Here is an early draft for this Robinson Crusoe-type Mickey Mouse film directed by my favorite director, Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson, released through Columbia on 4/6/1931.
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On page 18 in Ross Care's must-have book about Jaxon, one can read how he (Jaxon) asked Walt to "handle" a whole film by himself, with which he meant "animate a whole film." Walt, however, thought he wanted to direct a film, and gave him the assignment of pulling together several previously discarded musical Mickey scenes, having him put them to music by a new composer Walt wanted to try out, Frank Churchill. This eventually became "Shipwrecked Among Animals," later renamed "The Castaway," and resulted in Jaxon "getting stuck" in the role of director.
Looking forward to these posts. Ive always found it amazing that documentation and art still exists for these early films.
ReplyDeleteI have an off topic question: a few years back, you posted a list of the Disney features by production number. Would you know if one exists for the Disney short subjects?
Hi Vimacone - I believe it was Disney production manager Ed Hansen who created a document in the late 1960's called the All Pictures Book, which to my knowledge still is updated; it lists all Disney Features and Shorts by production number (not the TV productions or educationals/commercials, though). I have an old photocopy that was made at a studio outside of Disney back in the 80's. This is a large document (many many pages), which I must admit I have no plans of uploading...
ReplyDeleteHe also mentioned that this was his first cartoon when interviewed by Don Peri (collected in "Working with Walt") - but Merritt and Kaufman's book on the Silly Symphonies claims he directed the earlier cartoon "Midnight in a Toy Shop".
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