You can see this for yourself if you have a VCR with freeze-frame and frame advance. The present Disney Company artists went to a lot of trouble to make you think these scenes of nudity had been in the original Disney feature all along. But their work is clumsy and crude compared to the original Disney art and when the action is stopped and the frames studied closely, the difference can be clearly seen.
Study the scene of the mermaid lagoon. A close examination of the individual frames reveals that the entire sequence has been redrawn using the original backgrounds to give the impression that this was the way the movie was originally seen. Look closely at preceeding segments; the unicorns, for instance, and you will see the difference. Disney's original drawings were softer and much more subtle. Study the figures in the unicorn sequence, especially their outlines. The original lines are much thinner, far more refined than those in the mermaid lagoon sequence, and they are drawn in soft pastels. By contrast, the outlines of the bare-breasted mermaids are black and more crudely drawn. They reveal the modern cartoon technique of thick outlines delineating an interior shape, rather than being incorporated into the figures themselves, as the Disney outlines did. This relatively coarse style was developed in the 1960s by the Hanna-Barberra Group for the quick production of such features as the Flintstones and Jetsons, etc.
In the scenes that immediately follow, which show mermaids with their breasts covered, notice the lines now. These are the original Disney drawings and a close look shows a substantial difference between these mermaids and the ones that bared their breasts a few frames before. Now the outlines are thin, gracefully drawn, and executed in pastels to give them a softer look.
Notice too that the colors used on the nude mermaids are much brighter and newer looking than those in previous scenes. Before the exploitation of the classic Disney films to video by the current Disney Company management (every one of which has been modified), it had been many years since anyone had seen Fantasia. Few even remembered what it was about. Michael Eisner and his group of radical activists knew they could "revise" the clean-cut Disney image in subtle and devious ways, so they altered the footage, knowing that most people would never notice it. But some of their dishonesty is even more subtle. Are nipples seen on the girls in the altered version? They are in some frames. When viewed at normal speed, they are only an impression--hardly more than a fleeting sense. (And this is the way subliminal persuasion works.)
I will soon be able to show the graphic proof of the alteration of other sequences in this film. The dancing hippo, for example, once so very cute in her little ballerina dress is vaguely offensive now, evoking a certain mild embarrassment, and few viewers have been able to put their finger on why. When the frames in this sequence are stopped and magnified, and compared to the way they were originally drawn, the reason becomes perfectly clear. The lady hippo, once so cute in her dainty pretentions and due modesty is now clothed in a see-through halter top which reveals nipples on her very large and jiggling breasts. I will soon have a frame from the original film to post on this site, along with the same frame as it is seen today. You will be able to see the alterations for yourself.
Questions, comments to M. Tooney [email protected]
