Disney aesthetics

This chapter will discuss the development of Disney’s visual aesthetics in their hand-drawn animated films, ranging from the developmental work of the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies cartoons in the 1930s through to their computer-assisted features of the 1990s and 2000s, ending with the cessation of consistent hand-drawn animated feature production at the studio.

It will touch upon the major technological developments made during that period with regard to the film’s visuals, including three sections focussed on the introduction of Technicolor and the multiplane camera in the 1930s, xerography in the 1960s, and computerised processes like CAPS in the 1980s and 1990s. The focus throughout will be on the symbiotic relationships between these behind-the-scenes developments and the changing aesthetics of the studio’s films, looking at how new technologies and approaches facilitated, and were mirrored in, the style, content and tone of the works which they were used to produce. For example, lush technicolour and detailed multiplane work lend themselves to the idealised fantasylands of Snow White and Pinocchio, while the organic and ‘scratchy’ effect produced by the xerox process is mirrored in the messy, contemporary world of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and early computer graphics are used to create uncanny supernatural objects in The Black Cauldron.

Key artists whose work contributed significantly to the development of the Disney style will also be briefly highlighted, including Ub Iwerks, Tyrus Wong, Mary Blair and Ken Anderson.