In 1945, the pioneering duo of Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney decided to bring their magical skill sets together for a project which, unfortunately, never reached completion in their lifetimes—but how do Pink Floyd fit into all of this?
Well look no further than Destino, a project which finally saw the light of day in 2003 but it was very close to being lost forever. The plan was revived despite both Dalí and Disney having passed away years early by Disney’s nephew Roy who miraculously stumbled upon the work in the archives in 1999 — he then immediately ordered it’s completion upon discovering it.
The six-minute short film was palmed off into the hands of producer Baker Bloodworth and directed by French animator Dominique Monféry who took up his first directorial role. A team of approximately 25 animators deciphered Dalí and John Hench’s cryptic storyboards who spent eight months storyboarding in 1945 before Walt Disney studios were forced into halting production due to financial woes following the end of World War II.
The animators had some help from the journals of Dalí’s wife, Gala Dalí, and guidance from Hench himself as they tried to fulfil the iconic artist’s creative vision. The end result is somewhat mixed because of the two eras of animation that are featured, both blending traditional animation and modern animation techniques.
The original music was written by Mexican songwriter Armando Domínguez which was performed by singer Dora Luz Destino which, in retrospect, felt like it slightly missed the mark. A YouTube user thought the same and, with one genius move, improved the film immeasurably.
With the addition of Pink Floyd track ‘Time’ taken from The Dark Side Of The Moon, a number which fits the visuals like a glove, the project had taken on a new dimension. It’s appropriate of both the title of the film as well of the track that their coupling was destiny and all it needed was time for this to happen. The iconic album track begins with a layering of clock noises that were put together by Pink Floyd’s engineer, Alan Parsons, and feel like they were purpose-built for the film.
Parsons later revealed that each clock was recorded separately at an antique store, which the band implemented into the song, he wanted to use the clocks to demonstrate a new quadraphonic sound system, but they ended up using it to open the song instead.
The Dalí/Disney/Pink Floyd collaboration of sorts now has over one million views on YouTube and deserves, even more, watch it below to understand why.
