Walt Disney’s second live-action feature produced in England,The Story of Robin Hood, differed from the first, Treasure Island, in some important ways. Legends involving the mythical character of Robin Hood had circulated for hundreds of years, and by the time Walt tackled his film, many of those legends had already found their way to the screen in numerous film adaptations.
Each month, we ask a museum staff member to answer five questions about their position at The Walt Disney Family Museum, their fondest Disney memories, and personal tidbits. We've asked our special Heinrich Kley: From Fantasy to Fantasia exhibition's co-curator Michael Labrie... what do YOU do?
The moment when Cinderella is transformed from her tattered rags into her shimmering ball gown is said to have been one of Walt Disney’s favorite pieces of animation. The significance and legacy of the treasured Disney animated feature Cinderella are indisputable. The film was the studio’s first unqualified hit since 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and restored financial stability to the debt-ridden postwar studio.
“It’s always a challenge bringing a great story classic to the screen,” Walt Disney once said, “giving visual form to characters and places that have only existed in the imagination. But it’s the kind of challenge we enjoy.”
On Saturday April 14, we invited our Members and other esteemed guests to our annual Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Here's a brief photo recap of the highlights...
A stone's throw from the Museum is a stretch of highway that connects San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge. Locals call this road Doyle Drive and it's being slowly transformed into what will eventually be known as Presidio Parkway. After the dust settles, we'll have a thoroughfare that improves traffic and is more seismically stable...
Inspiration comes from many places. This Arbor Day we celebrate Walt Disney’s Dreaming Tree, where as a child he found much of his inspiration. A large Cottonwood tree located on the family farm in Marceline, Missouri, it was said that Walt and Ruth would spend warm days enjoying the shade of the towering canopy...
Each month, we introduce you to one of our Members, so you can see the varied and frequently fascinating people who have come together to learn and experience more about the life, work, philosophies, and ideals of Walt Disney. This month, we’d like you to meet member Marty Fung!
The TCM Film Festival, to me, is a lot like Christmas: We wait all year for it, and it goes by too quickly.
Luckily, this year The Walt Disney Family Museum and D23 were on hand to put Disney in the mix of silents, film noirs, epics, and comedies that were being screened at the Chinese and Egyptian theaters.
In the late 1940s, Walt Disney was considering whether to continue with feature animation. The studio was deeply in debt after World War II. The war had dried up foreign revenues for features released during the early ‘40s. Animated features were suspended when the United States entered WW II.