More about Up in Arms from Jim Korkis

[I have seen the Disney animated footage for "Up In Arms" and finally found my notes so I could give more information. Scott MacQueen used to travel with a program of Disney film rarieties entitled "Disney's Unseen Treasures" that included things like several minutes of live action reference footage from "Pinocchio" and and "Dumbo" where you actually see an actor dressed up as Jiminy Cricket, "The Talking Dog" with a scratch track and rough footage for a Mickey Mouse cartoon abandoned in the Fifties of Pluto being kidnapped by a medicine man who uses ventriloquism to convince people tha Pluto talks and Mickey's efforts (including battling on top of a moving van) to rescue his pup, and much more including some that has thankfully appeared as DVD extras lately. However, it was Scott who found all this stuff when he was working at Disney including that segment of Walt doing Mickey's voice for "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip" and put it together in a two hour program.

He also showed the fragment from "Up In Arms". Unfortunately, videotaping wasn't allowed but I did take extensive notes. The live action footage of Kaye doing hand to hand combat with the Japanese soldiers on the side of the mountain has cleaned up animation layered over the top where the little creatures (who look very much like caterpillars with several hands/legs and antenna...could they have been Japanese silk worms?) poke into the picture and literally eat up the screen including a rope hanging down the side of the mountain. When I say they eat up the entire image on the screen, that is exactly the case and we are left with the screen filled with the image of one of these little caterpillars finishing off a final bite and then talking extensively to the audience. Unfortunately, the sound track is lost as well as the fact that Scott couldn't locate the script so there is no way of knowing what the creature is saying although he ends with a huge laugh and you can see the inside of his mouth is painted red. No other color on the creature but it is obviously finished, cleaned up animation...not rough. "Up in Arms" was based on a popular stage play apparently entitled "Nervous Wreck" about a hypochrondriac who is drafted. By the way, Didier, in his presentation Scott showed the clip from "Destino" and mentioned he found documentation that after this aborted project, Walt still kept in touch with Dali and one of the projects he was talking about was having Dali do "Don Quioxte".

I don't know where Scott is today after he left Disney. I remember after the two hour presentation and after I picked up my jar from the ground seeing all these amazing never before seen things I had dinner with Scott and some fellow animation instructors at the Disney Institute SEASONS restaurant where Scott regaled us with even MORE untold stories that fortunately I captured most of them in my notes. I remember Scott being a pretty cool guy and just as excited as we were that he found this stuff.]

Regarding Mark Sonntag's question yesterday about the planned animated section from the movie Up in Arms, Jeff Peterson writes:

[I found some notes listed on the Turner Classic Movies Web site (www.tcm.com) for this film: "Although a September 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item announces that Disney would prepare an animated sequence for the film's climax, there is no such sequence in the final film." The date of this news item matches the dates of the letters and memos that Mark has acquired.

A Web site on "Hollywood Renegades" has a footnote referring to Charles Solomon's "The Disney That Never Was" (pages 76-77) and says, "The 'Up in Arms' animation, which was believed to have been destroyed, resurfaced in a film print uncovered by the Disney company in the late 1990s." I do remember reading this text, but, unfortunately, I no longer own this book (along with the rest of my library) so I can't check it out.

Here is an excerpt from this "Hollywood Renegades" text:

Goldwyn prepared his latest release Up in Arms (1944) as a showcase for his recent discovery, comedian Danny Kaye. Hoping that Kaye would become a valuable asset for Goldwyn’s independent company, the producer spent $2 million on a lavish Technicolor musical to serve as the comedian’s film debut. The producer even requisitioned the Walt Disney Studio to create an animated finale for the film’s climax. (After great expense, the Disney animation was cut out of Up in Arms by Goldwyn, who was accustomed to making last minute—and usually very costly—changes in production while searching for the most suitable final product.)

http://www.cobbles.com/simpp/chapter7.htm

Finally, an article by Jim Korkis about Ub Iwerks on JimHillMedia.com from September 2003 briefly mentions that Iwerks worked on the animation for this deleted sequence from "Up in Arms," but it has no other information. Of course, Ub Iwerks was copied on the 9/14/43 memo, and within the coming year he would develop the process for combining live-action and animation as used in "The Three Caballeros."]

Jim Korkis adds:

[Disney produced about a minute and half of animation directed (and according to some sources animated) by the legendary Ub Iwerks for the film “Up in Arms”. It was a bunch of weird creatures called the “Weavie-weavies” who literally ate up the screen image when Kaye’s character was in a desperate situation at a cave, I believe. The actual animation still exists in black and white in the Disney vaults although it is doubtful it was ever incorporated into the final film. Interesting, this arrangement originally came out of a proposal where Disney was going to do a co-production with Goldwyn on a film about Hans Christian Andersen where a live performer playing the writer but animated sequences showcasing the Andersen stories. (Goldwyn later released a live action film on the life of Andersen with Danny Kaye about twelve years after the discussions with Disney on a co-production.)]