THE RELUCTANT DRAGON
US, 1941, 74 minutes, Black and white/Colour.
Robert Benchley, Frances Gifford, Buddy Pepper, Nana Bryant, Gerald Mohr, Florence Gill, Clarence Nash, Alan Ladd, Norman Ferguson, Ward Kimball.
Voices of: Claude Allister, Gerald Mohr, Barnett Parker.
Directed by Alfred L. Werker (live action), Hamilton Luske (animated segments).
The Reluctant Dragon was produced in the Walt Disney Studios during 1940-41 and released in 1941.
Disney had had great success with his cartoons, especially the creation of Mickey Mouse and then Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and other familiar characters. He had also had great success with his first full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. It had been followed by Fantasia and Pinocchio as well as the very successful Bambi.
This film is an opportunity to tour the Disney Studios, to go into the various departments and see how they work, with friendly guides and explanations. The way the film was constructed is that comedian Robert Benchley is nagged by his wife (Nana Bryant) to go to the Disney Studios to put in a plug for an animated version of Kenneth Graham’s The Reluctant Dragon. There is a lot of comedy with Benchley being resistant, his wife depositing him at the studios while she went shopping, his wandering around the studios trying to avoid the rather uptight young man, Humphrey (Buddy Pepper) who has been charged to bring him to Disney’s office. Inside the studios, he visits various rooms including the sketching (of an elephant), the various camera rooms, makeup and costumes, the colour process, the storyboarding, the editing of films together. This gives the audience quite an insight into how animated films were made at the time – and the bases for animation. Some of the examples include Bambi as well as sketches of elephants for Dumbo and some scenes from Fantasia.
Frances Gifford is quite charming as Doris, the studio artist who also helps Benchley around the studios. He receives a lot of souvenirs, sketches and sculptures of himself as he wanders around as well as causing a fair number of mishaps.
He gets the opportunity to watch some of the animation, especially a cartoon of Baby Weems, from the initial sketches through to the finished product. There is also an opportunity to follow through with a film in which Goofy and horses are the central attraction.
When he finally meets Disney in the screening room, and proposes to give him the book, he finds himself in a screening of a short animated version of The Reluctant Dragon. The Reluctant Dragon isn’t one of the most exciting or enjoyable of Disney’s cartoons. There is a knight, there is a dragon who would prefer to be a poet rather than breathing forth fire. In fact, the knight himself is also a poet. What happens is that the young boy who is reading the book about knights and dragons and talks to the villagers about this, finds himself urging them on to fight while they do all kinds of tricks in order to avoid fighting and to compare poetry notes. Claud Allister is the fuddy-duddy old knight. Barnett Parker provides the voice of the dragon which, to contemporary ears, is high camp as is the behaviour of the reluctant dragon.
The film, with its brief running time, is an entertaining look at film-making of the period. (Alan Ladd can be glimpsed as the storyboard artist for the Baby Weems episode.) Artists Norman Ferguson and Ward Kimball can also be seen as themselves, especially Ward Kimball who became a veteran of the Disney Studios. He appears here as the animator for the Goofy cartoon.
Audiences will probably be surprised at the modern look of the studios in 1940 and 41, the technology, the bright and breezy atmosphere and the fact that it does not look too much like ancient history.
