Case Study on Walt Disney Pictures
Introduction
The following article is going to be a breakdown of the history of Walt Disney pictures. I am going to be going through the history and breaking down each of the Era's of Disney. However I am primarily going to focus on the animated films produced by Walt Disney pictures as they are the most known as well as the fact that the history of Disney animated films makes for a much better arc and is much easier to break down than the thousands of live action films that are produced by Walt disney pictures. Never the less let us begin our Journey to a world unlike any other where creatures live 20,000 leagues under the sea and children fly through the night and a mouse hunts a rat, a place where a fox, a hound, a deer and a rabbit all live peacefully, well for a little while at least. A place where being a parent is like being handed the death penalty and where batman is a duck and bruce Wayne is also a duck, now that I'm thinking about it, I think Walt Disney may have had a thing for ducks. But I'm getting off topic so lets return to the objective at hand. Walt Disney.
Early Years (1901-1938)
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5th 1901 in Chicago. Walt Disney was the fourth son of parents Elias Disney and Flora Disney. Walt Disney and his family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri when he was four years old in 1905. Here he would develop his passion for drawing after he was paid to draw the horse of a local retired doctor. Disney's father was a fond reader of the appeal to reason newspaper. Disney would practice drawing by copying the cartoons drawn by Ryan walker on the front page of the magazine. Disney also went on to learn how to use watercolours and crayons. Disney also developed a fascination with trains as he lived near to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway line. In 1911 at the age of 10 Walt moved again to Kansas City in Missouri. It was here where Walt would meet Walter Pfeiffer at school. Walter came from a family of avid theatre fans and introduced Walt to the wonderful world of the motion picture through vaudeville performances and films. Not long after the two would become very close friends. Walt's father purchased a newspaper delivery rout while living in Missouri, so Walt and his younger brother Roy would have to wake up every morning at 4:30 am and deliver the newspapers before going to school as well as repeating the round after school to deliver a different newspaper on the same route . This lead to the two being extremely tired all of the time, which in turn lead to the two performing poorly in school as they were known to fall asleep during class because they were exhausted from doing the paper round. Walt also attended Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art institute as well as taking a correspondence course in cartooning.
By the time Walt was 19 he had worked as an ambulance driver for the red cross after being denied to join the military to fight the Germans in the first world war. While working as an ambulance driver Walt worked alongside Ray Kroc, who coincidently would go on to become the "Founder" of the insanely popular restaurant chain McDonalds. After leaving the Red Cross at the end of the war, Walt went and worked as a an apprentice artist at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City. There he drew commercial illustrations for advertising, theater programs and catalogues. Whilst working there he befriended a fellow artist by the name of Ub Iwerks. By January of 1920 Pesmen-Rubin's Revenue declined post Christmas, Disney and Iwerks were both fired from their jobs and so the two decided to start their own business, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists which was sadly short lived. Since the business was failing to gain any traction and attract customers the two men agreed that Disney should leave temporarily to earn money at the Kansas City Film Advertisment company. Iwerks would join Disney after just a month due to being unable to run the business alone and deciding to close it completely. While the two were working at the advertising company they developed and produced animated adverts using the cutout animation technique which is an early form of stop motion that uses flat characters rather than 3d models. The popular show South Park used this technique when they created their pilot episode in 1997. While working on these adverts Walt became interested in animation, However he preferred to draw more cartoon characters. Disney would go on to experiment with animation at home with a book that he borrowed about animation and a camera. He would determine that cell animation was far more promising than the more commonly used cutout animation. While he was unable to to persuade the head of the advertising company to try cell animation, Disney decided to open his own business again with a fellow employee from the advertising company Fred Harman, here Disney would implement cell animation and the biggest client that the business had was the local Newman theatre where the Cartoons that Disney and Harman produced where called "Newman's Laugh o grams". When creating the shorts Disney studied Paul Terry's Aesops Fables as a story model. This would lead to the first 6 laugh o grams being modernised Fairy tales.
By May of 1921 the "Laugh o grams" became such a success that Laugh O Grams studio was established. Here Disney would go and hire more animators, these included Fred Harman's Younger Brother, Rudolph Ising and His former business partner and close friend Ub Iwerks. The Laugh O grams alone however did not provide enough income to operate the business smoothly so Disney decided to begin production on Alice in Wonderland which was based on the well known book of a similar name. The Idea was to combine both live action and animation, Disney decided to cast Virginia Davies who was a young child actress as the lead role of Alice. The end product of the production was a 12 and a half minute one reel film. However the Film wasn't finished in time to save Laugh O Gram from disaster as the company went bankrupt in 1923. Later that year Disney would move to the magical land of Hollywood. Although New York was the nucleus of the cartoon industry at the time, Disney was attracted to los Angeles because due to one of his brothers Roy convalescing from tuberculosis there. Disney made multiple attempts to sell Alice in Wonderland but there was no success.
