One hundred years ago, Walt Disney started working as an apprentice artist at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City. While producing illustrations for advertisements, catalogues and theatre programmes, Disney worked alongside Ub Iwerks, who shared his dream of making animated films. In order to mark this momentous meeting, Cinema Paradiso looks back at the heroines (and the odd villainess) who have helped popularise Disney's animated features worldwide.
The first heroine in the Disney story is Margaret J. Winkler, who rescued Walt from bankruptcy after his Laugh-O-Gram shorts had failed to make money. Based in New York, Winkler was the first woman to produce and distribute animated films, with Max and Dave Fleischer and Pat Sullivan and his assistant Otto Messmer among the pioneering animators she sponsored. Several selections of the Fleischers' Betty Boop, Superman and Popeye shorts, as well as Sullivan and Messmer's Felix the Cat cartoons are available from Cinema Paradiso.
Winkler personally edited the titles in the Alice in Cartoonland series, which ambitiously blended live-action and animated footage to allow young Virginia Davis to have over 50 adventures with a cartoon cat named Julius. On starting a family, however, Winkler passed control of her company to husband Charles B. Mintz, who set Disney and Iwerks to work on the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. When they fell out over copyright, Disney quit to form his own company with his brother, Roy, and they struck gold with a chipper character created with Iwerks.
Mickey Mouse debuted in Plane Crazy and first found his voice in Steamboat Willie (1928) before being joined on the Disney roster by Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy. There were also a number of recurring female characters, including Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Clara Duck and Clarabelle Cow, whose antics can be found in the Mickey and Donald collections under the Disney Treasures label. But, while Disney started amassing his record number of 22 Oscars from 59 nominations, he grew dissatisfied with churning out Mickey and Donald comedies and Technicolor shorts in the Silly Symphonies series. So, in 1933, he started work on his first feature film, which was known as 'Disney's Folly' around Hollywood, as industry insiders were convinced that there was no market for full-length cartoons that were expensive and time-consuming to produce.
Off to a Flying Start
Made under the watchful eye of supervising director David Hand, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) forced Disney to mortgage his home, as the budget spiralled to an unprecedented $1,488,422.74. But, while Disney took a chance in having his animators study such classic works of horror as Robert Weine's The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), FW Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and Rouben Mamoulian's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) to achieve a suitable sense of menace, the film caught the imagination of young and old alike and proved a box-office phenomenon. Moreover, it landed Disney a special Academy Award, which was accompanied by seven miniature statuettes to represent Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy and Dopey, who offer a home toSnow Whiteafter she is left stranded in the forest. Modelled by dancer Marjorie Belcher and voiced by Adriana Caselotti, Disney's first princess was both winsome and resilient. For many, however, the most memorable character was Grimhilde, the wicked queen who is chillingly voiced by Lucille La Verne and whose look was inspired by Princess Kriemhild (Margarete Schön) in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924) and Queen Hash-a-Motep (Helen Gahagan) in Irving Pichel's She (1935).
The closest character to a heroine in Disney's follow-up feature, Pinocchio (1940), was the Blue Fairy, who was voiced by Evelyn Venable and had blue eyes rather than the turquoise hair described in Carlo Collodi's 1883 book. Yet, while she brings the wooden puppet to life at the start of the story and turns him into a real boy at the end, she was something of a marginal figure. The female presence was also limited in Fantasia (1940), although Joyce Coles and Marjorie Belcher modelled the dancing mushrooms in the 'Nutcracker' segment, while ostrich Mademoiselle Upanova and Hyacinth Hippo in 'Dance of the Hours' were respectively based on ballerina Irina Baronova and a combination of dancers Tatiana Riabouchinska and Marge Champion and actress Hattie Noel.
The emphasis fell on tragic mothers in Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942), with Mrs Jumbo (Verna Felton) being locked in a cage and declared mad after she attacked the boys who had been taunting her big-eared son and Bambi's mother (Paula Winslowe) being shot by some huntsmen. Based on a Roll-a-Book written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, and illustrated by Helen Durney, the former also included the Elephant Matriarch (also Felton), who overcomes her initial apathy toDumboafter he proves his mettle, while the latter (which was inspired by a book by Felix Salten) pairedBambiwith a doe named Faline (Cammie King and Ann Gillis), who eventually bears him twin fawns.
