Once upon a Studio (2023)

The Walt Disney Corporation is very good at some things, and very bad at others. And, personally speaking, the one thing they’ve always been worst at is making me like the Walt Disney Corporation.

I love the movies. I hold them dear to my heart. But whenever I see one of those corporate promotional videos where everyone is wandering around Disneyland in a state of wide-eyed joy like they’re the first good souls to be welcomed into God’s kingdom I come out in hives. You know what I’m talking about.

CHARACTER 1: It’s so incredible that [text from marketing press release announcing newest venture] is finally here!

CHARACTER 2: Woooooooooow…

I hate it when Disney tries to sell itself because it always feels so…the vibes are wrong. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s probably why the Oh My Disney sequence in Ralph Breaks the Internet is still my least favourite few minutes in the entire canon. It’s also probably the reason why I steered clear of Once Upon a Studio for so long, and why it took me two tries to actually watch it all the way through. And that’s because it begins like this:

“It’s so incredible to think that Disney founded Walt Disney animation 100 years ago today!” “Wooooooow.”

Hives. Hives all over.

And look, I think it’s awesome that the short is dedicated to and stars the old man on the right. That’s Burny Mattinson, the longest serving Disney employee who died a few months before the short came out. It’s great that he was honoured like this and it’s also impressive that he gives a more believable and nuanced performance than his co-star, an actual professional actor. But yeah, the opening live action sequence just feels wrong to me. Just the worst kind of forced Disney jollity. But then…oh, but then.

The last of the animators leave and the camera comes to rest on a photograph of Mickey and Minnie:

The transition from a still cell of Mickey’s Birthday Party to Mickey coming to life is pulled off so flawlessly that you almost don’t really register just how impressive it is. Which I suppose brings me neatly to the subject of the animation.

“OH MY GOD THIS ANIMATION!”“No words. Should have sent a poet.”

And again, it’s not something that hits you immediately. Because it’s not visually spectacular. You’re just watching a load of cartoon characters getting ready for a group photo. It’s only when you stop and realise:

Oh wait, that’s Moana, Flounder, Merlin, Sugar Bowl, Mrs Potts, Chip, Cogsworth, March Hare, Doctor Krunklehorn and the Mad Hatter interacting with each other and a live action background all while flawlessly rendered in their original designs and animation styles.

Holy SHIT that’s impressive.

And yes, the the short’s joys outside of marvelling at the sheer technical wizardry of what’s been achieved are mainly just limited to watching characters interact who’d never normally get to meet. But you know what, so many of the pairings are fun and interesting that it’s more than enough to carry the short. Of course I could quibble. Some characters get short-shrift and some get more screen-time than their importance to the canon might strictly justify.

Flash the Sloth has dirt on somebody in the studio, I’ll tell you that much.

But many of the pairings are interesting and genuinely clever. Pluto and Joanna? Gaston and the Cheshire Cat? Ursula and fucking Splat from Strange World?!

I never would have thought of that (mostly because that would require thinking about Strange World) but it works!

And there’s a genuinely sweet moment where Micky stands before a portrait of Walt and quietly murmurs. “Gotta go. But thanks. On with the show.”

“Minion! Release me!”
NO.

And I do love Mickey’s polite, “after you” to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit when they’re getting ready to have the picture taken, that just made me happy.

So, fun fact, there 543 Disney characters in this movie, and the one they gave the job of climbing a ladder and taking the group photo was:

Why? For the love of God, WHY?

Shit goes wrong (hold the phone, GOOFY FUCKED SOMETHING UP?) and the characters are devastated because they think they’ll have to wait another hundred years to get a photo. But Alan-a-Dale, Scat Cat and Mirabel start playing “When You Wish Upon a Star”, Fix-It Felix fixes the camera and the whole cast sings together

Is it just fan service?

Yes. It is just fan service. From start to finish. Pure indulgent, empty calorie sugar-rush fan service.

But it was made for ME, personally. So that makes it okay.

Disney’s centenary year will not, to put it bluntly, be remembered fondly. It was an absolute dumpster fire, a nadir for the company in terms of both artistic achievement, audience goodwill and even by the metric which should matter least but to them matters most; financial success.

But this short shows that there is still talent, and artistic drive and pure magic to be found there.

As a pure, sincere love-letter to everything that was and still is great about Disney animation, it’s damn near perfect.

“No. Thank you.”

NEXT UPDATE: 20th June 2024

NEXT TIME: Do you bleed? You will…