An unfinished film made by Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí is to receive its British premiere this summer after its completion six decades later.

Their collaboration was a surrealist dream come true, but financial problems after the war forced the studio to close down work on the production.

Destino, a six-minute animated cartoon that shows a woman dancing through surreal scenery inspired by some of Dalí’s most iconic imagery, will be screened at Tate Modern in London.

It has been reconstructed from more than 100 storyboards, drawings and paintings that were created over nine months in 1945 and 1946.

The images were unearthed by Walt Disney’s nephew, Roy, from an archive of millions of other pieces of art relating to films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

He assigned a team of about 25 top animators to the project.

Destino will be seen as part of a ground-breaking exhibition, Dali & Film — an unprecedented exploration of the central role of cinema in Dalí’s art — for which The Times is the media partner.

Destino, which features the melting clock among some of Dalí’s most recognisable images, will be seen with related drawings. Having made Fantasia in 1940, Disney realised that a collaboration with Dalí could further raise the status of animation to high art.

Matthew Gale, the Tate’s curator of the exhibition, said that they understood each other, partly because Disney’s own work was surreal. He added: “If you look at the things that happen in Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, there are surreal instances.”

The cash ran out for Destino because Disney had been making wartime films for the US Government rather than more commercial movies.

Dalí & Film, organised with the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in Figueres, will be staged at Tate Modern from June 1 until September 9.

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