Wartime Troubles
Having arrived in France after the Armistice at the end of the Great War, Disney was determined to do his bit to help the Allies win the fight against Fascism. In addition to producing dozens of training and propaganda shorts, he also supported the 'Good Neighbour Policy' that Washington hoped would prevent any right-leaning Latin American countries from allying with the Axis during the Second World War. Comprising four assorted segments, Saludos Amigos (1942) was content to let its female characters provide background colour. However, the 1944 companion piece, The Three Caballeros, did see Donald Duck develop crushes on Brazilian singer Aurora Miranda (sister of the more famous Carmen) and the Mexican duo of Dora Luz and Carmen Molina, who were ingeniously integrated into the action through new techniques in matting human characters into cartoon settings.
The most prominent female characters in Make Mine Music (1946), Disney's third portmanteau of the war era, were a lovesick hat named Alice Bluebonnet and Sonia the duck in the estimable 'Peter and the Wolf' episode derived from the Sergei Prokofiev children's piece that has since been animated by George Daugherty and Jean Flynn in 1996 and by Sadie Templeton in 2006.
Both versions are available to rent from Cinema Paradiso, as are Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948). The former includes a bear named Lulubelle in the 'Bongo' vignette, while Mickey, Donald and Goofy liberate the singing golden harp that had been stolen by Willie the Giant in 'Mickey and the Beanstalk'. But female input in the latter is largely restricted to Jenny in 'Once Upon a Wintertime' and a guest cameo by organist Ethel Smith in 'Blame It on the Samba', while Katrina Van Tassel is the sole female character of note in the 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949), which combines stories by Washington Irving and Kenneth Grahame. However, as it returned to an even keel after its wartime exploits and a damaging strike by artists unhappy with the way that Disney ran his business, the studio made an impressive return to form in the 1950s.
Princesses and Pups
Thirteen years after Snow White, Disney returned to the traditional fairytale in reworking Charles Perrault's Cinderella (1950). Old dependables Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson were entrusted with the directing duties on a project that had been on the back-burner since 1933. As before, an actress was chosen to perform the body movements that the animators would copy from large photostatted sheets and Helene Stanley proved such a good model that she was rehired to play Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Anita Radcliffe in 101 Dalmatians (1961). But Stanley and vocal artist Ilene Woods were not alone on this production, however, as Claire Du Brey and Verna Felton similarly doubled up for the Fairy Godmother, while Stanley joined Lucille Bliss in realising Anastasia, the ugly sister who taunted Cinders along with her sibling, Drizella (Rhoda Williams), and her mean-spirited mother, Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley).
The latter is one of the all-time most hissable Disney villainesses, although she's given a run for her money by the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951), an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's much-loved nonsense fantasy that had been in parallel production with Cinderella. Disney had hoped to star Mary Pickford in a hybrid feature back in 1933, but had shelved the idea when Norman Z. McLeod made a live-action version with Cary Grant somewhat improbably cast as the Mock Turtle, while Gary Cooper cameo'd as the White Knight and WC Fields memorably played Humpty Dumpty. This one is well worth renting, trust us.
Disney also considered starring Margaret O'Brien and Ginger Rogers in hybrid pictures in the 1940s before settling on the cartoon approach and hiring the reliable Verna Felton to play the Red Queen and English actress Kathryn Beaumont to take the title role alongside Heather Angel, as her sister. This was particularly fitting as Angel's father had taught at the same Oxford college as Carroll, who was known at Christ Church by his real name, Charles Dodgson.
Beaumont returned as Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (1953), with Angel playing her mother, Mary. However, like Corinne Orr's Tiger Lily, they were somewhat upstaged by Margaret Kerry, even though she didn't have a single line in this boisterous take on JM Barrie's tale about the boy who refused to grow up. Kerry spent six months providing the body movements for Tinker Bell, a feisty sprite whose jealousy over Peter's friendship with Wendy prompts her to betray him to his arch-enemy, Captain Hook. As can only happen in the Disney universe, the focus switched from a silent pixie to a talking Cocker Spaniel when the studio embarked upon Lady and the Tramp (1955), a variation on a Ward Greene story that became the first animated feature to be filmed in CinemaScope. Barbara Luddy voiced Lady, while singer Peggy Lee was cast as Darling, who is delighted when husband Jim Dear buys her a puppy. When she becomes pregnant, however, Darling has less time for Lady and a streetwise pup named Tramp (Larry Roberts) warns her that she'll be turfed out, as babies and dogs don't mix.
