translated into many Disney versions of famous stories and tales. Canemaker began by recounting several famous Disney animated features and their European roots. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came from the German Brothers Grimm. Felix Salten’s Bambi was translated from German in 1928. Pinocchio had its origins as a serial and novel by Carlo Collodi in Italy. The Frenchman, Charles Perrault, gave us Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Alice in Wonderland leapt from the imagination of Britain’s Lewis Carroll. Peter Pan was created by Scottish playwright J. M. Barrie. One Hundred and One Dalmatians began as a novel by England’s Dodie Smith. John Canemaker then proceeded to highlight the work of Heinrich Kley and other European artists and how they influenced the look of many Disney animated films.
Heinrich Kley was born in Germany in 1863. Walt Disney Studios story and concept artists Albert Hurter and Joe Grant knew of Kley’s work and touted it at the studio. Grant brought his father’s portfolio of Kley’s work to the studio where Kley’s, sometimes whimsical, sometimes dramatic; pen and ink drawings captured the imagination of Walt Disney. John Canemaker shared some of Kley’s delightful images of rabbits boxing, frogs riding turtles and an elephant in a ballet pose. The latter inspired some of the elephant ballet elements later seen in Fantasia’s "Dance of the Hours" sequence. The audience was treated to a clip from this magical scene. Kley also influenced another, more ominous, scene from Fantasia, "Night on Bald Mountain". Kley had done a pen and ink drawing of a large horned devilish figure towering over several smaller figures silhouetted in front of flames. While the final design of "Night on Bald Mountain’s: antagonist, Chernabog, differed from the figure created by Kley; the mood of his drawing was a direct influence on this sequence in Fantasia.
In addition to nineteenth and early-twentieth century artists, such as Heinrich Kley, John Canemaker next demonstrated that Walt Disney and his animation team were influenced by artists from mediums other than drawing and painting. In particular, German expressionist films of the 1920s provided powerful imagery that was incorporated in several Disney film sequences. To illustrate, Canemaker showed a behind the scenes photograph of a large devil figure menacingly standing over a city from F. W. Murnau’s 1926 film Faust. The image was reminiscent of the powerful figure of Chernabog in Fantasia, hovering over a small town calling upon its spirits to join the revelry on Bald Mountain. Murnau also made Nosferatu in which he effectively used eerie approaching shadows that implied a menace about to strike. Similar use of shadow was shown in film clips of "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" sequence from Fantasia, and Dumbo's Timothy Mouse approaching the sleeping ringmaster to whisper in his ear. The tiny mouse’s shadow briefly took on an oversized, grotesque appearance that built tension until Timothy finally appears in the frame. The Dumbo clip was precisely mirrored the clip previously shown from Nosferatu. The similarity was unmistakable and an obvious homage to Murnau’s work.
John Canemaker went on to describe the contributions of European artists who came to work at the Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s and 40s, beginning with Albert Hurter. Hurter was born in Switzerland in 1883 and worked at the very first animation studio headed by Raoul Barre. He was considered an “old man” by the young animators when he joined Disney in 1931. He was the studio’s first “inspirational sketch artist” and helped raise the drawing standards at Disney with his contributions in designing settings and characters for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. His work on the dwarfs' grief scene was a challenge in considering how to show seven different characters each grieving in his own way. His study sketches were effectively animated by Frank Thomas for the film and brought audiences to tears.
Ferdinand Horvath is the second of the European artists to work at Disney. Born in Budapest in 1891, he worked as a book and magazine illustrator in New York, before coming west and joining Disney in 1933. His sleek, yet dark illustrations had to be modified to be included in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as demonstrated in a torture chamber concept drawing for the Wicked Queen’s castle. Horvath also had a delightful and fantastic imagination and contributed sketches for a flower ballet sequence for one of the Silly Symphonies. During his five years at Disney, he contributed many visual gags, story ideas, and character designs for Disney films.
Well known book illustrator, Gustaf Tenggren was born in Sweden in 1896. He worked at the Walt Disney Studios from 1936 to 1939. During that time, he made major visual contributions to the Silly Symphonies--such as Hiawatha and The Old Mill--as well as, animated features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. Canemaker showed three delightful study sketches of Snow White in the swamp, Snow White with the Prince, and Pinocchio with then fox Honest John. These images provided the animation artists a wonderful starting point from which to further develop the characters and backgrounds for the final films.
Kay Nielson came from Denmark. He was one of the top turn of the century book illustrators of the day. His work for "Night on Bald Mountain" provided the morbidly beautiful stylizations that we see in the final version of the scene. He and the aforementioned Albert Hurter both worked in Joe Grant’s character model department. Canemaker showed some of their sketches for "Night on Bald Mountain" that are part of the collection at the Walt Disney Family Museum for all to enjoy.
And not to be left out, there were female artists from Europe who also contributed significantly to the look of Disney animation in the 1930s and 40s. John Canemaker highlighted Bianca Majolie and Sylvia Moberly-Holland in his presentation.
Majolie was born in Rome in 1900. She attended Chicago’s Art Institute and was an upper class schoolmate of Walt Disney at McKinley High School. In 1935, she was the first woman to work in the Disney story department. During her tenure at the studio, she contributed the narrative for "Elmer the Elephant", and exquisite, inspirational sketches in delicate pastels and watercolors for Cinderella, as well as "The Nutcracker Suite" in Fantasia.
Moberly-Holland born in 1900, near Winchester, England. After seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it became her goal to work at the Walt Disney Studios, which she achieved in 1938. She painted fanciful creatures for "The Nutcracker Suite" and "The Pastoral Sequence" in Fantasia, and evocative nature watercolor treatments for Bambi. Canemaker showed two film clips from Fantasia to show how closely these two artists' concepts translated into the final film. The results were remarkable. The dewdrop fairy in "The Nutcracker Suite" and the centaurettes in the Pastoral scenes followed the initial designs by Majolie and Moberly-Holland quite closely.
Thus ended a wonderful and whimsical look at the European art and artists who inspired the 20th Century’s greatest visual artist: Walt Disney. John Canemaker once again delighted The Walt Disney Family Museum audience with his new insights into the legacy of Walt Disney and the magical visual imagery he used to tell the story of how Walt was inspired by European art. Of note, The Walt Disney Family Foundation will soon be publishing Canemaker’s latest book (based on a prized artifact in the Museum’s collection found in Gallery 5) titled Secrets of Disney Movie Magic (1938-1941): Herman Schultheis and His Special Effects Notebook. We eagerly look forward to John Canemaker’s next presentation at The Walt Disney Family Museum.
Frank Teurlay is an inaugural member of The Walt Disney Family Museum volunteer team and can usually be found by the “Disneyland of Walt’s Imagination” model in Gallery 9. He is a regular program recap contributor to Storyboard, and has written for "Fantasyline Express".