I love this image from Disney's masterpiece Pinocchio. I love the way it shows the donkey wickedness of the boys on ‘Pleasure Island’ (they have defaced the Mona Lisa with graffiti!) whilst, at the same time, using the content of that graffito—a baby in the madonna's arms—to capture what it is these boys truly miss, and really want: maternal comfort. There's something quite profound in this throwaway moment, and Pinocchio is full of this kind of thing.
Of course it is, Adam. Those early Disney features are among the most closely worked films ever. & Uncle Walt was micromanaging the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteChicken fat is the American "technical" name for cramming as many throw-away gags and references in a picture as is humanly possible. Will Elder coined the term, I think, but it's been going on since medieval scriptoria, perhaps even Lascaux?
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