Walt Disney

Walt Disney (Walter Elias Disney) , 1901-66, American movie producer and pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He grew up in Missouri, in the small town of Marceline and in Kansas City. He moved to Chicago in 1917, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and began (1920) his career as a cartoonist making animated film advertisements. In 1928 Disney created the character Mickey Mouse in the silent film Plane Crazy. That same year Mickey also appeared in Steamboat Willie, a short that initiated the concept of making a separate cartoon for each animated movement. Instantly famous, the film was also Disney's first attempt to use sound (his own voice for Mickey), and it was followed by many other shorts starring Mickey and his animal sidekicks. An international success, by 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoons had been viewed by some 500 million moviegoers. Disney also experimented with the use of music ( The Skeleton Dance ), the portrayal of speed ( The Tortoise and the Hare ), three-dimensional effects ( The Old Mill ), and the use of color (one of the earliest color shorts was 1933's Three Little Pigs ).

Disney produced the first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), which took three years to complete. Additional features included Pinocchio (1939), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). In Song of the South (1946), he merged live actors and animated figures. During World War II, Disney's studio produced cartoons for the armed services as training tools and morale builders.

Beginning with Treasure Island in 1951, Disney added live-action movies to his output, while still producing such animated classics as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). Thereafter, his studio produced several animal stories (e.g., Greyfriars Bobby, 1960), musical fantasies (e.g., Mary Poppins, 1964), and television programs, beginning in the early 1950s with the weekly Disneyland and its famous Mouseketeers. Disney and his productions received numerous Academy and other awards during his lifetime. After his death, the Disney studios remained active, diversified, and ultimately became enormously successful. In the early 1980s, they began producing films for adults.

Disneyland, a huge theme park in Anaheim , Calif., which in part celebrates America's hometowns and small-town values, was opened by Disney in 1955. Disney's California Adventure, a second, smaller theme park in Anaheim, opened adjacent to Disneyland in 2001. An even bigger park, Walt Disney World, opened near Orlando , Fla., in 1971 as a theme park and resort, and Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom have since been added there. Disneyland parks have also opened near Tokyo (1983), in Marne-la-Vallée, near Paris (1992), and in Hong Kong (2005).

Bibliography: See biographies by D. D. Miller and P. Martin (1956), B. Thomas (1958), S. Watts (1998), and N. Gabler (2006); R. Schickel, The Disney Version (1968); C. Finch, The Art of Walt Disney (1973); M. Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince (1993); R. Merritt and J. B. Kaufman, Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney (1994); H. A. Giroux, The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (1999); D. Smith and S. Clark, Disney: The First 100 Years (1999).

Disney, Walt ( Walter Elias) (1901–66) US film animator, producer and executive. Disney has become synonymous with family entertainment and a menagerie of cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto. Steamboat Willie (1928) was the first cartoon to use sound and featured Walt Disney's own voice as Mickey Mouse. Disney's first feature was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). A series of popular classics followed: Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). In 1950, Disney diversified into live-action features with Treasure Island (1950), and began a series of nature documentaries with The Living Desert (1953). In 1955, Disneyland amusement park opened in Anaheim, California. Disney collected a total of 29 Academy Awards. The Walt Disney Company (founded 1923) is one of the world's most powerful media corporations.

Disney, Walt (1901–1966), motion picture producer, director, major innovator in U.S. film animation.Born in Chicago, Walt Disney attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, drove an ambulance in France in 1918, and worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City before moving to Hollywood in 1923. Here he founded an animation studio with his older brother Roy. After several efforts, the studio found success with Mickey Mouse and the first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Disney created the first full‐color cartoon (Flowers and Trees, 1932) and the first animated feature (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937). A shrewd entrepreneur, he pioneered the use of merchandising, launched a television series when most producers avoided the new medium, and created theme parks.

Disney's productions became the most popular motion pictures in history. The short cartoons starring Mickey and Donald Duck played in theaters around the world. The features after Snow White —chiefly Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1947), Cinderella (1950), and Peter Pan (1953)—proved ageless. Although many were not financially successful at first, all eventually became immensely profitable through constant rereleases. With their sumptuous color, meticulous backgrounds, and detailed character movement, the films remain dazzling cinematic achievements. The stories blend songs, slapstick, sentiment, and relentless optimism with a dash of sheer childhood terror. Although criticized for homogenizing their literary sources, Disney's cartoons struck a universal emotional chord.

Disney had little talent for drawing, but he inspired his brilliant staff with his infectious enthusiasm, his dedication to technical advancements, and his skill in building vivid gags and stories. In the 1950s Disney turned to the lucrative arena of live‐action filming for family audiences. His weekly television show (1954–1981) served as a display case and promotional tool. Disneyland, a theme park, opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955, followed by Walt Disney's World in Florida in 1971.

Although Disney's company was riven with conflicts after his death, the firm emerged in the mid‐1980s as the prototype of a successful international media conglomerate. Late twentieth‐century Hollywood, relying on “synergies” among movies, video games, product tie‐ins, and theme parks, has fulfilled Disney's vision of cinema as an all‐pervading entertainment environment.
See also Amusement Parks and Theme Parks; Film; Foreign Relations: The Cultural Dimension; Leisure; Mass Marketing; Multinational Enterprises; Popular Culture.

Bibliography

Richard Schickel , The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney, rev. ed., 1985.
Eric Smoodin , Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom, 1994.

David Bordwell