Once again, the estimable Verna Felton came to the fore as Aunt Sarah, who prefers cats Si and Am (who were also voiced by Lee, as was Peg the Pekingese) and mistakenly drives Lady away when the cradle is knocked over by a giant rat. This absent-minded maiden aunt is positively dotty about dogs compared to Cruella de Vil, who was brilliantly played by Betty Lou Gerson in 101 Dalmatians, as she schemes to turn the spotted puppies born to Pongo (Rod Taylor) and Perdita (Cate Bauer) into a fur coat. Glenn Close would have even more outrageous fun in the role in Stephen Herek's 101 Dalmatians (1996) and Kevin Lima's 102 Dalmatians (2000), which appeared a good two decades before Disney decided to make live-action versions of its canonical classics.
Sandwiched in between these canine capers was Sleeping Beauty, another Perrault fable that proved such a commercial disappointment that Uncle Walt didn't touch another fairytale and the studio bearing his name would similarly steer clear of them for three decades. Yet, this timeless charmer contains several memorable female characters, with Mary Costa voicing the actions performed by Helene Stanley, as the princess cursed by the evil fairy, Maleficent, who was played with terrifying intensity by Eleanor Aubrey long before Angelina Jolie took the title role in Robert Stromberg's live-action offering, Maleficent (2004). And, of course, there's the ubiquitous Verna Felton, who voices both Queen Leah and Flora, who comes to Princess Aurora's christening with fellow good fairies Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen) and Merryweather (Barbara Luddy), only to have their bestowal of enchanting gifts interrupted by the Mistress of All Evil.
The Boys Are Back in Town
As Disney edged away from 'Once Upon a Time' storylines, the emphasis drifted towards male heroes like Wart in The Sword in the Stone (1963), which took its inspiration from TH White's tetralogy, The Once and Future King. However, the young King Arthur and his mentor, Merlin, had a worthy adversary in the cunning Madame Mim, another iconic villainess who was amusingly voiced by Martha Wentworth, who also played Granny Squirrel, who takes a liking to the resourceful wizard. But it was largely 'boys only' fare in The Jungle Book (1967), an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's celebrated short stories that turned out to be the last animated feature that Walt Disney personally produced before his death. He cast Darleen Carr as the girl who catches Mowgli's eye at the end of his eventful odyssey and found room for one last hurrah from Verna Felton, who died the day before Disney on 14 December 1966 after playing Winifred, the wife of Elephant Patrol leader, Colonel Hathi.
Having stolen the show as Baloo the Bear, Phil Harris was summoned back to play Thomas O'Malley the vagabond alley cat in The Aristocats (1970), who comes to the rescue of Duchess and her three kittens after they are targeted by Edgar, the butler of Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, who is intent on preventing them from inheriting her fortune. Hermione Baddeley played the fin-de-siècle Parisian opera singer, while Eva Gabor and singer Robie Lester shared the role of Duchess and Liz English gave as good as she got from brothers, Berlioz and Toulouse, as the amusingly imperious white kitten, Marie.
Three years later, Disney returned to British folklore for Robin Hood (1973), which drolly reimagined the denizens of Sherwood Forest and Nottingham Castle as animals. Like Robin, Maid Marian was a red fox, who was played as an archetypal damsel in distress by Monica Evans. Carole Shelley provided some comic relief as her avian maid, Lady Kluck, while Mother Rabbit and church mouse Mother Sexton were voiced by Barbara Luddy, who was then in the middle of a run of playing Kanga in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974), a delightful trilogy set in AA Milne's Hundred Acre Wood that can be found on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977).
