Cruella’s Animated Life: Remembering Legendary Disney Artist Marc Davis

Left: Marc Davis 

Right: his animated creation, Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1961)

By Michael Lyons

When describing Cruella de Vil, author and animation historian John Canemaker once said, “You don’t like her as a person, although you love her as a character.”

So fitting for what many consider to be the greatest baddie to emerge from Disney’s long-line of villains. She first burst onto the screen with her echoing cackle and sickly, green cigarette smoke in Disney’s classic 1961 animated feature 101 Dalmatians. 

Cruella has had an indelible impact on audiences for 60 years.  She was brought back to the screen twenty-five years ago by Glenn Close in the live-action remake of 101 Dalmatians and will once again return this week in the live-action origin story/prequel, Cruella (debuting May 28 in theaters and on Disney+).  In this latest iteration, she is portrayed by Emma Stone.

Top: Glenn Close as Cruella in 1996's 101 Dalmatians and

Below: Emma Stone in this year's Cruella.

With a new generation about to discover Ms. de Vil, it’s the opportune time to introduce (or re-introduce) this generation to the artist responsible for first bringing her to the screen: master animator Marc Davis.

Davis, who sadly passed away in 2000 at the age of 86, had a remarkable career at Disney, contributing to many of the studio’s classic films and theme park attractions. 

A native of California, Marc studied at San Francisco's Otis Art Institute and the California School of Fine Arts.  A friend suggested that Marc apply for a job with Walt Disney's Studio, which he did and was hired in December of 1935.

Marc recalled in a 1998 interview: "During the early days of Disney, the women were all in Ink and Paint.  The men were either in some part of Story or Animation.  It was kind of like a nunnery or a monastery." 

The young artist was put to work on the first full-length animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Several years after this, while creating early conceptual work for a new film at the studio entitled Bambi (1942), Marc's artwork caught the attention of Walt.  "I did the young animals in the story," remembered Marc," and apparently, he was delighted with my work and said, 'i want to see this guy's drawings on the screen.  Make an animator out of him.'"

This started a career that brought audiences some of Disney's most iconic characters.  Marc animated the title characters in Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951), which led to him creating some of Disney's most memorable female characters, such as Tinker Belle in Peter Pan (1953) and both Princess Aurora and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959).

“Well, the hardest thing with Maleficent was how to bring her to life," recalled Marc. “She did stand up and make speeches, but that's when I introduced the Raven this way she could work to the Raven. She also had a wonderful voice, Eleanor Audley, wonderful lady.”

Two of Marc's many Disney animated characters:

Left: Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Right: Tinker Belle in Peter Pan (1953)

After Sleeping Beauty, Marc gave the world Cruella deVil in 1961's 101 Dalmatians.  First introduced in author Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel The One Hundred and One Dalmatians (upon which the movie is based), Marc brought the character to life on screen.  "She's fascinating to watch," said Canemaker of the Cruella.  "She moved in this angular, aggressive way.  She's all over the place, almost like a force of nature."

 

The film would be Marc's last assignment as an animator, as he transitioned over to another department at Disney, later dubbed Imagineering.  Here, he had a hand in creating "It's a Small World, "Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Haunted Mansion,” and other Disney theme park attractions now well-known throughout the globe.

 

Marc retired from Disney in 1978.  He and his wife, Alice, a designer who created the costumes for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” inspired and mentored a new generation of artists at Disney who would go on to develop many of the studio's hit films of the '90s, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994). 

 

Inducted as a Disney Legend in 1989, the impact of Marc's work is still felt to this day, evidenced by the fact that one of the greatest characters he brought to the screen headlines one of this summer's most eagerly awaited films, Cruella.

 

How did he do it?  Marc said simply, "You have to create characters as an artist, but you also have to be able to bring them to life. That's what Walt Disney wanted, and if you pleased Walt Disney, you were bringing things to life."

 

Sources:

John Canemaker interview with Michael Lyons, June 17, 1998

Marc Davis interview with Michael Lyons, March 27, 1998

The Big Picture: Remembering the Summer Movie Events of the 1990s

 

A newspaper ad for “Twister” from

Summer 1996

By Michael Lyons

 

Twenty-five years ago, this month was the start of the Summer Event Season. Oh, sure, some may call it the Summer Movie Season, but back in the 1990s, seemingly every movie that came out during the Summer was an Event.

 

Consider this: from the beginning of May 1996 through July 4 weekend that same year, Twister, Tom Cruise‘s first Mission Impossible, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Independence Day all debuted in movie theaters.

 

Collectively all of those movies made over $2 billion worldwide at the box office.

