Among the gallery of greats who have appeared on the screen with animated characters, there is something unique about Gene Kelly. His talents as a director, choreographer, producer, and especially dancer, he was uniquely suited to the art of combining live action with animation.
Gene Kelly (right) and director George Sidney discuss “Anchors Aweigh”.
Kelly’s frequent collaborator and future director Stanley Donen came up with the idea to put Kelly into an animated sequence for 1945’s Anchors Aweigh. Kelly loved the idea, and so did Walt Disney. He met with Walt to discuss the possibility of sharing the movie screen with Mickey. Contrary to several accounts, Walt never said anything to the effect of “Mickey will never dance in an MGM picture!” Kelly’s widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, is eager to dispel this myth, among others. Mickey had already appeared in two 1934 MGM musicals, Hollywood Party and Babes in Toyland (1934, which also featured the Three Little Pigs). Walt had a fine relationship with Louis B. Mayer.
The truth is that the Disney studio was pushed to its limits by WWII. Many artists and staff members were overseas. The studio was producing more material to support the war effort against the Axis than any other in Hollywood, and as usual, Walt the perfectionist was exceeding the budgets provided by Washington. His brother Roy was reticent to commit to the Kelly project or any other outside endeavors, as the studio was under severe strain.
Walt told Kelly that he would intercede with Mayer if there was any resistance to creating the sequence at the MGM Animation studio. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s unit was devoted almost exclusively to the popular, acclaimed, and profitable Tom and Jerry cartoons, so if there was any resistance, it would have had to come from producer Fred Quimby, because working on the Kelly project would reduce the time on T&J shorts.
It is also possible that Ub Iwerks’ recently developed optical printer system was put to use in the Kelly sequence. Though I am unable to fully confirm this, it makes sense as to the timing of the production and the seamlessness of the final result.
For those unfamiliar with how it was done, here is a fascinating video by Bill Martin of the Academy Special Effects branch:
“The King Who Couldn’t Dance” sequence in MGM’s Anchors Aweigh is widely considered to be one of the most effective combinations of live action and animation ever created. Kelly’s athletic, precise dynamics allowed an enormous amount of interaction with Jerry. It was a perfect storm of animation talent during the heyday of theatrical cartoons. Among the finest artists in the business were involved, many of them who would work for Bill and Joe for decades.
The partnership between Kelly, Hanna, and Barbera connected them to Anchors Aweigh director George Sidney, whose next move was to include an animation/live-action sequence in Dangerous When Wet, in which the duo swam through adventure with Esther Williams. Sidney’s Holiday in Mexico had a prologue animated by the H & B unit.
“Invitation To The Dance”
Kelly, Hanna, Barbera, and their team tried to do things with the technique in “Sinbad” that never been attempted before, including camera moves and perspectives that were sometimes too ambitious for the capabilities of the mixed media. Most famous is the snake dance that was modeled by legendary dancer Carol Haney. There is little question that those in the industry, particularly animation, took note of this sequence, identifying what worked best, like keeping the camera locked down for the most part, and keeping direct human-cartoon contact fast and minimal.
George Sidney and his father, MGM exec Louis K. Sidney, became instrumental in helping Hanna and Barbera get into trailers and other animation, teetering on the edge of television, including the original I Love Lucy titles. When Hanna-Barbera Productions began in 1957, Sidney was the third partner. Sidney and his home studio, Columbia, helped get H-B animation and product placement into his 1963 film version of Bye Bye Birdie, and bring such stars as Ann-Margret and Tony Curtis to guest star on The Flintstones.
“Jack and The Beanstalk”
The results were varied. Once again, the team reached extremely high, with lots of impressive set pieces making the most of the technique. But as the money ran out, Hanna-Barbera had to rely on effects contractors who were not always up to the task. Kelly was not pleased at first, but had to understand that this was no longer MGM at the pinnacle of time, detail, and budgets. The night before the special aired, he hosted a birthday tribute to his friend Jackie Gleason on rival network CBS, and Gleason mentioned Jack and the Beanstalk at the end of the show. Promoting programming on another network was rare in those days.
Warner Archive released the special on DVD. A few musical highlights can be previewed here:
The special, which aired on Sunday night in place of The Wonderful World of Disney, won an Emmy, garnered high ratings, and received good reviews. It convinced NBC to greenlight Hanna-Barbera’s 1968 series, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, TV’s first weekly live-action/animated series.
Ten years after Beanstalk, Gene Kelly was one of the celebrity hosts of Yabba-Dabba-Doo! The Happy World of Hanna-Barbera, a two-hour clip fest in the manner of That’s Entertainment. In 1974, when Kelly and Fred Astaire starred in That’s Entertainment, Part 2, Hanna-Barbera provided an animated sequence featuring rotoscoped images of MGM stars.
But it was all started by a mouse. And a sailor man. Jerry and Gene.
“The King Who Couldn’t Dance”
As noted in this keen book about Hanna-Barbera, the Columbia book and record set with Gene Kelly telling and singing the animated story from Anchors Aweigh was the first recording featuring characters created by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. Its producer, Hecky Krasnow, moved from Columbia to the newer Colpix label, where he was responsible for the first LP with Hanna-Barbera stars, Ruff and Reddy: Adventures in Space.
GREG EHRBAR is an author, presenter, and recent guest host on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). His latest book is Hanna-Barbera: The Recorded History. Greg creates content for such studios as Disney, Warner, and Universal, hosts the POP Culture Classics and the Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera podcasts, and teaches at universities nationwide. Visit 
I always found it gratifying that a star of Kelly’s talent and stature was so willing (eager?) to work with animation. With so many in the industry (especially then, but even now) dismissing cartoons as hacky kid’s stuff, it was good to see that not everyone was blind to the medium’s potential.
