This article centres on a series of live-action Disney movies filmed and set in Britain, and released between the early-1950s and late-1960s: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue (1953, Kidnapped (1960), and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966). Through close analysis of this group of films, it examines the extent to which these Anglo-American productions successfully negotiate a mid-Atlantic path between British and North American customs and ideologies, arguing that, while derived from British historical, literary and folktale narratives, Island marked the beginning of a very profitable and long-standing preoccupation with 'Britishness' for the studio and for its founder, Walt Disney. Representations of Britain and Britishness are recurring presences in many of the studio's animated films between the 1950s and 1970s, including Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi et al., 1951), Peter Pan (Geronimi et al., 1953), The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman et al., 1967), and Robin Hood (Reitherman et al., 1973). Moreover, Disney's strong interest in Britain extended to filming 15 of its movies in the UK between 1950 and 1979. Five of these films are of particular interest here: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (Ken Annakin, 1952),The Sword and the Rose (Annakin, 1953), Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue (Harold French, 1953), Kidnapped (Robert Stevenson, 1960), and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (Michael O'Herlihy, 1966).These Technicolor productions were modest, low-budget affairs, and have largely escaped serious scholarly analysis. They are primarily lightweight, escapist adventure narratives, competently and colourfully assembled in the unadorned style which characterised Disney's early-period live-action films. Their aesthetic sensibilities are filtered through a gauzy, nostalgic image of Britain and 'Britishness'; a sort of mid-Atlantic folk memory, rooted in pleasurable associations and belief systems. However, far from being simple and vacuous exploitation releases, these apparently artless and undistinguished productions reflect complex ideologies of freedom and individualism through the rugged pastoral landscapes they invoke. These films are inherently liminal. They were made in Britain with largely British production personnel, filmed on location, and often drew on indigenous mythologies and literary traditions. On the other hand, they were produced for an international audience by an American firm, and were very much driven by Walt Disney's guiding hand. Do they 3 Noel Brown successfully negotiate a mid-Atlantic path between British and North American customs and ideologies? Or, rather, do they merely pay lip service to notions of 'Britishness' while advancing specifically American conceptions of national identity and individualism?
Words for a DiscussionThis article is concerned with these British Disney films' constructions of Britain and Britishness. As such, it follows works by the likes of Andrew Higson (1995) a...