Everyone once in a while, a gem you may have missed out on resurfaces on the internet. Destino — a collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí that was started in 1945 and wasn’t completed until 2003 — is an internet gem that resurfaces from time to time.
There’s no doubt that Dalí’s surrealist artwork had an impact on the art world, and a collaboration between Dalí and Walt Disney may seem a bit odd. While films like Bambi, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, and other children’s classics come to mind when you think of Disney, the Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 movies have there due following as well. These films, especially the original, show that Disney wasn’t above experimenting a little with animated shorts.
Destino falls into this vein and would have been an excellent inclusion into Fantasia 2000 but didn’t make the cut for whatever reason.
The six-minute short follows the love story of Chronos and the ill-fated love he has for a mortal woman named Dahlia. The story continues as Dahlia dances through surreal scenery inspired by Dalí’s paintings. There is no dialogue, but the soundtrack includes music by the Mexican composer Armando Dominguez. The 17 second original footage that is included in the finished product is the segment with the two tortoises (this original footage is referred to in Bette Midler’s host sequence for “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” in Fantasia 2000, as an “idea that featured baseball as a metaphor for life”).
The collaboration between Disney and Dalí began in 1945 and ran through 1946 when Dalí and Disney artist John Hench storyboarded the short film. Unfortunately, the project was sidelined until 1999 when Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew, discovered the forgotten project and enlisted the work of 25 Disney artists to complete the project. Hench assisted as well by providing some insight and guidance along with journals written by Dalí’s wife. The movie finally premiered in June of 2003 — 58 years after it was started — at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France. Destino definitely features Dalí’s trademark surrealistic styling.
Had you seen Destino before? What do you think of this animated collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destino” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Wikipedia[/button]
