49 years before Larry David awkwardly prowled the L.A. streets on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Walt Disney produced his own version of one man’s uncomfortable sojourn from one faux pas to another: The Reluctant Dragon. You’d find this movie buried deep within the section of the Disney vault labeled “Forgotten Oddities.” Unremembered by the general people of Earth and a sought-after curio for deranged Disney fanatics, this oddball movie is available to all on Disney+.
Not quite a documentary and not exactly a feature film, when released in 1941, audiences were left unimpressed. Today, the movie is a tailored-made time capsule for Disney addicts, taking viewers on a (completely scripted) behind-the-scenes tour of the then brand-new Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
Your tour guide is humorist-writer-actor Robert Benchley (grandfather of Jaws author Peter Benchley). Benchley, much like Larry David on Curb, plays a fictionalized version of himself. He arrives at the real Disney Studios, hoping to convince Walt that Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book, The Reluctant Dragon, would make a swell animated movie. Once inside the gates, Benchley wanders from department to department, searching for Walt and getting a firsthand look at how animated films of the time were brought to life:
He stumbles onto a life drawing class, where artists are sketching an elephant for the then-upcoming Dumbo (released a few months later).
He witnesses a voice recording session featuring Clarence Nash and Florence Gill, voices of Donald Duck and Clara Cluck, respectively.
In the ink-and-paint department, Benchley learns how color is added to animation cells for Bambi (to be released the following year).
All the while, Benchley behaves like a complete jackass.
My favorite sequence takes place in the story department, where a group of writers pitch Benchley their idea for a new cartoon short called Baby Weems. The cartoon is presented as a series of storyboards rather than a complete animation (this is nowadays called limited animation). It’s wholly original, smartly written, and precocious without being cloying.
Eventually, Benchley finds Walt (played by Walt) in the protection room where Mr. Disney and the boys invite him to watch their latest cartoon short: The Reluctant Dragon.
The last 20 minutes of the film are devoted to the animated adaptation of Grahame’s classic. The cartoon itself anticipates the kinds of animated shorts that would typify Disney’s so-called “package films” made during World War II. The short is perfectly good, but not particularly memorable (the same can be said for the Goofy cartoon, How to Ride a Horse, which Benchley also gets a private viewing of). With the exception of Baby Weems, the animated segments are not the draw; it’s the live-action ones that will entrance curious Disney devotees with behind the scenes access to the studio.
It’s impossible to adequately classify this movie. You can’t really call it a mockumentary. So much of the film is real: this is the real Disney Burbank studios; those people in the background are real studio employees; you are really learning the different stages of a traditional animation process. But it's also not an honest depiction of the truth, either. As mentioned, the entire film is completely staged and scripted, almost like a recruitment video. The main “employees” that Benchley interacts with are actors playing employees, such as future movie star Alan Ladd and actress Frances Gifford.
Certainly fictionalized is the upbeat, unified mood on the studio lot. Going by the movie, you’d assume all these cheery employees are having such a jolly holiday working for Mr. Disney. Unfortunately, that’s all baloney. The Reluctant Dragon was released at the same time that Disney’s animators went on strike. Real-life Disney employees were decrying the company’s low wages, unfair treatment, and lack of recognition for their contributions. Strikers even picketed The Reluctant Dragon premiere.
While that’s certainly a bummer, don’t treat the film as fact nor fiction. It exists in a bizarre purgatory that only hardcore Mouseketeers should dare venture into. Treat The Reluctant Dragon as a time machine that takes you back to a place that sort of existed but never truly was.
Cue the Curb theme.
NOTE: Disney+ plays one of those viewer discretion warnings before the film begins. Remember, 1941 is not 2022 (hopefully). Moments of stereotyping or racial insensitivity are much, much slighter than in many more popular Disney films of the era. Some are probably completely unnoticeable by modern viewers. You’ll survive, but here’s your warning anyways.
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