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American Magic: Song, Animation, and Drama in Disney's Golden Age Musicals (1928-1942)

Batchelder, Daniel Lev
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9536-9844
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1523442817785887

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Musicology.
The films that constitute the Walt Disney Studio’s Golden Age represent landmark achievements in the history of American cinema. Through technical and aesthetic developments alike, Disney’s Golden Age films indelibly cultivated and expanded the possibilities of the still-nascent medium of animation. Yet these films also signaled the emergence of a new form of expression: the animated musical. As an aesthetic mode that negotiates the tensions between speech and song within the theoretically limitless medium of animation, the animated musical stands as a distinct medium that carries unique dramatic potential. This project traces Disney’s development of this form, examining the expressive properties of song and animation working in tandem while simultaneously locating these films in the landscapes of contemporaneous music-drama. I begin by analyzing the synthesis of music and images that the studio first explored in early shorts such as Steamboat Willie (1928) and The Skeleton Dance (1929). Initially developed as a practical solution for synchronizing sound to animated film, this technique resulted in a unique diegetic space in which musical and visual gestures conjoin in symbiotic harmony. This approach allowed the studio to find increasingly sophisticated ways to navigate the dramatic dissonances between direct speech and musical performances and facilitated the leap into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the world’s first feature-length animated musical. I argue that Snow White articulated properties of synthesis that carried robust critical weight at the time, allowing the film to extend beyond mere novelty to position itself as an important contribution to American culture. My study of Pinocchio (1940) turns within the studio walls to illustrate the roles of music and song in the creation of sympathetic, appealing characters. Finally, I consider Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942), two of the studio’s most dissimilar features, to uncover the ways in which Disney’s pre-war films efface their origins in technology and labor in order to privilege onscreen worlds that appear organic and natural. Examining the aesthetic and historical contexts of Disney’s Golden Era animated musicals reveals the creation of an influential form of expression.
Daniel Goldmark (Advisor)
Susan McClary (Committee Member)
Francesca Brittan (Committee Member)
Robert Spadoni (Committee Member)
279 p.
Aesthetics; American History; American Studies; Film Studies; Fine Arts; History; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Music; Performing Arts; Philosophy; Theater History; Theater Studies
Disney; animation; music; musicals; mickey mousing; Snow White; Pinocchio; Dumbo; Bambi; film; film musicals; Frank Churchill; Leigh Harline; Silly Symphonies; Hollywood; synthesis; sincerity; cartoons; aesthetics; drama; dramatic theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Batchelder, D. L. (2018). American Magic: Song, Animation, and Drama in Disney's Golden Age Musicals (1928-1942) [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1523442817785887

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Batchelder, Daniel. American Magic: Song, Animation, and Drama in Disney's Golden Age Musicals (1928-1942). 2018. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1523442817785887.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Batchelder, Daniel. "American Magic: Song, Animation, and Drama in Disney's Golden Age Musicals (1928-1942)." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1523442817785887

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1523442817785887
529
© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.