Legendary Disney animator John Hench showed Salvador Dali how to transition between images. © 1966 The Walt Disney Co.

If there’s anyone that knows the true secrets of what went on between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney on the infamous Destino short, it’s John Hench, the 95-year-old “Disney Legend,” who somehow manages to find the strength to go to work every morning at the studio despite declining health. Best known for his assorted background, layout, color and styling work on Fantasia, Dumbo, The Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, not to mention his architectural designs for the theme parks and hotels, Hench was assigned to Dali by Walt as an assistant to find continuity from the basic drawings and paintings by the master surrealist. AWN recently caught up with Hench, who is as pleased as anyone about Destino’s completion and acclaim after more than half a century.

Bill Desowitz: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about working with Disney and Dali on Destino and being here to see its completion.

John Hench: [Laughs] Well, I didn’t do much on it again except attend meetings, but it was interesting to see the end result, which really was quite surprising to me. In spite of the bizarre images it had elegance. You know in most of Dali’s great paintings, there’s an element that was closely associated with him, the way he dressed and his manners. It was quite a pleasant surprise when you see the film run, and you have to see it maybe two or three times.

BD: What was your position in all of this originally?

JH: Well, they brought Dali into my room and said you’ll be working with him and we’re going to make a picture and so forth. So he came every morning on time and we spent the day together, and when I found that I had some knowledge of what he didn’t seem to understand [about animation], it had to work because you can’t just jump from one sequence to another.

BD: A transition.

JH: Yes, and that’s what I would do.

BD: So you would help bridge all of these different segments and ideas and images that are not really connected?

JH: They are connected in a way, but you can’t just do it with a cut. It would be too jarring and offer something that we never seemed to use except for a shock.

BD: Well, Dali, having worked a little bit in film before and obviously watching them, must’ve had some understanding of these things you were talking about.

Two legends: Salvador Dali (left) reunites with Walt Disney in Spain, 1957 after working together on Destino 11 years earlier. Unless otherwise noted, all images © Disney Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.

JH: Yes he did. He agreed.

BD: Did he find this inhibiting?

JH: No, I don’t think so.

BD: He adapted to it?

JH: Yeah, he thought they were all right — he approved of how we did things. Of course, I worked with him every day.

BD: Over how long a period was this?

JH: Well, I don’t know, several months and then on weekends he got to spend his time in Carmel, where he had a little studio that he had rented. So my weekends usually took place there and we discussed what we had done so far, and what was coming up, so I spent a great deal of time with him. We became good friends. My faulty French was as bad his.