Peter Pan
Kathryn Beaumont is an English actress , phonation actress , singer and school teacher . She is most hump for her voiceover work with Disney , providing the voices for Alice inAlice in Wonderlandand Wendy inPeter Pan . She was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and had continued to do the vocalism of both characters until retiring in 2005 . Mindy Johnson is an award - winning generator and historian , becoming most live for her debut book , Tinkerbell : An Evolution . She is also a known contributor for The Walt Disney Family Archives . As part of the film ’s 65th anniversary , Peter Panwas re - release on Digital HD on May 29 , 2018 and will be released on Blu - ray June 5 , 2018 .
Screen Rant got a probability to talk with Kathryn Beaumont and Mindy Johnson on Press Day , where we asked how invested Walt Disney was in the filming ofPeter Pan , what it was like to alternate between recording sound recording and register springy action address for the animators , and who really helped act upon the design of Tinkerbell .
SR : NowPeter Panis a classic and , as soon as I started watching the film again and you see the Song , you get transported back to your childhood . But something that really fascinated me , which I did n’t know was not only did you provide the voice , but you act as it out for the animators . Is that right ?
Kathryn Beaumont : Yes . I had that opportunity to do that . Yes . I went in to do the recording and then afterwards they were enounce they want me to go onto the stage and then perform the motion for these various dissimilar scenes . And that was to help the energizer to see how the torso was move and to make the character look more realistic , so we had the two Roger Huntington Sessions . We had the transcription session and then a little while later on we did the live military action school term .
SR : That ’s amazing . Now I also saw that when there would be either a dispute or a way that something needed to be done that Walt would come down and they were like , “ Well , do n’t bother him . He might have been engaged , ” but he was whole immersed into doing this . Is that correct ?
Mindy Johnson : Yep . Very much so . Even beyond coming to the set . At night he would go around the hall and make certain , keeping the eye on the artwork , interpret how things were progressing . But yeah , Kathy , I suppose you probably have a few moments that you might call back where Walt come up around .
Kathryn Beaumont : Oh yes ! And I was amazed at how he is the header of the studio apartment and I remember they were having a give-and-take about one of the scenes . I do n’t retrieve which one it was . It was one of the bouncy action , in the alive action , and the conductor were sort of compete about , “ Well , how do we desire to do it this way ? Should we do it that way ? Oh , I ’ll just call Walt and ask him to come down and see what he thinks . ” [ express joy ] So , they call Walt and he was done in a few minutes .
SR : Wow .
Kathryn Beaumont : Yes . Yes . Yes . “ Okay . What ’s the thing , male child ? What do you want ? ” And so , it was discussed and we test it out and he said , “ Well , you know what ? You were doing it the right manner the first time . ” So , that was the path it was .
SR : Oh , wow . That is really interesting to me . Now , working with Walt so immediately , was there anything that you picked up from him ? Because obviously he was a visionary . A fantast even . Was there anything that you picked up just from being around him ?
Kathryn Beaumont : The fact that he was hand - on . I think that was the big matter . As a tyke what I was seem like at and realize that this person was so , so gifted and because I admired him so much because of all of the things I had see , you have it off , before I had the opportunity to play Alice and then play Wendy in Peter Pan . And it was just a adorable experience to get to know him personally . And the fact that he was so paw - on . You know , I expected him to be the head of a studio apartment . You believably would n’t see him very often , if hardly at all , because it was all director and everybody else . It was n’t . If there was a question , he would lam down to avail answer the question : “ Well , okay , boys . Let me hear it and I ’ll give you what I think . ” But it was very much a squad cause and I clear that this was a squad shape together . That was the important affair that I took from that experience .
SR : dead . Now something that I realized watch this back , which you do n’t pick up on as a nipper , is how sassy Tinkerbell and how forward of her time she is , right ? She ’s a feminist . She ’s not like anything that had derive before her . So , can you talk to me a little bit about Tinkerbell ?
Mindy Johnson : Sure . This was a very challenging character . She had been , if you recall from the stage production , just a flash of light and nothing more . Cantankerous even as that . But Walt realized if he was depart to transform this news report for animation , which it was perfectly suited for . short , you did n’t demand to have strings for flying and you could have a real andiron instead of a person in a costume . Oops . I did n’t think to give anything away .
SR : [ laughs ]
Mindy Johnson : But the character of Tinkerbell exhibit a pretty unique problem because , in fact , she had not been body forth . And everyone ’s imagination has a different rendition as to just precisely a little queen might be . So , while pursuing this floor and exploring what was possible , it was about a fifteen year evolution to this quality . Walt begin as early on as the mid-1930s in production and exploring the possibility . He put a woman by the name of Dorothy Ann Blank on the task of looking at this story and seeing what was possible and it was Dorothy , they were exploring with talks and unlike face and change her costumes for Tinkerbell . But it was Dorothy who said , “ You know , I think we ’re missing , I think we have an opportunity here to bet within this world of vision and give her simply the voice of bells . ” So , at the earliest explorations , the very first Tinkerbell that we see , she looks abysmally like the Blue Fairy , kind of like a small , tiny , little pin - sized Blue Fairy because Walt was in production on Pinocchio and he liked where they were going for that particular fairy . So , they commence there . As clock time went on , hairstyles vary . Clothing styles changed . We had the state of war . World War II comes along . The motion picture has to be set back , add it back , build up the studio back up to be able to tell the fib in the way it deserve to be told . Are the creative person there ? How do we get this shape ? Do we have the gift for it ? So , it took time and Walt was n’t about to follow anything if it was n’t exit to be dead correct . And , in fact , that ’s why it take away that long .
Marc Davis , one of the great nine old valet of Walt Disney ’s living , was given the job of defining this character . And what ’s interesting is he take all of these early explorations and take on elements of that and carry it to the Ink & Paint Department . There was a immature little girl there by the name of Ginni Mack , who was a howling creative person and inker and had an extensive calling with the animation department at Disney , and she was a picayune blond who wore her hairsbreadth in a bun and had little bangs to the side . And so , they inquire her one sidereal day if she would pose for a pixie . So , a couple of time she exit out with the artists and Marc Davis and the director and they would have her look certain way and thus began the rootage . That was Ginni Mac , who was the original model for Tinkerbell as the suggested movement and idea and that kind , that final form of her , was also then something that Kathy got regard with .
Kathryn Beaumont : [ laughs ] Yes . Yes . Yeah . Because Tinkerbell embodied the youth and the adult and they needed , they adjudicate to find the right mix . So , they did have me do a tantrum because I was there already working with the other characters that I was doing . Just to see how it would diddle out , you know ? So , it was just that . Nothing ever developed from it …
Mindy Johnson : Well …
Kathryn Beaumont : But I did do a couple of view as Tinkerbell .
Mindy Johnson : There were constituent in there . Because you have her as , Marc Davis had designed her as this complex portmanteau as a little girl from the waist up and a woman from the waist down .
Kathryn Beaumont : Right . Right .
Mindy Johnson : So , there were a number of fashion model : Ginny Mac , Kathy , Helene Stanley …
Kathryn Beaumont : Helene Stanley .
Mindy Johnson : Who had been doing quite a bit for Cinderella and live natural process reference on Sleeping Beauty and other things after . And Margaret Kerry and a couple of other ladies who had been brought in as well because they were explore this complex portmanteau word , so it ’s a pretty fascinating side of the history .
Kathryn Beaumont : Yes .
