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The Reluctant Dragon
Release Date June 20th,
1941
SYNOPSIS:
This
lighthearted story follows the adventures of a brave young boy who, emboldened
by tales of brave knights, decides to pursue the horrible dragon that is
terrifying the villagers. But what he discovers is a surprisingly friendly
dragon that is more interested in reciting poetry and making music than devouring
fair damsels. Will the boy be able to stop the local hero before he challenges
the dragon to a fiery battle?
FUN FACTS:
The Reluctant Dragon is a 1941 American
combined live action and animated film produced by Walt Disney, directed by Alfred
Werker, and released by RKO Radio Pictures on June 20, 1941. Essentially a tour
of the then-new Walt Disney Studios facility in Burbank, California, the film
stars radio comedian Robert Benchley and many Disney staffers such as Ward
Kimball, Fred Moore, Norman Ferguson, Clarence Nash, and Walt Disney, all as
themselves.
The first third of the film is in black-and-white, the
remaining two-thirds are in Technicolor. Most of the film is live-action, with
four short animated segments inserted into the running time: a black-and-white
segment featuring Casey Junior from Dumbo; and three Technicolor
cartoons: Baby Weems, Goofy's How to Ride a Horse, and the
extended-length short The Reluctant Dragon, based upon Kenneth Grahame's
book of the same name. The total length of all animated parts is 40 minutes.
Studio operations toured by Benchley in the film
The loose plot of the film features Robert Benchley
trying to find (or, rather, avoid finding) Walt Disney so that he can, at the
insistence of his wife, pitch to him the idea of making an animated version of
the book by Kenneth Grahame. Dodging an overly officious studio guide named
Humphrey (played by Buddy Pepper), Benchley stumbles upon a number of the
Disney studio operations and learns about the traditional animation process,
some of the facets of which are explained by a staff employee named Doris
(Frances Gifford).
- The life
drawing classroom, where animators learn to caricature people and animals
by observing the real thing.
- A film
score and voice recording session featuring Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald
Duck, and Florence Gill, the voice of Clara Cluck.
- A foley session
for a cartoon featuring Casey Junior from Dumbo. Doris demonstrates
the sonovox in this scene, which was used to create the train's voice.
- The camera
room, featuring a demonstration of the multiplane camera. Upon Benchley's
entering the camera room, the film turns from black-and-white to
Technicolor (a la The Wizard of Oz), prompting the droll Benchley
to (breaking the fourth wall) examine his now red-and-blue tie and his yellow
copy of the Reluctant Dragon storybook and comment,
"Ahh...Technicolor!" When Doris arrives to show him around the
camera room, she asks Benchley if he remembers her. His answer: "Yes,
but you look so much different in Technicolor!" Donald Duck appears
on the camera stand to help explain the mechanics of animation and
animation photography.
- The
ink-and-paint department, including a Technicolor-showcasing montage of
the paint-making process. Doris presents a completed cel of the titular
character from Bambi.
- The maquette-making
department, which makes maquettes (small statues) to help the animators
envision a character from all sides. Some of the maquettes on display
included Aunt Sarah, Si, and Am from Lady and the Tramp and Captain
Hook and Tinkerbell from Peter Pan; both films were in development
at this time, but would be delayed by World War II and not completed until
the 1950s. Also on display is a black centaurette from Fantasia,
which Benchley steals. The employee on duty makes Benchley a maquette of
himself, which many years later was purchased and owned by Warner Bros.
director Chuck Jones.
- The storyboard
department, where a group of storymen (one of whom is portrayed by Alan
Ladd) test their idea for a new short on Benchley: Baby Weems. The
story is shown to the audience in the form of an animatic, or a story
reel, using limited animation, and is considered among the Disney studio's
best (if unsung) works. Alfred Werker, loaned out by 20th Century Fox to
direct this film, later became the first outside film director to use the
storyboard, which the Disney staff had developed from predecessive
illustrated scripts during the early-1930s.
- The room
of animators Ward Kimball, Fred Moore, and Norm Ferguson. Benchley watches
Kimball animating Goofy, and Ferguson animating Pluto. He and the
audiences are also treated to a preview of a new Goofy cartoon, How
to Ride a Horse, the first of the many how-to parodies in the Goofy
series. RKO reissued How to Ride a Horse as a stand-alone short on
February 24, 1950.
- Humphrey,
who has been one step behind Benchley the entire film, finally apprehends him
and delivers him in person to Walt Disney, who is in the studio projection
room about to screen a newly completed film. Disney invites Benchley to
join them; to Benchley's slight embarrassment yet relief, the film they
screen is a two-reel (twenty-minute) short based upon the very book
Benchley wanted Walt to adapt, The Reluctant Dragon.
