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Disney Completes Dali Animation
jbottero writes "Wired News has an interesting piece on a Salvador Dali animation coming out of Disney Studios. It seems that in 1946, Walt Disney and Dali teamed up on a short film called Destino. The film was shelved for money reason, and now, 57 years later, Disney animators has finished what Dali started. The six minute film will be shown in theaters next year before a Disney feature film. The remnants of the aborted film include 150 storyboards, drawings and paintings, which have sat for the last half-century in the Disney vaults. Notably, some of the project was modeled on the animation program Maya. An interesting quote from the article, Dali describes Walt Disney as one of America's greatest surrealists."
i can barely wait for the action figures...
2 1337 4 u!
As Dali was the greatest painter in the last 100 years, I'm very excited to see this, but who did the completion? Modern surreallism tends to be dull and played out, and Dinosaurs was probably not very mind boggling.
I hope they did large amounts of acid to try and get the same inspriation that Dali had.
And this is notable, why ?
Maya has been a mainstay for movie production involving 3D elements for a long time now. Or is this supposed to conjure images of Maya-on-Linux and thus make it relevant to Slashdot somehow ?
This isn't any more notable than a CGI team doing shots for CSI using Bipeds from Character Studio ( 3ds max plugin ) for one of those tacky sticks-in-bullets-holes-tell-us-where-the-bullets
Effects houses will use the software that gets the job done, and hardly ever is the choice "notable".
Just my 2cts on -that- topic.
Disney completing a shelved project like this, for a 6-minute short, on the other hand, is more interesting.
I recently did a project that was about Salvador Dali. What a great surrealist! Here is a link for any interested in browsing some of the pieces hosted by the Dali Museum. http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org
IANADA (I Am Not A Dali Afficionado) However, He was a pretty famous artist, known for his surrealist works. You've probably seen his stuff, think about liquid clocks... Check out more of his works at This site
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I always cringe when Disney takes one of their early artistic works (back when it at least seemed like someone cared what made it to the screen)and trots it out all "modernized" or worse, sequelized. In this instance, at least from what I can gather, they've produced something with artistic merit. I saw sketches and such of this project on the Fantasia Legacy DVD, and immediately was impressed by the bizarre vision it presented. Noone today would consider Disney avant garde...but it (well, more like HE) really was back in the day. I'm glad to see this innovative idea finally come to fruition. One can only hope that it might serve as a wake-up call as to the potential of animation as art, instead of just babysitting-fodder.
Ceci n'est pas un post.
the dude who painted the melting clocks.
If you ever have the urge to sum up an artist's work in one sentence again... don't.Current Karma Status: Roadkill
somehow I have the feeling that even though the original work had multiple authors (disney, dali), this "finished" version will be entirely disney's and not a cent will go to the Dali estate. Mickey just wouldn't have it any other way. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Salvador Dali was a Surrealist painter who's one painting "The Persistance of Time" is hanging over my computer right now.
One of my favorite surrealist, even though he was overplayed as it were. I also enjoy Giger and Escher also.
Check out a gallery of his works at:
http://dali.karelia.ru/html/dali.htm
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
one of America's greatest surrealists.
Hmmm, that's hardly much of an achievement. Can anyone name any good American surrealist? Dali was probably taking the piss.
...is it the second Friday of the month already? I knew there had to be a reason why /. posted a positive story about Disney. Can't wait until Monday when they post the anti-Disney slant to this story :)
Dali describes Walt Disney as one of America's greatest surrealists.
Would the same still be true regarding disney's contemporary political positions?
When this DVD does finally arrive, I hope it includes the original 15 seconds of this test reel they have. It would be nice to see the original work before any CG enhancement.
So what happened originally you ask? Here's an excerpt from The Straight Dope:
For more related articles, here are some great links too:
http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/1-30/feature
http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2003/06/
http://www.animagic.hpg2.ig.com.br/destin1.htm
(This last one has images of conceptual art designs too!)
-Mr. Fusion
Thanks, I never would have been able to figure out what the article was about if not for your grammatical diligence.
If whales learn how to use weapons we're all screwed!
This month's issue has several images from the movie, along with a photo of Dali and Disney together during the collaboration.
"Let me explain. /pause/ No, there is not enough time. Let me sum up."
