Disney at 100

Since the first Disney cartoons in 1923, to all the movies and music and TV shows that followed, our love affair with The Mouse has been undeniable. When it comes to collecting, Disney remains the undisputed king, as evidenced by the continuing high demand for vintage Disney items at auction.

By Noah Fleisher

 

It’s hard to argue that there has ever been another force in American culture as influential as the Disney Company, or another man more responsible for our collective reflection of our national self-hood than Walt Disney. From the time the Disney Brothers made their first cartoons in 1923, the march of Mickey Mouse to cultural supremacy has been as inevitable as it’s been steady. So influential is Disney’s reach that I would posit that America’s identity, as tied into the alleged idealism and idylls of the 19th and 20th centuries as it is, is not remotely based on the truths of history, but rather on the rose-colored lens that Disney has cast it through for a century.

Throughout 2023, the Walt Disney Company has been celebrating its 100th anniversary with an array of movies, music, cartoons, TV shows, articles and wave upon wave of various collectibles. This has been somewhat overshadowed by current events, as the governor in Florida has picked a nasty political battle with the mouse to score partisan points with his base, as Disney is having to re-think its streaming model in the face of publicly traded revenue demands and is dealing with ever-more-finicky consumer tastes and tolerance for any number of the wrinkles in its content.

In sorting through the broader pop culture carnival surrounding Disney’s 100th, a deeper truism in the world of antiques and collectibles is re-asserting itself as an unchanging certainty: When it comes to collecting, Disney is still the undisputed king, as evidenced by the continuing high demand seen for vintage Disney items whenever they appear at auction. Nowhere this year has it been on display quite as it was in Heritage’s June 22-26 auction “Celebrating 100 Years of Disney: 1923-2023,” in Dallas. In garnering its eye-popping $4.8 million total, it becomes the most-successful animation art auction in history.

“We’ve worked for 11 years to build the market in Disney animation art,” said Jim Lentz, Heritage’s Vice President of Animation and Anime’ Art. “We’ve always maintained that this is both great art and popular art and that it deserves to be in the conversation with top collectors across multiple categories. This auction saw it all come together.”

The event saw record prices for works by some of the most legendary names in Disneyana: Mary Blair, Eyvind Earle, Peter Ellenshaw and Ub Iwerks. All these pieces, and more, saw collectors clambering for the winning bids, culminating in shattered price ceilings.

However, a new wrinkle has been slowly emerging, one that came into full culmination with this event: Millennial buyers. Yes, this long lamented lost generation of collectors has finally, fully asserted itself into the Animation Art Market. This is after the explosion in prices for rare Pokémon cards, console video games and VHS cassettes.

Now, according to Lentz, Millennials have revitalized animation art collecting as they pursue the Disney animation cels that meant so much to their childhoods. Think: Little Mermaid, Roger Rabbit, The Lion King.

“These are becoming important films and the people that watched them as children are now collecting art from them,” said Lentz. “The audience used to just be for vintage Disney, but now a whole other generation is embracing the Disney renaissance of the 1990s onward. These newer films hit different people for different reasons.”

What to make of this? Two things come to mind:

First, Disney animation art, pre- or post-renaissance, is just good art, plain and simple. That, in and of itself, guarantees competition and good prices.

Second, it hearkens back to Walt’s vision of a Technicolor America, where values were uniform and every street was clean no matter how mean the villain. Mix them together and you got peak collectability and maximum nostalgia, a formula Walt himself would have absolutely loved.

The Heritage sale covering more than four days and featuring more than 1,500 lots, was a survey of the vision of both Walt Disney and the company that has borne his name to such towering heights in the years since his death in 1966. Topping them all, and setting a record number for a Disney artist with a $90,000 total price realized, was the greatest Disney artist of them all, Mary Blair – a perennial favorite of collectors – with her 1950 Cinderella concept painting of the would-be princess waving goodbye to her Fairy Godmother as she is off to the ball.

Blair joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1940, working on Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp and Fantasia.  She went on to help shape the style of some of the best animated features from the 1950s, including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Blair’s art, reflecting an exuberant color palette and Mid-century Modern sensibilities, was unlike anything Walt Disney had seen. She became one of his favorite artists.

