Walt Disney, American cartoonist and motion picture producer, has made a big impact on today’s animated motion picture industry. His great talent as a cartoonist and producer has inspired many of today’s great film-makers. Here is a short summary of the early beginning and career of probably the greatest animator and film writer of all time.
Walt Disney, in full Walter Elias Disney, was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. At age 16, he left highschool and later studied briefly at art schools in Chicago and Kansas City. In 1923, Disney, along with his brother, Roy, created a small animation company in Hollywood, California and began producing animated motion pictures. Their first production, a series called “Alice in Cartoonland”, combined animated characters with a living actress.
In 1926-28, Disney produced a series called “Oswald the Rabbit”, for Universal Pictures. In 1928, Steamboat Willie was produced by his own company and introduced Disney’s most popular character, Mickey Mouse. This film was also the first to utilize sound in an animated cartoon. Besides Mickey Mouse, Disney created such cartoon characters as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.
In 1937, Disney originated the feature-length cartoon with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Within the next five years, he produced other feature-length cartoons such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. In 1961, Disney was the first to produce a color television series which was called, “Disney’s Wonderful World of Color”. In the 1950’s and 60’s , Walt Disney Productions, Ltd.
, with Disney as executive producer, was one of the major producers of films for motion-picture theaters and television. Still today the company produces more animated motion pictures than any other. From all of Disney’s accomplishments from his career in animation and motion pictures, he received a total of 39 Academy Awards. Disney died in 1966 at the age of 65, and since then the Walt Disney Company has produced a new series of animated feature films and in 1995 purchased Capital Cities/ABC Television.
You’ve just heard a brief synopsis of Walt Disney’s contribution to the film industry. There’s no doubt that his creativity and vision in the area of film-making has inspired many young talents and will continue to do so in the years to come.