Clearly enamoured of her experience on Robin Hood, Eva Gabor returned to play the intrepid Miss Bianca in The Rescuers (1977) and The RescuersDown Under (1990). This was the first sequel in the Disney canon and reunited Gabor (in what was to be her last role) with Bob Newhart as Bernard, the janitor who is really an agent for the Rescue Aid Society and with whom she had plucked the orphaned Penny (Michelle Stacy) from the Devil's Bayou lair of treasure hunter Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page). While they were roaring fun, these adaptations of Margery Sharp's bestsellers joined The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), Basil, the Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Oliver and Company (1988) in a string of box-office underperformers.
Inspired by a novel by Daniel P. Mannix, The Fox and the Hound was a coming-of-age saga that centred on the adventures of its male protagonists, with kindly farmer Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan), wise owl Big Mama (Pearl Bailey) and the vivacious Vixey (Sandy Duncan) being very much secondary characters. Drawing on Lloyd Alexander's reworkings of Welsh mythology in The Chronicles of Prydain, The Black Cauldron similarly found little for Princess Eilonwy (Susan Sheridan) to do, while Orddu (Eda Reiss Merin), Orwen (Adele Malis-Morey) and Orgoch (Billie Hayes) soon slide into the background, despite being the witchy sisters who originally own the eponymous cooking vessel that is traded for a sword belonging to Taran the pig keeper.
Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, Basil, the Great Mouse Detective opens with Olivia Flaversham (Susanne Pollatschek) witnessing the kidnapping of her murine toymaker father. But she largely assumes the distressed damsel role, as Basil pursues nemesis Professor Ratigan, who hopes to seize power from Queen Mousetoria (Eve Brenner) with an army of clockwork mice. Another abduction drives the action in Oliver and Company, an updating of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist that shifts the story from Victorian London to modern-day New York and reimagines Oliver as an orphaned kitten who has been separated from Jenny Foxworth (Natalie Gregory), the poor little rich girl who has adopted him. The only other female characters are both canine: Rita (Sheryl Lee Ralph), a street-smart Saluki, and Georgette (Bette Midler), a pampered poodle.
However, 1988 also saw the release of Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, an adaptation of a Gary K. Wolf book that Disney co-produced with Steven Spielberg's Amblin company. Made at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, this pioneering blend of live-action and classic Disney and Warner Bros cartoon characters was released through Touchstone and not only won three Oscars, but also earned chief animator Richard Williams a special award for his ground-breaking work. Moreover, despite falling outside the official Disney canon, it boasted in femme fatale Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner) a new kind of heroine and its critical and commercial success rescued the studio from its languor and propelled it into a second golden age.
Making a Splash
Walt Disney had planned a film based around Hans Christian Andersen's fables back in the 1930s, but half a century was to pass before The Little Mermaid (1989) reached the screen. It proved a fitting way for the studio to move from traditional cel animation to new digital technology and reconnected the public with the Disney brand. Ron Clements and John Musker had conceived the picture while making Basil, the Great Mouse Detective and they convinced Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (the songwriting duo behind Little Shop of Horrors, 1986) to compose the tunes.
Keen to arrest its recent slide, the front office invested heavily in the project and animators used footage of actress Alyssa Milano, improv comic Sherri Lynn Storer and astronaut Sally Ride to ensure that Ariel's movements were lifelike. Jodi Benson provided her voice, while Pat Carroll was cast as Ursula, the sea witch who was inspired by a combination of Divine and Joan Collins. Completing the female contingent were eels Flotsam and Jetsam (Paddi Edwards) and Ariel's sisters, Andrina, Arista, Adella, Alana (Kimmy Robertson), Aquata and Attina (Caroline Vasicek), as Disney sought to tilt the gender imbalance at a time when the vast majority of blockbusters featured male protagonists and were squarely aimed at fanboy audiences.
Having won the Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Song, Ashman and Menken were rehired for Beauty and the Beast (1991), a reworking of the story by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont that had been on Walt Disney's 'to do' list a good decade before it inspired Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (1946). In addition to repeating the musical double at the Academy Awards, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise's handsome heart-warmer also followed its triumph at the Golden Globes by becoming the first animation to be nominated for Best Picture. But the landmarks kept coming, as it became the first Disney feature to be adapted for the Broadway stage and was later reissued in IMAX and 3-D formats. Moreover, Bill Condon'slive-action versionof Beauty and the Beast (2017) became the first Disney movie to feature a gay character.
