‘Cinderella’ artist Mary Blair still inspires Disney artists, films

Walt Disney’s classic “Cinderella” turns 70 this year. The 1950 film was a project Disney worked on since 1922 and underwent many iterations before becoming the classic we know today.

For the release of the movie’s signature collection edition, INSIDER spoke with Mary Walsh, the managing director of the Animation Research Library at Walt Disney Animation Studios, which holds original artwork created for short and feature length Disney films. Walsh estimates the Disney ARL is home to more than 65 million pieces of physical art that dates back to the 1920s.

Walsh spoke with INSIDER about “Cinderella’s” legacy, and the continued inspiration of one of the film’s most-esteemed female artists, Mary Blair, on artists at the studio.

“Blair is one of those artists we still get a lot of requests for,” Walsh told INSIDER of current Disney artists who visit the ARL.

“We still have artists who look for Mary’s work in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, to [inspire] what they’re trying to do today with the character development of our current films,” she said.

If you’re not familiar with Blair, you’re probably familiar with her colorful work. The Disney Legend was responsible for the concept art for many Disney pictures, including “Alice in Wonderland, “Cinderella,” and “Peter Pan.” If you’ve ever visited Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Blair designed the characters and inspired the outside exterior of the “It’s a Small World” attraction.

Why it took about 30 years to get “Cinderella” to theaters

Kirsten Acuna: On the new signature release of “Cinderella,” there’s a bonus feature called “The Cinderella That Almost Was.” Producer Don Hahn (“Beauty and the Beast”) talks about how there were different versions of the story written and developed in the ’30s. Do you know what took this movie so long to get right?

Mary Walsh: Walt was always drawn to the classic fairy-tales, and “Cinderella” was definitely one of those. They had ideas and desires, I think, to make that film earlier but, given the late 1930s, and the ’40s, especially with the war years and how the studio’s attention turned during that time. I think, after the war was over, they finally had the ability to refocus their efforts on telling classic fairy-tales again. “Cinderella,” from my understanding of what I’ve read, was at the top of that list, and something that was always near and dear to Walt’s heart.

Acuna: OK. And is there anything else you can add about what inspired Walt Disney to come back to this film years later? There’s a Laugh-O-Gram Disney made in the 1920s based on the fairy-tale.

Walsh: If you take a look at the artistic evolution of Walt and what his artists were able to accomplish, you look back at the early days of the Laugh-O-grams. With each of the ensuing decades, the level of the artistry and the craftsmanship of the filmmaking just got better and better.

I think Walt was always trying to tell the story with the best visuals that they could actually create. His complete commitment was to the development of the artists, starting at the very beginning. [He] always had drawing classes in the studio, always brought an outside artist to instruct the artists that were there, and looked for artists who were classically trained.

I think there’s a really interesting look that people can and do take, and should take, if they haven’t, at all of the artwork from the ’20s through the ’30s, ’40s and the ’50s… That was based on instruction and repetition, and Walt understood the need for constant education and reference and inspiration for his artists.

Cinderella’s dress is inspired by 1950s Dior and how early designs of the character may have inspired later Disney princess looks

Walsh: [“Cinderella”] takes place in the 19th century but, if you look at her actual dress, that is very much inspired by 1950s Dior. The artists were looking, as all good artists do, at the world around them. Then [it was] how they take all of those nuances and the design aesthetics into the story they’re telling at that point in time.

Acuna: Looking at some of the concept art that was shared with me, there are different designs of dresses. This one in particular shows a bunch of different, what I’m guessing are, different looks at Cinderella where she’s wearing different-colored dresses. Are these alternate designs for Cinderella?

Walsh: Yeah, that is a concept drawing by the artist Mary Blair. At that stage of the filmmaking process, which we often refer to as Blue Sky, they’re trying to really toss out all of the different ideas and aesthetics, the color choices and designs, of what a character could potentially look like.

In that illustration are different concepts that Mary Blair had in her head about the types of costuming that could work, the colors that, potentially, could work. You see there’s different color hair styles. That is always part of that early, early development process. Walt had a lot of input and influence into what the final aesthetic of what a film would look like, but wanted to see what the senior artists would come up with.

That’s how they would really start to narrow down on the final design of the character, all the way from the color of the hair to the colors used for the costuming. It’s a really good example of the variety that Mary Blair had come up with, and then how it would get nuanced and nuanced until what the final character design was that Walt and the director and animators would have been happy with.

Acuna: I’m going to ask more about Mary Blair in a second but, looking at some of these sketches right here, the one in the upper top left corner reminded me very much of Princess Aurora in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty.” Did some of these early concept drawings for some of the earlier Disney films help and influence other films down the line?

