Don DaGradi
Birth : 1911-03-01, New York City, New York, USA
Death : 1991-08-04
History
Disney writer who started out as a layout artist on 1940s cartoons including "Der Fuehrer's Face" in 1943. He eventually moved into animated features with the film Lady and the Tramp in 1955. He also worked as a color and styling or sequence consultant on many other motion pictures for Disney. His greatest achievement was for his visual screenplay for Mary Poppins in 1964 for which he shared an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay with Bill Walsh. Don DaGradi died August 4, 1991, in Friday Harbor, Washington. He was named a Disney Legend posthumously, only months after his death. - Wikipedia
Writer
The inimitable VW Beetle is losing all his races and destined for the scrap heap until mechanic Hank takes him over and gives him a new lease of life. Soon, Herbie is winning again, to the fury of his previous owner, who builds a menacing black bug to challenge Herbie to the ultimate race.
Animation
Screenplay
Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.
Screenplay
A crotchety old ranch owner fights to be able to live his life the way he wants to, and not the way other people--and the law--tell him he has to.
Screenplay
Down-on-his-luck race car driver Jim Douglas teams up with a little VW Bug that has a mind of its own, not realizing Herbie's worth until a sneaky rival plots to steal him.
Screenplay
The eponymous wraith returns to Earth to aid his descendant, elderly Emily Stowecroft. The villains want to kick Emily and her friends out of their group home so that they can build a crooked casino. Good guy Steve Walker gets caught in the middle of the squabble after evoking Blackbeard's ghost.
Screenplay
Lt. Robin Crusoe is a navy pilot who bails out of his plane after engine trouble. He reaches a deserted island paradise where he builds a house and begins to adjust to life. He is in for trouble however when a local girl is banished to the island by her father, who then comes after Crusoe.
Screenplay
Mr Banks is looking for a nanny for his two mischievous children and comes across Mary Poppins, an angelic nanny. She not only brings a change in their lives but also spreads happiness.
Sequence Artist
Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has been living with their mother and the other with their father, switch places after camp and go to work on their plan, the first objective being to scare off a gold-digger pursuing their father.
Production Designer
A beautiful princess born in a faraway kingdom is destined by a terrible curse to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by true love's first kiss. Determined to protect her, her parents ask three fairies to raise her in hiding. But the evil Maleficent is just as determined to seal the princess's fate.
Screenplay
Lady, a golden cocker spaniel, meets up with a mongrel dog who calls himself the Tramp. He is obviously from the wrong side of town, but happenings at Lady's home make her decide to travel with him for a while.
Layout Supervisor
Walt Disney animation animated cartoon musical compilation ("The BIG Parade of MIRTH and MELODY"; "Offering hits re-released from 'Make Mine Music' and 'Melody Time'"; featuring cartoons from the 1946 musical, "Make Mine Music," and the 1948 musical "Melody Time") featuring Donald Duck, Joe Carioca, and other Disney cartoon characters, and also songs by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Frances Langford, Roy Rogers and Trigger, The Andrews Sisters (Laverne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews), Freddy Martin and his orchestra, Sons of the Pioneers, Jerry Colonna, and Ethel Smith
Layout Supervisor
Animated sequences are set to two Benny Goodman numbers.
Layout
Casey Jones is one of the best engineers there is and it is his duty to get his cargo to its destination on time via train. He sets off but is set back by a number of unfortunate circumstances such as a rain storm, a cow on the tracks, a mad bomber, and finally, when his train starts falling apart. Worst of all, he is on a collision course with another train coming in the opposite direction. After a terrific crash, the man at the train station assumes the worst when Casey doesn't show up but, to his delight, Casey finally makes it to his destination a total wreck but on time (almost).
Layout
A crowd gathers at the skating rink to watch the big championship hockey game of the Pelicans versus the Aardvarks. Although referee "Clean Game" Kinney does his best to supervise, the hockey game really gets out of hand eventually. Two star players, Bertino and Ferguson, are so anxious, they never get let out of the penalty box, referee Kinney is never able to drop the puck without being physically hurt somehow, and the spectators themselves are so worked into the game, they take out their aggression on the ice while the players relax in the bleachers.
Layout
Donald has an unpleasant evening when a mysterious book salesman comes to his door then disappears leaving Donald with a collection of whodunnit novels. He reads one and gets so fully involved in it that it appears that the characters are actually coming out of the book and into his living room getting him involved in the murder caper. Finally the author of the book, J. Harold King, steps forth and claims Donald innocent. The characters return to the novel from whence they came leaving Donald wondering if it was really just his "imagination"
Layout
For Donald's birthday he receives a box with three gifts inside. The gifts, a movie projector, a pop-up book, and a pinata, each take Donald on wild adventures through Mexico and South America.
Layout
Goofy provides a history of ships and sailing.
Layout
Goofy demonstrates a number of crazy vehicles.
Layout
A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.
Layout
Goofy's demonstration of fishing is fouled up by his clumsy casting and fly fishing, and problems with his boat.
Art Direction
Dumbo is a baby elephant born with over-sized ears and a supreme lack of confidence. But thanks to his even more diminutive buddy Timothy the Mouse, the pint-sized pachyderm learns to surmount all obstacles.
