We had the amazing opportunity to speak with Senior Story Artist Burny Mattinson about his career at Disney and his latest movie, “Winnie The Pooh.” Burny has had a long and fruitful career – he’s even had the pleasure of working with Walt Disney! Read our interview below and share your thoughts in the comments section!
How did the idea for making the new “Winnie the Pooh” movie come about, and how did you get your position as Senior Story Artist on the film?
Burny: “Well, I guess it was our boss there, Bob Iger, who suggested it to Lasseter to look into the franchise of Winnie the Pooh because it hadn’t been out in feature in a while and [he] thought we should try to revisit it. So, Lasseter then went to two of the directors, Don Hall and Steve Anderson, and said we need to get some stories together, so then they came to me and said, ‘hey, would you adapt some of the stories from the Pooh books. We have about five or six that we like.’ And so I said ‘ok,’ and so I drew the beat boards – drew the pictures out as the stories – and then they liked it a lot, so I pitched it to Bob Iger and what they call the steering committee – all the executives – and they liked it. We thought it was only going to be maybe a featurette and they said, ‘no, let’s make it a feature.’ So we were absolutely delighted and they wanted the feature animation people to do it. So that’s what we did. And that was my role in it, in the beginning. And through the whole rest of the picture, I worked as a kibitzer in the story meetings with suggestions and so forth, and I was just trying to be a help to the directors.”
You’ve worked on the original “Winnie the Pooh” featurettes and feature back in the 60s and 70s. What were the big challenges in bringing “Winnie the Pooh” back to the big screen?
Burny: “Well, one of the problems we had is the fact that a lot of the material had already been used by our TV division in making I think three movies. And they had used an awful lot of material in their features, so when we came down to doing it, there was not that much there left. So, we had to take what we had and find ways of kind of stretching it. Our first ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ was very episodic. It was basically the three featurettes that where kind of schlumped together. And we wanted to make it less episodic. And what material we did have, which was basically Eeyore losing his tail, Rabbit’s busy day – which turned into the Backson idea – and the expedition. Those became the real crux of the story.”
What is it that draws you to A. A. Milne’s work?
Burny: “You know, it’s that charm and whimsy of it. It’s innocence about it. They’re fun characters. They’re very delineated – Rabbit being the frustrated soul who wants to be in charge, and then you have Pooh who’s the innocent character. So the character’s are very strong and so it’s kind of fun. It’s like visiting a family again. These marvelous little guys. So, I think that that’s the charm of it – old friends.”
Which character is your favorite or do you associate with?
Burny: “I often associate with Pooh. I always say, he’s the bear of little brains and that fits me fine.”
I’ve heard that the stuffed Pooh doll in the opening and ending of the new film was actually made by your wife. Could you tell us the story about that?
Burny: “Yeah, that’s right. We started doing the movies in 1964 and we were going to make it at that time as a feature. But then Walt [Disney] thought maybe the humor was too mild and maybe wouldn’t sustain a feature, so he said, ‘let’s break it down into a short.’ So we stopped the feature and condensed it down into the ‘The Honey Tree’ and later on we did the ‘Blustery Day’ and then finally we did ‘Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.’ And Wooly [Wolfgang Reitherman] who was the director and producer of all three of them decided that it would be a pretty good idea – what Walt wanted to do I think later on – to combine them all to be a feature. And so they were combined together as ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.’ Well, Wooly said that he wanted to go ahead and do a live action opening with Pooh and Tigger and so forth sitting around. So I told my wife about it, who was my assistant when I was animating, and she was very good with the dolls for the kids. And so she took a crack at it and crafted a Pooh. And so I brought it in and showed it to the boys. I showed it to Wooly and he said, ‘oh my gosh this is great! But, unfortunately I contracted Karen Johnstool’ who used to do Walt’s dolls and things like that. And he said ‘I can’t use it, but I sure like it. Can I put it in my room for a while?’ So he kept it for six months. Then he gave it back to me, so I took it home and gave it to the kids. And the kids played with it, and their kids played with it, and it wound up in the attic and has been sitting in there for all these years. So then when we started to do this feature, I told the guys about it and they said, ‘bring it in,’ so I got my son to get it out of the attic. I brought it in and everybody loved it, so that became our Pooh by the time he got in.”
That’s awesome! When developing the film, what work goes into making the characters and giving them all of the features that we know and love?
Burny: “You know, all the animators and us in story, we all kind of know the characters and how they think and how they behave. And basically, it’s the animators. We, in story, we kind of do the blueprints. But the animators are like the carpenters. They take those blueprints and put them all together and give it the finesse. So, they’re putting in all the personality stuff. A lot of times, we would give the bare bonesof the storyline and outline and they’ll think of better ways – recreating little side things to the character and the way they cock their heads and the way they think when doing something. It’s very collaborative.”
You’ve worked on many, many films for Disney for many years. Were there any highlights about working on this film?
Burny: “Yeah! You know, we have more fun at Disney story meetings that we would hold every day. Since we had the beat boards that we created the story around, we didn’t have any writers. We decided not to have writers. And so all of the story team, which there were about five or six of us in there, we all kind of created it on the way. In other words, we would take a section and give suggestions. Then they’d go off and draw it up. And then we’d bring it in and then they’d project it on the screen and see how it played. And then we’d all make suggestions, like ‘why don’t we do this’ and ‘why don’t we do that’ and this became really more fun than anything. We had a lot of laughs. And that’s basically how the picture was put together. I mean, nobody had written anything. We just had this outline of what the story is about and then everybody came in and added something. They were all young, first time out – the story team basically. And I was amazed by how much they added to it.”
So it’s a very collaborative process, almost like a family?
Burny: “Oh absolutely, it’s exactly like a family. Yeah, very collaborative. In fact, one of the fella’s wife was learning how to make cake and every week she would bring in a cake and it would be something with Winnie the Pooh like one in the shape of a big honey pot. And we were getting pretty on the heavy side. It was real family, it was all family.”
I’ve heard you were working on a story for a feature film that would star Mickey Mouse, which would be the first feature to do so. Can you tell us anything on that?
Burny: “Well it’s kind of premature because I have to really show it to the boss and see if they’re on board with it. But, it’s an adventure story with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. I need to pitch it to the boss, and that’s my next step right now. So I’m getting prepared for that.”
That would be such a fun movie! What do you think? Be sure to pick up a copy of “Winnie The Pooh” on Disney’s Blu-ray DVD Combo Pack and let us know what you think!
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