Walt Disney was a pioneering giant in the realms of animation and filmmaking. His characters, films, short subjects, and theme parks have been beloved by millions of people for decades, but some forget just how much he did for his company and how many projects he undertook to build the Disney name.
Disney did more than just direct and produce animated features. In fact, sometimes he stepped into the recording booth, the writers’ room, and even collaborated with other brilliant minds to bring his features to life. To show what we mean, here are ten animated films to which Walt Disney gave his own personal touch.
10 Fantasia
We might be cheating on this one, but it’s not the fact that the concept came from Walt that puts it on our list. It’s how much he himself actually put into the film. Outside the typical role of producer, Walt Disney served as the creative force that brought this concert feature to the big screen.
Along with providing an uncredited voice role as Mickey Mouse, the filmmaker made Fantasia a personal mission. Accompanied by maestro Leopold Stokowski, Disney conceived a new breed of animated film. It was as experimental and unique as the pieces of music that inspired it, and it now lives in the hall of Disney masterpieces.
9 Melody Time and Make Mine Music
We’re putting two films in this spot for mainly two reasons. First, both films are similar in presentation and concept, being package films produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Second, Walt Disney not only served as producer on the films themselves but was personally involved with certain segments of the features.
Walt gave his own personal touch to the sequences such as “Bumble Boogie,” “Little Toot,” “Pecos Bill,” and “Peter and the Wolf.” This is definitely noticeable because, at least in our opinion, the shorts stand out amongst the rest of their peers. Though they are uncredited, they are not unappreciated by fans.
8 Nearly All the Silly Symphonies
Next to the Mickey Mouse short films, Walt Disney served as either producer or director on the Silly Symphony brand of cartoons. Similar to the Looney Tunes’ Merry Melodies, Disney’s Silly Symphonies were animated, and, at times, very musical short subjects outside of the standard Mickey adventures.
Short such as Music Land, The Skeleton Dance, and Father Noah’s Ark helped Walt Disney make a name for himself not only as an animator and producer, but as a director and storyteller, as well. Though all of them were produced under his brand, the best of the bunch were often made because Walt sat in the director’s chair.
7 Mickey Mouse Club
Walt Disney will forever be associated with his greatest creation, Mickey Mouse. After all, if it’s one thing the filmmaker made blatantly clear out of all his success, it was because it was all started by a mouse.
One thing fans definitely might not know is that, toward the end of his life, Walt Disney stepped into the recording studio once more as the voice of Mickey for animated intros and outros for the Mickey Mouse Club. Though it might sound different from the voice we know today, this was probably due to Walt’s battle with lung cancer altering his performance. A bittersweet note, but one we had to put on our list.
6 101 Dalmatians
Again we see Walt in the producer role for this classic piece of canine cinema, but he did a little more than just produce. In fact, it is because of Walt Disney’s correspondence with the author, Dodie Smith, that 101 Dalmatians even made it to the big screen in the first place.
When Disney approached Smith to produce a film based on her novel of the same name, the two engaged in a penpal relationship which resulted in the animated feature being produced. Though disappointed at the size of her credit, Smith reportedly loved Disney’s adaptation and had a fondness for his version of Pongo.
5 The Aristocats
Though released years after Walt Disney’s death, the idea for The Aristocats was tossed around as far back as 1962. It was Disney who ultimately decided to make the film animated, and it’s considered one of the very last films to have his own personal involvement.
After Disney’s death, the studio faced a struggle dealing with new productions. Films such as The Aristocats and Robin Hood were made partially inspired by the founder’s personal ideas. Though a moderately popular film for its time, it’s still one of Disney’s lesser-watched features.
4 The Sword in the Stone
Though The Jungle Book is credited as the last film with Walt Disney’s personal involvement, it’s The Sword in the Stone that had his touch from beginning to end. Disney served mainly as the producer for the fantasy flick, but it is because of him we have the most beloved version of Merlin the Magician.
Disney animator Bill Peet supposedly based a great deal of Merlin’s design, movement, and character off of Walt Disney himself. Most Disney fans know that the indicator between Merlin and Disney is the shape of their nose, but, upon further observation, the likeness is remarkably similar.
3 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was released in 1973, a full seven years after Walt Disney’s death, but is still one of the last films with his full involvement. Why? Because Walt personally oversaw the production of each segment of the film as short subjects years earlier.
Though its release could be considered an attempt by the studio to try to salvage some money by using Walt’s name, it still bears the mark of a classic Disney film. After all, it’s because of Walt Disney that Winnie the Pooh and company became as popular to Americans as they were to the British.
2 Destino
What do you get when you mix the magic of Walt Disney with the madness of Salvador Dali? You get a psychedelic experience known as Destino. Inspired by a collaborative session between the two artists, the short film Destino is a modern interpretation born of concepts from Disney and storyboards by Dali.
Part experimental art piece, part unused segment for Fantasia, and part mythological love story, Destino is something that just begs to be seen. Though released well after both artists’ deaths, the concept and designs are all their own, the studio just brought it to life.
1 Get a Horse
Arguably the last time Walt Disney portrayed Mickey Mouse was 2013’s Get a Horse. A fusion of traditional black-and-white Disney animation with modern computer-rendered design, this hybrid of Disney Magic paid tribute to the studio’s origins as well as showing new fans a taste of classic cartoons.
Using the Disney animated archives, filmmakers were able to use Walt’s voice to bring Mickey to life as he would have back in the early days of the company. Though not personally involved with the film, Get a Horse would hardly be the same film if it wasn’t for the filmmaker’s influence.
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