Walt Disney
Producer, Entrepreneur
Born December 5, 1901
Didn't graduate from High School
Died December 15, 1966
Walt Disney’s inspiration began in 1919 when he met cartoonist Ubbe Ert Iwwerks, who is better known as Ub Iwerks. His career in the industry began making cutout animations for an ad company.
Laugh-O-Gram Studios
It is at Laugh-O-Gram where
Disney began to get his inspiration for animating fairytales. He loved making a
modern day twist by incorporating current events into the animations. Disney
created 7 animations through the studio consisting of Little Red Riding Hood,
The Four Musicians of Bremen, Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, Puss in Boots,
Jack and the Giant Killer, and Alice’s Wonderland.
Alice Comedies series
The Alice series technically wasn’t released until after the Laugh-O-Gram studios closed down due to bankruptcy, but the first Alice Comedy was made while the studio was still in business. Although the first comedy was never formally released, it helped set the stage for what later came with the series.
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| KoKo the Clown |
Alice was inspired by how popular
the Fleischer Brothers were in incorporating animated characters with the real
world. In order not to “copy”, Disney reversed the idea and used a live action
character, played by four-year-old Virginia Davis, in a cartoon.
"Gini was a very special lady who always took great pride
in
the historic role she
played in our studio's
history. In fact, she liked
to remind everyone that
it all started with Alice, not Mickey Mouse."
-Roy E. Disney on Disney Legend Virginia Davis
 |
| Walt Disney and Virginia Davis |
Disney believed in Alice enough
to move out to Hollywood in hopes of finding someone who saw the same thing in
the Alice comedies and quickly began the search of finding a distribution. Winkler
Productions, which was owned by M.K. Winkler and her husband Charles Mintz,
distributed the Alice comedies series. The series consisted of over 50 shorts
of Alice going on adventures although some have been lost over time.
Although Alice is a little girl,
some of the content contains content that might be considered somewhat harsh
today. The shorts show a lot of danger, kidnappings and threats.
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| Alice's Mysterious Mystery |
There are references to the
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
After Alice Comedies ended,
Disney got back to the drawing board to create a new character, Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was invented in 1927 by Disney and starred in a series of
26 black and white animated shorts for the course of one year. He was known for
his mischievous and rebellious personality and had similar features to a mouse
that would later be created. Over the course of the series, Oswald had clever
gestures and was amusing to the audience that made him an instant star. He was
the first of Disney’s characters to sell merchandise. As the success of the character grew, Disney
wanted an increase in pay so that he could create even more detailed
animations. Mintz instead wanted to cut the budget and decided to take the
character if Disney didn’t agree. With Oswald left most of Disney’s team of
animator except for Ub Iwerks and Les Clark. As goodbye was said to one character,
another, more legendary character, was born.
Mickey Mouse
It didn’t take long after Oswald was stolen that Disney created a new character called Mickey Mouse. The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho, were produced as silent films fairly quickly which resulted in them not getting sold to a distributor. The third one was the first short to have sound and music synchronized called Steamboat Willie (1928). Disney himself voiced Mickey Mouse and the cartoon was an immediate success.
Silly Symphonies
With the rise of Mickey’s success,
Disney in 1929 created the “Silly Symphonies”. These cartoons were unique
because they did not have a continuous character from short to short. The
cartoonists were allowed to let their imaginations loose since they did not
have to me focused on one main character like they did for the Mickey Mouse
shorts.
In 1932, Flowers and Trees was first cartoon by Disney to be produced in color. This short led Disney to the first of his many Academy Awards, seven of which he won just for Sillie Symphony shorts.This series was also the first time animators used three dimensional backgrounds instead of the flat two dimensional look as well as attempting to animate realistic human figures.
Over the course of 10 years, 75
shorts were produced and Silly Symphonies was known to be a platform where
Disney and his team of animators could experiment with new techniques to
improve their animation style. Since they did experiment, it was a huge factor
in why Disney wanted to expand into feature length animated films and
eventually the leading factor has to why the popularity of the series began to
dwindle down.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
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| Snow White Premiere in 1937 |
Many of the techniques and
technology that was pioneered during the making of Silly Symphonies was
created in hopes of producing the first feature length animated film. Even
though everyone thought that Disney was crazy for even thinking he could
produce a feature film, he was determined. During production, Disney ran out of
money and was forced to show investors clips of the film so he could receive
additional funding. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened on December 21, 1937
costing a total of $1.5 million to produce. Snow White turned out to be a
success, earning over $8 million during its initial release, which would be
converted to about $130 million today. This animation was a historical moment
in the film industry. After such huge success, Disney went on to produce more
feature length films such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.
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| Red Carpet |
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| Disney and his wife at the premiere |
Technicolor
When Disney got hold of the
Technicolor in 1932 for the Silly Symphonies cartoon Flowers and Trees, he
negotiated an exclusive deal that only allowed Disney animations to use the
process for three years. This allowed Disney to gain a huge lead with
competitors.
MultiPlane camera
Disney’s MultiPlane camera was
not the first of its time, but it was the most famous. It used 7 layers of
artwork that was shot on a vertical angle. The layers allowed the background to
provide depth and more realistic detail that brought the picture to life.
The last Disney film to use this
camera was The Little Mermaid.
Disney has received more academy awards and nominations than
any other person in history, leaving behind a legacy that forever changed the
animation industry.
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