Uncle Walt (lost unauthorized Disney parody short film; 1964): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:51, 20 August 2024

This article has been tagged as NSFW due to its detailing of racist and disturbing scenes.

Title card.

Status: Lost

Uncle Walt is a short 1964 cartoon by then-student Robert Swarthe as part of The UCLA Animation Workshop.^[1] The only known mass public screening of the short took place in June 1972 at the American Film Institute, as part of a presentation titled "50 Years of American Animation".

Plot

The short begins with images of Walt Disney at various ages, followed by a slow pan across a graveyard full of the headstones of Perri the Squirrel and her family (a reference to Disney's 1957 live-action fantasy Perri, a film based on Felix Salten's 1938 novel of the same name), a very early-style Mickey and Minnie Mouse, various racist caricatures, and toilet humor. After this, there's a sequence featuring the female centaurs from Fantasia working in a red-light district with Goofy as their pimp and another scene in which various disturbing scenes from Disney films (including a scene from Snow White in which the Queen transforms into a hag) are shown, all while a group of rabbit children look on in horror. The final images in the short depict the seven dwarves from Snow White gathering around Mickey Mouse in a "Mouse-ka-mausoleum", worshiping him in a scene reminiscent of one seen in the original 1937 production.^[2]

Status

For a time, a rumor circulated that the short was actually produced by Disney employees in 1954, but this was quickly debunked as it contains references to the film Perri, which was released in 1957. Uncle Walt has not been publicly screened since 1972.

The short has since been preserved by the Academy Film Archive under the Robert Swarthe Collection.^[3]^[4]

On January 1, 2024, Thunderbean Animation announced a limited-time Blu-ray release titled "Public Domain Mouse Adventures!" This release will include all three 1928 Mickey shorts plus "additional mouse adventures from other studios" including Uncle Walt.^[5]

On August 11, 2024, a 16mm film reel of the short was listed on eBay for $150 and ended up being sold for $172. Several still images of the cartoon were provided with the listing.^[6]

Gallery

A satirical dedication card with Perri the squirrel at the start of the short.
Mickey and Minnie as they appear in the short.
Mickey facing off against a black stereotype.
Mickey pointing a shotgun at a black stereotype.
Mickey and Minnie being stared at by a black stereotype, posted by Steven Stanchfield (Thunderbean's current owner) on the Blu-Ray forums.^[7]
Screenshot from the Centaurs sequence, provided by a Thunderbean employee on the LMW forums.^[8]
Screenshot from the "Mouse-ka-mausoleum" sequence, provided by a Thunderbean employee on the LMW forums.^[8]