Perri and Navajo Adventure?

[marlan]

When Disney’s Perri was released theatrically in Finland, on December 26, 1958, it was a double bill with a film called Navajo-intiaanien parissa, presumably a short title.

The latter film seems to be somewhat an enigma. It might not necessarily be a Disney title. There is no information on-line available on such a film. According to Elonet database, there is a film called Navajo seikkailu or Navajo Adventure (1956), an animated title (??), by Ben Sharpsteen.

Could this be the accompanying film? There is not much information about this one anywhere either, not even runtime. It might not be an animated film.

On the other hand, there is also a film by Norman Foster: Navajo (1952), running 70 minutes. Another candidate: The Navajo Kid (1945) by Harry L. Fraser, running 59 minutes.

When Perri was first released in the U.S., did it have a second film accompanying it, like an opening picture of a screening?

[ichabod]

I would say it was made as part of the ‘People and Places’ series, yet because its subject is North America, was not released in the U.S. and only given international release.

According to the BBFC it was released in the U.K. in 1962 and is 20 minutes long.

Disney A-Z says it is a Foreign theatrical featurette, released first in France in December 1957. Produced by Ben Sharpsteen. The story of the Navajo, at work and play, in the Southwestern United States, and in particular, in scenic Monument Valley. The film focuses on a typical Indian family, its daily life, struggles, and folkways, as every aspect of living is governed by Navajo gods and legends. It was later retitled as ‘The Navajos—Children of the Gods’ probably for distribution as an educational featurette in American schools.

[marlan]

That makes sense. As Perri is 75 minutes, it could use an opening short film of 20 minutes.

I’m still curious if Perri had in 1957 any supplement film in the screenings. If someone has access to old U.S. newspapers, this could be searched in the film advertisements.

I was able to find the supplement information for Finland only in a 1958 newspaper film ad.

[carolinakid]

I don’t know if this is helpful, but I did a little digging and I discovered there were 2 Disney short films released on the same day as Perri in the USA....August 28, 1957.

These films were The Truth About Mother Goose which runs 15 minutes and Niok, the Orphan Elephant which runs 29 minutes.

I found evidence in the article on Mother Goose that it was definitely released on the same bill as Perri.

I would assume Niok was released with the other two creating a triple feature running approximately 120 minutes.
That would make sense to me to keep kids and families entertained for 2 hours on a hot late summer day or evening before school returning in session in a week or so after Labor Day.

FYI: Audiences in the US enjoyed rereleases of Cinderella in February 1957 and Bambi in July 1957.
The Disney Christmas release in 1957 was Old Yeller.


Good times!

[marlan]

That was clever reasoning!

Apparently there is no comprehensive list of Disney’s full-length features and their theatrical supplements (domestic and foreign (re)releases)? That might be quite an effort to compile.

My own favourite combination would be Grand Canyon + Sleeping Beauty of 1959.

[marlan]

Now I can present some Perri-themed material from Scandinavia (images below).

The first item is a small book Perri ja Porro suuressa metsässä, a 24-page booklet for young readers from 1958. I presume this has been published in other languages as well, Perri and Porro in the Great Forest. This book has numerous colour photographs from the film, and the sparse text has been created by the renowned children’s author Marjatta Kurenniemi (she was the mother of Erkki Kurenniemi, a pioneer of electronic music).

The second one is a Swedish book, Perri, from 1974. This one has 96 pages and contains both colour and B/W photographs from the Disney film. The text is translated from Danish and it seems to be a very verbose retelling of the Disney movie plot (or the narration?). It has nothing to do with the original novel by Felix Salten.

In the preface we are even told: “Boken Perri är en djurberättelse som har skrivits av den amerikanske författaren Felix Salten.” (The book Perri is an animal story that was written by the American author Felix Salten.)

Actually Salten was Austrian. He was born in Hungary, lived in Vienna, and as an old man was exiled to Switzerland. He did visit the U.S. in 1930 and wrote a fascinating travel book, Fünf Minuten Amerika (translated into Romanian and into Finnish but not into English).

These two movie books have almost no common screenshots, but I spotted one picture: in the Swedish book, there is the same shot of a raccoon as in the small Finnish book, but now a black-and-white mirror image. Which one is the correct photograph?

Fun fact: in many languages, like Finnish, Swedish and German, a raccoon is called a “washing bear” (pesukarhu, tvättbjörn, Waschbär).

The third book is the Finnish-language translation (2024) of the original novel Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel.