''The Reluctant Dragon'' is a 1941 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

produced by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

, directed by Alfred Werker, and released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

on June 27, 1941. Essentially a tour of the then-new Walt Disney Studios facility in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

, the film stars radio comedian

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at '' The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, thr ...

and many Disney staffers such as

Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honore ...

, Fred Moore, Norman Ferguson, Clarence Nash, and

, all as themselves. The first twenty minutes of the film are in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

, and the remainder is in Technicolor. Most of the film is live-action, with four short animated segments inserted into the running time: a black-and-white segment featuring Casey Junior from '' Dumbo''; and three Technicolor cartoons: ''Baby Weems'' (presented as a storyboard),

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...

's ''How to Ride a Horse'', and the extended-length short ''The Reluctant Dragon'', based upon

Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for '' The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as '' The Reluctant Dragon''. Both books ...

's book of the same name. The total length of all animated parts is 40 minutes.

Overview

Opening

The film starts at

's home as he plays in his swimming pool, shooting darts at toy ducks. It turns out that he is delaying in trying to sell the rights of ''The Reluctant Dragon'' to studio head Walt Disney. Benchley's wife finally convinces him to approach Disney so they drive to the Walt Disney Studios. There, she leaves him at the studio gate while she goes shopping.

Studio operations tour by Benchley

After his arrival, Benchley dodges an overly officious studio guide named Humphrey (played by Buddy Pepper). As he wanders around the studio, Benchley stumbles upon a number of the Disney operations and learns about the traditional animation process, some of the facets of which are explained by a staff employee named Doris ( Frances Gifford). * The life drawing classroom, where animators learn to

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

people and animals by observing the real thing. * A

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

and voice recording session featuring Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck, and Florence Gill, the voice of Clara Cluck. * A foley session for a cartoon featuring Casey Junior from '' Dumbo''. Doris demonstrates the

sonovox A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...

in this scene, which was used to create the train's voice. * The

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with ...

room, featuring a demonstration of the

multiplane The multiplane camera is a motion-picture camera that was used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another. This creates a sense of par ...

camera. Upon Benchley's entering the camera room, the film turns from grayscale and black-and-white to Technicolor (a la '' The Wizard of Oz''), prompting the droll Benchley to (breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

) examine his now red-and-

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

tie and his

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

copy of the ''Reluctant Dragon'' storybook and comment, "Ahh...Technicolor!" When Doris arrives to show him around the camera room, she asks Benchley if he remembers her. His answer: "Yes, but you look so much different in Technicolor!" Donald Duck appears on the camera stand to help explain the mechanics of animation and animation photography. * The ink-and-paint department, including a Technicolor-showcasing montage of the paint department. Doris presents a completed cel of the

titular character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

from '' Bambi''. * The maquette-making department, which makes maquettes (small statues) to help the animators envision a character from all sides. Some of the maquettes on display included Aunt Sarah, Si, and Am from '' Lady and the Tramp'' and Peter, Captain Hook, Tinker Bell,

Mr. Smee Mr. Smee is a fictional character who serves as Captain Hook's boatswain in J. M. Barrie's 1904 play ''Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' and 1911 novel ''Peter and Wendy''. History Mr. Smee seems an oddly genial man for a pirate; Ba ...

, John and Michael Darling from '' Peter Pan''; both films were in development at this time, but would be delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and not completed until the 1950s. Also on display is a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

zebra centaurette from ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...

'', which Benchley admires. The employee on duty makes Benchley a maquette of himself, which many years later was purchased and owned by Warner Bros. director

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

. * The

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

department, where a group of storymen (one of whom is portrayed by Alan Ladd) test their idea for a new short on Benchley: ''Baby Weems''. The story is shown to the audience in the form of an

animatic A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in th ...

, or a story reel, using limited animation. Loaned out by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

to direct this film, Alfred Werker later became the first outside film director to use the storyboard, which the Disney staff had developed from previous illustrated scripts during the early 1930s. * The room of animators

, Fred Moore, and Norm Ferguson. Benchley watches Kimball animating

. He and the audience are also treated to a preview of a new ''Goofy'' cartoon, ''How to Ride a Horse'', the first of the many

how-to The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is a dormant an all-volunteer project that maintains a large collection of GNU and Linux-related documentation and publishes the collection online. It began as a way for hackers to share their documentation ...

parodies in the ''Goofy'' series. (RKO later reissued ''How to Ride a Horse'' as a stand-alone short on February 24, 1950, featuring John McLeish as the narrator and Clarence Nash as Goofy's horse Percy.) After viewing the Goofy presentation, Benchley witnesses Ferguson animating

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

. * Humphrey, who has been one step behind Benchley the entire film, finally apprehends him and delivers him in person to

, who is in the studio projection room about to screen a newly completed film. As Benchley sits, he hands Disney the animated cel, the maquette, and discovers the centaurette in a pocket. Disney invites Benchley to join them; to Benchley's slight embarrassment yet relief, the film they screen is a two-reel (twenty-minute) short based upon the very book Benchley wanted Walt to adapt, ''The Reluctant Dragon''.

