I've always liked this sketch that shows Ward Kimball sulking in self pity over the cut of his "Soup Eating" scene from Snow White. He drew this image himself, and it effectively represents the sentiment of an animator mourning the loss of some terrific work.
Many of us have been there. For my last feature film at Disney (Winnie the Pooh) I animated an early version of Tigger's entrance. That sequence was then rewritten, and instead of Tigger's interaction with a wooden sign, he now messed with a red baloon.
The one cut that hurt the most was the so called "Bedtime Story" sequence in Lilo & Stitch. I had animated Lilo telling her sister Nani a story she made up in the moment about a bear called Toaster who has no friends because he smells bad. It was such an emotional scene, because Lilo identified with Toaster being lonely, and was actually talking about herself.
Someone posted the pencil version on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2JLC6-mUk
There have been other cuts and re-does of scenes throughout my decades at Disney. I agreed with most of them. But that scene with Lilo......
It would have been yet another scene in that film to get all teary-eyed over, even though I guess the dialogues in the final version probably give more closure to their fight in the previous scene. Still, this version is really sweet and I love the little detail that you'd expect Nani to be the storyteller, but then it's the child who tells the story. Why did they rewrite it? I seem to remember something about test audiences not being able to tell that they were sisters but I may be wrong.
ReplyDeleteThat was the reason. ONE person supposedly thought that Nani was Lilo's mother.
DeleteWell, someone wasn't paying attention...
DeleteHey Andreas? I wanna ask you something about Ward Kimball. Was Kimball supposed to work on "Sleeping Beauty" yet didn't work on the final film? If so, why? I've read from Eyvind Earle's autobiography that Kimball did contribute to the film by bringing on his friend George Bruns to work on the music for the film.
ReplyDeleteit must be painful and also a huge budget issue to cut stuff that's already animated, but I feel more forgiving about it as it was their first feature ever.
ReplyDeleteOnce cut I agreed with though, was the song 'Human Again' from Beauty and the Beast. when they added it back in, I thought it was better off left out. Although I know that was animated later, and not exactly the same situation as cutting something that's already animated
This scene is pure gold. It blows my mind that anyone would think the movie's better off without it...
ReplyDeleteAndreas, I vividly remember when the bedtime story about Toaster the bear got cut. I wish the scene had stayed in the picture. I thought so then and I still think what I thunk before.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this experiences with us!
ReplyDeleteI like Ward Kimballs Axed Scene as well as yours!
Axed Scenes are treasures to me I prefer to watch on DVD! I hope that this scenes never get lost!
...Yes, an archive is important! How is the Disney Archive being financed?