June 22, 2022
Well, I am excited to share a recent trip I took to participate in the Walt Disney Family Museum's special exhibit entitled, "The Making of a Masterpiece, The Jungle Book." This amazing exhibit is now on display at the Diane Disney Miller exhibit hall of the Walt Disney Family Museum complex at the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. Curated by Disney Legend, Andreas Deja, the special exhibit showcases an exquisite collection of animation art created during the production process of Disney's 1967 film, the Jungle Book. This is a must see for any Disney animation art movie fan!
After a fun trip visiting family in the lower48, I extended my trip out of Alaska to attend the opening events for the Jungle Book exhibit. The day before the official opening, the Museum held two member's only events: A Discussion Panel and Evening Reception. The festivities included special guests, Andreas Deja, guest curator, Bruce Reitherman, voice of Mowgli, another Disney Legend, Norman Floyd, retired Disney artist who worked on the Jungle Book and Darlene Carr, voice of the village girl. The guest discussion panel was held in the museum's theater and was well attended.
Andreas Deja lead the discussion with all of the guest participants and field questions at the end from the audience. Highlights included Andreas sharing his story and love of the Jungle and the surprising fact that Jungle Book is the highest grossing film of all time in Germany, where Andreas grew up. Additionally both Darlene and Bruce share stories of how they came about to work on the film and became the voice artists. Additionally, Andreas shared a special videotaped message from Clint Howard the voice of the Goliath the baby elephant. During the Q&A session I was able to ask the question on how they created the wonderful opening waterfall shot after the credits are completed. Bruce and Andreas both shared that they took live footage of some waterfalls perhaps from South America and combined it with animation backgrounds to create the effect. This same scene is repeated in later in film as well.
Additionally, it was fun to hear how the legendary Floyd Norman had joined the studio during that time and was assigned to work in the story department after Bill Peet left the Jungle Book project and the company. A fun moment during the evening was when the panel led the audience to sing "Happy Birthday" to Floyd Norman as it was his 87th that day. There were a lot of questions from the audience and someone even inquired as to where Andreas got all of his artwork. He responded mostly through auctions of animation over time.
After the panel concluded members were invited to a reception in the awards lobby of the museum to share in some light desserts and meet the guest panelists. I was able to meet all of the panelists and enjoy some great conversation with them about animation and the making of the Jungle Book. I spent a fair amount of time listening and talking with Floyd Norman about his experience in helping with the overall story line. He was brought on board when Walt really wanted the movie to portray a more fun and light-hearted adventure. He shared his thoughts on working with the story and discussed segments such at the "Trust in Me" sequence he worked. I really enjoyed meeting Mr. Norman and at the time did not realize what an influential animation artist he was. Darlene Carr soon joined the conversation and she shared more of her thoughts on the film. It was interesting to hear her experience as a voice artist, being a teenager in the 60's and the impression she had of meeting Walt Disney. Later, I met with Andreas and introduced myself to him. We had spoken many times on the phone and it was nice to actually meet him in person for the first time. I even offered him an invitation to view my collection if/when he ever came up to Alaska. He was interested in coming up north as he had never been to Alaska. I hope he takes me up on the offer! At the conclusion of the evening, the museum held a special raffle for an animation drawing that Andreas offered to give to a lucky ticket holder. Overall a wonderful evening event held by the museum and the staff at the event went out of their way to ensure that everyone had a good time. Thank you to all of the event staff who helped me!
Also, I wanted to mention that on the dessert table, I discovered the museum had some special cookies made for the event that were works of art themselves. Inspired by the production backgrounds in the exhibit, Barbara Felix from felixthecook.com created these special sugar cookies. They looked amazing and were delicious. If you need something special, check out her website! Thank you Barbara!
Next up I will share more about the exhibit itself and hopefully a short movie as well! I hope you enjoyed this story. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment! Enjoy!
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