Today on our podcast, we continue our story of Larry Watkin and Walt Disney as the Disney

studio moves from animation into live action, creating films to compete with Warner Brothers,

MGM, and Paramount. Already, we've looked at Watkins' early work on an Irish story about

leprechauns, a project that in the early 1950s remained

unmade. We've also looked at Treasure Island, the studio's first live action production, and

when we left off the UK Disney team, which included Larry Watkin, purse Pierce, and director

Ken Anakin, was beginning to film Robin Hood

and His Merry Men. Though now the Disney studio presents these films largely as the vision of Walt.

In actuality, the decision to produce individual titles was carefully negotiated between Walt and

Roy, who largely considered how a particular film might

be received in the various domestic and international markets.

These topics were also arranged around material which could best be developed by Larry Watkin.

And so today, as we jump back into our story, we are in

1951, four years before Disneyland, three years before the weekly Disney Anthology TV show,

and two years before Disney produced a live action feature in America. We're mostly in England as work continues on Robin Hood.

And so if you're ready, here we go.

The production of Robin Hood in England took about nine months, from the point where sets

were designed to the point where shooting wrapped.

It was a more expensive film than Treasure Island, but Roy Disney felt it was worth the investment.

Walt's primary criteria was whether or not he liked a story. From there, he assumed that

most Americans would like it as well. But Roy looked at live action production from a slightly

different perspective. Roy understood that international distribution was the key to maximizing

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