In the summer of 1935 Walt Disney, his Brother Roy and their wives took a holiday in Europe, visiting England, France, the Low Countries, Italy and Switzerland. Upon his return the the Disney Studio Library received an influx of new books from his travels: 90 titles from France, 81 from England, 149 from Germany and 15 from Italy.
Enthused with his European findings Walt wrote the following memorandum to Ted Sears and the story department,
“Some of these little books which I have brought back with me from Europe have very fascinating illustrations of little people, bees and small insects who live in mushrooms, pumpkins etc. This quaint atmosphere fascinates me and I was trying to think how we could build some little story that would incorporate all of these cute little characters…
…Maybe to make these thing more individual so they would stand out from the mob type of cartoons, we could incorporate Mickey or Minnie or the Duck into the fantastic settings they suggest. Mickey and Minnie might take a ride on a magic carpet and arrive in a weird land or forest, meet little elves of the forest, or be captured by an old witch or giant ogres. They could eat some fruit that makes them grow very tall or small - or get into a forest of wild trees and flowers and grotesque mirror pools with reflections and images. They might be trapped by three enormous spiders. Might get into a land of shadows…”
