Why J.R.R. Tolkien felt “a heartfelt loathing” towards Walt Disney and his movies

J.R.R. Tolkien thought Walt Disney was “a cheat” and found his movies “disgusting.” He was determined never to let Disney touch The Lord of the Rings. Why?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an esteemed academic and a literary master who wrote what are arguably the greatest fantasy epics of all time: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. To read his work is to suspend reality and step into a world so rich in imagination and breathtaking in detail and history that you dare to wonder (and hope) if Tolkien penned his stories from real memories and experiences. Those who enter Middle-earth come back irrevocably changed. Been there, done that, got the Elvish script tattoo.

New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson famously adapted both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit into high fantasy adventure films in the early 2000s, decades after Tolkien’s death. And there’s another adaptation coming to Amazon Prime Video that will use Tolkien’s works as the basis for a series set during the Second Age of Middle-earth.

There have been other adaptations (and attempted adaptations) over the years, but one hugely popular studio never touched The Lord of the Rings: Disney. It turns out there may be a reason for that.

The name Walt Disney is one that many of us associate with fond memories of childhood. “A pioneer of the American animation industry,” Disney was the creator of beloved children’s animation classics and characters that are cherished by kids and adults alike. Today, Walt Disney Studios, whose subsidiaries include Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, is an entertainment juggernaut, and the Disney theme parks are some of the planet’s biggest global tourist attractions.

J.R.R. Tolkien, however, didn’t think much of Walt or his creations. And we’re not just speculating or working off rumor, because Tolkien did what he did best and wrote about his feelings in a number of letters, calling Disney “hopelessly corrupted” and the overall effect of his work “disgusting. Some [of his movies] have given me nausea.”

Why did the father of modern-day fantasy feel this way about Disney’s work? It all started with a couple of dwarves…

The Hobbit was first published on September 21, 1937. The story follows the exploits of the Shire-dwelling hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who accompanies Gandalf the Grey and a party of mirthful but battle-ready dwarves on their perilous quest to reclaim their home and vast treasures from Smaug the dragon.

Three months later, in December 1937, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its debut in the United States. The story was based on the much darker 1812 Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Both stories centered around a group of imaginary characters — dwarves —  but that’s where the similarities ended.

According to the J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, Tolkien went to see Snow White with his literary frenemy C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis, who had seen the movie already, had some very strong opinions about it. In a letter to a friend, he called Disney a “poor boob” and wrote that “Dwarfs ought to be ugly of course, but not in that way.”

"[A]ll the terrifying bits were good, and the animals really most moving: and the use of shadows (of dwarfs and vultures) was real genius. What might not have come of it if this man had been educated–or even brought up in a decent society?"

Tolkien didn’t think much of the movie either. Again, the sticking point was the dwarves. “I think it grated on them that he was commercializing something that they considered almost sacrosanct,” said Tolkien scholar Trish Lambert, author of the essay Snow White and Bilbo Baggins: Divergences and Convergences Between Disney and Tolkien. “Here you have a brash, American entrepreneur who had the audacity to go in and make money off of fairy tales.”

A professor and scholar, Tolkien studied classical literature, history and mythology. His own depictions of dwarves were heavily influenced by Germanic and Nordic myths. Short and very stocky, these dwarves were formidable fighters whose pastimes included mining, smithing and hoarding wealth. He had a very clear, serious vision of what dwarves ought to be. How could Disney’s slapstick portrayal do anything other than vex him?

Tolkien seemed to see the dwarves in Snow White as mocking some of the mythological creations sacred to him and his work, all to make a buck. In a 1964 letter to a fan, Miss J.L. Curry, he labelled Disney as “simply a cheat: willing and even eager to defraud the less experienced by trickery sufficiently ‘legal’ to keep him out of jail.” As a published author, Tolkien admitted that he was “not innocent of the profit-motive,” but said he would never “have given any proposal from Disney any consideration at all.”

"I recognize his talent, but it has always seemed to me hopelessly corrupted. Though in most of the ‘pictures’ proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them to me is disgusting. Some have given me nausea."

Tolkien’s contempt was borne from his belief that fairy tales were not just stories for kids but complex narratives worthy of study. Tolkien treated his own fantasy stories with earnest reverence and respect. He may have written The Hobbit as a children’s fantasy book, but he took painstaking care not to make it childish. As Open Culture points out, “Nothing in the book panders, not the language, nor the complex characterization, nor the grown-up themes.” In contrast, Disney’s offerings “represented to Tolkien a cheapening of ancient cultural artifacts, and he seemed to think that Disney’s approach to films for children was especially condescending and cynical.”

His convictions on this score were so strong that he wrote a scholarly essay about them — as one does — titled On Fairy-Stories. Tolkien wrote that “the realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things,” and that “the association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history.”

Tolkien was very influenced by fairy tales and revered the writings of the Brothers Grimm, famous for adapting fairy stories in a dark way better suited for adults than children; you wouldn’t want to read these to the munchkins before bedtime. Considering that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, like many of Disney’s animated movies, was based on such a fairy story, Tolkien would have viewed it as being stripped of all depth and seriousness, and infantilized.

It’s understandable then, that he was vehemently opposed to any of his works receiving the same type of treatment from Disney. To Tolkien, it would have felt like his creations were being debased. Tolkien Gateway notes that Tolkien’s negative opinions of Disney were so strong that he rejected Horus Engels’ illustration suggestions for the German edition of The Hobbit because he saw them as being “too Disnified.” The concept of “Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of,” was intolerable to him.

In a 1965 letter, Tolkien affirmed that “neither he nor his publishers (George Allen and Unwin) intend to give Walt Disney permission to make a film of his books.” While his publisher may have approached Disney Studios in connection with a Lord of the Rings adaptation — they declined, believing it to be too costly an endeavor — many scholars believe the discussion took place behind Tolkien’s back, and given what he thought of the studio, I’m inclined to agree with them.

Tolkien sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in the late 1960s. When producers discussed the idea of movie adaptations, Tolkien was once again adamant that Disney should not be involved. “It might be advisable,” he wrote in a letter, “to let the Americans do what seems good to them — as long as it was possible…to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).”

From Tolkien’s perspective, Disney was a glorified salesman who peddled commercialized dumbed-down fairy tale casualties to the masses. To allow his precious works to be adapted in the same way would have been sacrilegious to him.

I understand and respect his feelings immensely and believe that, as the creative, he was well within his right to make these stipulations. That’s not to say, however, that one can’t and shouldn’t love and appreciate the work of both these geniuses for the experiences they offer: two vastly different but enchanting voyages into fantasy. I, for one, intend to continue to do so. Just don’t tell Tolkien.

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h/t Atlas Obscura