History of Walter Elias Disney
Walter Elias Disney is recognised as
one of the greatest animators over the globe, in the field of animation. Walter
was born in 1901, December 5 in Illinois in the household of Elias Disney and
Flora Disney. Walter had English, German, and Irish background. When he was
seven years old, he had moved to Kansas and that is where he lived the most of
childhood. During the WWI, at the age of sixteen, he faked to join American Red
Cross. Soon, he returned home and that when he got a scholarship to the Art
Institute of Kansas City. At the institute, he met Ub Iwerks, a fellow
animator. Soon, they set their own organisation and in the early 1920s, a
series of animated shorts had been made by them for Newman theatre. However,
their company experienced bankruptcy.
Then, the two partners went to
Hollywood. In 1923, they began to work on creating a new series about a little
girl who seems to journey to a world full of made-up or animated characters. Walt
was financially backed by Roy O. Disney and Winkler. In the period of
1923-1927, numerous Alice Comedies were produced before they stopped selling. Then,
Walter began to work on a new character, named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Success
was achieved by this series but one year later, it was discovered by Walter
that Charles Mintz and M.J. Winkler had stolen the rights of his character. All
of his animators had also been stolen away from him with Ub Iwerks being an
exception. He was on a train back to his home and he was doodling on a paper,
which resulted in Mickey Mouse. Since only Ub and Walt were available to
animate, three cartoons of Mickey Mouse were created. The first two cartoons
did not gain any success so synchronised sound was added by Walter to the last
one. With Walter providing voice to Mickey Mouse, significant success was
gained by it. It followed many more cartoons and by now, Walter had become
successful but he did not working on new ideas (Krasniewicz, 2010).
Another cartoon series were created
by Walter in 1929, named Silly Symphonies. It did not possess a continuous
character and it also gained success. Flowers and Trees, one of the series, was
the first ever cartoon to have colours and it was also the win to be awarded an
Oscar. Although Silly Symphonies was stopped in 1939, the same did not apply to
Mickey and friends because the series was still quite popular and strong. It
was in 1934 that Walter began to focus on another idea: a cartoon that seemed
to run at the time or length of a feature film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
won the adoration and support of public. It also served to win seven little and
one big Oscar for Walter. Now, he began to focus on the production of features
other than just cartoons. Bambi, Dumbo, and Pinocchio all were successes.
It was the unique style of Walter
that enabled him to gain success in the field of animation. He is considered a
great animator due to his unique animations and addition of colours and voice
to his characters. His character, Mickey Mouse, was a success because he had
added voice to it. At first, Walter used to draw on paper and his characters
would be inked by other animators. However, this did not serve to provide him
with success. It was his decision of adding voice to Mickey Mouse that enabled
him to become famous and be recognised as a great animator (Mosley, 1985).
References of Walter Elias Disney
Krasniewicz, L., 2010. Walt
Disney: a biography. s.l.:ABC-CLIO.
Mosley, L., 1985. Disney's world: a biography. s.l.:Rowman
& Littlefield.