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Film
After 58 Years, the Finally Completed 'Destino' Is Nominated For an Academy Award
By Shamrock Holdings, Inc
Jan 30, 2004, 02:04

Unfinished Animated Short Resurrected by Roy E. Disney Began as a Collaboration Between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali in 1946

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The resurrection of Destino, the result of an unfinished collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney that was rescued from the Disney Studio vaults four years ago by Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney, came full circle today when the surrealistic work was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Short Film.

"I couldn't be more pleased with this nomination," said Roy Disney, who oversaw the completion of Destino as Executive Producer. "This was a collaboration between two legendary artists -- the last work of both Walt Disney and Salvador Dali to be seen by the public. It is an honor to see the results of their vision recognized by the Motion Picture Academy."

The Disney-Dali collaboration began in 1946, when the two legendary artists met at a party in Hollywood and decided to make a short together. Dali spent the next eight months working with director John Hench at the Disney studio, painting, drawing, and discussing how to add motion to the images.

The following year, however, the studio ran into financial trouble, and the still-unfinished project was shelved. It languished in the Disney vaults for 54 years-until 1999, when the project was resurrected by Roy Disney, who until last December was vice-chairman of The Walt Disney Company and chairman of Walt Disney Animation. Working with a team of animators at the recently shuttered Disney Animation Studio in Paris, Roy Disney -- along with director Dominique Monfery, producer Baker Bloodworth, and the now-95-year-old John Hench -- finished what Dali and Walt Disney had started.

Destino is a surreal story of love and destiny told through shifting dream-like images created by Dali and set to the music of the Mexican ballad "Destino," by Armando Dominguez.

A curator from the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, which oversees Dali's estate, called Destino "the perfect combination of Dali and Disney." The film will be included in "Dali 2004," a Spanish exhibit celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Dali's birth that opens February 5th in Barcelona.

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