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The original voice actor's voice changed during production so they got the director's 2 kids to record additional dialogue.witchkitten wrote:Question: Does anyone know why they used three different voice actors for Wart? I searched for an answer but I couldn't find it.
Most Sherman Bros songs feel more like something you’d hum than sing, and these songs are their most hummable to me, particularly “TWMtWGR.” I feel the opening is a good bookend for the film.
*tears* It does mine...Disney fans do not hate the film, but it certainly doesn't make it into anyone's top 10 lists either.
Merlin is a nice image of Disney. That said, from what I've seen of Disney, I can't say Merlin exactly fits my picture of him (personality-wise), but it's a flattering portrait from someone who knew him at least on a professional level."Walt [Disney], the wizard, never knew that I patterned Merlin the magician after him when I wrote the script," remembered storyman Bill Peet when interviewed by John Province. "In his book, T.H. White describes the wizard as a crusty old curmudgeon, argumentative and temperamental, playful at times, and extremely intelligent. Walt was not quite a curmudgeon and he had no beard, but he was a grandfather and much more a character, and in my drawings of Merlin, I even borrowed Walt's nose and raised eyebrow."
This would've been so cool! They probably made the right decision considering SW is a widely-beloved film and TSitS, well, isn't, but I would've rather that ride myself.A wizard's duel between Merlin and Madam Mim dark ride was originally considered for the Magic Kingdom in 1971 as a substitute for the Snow White Scary Adventures attraction, but was later rejected by Roy O. Disney who felt that guests wanted to see some of the same attractions as Disneyland.
I'd never read that about this film before. I need to re-watch the film and see if the animation is stronger at the end v. the beginning as they got more comfortable. I can see why Mim sets such a spark in the film. I imagine she was a breath of fresh air for the animators after having to animate just Wart, Merlin, and Ector for so long. Although I imagine the squirrel, fish, and dish scenes at least broke up the monotony for them."It appeared we were going to animate this motion picture in a start-to-finish continuity. That is, the film was being made following the narrative and sequences moved into animation as storyman, Bill Peet turned them over to music room. This was very much out of the ordinary. In the past, we had animated scenes out of sequence, often concentrating on the easiest ones first to get drawings into the rest of the production process."
That's interesting to hear. I always wondered how they would really save costs... Maybe he just wanted to re-use animated sequences he knew turned out well? (i.e. He wasn't confident enough in the animators to create a new scene just as well?) Who knows. Maybe he thought eventually the process would save money even if the first attempts failed to do so and that's why he persisted."To be fair, these reuse scenes never did save any money. They were often a pain to do. It would have been far easier to animate the scene from scratch than trying to 'adapt' some earlier bit of animation to fit the new scene. In any case, no one ever managed to change Woolie's mind and he continued to use older animation whenever he could get away with it."
Well... That's interesting. I wonder if there's a picture of Roemer somewhere out in the ether. Hmm. I think most would love to have a Disney character designed after them, but I wonder if she would have felt differently what with it being a "sexy" design... >>; I don't know, it's not horrible or anything, just possibly a touch inappropriate maybe. Especially not to get permission or give credit for the design. I wonder if Kahl ever attempted to date Roemer since he was clearly inspired by her, lol."You had to admit, it was very funny stuff. During a song sequence in Mim's cottage, the female wizard turns herself into a tall, shapely young woman. Since I was cleaning up the scenes I couldn't help but be aware the sexy character reminded me of a co-worker.
"Milt never said he based his drawing on the young woman on the second floor, however after drawing her remarkable attributes day after day it became pretty obvious. At least to me, anyway.
"It was obvious it was inspired by layout artist Sylvia Roemer. Sylvia had started in Ink and Paint and worked her way up into layout. Others recognized the resemblance immediately as well but Sylvia either didn't notice or just never said anything."
That's so true. I guess conflict is often good for a film? Although I'm sure that's not always the case either (Bolt, Brave). But that seems like a similar situation with a lot of successful films--Mermaid, B&tB, Aladdin, Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, Frozen, etc."Sadly, The Sword in the Stone never enjoyed the box office success of other Disney films. It was one of those rare Disney films that went off without a hitch. The animated film moved smoothly through production without a hiccup and perhaps that's the problem. Oh well. Sometimes, things simply don't work as well as we'd hoped.