Belle was partly modelled on the legendary Judy Garland and there are hints of her vocal style in Paige O'Hara's singing. Returning to Disney after headlining Robert Stevenson's Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Angela Lansbury gave a charming performance as Mrs Potts, the teapot cook, while Jo Anne Worley amused as the opera-singing Wardrobe. Elsewhere in the cast, Kimmy Robertson's Featherduster was joined by the Bimbettes, the trio of village maidens who were voiced by Mary Kay Bergman and Kath Soucie. However, the female presence was much reduced in Clements and Musker's Aladdin (1992), as only Princess Jasmine of Agrabah (Linda Larkin) makes much of an impression against Robin Williams's motor-mouthed Genie.
However, Aladdin broke box-office records and became the first Disney film to win the Grammy for Best Song of the Year. Moreover, it launched the strategy of releasing direct to video sequels, with The Return of Jafar (1994). There are now almost 60 of these titles and the majority can be found on Cinema Paradiso by making judicious use of the Search bar. If in doubt, type in 'Disney' and items like Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams (2007) will pop up among the 100+ titles on offer.
A Roaring Success
The Disney Renaissance moved on to another level with Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff's The Lion King (1994), a wildlife variation on William Shakespeare's Hamlet that earned a Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy and the Score/Song double for Hans Zimmer and the new songwriting team of Tim Rice and Elton John. However, while Simba the lion cub receives some wise words from his childhood playmate, Nala, she rather remains on the periphery of his bid to avenge the usurpatious Scar's murder of his father, Mustafa. Niketa Calame and Moira Kelly voiced Nala, with Laura Williams and Sally Dworsky doing their singing. But, like Madge Sinclair as Simba's mother, Sarabi, they had their limelight stolen by Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi, the leader of a trio of spotted hyenas who act as Scar's sidekicks.
For its 33rd animated feature, Disney turned to American history for the first time in Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg's Pocahontas (1995), Set in the early 1600s, the story centres on the conflicted romance between the daughter of a Native American tribal chief and a fortune-seeking English settler. Yet while the film broke the mould by making its lead a woman of colour whose strength, spirit and courage paved the way for later girl power protagonists, many were unhappy with the manner in which the Powhatan tribal lifestyle was depicted. Some quibbled about the numerous historical inaccuracies, while others complained about the cosy nature of the fictional romance betweenPocahontas (Irene Bedard, with singing by Judy Kuhn) and John Smith (Mel Gibson). Thus, while it snared the now-customary Song/Score sweep at the Oscars (for Menken and Stephen Schwartz) and cast Linda Hunt (Grandmother Willow) and Michelle St John (Nakoma) as the heroine's confidantes. it remains one of the studio's more contentious hits.
Set in the 1480s and taking its cues from Victor Hugo's famed novel, Wise and Trousdale's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) also had its share of criticism, as the themes were much darker than audiences had come to expect of Disney animations. In addition to tackling hypocritical piety, materialism, lust and race, the narrative also examined the correlation between bellringer Quasimodo's physique and his psyche. As a Gypsy seeking sanctuary in the eponymous Parisian cathedral, Esmeralda allowed the makers to explore other forms of difference, although some critics felt the picture soft-pedalled too many issues. With Heidi Mollenhauer handling the singing duties, Demi Moore became the biggest star to date to play a Disney heroine, while Hollywood veteran Mary Wickes, in what proved to be her last assignment, took over the role of Laverne the gargoyle from singer Cindi Lauper.
Big names also abounded in Clements and Musker's Hercules (1997), with Rip Torn and Samantha Eggar being cast as Olympus deities Zeus and Hera, while Hal Holbrook and Barbara Barrie essayed the Greek hero's adoptive parents, Amphitryon and Alcmene. There were also roles for Amanda Plummer, Carole Shelley and Paddi Edwards as the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. But, while Susan Egan was asked to play Megara in the manner of a 1930s screwball heroine, she is very much cast in the distressed damsel role forHercules (Tate Donovan) to rescue from various scrapes, even though it's eventually revealed that she has a past associations with the nefarious Hades (James Woods).
