The Reluctant Dragon

"Robert, I have a wonderful idea. We'll sell this book to Walt Disney."

"Well, you can't. It belongs to your nephew. [Looks at toy rifle] So does this, too. I wonder what he'd take for it."

"I mean the idea, for a movie. I'm sure if you went to his studio and suggested it to him, he'd jump at it."

Robert Benchley is relaxing by the pool when his wife (Bryant) suggests going to Walt Disney to pitch the children's book "The Reluctant Dragon" for his next film.  Benchley reluctantly agrees and she leaves him at Disney Studios to meet with Disney.

He is assigned Humphrey (Pepper) as a tour guide, but continually escapes to investigate different areas of the studio.  As he avoids Humphrey he learns all about the animation process, along with the other technical aspects of bringing animation to the big screen.  Will he be able to convince Disney to make the movie?


In 1941 the animators at Disney went on strike.  The strike happened while they were working on Dumbo.  The studio signed a contract with the Screen Cartoonists' Guild and led to a strained relationship between Walt Disney (who felt betrayed) and his animators.  This film was released in the midst of the strike and theaters that showed the film were picketed by the striking animators.

The reluctant dragon short was released as part of the Walt Disney Mini Classics in 1987.  In 2002, Disney released the DVD of the entire film.  In 2007 and 2009 the short was released as part of an animated collection.  In 2014 the entire film was a bonus feature on the DVD for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Fun and Fancy Free.

The first 20 minutes of the film are in black and white.  Once Robert Benchley arrives in the camera room it transitions to color, which he remarks upon.  The rest of the film is in color.  There are 4 short animated shorts ("Casey Junior" from Dumbo, Baby Weems, Goofy's How to Ride a Horse, and The Reluctant Dragon) within the film as a whole, each is intended to illustrate a different part of the studio.  Most of the animators shown on screen are actors, due to the animator strike.

It is interesting to see the different pieces that go into animated films.  So often we overlook animated films, or relegate them to simple children's movies, but it takes months of work by dedicated animators and sound technicians, etc to bring all of the pieces together and look effortless.

I would have preferred more time with The Reluctant Dragon short... or at least to watch the process featuring that short.  But it was still an enjoyable film.

The Reluctant Dragon (1941) minutes
Director: Alfred Werker (live action), Hamilton Luske (animation), Jack Cutting, Ub Iwerks, Jack Kinney
Starring: Robert Benchley as Robert BenchleyFrances Gifford as Doris
Buddy Pepper as Humphrey
Nana Bryant as Mrs. Benchley
Claud Allister as Sir Giles (voice)
Barnett Parker as Dragon (voice)
Billy Lee as Boy (voice)
Florence Gill as self / Clara Cow
Clarence Nash as self / Donald Duck