Walt disney

Walt Disney’s image is that of a self-made man, the consecration of the American dream. Born into a humble family on December 5, 1901 in Chicago (United States), as a child he strove to help his parents in the work of a small farm, whose animals would inspire him the most colorful and imaginative zoo in the world. big screen. At the age of seven he already showed an interest in drawing and a clear facet of a businessman, by selling his first sketches among relatives. In his teens he held numerous jobs, including being an ambulance driver during World War I, for which he had to forge his birth certificate. Already then he demonstrated his characteristic audacity.

Then he earns a living in Kansas City, doing commercial design and meets who would be his closest collaborator in the future, Ub Iwerks. With this splendid cartoonist, he would found Laugh-O-Grahams from which his first series of cartoons would come out, but the project went bankrupt. Quite the opposite of what happens the following year, in 1923, when, together with his brother Roy, he creates Walt Disney Productions in Hollywood, after a commission from a certain Miss Winkler to make six comic strips about the character of Alice. From then on, luck changes. The Disney universe begins to emerge, the first cartoonists are hired and characters such as Oswald the rabbit and Mortimer the mouse appear, the embryo of what would later be Mickey Mouse. Meanwhile, in 1925 he married one of his employees, Liliam Bounds,

The appearance of the talkies was a real discovery for Walt Disney, a fundamental touchstone for the realization of his dreams. With the Silly Symphonies series , short animated stories at the service of music, he began to savor the success of the public. In one of them, he introduces color, Trees and Flowers , and with The Three Little Pigs he is critically acclaimed. The song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” it was quite a milestone and a balm during the Depression. But Disney was still preparing more ambitious projects with narrative formulas and the use of new animation techniques that were absolutely revolutionary for his time. That big leap was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.(1937), the first animated feature film in the history of cinema. The production cost 1,750,000 dollars, 750 technicians participated in its elaboration and more than 100,000 drawings were made. Quite a feat that would definitively mark the magical trajectory of the Company:pinocchio ,Bambi ,Lady and the Tramp ,Sleeping Beauty and a long list of animated films would follow one another for three more decades. It seems then that everything that Walt Disney’s wand touched would become a sure hit and from there other fields would be explored, such as the mixture of animation with real characters (Mary Poppins ), films exclusively with actors ( 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and documentaries on the wild life of animals. And in 1955 fantasy moved from the screen to a great amusement park: Disneyland, a dream long pursued by Walt Disney. The small studio that started in a garage had become one of the most powerful in the film industry with diversification into vast business areas, such that today movie revenue alone accounts for 18% of the total.

The Jungle Book was Walt Disney’s last film, although he was never able to see it finished when he died on December 15, 1966. His films, his wonderful drawn characters have remained in the common memory, but curiously his greatest creator never drew a frame, nor invented a phrase. He compared himself to a bee that collected honey from all its collaborators to later choose the most suitable elements for the stories. His intuition to find the viewer’s taste, his sensitivity and creative fantasy undoubtedly triumphed.

Disney Formula

The good choice of a series of elements led Walt Disney Disney films to success. He was the first to make characters actually act instead of just moving gracefully, realistically mimicking people’s movements. In addition, the characters had different personalities and were perfectly distinguishable between them. Disney also had the ability to choose timeless stories, well known to the public and that would always be enjoyed by generations of viewers. The narrative is simple, without ever dealing with excessive dialogues (Bambi does not have more than 1000 words) and the good humor is always permanent, without forgetting a good dose of emotion. Another finding was to humanize the animals in his tapes, giving them dialogues and a great presence in the story, if not the absolute leading role. The music and its synchronization with the story also played a fundamental role in the success of the Disney films. All movies are remembered with a sweet melody.