Millennial Miscues
There was no such marginalisation in Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook's Mulan (1998), which retold the story of Hua Mulan, the daughter of a Han dynasty warrior who borrows her father's armour and disguises herself as a man to play her part in resisting a Hun invasion. Interestingly, however, she proves more heroic after her deception is discovered by Captain Li Shang (BD Wong), who forbids her from fighting with his forces. Nevertheless, despiteMulanresisting the efforts of The Matchmaker (Miriam Margolyes) to find her a husband, the script still hints at a romantic liaison in the closing sequence, which frustrated critics hoping forMulanto be judged on her actions rather than her marriageability.
Lea Salonga returned from Aladdin to provide Ming-Na Wen's singing voice, while June Foray as Grandmother Fa was dubbed by Marni Nixon, the queen of playback who had doubled for Deborah Kerr in Walter Lang's The King and I (1956), Natalie Wood in Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise's West Side Story (1961) and Audrey Hepburn in George Cukor's My Fair Lady (1964). Apart from Kala the gorilla (Glenn Close) singing Phil Collins's Oscar-winning 'You'll Be in My Heart' as a lullaby, there was no character crooning in Kevin Lima and Chris Buck's Tarzan (1999), a visually innovative, but narratively conservative take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories that also featured Rosie O'Donnell as the Ape Man's tomboy friend, Terk, and Minnie Driver as Jane Porter, the explorer's daughter who helpsTarzanto learn English and the rudiments of 1890s etiquette.
Naturally, some critics questioned Disney releasing a 'white man's burden' story at the turn of a new century, but the picture received a much warmer welcome than Mark Dindal's The Emperor's New Groove (2000). Set in Inca times and scored by Sting, this was unusual in eschewing the notion of a traditional heroine in having teenage emperor Kuzco (David Spade) turned into a llama by the fearsomely villainous Yzma (Eartha Kitt), the former advisor with designs on his throne. The only other significant female character is Chicha (Wendie Malick), the pregnant wife of Pacha (John Goodman), the peasant who befriends the cursed ruler.
New Groove was the only blip in a busy year for Disney, which had started with Fantasia2000 , which followed its predecessor in interpreting various pieces of classical music, and Dinosaur (2000), a more sophisticated 3-D variation on the themes explored in the 14 features in Universal's long-running The Land Before Time series (1988-2016).
The story follows a familiar trajectory, as Aladar the orphaned Iguanodon (DB Sweeney) is adopted by a lemur named Plio (Alfre Woodard) and learns to stand on his own feet against a dangerous foe with the help of adoptive sister Suri (Hayden Panettiere), gal pal Neera (Julianna Margulies) and the elderly duo of Brachiosaurus Baylene (Joan Plowright) and Styracosaurus Eema (Della Reese). But, while it performed adequately at the box office, it seemed clear that the Disney Renaissance had ended.
An All Boys Network
While Pixar was busy changing the game with John Lasseter's computer-generated Toy Story trilogy (1995-2010), Disney was going through something of a slump. Inspired by the sci-fi novels of Jules Verne, Trousdale and Wise's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) dispensed with songs to focus on an aquatic adventure. There are several women aboard the submarine searching for the mythical underwater city, including second in command Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian), radio operator Wilhelmina Packard (Florence Stanley) and teenage mechanic Audrey Ramirez (Jacqueline Obradors). But neither they nor Princess Kidagakesh Nedakh (Cree Summer) made much impression, as the picture underwhelmed critics and audiences alike.
With studios in various parts of America working on projects, some suggested that Disney's sudden loss of form owed much to the frequency with which new features were being released. Chris Sanders and Dean DuBois's Lilo & Stitch (2002) was produced at the Florida facility and centred on the friendship between a fugitive genetic experiment from outer space (Chris Sanders) and Lilo Pelekai (Daveigh Chase), a small Hawaiian island girl who is being raised by her older sister, Nani (Tia Carrere). Stitch proves winningly mischievous in helping Lilo confound mean girl classmate Mertle Edmonds (Miranda Paige Walls). Yet, while this was a laudable attempt to connect with the kind of everyday problems that younger viewers might recognise, it missed out on the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, as did Clements and Musker's Treasure Planet (2002), which relocated Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic to outer space.
