The Reluctant Dragon and Other Tales (1947)
British author Kenneth Grahame first published
The Reluctant Dragon in 1898 as part of a collection of stories. A new separate edition was published in 1939, just as Disney had just come off his spree to Europe to seek more stories to make films out of, including another story by Grahame called
The Wind In the Willows. By early 1940, just after the release and subsequent box office failure of
Alice In Wonderland, Walt had started considering the story of
The Reluctant Dragon for the “tour of the studio” film that would later become
Tangled and creating a featurette based on Graham’s work instead of the
Rapunzel fairytale, but Disney ultimately settled on the latter by May. At the same time, work was beginning on a new feature, which Walt intended to have his most iconic star lead. Disney shelved
The Reluctant Dragon until the release of
Victory Through Air Power in which it was determined the animation quality would not be suitable for a feature film but rather a package film.
Planning for M
ickey and The Beanstalk began in early 1940 following the cancellation of
The Concert Feature. Animators Bill Cottrell and T. Hee pitched the idea of a feature based on
Jack and the Beanstalk starring Mickey Mouse. As much as Walt enjoyed the pitch, he was concerned about how they would use his characters, but they succeeded in assuring him that everything would be okay, and Disney green-lighted the project. Story development and production officially began on May 2. One year later, after the rough animation for
The Lion King was complete, the Mickey feature, known at the time as
The Legend of Happy Valley, began production in earnest. Since it was a low-budget film, 50 minutes of animation had been completed within six months. RKO, though, still doubted it would be a hit. The Disney animators’ strike delayed production long enough to cancel its proposed Christmas 1941 release date, and World War II (which cut off Disney’s access to foreign markets) put this on hold indefinitely until the war ended.
Ironically, World War II brought a new opportunity out of left field. In July 1942, Royal Air Force Assistant air attache Roald Dahl, then in Washington DC, connected with Walt, having written
Gremlin Lore. He sent it to the British Information Services for approval, who then passed it along to Disney. In November, the RAF gave Dahl consent to help develop the story into a film after months of corresponding with Disney. While at the Studio, Disney partnered with Random House to publish
The Gremlins in April 1943, selling 50,000 copies in the United States. There was one major problem, though. Aside from the fact that the RAF retained copyrights to the gremlins and demanded final script approval, Disney failed to get exclusive rights to the subject of “gremlins,” as other studios were making gremlin-based cartoons. One creative solution was to retitle
The Gremlins to
The Widgets for the film [1], and a financial solution was to develop it alongside
The Reluctant Dragon and
The Legend of Happy Valley as part of a package feature.
The Reluctant Dragon and Other Tales predictably begins with
The Reluctant Dragon. A father tells his boy a story by father about a dragon living in a nearby Oxfordshire cave. The two decide to investigate if there is a real dragon, and lo and behold, there is. But this dragon, named Giles [2], is peaceful, friendly, and well-versed in poetry. Giles befriends the duo, but the townsfolk soon discover Giles’ existence and assume he is a fearsome beast, sending for Saint George to slay him. Now it’s a race against the clock to save Giles’ from the wrath of angry villagers. The next and shortest segment is based on Roald Dah’s gremlin story, titled
The Widgets. The titular widgets are known for sabotaging British aircraft (via their small size) by causing numerous mechanical troubles and mishaps as revenge for the British destroying their forest home. Now, with a far greater threat arising, everyone must join forces to fight for the safety of their homeland. Thirdly, and lastly, is the most famous segment of the bunch,
Mickey and The Beanstalk. After years of prosperity, Happy Valley has devolved into an impoverished wasteland, and Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are desperate for food. Mickey agrees to sell their cow in exchange for food but ends up trading it for magic beans. They sprout overnight into a cloud-high beanstalk, and Mickey and his pals venture into the clouds, ending up at the castle of Willie the Giant, who they must avoid at all costs.
The Reluctant Dragon and Other Tales premiered in New York City on September 27, 1947, before debuting nationwide on March 12, 1948. The package feature received mixed reviews from film critics at the time. Reviewers praised the plots of all three segments, alongside the voice performances, but the animation was criticized for being cheap-looking, many noting that Disney made the correct decision not to release these three films as individual feature-length films. The use of Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd was seen as not necessarily bad but took up too much screen time. It was successful enough at the box office, earning approximately $1.9 million on a $1.1 million budget. Audiences found themselves bored with the first segment, with each succeeding segment being more entertaining than the last. In the present, while none of the segments are outright hated, the only one with a large fanbase is
Mickey and The Beanstalk, thanks to this being Disney’s last voice role as Mickey and its humor being among the best of all package film segments.
Live-Action Cast:
- Edgar Bergen as himself, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd
- Luana Patten as herself
- Glenn Leedy as himself
Voice Cast:
- Bobby Driscoll as The Boy
- Ernie Alexander as The Father
- Sterling Holloway as Giles
- Claud Allister as St. George
- The King's Men as The Villagers
- Cliff Edwards as Gus
- Jimmy McDonald as Widgets Gus, Jamface, and Prescott
- Dinah Shore as Fifi and Nella [3]
- Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse
- Clarence Nash as Donald Duck
- Pinto Colvig as Goofy
- Ruth Clifford as Queen Minnie
- Billy Gilbert as Willie the Giant
- Anita Gordon as the Golden Harp
[1] Widgets were the name of the Baby Gremlins in the book but with rights to the gremlins denied, I decided to rename the Gremlins as a whole to the Widgets
[2] St. George retains his name from the original story and thus I decided to give the name Giles to the dragon instead of being unnamed like OTL
[3] Fifinellas were apparently female Gremlins in the book so I split it into Fifi and Nella and gave them two two individual characters