Bill Peet for those of you out there that aren't familiar with any one
BEFORE Glen Keane, Is probably the best story man to ever, EVER LIVE.
He is. I recently found a fantastic interview with Peet circa 1988 I believe. In this interview Peet doesn't mintz words. He's direct, bold, in your face, and he's a cranky old coot. Its quite wonderful. He has lots of extremely
interesting insight about Disney the studio, Disney the man, the many
personalities that worked in the studio (famous and not so famous),and
the things that were going on at the time like the strike of the
forties.
He has some fabulous truth telling in here of which MUCH of it I'm right there with him!
But...he
also has some tall tales, of which are as laughable as anything he's
ever put on a story board. So much so that I was kinda embarrassed for him.
So lets go over some of both.
PEET ON DUMBO:
I was one of the "poor boys." They put all the rich boys, the top
animators making the big salaries, working on Bambi. They wanted to
make it a gem. Originally Dumbo was going to be only a half-hour, sort
of a special. When Walt saw what we were doing with it, he said it
might make a good feature. Well, Dumbo made money. In fact, it was the
only Disney film to make money until Cinderella.
This is one of the things that has
always bothered me about animated features. The thinking that the damn
thing has to cost 110 million to be good. A film, does not have to cost
that much. If you have a GOOD director that hasn't lost his mind or
bought into a studio mentality, and has a grasp of his own damn movie,
you can make it for much much less. You just strangle your story people
to get it right and forget all the crap that they've
'learned', nail your story on TIME, So that you don't
have high caliber animators sitting on their thumbs till the story
people can be re-taught that underwear gags are kinda played out.
That and pointless special effects...equals waste.
THAT'S why Disney's 'Tarzan' cost 130 million to make.
Now
contrast that to Brad Birds tight, streamlined and lean, "Iron Giant".
whose Budget was 50 million in comparison. Made in half the time, with
half the people of a Disneyflik.
Which is the better film? No doubt some will say Tarzan. The smart people will say 'Giant'.
PEET ON DISNEY PAYMENT ETHICS:
Peet:
"I felt Walt had been damned unfair regarding the fact that since it was
his studio, he only wanted to pay his favorites. Years later he told me
how he hated like hell to have to pay non-creative people. But that's
the nature of the business. Animation requires an array of manpower
with a minimum of talent... You can't just pay the talent at the top
and say to hell with all the others. No matter how third-rate, you need
them, too."
Man...the thing that bums me out is that you just KNOW that this is true. It always makes me wince abit
when I watch those old Disney movies. Those beautiful old classics,
that if you go by the credits, you would think that 30 people created
the entire thing!
I've often wondered who those other animators, story people, inbetweeners,
colorists etc WERE. They went to work that day, did their 16 hours, went home to
their families only to someday 60 years later say "yeah I worked on a
classic"....but never have any credit to it. yes 'CREDIT'. The one
thing that is MORE important than money. Credit. Without the 'credit',
you have nothing to help you get that NEXT gig. Nothing to point to in
the future to show that you worked on--something that you were proud to have
worked on.
And so many of those people. Forgotten. Never to be known. Almost as if they were ghosts.
In some ways they are the "unknown soldiers" of animation. Those old artist from Disney, Fleicher, MGM, etc.
Criminal.
BILL PEET ON THE STRIKE OF 41'
"When they found out there might be a strike, they called us into the
theater. Roy Disney addressed us and said that Walt Disney himself only
made $500 a week and that they tried to be fair with everybody. He said
if everyone would take a 10 percent pay cut, they could keep 400 people
and not have to fire them. Okay, we all cheered and took the cut, even
though I'd just gotten my raise.
...There was great applause. It
was settled. One week later they started taking the cut and fired the
400 people anyway. When I went out, some friends told me, "Bill, you're
making the mistake of your life. You're going to ruin your career, and
you're just starting to take off." I couldn't help it. I could not
honestly go back in there and ever feel right again."
Ouchy. Man, that stings. And you just know its true. It has that bite of truth to it.
And that kinda crap happens to this day. I cant remember if it was the Disney Florida
studio, I think it was, but I heard a story that the entire studio went
in to work thinking it was going to be like any other work day and they
were greeted with pink slips on their desks.
OHHHHHHHHH!
I find
any information on the animation strike of 1941 fascinating. I always
have. I WISH that someone would do a book on it. I'd love to hear some
REAL non whitewashed truth about it.
I don't know if we'll ever have
another one of those big time strikes. Not on that level. There is just
a wealth of other options that weren't
available at that time. Live action, children's books, video, games,
TV. Sadly, I think we're too self centered to give a crap now a days.
Lets face it. We'reabit
spoiled. Animation is and has been in the crapper for some time now.And
yet, people are blessed to have other options to go to. So when the
industry tanks or you just get sick of the same old movie over and over
and over again...You can move on, or in some cases, grow out of it.
BILL PEET ON THE SUCCESS OF HIS CHILDRENS BOOKS:
"There's life after Disney! I've gotten good reviews on my autobiography in all the big newspapers
I
just went to signings at nine bookstores but that's all, just to get it
off the ground. I have 34 storybooks published, many of them in foreign
languages."
I have nothing, NOTHING but the highest of respect for anyone who dares to do their
own thing. To go against the grain. Someone who, for whatever reason,
decides to just fly away from the 'pack' and do that something that is
just for the sheer love of it.
I'm not talking about a hobby while
you do your day or night job. Although doing that is also respectable
because its a love. But that's too damn safe. No kudo's for you there.
I'm talking about taking the pliers yourself and cutting that umbilical
chord and pursuing that passion. With every ounce of fat that you have
surrounding that bulbous, pulsating,gelatin, rhubarb you call a heart.
That takes guts. Real true guts. And Peety had em'. In spades.
In this interview, Peet is a crusty old coot who doesn't really give a poot
what others think of him. I love that. I admire that. Because of that,
You can really, REALLY tell when hes hitting you with a hammer of
truth. BUT, you can also tell when he's just overstepping into old man
zone and handing you a poo poo piglet, hoping that you think its a
chocolate bunny.
Next post, we'll yap about some of his silliness, and how 1)its in its own way, endearing.
2)How its sad to see a truly legendary man- feel for some reason, that he has to fib a little out of.......ego?