Golden Age (1940-1968)
Stumble (1977-1988)
Renaissance (1989-2000)
Innovation (2001-2010)
Modern (2010-2018)
World Domination
Conclusion
The following article is going to be a breakdown of the history of Walt Disney pictures. I am going to be going through the history and breaking down each of the Era's of Disney. However I am primarily going to focus on the animated films produced by Walt Disney pictures as they are the most known as well as the fact that the history of Disney animated films makes for a much better arc and is much easier to break down than the thousands of live action films that are produced by Walt disney pictures. Never the less let us begin our Journey to a world unlike any other where creatures live 20,000 leagues under the sea and children fly through the night and a mouse hunts a rat, a place where a fox, a hound, a deer and a rabbit all live peacefully, well for a little while at least. A place where being a parent is like being handed the death penalty and where batman is a duck and bruce Wayne is also a duck, now that I'm thinking about it, I think Walt Disney may have had a thing for ducks. But I'm getting off topic so lets return to the objective at hand. Walt Disney. Early Years (1901-1938)
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5th 1901 in Chicago. Walt Disney was the fourth son of parents Elias Disney and Flora Disney. Walt Disney and his family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri when he was four years old in 1905. Here he would develop his passion for drawing after he was paid to draw the horse of a local retired doctor. Disney's father was a fond reader of the appeal to reason newspaper. Disney would practice drawing by copying the cartoons drawn by Ryan walker on the front page of the magazine. Disney also went on to learn how to use watercolours and crayons. Disney also developed a fascination with trains as he lived near to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway line. In 1911 at the age of 10 Walt moved again to Kansas City in Missouri. It was here where Walt would meet Walter Pfeiffer at school. Walter came from a family of avid theatre fans and introduced Walt to the wonderful world of the motion picture through vaudeville performances and films. Not long after the two would become very close friends. Walt's father purchased a newspaper delivery rout while living in Missouri, so Walt and his younger brother Roy would have to wake up every morning at 4:30 am and deliver the newspapers before going to school as well as repeating the round after school to deliver a different newspaper on the same route . This lead to the two being extremely tired all of the time, which in turn lead to the two performing poorly in school as they were known to fall asleep during class because they were exhausted from doing the paper round. Walt also attended Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art institute as well as taking a correspondence course in cartooning.
By the time Walt was 19 he had worked as an ambulance driver for the red cross after being denied to join the military to fight the Germans in the first world war. While working as an ambulance driver Walt worked alongside Ray Kroc, who coincidently would go on to become the "Founder" of the insanely popular restaurant chain McDonalds. After leaving the Red Cross at the end of the war, Walt went and worked as a an apprentice artist at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City. There he drew commercial illustrations for advertising, theater programs and catalogues. Whilst working there he befriended a fellow artist by the name of Ub Iwerks. By January of 1920 Pesmen-Rubin's Revenue declined post Christmas, Disney and Iwerks were both fired from their jobs and so the two decided to start their own business, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists which was sadly short lived. Since the business was failing to gain any traction and attract customers the two men agreed that Disney should leave temporarily to earn money at the Kansas City Film Advertisment company. Iwerks would join Disney after just a month due to being unable to run the business alone and deciding to close it completely. While the two were working at the advertising company they developed and produced animated adverts using the cutout animation technique which is an early form of stop motion that uses flat characters rather than 3d models. The popular show South Park used this technique when they created their pilot episode in 1997. While working on these adverts Walt became interested in animation, However he preferred to draw more cartoon characters. Disney would go on to experiment with animation at home with a book that he borrowed about animation and a camera. He would determine that cell animation was far more promising than the more commonly used cutout animation. While he was unable to to persuade the head of the advertising company to try cell animation, Disney decided to open his own business again with a fellow employee from the advertising company Fred Harman, here Disney would implement cell animation and the biggest client that the business had was the local Newman theatre where the Cartoons that Disney and Harman produced where called "Newman's Laugh o grams". When creating the shorts Disney studied Paul Terry's Aesops Fables as a story model. This would lead to the first 6 laugh o grams being modernised Fairy tales.
By May of 1921 the "Laugh o grams" became such a success that Laugh O Grams studio was established. Here Disney would go and hire more animators, these included Fred Harman's Younger Brother, Rudolph Ising and His former business partner and close friend Ub Iwerks. The Laugh O grams alone however did not provide enough income to operate the business smoothly so Disney decided to begin production on Alice in Wonderland which was based on the well known book of a similar name. The Idea was to combine both live action and animation, Disney decided to cast Virginia Davies who was a young child actress as the lead role of Alice. The end product of the production was a 12 and a half minute one reel film. However the Film wasn't finished in time to save Laugh O Gram from disaster as the company went bankrupt in 1923. Later that year Disney would move to the magical land of Hollywood. Although New York was the nucleus of the cartoon industry at the time, Disney was attracted to los Angeles because due to one of his brothers Roy convalescing from tuberculosis there. Disney made multiple attempts to sell Alice in Wonderland but there was no success.
Golden Age (1940-1968)
Stumble (1977-1988)
Renaissance (1989-2000)
Innovation (2001-2010)
Modern (2010-2018)
World Domination
Conclusion
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