Sunday, April 18, 2021
Friday, April 09, 2021
The blurb on Amazon reads:
[The films created by Walt Disney and Disney Studios represent almost a century of creativity. While they are often discussed as a quintessentially American art form, this captivating account reveals that the inspiration for Disney’s signature aesthetic extends across the Atlantic. Exploring Walt Disney’s personal fascination with French decorative arts and examining the novel use of French motifs in his Studios’ best-loved classics, the publication features 40 works of European design—from furniture to Sèvres and Meissen porcelain—alongside 150 film stills, drawings, and other works on paper from the Walt Disney Animation Studio Library and Walt Disney Archives. The text discusses the French aesthetic influences visible throughout Disney’s theme parks and beloved animated films, including the late Gothic architecture in Cinderella (1950); bejeweled, medieval-style books in Sleeping Beauty (1959); and Rococo-inspired furnishings brought to life in Beauty and the Beast (1991). This book bridges fact and fantasy by drawing remarkable new parallels between Disney’s magical creations and their artistic models.]
Monday, April 05, 2021
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
In 2013, Are Myklebust and Jan Stale Engaas wrote a great book about the history of Disney in Norway (which they updated a few years later). That same year Jukka Vesterinen released a similar book about Disney in Finland.
The question is: who will do the same in Denmark and especially in Sweden?
The history of Disney in Sweden in the 1930s is particularly rich, with one of the best Mickey Mouse magazines (Musse Pigg Tidningen) released in that country.
Are there any Swedish Disney historians or early-Disneyana collectors reading this? If so, could you please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com? I have some ideas about how to approach the research, but you need to be based in Sweden (ideally in Stockholm) to get access to the proper resources.