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Such a huge milestone as the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Animation Studios deserves a beautifully crafted, star-filled celebration. That’s exactly what fans all over the world will experience when they watch Once Upon a Studio, the poignant and lovingly crafted short directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Correy and produced by Yvett Merino and Bradford Simonsen.
The short, which premiered at Annecy in June and aired October 15 on ABC, pays homage to 10 decades of beloved movies and shorts, featuring an astonishing 543 characters from more than 85 feature-length and short films. The project showcases the work of dozens of original voice actors, as well as Disney’s Oscar-winning songwriter Richard Sherman and studio’s longest serving employee: the late, great Burny Mattinson.
The story of how Abraham and Correy came up with the idea for the project is quite remarkable. Abraham and Correy, who had previously co-directed the 2020 Emmy-nominated Frozen short Once Upon a Snowman, had been looking for a project to work on for a while. “I worked on the Zootopia+ series, and Dan was working on the Baymax! show, and we started sharing ideas back and forth,” recalls Correy. “We quickly realized that the 100-year anniversary of the studio was upon us, and we were about two years out [from] that point. We knew that Wish was coming out in 2023, but there was nothing at that point that focused on the legacy characters, So, we just began sharing inspirations of why we got into animation and started just dreaming of this short.”
Taco Bell Tales
As Abraham, who was storyboard artist on Encanto and several Tinker Bell movies, recalls, “For about eight months at night and on weekends, we did sketches and drawings, and we’d show them to each other. These were the early days of COVID when everyone was scared, and you couldn’t go anywhere near each other. So, we’d go to the drive-through at Taco Bell in separate cars, and then park in the parking lot and roll down our windows and talk about our ideas for the short.”
Once they thought their pitch was presentable, they called up Disney’s Chief Creative Officer, Jennifer Lee, and arranged for a Zoom meeting. “We pitched our storyboards and went through the whole story and characters,” (which is about all the characters at the studio getting ready for a big 100th-anniversary group photo) says Abraham. “I even had to sing at the end, and then when we were done, she stood up and left the screen. Trent and I were sitting there, staring at each other, and we wondered what had happened. Then, she came back, and she had her glasses on top of her head, and she was wiping away tears. She told us, ‘I don’t know, but we have to figure out how to make this happen!’”
“When Dan and Trent pitched me the idea, I couldn’t talk, I was just crying,” recalls Lee. “I have never had more confidence in something. It celebrates the most important thing, which is these characters and what they mean to all of us. And it did that by staying true to the artistry of these characters, their original designs, regardless of whether they were hand-drawn or CG, and even our studio building, which is symbolic of the home where things are created. They came up with something incredibly special, and we knew we wanted to make it from the very start.”
Abraham mentions that they knew from the beginning that it would be quite a challenging project. “You have hundreds of characters, some hand-drawn on paper and some CG, with live-action plates, so there’s a lot to say no to, but from the get-go, Jennifer Lee and our entire crew were completely dedicated to figuring out how to do it and how to do it right,” he says. “It was quite an emotional experience because so many people were dedicated and cared so much about the project.”
Adding to the short’s poignancy is the presence of Disney Legend Burny Mattinson, who worked at Disney for almost 70 years (from Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty all the way to Big Hero 6 and Strange World) and passed away in early 2023. He is the last man leaving the storied animation building in the short.
“Burny was in the short even before he knew he was going to be in the short,” says Correy. “Dan and I had done a drawing of Bernie walking out of the doors with a new intern from Day One of boarding the short. The idea is that he is passing the torch to the next generation. We were so glad when he accepted our proposal, and he was really excited and loved being in it. What a legend: He worked at Disney animation just shy of 70 years, making him the employee with the longest career at Disney. He worked at the studio longer than Disney was alive. And he was a prince of man.”
‘Burny Mattinson was in the short even before he knew he was going to be in the short. We had done a drawing of Bernie walking out of the doors with a new intern from Day 1 of boarding the short.’
— Director Trent Correy
About 80 percent of the animated characters in the film are hand-drawn, with beloved Disney veteran Eric Goldberg serving as head of hand-drawn animation. Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, Alex Kupershmidt and Bert Klein were among the top artists lending a hand. In addition, five of Disney’s most accomplished animators — James Baxter (Belle and the Beast, Quasimodo, Rafiki); Ruben A. Aquino (Ursula); Tony Bancroft (Timon and Pumbaa); Nik Ranieri (Hades, Kuzco and Meeko); and Will Finn (Iago and Cogsworth) — reunited with their famous characters. Meanwhile, Andrew Feliciano was the head of CG animation and worked with an amazing group of Disney animators to create cameos from Wreck-It Ralph, Moana, Zootopia and Encanto.
“It was such an honor to work with dozens of animation legends, from Eric Goldberg, Randy Haycock and Mark Henn, and so many others,” says Correy. “We were also so lucky to work with the great Richard Sherman. I will never forget the moment he played ‘Feed the Birds’ for us on the piano in Walt’s office.”
“We couldn’t believe it when our head of music, Matt Walker, suggested that we get Richard Sherman to play that for us,” recalls Abraham. “Matt said, ‘Why don’t we record that up in Walt’s office on a Friday afternoon on the same piano that he used to play for Walt Disney?’ We couldn’t believe that we could dream that big. So, about a year ago we were up in Walt’s office, and there sat Richard at the same piano. Everything looks exactly like it did back when Walt was alive. I believe his spirit was with us. Richard did a marvelous job, and you couldn’t get him off the piano. He even played ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ for us! He is 95 years old, and simply fantastic.”
The Time of Their Lives
The directors were also quite moved by the genuinely positive response they have received from their labor of love. “When the 40-plus original voice actors who came back to do their original characters again, we would show them the storyboards and they’d just pour out their experiences from the ’90s or 2000s,” says Correy.
“They had so many stories about how much these characters and working for Disney meant to them and how it has impacted their lives,” adds Abraham. “For example, Richard White, who does the voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, goes to children’s hospitals and does the voice for kids. It’s incredible; we often think of what they’ve given us by voicing these characters, but they told us that the experiences gave them so much more.”
‘We met someone incredible every day. I’ve told so many people that I haven’t had to go to work for a year and a half, because making this short has been unbridled joy and wish fulfillment for the two of us.’
— Director Dan Abraham
Abraham said he kept a daily journal during the making of the short, just so that he’d have a record of the experience. “We met someone incredible every day,” he says. “Just seeing Eric Goldberg’s rough animation of the Mad Hatter for the first time was amazing. I’ve told so many people that I haven’t had to go to work for a year and a half, because making this short has been unbridled joy and wish fulfillment for the two of us.”
“Usually, when you finish a project, you are very tired, but this time, we were just very sad it was over,” says Correy.
“Can we please just go back and start all over again?” asks Abraham.
Once Upon a Studio will premiere on ABC on Sunday, October 15, as part of The Wonderful World of Disney: Disney’s 100th Anniversary Celebration before streaming on October 16, 2023 on Disney+.
