The Reluctant Dragon

Humorist Robert Benchley is at home. His wife convinces him to sell the rights for his story 'The Reluctant Dragon' to Walt Disney. She drags him to the studio and leaves him there. He wanders around the studio and discovers the animation process along the way. Finally he meets Walt Disney himself.

This starts as a black and white live action fictional drama. The fact that it's not animation made it less than successful originally. However it's fascinating to see where Disney began and what it looked like. It's a studio tour dressed up as a little story. This is terrific as a time capsule and a fun way to see how it was made. This is probably a good movie to show new hires at the time. After 25 minutes, the movie turns into technicolor with some animation. Goofy has a cartoon about how to ride a horse. The final section has the Reluctant Dragon cartoon. This movie has a bit of historical values but as a story, this is rather bland.

I just loved this cartoon, and I hope that video stores have it, so that I may rent it or buy it. what I liked about this cartoon was the voices and the songs that the dragon, esp. the song that the dragon sang while he was taking a shower; and my favorite scenes were when the dragon and sir giles were in the cave and they were both shouting and carrying on as if they were doing battle, when actually they were having tea!

I am sure a lot of younger folks watching it will be disappointed. That's because the story of the "Reluctant Dragon" only makes up a tiny portion of this movie. So, if you expect to see a full-length cartoon, you are in for a big surprise.

The film is a behind the scenes look at the Disney Studio, though I must confess that it's VERY heavily orchestrated to give a happy look to the workers--even though at the time a VERY divisive strike was taking place. To make this image of one big happy family, many of the animators and other workers at the studio are actually portrayed by actors! This is dishonest but interesting as you see a very young Alan Ladd pretending to be a Disney animator! In addition, you'll see the prolific character actor John Dehner along side Ladd--but you might not recognize Dehner, as he's VERY skinny here! However, I must confess that despite being a faux look, many of the techniques were real and it still was very satisfying to watch.

This is all part of an over-arching story involving the witty Robert Benchley. His wife nags him to go talk to Walt Disney about making a cartoon out of his story, "The Reluctant Dragon". But, Benchley's heart isn't in it and he mostly just wanders about the studio--watching the workers doing their craft and interacting with them. In addition, you see a rough version of a cartoon about a genius baby and, at the end, the story of this dragon--which is downright adorable. In fact, the film is worth seeing just to see this great dragon tale--it's among the studio's best work, albeit short in length.

The whole package is great--well worth seeing--especially if you are interested in the craft of animation. And, some of the scenes are shot in some of the most vivid color of the era. A nice film in every way--just not what the kiddies might be expecting!

Disney film incorporating several animated shorts with live-action tour of Walt Disney's studio in Burbank, California. Robert Benchley gives a colorful "performance" as a guest of Walt's (who makes a cameo), meeting animators and storyboard-editors while pitching the movie idea of a shy dragon. This picture, more a playful stunt than a memorable entry in the Disney canon, features some gorgeous animation and a lovely switch from black-and-white to color early on. It's more likely to appeal to nostalgia-crazy grown-ups however, instead of restless kids. Look for appearances by Goofy, Donald Duck, Bambi, and...Alan Ladd?! **1/2 from ****

"The Reluctant Dragon" got a somewhat hostile response from critics when it first came out. To some degree, I can understand the negative reaction. For one thing, it often comes more like an advertisement for the Disney company instead of an original story. Also, while the movie promises to answer some questions to its audience about how cartoons are made, it doesn't go into that much depth about the subject. And some of what it presents is wrong, from hiring actors to play cartoon staff to suggesting that the audio for a cartoon is made after the animation is done. It also doesn't help that while Robert Benchley was a funny guy elsewhere, the material given to him as the movie's pseudo-host just isn't that funny.

But if you are an animation buff and/or a Disney buff, the movie does have its rewards. There are occasional legitimate peeks into the Disney company at the time, and those peeks do have some interest. And while the live action footage is mostly disappointing, the animated sequences do deliver - not just the title cartoon, but also "Baby Weems" and the Goofy cartoon. I don't know if kids would sit still for the entire movie, but those certain adults I mentioned at the start of this paragraph should find the movie has its rewards.