So today on the podcast, I have two things for you. First, we have the next installment in our series,

Screenwriting with Walt, which looks at Walt Disney, screenwriter Larry Watkin, and the early Disney films.

This week we'll look at stories about the making of Darby O'Gill and The Little People,

which was one of the most significant live-action films produced by

Walt, along with Mary Poppins and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. By the late 1950s, the public

identified Disney live-action features with historical dramas, as nearly all of the Disney

live-action offerings fell into this category at that time. To be completely

honest, Darby O'Gill does have some hand-drawn effects animation, such as the ghostly fog around spirits

or lightning that rises from King Brian's Whip like magic. But aside from this, this is a wholly live-action film.

Maybe a better way to phrase this is,

in Darby O'Gill, there are no hand-drawn animated characters.

But unlike previous Disney live-action features,

Darby O'Gill sought to place some of the fanciful wonders that the public

associated with Disney animation into a live-action production. This would be accomplished through

technically complex special effects. In part of today's episode, we'll talk about how, back

during production in 1958, in a world long before

studios used computers this was accomplished on the Disney lot I also have a number of

little-known stories about the production of the film the other thing I have for

you today is a video for the last two weeks on the podcast, in our news and

analysis episodes, we've talked about how the political and financial climate around the Disney

company has been changing in such a way to allow for new attraction areas and new attractions

to be developed at the American parks. Some of those areas are presently under construction.

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