"Most successful films seem to move in and out of disaster throughout production. Perhaps our kiss of death was because we never experience any trauma during production and that's why the finished movie appears to be so bland."
Odd, I've always loved that part. Oh well, everyone has a different reaction."One thing continues to bother me about this Disney adaptation. At the end of the story Merlin returns from the future wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, sunglasses and sandals. Apparently, he had been vacationing in Bermuda. Though it was a totally wacky idea, that goofy notion totally took me out of the movie. It felt wrong back then—and it still feels odd when I watch the film today."
This is the only photo of hers I could find. She's the one with the short hair in the total-black outfit.Disney's Divinity wrote:I wonder if there's a picture of Roemer somewhere out in the ether.
From that write-up (just to have the source here with the quotes):Sotiris wrote:Did You Know? 10 Wizard Facts About Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone
https://d23.com/know-10-wizard-facts-wa ... ord-stone/
It's hard to imagine Archimedes' voice as Merlin. He probably would've come across more like Doli from The Black Cauldron. Btw, I bolded that one part because it made me laugh.Karl Swenson recommended Matthews to Walt, pointing out the versatile actor had provided the voice of a potato on a radio program. However, he was originally cast as the voice of Merlin, but then switched roles with Swenson and became the voice of Merlin’s owl.
In animating Archimedes, supervising animator Ollie Johnston brought to life one of his all-time favorite scenes of his own animation—the scene of Archimedes convulsed with laughter when Merlin crashes his model airplane.
To the bolded in these two quotes: I love to see how much the animators remembered this film so fondly. Interesting that the voice actor impacted the scene so much (and for the better, imo).In one of the most unusual sequences in Disney animation, Merlin changes himself and Wart into squirrels where a lovely little girl squirrel falls for Wart, unaware that in reality he’s a human. The sequence was originally to focus on the squirrels trying to avoid the hungry wolf who is seen at different points in the film. But the performance of the actress providing the chattering voice of the female squirrel changed Frank Thomas’s entire concept for the scene. Thanks to her charming vocalization, Thomas transformed the sequence into a bittersweet encounter for animator, characters, and audience. When Walt saw Frank’s animation he suggested that a Granny Squirrel be added to pursue Merlin. Thomas was so fond of the squirrel sequence, it was screened at his memorial service after he passed away in 2004.
Source: https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mad-madam-mim/The film is loosely based on the novel The Once and Future King by author T.H. White first published in 1958. The book collects and extensively revises several shorter novels by White published from 1938 to 1940 but eliminates things from the previous books including the character of Mim who appeared in the first novel.
Peet decided to resurrect Mim as a character for the film and incorporate the magical duel as it would be a visual treat. In one of his proposals for an alternate opening, he intended to have Madam Mim usurp the throne of England by trying to kill young Arthur before he ever pulled the sword and her using a raven to keep surveillance for her.
As Peet remembered, “When I designed Madam Mim, Walt said, “Who is this frowzy old lady? Bill, why can’t we have a big, tall dame with black hair?’ I said, ‘Walt, we always do that. She has to be a counterpart to Merlin. He’s an old eccentric, and so she has to be too. They have to match’.”
Animator Frank Thomas wrote, “The mad Madam Mim was a contrast of wild actions and restraint with unexpected outbursts accenting her overall timing. Storyman Bill Peet gave us the wizard’s duel, a perfect use of animation, maintaining personalities through a surprising change in forms and exciting action.”
Reading this made me realize that my lack of interest in this film is probably due to the film lacking any tension or suspense. I kind of wish the film had been more like that, utilizing all the richness of the Arthurian Legends instead of having episodic sequences of Merlin teaching Arthur something.In one of his proposals for an alternate opening, he intended to have Madam Mim usurp the throne of England by trying to kill young Arthur before he ever pulled the sword and her using a raven to keep surveillance for her.
Actually, the tall Mim was more my vision of the character in TSitS book. Although the plot of her interfering with the throne feels too serious for the character (even in reference to the book's Mim, who is more intimidating, that's too large a scope for her).