Recommendations of the Editorial team
The “Dark Age” by Disney, which only seemingly disoriented era after the death of Walts in 1966, with stripes such as “Bernhard and Bianca”, “Cap and Capper”, but also fantastic live action fabrics such as “The Dragon Diver”, “The Black Loch” and “Tron”, a Renaissance is currently celebrating. But when it comes to the classics that really inspire everyone, you cannot avoid the period from 1937 to 1953. Classic Disney. “Snow White”, “Dumbo”, “Bambi”, “Cinderella”. Milestones.
Vintage children’s book art by Disney artists: Illustrations from the 1940s and 1950s
Many of these films, some of which will soon be one hundred years old, also know (American) children of today’s generation. But what you may not know are the associated children’s books.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Disney artists not only established themselves as animators on the screen, but also as formative illustrators in the children’s book area, many of them for “Little Golden Books”-cheap in retail. So if you couldn’t see the cinema classics on the screen because you missed the theatrical release, there was no second cinema radiation or the stripes were not shown on TV (we speak of very old times here), at least thanks to the books could feel like in the cinema.
The now available book project “Walt Disney’s Children’s Classics 1937–1953” documents this illustrative transfer performance using ten classic stories, adapted by Disney films. There are, among other things, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Pinocchio”, “Dumbo”, “Bambi”, “Peter Pan” as well as “Cinderella” and “Alice in Wonderland”.
Los Angeles as the center of a double image production
The visual language of these publications was strongly based on the aesthetics of the films, but differed in essential points. While the animation is aimed at movement and rhythm, children’s book illustration is created for visual compression. Artists such as Al Dempster, Campbell Grant, Dick Kelsey, Mel Shaw and Retta Scott Worcester transferred motifs, figures and scenes into static formats, but also tried independent visual solutions. For example in contour guidance or symbolic coloring.
What the illustrated book also shows is the employment situation in the group. The Disney studios in Los Angeles were not just a place of film production during this time. Many employees also worked in the illustration in parallel. The band’s editors, animation historian Charles Solomon and Disney-Art Director Kenneth Shue, tell this story of the U.S. aftermar season in the Atomic Age. Why Disney also offered purest escapism.
Pockets
Walt Disney’s Children’s Classics 1937-1953
Hardcover, half -linen, 20.5 x 25.6 cm, 1.58 kg, 376 pages
Taschen.com
€ 40