Written and Directed by Less People than Usual

Starring Robert Benchley (Married a Witch), Frances Gifford (Went to the Races), Buddy Pepper (Seventeen)

You know how it is. You're sitting in your pool, shooting suction darts at wooden ducks, and your wife starts in on how you should sell a children's book to Walt Disney. So you go to the studio because of course you do, and they give you an amazing tour that rivals Willy Wonka. Same old story. The movie is pretty much just a narrative of how the Disney animation studio works with four cartoons spliced in. It breaks the fourth wall on occasion, showcases multiple impressive technologies, and overall is way more delightful than it should be. Of course, it has a sprinkling of racial and misogynist issues of the time. To be honest, I had never heard of this movie before seeing it on a list of Disney feature films, and it was a fun surprise.

Notes (beware spoilers)

1. Credit and Background notes

As like movies of the time, there's the full credits right at the beginning with a note saying that the movie is not an animated film but a background tour of Disney. No idea why I'm telling you this other than to show that the movie breaks the fourth wall right from the beginning, even the score getting in with "Whistle While You Work" playing. Then we make our way to the studio, the man making it in pretty easy and linked up with some Hitler-youth-looking kid who he ditches.

2. Life Model Class of Dumbo

Our, well, I don't wanna say hero, but our guy sneaks into a live modeling class. Not gonna lie, this scene is creepy. He follows a pretty woman inside a live model class (who knew they did classes at Disney) and we the audience is lead to believe we're gonna see some nudity. And we do, sort of… The class is drawing an elephant (with a hat, it's Dumbo) and then it gets weird. First, the guy drops some super racism on a chinese woman. Then, we get all kinds of nude female drawings pinned up in the background along with… Bambi. It's damn strange.

3. Chicken vs Duck Singing

We move over to the film scoring section. We think we're gonna get a nice Fantasia moment with an orchestra… then the singer is Florence Gill, known for chicken noises. There's a duet with her and the voice of Donald Duck. It's a great switcheroo and we get a lesson on how to do Donald's voice, so win.

This happens later and he’s got a boner for that statue

4. Foley Session with Train

Moving on, we get a lesson on foley work with another Dumbo reference. There's a cartoon with a train and we get to see all the noises and music that go in with it. Our guy meets Doris, a young animator, and she shows him around. The cartoon is fun.

5. Plates Make Everything Color

Shit gets real in this part. Escaping the foley room, the dude finds Doris again in the film room and everything suddenly becomes Technicolor. and he calls it out. Not gonna lie, I kinda loved seeing the giant plate camera that made the slow zooms in Snow White possible. Then he talks to Donald Duck being animated, and I'm pretty sure this guy died in the pool earlier in the movie but I already used that joke.

6. Rainbow Room Wonka Women

Doris is back again and we get the pain mixing room. This is another weirdness because instead of Oompa Loompas, Disney employs a ton of attractive women to mix paint in jars. This all ends with another Bambi reference (even saying so years before the movie came out damn you WWII).

7. Models with Clay with Head

This fucking room. I'm pretty sure this is the last bit with Doris, the guy moving from paint to models of clay the animators use as reference. We're shown a line of them and, well, name a cartoon that came out in the next ten years for the studio and it's there. Peter Pan, Bambi, some other shit. Dude gets a clay model of his face and steals a naked statue of a black zebra centaurette. No idea what that's a comment on or why the movie makers chose him to take that one, but he is clearly attracted to it. The statues have a fancy name that starts with "m," but I can't spell it and don't wanna. Maket? Probably not.

8. Baby Labor Place

Here we learn about storyboards with a non-animated cartoon about a smart baby. At one point there's some features of people from around the world. Yeah, it goes pretty bad.

9. Goofy Horse

Moving over a little, we get an animated Goofy riding a horse. Pretty funny and standard "narrator tells Goofy how to do something and it gets fucked up."

10. Disney Sits Weird

The Hitler Youth catches up to the dude and takes him to Disney. Walt sits with this weird leg-not-under-his-butt sideways sit and collects the bust, the centaurette statue, and the guy's hat while talking to the man. Then they watch a movie.

11. Screens movie and Goes Home

The movie is the Reluctant Dragon, the same movie the dude wanted to sell, and he leaves. His wife hates him. I may be speculating.

Images owned by Disney

11 Notes about Reluctant Dragon (1941)