You can't deny the cultural impact of Walt Disney. To do so would be tantamount to denying the cultural impact of Louis B. Mayer or James Dean. He ratified popular culture and changed the way we not only saw ourselves, but how we interacted with our environment and the medium of not only film, but television as well. He did this with lines on paper and a little mouse with gloves.
He was born on December 15, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. The son of Elias and Flora Disney, who had moved from Ontario, Canada in 1890, the family moved from Chicago to Marceline, Missouri for four years to farm. One of their neighbors paid Walt to create pictures of his horse and a love of drawing was born.
Unable to get into the Army at sixteen, Walt volunteered for the Red Cross instead and was charged with driving an ambulance in France. When he returned, he left the family home and searched for work in Kansas City. He found work creating commercial ads and met Ub Iwerks. The two became the best of friends and in 1920, they struck out on their own, starting the Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists Company. Money was hard to come by and soon Disney was working for an ad company to make ends meet. While employed there, he took an interest in animation and soon defected to open his own animation company.
Impressed, by Disney's Alice Comedies, Margaret Mintz distributed Disney's animated shorts through her husband's company. In 1928, after the immense success of Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt flew to New York to ask Charles Mintz for a larger production budget. To Disney's dismay, Mintz not only declined to increase the production budget, but also informed him of the need to make sweeping budgetary cuts. Disney rebuked the draconian measures and subsequently lost the rights (which Mintz had procured) to the Oswald Rabbit character and the contracts to many of his animators.
Drawn on a train ride and receiving only a tepid response from his wife, Mickey Mouse would go on to be featured in Disney's first bona fide success: Steamboat Willie. This changed everything for Walt. This sound cartoon would propel Disney to creating the industry's first animated feature, Snow White. The list of Disney movies that has come into being has changed not only popular culture, but world culture and is a testament to Disney's will to succeed. - 29968
He was born on December 15, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. The son of Elias and Flora Disney, who had moved from Ontario, Canada in 1890, the family moved from Chicago to Marceline, Missouri for four years to farm. One of their neighbors paid Walt to create pictures of his horse and a love of drawing was born.
Unable to get into the Army at sixteen, Walt volunteered for the Red Cross instead and was charged with driving an ambulance in France. When he returned, he left the family home and searched for work in Kansas City. He found work creating commercial ads and met Ub Iwerks. The two became the best of friends and in 1920, they struck out on their own, starting the Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists Company. Money was hard to come by and soon Disney was working for an ad company to make ends meet. While employed there, he took an interest in animation and soon defected to open his own animation company.
Impressed, by Disney's Alice Comedies, Margaret Mintz distributed Disney's animated shorts through her husband's company. In 1928, after the immense success of Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt flew to New York to ask Charles Mintz for a larger production budget. To Disney's dismay, Mintz not only declined to increase the production budget, but also informed him of the need to make sweeping budgetary cuts. Disney rebuked the draconian measures and subsequently lost the rights (which Mintz had procured) to the Oswald Rabbit character and the contracts to many of his animators.
Drawn on a train ride and receiving only a tepid response from his wife, Mickey Mouse would go on to be featured in Disney's first bona fide success: Steamboat Willie. This changed everything for Walt. This sound cartoon would propel Disney to creating the industry's first animated feature, Snow White. The list of Disney movies that has come into being has changed not only popular culture, but world culture and is a testament to Disney's will to succeed. - 29968
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If you would like to celebrate the genius of Walt Disney, feel free to browse through a list of Disney movies and popular TV shows. He changed it all and now you can watch how he did it.