 

They are also all examples of how movie studios marketed their films in the 1990s, particularly Summer movies, to be more than movies. They were Events. Going to see a big Summer movie in the 1990s at your local multiplex felt like going to a concert. The barrage of commercials and coverage and advertisements and promotions and fast food toys was nonstop. And on the Monday morning after the big movie opening weekend, if you were the only one at work who hadn’t seen the movie…boy, did you feel left out of the conversation.

 

Blame it on Batman.

 

In 1989, Warner Brothers marketed Tim Burton’s Batman, like no other movie had been marketed before. It started with a teaser trailer that began showing in movie theaters in early 1989 and culminated in the movie's opening week, where it was seemingly anywhere you turned.

A “Batman” newspaper ad from summer 1989, touting

The movies massive box-office returns.

Batman’s early, Thursday night screenings contained palpable, electric anticipations in the movie theater.  The entire Summer of 1989 became the Summer of Batman. The film made $411 million worldwide, changing the way movies were marketed and how we went to see movies after that for an entire decade.

 

Each successive Summer after that during the 1990s came with multiple big Summer Movies...make that big Summer… Events.

 

Steven Spielberg‘s Jurassic Park in the Summer of 1993 took the Summer Event Movie to the stratosphere, merging the excitement of the promotion that preceded the film with the theme park, thrill ride of the movie itself.

Early screenings, like this for “Jurassic Park”

In June of 1993 only generated even more excitement for the film.

 

So many movies followed the Event marketing formula in so many different ways- the same Summer as Jurassic Park saw Sylvester Stallone‘s Cliffhanger dominating Memorial Day Weekend that year (almost serving as a “warm-up act” for Spielberg’s Dino-blockbuster).  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero (which had the misfortune of opening to disappointing box-office results the weekend after Jurassic Park) was billed as “The Big Ticket for ‘93” in its early movie posters. 

Spielberg produced the live-action Flintstones the following Summer, which became the first Summer movie everyone wanted to see that year.  The Event Model even applied to loftier, more Oscar-worthy Summer films like Braveheart, Forrest Gump, and Apollo 13.

 

One of those aforementioned Summer Event movies celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Twister, was such a big Event that it shifted this Summer Movie release calendar. Premiering over Mother’s Day weekend of 1996, Twister went on to generate $495 million worldwide, causing Hollywood to see the value in releasing Summer movies earlier than Memorial Day Weekend.

 

Disney became the master at the Summer Movie Events. They literally turned several of their significant animated features made during this decade into Events. The Lion King played at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City and the El Capitan theater in Los Angeles during a special limited engagement before it opened in theaters everywhere, with a stage show featuring the Disney characters; the following year, Pocahontas premiered in Central Park with 100,000 people going to see it at a free, concert-like experience; twenty-five years ago, The Hunchback of Notre Dame premiered at the Louisiana Superdome.

 

Disney made sure that audiences knew “The Lion King”

Continued to be a hit throughout the summer of 1994

With newspaper ads like this.

 Summer Event movies would continue through the rest of the decade, culminating in 1999 with Star Wars Episode I-The Phantom Menace release that May, probably the most highly anticipated movie of the entire decade.

“Star Wars- Episode I” made the cover of

Almost every magazine in the summer of ‘99

After this, many studio’s marketing machines, while still in full vigor, cooled to the Summer Movie Event model.  This could have been due to the power of Blockbuster video at the time, or the shortened window from when a film went from theaters to VHS/DVD, or it could be that audiences’ tastes were beginning to change with the end of the decade and the beginning of a new century.

And while we do still see glimmers of the Summer Event Movie (it’s probably safe to say that Marvel Studios has become the true, recent masters of this), the Summers of seemingly one after another after another seems to be now locked away in a time capsule with other 90s relics.

And with the strain of the pandemic and the onset of streaming services taking the last gasp of wind out of the sales of many movie theater chains, will we ever see the return of the Summer Event Movie?

We can hope.  After last year, now just the comfort of returning to a movie theater alone feels like an Event.

It’s a nice thought, however, to think that someday it could come back.  Here’s hoping for a new generation of big movies, shown in crowded theaters, on warm hazy evenings.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Summer

 

 

 

 

Parental Guidance Suggested: The 25th Anniversary of Albert Brooks' Comedy, "Mother"

By Michael Lyons

No one combines cynicism and heart better than Albert Brooks.  The comedian has written, directed, and starred in several hilarious films that balance his shrewd perspective on the world with a warmth that slowly builds to the surface throughout the story.

Nowhere is this more on display than in his 1996 comedy Mother, the story of a middle-aged novelist who moves back in with his mom.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of this film (released on December 25, 1996).  With Mother's Day approaching this weekend, there's no better time to celebrate this sharply written and underappreciated comedy.

In Mother, Brooks plays John Henderson, a successful science fiction writer on the verge of his second divorce.  Wondering why he has had such difficulties with relationships in his life, John decides to experiment: he will move back in with his widowed mother, Beatrice (Debbie Reynolds).

