Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney
"There is no more competent researcher to handle this subject than Allan, who has dedicated most of his life to studying Disney. He combines meticulous research... with scrupulous attention to detail and accuracy and a lively, anecdote-strewn account to give a fascinating new dimension to Disney and his work. Including hundreds of beautifully reproduced color and black-and-white illustrations and a 20-page bibliography, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on the booming field of animation." —Choice, July 2000Europe and its culture profoundly influenced Disney in the making of animated feature films from Snow White to Jungle Book and in his creation of Disneyland. Fourteen of the 17 animated features Disney produced before his death in 1966 had European (mainly folktale) sources: artistically Disney and his animators borrowed freely from the European masters (e.g., Busch, Daumier, Doré (Dore), Grandville), and he enticed artists, musicians, and writers (Dalí (Dali), Huxley, Stokowski, among many) to leave the continent to work at his studio. The European influence was also evident in Disney's WW II propaganda shorts, which drew on the satire and allegory of European political cartoons (Hogarth, Rowlandson, and Gillray; contemporaries David Low, Louis Raemakers, and George Grosz). There is no more competent researcher to handle this subject than Allan, who has dedicated most of his life to studying Disney. He combines meticulous research—50 interviews with Disney's relatives and coworkers, multiple screenings of animated features, extensive use of Disney archives—with scrupulous attention to detail and accuracy and a lively, anecdote—strewn account to give a fascinating new dimension to Disney and his work. Including hundreds of beautifully reproduced color and black—and—white illustrations and a 20—page bibliography, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on the booming field of animation.J. A. Lent, University of Western Ontario, Choice, July 2000