When The Reluctant Dragon debuted, the review in The New York Times stated that half of the movie “…is nothing more than a super de luxe commercial film showing Disney’s sumptuous new diggings out in San Fernando Valley.”
Eighty-five years later, that half of the film is part of the charm of this different entry in the Disney movie catalog. The Reluctant Dragon is a live-action/animated feature that showcases charming animation alongside a tour of the Disney Studio lot, which now serves as a portal back in time.
With live-action directed by Alfred Werker, and animation directed by Hamilton Luske, Jack Cutting, Ub Iwerks and Jack Kinney, the film opens with a title card that announces what we’re about to see: “This picture is made in answer to the many requests to show the backstage life of animated cartoons. P.S. Any resemblance to a regular motion picture is purely coincidental.”
We then segue into live action, in glorious black-and-white, where we see the humorist Robert Benchley in his pool, shooting suction-cup arrows at fake ducks while his wife (played by Nana Bryant), lying near the pool, reads The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. She tells Benchley that he should pitch the idea of The Reluctant Dragon as a film to Walt Disney and drives him over to the studio, dropping him off for a meeting with Mr. Disney while she goes shopping.
As Benchley then wanders onto the lot, we get a glimpse inside the Disney Studio circa 1941.
Benchley is met by a very efficient tour guide named Humphrey (played by Buddy Pepper, who would later go on to a successful career as a songwriter of such songs as “Vaya Con Dios”). Benchley soon breaks away on his own, and heads into an art class, where a group of Disney artists including Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, Retta Scott, Jack Kinney and Ken Anderson, are sketching an elephant, who is the model in the room.
Florence Gill and Clarence Nash
Benchley then heads into the music department, where he watches Clarence “Ducky” Nash and Florence Gill recording as Donald Duck and Clara Cluck. The perturbed Humphrey meets back up with him, but Benchley breaks away again to go to the sound effects department.
Here, he meets up with an artist (Francis Gifford, one of several actors who portray studio employees alongside the actual artists) and watches sound effects and Foley artists add sounds to a cartoon featuring Casey Jr., the train. The conductor for the sound effects team is played by actor Frank Faylen (who would later play Ernie the cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life and the father on TV’s Dobie Gillis).
After outrunning the tour guide again, Benchley ducks into the multiplane camera department. Here, the black-and-white in the film now segues to color.
Benchley meets Norm Ferguson to the dismay of Humphrey (Buddy Pepper). Click to enlarge.
Benchley peers through the top of the multiplane camera and observes animation of Donald Duck singing “Old MacDonald.” In the process, the audience gets a lesson on cels, backgrounds, and how an animated film is made (including input from Donald himself).
Next is the “Rainbow Room,” for a trip through the Ink-and-Paint Department (and a montage of different paint colors) as Benchley gets to see a cel of Bambi being painted.
He then passes through the Character Model Department, where, among the many sculptures, we see early versions of Captain Hook from Peter Pan and Si and Am from Lady and the Tramp, both of which were in production but wouldn’t reach theaters for over a decade.
Robert Benchley (center) with Frances Gifford (left) explore the Character Model Department. Click To Enlarge
While learning about the Character Model Department, the artists present a caricatured model/bust of Benchley to the humorist. He then wanders over to the Story Department, meeting up with the artists, one of whom is played by actor Alan Ladd, and they walk Benchley through the storyboard for their newest film, Baby Weems. Disney sketch artist and inbetweener John Dehner is seen sketching in this scene – Dehner would go on after this film to have a very successful career as an actor in radio, movies and television. He would return as an actor to Disney for the 1957 TV series Zorro (as the Viceroy) and as narrator for two shorts, Aquamania (1961, with Goofy) and The Litterbug (1961, with Donald Duck).
In the style of an “animatic”, essentially told using still storyboard drawings, Baby Weems tells the tale of an infant who is born able to speak and quickly becomes a worldwide sensation. This section itself caused a sensation among the artists in the animation industry – and it was not forgotten. It proved a charming, original animated film could work for an audience using only very limited movement, a technique that was used during the war to produce animation faster for military, educational – and later on, cartoons made for television.
After Weems, Benchley once again avoids Humphrey by ducking into a room where animators Ward Kimball and Fred Moore are working. Kimball sketches Goofy and flips the animation paper. On a Movieola, they then give Benchley a preview of Goofy’s latest cartoon, How to Ride a Horse.
After, Norm Ferguson animates Pluto for Benchley when Humphrey arrives, taking Benchley to see Walt, who is in the screening room.
Just as Benchley is about to pitch his idea for adapting The Reluctant Dragon, the house lights dim, and the projectionist starts to screen Walt’s latest finished cartoon short… The Reluctant Dragon.
The animated short tells the tale of a young boy (voiced by Billy Lee) who, after reading a book about dragons, encounters one (Barnett Parkett). However, this dragon isn’t fierce; he’s a gentle creature who wants to recite poetry and sing.
The boy becomes concerned when Sir Giles (Claud Allister), the famed dragonslayer, comes to town, but when the boy brings Sir Giles, who is an old man, to meet the dragon, it turns out that the knight enjoys poetry, as well.
The knight and dragon agree to stage a fake fight to satisfy the villagers.
After the animated film ends, The Reluctant Dragon concludes with Mrs. Benchley driving Robert home, scolding him for not getting the story to Walt sooner. Benchley responds in Donald Duck’s voice with a “Phooey!” and Donald’s famous squawking as the movie ends.
The animated segments in The Reluctant Dragon demonstrate the Studio’s artistic range during this time. The charming Baby Weems reveals the power of story, even with limited movements. How to Ride a Horse displays great cartoony action (especially in its slow-motion segment). The Reluctant Dragon shows how the Disney artists could craft well-designed characters and personalities in full animation.
And, while the behind-the-scenes segments at the Studio are staged, they are still fascinating to see this era in animation captured on film.
Celebrating its 85th anniversary this month, The Reluctant Dragon was released on June 27, 1941, during a challenging time at the Disney Studio. Pinocchio and Fantasia (both 1940) did not do well at the box office, and The Reluctant Dragon was made as an inexpensive, quickly produced film to generate some box-office revenue. Also, an animator’s strike had started the month before. When The Reluctant Dragon opened, a number of strikers picketed the film’s premiere.
In the years that followed, The Reluctant Dragon itself was shown as a standalone short on Disney’s weekly TV show and was also released in that format on VHS. The full-length feature would be shown on The Disney Channel and eventually released on DVD, as part of the Walt Disney Treasures collection. It’s actually available on blu-ray as a hidden Bonus Feature on a double bill release of Ichabod And Mr. Toad and Fun & Fancy Free. The full 1941 feature is also currently available on Disney+.
Since its debut, however, The Reluctant Dragon has faded from many discussions, and for Disney and animation fans, in particular, it deserves better. Leonard Maltin noted this in his book, The Disney Films: “The film does not really deserve such obscurity. It is an interesting footnote to Disney’s career, and, if only for Baby Weems, should be more widely shown.”
NOTE: For a deeper dive into the characterizations in “The Reluctant Dragon” short itself, please read a series of posts here by Esther Bley – here is part 1.
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