/., where we don't ever read long expl...
Give the guy a break. The melting clocks are probably the best known and most recognizable feature of Dali, and this *is*
And anyway, if you're going to criticize, at least get the quote right!
That would be cool.
It really was worth the hype. Disney himself (grandson of the Walt) introduced it, and was justifiably proud of it. It's being introduced to compete for an Oscar. The joke was "imagine having your animated short up against Salvador Dali and Walt Disney."
Anyway, it's a surprisingly effective melding of Dali imagery and Disney animation. The animator at Disney who had done the original work is still alive and still working at Disney, and worked to finish the movie, and the original soundtrack was restored for it.
It's short, but if there's a screening, it's worth going just to see it. There's so much detail that the video transfer will be meaningfully less.
Well, I am a Dali superfan and I can say that he was without a doubt one of the best painters of all time. Only Escher's optical illusions are comprable to Dali's, but Escher did mostly works based on geometry, while Dali worked more with raw creativity. Every one of his paintings has a double image, and in several there are multiple ways to percieve what you're seeing. Not to mention the paintings are on par with classical masters such as Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Van Eyk, which no other painter has achieved in modern times. He is sort of similar to Kandinsky, both wanted to show what was inside of minds, but partially thanks to the drugs and the boundless talent, Dali's haullicinations stayed away from complete abstractionism.
I've also heard that he made a bunch of live action movies too, but I've never seen any.
57 years! These people must be on the Duke Nukem: Forever dev team, too.
That's like a minute per decade, almost.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
"Destino"
What could happen if the minds of genius like Walt Disney and Salvador Dali produced an amazing piece of art to be seen in the big screen? The answer is the never-completed animated short "Destino".
Work, in the form of original concept drawings, as well as 18 seconds of animation, done by Salvador Dali in 1946 at the Disney studio , is being dusted off by Disney vice chairman Roy E. Disney and will be completed as an art house cartoon by the Disney studio - well, at least according to the London Sunday Times a couple of years ago. "I am going to finish the work of Salvador Dali", Disney told the newspaper. "At Disney, we need to recover our history." The production will be supervised by Disney, who is a son of Roy Disney (Walt Disney's brother), and John Hench, now a senior vice-president at Disney, who worked with Dali as his assistant in 1946. According to the Times, Dali blamed the failure to finish the film on labor strikes that hit the movie industry at the time. However John Canemaker, in Before The Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists, quotes Walt Disney as saying, "Jesus Christ! $70,000 down the drain", in response to Dali's very un-Disneyesque work. Canemaker's new book, Paper Dreams, includes a photo showing Dali at work on the project.
But some people were lucky to see these 18 seconds of animation in June 2002 durring the exibit "Rescued Treasures: Restored Films from American Archives and Studios" presented by heas of restoration Scott MacQueen showing amazing restorations and rare gems from the arquives of Walt Disney. The neraly unseen "Destino" was followed by another great work of colaboration (Hitchcock/Dali) in "Spellbound". This special screening was held at the American Museum of Moving Image.
We don't get confirmation or another new info in the status of this production of "Destino", but you can read a full-lengh article below with the story of this proposed project based on my extensive research (including some info from the great Christopher Jones article for The Boston Globe and the book "Paper Dreams" written by John Canemaker). The article is written in portuguese but there is some new treats - three new amazing drawings and paintings of "Destino". Enjoy!
For those of you who don't know, Dali has a small history in film: IMDB's profile. They also have a wonderful picture of him.
Most notable of those is Un Chien Andalou that he did with the somewhat famous director Luis Bunuel. It's only a few minutes long and it makes *NO* sense at all, but it's very fun to watch.
Scratched Emulsion
If you ever have the urge to sum up an artist's work in one sentence again... don't.
...unless that artist is Andy Warhol.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
the dude who painted the melting clocks.
If you ever have the urge to sum up an artist's work in one sentence again... don't.
Yeah, but who was that dude who sketched all those fucked-up stairways?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
So when will this film become public domain?
Sig Applied For
Note that Harryhausen and some animators are going to complete one of Harryhausen's very early works. Thought that might also be of interest, as it's an animation work that will be completed many years after it began.
