Wonder what it’d be like to see all your favorite Disney animated characters come together in one, magical way? Well, your dreams are about to come true. New short Once Upon a Studio will air tonight at 8pm on ABC as part of a special “Wonderful World of Disney” evening honoring a century of The Mouse House and also featuring the broadcast premiere of Encanto. “Once Upon a Studio”, which sees beloved characters leaping out of paintings and coming to life at Walt Disney Animation Studios, is directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Correy (of 2020 Olaf short “Once Upon a Snowman”) and produced by Yvett Merino (Oscar winner for “Encanto”) and Brett Simonsen (“Us Again”). I met them in Hollywood to talk about the groundbreaking short, including a key piece of music highlighted at an emotional point. (These interviews were combined and edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Why “Feed the Birds”?
Dan Abraham (Director): According to the Sherman Brothers, that was Walt’s favorite song. On Friday afternoons they would go to his office and talk about what’s happening at the studio that week. Eventually Walt would say, “Play it.” Richard knew what to do. He went over to the piano, sat down and played “Feed the Birds” for Walt. When we were putting together our Walt and Mickey moment, I said, “It’s gotta be Feed the Birds”. And the head of our music department, Matt Walker, said, “Why don’t we get Richard Sherman to play it?” And I’m like, “What?!” And he said, “Let’s record it in Walt’s office.”