Book Review: “The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History”
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Disney, Movies, Animation, History, Books

Book Review: “The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History”

This necessary book gives the women animators of Disney their belated due.

Anyone who’s spent just a small amount of time on this publication knows that I’m a bit of a Disney fanatic. It’s been that way ever since I was a child and my mother would take me to see the newest release and, subsequently, to buy each new film when it came out on home video. By the time I was in high school we had quite the venerable collection of Disney VHSs on our shelves. Of course, the films were the primary draw for me, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more and more interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff, the people who were responsible for making these magical parts of my childhood.

I’ve had Nathalia Holt’s The Queens of Animation sitting on my shelf for quite some time now, but it’s taken me a while to get around to giving it the attention that it deserves. Now that I’ve read it from cover to cover in just two days, I can say that it’s one of the best books on Disney that I’ve ever read (and considering how many I’ve read over the years, that’s no small feat). In engaging prose and sparkling insight, dives into the lives and work of the women who were and are a key part of Disney animation.

Though many people might not know this — I know I sure didn’t — women were actually key to the success of many of the company’s earliest features, including Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, and Saludos Amigos. Even though far too many of them would be denied on-screen credit for their work, Holt makes it clear that these films would have lacked the magic they had without these women’s invaluable artistic and narrative contributions.

Holt does an excellent of weaving together the personal and the professional lives of these women, many of whom had to contend with both difficulties in their private lives and the deeply-entrenched sexism at the studio (and in American society more generally). Of all of the women discussed, it seems that Mary Blair exerted the strongest hold on Holt’s imagination, and it’s not hard to see why. Her work really was art, and her personal story — a jealous and alcoholic husband who abused her and a son who suffered from schizophrenia — made her personal life a maelstrom. She was, without a doubt, one of the most talented artists working at the studio, so it’s no wonder that Walt became very close to her. What’s more, her work would go on to influence those who would create such classics as The Little Mermaid and Frozen.

Though the bulk of the book focuses on the women of Disney’s golden age, Holt also shows us how, in the years of the Renaissance and after, women have become an ever-more-prominent part of Disney (and, more slowly, Pixar). Women such as Linda Woolverton would play a key role in the success of Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen was co-directed by Jennifer Lee.

The book also gives us a good glimpse of the inner workings of Disney. Nowadays, it seems impossible to imagine this company without its animated features, but it wasn’t always so. Even Walt himself gradually lose interest in the feature animation aspect of his company, pouring much more of his energy into both his live-action efforts and Disneyland (you’d never know this if you had to rely exclusively on the hagiographic commentary included with so many of the VHS and DVD releases of the past few years, which make it sound as if he was involved in every stage of even the later features). Furthermore, many Disney films that are now considered classics — and often great works of cinematic art — were box office disappointments upon their first release. Even Sleeping Beauty, now regarded as one of the best Disney features ever made, cost so much to make that it ended up losing money. As Holt shows, there were several times in the history of the company where it seemed likely that the animated feature department would be abandoned altogether. Imagine how much poorer the world would have been if it had been!

Holt also weaves in other historical information that helps to situate these women’s work against the backdrop of developments in technology, shifts in global geopolitics (World War II had an enormous impact on Disney’s studio), and labor relations (many of the women participated in a strike against Walt). As a result, we get tremendous insight into the ways in which these women’s labor was very much a part of the wider world in which they lived and worked.

The tragedy of all of this is that, for the most part, these women’s work has largely been obscured from history, their work often forgotten by the very people who came after them. Even more tragic is the fact that this isn’t at all surprising. Anyone who’s ever engaged in the study of film knows that women’s labor and artistic vision has often been systematically ignored by men in power who feel threatened by it. Fortunately, there are enough archives, including those at Disney itself, that have preserved their work. However, some important things have been lost, including Mary Blair’s mural at Disneyland (though, as Holt points out, some part of it might yet remain beneath the wall’s current occupant). It’s a humbling and haunting reminder of how vital it is to bring women’s stories to light.

In short, I absolutely loved this book. It’s an essential read for anyone who wants to learn more about the invaluable and prominent role that these extraordinary women played in the development of the world’s most famous animation studio. We owe Nathalia Holt a debt of gratitude for doing the hard work of bringing these women out of the shadows of history and allowing them their chance to bask in the sun. Without their tireless work, it’s unlikely that the Disney Renaissance that so many of us remember with fondness would ever have come about.