/. does not have any mention of it.)
c le/0,,28065%7C28067%7C28069,00.html
Some of the interviews with Harryhausen on (I think) the Jason and the Argonauts mention this as well. (But searching
Details: http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Arti
the dude who painted the melting clocks.
If you ever have the urge to sum up an artist's work in one sentence again... don't.
Pop-quiz!
The dude who splashed paint on canvas spread on the groud.
The dude who cut off his ear and painted sunflowers.
The dude who started off those dotty paintings.
The dude who made that picture of a pipe that says it isn't a pipe.
The dude who wrote Romeo & Juliet.
The dude who wrote those books where he was going on and on about all the stuff he was thinking and doing and you couldn't figure out what was fact and what was fiction the grammar didn't work out anyway pretty damn boring book that was.
The dude who cuts animals in half and suspends them in formaldehyde.
The gal who made an exposition out of her own dirty bed.
The dude who painted a can of soup.
The dude who composed the Ring.
No, not that other dude who wrote about the Ring.
The dude who wrote that book and then all those Arabs went medieval on him, only he hid.
The dude who wraps buildings up like a parcel (and his wife, too).
The dude who directed E.T.
The gal who made those nazi films that died the other day.
The dude who poured lighter fluid over his guitar and burnt it on stage.
The dude who wrote the book about killing lots of people while using lots of snobby eighties brands.
The dude who was in that black&white film where the front of a house falls over, but he's standing where the window comes down and there's no glass in it.
The gal who sings about wanting a Mercedes Benz.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
He also made some scuplture, some music, and a deck of terot cards
a li.htm
He even made a cook book. Serously.
Here: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/8013/dali/d
Actually: I was at Dali Universe in London last weekend, and realized how much of Dali's work contains adult themes; and by adult themes I don't mean balancing checkbooks. I would say that a good third of the works I saw at the exhibition had overt sexual themes. I'll be interested to see what Dali without the sex looks like in a Disney cartoon.
Of course this goes well with Disney's tradition of subtley showing phalluses to children.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
Wake me up when Disney starts collaborating with H. R. Giger.
Raw creativity? I hear that in Massachusetts, they now have to put a warning at the bottom of the paint that reads something like: "This creativity is raw, partially raw or creatively structured per order. Consuming them may increase your risk of mental illness.""
If you are a Dali fan, you MUST eventually make it to the museum in St. Petersburg, FL. There you can stare at the HUGE paintings and get sucked into their depth.
I think they have somewhere > 200 of his works in total. They have historical information on him as well as some of his sketch books and sculptures as well as pictures of him.
I liked the pictures of his pet ocelot.
The eighties book : american psycho, the author was Bret Easton Ellis The gal singing is Janis Joplin
Probably the most well known purveyors of what I would call "American Surrealism". Granted, he's modern, but Lynch's vision is distinctly American.
i'm the jedidiahmarkfoster your parents warned you about
Some would say Buuel is the greatest surrealist filmmaker ever...
The story makes no sense. The images make some sense. It was a critique/homage to Federico Garcia Lorca, a gay writer that was part of their group (the surrealists in Europe in the 1930's). Garcia Lorca was an Andalucian, Buuel called him the andalucian dog. He wrote a poem to Dali that was the inspiration for the eye-slashing scene. There is also a critique in that movie, to the writer Juan Ramon Jimenez: the rotten donkey on the piano is a reference to Platero y yo, Jimenez's masterpiece (a story about a donkey and a boy).
Dali himself appears briefly in the movie, he's one of the priests being dragged along with the piano and the rotten donkey. Buuel also appears, he's the man who slashes the girl's eye.
Go hug some trees.
Disney is dead, watch your overcoat.
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
You can see Un Chien Andalou here, enjoy!!!
Go hug some trees.
Sorry, but if you're a "superfan" you probably would have at least seen one of his movies. You're simply a fan.
The dude who splashed paint on canvas spread on the groud.
Jackson Pollock
The dude who cut off his ear and painted sunflowers.
Vincent VanGogh
The dude who started off those dotty paintings.
The dude who made that picture of a pipe that says it isn't a pipe.
The dude who wrote Romeo & Juliet.
Shakespeare
The dude who wrote those books where he was going on and on about all the stuff he was thinking and doing and you couldn't figure out what was fact and what was fiction the grammar didn't work out anyway pretty damn boring book that was.