Staying in his childhood bedroom, John hopes that the time with Beatrice will strengthen their relationship and allow him to discover more about himself.

Of course, there is discord between the two: Beatrice, in her demure and sweet way, is critical of John, as she "re-discovers" him, now that they're spending so much time together. John is just driven plain crazy by this.

These smaller, slice-of-life scenes are where we find the majority of laughs in Mother.

When Beatrice offers her son sherbet that has passed its expiration date, John informs her: "You're running a food museum here!"  

John and his mother meet up with Beatrice's neighbor in the supermarket.  Beatrice introduces John as a writer but notes: "He hasn't written anything in a while, but he's working on a new book."

"Thanks for the intro, mother," grumbles John.

A scene where Beatrice struggles with her phone's call waiting feature is brilliantly hysterical.

Mother even features a "re-boot" of the iconic Simon and Garfunkle song, "Mrs. Robinson," from The Graduate, here sung by Paul Simon, with new lyrics:  "Here's to you, Mrs. Henderson, your grown son is moving back today..."

Brooks' trademark, observational humor not only sheds light on the everyday things that seemingly pass us by but on the relationships between John and Beatrice.

Debbie Reynolds, starring here in her first acting role in over 40 years, was robbed of an Oscar nomination for Mother.  Walking the tightrope of both adversary and advocate for her son, Reynolds creates a character who is instantly likable and memorable when she's on-screen.  She proves why she's a movie legend and still missed to this day.

Through the laughs and pathos, Mother is a film about why no matter how critical, crazy or imperfect they may seem, we need our family as our support system in our lives.

Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

 

Rebel Reflection: The Stars of “Star Wars” Share Their Memories

By Michael Lyons

“I can still remember sitting in that air-conditioned movie theater in the summer of 1977 and watching the Death Star explode!”

“My Luke Skywalker X-Wing Fighter action figure.  Best birthday present ever!”

“We waited for four days and nights, sleeping outside the movie theater...just to be the first inside to see Episode One!”

“I sat there, totally stressed for two hours hitting refresh on my computer, non-stop.  But, for tickets to see The Force Awakens?  Totally worth it!”

Yes, Star Wars fans have some incredible stories and memories (not to mention devotion).  Ask any, and they will have a personal account of their connection to the immense “Galaxy Far Far Away” that George Lucas created with the original Star Wars that began forty-four years ago and continues with recent entries in the saga like The Mandalorian on Disney+.

But, what’s it like to be part of Star Wars?  In honor of “Star Wars Day” - May the Fourth be with You, after all - what follows are some reflections from the actors and filmmakers who have brought this great Galactic world to us.

“I understood the impact of those movies because I had young children who watched them religiously.  I saw the Star Wars films so often in my house that I ended up knowing all of the other actors’ lines.” - Harrison Ford (Han Solo)

“Your life goes on, and then your life goes on plus Star Wars.  It’s just been an incredible time.” - Daisy Ridley (Rey)

“On set, I would say, ‘Move out of the way, icon coming through.’  C-3PO will out-survive me, all of us.  Now, with electronic media, these images exist forever, and I am very proud about that because I respect him a great deal.” - Anthony Daniels (C3PO)

“Star Wars is probably the most influential film of my generation.  That work was the personification of good and evil and the way it opened up the world to space adventure, the way westerns did to our parents’ generations, it left an indelible imprint.  So, but in a way, everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films.” - J.J. Abrams (director, The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker)

“I think that Star Wars revolutionized not only sci-fi movies, but also the entire industry in the way that things are done.”  Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)

“All these years later, I’m really aware of what our films meant to the generation that they were made for, the children of that time.” - Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episodes I-III and an upcoming Disney+ series)

“I am a tremendous Star Wars fan; I know the story means an enormous love to me.  I love the characters.” - Richard Marquand (director, Return of the Jedi)

“Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence to adulthood.” - Rian Johnson (director, The Last Jedi)

“At the last Celebration, I spoke before an auditorium full of people and I could just feel the affection and the positive feelings that they were exuding.  I was actually moving.  I remember thinking, ‘I’m not worthy,’ because Star Wars is so much bigger than all of us.” - Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

“...I set out to make a film for a generation growing up without fairy tales.” - George Lucas

“People are still asking me if I knew Star Wars was going to be that big of a hit.  Yes, we all knew.  The only one who didn’t know was George.” - Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)

Whether you saw Star Wars in a theater, on VHS, cable TV, at a multiplex, or on Disney+, the memories will keep coming.

Happy “Star Wars Day” to all!  May the Fourth be with You!

Sources:

Brainyquote.com

Darksideoftheforce.com

Fox Home Video

Inspiringquotes.us