Mary Blair is Everywhere!

I know folks, it seems like you just can't escape the wonderful world of Mary when you come to this blog, but Mary Blair fever has spread (to my utter delight) across the net and the latest blogger to give homage to my favorite leading lady of illustration is Rob Richards over at Animation Backgrounds. I have been thrilled to no end over these last few days with Rob's focus on my favorite animated feature (and no less because Ms. Blair had such a huge hand in the concept), Alice in Wonderland, in his background series (above picture must be credited to Rob, and I hope he will allow this as my post here serves to bring him due praise for his work and to encourage readers to make their way to his blog).

For those of you who haven't discovered the treasure trove of visual delights on Rob's blog, I urge, no, beg, you to stop by and take a good look at the hours of tedious laboring he's done to digitally recreate some of the most spectacular animation backgrounds (many of which are never fully visible by simply watching the flims alone). Fortunately for me, the latest focus on Alice has lead to some great discussion of Mary Blair's influence over the color styling for the movie and the likeness to her original concepts. In Monday's post, Richards observantly points out Mary's penchant for using two hues or tones of the same color in her own dress attire! (A lady who brings her sense of color and fantastic design to her own fashion - now there's a woman to love!) So please stop by Rob's blog (and send him well-wishes as he's in the recovery stages of minor surgery) and indulge in the Alice backgrounds that were strongly influenced by Ms. Blair's palette.

Through the Looking Glass - Reflections on "Alice"

© Disney. All rights reserved

The Walt Disney Family Museum website has a beautiful four part series on Alice in Wonderland currently up which I recommend looking through, if for no other reason than the thoughtful reflections of animators Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and Joe Grant found in the Multimedia Panel Discussion section. Other highlights include some black and white photos from the acting and modeling sessions with Kathryn Beaumont and Ed Wynn.

The tone of the series is a bit sad if anything. Interviewees who knew Walt at the time the film was being produced claim that the film was really a bit of a disappointment to Walt, especially at the box office where it has even been called a failure. An interview with Walt from the series quotes him as saying, "You know, I never wanted to make it, really. I never warmed to it... it was too intellectual." Animators Ward Kimball and Ollie Johnston blamed the film's lack of appeal on its choppiness and lack of emotional appeal contending, "It was a series of vaudeville acts... There was no plot," and "There was no place you ever cared or worried about Alice."

Nevertheless, "Alice" continues to be my favorite, disconnected plot and all. There is something so unlike other Disney films of the time that "Alice" has that in a way makes it charming - if not altogether a little bizarre. And one can't ignore the fact that "Alice" was a recurring theme throughout Walt's career. The Alice Comedies (Walt's first real success with animation), followed by the 1936 black and white short film Thru the Mirror featuring Mickey Mouse, Alice in Wonderland (of course), and Donald Duck in Mathmagicland. Perhaps I'm reading into this, but there is something almost symbolic about that process of stepping into another realm where dreams become reality that is really reflective of Walt's life in general. It's that same theme that makes its appearance at Disneyland ("Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy").



In short, I still hold to the belief that this film was such a disappointment because the expectations Walt had were too high and too dear to his past, particularly with the Alice Comedies. Comment and criticism, as always, are welcome.