The Reluctant Dragon segment
The cartoon starts with an introduction by the narrator
of the story. One of the main characters, The Boy, who is reading a book about knights
and bloodthirsty dragons, is introduced. His father comes rushing by, claiming
to have seen a monster. The Boy reassures his father that it was only a dragon,
to which the father panics and runs to the village in fear.
The Boy then goes to the Dragon's lair, where he is
confronted not by a ferocious beast, but a shy, poetry spouting creature. The
Boy, though surprised at seeing what a nice creature the Dragon is, befriends
him. When he arrives back at the village, the Boy discovers that Sir Giles the
Dragon slayer has arrived. He runs to tell the Dragon that he should fight him,
only to be left disappointed when the Dragon announces that he never fights.
The Boy visits Sir Giles (not St. George as in the original story), and it is
revealed that Sir Giles is an old man. The Boy tells Sir Giles that the Dragon
will never fight and they decide to visit him.
Sir Giles and the Boy visit the Dragon while he is having
a picnic. It turns out that Sir Giles also loves to make up poetry, so The
Dragon and Sir Giles serenade each other. The Boy then asks if he could recite
a poem of his own. From this, he uses his chance to get a word in edgewise to
shout at them to arrange the fight. The Dragon leaves but is persuaded back out
of his cave when he is flattered by Sir Giles. Sir Giles and the Dragon
eventually decide to fight, but as Sir Giles and the Boy leave, the Dragon
realizes in shock that he has accidentally agreed to a fight and tries to tell
sir Giles and the boy that he changed his mind, but they ignore him and the
dragon mutters to himself "Oh, why can't i just keep my big mouth
shut?!". The next day, the villagers have gathered to watch the fight. Sir
Giles arrives waiting for the Dragon.
Inside his cave, the Dragon is too scared to fight and
cannot breathe fire.The Boy calling the Dragon a "Punk Poet" leads to
the Dragon getting angry and eventually spitting flames. The Dragon jumps for
joy as he is now ferocious. The fight ensues, with Sir Giles chasing the Dragon
around with his sword and into the cave, where they drink tea and make noises
to make it seem they are fighting. Out in the open, they charge at each other,
creating an enormous cloud. Inside they dance, and Sir Giles reveals that it is
time for the Dragon to be slain, but only for pretend, to which the Dragon gets
excited. Sir Giles places his lance under the Dragon's arm, then the Dragon
jumps out of the cloud and performs a dramatic death scene. The story ends with
the Dragon being accepted into society, to which the Dragon recites a poem:
"I promise not to rant or roar, and
scourge the countryside anymore!"
Sir
Giles is drawn by the animators to somewhat resemble Don Quixote.
Initial release and reaction
The film was released in the middle of the Disney
animators' strike of 1941. Strikers picketed the film's premiere with signs
that attacked Disney for unfair business practices, low pay, lack of
recognition, and favoritism. At one theater, sympathizers paraded down the
street wearing a "dragon costume bearing the legend 'The Reluctant
Disney'". Critics and audiences were put off by the fact that the film was
not a new Disney animated feature in the vein of Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs or Pinocchio, but essentially a collection of four short
cartoons and various live-action vignettes. The Reluctant Dragon cost
$600,000 to make, but only returned $400,000 from the box office.
Home media release
Disney released the animated "Reluctant Dragon"
segment on VHS in 1987 as part of the Walt Disney Mini-Classics series, along
with the short Morris the Midget Moose. The full feature was released on
VHS in an edition sold only at Disney Stores.
On December 3, 2002, it was released on DVD in its
original theatrical form (with the live-action studio tours) as Walt Disney
Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Disney Studio. This is the only way to
own the original theatrical version with the live-action segments on home
video.
In 2007, it was again released in its original theatrical
version on DVD, this time as a Disney Movie Club exclusive DVD, available only
to club members for mail or online ordering. Shortly afterward, this DVD was
also made available in the Disney Movie Rewards program along with some of the
other Movie Club exclusives.
It is the main attraction, along with three other cartoon
shorts, on the Disney Animation Collection Volume 6 DVD, which was
released in America on May 19, 2009. The other films bundled with it were Ferdinand
the Bull, Goliath II and Johnny Appleseed.
In the UK, The Reluctant Dragon segment was paired
with Mickey and the Beanstalk and released during 2004 on DVD as Disney
Fables Volume 6.
Other appearances
The Reluctant Dragon and Sir Giles make various cameos in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The Reluctant Dragon also makes brief cameos in
Disney's House of Mouse, most notably in the start of the intro. In the
online-distributed musical, A Very Potter Musical, The Reluctant Dragon
is briefly shown as one of the four dragons that must be fought in a wizard
tournament. Draco Malfoy said that he had to lure it out to fight it, and
chopped off its head with his Fruit by the Foot.
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