Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts

See how works of 18th-century French decorative arts informed the residents of Beauty and the Beast’s castle and Sleeping Beauty’s enchanting forest at this assembly of Disney-inspiring works.

“Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts” has put about 50 works of European art and design on display at the Huntington through March 27, 2023. Those centuries-old pieces—porcelain figures and Rococo candlesticks, among them—sit alongside more contemporary, heavily French-inspired production artworks from both Disney movies and theme parks.

The exhibition starts its focus on Walt Disney himself: his first trip to France following World War I, a later visit to Paris in 1935 and a collection of European miniatures—and how all of these informed his work on animated shorts and features, as well as the generations of animators that followed after his death. The curatorial staff has been able to select French objects that they know for sure influenced each production, whereas other pieces may have served as an inspiration.

Beauty and the Beast has the biggest focus of the exhibit by far, with deep dives into the furniture inspirations behind the transformed castle staff, an animation cell from the stained glass-inspired intro and a platform of plates and a candelabra that recalls the “Be Our Guest” sequence. But you’ll also find the manuscript-like pages from the prop book in the intro of Sleeping Beauty, Mary Blair’s colorful artwork for Cinderella and castle-like vases displayed alongside concept art for Disney’s many theme park castles, including Herbert Ryman’s bird’s-eye illustration of Disneyland.

The exhibition debuted in New York at the Met—you can see Time Out New York’s in-depth look at the exhibit’s stop there—and recently tourred in London; its arrival in SoCal just so happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the locally-based Walt Disney Company.