Despite the casting of Emma Thompson as Captain Amelia, the feline skipper of RLS Legacy, this was another boys' own caper whose narrative and stylistic shortcomings were shown up by the whimsical inventiveness of Andrew Stanton's Pixar gem, Finding Nemo (2003). Just as Toy Story had come up with Jessie the cowgirl (Joan Cusack) and Mrs Potato-Head (Estelle Harris) and Pete Docter's Monsters, Inc. (2001) had featured Boo (Mary Gibbs), Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly) and Mrs Flint (Bonnie Hunt), this piscine road movie boasted the pluckily forgetful Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), Peach the starfish (Allison Janney) and Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), the missing clownfish's mother. Making matters worse, the superpowers bestowed on Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) and her daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell) in Brad Bird's The Incredibles (2004) made them way cooler in the eyes of young female viewers than anything Disney could muster in Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker's Brother Bear (2003), Will Finn and John Sanford's Home on the Range (2004), Mark Dindal's Chicken Little (2005), Stephen J. Anderson's Meet the Robinsons (2007) and Chris Williams and Byron Howard's Bolt (2008).
Of course, there were female characters, with Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly enjoying themselves as the bovine trio of Maggie, Mrs Caloway and Grace at the Patch of Heaven Farm. But only Disney die-hards will recognise the names of Tanana (Joan Copeland), Abigail Mallard (Joan Cusack), Foxy Loxy (Amy Sedaris), Mildred (Angela Bassett), Franny (Nicole Sullivan), Lucille (Laurie Metcalf), Mittens (Susie Essman) and Penny (Miley Cyrus). In Disney's defence, Pixar could also err on the male side, with Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), Flo (Jenifer Lewis) and Lizzie (Katherine Helmond) being shunted into the slow lane in John Lasseter and Joe Ranft's Cars (2006), Colette Tatou (Janeane Garofalo) coming some way down the menu in Brad Bird's Ratatouille (2007), EVE (Elissa Knight) struggling to keep up with her fellow robot in Andrew Stanton's WALL-E (2008) and Ellie (Elizabeth Docter) being left speechless in Pete Docter's Up (2009). Something had to change.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Just as they had done with The Little Mermaid, Ron Clements and John Musker came up with a solution by dusting down the tried-and-trusted musical formula for The Princess and the Frog (2009). With Randy Newman composing the songs, the picture borrowed from ED Baker's novel The Frog Princess in relocating the Brothers Grimm tale 'The Frog Prince' to 1920s New Orleans. More significantly, it made 19 year-old waitress Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) Disney's first African-American heroine. Raised by her mother, Eudora (Oprah Winfrey), and best friends with wealthy Southern belle Charlotte La Bouff (Jennifer Cody), Tiana finds herself being transformed when she kisses a handsome prince in a bid to release him from the spell imparted by a voodoo witch doctor.
Guided by priestess Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), Tiana makes a surprising decision at the end of a journey of self-discovery that largely avoided causing racial and/or religious offence in its depiction of the Big Easy. Indeed, more attention was paid to the return to a traditional graphic style in the age of CGI. But the studio suits had got the message about independently minded heroines being good role models and promptly placed another front and centre in Disney's 50th animated feature.
Retelling the Grimm fable of 'Rapunzel', Nathan Greno and Byron Howard's Tangled (2010) combined old and new methods to achieve 3-D visuals that cost $260 million to produce during a six-year shoot, making it the most expensive animation of all time. However, with Alan Menken returning to land his obligatory Oscar for Best Song, the picture grossed $591 million worldwide and proved, once again, that audiences responded positively to stories with a strong female lead. Delaney Rose Stein and Mandy Moore shared the task of voicing Rapunzel, while Donna Murphy was suitably hissable as Mother Gothel, who had kidnapped the infant princess and imprisoned her in a high tower after discovering that her golden hair has the power to preserve youth.
After Kristen Anderson-Lopez had taken over the role of Kanga in Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall's 2011 reboot, Winnie the Pooh, Brenda Chapman made a little bit of Disney history when she became the first female director of an animated feature released by the studio when she joined forces with Mark Andrews on Brave (2012), a Pixar presentation set in medieval Scotland. At its heart was Princess Merida (Peigi Barker and Kelly MacDonald), who falls out with her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), over her bow and arrow and her refusal to be married before she's ready. Cue Julie Walters as a cake-baking witch to make things more complicated.