Blair was the unabashed star of this remarkable auction, occupying six of the top 10 slots in the event, a testament to her incredible talent and unmatched vision:

• Blair’s concept/color key painting from Cinderella of the Duke and princess in a glass-slipper moment sold for $57,600.
• A Blair concept painting from Alice in Wonderland (featuring some lyrical mushrooms swaying in the moonlight) sold for $48,000.
• A concept painting from Alice in Wonderland brought $43,200.
• A color/key painting from Cinderella realized $38,400.
• Blair’s concept painting from Peter Pan of the swordfight between Peter and Captain Hook sold for $38,400.

Eyvind Earle, another of Disney’s best and brightest took the second spot in the auction with a $66,000 total price realized for his 1959 concept painting for Sleeping Beauty. Earle’s Sleeping Beauty concept painting of Prince Phillip, Samson and Maleficent as a dragon (“Now shall you deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of hell!”) was one of the more spectacular pieces in the auction, selling for $43,200 total.

Looking to the post-Renaissance, millennial-appealing modern Disney films, and the prices that have begun to emerge for these beautiful examples, it’s hard to imagine that Walt wouldn’t be pleased with both the art and the prices his company’s talents have garnered.

A superb Who Framed Roger Rabbit Roger and Jessica Production Cel, 1988, soared to $27,600, an incredible price for a modern Disney film and a testament to the enduring popularity of Roger Rabbit. Not far behind on the Millennial-scale was a group of five early Mulan character concept drawings (1988) signed by Thom Enriquez, at $24,000 total price realized. A very rare Aladdin Genie presentation cel from 1992 was the subject of intense bidding, finally landing at $19,200.

“For years the world of art and collectibles have been waiting for Millennials to step into the arena and start collecting,” said Lentz. “I think that the way the whole business is changing – video games, Pokémon cards, sneakers – reflects that both millennials and the long-forgotten Gen-X are stepping into the nostalgia. The prices and bids in this auction show that. It will be fun to see what happens next.”

Whatever happens on the collecting side (hint: bet that Disney will stay on top. Just sayin’.), it’s very hard to imagine that society will not still be talking about the influence of Disney on World, and possibly Galactic, culture. What will entertainment even look like then? Will Mickey be beamed directly into our brains? Will all of Florida become Disney World? Will Walt be unthawed and come back to claim his rightful place running the empire that carries his name?

All kidding aside, only time will tell.

What is sure to be certain as we plunge headlong into our streaming future, where everything is an ephemeral onslaught of ones and zeroes, there will always be the analog anodyne of Disney’s great films, great artists and unmatchable artwork.

As long as these tangible pieces of history remain, so will our fascination with them and our desire to have them. They are a reminder of our collective memory and shared history. It does not matter how accurately those recollections reflect reality; it only matters that we believe they do and that these material ties to the films and characters we love so much take us to that charmed, nostalgic place. It will always be worth the price.

OTHER TOP LOTS:

• Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent as a dragon production pan-sized cel on a key master background: An amazing piece attributed to several Disney artists, this masterpiece realized $45,600.
• A set of preliminary roughs and storyboard drawings from Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too (1974) by artist Ted Berman, sold for $38,400.
• Ub Iwerks, Steam Boat Willie, Mickey Mouse animation drawing: A classic pose from Mickey’s earliest incarnation, realized $24,000 total, a record price for the artist.
• Peter Ellenshaw, 1954 concept painting for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea saw an auction record for the artist at $21,600.

 

 

Images courtesy Heritage Auctions

 

Ub Iwerks’ Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse animation drawing (Walt Disney, 1928). Steamboat Willie propelled both Disney Studio and its new star, Mickey Mouse, to international fame. The piece sold at Heritage Auctions for $24,000.

 

Paola Mottura’s painting, Walt Disney & Mickey Mouse, sold for $1,375.

 

Mary Blair’s Cinderella Fairy Godmother with Cinderella on transformed coach, 19″ x 8″, concept painting (Walt Disney, 1950), $90,000.

 

 

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit production cel (Walt Disney, 1988), $27,600.

 

Mary Blair’s Cinderella Duke and princess with glass slipper, concept art (Walt Disney, 1950), $57,600.

 

Mary Blair’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice and Caterpillar concept painting, (Walt Disney, 1951), $48,000.

 

 

Mary Blair’s Peter Pan swordfight, Peter and Captain Hook, concept art, (Walt Disney, 1953), $38,400.

 

 

Eyvind Earle’s Sleeping Beauty, Prince Phillip, Samson and Maleficent as a Dragon, 15″ x 12″, concept painting (Walt Disney, 1959), $43,200.