Walt Disney's Wonderful World - The Illusion of Life with Hayley Mills (1981)

By this time in the run of Walt's TV show, very few new episodes were being produced. This was one of the rare exceptions. To commemorate the release of the recently published book The Illusion of Life written by legendary Nine Old Men members Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, this episode hosted by Disney favorite Hayley Mills was produced. Although there had been books written about the Walt Disney Studios going back to the 1930's, their book came during a surge of books written about the Walt Disney Studios and became the standard textbook on animation principles.

Not only do we get to hear from most of the surviving Nine Old Men including Frank, Ollie, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, and others, but we also get to witness rare behind the scenes footage on the making of films like The Fox & the Hound and The Black Cauldron. In one sequence, actress Pearl Bailey records the song Best of Friends for the soon to be released The Fox & the Hound.

Besides hearing anecdotes from most of the Nine Old Men, we also get to see a very young John Musker caricaturing Hayley. He would become one of the top directors of the 80's and 90's co-directing such classics as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and others with Ron Clemons. Musker became legendary for his caricature around the studio.

Animator Glen Keane also makes an appearance discussing how animators look to the past to create the future. His father was Bil Keane, creator of the Family Circus comic strip and inspired by real life situations from the Keane family. Glen was the lead animator on such characters as Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and others. He was known as one of Disney's Nine Young Men.

Another animator who was part of the Nine Young Men is animator Andreas Deja. We get a glimpse of him with some of his Black Cauldron character designs. He would become the lead animator on such characters as Gaston, Jafar, Scar, Hercules, and others.

In the final segment Hayley Mills goes on an audition for The Black Cauldron. This was the first public announcement of the forthcoming film.

This episode was created at a time of transition at the Walt Disney Studios and it captures that. This was what the animation studio was like before the Eisner regime took it over in 1984. That makes this film an important part of Walt Disney history.

This was also one of the few episodes ever released to the early home video rental market shortly after it aired.

Original airdate April 26, 1981

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.