On October 16, 1923, a cartoonist looking for opportunities signed the contract that would change his life forever. This 21-year-old had managed to sell Margaret J. Winkler—a prominent figure in the animated film distribution business—the idea of a series of short films that mixed animation and live-action, about a girl of flesh and blood who lives adventures in a cartoon world. Winkler liked the proposal greatly and for four years he entrusted its production to the newly formed company of the one who had sold him the project in the first place: a dreamer named Walt Disney.
That series titled Alice Comedies led to the founding of the animation studio that 100 years later would become what we know today as the beastly conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. However, perhaps equally significant for the new entrepreneur was his subsequent project. That is, the short films starring Oswald, the lucky rabbit; a character created by Disney in 1927 and that was taken away from him a year later, when the distributor Charles Mintz opted to dispense with the cartoonist in the production of such animations, without him being able to claim the rights to his creation, since from the beginning they were had transferred to Universal Pictures.
That loss left Walt Disney with a hard learning experience that would prove vital for his future in the entertainment industry. From that moment on, he would ensure that all of his creations were his property and immediately put his seal on the character who came to replace Oswald. It was a friendly mouse called Mickey Mouse, with two large ears on his head that could well represent what, from now on, would be two fundamental principles for the company: expansion and innovation.
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In November 1928, Disney presented to the public Steamboat Willie, one of the first animated short films to use synchronized sound. This launch also made Mickey Mouse famous and opened the doors for this character to be the official face of an unusual move by Disney towards the diversification of his business: the merchandisingwhich by the early 1930s was a source of income that was not only attractive but also necessary.
In 1932, the Mouse House was spending a fortune on the animated project Flowers and Trees, due to the use of the innovative and very expensive Technicolor coloring process, acquired by Walt Disney that same year despite the suspicion of United Artists, the then distributor of his productions, and his brother Roy, who was in charge of the finances. But in the end the risk was worth it.
Flowers and Trees It became the first animation to receive an Oscar award. It also laid the foundations for it to reach cinemas in 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarvesthe first animated feature film in color and with sound in history, for which Disney had the success of (also) using an advanced “multiplane camera” that served to manipulate four layers of animation, in favor of a depth in the image never before seen. before seen.
“[Disney] He was always trying to find a new way to use the technology of the time. That’s something he did in everything,” comments Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives (via Variety).
Regarding Technicolor, it is worth mentioning that Disney agreed with the owners of this revolutionary technique for its exclusive use between 1932 and 1935. Consequently, rival animation studios were left far behind in the race, unable to compete against the Silly Symphonies full of vivid colors. It was evident that the once naïve cartoonist who had lost Oswald was no longer so. It was now the promise of an entertainment giant always willing to raise the stakes and not let itself be surpassed by anyone.
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Thanks to the monetary success of Snow WhiteThe Walt Disney Company was able to build its current corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, inaugurated in February 1940. However, in general that decade was not easy for the company, hit by a financial crisis and an animators’ strike that led to the dismissal of allegedly communist employees.
All of the above, added to how expensive it had become to produce animations, led to the studio’s inevitable foray into film. live-action and in 1950 it premiered The island of the treasure, his first feature film belonging to that format. Four years later, the Mouse House made its debut on the small screen through a show for the ABC network and whose main objective was to publicize the next big project of the creator of Mickey Mouse: the Disneyland amusement park.
Disney’s original idea was to build a kind of front playground in Burbank. However, after failing to obtain the permits, the boss then looked towards a vast piece of land in Anaheim used to grow citrus trees… It would be there where he would fulfill the dream he had one day while he was living with his daughters at a fair.
“While they were on the carousel, I sat on a bench, ate peanuts and thought that some type of amusement company should be built where parents and children could have fun together,” Disney recalls in archival material from the documentary series The Imagineering Story.
Disneyland opened its doors in July 1955, a hot day when attendees exceeded the venue’s capacity, there were mechanical failures and a lack of drinking fountains. But regardless of the initial negative reviews, the park received around 20,000 visitors a day in its first month.
Years later, planning began for what would eventually become Disney World in Orlando, Florida; a park that since its inauguration in 1971 held the right to self-govern for more than half a century. But the king could never enjoy that privilege. Walt Disney died in December 1966.
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Twenty years after the death of its founder, the Disney conglomerate began to regain momentum. In 1984, he brought his production scheme to adult films for the first time, through the Touchstone Pictures brand, and also escaped a threatened takeover by powerful shareholder Saul P. Steinberg. On the negative side, the company’s debt amounted to $866 million dollars that year (without inflation adjustments), but at least it was about to experience its prolific period of rebirth, with the launch of The little Mermaid in 1989. This was followed by other animated films that – throughout the 90s – earned very favorable numbers at the box office and the love of the public.
Already in the 21st century, The Walt Disney Company reaffirmed its power through a series of juicy acquisitions. Undoubtedly, the most transcendental have been Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012 and 20th Century Fox in 2019, all four resolved during Bob Iger’s first regime as CEO of the company; position that he returned to occupy in 2022 after the disastrous command of Bob Chapek.
There are those who speculate that Iger returned to the helm of Disney not to give it new life, but to facilitate the technology giant Apple Inc. to buy the House of Mouse, which has been planned for years, according to rumors. And what an irony it would be if the production house that boasted of using the latest in technology at the service of entertainment was absorbed by Steve Jobs’ multinational, which would rather use entertainment at the service of the latest in technology.
Will this be the fate of The Walt Disney Company, created 100 years ago with the primary goal of always taking storytelling to the next level?
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to get lost too. Preferably, in a movie theater.