Inspiring Walt Disney: a ‘scholarly’ show that raises the stakes for curators everywhere
Exhibition pairs drawings from Disney’s animations with rococo works from the Wallace Collection

In 1918, a 16-year-old Walt Disney made the first of many visits to France, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. The trip would have a pivotal effect on his career: he had come to work as a Red Cross driver, but left as a devotee of the country’s decorative arts. He found a “huge influence” in the creations of the rococo movement, an exceptionally theatrical and ornamental late Baroque style, to which some of his studio’s best-loved films owe an immense debt.
This idiosyncratic exhibition pairs original drawings from Disney’s animations with rococo works from the Wallace Collection, taking in everything from paintings to “candlesticks, clocks and teapots”. It demonstrates how Disney’s drawings took their “main creative cues” from rococo artists and designers. Like them, Disney sought to “create an illusion of movement” in his work; and just like them, he was “a pioneering artist who brought superlative draughtsmanship and emerging technologies together”. It makes a “fascinating” show.
Disney’s fantasies seem “without precedent”, said Laura Cumming in The Observer: “pink castles, talking sofas, a butler based on a golden candlestick, mirrored ballrooms that stretch into an infinity of twinkling reflections”. Yet they all have their sources in French 18th century art and design. Objects from elaborate rococo clocks to “outlandish turreted vases in pistachio and gold” seem to have sprung straight out of one of the impresario’s films. “A home movie shows Walt and his brother Roy wandering, enchanted, around Versailles. Very rapidly, you start to see the origins of Cinderella.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Originally, the opening of Beauty and the Beast was based on the most famous rococo painting of all, which hangs in the Wallace Collection – Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Swing. It was cut in the end, but scenes based on the painting made it into the later Disney productions Tangled and Frozen.
“Disney buffs” will love this show, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. The Wallace fills an entire wall with 24 drawings created for Cinderella’s “miraculous transformation” from “shabby kitchen urchin” to “radiant princess”. Incredibly, they account for just one second of animation. Yet, for me, the real revelation is that “it prompts a new understanding of the decorative arts of the rococo period”.
Disney understood that rococo craftsmanship was “fiercely animated and full of delightful transformations. When a Disney table starts to dance or a teapot starts to sing it’s because French rococo tables do, indeed, appear ready to dance and French rococo teapots do, indeed, have an operatic presence.” This is a “scholarly” show that raises the stakes for museum curators everywhere.
Wallace Collection, London W1 (wallacecollection.org). Until 16 October
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymandering
TALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
6 perfect gifts for travel lovers
The Week Recommends The best trip is the one that lives on and on
-
How can you get the maximum Social Security retirement benefit?
the explainer These steps can help boost the Social Security amount you receive
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"
-
Laura Lippman's 6 favorite books for those who crave a high-stakes adventure
Feature The Grand Master recommends works by E.L. Konigsburg, Charles Portis, and more