Fans of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney may be surprised to learn that the two actually began a collaboration on an animated film in 1945 that was designed to bring Dali’s world of surrealism to life. After eight months of work the project was discontinued due to the financial difficulties the Disney studios were experiencing immediately after the WWII years.
The project was unearthed and brought back to life in 1999 when Walt Disney’s nephew, Roy E. Disney was working on Fantasia 2000. The short film, set to the Mexican ballad “Destino” by Armando Dominguez, was finally completed in 2003. Today the film is of interest more for its origins than for being particularly groundbreaking in the world of animation. If it had been released in 1946 however, it is likely that the result would have been considered “too weird” for Disney’s mainstream America audiences and “too commercial” for the pre-Pop fine art world.
“Destino” has won a number of awards and was nominated for “Best Animated Short Film” during the 2003 Academy Awards. The film has also been included in a number of Dali exhibitions in the years since its completion.
The Painted Note Gallery 