Hands clasped, silver slippers together and with an air of gentle condescension, Snow White looks like the epitome of a Disney princess. Except there’s a hitch: across her face and dress run unmistakable cracks.
While Disney’s cartoon characters have an indelible place in popular culture, the material that propelled many of the vintage heroes to fame is proving less durable.
Experts say the individuals sheets, or cels, on which early cartoons were inked on one side and painted on the other by animators, are prone to distortion, with conservators in a race against time to preserve them.
In some ways it is perhaps surprising the cels have made it this far. “Disney was an unusual man because he valued these things right from the start, so they really were archived pretty well,” said Tom Learner of the Getty Conservation Institute, speaking at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin. “Many other studios used them for the movie then they were tossed out, so it is an amazing resource.”
It’s not just Disney who treasured his cels. One depicting Snow White receiving the poisoned apple from the hooded witch was sold last year for £10,500.
But materials used for the cels suffered from a host of problems. Cellulose nitrate, last used by Disney in 1942, is prone to wrinkling, discolouration and is extremely flammable.
Meanwhile, cellulose diacetate and cellulose triacetate – the former first adopted in the late 1920s by Disney, with both materials later becoming widely used – have their own issues. These not only suffer from wrinkles and yellowing, but decay releasing acetic acid – the component of vinegar that gives it its distinct tangy smell – which speeds up the process and makes the film brittle.
The loss of additives that give flexibility to the materials, known as plasticisers, can also cause cels to ripple.
Eventually, animators switched to a more stable material – a polyester called Mylar. But many classics, from Alice in Wonderland to Bambi and even the 1981 film the Fox and the Hound, were made using the earlier types of cel.
Working with Disney, the Getty Conservation Institute are hoping to save the much-loved characters from the ravages of time. Since the collaboration kicked off in 2009, the team have been looking at many issues, including analysing cels to unpick their composition, as well as finding the best way to store them.
But, said Learner, there was a key problem.
“One of the things we are seeing in [the Disney] collection – and it really goes back to the mid-30s, all the way up to the late 80s when digital took over – [is that for] a lot of the cels you see that the plastic sheet is starting to deform,” he said. That, he added, causes the paint to pop off the sheets and crack. “It’s very sensitive to humidity, so when the humidity drops to a dry condition the paint becomes very rippled,” he added.
But, luckily, there is a plot twist. “We found just putting these things in humidity chambers and ramping up the humidity you actually are able to re-adhere the paint to the plastic in its deformed state, so while we are not able to flatten the cells, we can re-adhere it,” said Learner. “What’s lovely about this is we haven’t had to put in any glue, adhesive or anything to stick the paint down.”
The upshot, it would seem, is that Disney’s cartoon celebrities are set to maintain their flawless complexions for longer. “This [approach] means the paint is safe,” said Learner. “It will not crack off, it can be digitally photographed – so we’re thrilled with that.”