The Littlest Outlaw

For Disney's seventh live-action film they traveled to Mexico for the original story, The Littlest Outlaw. Disney went from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a movie with a huge budget and huge production, to a much smaller endeavor in The Littlest Outlaw. Disney was like that with his animation, too. One year you get an expensive masterpiece in Fantasia, and then you get a much lower budget, but equally good, Dumbo. Disney now knew that he could make a big budget film that would do well, but that didn't mean he was going to keep rolling that dice. The idea for The Littlest Outlaw was thought up by Larry Lansburg, who had been with Disney Studios for ten years. He was mostly known for directing animal shorts like Stormy, the Thoroughbred(1954) and Beauty and the Bull (1954). After bringing this new story to Disney he was made a producer while Bill Walsh made the Lansburg story into a screenplay. The last piece of the puzzle was Roberto Gavaldon, who was brought on to direct.

The Littlest Outlaw tells the story of a 10 year
old boy, Pablito, who is the stepson of Chato the horse trainer. His step-father gets the job of training the great general's horse, Conquistador,  to jump in the grand race competition. Chato makes a bet with money he does not have, claiming Conquistador will jump the brick wall and the General will win the competition. Chato does everything he can to get Conquistador to make the jump. Let's just say PETA would not be happy. Pablito also received the same abuse when he tries to step in and rescue the horse. So in conclusion his step-father is scum (sadly there is no sign of a mother in this film). Chatos's tactics backfire and he traumatizes the horse into not jumping the wall at all. The General loses the competition and Chatos owes a lot of money. Later the General's stubborn daughter takes Conquistador for a ride, determined she can get the horse to jump the wall. The General's daughter is thrown from the horse and potentially paralyzed. This of course sends the General into a rage and demands the horse be killed. While Pablito's step-father retrieves the gun Pablito takes the General's horse and sneaks off into the night, becoming an outlaw. Pablito shows incredible courage throughout his journey, running into banditos, gypsies, a bull, and a priest ( sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke). All while outrunning his abusive step-father.

Instead of shooting the film in California's backlots the production took place all in Mexico to make the film authentic and show Mexico's beautiful landscapes and culture with festivals and bull fights. Mexico's rugged beauty was boosted with the use of Technicolor. A great deal of scenes were shot in and around historical city Grand San Miguel Allende. The ranch scenes were at Rancho Meson Del Prado and most of if not all horses were from the Mexican Army Equestrian team. In the beginning of the film is some incredible footage of how the military trains their horses to handle different terrain and obstacles.

The cast was made up of bilingual actors that could speak both Spanish and English. This was very smart for Disney to do because they saved money and time on having to dub the film. Instead the film was shot twice, once in English and then Spanish. This also meant the film could be directly released into the Spanish speaking market. These talented bilingual actors you might not be too familiar with compared to some of the repeat actors Disney casts in his films (Driscoll, Corrigan, Todd, Mills), but they have sure done a lot of work. Pedro Armendariz, who plays General Torres you may have seen in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love as Kerim Bey. Joseph Calleia plays Padre, the kind priest, who later in 1958 would appear next to Orson Welles in Touch of Evil. The character of Chato was played by Rodolfo Acosta who could be found in countless westerns throughout his career. Pablito, The Littlest Outlaw himself, was played by Andres Velazquez. He would only appear in a few films and a TV spot before quitting show business with his last film in 1957, which is too bad because he received high praise for his acting in The Littlest Outlaw.

The film was released in U.S. theaters right before Christmas, December 22, 1955. There were several other Disney films released this year: Lady and the Tramp, The African Lion, and Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier, all overshadowing The Littlest Outlaw. Reviews were mixed and its box office earnings were only $1.6 million. The New York Times called it "often hackneyed," and more for kids than adults. Leonard Maltin's honest review claimed, " the secret of this charming film is in the way it was shot. The story is so slight that it would have been pointless unless it had seemed real by filming it entirely on location. Using interior and exterior sites alike, and getting natural, winning performances from the cast, producer Lansburgh and director Roberto Gavaldon succeeded in their goal." Personally, the story was lacking- some characters seemed under developed and just quickly thrown in instead of enriching the film. The ending seemed rushed too and was missing some important elements and dialogue. Instead of stopping Pablito and the horse from continuing to run away, the General ( who has forgiven them at the end of the film) just figures eventually they will come home. Ugh, the kid still thinks you want the horse dead and doesn't want to come back to his abusive step-father! But of course since its Disney all is magically okay in the end.

 I will put some of the blame on Walt Disney himself ( yes, yes I know I can't really blame him). Usually Walt Disney was very hands-on for all of his films, wanting to know every detail and help perfect it, but he had a bigger project in the works: Disneyland. All his focus would be 100% into making sure the gates opened to the Magical Kingdom without a hitch on July 17th 1955 ( now that story is interesting and you should look that up sometime).
So, if you want to have your heart strings tugged just a little bit and like horses go find The Littlest Outlaw.