D23 Pictures: Directing at Disney Presentation
Pete Doctor, Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, and Disney historian Don Peri discussed their new book – Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films. This presentation took place on the archives stage at D23 The Ultimate Disney Fan Event. Pete explained that the inspiration for the book came from his realization that most people, including himself, did not know a lot about the directors of the early years at Disney.
So they set off to document who these directors were and what did they do? How were Disney films and shorts made and how did this change over the years.
They spent about a decade researching and writing this book. They interviewed over 40 directors and spent time at various archives and libraries gathering material.
The book is organized ten chapters spanning six parts/eras. Each looked at the studio’s structure during that time plus highlighting directors and their work during that era. The foreward is written by George Lucas.
- 1920-1931 – There Were No Directors at First
- 1932 – 1935 – Extensions of Walt’s Arms
- 1936-1948 -We Couldn’t Have Done it Without Organization
- 1949-1961 – All of a Sudden, We Had to Grow Up
- 1936-1957 – You Pretty Much Had Full Autonomy
- 1962-1973 – No Replacement for Walt
The book will be released September 17. Here is the Amazon link to pre-order. This fall the Walt Disney Family Museum will feature an exhibit using material from the book too.
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