One last (literal) credit I feel is worth mentioning, even if it didn’t involve an on-screen appearance with a cartoon co-star: for Cats Don’t Dance, director Mark Dindal and the animators consulted with Gene Kelly on the choreography for the characters, leading to an on-screen dedication to Kelly in the credits.
While Fred Astaire was one of the very rare Hollywood stars who never made a flop, Gene Kelly made many, and “Invitation to the Dance” was one of them. MGM didn’t know how to market it, critics didn’t know what to make of it, and it wasn’t easy for audiences to find. It’s seldom shown on television, thankfully, as the insertion of commercials would completely ruin it. I was lucky enough to see it in an art house cinema when I was in college as half of a double feature with “Singin’ in the Rain”, and it was an unforgettable experience. Even if the artistic risks he took failed to pay off at the box office, I applaud Kelly for having had the courage to take them.
The “Sinbad” segment does indeed use some thematic material from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”, especially its third movement, as well as from the “Dance of the Tumblers” from his opera “The Snow Maiden”. But the score is primarily an original work, a collaboration between arranger Roger Edens, conductor Johnny Green, and orchestrator Conrad Salinger. They were some of the major musical talents in the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, and all three of them were at the very top of their game here.
When the harem girl appears in a naval uniform at the end of the sequence, I can’t help but be reminded of the WAC uniform worn by Olivia Newton-John during her dance number with Gene Kelly in “Xanadu”, Kelly’s last musical. “Xanadu” also has an animated sequence, a charming one directed by Don Bluth, but Kelly isn’t in it.
The “Worry Song” from “Anchors Aweigh” was later used in an episode of “Family Guy”, with Stewie Griffin taking the place of Jerry Mouse. As I recall from the DVD commentary, one of the technical people on the show conceived of the idea while drinking with series creator Seth MacFarlane, and Seth, with his love of classic musicals, obliged him. The animation is very good, but there seems to be little point to it other than to prove that it could be done. Maybe the episode was running short, and they were all out of Conway Twitty songs.
Gene Kelly’s achievements in animation/live action sequences are definitely impressive and noteworthy. The sequence from “Anchors Aweigh” was prominently featured in an article on Animation in the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” which is where I first became aware of its existence. As Kelly was a perfectionist, it is likely that he would have been unhappy with any of the end results of these efforts to combine live action and animation, and yet regardless of the cost-cutting, each one of these efforts stands out remarkably. My first exposure to Gene Kelly was in the H-B “Jack and the Beanstalk” special, which to this day remains one of my favorites. (Though family-friendly, it does contain a few clear instances of adult humor, some of it implied rather than directly stated.)
While no one likes to mention “Xanadu,” this was another Kelly effort that included an animated sequence, this time under the supervision of Don Bluth. The animation is one of the better things the film has going for it. I have watched it several times hoping it will get better, but it remains one of those films that you have to keep in mind what it could have been rather than what it is. Certainly not for lack of effort. A clever idea that misfired despite the talent involved.
“Invitation to the Dance” is another film that is sometimes regarded as a Kelly “failure,” although box office performance should never be the sole criterion for determining the quality of a film. The “Sinbad the Sailor” sequence is clearly the winner of the three set pieces, although the first two are dynamic efforts in terms of the use of dance in film. The film in its entirety is one I could watch many times over and still discover things I had missed. Particularly worth noting is the dance with the leading lady, with as mentioned above Carol Haney as the live-action reference. Though I have encountered many people who find the film difficult to sit through, I consider it a misunderstood masterpiece.
The “One Starry Moment” number in “Jack and the Beanstalk” is likewise a fascinating example of animated choreography. With Janet Waldo providing the speaking voice and Marni Nixon the singing voice of the Princess, the animation may not be as fluid as in the old MGM days, but it’s very effective and provides one more of those adult moments in the special.
All of these efforts are important contributions to the genre. If anyone could pull off dancing with an animated co-star, it was Gene Kelly!
I was very interested to learn that the success of “Jack and the Beanstalk” was directly responsible for “The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” coming to prime time television. As it happens, the first episode of that show (but none of the others) featured a musical number, in which a live-action Becky Thatcher danced with an animated leprechaun, voiced by guest star Dennis Day. Funny how Gene Kelly’s influence shows up in places where you’d never expect it to!
The “Magic Shillelah” sequence is a gem, and a fine example of how Hanna-Barbera consistently tried to push the final product as high as they could given the circumstances. “Huck Finn” was one of TV’s most expensive series at the time (and part of the reason it lasted only one season), but noting like the opulence that they enjoyed durinig MGM’s heyday. Nevertheless, there is a moment when Becky and the Leprechaun (voiced by Dennis Day) cross in front of each other, a nice touch that added time and money, yet they did it anyway.
While it was decidedly less ambitious than “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” managed to avoid the optical flaws that bedeviled “Jack and the Beanstalk”. True, they minimized effects when they could by using physical sets and props.
And Kelly figured in “Cats Don’t Dance”:
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/picture-purr-fect-the-25th-anniversary-of-cats-dont-dance/
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/dancing-around-cats-dont-dance-1997/
If I had to make a guess, I imagine the easiest way to have done this is to film Gene first and animated after. The parts where Gene “touches” or interacts with Jerry in the routine wouldn’t look right if they didn’t.
But that being said there are some parts that I find impressive is the timing of somethings which speaks to Gene or whoever is coaching Gene. One part in particular stands out, the part where Gene uses his biceps to bounce Jerry back and forth from each arm. You have to worry about timing there big time because of the amount of times Gene is supposedly interacting with Jerry. The animators needing to make the launching between arms make sense. Not too fast or too slow because of gravity.