Work, in the form of original concept drawings, as well as 18 seconds of animation, done by Salvador Dali
in 1946 at the Disney studio for a never-completed film called DESTINO, is
being dusted off by Disney vice chairman Roy Disney (Junior) and will be
completed as an art house cartoon by the Disney studio, according to the
London SUNDAY TIMES. "I am going to finish the work of Salvador Dali,"
Disney told the newspaper. "At Disney, we need to recover our history." The
production will be supervised by Disney, who is a son of Roy Disney (Walt
Disney's brother), and 91 year-old John Hench, now a senior vice-president
at Disney, who worked with Dali as his assistant in 1946. According to the
TIMES, Dali blamed the failure to finish the film on labor strikes that hit
the movie industry at the time. However John Canemaker, in BEFORE THE
ANIMATION BEGINS: THE ART AND LIVES OF DISNEY INSPIRATIONAL SKETCH ARTISTS,
quotes Walt Disney as saying, "Jesus Christ! $70,000 down the drain," in
response to Dali's very un-Disneyesque work. Canemaker's new book, PAPER
DREAMS, includes a photo showing Dali at work on the project.