The Make-Believe Grandmothers
May 17, 2024
Dog-1
In the Disney canon, some grandmothers are good and some are not so good. But we love them all, even if a few we love to hate. Meet the Fairy Godmother; Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather; Lady Tremaine and Maleficent; and the Bird Woman.
THE FAIRY GODMOTHER
FLORA, FAUNA, and MERRIWEATHER
"The Many Voices of Verna Felton"
[Verna Felton was a terrific character actress whose vocal talents created some of Disney's best loved icons, to include (among the many) the Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella" (1950), and Flora the good fairy in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).]
"Verna Felton — The Red Rage"
LADY TREMAINE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHpwBM8hRf0 (View at .75 speed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PM8KyTOz10 (this is a parody)
MALEFICENT
Eleanor Audley
[Like Verna Felton, Eleanor Audley was a highly respected character actress and voice talent, and a frequent Disney villain. Audley had a very prolific movie and television career outside just her voice work and was quite popular.]
THE BIRD WOMAN
Jane Darwell was an Oscar-winning character actress from old Hollywood who appeared in "Gone With the Wind" (Dolly Merriweather), "The Grapes of Wrath" (Ma Joad, her Oscar-snatching role — she's magnificent in it), and the Bird Woman from the Disney masterpiece "Mary Poppins" (1964). Disney historians tells us that Walt's favorite song was "Feed the Birds", the number from Walt's Oscar-winning "Mary Poppins", which would prove to be Darwell's last role. He allegedly would call the songwriters into his office and have them play it for him when his moods would (famously) go darker.
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