Of all the strange liaisons made in Hollywood, the coupling of Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney was perhaps the oddest. But the flamboyant Spanish painter and the Chicago-born animation pioneer were both dreamers who were not always pragmatic, and both relentless self-promoters.
When Disney commissioned Dalí to make a short film based on a Mexican love ballad in 1945, he got far more than he bargained for. To Disney, "Destino" was "just a simple love story--boy meets girl." But to Dalí, it was "a magical exposition of the problem of life in the labyrinth of time," in which limp watches fell from heaven, telephones sprouted legs, sculptures sprang to life and a trickle of ants became a swarm of bicycle riders.
Sadly, the studio's finances were precarious at the time, and Disney was forced to scrap the project. More than 50 years passed before his nephew, Roy E. Disney, decided to finish "Destino" when he discovered the company did not actually own Dalí 's artwork--worth some $10 million--until the film was completed.
"Dalí, Disney and Destiny: The Inside Story of Destino" is the most comprehensive account ever written of this amazing work of art, with unrestricted access to studio achives. Longtime Disney studio artist and designer John Hench, who worked with Dalí on the project, vividly recalled the aborted film and its creator in an exclusive in-depth interview with the author.
Hench lived just long enough to see "Destino" nominated for an Academy Award early in 2004. With the film's recent home video release (as a bonus on the "Fantasia" Blu-ray), aficionados of both Dalí and Disney were finally able to appreciate the fruits of one of the most unusual collaborations in the annals of motion picture history.
When Disney commissioned Dalí to make a short film based on a Mexican love ballad in 1945, he got far more than he bargained for. To Disney, "Destino" was "just a simple love story--boy meets girl." But to Dalí, it was "a magical exposition of the problem of life in the labyrinth of time," in which limp watches fell from heaven, telephones sprouted legs, sculptures sprang to life and a trickle of ants became a swarm of bicycle riders.
Sadly, the studio's finances were precarious at the time, and Disney was forced to scrap the project. More than 50 years passed before his nephew, Roy E. Disney, decided to finish "Destino" when he discovered the company did not actually own Dalí 's artwork--worth some $10 million--until the film was completed.
"Dalí, Disney and Destiny: The Inside Story of Destino" is the most comprehensive account ever written of this amazing work of art, with unrestricted access to studio achives. Longtime Disney studio artist and designer John Hench, who worked with Dalí on the project, vividly recalled the aborted film and its creator in an exclusive in-depth interview with the author.
Hench lived just long enough to see "Destino" nominated for an Academy Award early in 2004. With the film's recent home video release (as a bonus on the "Fantasia" Blu-ray), aficionados of both Dalí and Disney were finally able to appreciate the fruits of one of the most unusual collaborations in the annals of motion picture history.