Faulkner
The dude who cuts animals in half and suspends them in formaldehyde.
Did Leonardo DaVinci have formaldahyde. I don't think he's right...
The gal who made an exposition out of her own dirty bed.
The dude who painted a can of soup.
Andy Worhall
The dude who composed the Ring.
No, not that other dude who wrote about the Ring.
Tolkein
The dude who wrote that book and then all those Arabs went medieval on him, only he hid.
The dude who wraps buildings up like a parcel (and his wife, too).
The dude who directed E.T.
Steven Speilberg
The gal who made those nazi films that died the other day.
The dude who poured lighter fluid over his guitar and burnt it on stage.
Jimi Hendrix
The dude who wrote the book about killing lots of people while using lots of snobby eighties brands.
Book is American Psycho, author is _________.
The dude who was in that black&white film where the front of a house falls over, but he's standing where the window comes down and there's no glass in it.
Buster Keaton
The gal who sings about wanting a Mercedes Benz.
Janis Joplin
The movie would have been done on time, except the clocks kept melting. Thanks, I'll be here all week!
Pretty close, my cultured friend!
;-)
*** SPOILER ***
Answers below
*** SPOILER ***
Jackson Pollock
Vincent Van Gogh
Georges-Pierre Seurat
Rene (Francois Ghislain) Magritte
William Shakespear (although his existance as an historical figure is questioned, like Homer)
James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce
Damien Hirst
Tracey Emin (won the Turner prize with her soiled bed)
Andy Warhol
(Wilhelm) Richard Wagner (also notable for contributing to the Apocalypse Now soundtrack)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Salman Rushdie
Christo (Javacheff) (his wife is a co-wrapper, not wrappee)
Steven Spielberg
(Berta Helene Amalie) "Leni" Riefenstahl
(James Marshall) "Jimi" Hendrix
Bret Easton Ellis
Buster Keaton (indeed a great source of inspiration for "Jackie" Chan Kong-sang)
Janis Joplin
Full names are from wikipedia..
Mods, don't mod this one up, it would spoil the fun
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Go hug some trees.
Dali was not Spanish, he was actually Catalan, from a place called Port Lligat (Yigat) in northern Catalunya.
I've just noticed that /. doesn't seem to let you use accented characters, neither can you use the XHTML character entities, such as Ampersand+iacute;
Anyway, for those that don't know, or can't tell in /., The 'i' in Dali's name has an accent on it, which is important as it completely changes how you pronounce his name, Da-li, not Dah-lee, with the stress on the the 'li' rather than the 'Da'.
Some more of Dali's 'lost' work that I'd like to see is the dream sequence in Hitchcock's film Spellbound. A short sequence made it into the final film, but it was originally planned to be 20 minutes long; some of the filmed-but-cut material sounds fascinating.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
It sounds to me like they basically just took the outline that had been created, and made a completely new animation. I don't think that anything on screen will be from the 40's, but the storyboards and whatnot will have guided the 00's animators.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I remember reading about the Disney company's first (?) use of CG, in The Black Cauldron. There was a shot where the characters step into a rowboat and it was supposed to bob up and down, but when the animators tried to hand-draw the boat, it deformed like it was made out of rubber. So ... the hundreds of perspective drawings required by the Dali short would have been just horrendous, if not impossible.
Corollary to Moore's Law: The IQ of new computer owners is declining.
I AM SURREALISM.
As usual, he was right.
And my favorite quote of his (also my email sig):
The only difference between me
and a madman is that I am not mad.
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Dali was one big walking hardon....
Im sure most people only knows the oil paintings he made like the clocks and elephants...
But most of his work was hand drawings and let me tell you, they where not for the faint of heart.
There was an exibition last summer here in finland with about 100 of them. 99 of them included atleast breasts or female geneterial (SP?)...
So nice to have you back where you belong.
I've been to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, and while there are a lot of pieces where adult themes are tossed about, there are plenty of pieces that aren't... If you get to visit the St. Pete museum sometime in the future, be sure to check out The Hallucinogenic Toreador -- it's a huge oil painting that has more subtle meanings than I've ever seen in a painting (by any artist). Sadly the online version does not do it any justice...
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