Destino
The short animated film “Destino” was a historic collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí. The graphic works that have been produced from the film, as well as the film’s original storyboards and paintings, are enthusiastically collected by art and film fans around the world.
READ MORE +Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí started talking at a party one night in 1945 at Jack Warner’s house (of Warner Brothers Studio). Each had respected the other’s surrealist work (for Dalí thought of Disney as a surrealist) and decided to create a short film together. Disney had been increasingly interested in collaborations with great artists because he felt, “Like the ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ sequence Kay Nielson designed for ‘Fantasia,’ I want to give more big artists such opportunities. We need them. We have to keep breaking new trails.”
Dalí began work on the collaborative animation short, “Destino,” in 1946 and created 22 paintings and over 135 storyboards, drawings, and sketches. Dalí thought “Destino” was “a magical exposition on the problem of life in the labyrinth of time.” The project was shelved after just eight months due to low funds and the anticipated inability to market “Destino” after World War II.
While working on the animated feature “Fantasia 2000,” Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt, Vice Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, and Director of Animation at the time, decided to complete the overdue “Destino” project. A team of twenty-five artists in the Paris-based Disney animation studio worked under the direction of Dominique Monfery to fulfill the Dalí-Disney dream.
“Destino,” completed, is six minutes and 40 seconds long, set to Armando Dominguez’s dreamy Mexican ballad of the same name (to which Disney owned the rights and recruited Dalí to visualize on film). It was released on June 2, 2003 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
“Destino” is a harmonious blend of evocative Dalí imagery and flawless Disney animation. Monfery stayed true to the 2-D style of animation used in the 1940s and was devoted to carrying out both Dali’s and Disney’s vision for the animation short.
“Destino” has received the following accolades:
• Oscar nomination for Best Short Film, Animated (Academy Awards, 2004)
• Annie Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short (ASIFA-Hollywood, 2004)
• Winner of Special Citation for Restoration (Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, 2004)
• Winner of Certificate of Merit (Chicago International Film Festival, 2003)
• Winner of Grand Prix for Dominique Monfery, Director (Melbourne International Film Festival, 2003)
• Winner of Grand Prize for Best Animated Short (Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2003)
To learn more about the Destino Collection available at Park West Gallery, please visit www.parkwest-destino.com.
