"I really hope that we will never forget one thing - that it all started with a mouse."

Walter Elias Disney

Walt Disney- an outstanding American animation artist, director, actor, screenwriter and producer, creator of a series of full-length cartoons that have won him worldwide fame. Father of Mickey Mouse, Oswald the rabbit, Donald Duck and more than 200 characters loved by all the children of the world. He has received 29 Academy Awards and the highest civilian US government award, the Medal of Freedom. Founder of Walt Disney Productions and creator of the world's first huge Disneyland amusement park.

Success Story, Walt Disney Biography

Walter Disney biography began back in 1901 on December 5, when the fourth of five children, Walter Elias, was born into the family of a carpenter and a teacher. Walt's father Elias Disney was of Irish-Canadian roots, and his mother, Flora, was German-American.

Elias and Flora Disney - parents of Walt Disney

The childhood of baby Walt cannot be called lucky, since the boy's dad raised him in a not entirely democratic way. The father often beat the boy, citing the fact that physical punishment is the best upbringing. But in fact, Elias (that was the name of Disney's father) simply lashed out at the members of his family: the reason for this was the failure of his father: any business that he began to engage in always ended in failure, whether it was construction or just growing fruit.

Very little walt disney

"No! Dad, no! I won't anymore! " - the future animation genius yells heart-rendingly, pressed against a wooden bench by his powerful father's knee. A wide bovine leather belt whistles over the boy's skinny bottom - Walt faces six years of regular vice.

Sometimes Walt wondered if Elias was really his own father: after all, beatings and beatings happened every day. But not all family members were so cruel: the baby often turned to his older brother Roy for help, who could always calm and help the child.

Mother, too, never took the side of his father, and tried to take care of her son. Reading bedtime stories was a consolation. All this helped the child to forget for a while about the cruel real world and plunge at least a little into the world of fantasy. It is this, most likely, that helped the future legend to become the best in the field of animation.

W. Disney with his sister

Chicago, where the family lived, by that time had become not only the largest industrial, but also the most criminal city in the States. Disney's cup of patience was overwhelmed by the murder of a police officer on a nearby street. After this incident, the Disney family moved to the brother of the father of the family, in the small town of Marceline, Missouri. Disney acquired a farm there. Walt was then only 4 years old. The atmosphere of the family here was harsh: Elias Disney had his own idea of ​​what a happy childhood is. There is no place for any nonsense, like useless colored pencils, in it: Walt tearfully begs Daddy to buy at least one box, but Elias is adamant. The boy makes do with branches and liquid resin - as a result, a cute resin cow appears on the wall of the house ... This is followed by a particularly merciless whipping, and the cow on the wall of the farm can still be seen.

Walt Disney's childhood and adolescence

Walt was known to many in Marceline. He was distinguished by his cheerful disposition, so his neighbors and acquaintances loved him very much. One of the neighbors, an elderly veteran, Dr. Sherwood, paid Walt 25 cents to draw his horse on a scrap of paper. Later, Disney believed that it was the successful portrait of Dr. Sherwood's mare that prompted him to become an artist.

From the category of "useless trinkets", pencils moved to the category of "useful things" - Walt received two boxes at once and used up all the paper that was in the house. The boy's life was brightened up by drawing and love for animals: a pig, a dog, a turtle, a mouse saved from a cat stayed in his wards ... The law of psychological compensation must have been in effect here: Walt was at first afraid of his father, and then sincerely hated him and transferred his tenderness to animals. They will not only remain Walt's friends for the rest of their lives, but many generations of young viewers will learn about them and love them. For example, the little hog Porker, on which the baby rode, became the prototype of the cartoon Foolish in Three Little Pigs. In Disney's memoirs, he was not ashamed to admit deep nostalgia for friends in his childhood games.

Walt showed an interest in drawing from childhood, and began selling his first comics at the age of seven. Young Walt took part in the creation of the school newspaper as an artist and photographer, and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in the evenings. Then he took a course in newspaper cartoonists, where they taught non-standard thinking, funny violations of habitual logic and a laconic manner.

As soon as the boy was 8 years old, the family moved again, now to Kansas. Walt's father still could not find a decent income so that they would not be in poverty. His father began to burden him with work. The boy carried letters and advertisements of his father's company: in any weather, in the rain, in the snow, in the early morning or late at night, Walt ran through the streets in his worn out shoes, hurrying to deliver the mail on time. All the money Walt earned was taken away by his father. But Walt did not grumble: he simply took work twice as much as his father demanded, in secret from his strict "boss", and kept everything he earned in excess of the norm for his pocket expenses.

When Disney was 10 years old, his father contracted typhus. Flora Disney sat next to her husband and pressed orange slices to his withered lips, trying to get even a little juice into Elias's mouth. " These orange slices seemed so wonderful to my brother and me that we also dreamed of falling off from typhoid, or even from some more terrible disease, just to get a few drops of the desired juice"Walt's sister, Ruth, recalls.

Soon the father recovered and they decided to move to Kansas City, like many poor families who migrated endlessly across America in search of work. This move played a significant role in Walt's life. In Kansas City, there was a gigantic, wealthy mansion hidden behind a high fence and surrounded by a lush garden. The mansion belonged to a private owner and was the object of desire of local children. All of them so wanted to crawl through some secret hole, play in the garden, and maybe get into the mansion itself, run around its luxurious enfilades, gaze at old portraits.

