Walt Disney History
When people think of animated cartoons, one name immediately comes to
mind
"Walt Disney." He is the most popular and known animator in the
world.
He wasn't successful at the beginning of his career but he was a
taskmaker and
entrepreneur. Walt's hard work and entrepreneurship made the
world's best
popular cartoon character "Mickey Mouse." As an animator and an
owner
of Disney Corporation, he made a lot of influences in past and present
days.
Hereby the importance of his life and influences will be discussed,
in a age
order. First of all, Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago,
Illinois, on
December 5th, 1901, the fourth kid of five children of Elias
and Flora Disney.
The family often moved from place to place because of
Walt's father Elias. He
tried his hand successively as a farmer, a
businessman, an orange grower, a
carpenter and ˇ¦ But he expected all members
of his family, no matter how
young, to spend most of their waking hours
working for him without any
compensation. During Walt's childhood and
adolescence, Elias operated a farm in
Marceline, Missouri. It was there
that Walt spent his early years and developed
his interest in drawing. In
1910 the family moved again, this time to Kansas
City. There he enrolled
in art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1917
the family moved
again, this time back to Chicago. In Chicago, Walt joined Red
Cross unit
and spent nine months as a ambulance driver in France at the end of
World
War I. After Walt Disney returned from France in 1919, he decided to make
art
his career. He soon joined the staff of the Kansas City Film
Advertising
Company, which was producing a simple type of animation. He
and a colleague,
Ubbe Iwerks, learned enough about animation to try doing
some of their own. They
formed a company called Laugh-O-Gram Films. The
company made fun of local
problem and scandals in cartoon form. They sold
well enough to give Walt and
Iwerks the courage to go into business for
themselves. But the Laugh-O-Grams
didn't hold Walt's interest very long. He
had a new idea to try, which was
illustrating updated fairy tales in series
of cartoons. The cartoons he and
Iwerks produced were not bad, but Walt
never got paid for hid films. Walt then
started on a new fresh project, a
series of funny story featuring a girl actress
and animated characters. He
called it "Alice's Wonderland." Money was
so scarce that he couldn't even pay
for the rent. With such meager fund all he
could produce was a pilot film for
the Alice series. He thought Kansas City was
not the place that earns much
money, so he decided to move to California. In
1923, Walt Disney moved to
California, and began Walt Disney Production with his
brother Roy Disney and
a colleague, Ubbe Iwerks. After five year of making
silent cartoons, he
produced 'SteamBoat Willie," the first cartoon to use
synchronized sound1. In
1928 Walt Disney created a cartoon "Mickey
Mouse" by using his own voice.
Disney's success in "Mickey Mouse"
led to the film series called "Silly
Symphonies," which was introduced
in 1929 and first used color in 1932. Soon
full color Disney cartoons was
produced, such as "Three Little Pigs" and "The
Tortoise and the
Hare." These two films even won academy awards. 1930s
brought fame and
successes to Walt Disney as a creator of Mickey Mouse,
Donald Duck, Pluto,
Minnie Mouse, and Goofy. These characters not only
appeared in cartoons but also
on merchandise items licensed by Disney
Production. In 1937 the Walt Disney
Production Studio produced the
world's first animated feature film "Snow
White and Seven Dwarfs." Then
came "Pinocchio and Fantasia" in
1940, "Dumbo" in 1941, and "Bambie" in
1942. "Song of
the South" in 1946, used cartoon characters with live actors.
All of these
films were successful. During World War II the Walt Disney
Production Studio
designed military insignias and made training films for the
United States armed
forces. After the war Walt Disney continued to make
animated films, such as
"Alice in Wonderland" in 1951, "Peter Pan" in 1953,
and
"The Jungle Book" in 1967. He also turned to live-action films such
as
"Treasure Island" in 1950 and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
in 1954.
Moving into totally new area, Walt Disney opened Disneyland in
Anaheim,
California, in 1955. He had wanted to design an amusement park
where families
could have fun together. Disneyland had exciting rides and
attractions but was
also spotlessly clean and run by smiling, friendly
employees. The park
eventually came to be one of the most popular tourist
attractions in the United
States and may be in the world, too. During the
next ten years, Disney added new
attractions to Disneyland while continuing
to make the films the whole family
could enjoy. "Marry Poppins," in 1964, is
considered by many to be the
pinnacle of his filmmaking career. Disney won a
record 32 Academy Awards for his
technical innovations ideas in film. Walt
Disney also pioneered the production
of feature films for television. Some of
these appeared on his weekly series
"The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-59)" and on
" Walt Disney's
Wonderful World of Color," which aired, under several
titles for 29
seasons. Shows prepared for New York World's Fair in 1964
enabled Disney to show
off his Audio-Animatronics figures in such attractions
as "It's a Small
World" and " Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln." The life
like
figure of Abraham Lincoln, which recited passages from his speeches,
never
ceased to amaze fairgoers. Walt Disney never rested. Even as he died,
on
December 15th, 1966, he was planning for a whole new Walt Disney World
vacation
kingdome in Florida, and EPCOT. It is an experimental prototype
community of
tomorrow. It is a fun area consists of a showcase, a recreation
of foreign
cities, spread like fan around lagoon. On the other side of water,
the world of
future is dominated by a 180-foot geodesic sphere, and Spaceship
Earth. The
sphere is is surrounded by a number of pavilions housing
entertaining displays
of future possibilities in the fields of energy,
transportation, agriculture,
mariculture2, and technology. Spaceship Earth is
devoted to information and
communications from dinosaur time to the 21st
century. In conclusion, Walter
Elias Disney was a great taskmaster full
of innovative ideas. In his lifetime he
made so many movies and cartoons that
play important role in children's life.
Also he played important role in
the development of animation and film. Even now
most people remembers him,
because animation computer designers of Walt Disney
Production are keeps
remaking Walt old films and cartoons. Even-though he died,
he still plays
important role in our society,
today.