''The Reluctant Dragon''

The cartoon starts with an introduction by the narrator of the story. One of the main characters, The Boy, who is reading a book about

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

s and bloodthirsty

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...

s, is introduced. His father comes rushing by, claiming to have seen a monster. The Boy reassures his father that it was only a dragon, to which the father panics and runs to the village in fear. The Boy then goes to the Dragon's lair, where he is confronted not by a ferocious beast, but a shy, poetry-loving creature. Though surprised at seeing what a nice creature the Dragon is, the Boy befriends him. When he arrives back at the village, the Boy discovers that Sir Giles the Dragon slayer has arrived. He runs to tell the Dragon that he should fight him, only to be left disappointed when the Dragon announces that he never fights. The Boy visits Sir Giles (not St. George as in the original story), and it is revealed that Sir Giles is an old man. The Boy tells Sir Giles that the Dragon will never fight and they decide to visit him. Sir Giles and the Boy visit the Dragon while he is having a picnic. It turns out that Sir Giles also loves to make up poetry, so the Dragon and Sir Giles serenade each other. The Boy then asks if he could recite a poem of his own. From this, he uses his chance to get a word in edgewise to shout at them to arrange the fight. The Dragon leaves but is persuaded back out of his cave when he is flattered by Sir Giles. The Dragon and Sir Giles eventually decide to fight, but as Sir Giles and the Boy leave, the Dragon realizes in shock that he has accidentally agreed to a fight and tries to tell Sir Giles and the boy that he changed his mind, but they ignore him and the Dragon mutters to himself why he cannot just keep his big mouth shut. The next day, the villagers gather to watch the fight. Sir Giles arrives waiting for the Dragon. Inside his cave, the Dragon is too scared to fight and cannot breathe fire. The Boy calling the Dragon a "Punk Poet" leads to the Dragon getting angry and eventually spitting flames. The Dragon jumps for joy as he is now ferocious. The fight ensues, with Sir Giles chasing the Dragon around with his sword and into the cave, where they drink tea and make noises to make it seem they are fighting. Out in the open, they charge at each other, creating an enormous cloud. Inside they dance, and Sir Giles reveals that it is time for the Dragon to be slain, but only for pretend, to which the Dragon gets excited. Sir Giles places his lance under the Dragon's arm, then the Dragon jumps out of the cloud and performs a dramatic death scene. The story ends with the Dragon being accepted into society, to which the Dragon recites a poem: :"I promise not to rant or roar, and scourge the countryside anymore!" Sir Giles is drawn by the animators to somewhat resemble Don Quixote.

Closing

The film closes on Benchley and his wife driving home; she harangues him for failing to sell the movie and that by dilly-dallying, Benchley missed his chance to sell the rights, with Disney having already produced a film. He answers "phooey", in the style of Donald Duck.

Release and reception

The film was released in the middle of the Disney animators' strike of 1941. Strikers picketed the film's premiere with signs that attacked Disney for unfair business practices, low pay, lack of recognition, and favoritism. At one theater, sympathizers paraded down the street wearing a "dragon costume bearing the legend 'The Reluctant Disney'". Some critics and audiences were put off by the fact that the film was not a new Disney animated feature in the vein of ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...

'' or '' Pinocchio'', but essentially a collection of four short cartoons and various live-action vignettes. On the other hand, ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

'' said it was "one of the cleverest ideas to pop into that fertile mind of Walt Disney and results in this rare combination of a Cook's tour of the Disney studio, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Mickey Mousedom and two of Disney's latest cartoon features... Cleverly thought out and executed." ''The Reluctant Dragon'' cost $600,000 to make and returned $960,000 with $460,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada. The film received a 100% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on five reviews.

