Walt Disney

Walt Disney

• Defined animation

• Risk taking visionary

• Made many innovations in the art form of animation

Laugh-O-Grams

• COmpany Dinsey started with Ub Iwerks

• Made cartoons that spoofed Fairy Tales

• Went bankrupt

Roy Disney

• Walt Disney's brother

• Became business partner with Walt when he moved to hollywood

• Walt's half finished short “Alice” became series of silent “Alice cartoons”

• Created the Disney Bros. Studio which was then renamed to Walt Disney Productions

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

• Shorts made for Universal Studios

• Had sophisticated animation for the medium because of Ub Iwerks

• Walt was chief story man

• Universial producer Charles Mintz took Ozwald and many animators from Disney (1928)

• Made Disney bitter and obsessed with copyrights and trademarks

• Disney company re-aquired Oswald rights in 2006 after trading football annnouncer Al Michales

Mickey Mouse

• “Plane Crazy" first Mickey Mouse cartoon, did not recieve a lot of interest

• Third Mickey film “Steamboat Willy”, reworked to become first post production synchronized sound cartoon; became a huge hit

Silly Symphonies

• After success of Steam Boat Willy

• Explored combonation of sound, animation, and music

• First short was “Skeleton Dance”, a conceptual animation created and designed for a specific set of music

• A moody piece fo comedy

Carl Stalling

• Disney studio's first music director

• Was friends with Dinsey in Kansas City

• Suggested “Silly Symphonies" series

Making of Donald and Goofy

• Mickey was a huge star but lacked distinct personality

• Other characters were made to interact with Mickey

• These new supporting characters became more popular than Mickey

• Mickey went through redeisgns to be more visually appealing and to have a more expressive face

Story Boarding

• Dinsey studio popularized use of storyboards

• Led to development of other pre produciton ideas

• Pencil tests

• Specialization of labour for animators (character animation vs effects animation)

• Pioneered by Dinsey

• Made animation cheaper and faster to create for public's demand of his cartoons

• Made 22 shorts a year from 1930-1932

Technicolor

• Disney made first technicolor cartoon “Flowers and Trees"

• Three-strip colour process

• Cartoon emphasized and reinforced anthropomorphism and personification

• Disney signed 4 year contract to be only studio that could make technicolour cartoons

The Three Little Pigs

• Ginormous hit for studio

• First song “Who's afraid of the Big Baf Wolf?”

• Represented Disneys continuing search to define cartoon character personalities with movement and action

• Studio started using rounder character design

• Characters with circles and ovals as a abasis were easier to ensure uniform drawings

The Old Mill

• Experimented with multiplane camera

• Gave almost 3D look

• Allowed for cinema style perspectives that were near impossible to draw

• An experiment that was a step towards a feature length film

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

• Animation Pioneer

• Years to plan, three years to complete

• Pioneered animation innovations

• Special effects, character animation, character Nearly bankrpted studio, but huge success

• Became most watched film of all time

• Made so much money, Disney built a bigger studio in Burbank, more modern and allowed for more animators, and to help feature length production animation easier

Pinocchio

• Critical success, fnancial failure because WW2 cut off foreign markets

• Lots of pre-production scrapped becauseof Disney's pefectionism

• Initial run never recovered production costs

• Peak of Disney films, had detailed backgrounds, special effect sequences, and mulitplane camera work

• This amount of sophistication never again achieved because of too intensve labour required

Fantasia

• Most daring and rtistic film

• No narrative structure, dialogue, and little to no sound effects

• Music and animation

• Eash segment had unique mood and style

• Had multipul special effect sequences, and more multiplane camera shots then Snow White and Pnnochio combined

• Financial loss of Fantasia and Pinoccio had bankers stop Disney's goal of releasing two animated fims a year

1941 Strike

• Talented and visionary animators left studio

• Disney's early features possible because of Depression era wages

• Strike, America entering WW2, and continued financial problems stopped Disney feature film production until end of decade

• Studio focused on making training films and propaganda films for the military to make money

Dumbo

• Barely a feature length film

• Inexpensive and a big hit

Bambi

• Closest to realism

• New animation techniques for portray nature as life like as possible

• Loved by audiences, but did not make enough money

• Enduring film and a fan faveorite

• Last animated feature released until 1950

• Studio focused on less costly productions like short and live action films

End of Disney Shorts

• Competiton from studios MGM and Warner Bros

• Disney shorts had higher budgets but qulaity and writing dropped

• Studio more focused on films

• Stopped regular prodcution of shorts in 1955, produces sporadically after that