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#31 | ||
Dead Serious
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It might have been wiser of me to let this sleeping thread lie--though since wizards are meddlers and bearers of ill news, perhaps not--but I have found a nugget of information about Tolkien and Disney and it has stuck in my mind since as needing to be added to this thread for the sake of the historical record.
My source is The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Chronology (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. The entry for 1939 includes the following: Quote:
Scull & Hammond, 224 Scull and Hammond are unable, in such a massive work, to provide a source for every entry, but it is clear from the context that the source in this case must be C.S. Lewis--possibly his diaries. While this does not negate the possibility that Tolkien encountered Disney illustration in books, it confirms beyond a trace of reasonable doubt that he had seen Snow White. Interestingly, Tolkien found "Snow White to be beautiful" and it is the Dwarves specifically to whom he objects, which is consistent with his concerns about the Disnification of a Hobbit film. The index to The Chonology lists a further seven pages with references to Disney. The first is from May 1937 and is a reference to his correspondence regarding the illustration of The Hobbit, as does a Dec. 1946 reference. In 1955, when Tolkien visits Italy with his daughter, "filthy Disney figures and Mickey mice" is the unflattering comparison he gives for the products of a glass factory he visits. Disney is again an unflattering reference in 1959 when referring to the dramatisation of The Hobbit (a play, however, rather than a film, which suggests the treatment of plot or theme rather than a visual characteristic). July 1964 is the entry that I will quote the entry in full here: Quote:
There is little enough commentary for me to add to these bare references, beyond the fact that Tolkien gives the impression of having seen more than one Disney film (though "pictures" could, in fact, be argued to mean "more than one image"--i.e. in a single film). It also seems arguable that his impression soured over the years as Disney came to be identified with fairy-tales, from a mixed reaction to Snow White to a general antipathy to everything they stood for.
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I prefer history, true or feigned.
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