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Paul Leni, “Waxworks,” 1924, film still. Paris, Bibliothèque du Film de l’Image, © he Douris Corporation.

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Peter Pan: Tinker Bell and Captain Hook, 1953, sequence 11, scene 23, production background, celluloid, ink and gouache. Burbank, Calif. Walt Disney Feature Animation and the Animation Research Library ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.

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John Atkinson Grimshaw, “Iris,” 1886, oil on canvas. Leeds Museums and Galleries, City Art Gallery.

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‘ONCE UPON A TIME WALT DISNEY’ MONTREAL MUSEUM MARCH 8–JUNE 24 w/3 cuts

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MONTREAL, CANADA — The first exhibition to explore the artistic influences behind the work of the legendary Walt Disney Studios will be on view March 8–June 24 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). In addition to demonstrating the rich — and often surprising — aesthetic and iconographic sources of Disney’s animated feature films, “Once Upon a Time Walt Disney: The Sources of Inspiration for the Disney Studios” also illustrates how Disney’s films became, and continue to be, an inspiration for artists.

“Once Upon a Time Walt Disney” was organized by the MMFA and Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris. The MMFA is the only North American venue for the exhibition, which has been undertaken with the agreement and full cooperation of the Walt Disney Company.

“Once Upon a Time” concentrates on the animated films produced under Walt Disney’s personal supervision, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937, to The Jungle Book, released in 1967, after Disney’s death. The 15,000-square-foot exhibition comprises some 500 pieces, including original studio works from private collections and the Disney archives — on public view for the first time — as well as paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, film clips, models, prints, illustrated books and other unique objects.

Together, they reveal that the inspiration for the Disney Studios’ animated films lies in an eclectic range of Western European art — from Medieval manuscripts to Surrealist art — as well as in European literary works, architecture, films, music and landscapes. Some 30 artworks based on Disney characters highlight the ongoing influence of the Disney Studios on contemporary cultures.

By bringing Disney into a museum, this exhibition gives him a place among the major fine artists of the Twentieth Century. It reveals both Disney’s genius and his aesthetic roots in the history of Western European art: “In demonstrating the continuing influence of Disney’s creations on contemporary art and culture, the exhibition reveals that Walt Disney occupies a position that straddles both fine and popular art, neither of them diminishing the other,” says chief curator Bruno Girveau.

Walt Disney (1901–66) was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. The fourth of five children, Disney lived in Marceline, Mo., until 1923 when he joined his older brother Roy in Los Angeles. They rented a small office and established the Disney Bros Studio, and in 1924–25, fellow cartoonist Ubbe “Ub” Iwerks (1901­–71) and other artist friends joined the Disney brothers.

By the 1930s, the film star Mickey Mouse had become an international celebrity and the Walt Disney Company had secured a two-year contract with Technicolor. The first Technicolor cartoon was Disney’s 1932 Flowers and Trees, which earned his company its first Academy Award for Best Cartoon Subject.

One of the signature events in the history of the Disney Studios was a trip to Europe that Walt and Roy made in 1935. Their objective was to acquire a large number of illustrated publications to build an archive of images as source material for their drawings and cinematic creations. Indeed, the treasure-trove of imagery that they gathered from more than 300 French, German and Italian books, along with the look and feel of the landscape, architecture and historic sites that they visited, yielded an entire aesthetic that informed the early animated feature films.

The exhibition is divided into seven thematic sections: first is the origins, “…and it all stated with a mouse,” as Walt Disney said. The second section examines the effects of Walt and Roy’s 1935 trip to Europe; it moves on to explore the inspiration for the décor and sets of Disney’s animated films, illuminating the ways European architectural elements and landscapes provided most of the models for Disney’s backgrounds.

A section anthropomorphism shows how various Nineteenth and Twentieth Century artists and illustrators, including Beatrix Potter, J.J. Grandville, Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré, Heinrich Kley and Benjamin Rabier inspired many Disney characters.

Another section looks at the sources of Disney’s characters. Included are rooms dedicated to each of Disney’s most celebrated animated features.

Another section tells the story of how Disney and Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí, who admired each other, collaborated on a film called Destino. Although the movie was not made during their lifetimes, the exhibition features many of the spectacular drawings and paintings that have survived from this collaboration, and also screens the movie.

The final section looks at Disney’s influence of on contemporary art. Pop art made Mickey and Donald into icons, and artists such as Christian Boltanski, Roy Lichtenstein, Gary Baseman, Bertrand Lavier, Claes Oldenbury, Peter Saul and Andy Warhol were, and continue to be, inspired by Disney’s legacy.

The MMFA is at 1379 Sherbrooke Street West. For information, 514-285-2000 or www.mmfa.qa.ca.