Paul Bunyan

Paul Bunyan is a 1958 American animated musical short film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The short was based on the North American folk hero and lumberjack Paul Bunyan and was inspired after meeting with Les Kangas of Paul Bunyan Productions, who gave Disney the idea for the film. The film was directed by Les Clark, a member of Disney's Nine Old Men of core animators. Thurl Ravenscroft starred as the voice of Paul Bunyan. Supporting animators on the project included Lee Hartman. Paul Bunyan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short of 1958, losing to the Looney Tunes cartoon Knighty Knight Bugs, starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. DTV set clips of the short to Annette Funicello's Tall Paul and was featured in an episode of Sing Me a Story with Belle. Plot Following a violent windstorm on the coast of Maine, lumberjack Cal McNab spots a giant cradle washed up on the beach containing a giant baby boy. The lumbering-town adopts and raises the boy, giving him the name Paul Bunyan. One Christmas, the town gives Paul a double-bladed axe to help chop down timber. Paul's work clears open land and allows for the town's expansion of buildings. Unfortunately, Paul is too big for it and decides to move out west.