DISNEY, WALT

Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901–December 15, 1966) was a motion picture and television producer and entrepreneur. After a childhood and youth in the Midwest, Walt Disney entered the field of animated cartoon films in the 1920s and ultimately achieved world fame with the creation of Mickey Mouse. He went on to a long and successful career producing cartoons, feature-length films, and wildlife documentaries, then branched out into television during the 1950s and broke new ground in that medium as well. He also pioneered the concept of theme parks with Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the latter in progress at the time of his death.

Although Disney achieved recognition in a variety of fields during his life, his lasting reputation as an artist rests on his work in animated cartoons. The Disney studio introduced technological innovations and a new level of artistic brilliance into animation, transforming a relatively crude medium into a dazzling and sophisticated form. The years of this transformation, and Walt Disney's peak years as an artist, were the 1930s and early 1940s—a period corresponding almost exactly to the Great Depression—during which Disney produced a series of one-reel Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons, then ambitiously tackled the making of feature-length animated films. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney's first full-length animated film, was a commercial success that captivated audiences and demonstrated the viability of the genre. By the early 1940s, in films like The Old Mill (1937), Snow White, and Fantasia (1940), the studio had established a standard of artistic excellence in animation that has never since been equaled.

The Depression years lent more than a backdrop to this creative phenomenon; they had a direct bearing on the process. In the early 1930s, when Disney's explosive growth was beginning, numerous artists were drawn to his studio out of simple necessity. Veterans of the period have testified that, in those bleak economic times, jobs for artists were exceedingly scarce. Cartoonists, fine draftsmen, skilled painters, and other artists flocked to the Disney studio, grateful for a chance at steady employment. Disney, in turn, displayed an uncanny knack for assessing the varied gifts of these artists, and encouraged them to use their distinctive abilities to elevate the quality of the films.

In addition, the films themselves reflected the spirit of their time. Mickey Mouse, created in 1928, gradually achieved nationwide recognition during 1929, and thus the rise of his popularity coincided with the onset of the Depression. Mickey, with his humble barnyard origins, made an ideal mascot for an America faced with hard times; his unflagging good cheer and plucky resourcefulness seemed to symbolize the indomitable spirit of the country. In his very first film, Plane Crazy, he improvises an airplane out of an old jalopy and other found objects, and in many succeeding films he similarly makes do with whatever unlikely items may be at hand.

An even more striking morale builder was the 1933 Silly Symphony Three Little Pigs. In this immensely popular cartoon, a nation facing a figurative "wolf at the door" saw the title characters defeat their Big Bad Wolf through a combination of optimism and hard work. The Pigs and their taunting theme song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" sparked a nationwide craze in 1933, and observers have often seen the film as an antidote to the Depression. Other Silly Symphonies like Grass-hopper and the Ants and The Wise Little Hen (both 1934) entertainingly stressed the benefits of diligence and industry.

The happy antics of Mickey, the Pigs, and other Disney creations made life a little more bearable for millions of Americans during the 1930s. Small wonder that those same Americans continued to reward Disney with their loyal support in succeeding decades.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrier, Michael. Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. 1999.

Greene, Katherine, and Richard Greene. The Man behind the Magic: The Story of Walt Disney. 1991.

Isbouts, Jean-Pierre, director. Walt: The Man behind the Myth. 2001.

Kaufman, J. B. "Three Little Pigs: Big Little Picture." American Cinematographer 69, no. 11 (November 1988): 38–44.

Merritt, Russell, and J. B. Kaufman. A Companion to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. 2004.

Watts, Steven. The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life. 1997.