Inspiring Walt Disney

Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Inspiring Walt Disney explores the influences of the art and architecture of France on Walt Disney and his studio artists, highlighting in particular the Disney classics of hand-drawn animation, Cinderella (1950) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Pairing preparatory material from these films - including talking furniture and fairy-tale castles - with masterpieces from the eighteenth century reveals hidden sources of inspiration and allows us to appreciate the extraordinary talents behind Disney animated films and French decorative art. Just as the dynamic, twisting movements of the Rococo sought to breathe life into what was essentially inanimate - silver, porcelain, furniture - so too did Disney animators seek to create the illusion of movement, action and emotion. Illustrated with innovative works by artists such as Mary Blair, Hans Bacher and Peter J Hall and the animated and anthropomorphic furniture, Sevres porcelain and gilt bronze of Rococo designers, the catalogue explores the shared creative roots of these two seemingly disparate artistic realms and seeks to revitalise the feelings of excitement, awe, and marvel, which both eighteenth-century craftsmen and Disney animators.