Walt+Disney



=**The Wonderful World of Disney** = Producer and maker of 680 films- 19 of which were his own- and the founder of two major theme parks, Walter Elias Disney was a man who made his mark in animation and United States’ history. Going from an unknown animator to a world-renown icon, Walt Disney was able to create and share with the world the beloved cartoon characters that people adore today.

=**The Man Behind the Mouse** = toc December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois marked the birth of future animator, Walter Elias Disney. Raised in Marceline, Missouri, Disney soon showed a great interest in drawing and painting. Instead of studying and focusing in school, Disney would often doodle and draw. Often times, he sold his artwork to neighbors. Though Disney’s father held slight disapproval, he was encouraged to continue his ambitions by his mother and older brother, Roy. The Disney family soon moved to Kansas and at the age of sixteen- almost seventeen, Walter enlisted to join the army. Due to his young age, he was rejected and later joined the Red Cross on an excursion to France as an ambulance driver. He soon returned back to America and began to work as a producer for local cartoon businesses in Kansas City. It was here at this time that Disney’s infatuation for animation began.

=**The Art of Storytelling By Animation **= Walt Disney’s first animations began with //Laugh-O-Grams//, a series using animation sketches. This was the beginning of what was later to be called //Alice// //in Cartoonland. Alice in Cartoonland// was a short, seven-minute series where real-life and cartoons were combined to tell fairytales. Unfortunately, Disney went bankrupt not soon after in 1923. With a light heart, however, he moved to California where his brother, Roy, was ready to welcome him with open arms. With 250 dollars in hand, Walter and his brother set up shop in a garage that belonged to their uncle. //Alice in Cartoonland// quickly became successful once more and soon an order from New York was received. In 1928, Disney came up with a new cartoon character, one that all would come to learn its name: Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse debuted in the short //Steamboat Willie//. At the time, synchronized sound had just been recognized and Disney made no hesitation to produce a film where his would be one of the first to successfully use synchronized sound. It was no surprise that //Steamboat Willie// became a phenomenon. As Mickey Mouse grew into popularity, Disney began to create the rest of the Mickey Mouse gang: Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. 3-color technicolor technology also later became available and for two years, Walter Elias Disney was the only man who could produce colored films with this. // Snow White and the Seven Dwarves // was the first full-length film of Disney’s to be released to the public in 1937. Once again, it was another success for the animator and though released during the Great Depression, remained inevitably popular. Over the course of the following five years, Walt Disney would come to create more films such as //Dumbo, Fantasia, Pinochio,// and //Bambi.//

=**The Happiest Place on Earth **= The dream for a place where both adults and children could have fun had implanted itself in Walter’s mind. In the dream, Walt had envisioned a magical and elaborate theme park where many of his creations would come alive. Originally to be built on eight acres, Disney soon realized that as his vision grew that the amount of land needed to grow too. Finally, Disney settled for a plot of land of 160 acres in Anaheim, California. Disneyland was an expensive project, however, and to receive funding, began the television show //Walt Disney’s Disneyland//. Construction took place on July 21, 1954. For the people and Walt Disney who were a part of this project, they had only twelve months before the scheduled grand opening. Wasting no time, Walter quickly hurried to his studio to plan out every part of the future theme park. Bit by bit, Disneyland was beginning to take shape for itself. At last, in 1955, it was completed. The total cost adding up to about 17,000,000 dollars. Six thousand invitations were mailed out across the country in jubilee of great success. Though the opening day was deemed disastrous, Disneyland would come to serve over 200 million people including royalty and presidents from around the globe within the second-quarter century. Walt Disney would also later begin construction of //Disney World// near Orlando, Florida. Unfortunately, however, he would not live to see the grand opening of his second theme park which was in 1971 just five years after his death.

=**A Dream Come True **= <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A long last, Disney had finally achieved much of his long-term goals. He had successfully established his own animation firm and was one of the most important figures during the twentieth century. However, in 1966, Disney was admitted in St. Joseph’s Hospital where he later died. He was 65 and his long-term habit of smoking had done its toll. Nevertheless, the magic he had left in the hearts of Americans continued to live on. Walter Elias Disney, the man who was once an unknown animator, would now be remembered as a world-renown figure forever.

