Mary Blair's journey through Latin America inspired a body of work that blended her distinctive modernist style with the textures, colors, and patterns she encountered. One of my personal favorites comes from her time in Mexico, created as concept art for Disney’s 1943 film Saludos Amigos.

Walt Disney wanted Sleeping Beauty to be “a moving illustration.” He meant that literally. He instructed his animators to treat the film not like a traditional cartoon. The result was an aesthetic departure that set Sleeping Beauty apart from anything Disney had done before or since.

From medieval manuscripts and unicorns to renaissance landscape paintings and modern design, Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is filled with nods to real art that inspired its unique look. Did you know you can see many of these artworks in person in New York City museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Morgan, and The Cloisters?

What does Monsters, Inc. owe to modern art? Find out how the Pixar film borrows from Charles Sheeler’s Precisionism!

Learn about the golden idol in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and its loose connection to the art of Ancient Americas.

By the 1500s, in parts of Europe, the bob was all the rage for men—Shrek's Lord Farquaad and Snow White connect to it!

Blog post exploring the influence of art history, specifically Rodin, on the Beast’s hands Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Disney's Frozen has many nods to art history, including a cheeky reference to the risqué painting The Swing by Fragonard

French decorative arts—especially Rococo porcelains—inspired the stunning visuals of Beauty and the Beast.

Disney's Sleeping Beauty has a fascinating art history connection with medieval tapestries, including the Unicorn Tapestries

The "Aztec gold" in Pirates of the Caribbean loosely borrows from actual Aztec art and mythology

Is Ragnar Kjartansson's The Visitors the greatest artwork of the 21st century?

Pixar's Coco brought ancient Mesoamerican architecture from Teotihuacan to life in the Land of the Dead

Disney’s villainous Evil Queen in Snow White is based on a famous medieval sculpture of Uta von Ballenstedt

Did you know Ariel in The Little Mermaid is influenced by Victorian art?

Moana's clothing and her connections to bark cloth (tapa) in the Pacific Islands

How does the new Indiana Jones attraction at Animal Kingdom relate to ancient Maya king's tomb? Find out in this post about king Pakal's.

This post considers the historical art and architecture references in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) as a way to understand the film

Talking about how the idea was hatched for a blog series about Disney animation and Pixar films and art history!