This edition of Disney Files Magazine marks the milestone 20th anniversary of an enduring creative collaboration between the magazine’s editor, Ryan March, and its graphic designer, Andy Crabtree (pictured here). To mark the milestone and its convergence with the 70th anniversaries of Disneyland Park (“The Happiest Place on Earth”) and the animated classic Lady and the Tramp (hailed in 1955 as “Walt Disney’s Happiest Motion Picture!”), Ryan commissioned Andy to create a custom illustration for this issue, placing Lady and Tramp at the heart of Disneyland Park. Here’s an inside look at Andy’s striking illustration work.
While a canine couple going nose-to-nose over a plate of spaghetti is an obvious nod to one of the most iconic images in this film (or any other), the human couple behind them pays more subtle tribute to one of the film’s most meaningful moments. “Many Disney fans know that the Lady and the Tramp scene in which Lady arrives in a hatbox on Christmas morning was inspired by Walt Disney’s memory of gifting his wife, Lillian, a puppy in a hat box,” Andy said. “So the man presenting a hat box to a woman over Lady’s left shoulder is my little tribute to the joy Walt created both on screen and in real life.”
“Disney Legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston once described Lady and the Tramp as being, ‘made of nostalgia, like an old postcard,’” Andy said. “Inspired by that description and by postcard designs of the mid-20th century, I wanted the illustration to have a retro feel, delivering ‘impressionistic romance’ through rough line work and imperfect shapes.”