Rather than respond with a princess saga of its own, Disney scored a hit with Rich Moore's Wreck-It-Ralph (2012), an Oscar-nominated romp about video games that included such female characters as Taffyta Muttonfudge (Mindy Kaling), Sergeant Tamora Calhoun (Jane Lynch) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman). The latter pair made it to the sequel, Rich Moore and Phil Johnson's Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), which also incorporated Gal Gadot as Shank and Taraji P. Henson as Yesss. as well as a procession of Disney princesses, who were all voiced by their original stars, with the exception ofSnow White (Pamela Ribon), Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) and Aurora (Kate Higgins).
A couple of new faces also took cameos, including Anna and Elsa from Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee's Frozen (2013), a 3-D retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Snow Queen' that is set in the kingdom of Arendelle and charts the stormy relationship between the sisters before Elsa inherits the throne and becomes so scared of unleashing her paranormal powers that she hides away in an ice palace on the North Mountain and Anna has to bring her home to lift the curse of permanent winter. Variously voiced by Livvy Stubenrauch, Agatha Lee Monn and Kristen Bell (Anna) and Eva Bella, Spencer Lacey Ganus and Idina Menzel (Elsa), the squabbling siblings proved so popular that the film won the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Animated Feature. Moreover, it broke the record for animation in racking up global grosses of $1.276 billion and Disney will be hoping that Frozen2 can repeat those numbers when it's released in November.
In the meantime, Cinema Paradiso members can catch up with Dan Hall and Chris Williams's Big Hero 6 (2014), which became the first Disney animation to feature Marvel Comics characters in scooping the studio another Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. For the first time in a while, the boys hogged the limelight. But Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), Cass (Maya Rudolph) and Abigail (Katie Lowes) gave a good account of themselves, although Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) grabbed more attention for rattling around in the brain of a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) in Pete Docter's riotous Pixar comedy, Inside Out (2015).
The same year saw Anna Paquin (Ramsey) and Frances McDormand (Momma Ida) contribute voiceovers to another Pixar 3-D offering, Peter Sohn's The GoodDinosaur. While the creatures were undeniably quaint, they were more fun in Byron Howard and Rich Moore's Zootopia (2016), which follows Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) from rural Bunnybarrow to the big city in her bid to become a police officer. Disney added another Oscar for Best Animated Feature to its already groaning shelves for this wisecracking crime caper that also cast Bonnie Hunt as Judy's mother, Bonnie, Octavia Spencer as river otter Mrs Otterton, Shakira as pop star Gazelle, Jenny Slate as Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether, Katy Lowes as Dr Madge Honey Badger and Gita Reddy as Nangi, an Indian elephant who also happens to be a yoga instructor.
It's clear that Disney is spurred on by the achievements of Pixar, who enabled Ellen De Generes to reprise the role of the ditzy regal blue tang, alongside Diane Keaton as mother Jenny and Kaitlin Olson as a near-sighted white shark named Destiny in Andrew Stanton's Finding Dory (2016). Two years later, Holly Hunter and Sarah Vowell were joined by Catherine Keener as Evelyn Deavor in Brad Bird's Oscar-nominated Incredibles 2 (2018), while Lee Unkrich introduced us the family of an aspiring 12 year-old Mexican musician in Coco (2017), which added a Best Song award to its Oscar (and BAFTA and Golden Globe) for Best Animated Feature. Inspired by the Day of the Dead celebrations, the story includes Ana Ofelia Murguía as Mamá Coco, Alanna Ubach as her mother, Imelda, and Renée Victor as her daughter, Elena.
But we end what you might call this 'princession' with Disney's latest heroine, the daughter of a Polynesian chief who goes on a quest to find the demigod with the power to protect her home in Clements and Musker's Moana (2016). Voiced by Louise Bush and Hawaiian actress Auli'i Cravalho.Moanahas undertaken a perilous journey to return the stolen heart of a goddess and save her mother, Sina (Nicole Scherzinger) and grandmother, Tala (Rachel House), as well as their neighbours in the village of Te Fiti. Drawing another nomination for Best Animated Feature and alerting young audiences to the threat posed by global warming, this visually stunning 3-D adventure proves, as Disney has shown more often than any other Hollywood studio, that when it comes to heroics, girls are just as good as boys - if not better.
