Walt Disney History Essays (1062 words) -

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 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