{"id":61272,"date":"2020-10-20T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T07:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=61272"},"modified":"2020-10-22T21:27:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T04:27:04","slug":"animation-ette-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/animation-ette-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Animation-ette! (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part one of a love letter to the beloved and unpretentious pop culture icon to recognize her unsung role in animation, sound recordings, musical films and theme park entertainment.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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Annette Funicello, whose birthday is this Thursday, came to prominence on the original Mickey Mouse Club<\/em> in the fifties and defined the 1960s beach party era through the film series co-starring Frankie Avalon. Decades of MMC reruns and broadcasts of the beach movies (there are seven \u201cofficial\u201d films) and her own personality (no one who knew her has anything negative to say) sustained her image. She continued to make occasional TV guest appearances and in Skippy<\/em> peanut butter commercials (they fit into her schedule, paid well, and she used a lot of the product). Annette never took herself seriously and was humble–almost to the point of denial–about her talent and continued appeal.<\/p>\n

In truth, Annette was a genuine catalyst. The circumstances surrounding her career, music and films were quietly seismic. She is an official Disney Legend for what she contributed (and continues to contribute) to Disney, but animation might not be the first thing that springs to mind. Yet her work involved some of the giants of the art, including Bill Justice, X Atencio and Ward Kimball. <\/p>\n\"\"\n

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Walt Disney\u2019s BABES IN TOYLAND<\/strong>
\nOriginal Cast Album<\/em>
\nBased on Victor Herbert\u2019s Tuneful Musical Comedy
\nBuena Vista Records STER-4022 (Stereo) BV-4022 (Mono) <\/p>\n

Released in November 1961<\/strong>. Executive Producer: Jimmy Johnson. Producer: Camarata. Musical Direction: George Bruns, Camarata. Chief Engineer: Allan Emig. Vocals Recorded at Sunset Sound, Hollywood. Running Time: 45 minutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Performers<\/strong>: Ray Bolger (Barnaby); Annette (Mary Contrary); Tommy Sands (Tom Piper); Ed Wynn (The Toymaker); Ann Jillian (Bo Peep); Henry Calvin (Gonzorgo); The Mellomen (Trees).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Songs:<\/strong> \u201cMother Goose Village;\u201d \u201cLemonade,\u201d \u201cWe Won\u2019t Be Happy Till We Get It,\u201d \u201cJust a Whisper Away,\u201d \u201cSlowly He Sank Into the Sea,\u201d \u201dCastle in Spain,\u201d \u201cI Can\u2019t Do the Sum,\u201d \u201cFloretta,\u201d \u201cThe Forest of No Return,\u201d \u201cGo to Sleep,\u201d \u201cToyland March,\u201d \u201cJust a Toy,\u201d \u201cTom and Mary\u201d by George Bruns and Mel Leven, adapted from music and lyrics by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Walt Disney announced the production of his first musical, Babes in Toyland<\/em>, a more modern approach than the traditional operetta, infighting began within the studio regarding the female singing star. Insiders wanted it to be Annette, others wanted a current pop star. It was akin to the Tiffany voicing Judy Jetson instead of Janet Waldo. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In his autobiography, Inside the Whimsy Works: My Life With Walt Disney Productions<\/em><\/a>, Disney Legend Jimmy Johnson (president and founder of Disneyland\/Vista Records) recalled when he and another Disney Legend, A&R and musical director Tutti Camarata, were in the thick of the Toyland<\/em> tussle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of Walt\u2019s production people plugged hard for a Warner Brothers recording artist for the female lead, and much propaganda was spread about the inability of our own Annette to handle the Victor Herbert tunes,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTutti and I had faith in Annette and also couldn\u2019t stand the thought of the soundtrack album going to another label. We made a demonstration record of her singing probably the most difficult song in the score, \u201cJust a Whisper Away\u201d and the novelty number, \u201cI Can\u2019t Do the Sum.\u201d The demo came off beautifully, and Walt, who had great affection for Annette like the rest of us, gave her the part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Johnson continued, \u201cThroughout the principal shooting, Babes in Toyland<\/em> was hard going. As an example of how wrong things were, the director who replaced Ward Kimball (whose dismissal is well-documented in the book, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball<\/em> by Todd Pierce). Jack Donohue, kept telling Ray Bolger how to dance.\u201d The film was dubbed a misfire by critics and at the box office. <\/p>\n

Time, events and circumstances have a way of changing perspective. Babes in Toyland<\/em> may not have fulfilled its initial expectations, but it emerged as a watershed project with a staying power that reached beyond the walls of movie theaters.<\/p>\n

During production, pressure came from the top to future Disney Legends and Imagineers Bill Justice to get the film\u2019s most important sequence, the \u201cMarch of the Toys,\u201d just right. \u201cThat was the hardest work I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Justice told your author. \u201cWalt said, \u2018You guys had better make this part good!\u201d As he said this, he used an illustration of the soldiers to sketch small rectangular objects below their feet. \u201cSee here, we had to have these magnets underneath every one of their feet underneath the set to keep them in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Disneyland parade soldiers, Justice, designed the life-sized versions to look exactly as they did in the movie. <\/p>\n