Analysis

Modern critics have pointed out that the dragon's mannerisms can easily be interpreted as gay. Sean Griffin notes "the delight and acceptance of an effeminate male," saying, "The dragon sports long emotive eyelashes and contains not an aggressive bone in his body, with the dragon prancing and pirouetting throughout the story... There is no mistaking how the film makes fun of the dragon's mincing manner and prissy pretentions. Yet, the film also makes it quite clear that the dragon does not believe in fighting, and the film doesn't specifically make fun of him for that... Just as in '' Ferdinand the Bull'', ''The Reluctant Dragon'' presents an easily read gay character under the guise of fantasy and shows characters accepting him as he is."

Home media release

Disney released the animated "Reluctant Dragon" segment on VHS in 1987, along with the short ''

Morris the Midget Moose ''Morris the Midget Moose'' is a 1950 Walt Disney animated short, based on a 1945 picture book published by G.P. Putnam's sons, written and illustrated by Frank Owen, originally released to theaters on November 24, 1950, from Walt Disney Producti ...

'' and again in 1988 as part of the

Walt Disney Mini-Classics Walt is a masculine given name, generally a short form of Walter, and occasionally a surname. Notable people with the name include: People Given name * Walt Arfons (1916-2013), American drag racer and competition land speed record racer * Walt Be ...

series. The full feature was released on VHS in an edition sold only at Disney Stores. On December 3, 2002, the original full-length feature was released on DVD in its original theatrical form (with the live-action studio tours) as '' Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Disney Studio''. In 2007, it was again released in its original theatrical version on DVD, this time as a Disney Movie Club exclusive DVD, available only to club members for mail or online ordering. Shortly afterward, this DVD was also made available in the Disney Movie Rewards program along with some of the other Movie Club exclusives. The "Reluctant Dragon" segment is the main attraction, along with three other cartoon shorts, on the ''Disney Animation Collection'' Volume 6 DVD, which was released in America on May 19, 2009. The other films bundled with it were '' Ferdinand the Bull'', ''

Goliath II ''Goliath II'' is a 1960 American animated comedy short film produced by Walt Disney Productions. Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Bill Peet, it is narrated by Sterling Holloway and stars the voices of Kevin Corcoran, Barbara J ...

'' and '' Johnny Appleseed''. In the UK, the "Reluctant Dragon" segment was paired with ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'' and released during 2004 on DVD as ''Disney Fables'' Volume 6. On August 12, 2014, the full-length feature version of ''The Reluctant Dragon'' was released in HD as a bonus feature on ''

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad ''The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'' is a 1949 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions, released by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney and James Algar with Ben Sharpsteen as producti ...

''/'' Fun and Fancy Free''

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

set.

Other appearances

A comic book adaptation of the complete film (containing the eponymous short, ''How to Ride a Horse'' and ''Baby Weems'' respectively) appeared in ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

'' #13, published by

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...

, along with an adaptation of the Donald Duck cartoon ''

Old MacDonald Duck ''Old MacDonald Duck'' is an animated cartoon by Walt Disney Productions from 1941, featuring Donald Duck. Plot Donald Duck works as a farmer on a farm. He is first seen feeding the animals whilst singing "Old Macdonald Had a Farm". After finis ...

'' and a prose text adaptation of ''

The Sorcerer's Apprentice "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (german: "Der Zauberlehrling", link=no, italic=no) is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe written in 1797. The poem is a ballad in 14 stanzas. Story The poem begins as an old sorcerer departs his workshop, leaving ...

'' from ''

''. The Reluctant Dragon and Sir Giles make various cameos in the 1988 Disney (through the Touchstone Pictures label)/ Amblin Entertainment film ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...

''. The Reluctant Dragon also makes brief cameos in ''

Disney's House of Mouse ''Disney's House of Mouse'' (or simply ''House of Mouse'') is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that originally aired for three seasons on ABC and Toon Disney from January 13, 2001, to its finale ...

'', most notably in the start of the intro.

References

External links

* * * *
''The Reluctant Dragon''
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on January 9, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reluctant Dragon (1941 film), The 1941 animated films 1941 films 1940s fantasy films 1940s English-language films Animated anthology films Disney animated films Films directed by Alfred L. Werker Films directed by Jack Cutting Films directed by Ub Iwerks Films directed by Jack Kinney Films directed by Hamilton Luske Films produced by Walt Disney American films with live action and animation Animated films about dragons 1940s American animated films Walt Disney Pictures films Films scored by Frank Churchill Films based on works by Kenneth Grahame Films set in the Middle Ages American fantasy films