+5: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fateful Visit to Disney

Looking back at the Soviet cartoon screening that reshaped animation.

The Tale of Tsar Durondai (1934)

Welcome to the fifth bonus issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter! We’re glad you could make it. This is our second members-only edition — thanks for joining us behind the scenes.

Today, we’re headed back to 1939 — when Frank Lloyd Wright made his famous visit to Walt Disney’s studio. The architect introduced the world of Soviet cartoons to a group of young, upstart artists. In the process, he altered the course of animation history. The film that Wright showed would play no small role in the birth of UPA.

Wright’s visit is unusually well-attested in the historical record. For this deep dive, we’ve drawn from eyewitness accounts, lengthy transcripts of the event and more. We hope that it gives you a sense of the era, and of the artistic climate among Disney’s younger staff at the time.

Enjoy!