Walsh: That’s a really great question because that still happens today. One of the reasons I think the value of this collection — and I think Walt understood it from the very beginning — because he was the one who said we need to keep the artwork that we’ve created. The concept art and story sketches were really valuable for artists to go back towards and look at for inspiration for what they’re doing currently.

The connection that you see, potentially, from Aurora’s design looking back at Cinderella, I’m sure they went back and looked at a lot of this. A lot of the same artists who worked on “Cinderella” went on to work on “Sleeping Beauty.” But even today, we have current artists who will come to us at the Animation Research Library looking for artwork from specific artists, and, Mary Blair is one of those artists we still get a lot of requests for.

Even young artists coming out of art school know who she is and are very much influenced by her styling, her color choices. We still have artists who look for Mary’s work in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, to what they’re trying to do today with the character development of our current films.

Acuna: Oh, that’s amazing. I don’t know if this one is a Mary Blair also, but there’s this sketch of Cinderella when she’s waking up.

Acuna: It really reminded me of Anna in “Frozen” when she’s waking up in the morning. That may not have been the particular influence here, but since you did mention that artists are constantly coming back and looking at art for current films, it made me think of it.

Walsh: That connection, I can see. I can’t tell you for a fact that’s what happened. That particular piece that you’re referring to was created by Marc Davis, who was one of the supervising animators. Mark also was really very instrumental in a lot of the films, creating a lot of the character design, and really starting to fine-tune the character design after somebody like Mary Blair would come with a character designer. And then an animator, in Mark’s case, would take the design and start to hone it down to make it work from an animation point of view.

Mary Blair’s lasting impact on Disney animators

Acuna: I’d love to go back and talk a little bit more about Blair. How important was her influence on “Cinderella” and, how important is it still to Disney animation and artists?Walsh: I think it’s incredible and, from Mary Blair’s perspective, not only was she a great character designer but she also could generate really beautiful environment designs, too. I think a really good example, if you have it, is the image of the castle.Acuna: Yeah.Walsh: If you look at that and then you look at the opening of the film, it is almost exactly, not quite, but the essence of what she put in that concept piece, you see that in that opening shot of the film and the castle in the background.

Walsh: She could go from both creating really beautiful, believable worlds as well as the characters that would inhabit those worlds. I’m just looking at some of these again, now, with fresh eyes, as you’re asking me these questions. You can actually see the direct influences in the final film from these sketches that Mary created.

Acuna: What do you think it is about Blair’s artwork that keeps people coming back to it?Walsh: Obviously, she’s beautiful with design, and staging and lighting, and setting emotion and mood in her pieces. I think a lot of that has to do with her ability to choose colors, and a color scope, that actually helps tell the story. A lot of her drawings, if you break it down, can seem really simplistic, but there’s so much that can be told in a simple drawing and a simple sketch. There’s just so much about her. She’s whimsical. [Her work] comes across as feeling very magical and very Disney-esque, and I think she was able to capture that in so many different areas.

Walsh: Personally, she’s one of my favorite artists that we have here, and I know her artwork still resonates today because of the amount of requests we get from artists who are working at the company. Then, when we do original art shows and we have Mary Blair’s on display, the reaction we get for that artwork is pretty overwhelming and so appreciative.

Did Cinderella ever have anything other than a glass slipper in original sketches? Not that Walsh is aware of.

Acuna: In any of the early sketches, were there ever ideas for Cinderella to have anything other than a glass slipper?Walsh: I am not aware of it. I think there were versions of the fairy-tale where it wasn’t a glass slipper. It was a fur slipper. I don’t know how that would propel the story along, at least not the Disney version of the story. Now, to think about Cinderella without a glass slipper, since that’s such an iconic part of that story, it’s really hard to imagine.

The legacy the movie leaves behind and how it has stayed relevant for 70 years.

Acuna: Is there anything else that you would like to add about what the legacy this movie leaves behind and why this story has endured for 70 years?Walsh: When you’re talking about this film being almost 70 years old and what are the aspects of it that make it endure even in today’s world, I think Cinderella, as a character, her ability to persevere and to be resilient, and to still be kind and respectful to people even though she was faced with a lot of challenges, I think a lot of us go through that today.

I think those very human characteristics and realizing the reality she was in, and the challenges she had, but she never let it stop her or end her dreams. That optimism, I think is so important. I think that’s one of the reasons it stays with us, along with the beautiful artistry of the film, and the message behind it, too.

The Walt Disney Signature Collection edition of “Cinderella” is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD.