Cartoon Conspiracies: Mystery of the Little Nemo Music

Welcome to Cartoon Conspiracies where I attempt to unearth some questions and secrets about animation history that have not necessarily been brought to the surface.

If you're a die-hard animation buff like me, you're surely familiar with Winsor McCay, the man that many have declared to be “the father of animation.” McCay was an innovator in many ways. He was the first to combine live action with animation in a vaudeville show called Gertie the Dinosaur where McCay stood on stage and interacted with an animated brontosaurus. In Walt Disney's Sunday night television show, he presented a re-enactment of this famous sketch which you can view below:

McCay was also the first to showcase a historic event in the animated format. The Sinking of the Lusitania was a short that may have premiered a full two years after the real life disaster occurred, but for many, it was the first time they were able to witness the ship's sinking in some form. Since little to no film footage existed of the crash, McCay went to newspapers and dug up everything his could on the fate of the Lusitania, making sure that his portrayal of its demise was as accurate as possible.

McCay is also one of the first men responsible for the idea of using celluloid to draw cartoons. In McCay's earliest cartoon short, he used normal paper to create over 4,000 individual drawings (which some say he hand-colored all by himself). The result was Little Nemo, a game-changer in the face of animation:

Little Nemo, like other silent film characters at the time such as Krazy Kat and Colonel Heeza Liar, got his start in the Sunday comics. At the time, comics were allowed to have space to breathe, and thus, McCay took advantage of this and was able to create breathtaking scenery that is still jaw-dropping to this day. Collections of the Little Nemo in Slumberland (aka In the Land of Wonderful Dreams) comic strips are not easy to come by for a decent price, but they are more than worth your while.

Now, believe it or not, Winsor McCay is not the subject of our article. His creation, Little Nemo, was given a full length feature film in 1989. You've probably heard of it. If you're only familiar with this film because of a certain negative review by the Nostalgia Critic, I implore you to ignore everything he said and give it a chance. It's not perfect, but it's still a wonderful little film.

What is most interesting about Little Nemo Adventures is Slumberland is its background. The film was originally going to involve Hayao Miyazaki*, and at different points in the production cycle, Chuck Jones, George Lucas, Chris Columbus, Moebius, John Canemaker, Brian Froud, and Ray Bradbury all had a hand in it. (If you can't tell already, this was a very troubled production.) Eventually, the film became of the many collaborations between Disney and Tokyo Movie Shinsha, although not officially.

As seen in the film Waking Sleeping Beauty, while production was going on with Disney's The Black Cauldron, several of the studio's best animators left briefly to contribute to Little Nemo. Ken Anderson, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and other Disney legends were brought in to help with production. Even the Sherman Brothers wrote some new songs for the film. This is where things get interesting.

Richard and Robert Sherman are best known as the composers for Mary Poppins, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, Bednobs and Broomsticks, and other classic Disney films. It was after The Aristocats that the brothers mostly parted ways with Disney's animation department, as they felt the new management at the studio (post-Walt Disney's death) was too restricting. They went on to write songs for others films such as Paramount's Charlotte's Web and Snoopy Come Home. Little Nemo in Slumberland was a reunion of sorts for the brothers and Disney animation. Richard and Robert wrote some material for the film that was completely original....or did they?

One such song for the production was “Etiquette.” It was used in a sequence where, having chosen to the be the new playmate for the princess of Slumberland, Nemo finds himself forced to learn the rule of royalty. The lyrics are not especially creative, as far as Sherman Brothers standards go, but it is an upbeat and fun song. However, would you believe that it was originally written for a very different movie?

Waaaay back in the 60's when the soundtrack for Mary Poppins was being created, some of the original songs were cut in the process. “Chimpanzoo” was one of those songs. As seen in this clip from the Mary Poppins DVD (or Blu-Ray if you prefer), it was meant to be sung during the characters' outing with Ed Wynn's Uncle Alfred while having their tea party on the ceiling. As you can see, the song is a lot bouncier and more whimsical. The lyrics have some traditionally unique rhymes which one of the hallmarks of a Sherman Brothers song. (If we really want to get intricate, the song's tune bares a resemblance to “The Old Bamboo,” a song the brothers would go on to pen for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.)

So what happened? What is a song intended for Mary Poppins doing in a Japanese/American animated feature from the 80's? Apparently, the Sherman Brothers dusted an old song off twenty years after the fact and used it for a box office bomb as opposed to the Disney classic it was meant for. The reason I bring any of this up is that I never have seen it addressed anywhere. Never I have turned on a Disney DVD and seen Leonard Maltin go into detail about this story. In fact, I own both The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story documentary and “Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond,” the autobiography of the songwriters. Neither one of these mentions this conspiracy. They both detail Mary Poppins and Little Nemo, but it is not mentioned that one influenced a portion of the other. This is a small, but interesting, bit of trivia that I believe most animation nuts are not familiar with, and I hope this sheds some light on it.

Disney's connection to the work of Winsor McCay can be still be seen today. At Echo Lake in Disney's Hollywood Studios, Dinosaur Gertie's serve prehistoric ice cream while paying tribute to a legend of animation.

Join us next time as we uncover more little known conspiracies in the history of animation.

*If you want to see what the film would have looked like under his direction, click here.

By the way, the photos of my collection and of Walt Disney World were taken by me. All others were stolen from Google Images.