History Of Animation: Disney

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

Laugh-O-Gram studios was a short lived film studio that was founded by Disney and played a huge role in the early years of animation. The first project at the studio was called "Newman Laugh-O-Gram”. Frank Newman was the leading exhinitor in Kanas City and Disney was able to persuade him to allow Disney to create short animations clips that would be used in a series of weekly newsreels. There is only one surviving scene and is one of the few animations Disney ever completed without help.

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.

Laugh-O-Gram studios struggled financially from the beginning and the studio suffered bankruptcy and had to shut down before most of the animations were released. By the end of 1922, many of Disney’s animators were working without pay and began to quit. Although the studio was short lived, it was the base of the empire that Disney would soon begin and many future cartoons.

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.

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.

Alice's Mysterious Mystery

There are references to the Ku Klux Klan in the shorts Alice’s Mysterious Mystery and Alice and the Dog Catcher as well as some illegal activity in Alice’s EggPlant. While many of this might not be a big deal, Alice is a little girl and to be in such dangerous situations could’ve potentially affected viewers.

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

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.

Red Carpet

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.