In 1999 when Walt Disney‘s nephew Roy Disney was working on Fantasia 2000 he stumbled upon one of the biggest treasures to have emerged from the Disney archive in half a century. It was the early pre-production notes, drawings, and test footage from a collaboration between Walt Disney and iconic surrealist genius Salvador Dali. The project was abandoned in 1946 due to the huge financial instability that the Walt Disney Company had been facing in the wake of World War II, so Roy Disney picked up the pieces and made sure the film, entitled Destino, was fully realized. The six-minute short follows the love story of Chronos (the personification of time) and the ill-fated love he has for a mortal woman, and the story continues as the woman dances through surreal scenery inspired by Dalí’s paintings. There is no dialogue, but the soundtrack features a song by the Mexican composer Armando Dominguez. Worth noting is the 17-second original footage that is included in the finished product is the segment with the two tortoises. Destino premiered on June 2, 2003 to huge praise, and among the many awards it received, it also earned a nomination for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. To learn more about Destino be sure to visit AnimationConservation.com.
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