=<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Analysis** =

Though Walter Elias Disney passed away nearly forty-five years ago, he has left a great impact and influence onAmericatoday. With his creative mind and strong will, Disney made his mark in American history by changing the way animation worked in the early twentieth century with color, sound, and giving personality to characters. Not only that, Walt Disney was also took part in World War 2 in the area of propaganda.
 * Overview**

The idea of sound and film first emerged with the Warner Bros. when they introduced a sound-on-disc system. How the system worked was that music and sound effects would be recorded on a wax record that would play in sync with the film. The Warner Bros. later displayed this in the movie “Don Juan”. Although Disney was not the first person to use synchronized sound in films as many people thought, he was, however, the first to successfully integrate the idea of sound and animation together with his short //Steamboat Willie.// Sound and animation turned out to be a great success and Walt Disney later created his musical series //Silly Symphonies// where music turned out to be the “storyteller” by creating the mood intended for whatever the short was to be about. Besides the growing use of sound, however, color was also coming into play.
 * The Use of Synchronized Sound**

In 1932, Technicolor released a technique in which color could be applied to films. Before then, all films were in black and white or colored with the two-c ﻿olor technique. Though some films did have color, the quality was never quite good. Later, when the three-colored technique was released, Disney saw a ﻿ demonstration of the process and quickly saw the advantages of having better and colored cartoons. He personally went to the firm and asked for the patent to hold the technique for two years. Walter re-released his short //Flowers and Trees//, this time in three-color, and received an Academy Award for it. It was setting a new bar for ﻿colored animation. Walt Disney’s success was so great that the founder of the company wrote: “//I needn't relate the story of Disney' s extraordinary success with Technicolor. The 'Silly Symphonies' in Technicolor surpassed the 'Mickey Mouses' in black and white, and then both 'Mickies' and 'Sillies' adopted Technicolor.”// Now that Walt Disney had color and sound, it was time to add in depth.
 * Colored Cartoons**

Before Walt Disney’s time, animation was generally found to be a comedic form of entertainment. There were no plots, no relatable characters, no actual development. Though popular characters such as //Felix the Cat// grew in some ways, the improvement was little and eventually declined. Animation was bare and by the 1920s, Americans had grown tired of the repetitive cartoons. The future of animation was looking bleak. That all changed however, when Walter Elias Disney decided to take the art and put his own spin on it. He turned what was once a small field into a multi-million- possibly even a multi-billion- dollar industry.media type="youtube" key="Olo923T2HQ4" width="357" height="275" align="right" Walter was determined to stand out amongst the rest of the animating world and constantly pushed his employees to create likable and realistic characters. In his short //The Three Little Pigs,// Disney wanted to bring the morality of the fairytale across. He needed to show the audience that it was one’s character that determined their fate. With his short, Walt was able to create a passionate perspective. Chuck Jones, another animator said: //“For American animation, The Three Little Pigs was the turning point. Disney’s animation [had at first] defined characters by what they looked like- in the films like Steamboat Willie, the villain was the big, ugly guy and the hero was the little guy-and everybody moved the same. In The Three Little Pigs, the three pigs looked more or less the same but each acted differently, each had a different personality.// Disney also wanted his films to speak more than just entertainment. The cartoon’s song //Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?// was popular with many Americans for it was identified with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cry, “The only thing we fear is fear itself.” As Disney became more successful throughout the years, they soon found themselves in the midst of one of the worst wars in history: World War 2.
 * Adding Depth to the Story**

Walt Disney was first drawn into the war when he was unable to enter his studios the day after the attack onPearl Harbor. He was stopped by military personnel until he was able to confirm who he was. The military had taken his studio as a makeshift headquarters. The studio would act as a primary defense station to guard a nearby plant.media type="youtube" key="qpgSYbrw09g" width="365" height="315" align="left"
 * Disney and World War 2**

The Naval Bureau of Aeronautics later asked Walt Disney to create twenty animated training films. He quickly accepted the job and began his work. They became popular and the government soon had Disney making dozens more, either for military purposes or propaganda. One of Walt’s most notable propaganda shorts were of Donald Duck dreaming of the fictional world //Nutzi// //Land////.// In it, Donald dreamed of being overworked and having propaganda of the glory of the Feuhrer. At the end, Donald awakens to find himself in his bed inAmerica and exclaims how good it is to be American. This video won the 1943 Oscar for best animated short film. Many of Walt’s other videos also encouraged citizens to save money and pay taxes for the war. Besides making videos, Disney was also asked to make insignias and design tankss with the new and old Disney cartoons in them. After recieving a letter from LIeutenant E.S. Caldwell, Disney was asked to create a logo for the so-called "mosquito boats". They were soon bombarded with requests from other facilities of the government and before Disney knew it, the company had created over seven-hundred emblems and insignias.

Throughout the following years, the Disney company would come to release more classics like 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Aladdin'. The princess characters would come to be known as the 'Disney Princesses' which Barbie would also later be associated with. In the movie, 'Mulan', Jackie Chan was featured as the singer for the chinese version of 'I'll Make a Man Out of You'. Many things have changed for the company for as the use of technology grew, the way of animation also changed. Recent Disney films were now being generated with computers. However, one of the most popular and recent films, 'The Princess Frog' was drawn by hand. Animators said that they wanted to revert back to the old ways and create films as the founder would have intented. The Disney company has also expanded away from animations as they now have iconic stars such as Miley Cyrus and Demi Lavato from the popular television channel, 'Disney Channel'. Miley Cyrus and Demi Lavato have been found to be immense influences on the population of young girls in America and around the world.
 * Disney's Company Today**

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