clair de lune

the recreated longer pan background is from the disney animated short compilation MAKE MINE MUSIC from 1946. it was titled BLUE BAYOU, the song performed by the KEN DARBY SINGERS, after it was originally produced and completed for disney’s FANTASIA in 1940. the original music at that time was CLAIR DE LUNE by composer CLAUDE DEBUSSY. disney decided to cut the segment out of FANTASIA because even without it the film was already 125 min long. in the BLUE BAYOU you see two egrets flying through the everglades at night with a full moon, all done with lots of water-effects and several background layers on the multiplane camera.

© disney enterprises, inc

Advertisement

park concert

the recreated long diagonal pan below is from the short CASEY AT THE BAT, part of disney’s august 1946 MAKE MINE MUSIC-compilation.

© disney enterprises, inc

opera

THE WHALE WHO WANTED TO SING AT THE MET is another short within MAKE MINE MUSIC, released aug. 1946. NELSON EDDIE, a well known opera singer at that time, does all the singing and the narration. the proportions are interesting, with WILLIE the whale and his seagull-friend, as well as on stage, where the huge whale has a duett with a tiny brunhilde soprano. following are 2 recreated backgrounds…

© disney enterprises, inc

more snow

here are the last three recreated backgrounds/scenes from disney’s PETER AND THE WOLF…

© disney enterprises, inc

a wolf

SERGEI PROKOFIEV wrote the musical symphony for children PETER AND THE WOLF in 1936. he had left russia after the revolution and toured successfully europe and the US with concerts. in 1936 he returned to his home country, what was not one of his better decisions as it showed some years later. during a visit to the DISNEY studio in 1938 the russian composer offered WALT DISNEY this composition with the words – I have composed this with the hope that I would get to see you and that you would make a cartoon with my music. well, PETER AND THE WOLF was a part of MAKE MINE MUSIC, released august 1946. the characters are very well designed, the animation is flawless – WARD KIMBALL, ERIC LARSON, OLLIE JOHNSTON and JOHN LOUNSBERY are the animators, the bg’s were created by CLAUDE COATS following MARY BLAIR’S styling, beautiful effects animation by GEORGE ROWLEY.
all in all it is a little masterpiece, mainly because of the perfect match of story, music and visuals. below I recreated some of the bg’s, a few of them are fortunately in original in the DISNEY ARCHIVES ARL.

© disney enterprises, inc

swamps

this short musical piece BLUE BAYOU from disney’s MAKE MINE MUSIC, 1946, is not too well known. maybe because it is a bit boring. there is no story, two cranes are flying around the swamp trees in a full moon night, and in the background you hear some kitschy song. but I was always fascinated by the amazing camera-moves. I tried to recreate several of them, but so far the one below is the only successful result. very complicated combined turning pans/truck in and out.

© disney enterprises, inc