Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney
Destino is a landmark artistic collaboration between Surrealist master Salvador Dalí and pioneering animator Walt Disney, representing one of the most ambitious intersections of fine art and animation in the 20th century. Conceived in 1945, the project brought together Dalí’s dreamlike visual language and Disney’s narrative innovation in an experimental animated short film unlike anything produced at the time.
Dalí worked at Walt Disney Studios for approximately eight months, producing hundreds of paintings, drawings, and storyboards that explored themes of love, fate, time, and transformation. These images featured hallmark Dalí motifs—melting forms, elongated figures, shifting landscapes, and symbolic architecture—translated into a cinematic, flowing environment. Composer Armando Domínguez’s song Destino provided the emotional foundation for the visual narrative.
Despite its creative promise, the project was halted in 1946 due to financial constraints following World War II, and Destino remained unfinished for decades. In 1999, under the direction of Roy E. Disney, the project was revived using Dalí’s original materials. The completed six-minute film premiered in 2003 and was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
In parallel with the film’s completion, Dalí’s original imagery from the Destino project was released as a fine art print series, including numbered works such as Destino #18. These limited-edition serigraphs preserve Dalí’s original compositions and serve as tangible artifacts of the historic collaboration.
Destino stands as a rare and profound synthesis of Surrealism and animation, uniting two cultural visionaries across time. It remains a testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration and is regarded as one of the most important artistic dialogues between fine art and popular media in modern history.
Showing all 12 results
