This is the last post for the year and to top everything off, I decided to end with yet another Disney Classic that we should all be able to easily recognize: Peter Pan.
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Is there a person who doesn’t remember the boy who wouldn’t grow up? In 1953, Disney took to re-producing this story as a happy tale about three children who get to meet their fantasy hero and go exploring a world where children never have to grow up.
I thought this a fitting finishing piece when I found out this was the final film where Disney’s proclaimed “Nine Old Men” last worked together. The nine men were Les Clark , Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John ‘Louns’ Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Frank Thomas.
Each of these men contributed to make the Disney movies we consider the classics. The films they directed and animated hold specific qualities that we can easily recognize and they each had a key to what made a good animation, be it about the story, the characters, or the art.
These 9 men are Disney’s core animators, the men we can thank for films like: Snow White, Lady And The Tramp, “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” The Rescuers, Sleeping Beauty, and more, all the way until “The Fox and the Hound”.
It can also be said these men redefined the very 12 basic principles of animation that we talked about in class. In fact, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas did put the words to paper in their book, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. A book that, to this day, is considered the “Bible of the Industry” for any animator when learning the rules.
The movie Peter Pan holds qualities that were well-designed and tested. While maybe the character of Peter Pan was a little lifeless as Walt himself believed, but Capitan Hook goes down as one of the best well-known villains and each of the Darling children build themselves a strong character that children can identify themselves with and like.
Commented on: Joe Gayk’s and Erica LoMonaco’s
And as a final last word: “I’ll get you for this, Pan, if it’s the last thing I do!” (Hook)
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