Over the years, Disney has found new ways to delight and surprise fans of its animated features and characters.
Combining live action with animated sequences has been employed for many years by Disney, starting with animated shorts and continuing with features such as Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1949). One of the most well-known live-action/animated sequences in a Disney film is found in Mary Poppins (1964), in which Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) and her friend Bert (Dick Van Dyke) jump into a sidewalk chalk drawing and wind up in an animated countryside scene.
Technological advances and the use of CGI have made it even easier for filmmakers to have live actors interact with animated ones. One of the most memorable examples was Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), a film noir that featured a detective, played by Bob Hoskins, hired to uncover who killed Marvin Acme, owner of Toontown, a city populated by cartoons. Due to its more adult themes, Disney executives released the film under its Touchstone Pictures banner instead of Walt Disney Pictures.
In 2007, Disney released Enchanted, a fantasy film based on the premise of animated characters coming to modern-day New York by way of a curse. The movie was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the history of Disney animation, with its characters embodying the traits of multiple Disney characters, and featured songs written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, who had penned songs for Disney animated musicals in the late 90s.
In October 2011, “Once Upon a Time” premiered on the Disney-owned ABC Network, offering a fresh take on Disney characters and storylines. Set in Storybrooke, a small New England town not found on any maps, the show portrays fairytale characters as living new lives, unaware of their past because of an evil curse. This premise allows show creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz the opportunity to create new relationships and rivalries between characters, as well as reinterpret classic storylines.
Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White) and Josh Charles (Prince Charming), stars of ABC's "Once Upon a Time."
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
“The idea is to take these characters that we all know collectively and try to find things about them that we haven’t explored before. Sometimes it’s a story point, sometimes it’s a thematic connection, sometimes it’s a dilemma they face in both worlds that is similar. We are not generally retelling the exact same story as the fairy tale world.” - Adam Horowitz, co-creator/executive producer, Once Upon a Time
A 2013-14 spin-off series, “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland,” tells the story of Alice and her return to Wonderland to rescue her true love, Cyrus, a genie who has been captured by Jafar—the villain from Aladdin—and the Red Queen. The one-season series mainly focused on characters from Alice in Wonderland, exploring their relationships to each other in depth. Interestingly enough, Jafar and his magical cobra-topped staff are the only cross-overs from Aladdin, with Cyrus’s back story as well as Jafar’s revealed over the course of the series.
Actress portrayal of Maleficent, the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty.
Telling stories from the perspective of villains adds another dimension to Disney stories. Maleficent, a live-action feature film starring Angelina Jolie as the titular evil fairy of Sleeping Beauty fame, focuses on what lead the horned fairy in black to curse the young princess Aurora.
“There are elements of her we know that are alive and well and there are new layers yet to be peeled back.” - Robert Stromberg, director, Maleficent
Finding new ways to tell familiar stories is just a small part of Disney's commitment to entertaining fans of all ages. Its characters and storylines serve as the building blocks for Disney parks and resorts found all over the world.