Walt tried many times to enter the property, and all his attempts ended in failure. Then he vowed that when he grew up, he would definitely build a huge house with entertainment for children, with a huge garden for games. So, apparently, a dream was born, after as much as forty years, embodied in Disneyland.

Walt Pfeiffer became Disney's first best friend. The boys spent all their pocket money on going to the movies. Their idol was Charlie Chaplin. After leaving the cinema, they wandered down the street, taking turns imitating Charlie's gait and trying for a couple to act out his tricks. At that time, Walt's friends, teachers, and Walt himself believed that he must certainly go to the actors.

In the fall of 1918, the young man tried to enlist for military service. However, Walt was refused due to his early childhood, so he volunteered for the Red Cross, and was sent overseas, where he spent a whole year working as an ambulance driver. This car became a local landmark, as Walt painted all of it with funny drawings.

There, his talents as a draftsman, artist, and businessman flourished: Walt drew orders for a moderate fee on the uniforms of his colleagues, and bullet holes on helmets. His ambulance was painted from roof to wheels. Back home, Disney staged its first show. From the front, Walt brought a present for his mother: opening the box, Mrs. Disney gasped, clutched her heart and quietly slid to the floor. There was a bloody human finger. To top it all off, the stump moved. Disney was happy - he made a hole in the box ahead of time and stuck his own little finger into it. It was his signature style: the great humanist delighted his family and friends with such jokes until his death.

Upon his return, Walt managed to enroll in the Art Institute of Chicago, where he discovered that his true talents were in thinking and coordinating projects. He wanted to quickly get out of this building and start working on his own. He wanted to finish this study as soon as possible, just to devote his whole soul to drawing.

Finally he finishes it. And immediately a rather difficult question arose before the novice Disney artist: where to go to work? First, he got a job in one of the restaurant firms, which needed funny advertising drawings in the form of signs. Its director barely hired Disney, and he paid not very high - only $ 50 a week!

1920th year. A young, unknown guy named Walter Elias Disney, gets a job as an artist in an advertising studio in Kansas City. And, although this was the fourth attempt to settle in place, something made Walter not give up and look for work in the art field. By this time, Disney already had some experience as an artist: despite his first failure at the Star newspaper, he soon took a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, a small advertising studio where Walt designed relays for newspapers and magazines. In this studio, Disney meets his future friend and partner Yub Iverks. Soon, Disney and Iverks are fired, but, without thinking twice, they decide to found their own company: "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists". The firm was involved in the creation of decoration items and sold these items to trade firms. Thus, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists is achieving some success. But, the year 1920 comes and we return to the beginning: an inner voice wakes up in Disney, calling to paint, and he, leaving the company to a friend, gets a job as an artist in an advertising company. "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" did not last long on the shoulders of Yub Iverks: soon the company went bankrupt and Iwerks settled in the same place as Disney.

Yub Iverks and Walt Disney

Establishment of the Walt Disney Company

Work in an advertising company - an episode that determined the whole future life of Walt Disney. It is here that he clearly understands that he wants to engage in animation and it is here that he learns this art. In addition, here Disney is actively showing his inherent creative and non-standard vision of the world: he offers an innovative idea to draw on sheets of celluloid and superimpose them on top of each other. This idea seemed revolutionary against the backdrop of an old technique of creating animation: montage shooting of matches or paper figures, moved in such a way that they form clumsy beasts and words. However, they did not listen to Disney, a young man who was not yet respected by anyone. Walt, realizing that in this way he cannot do anything for the company, decides to take up his ideas himself. Therefore, he takes an old, unnecessary camera for the company and, in his spare time, makes with its help his first (still advertising) experimental cartoons, a series of which he called "Laugh-O-Gram", translated as "Laughter". Disney cartoons were distinguished by the quality of shooting (thanks to Walt's constant experiments with light, staging and the drawings themselves) and liveliness, since Disney's creations turned out to be witty and bright.

Opening "Newman Laugh-O-Grams". Drawn cartoonist - self-portrait of Disney himself

Disney's main client was theater owner Frank Newman, for whom Disney created a cartoon series called Newman Laugh-O-Grams. The series "Newman Laugh-O-Grams" is becoming very popular: orders are piled up on Disney, there is a lot of work, and time is short. Therefore, Walt leaves the advertising company and creates his own "Laugh-O-Gram Studio". For this studio, he hires workers - mainly his friends (including Iverks). During its existence, the studio managed to release seven cartoons, which greatly influenced all subsequent work of Disney. They were all a kind of interpretation of old fairy tales. The series was simply called "Laugh-O-Grams".

Having become seriously interested in animation, Walt Disney decides to leave his native Kansas, and in August 1923, having nothing but a few drawings, one finished animated feature film and $ 40 in his pocket, he went to Hollywood.

The idea of ​​creating cartoons became an obsession for him. " I moved from one studio to another, where I visited all the offices in a row, from the personnel department to the set. The only job I managed to get was the role of an extra. I had to ride a horse a few meters - in a crowd of other extras. However, it was raining heavily, the shooting was postponed to another day, and then our scene was simply thrown out of the script. It was the end of my acting career. "- writes Disney in his memoirs.

Desperate to get a job in Hollywood, Walt leases his Uncle Robert's garage. Rent - it says loudly. He simply takes over the proverbial garage, promising to pay someday to use it. In the garage, he places the necessary equipment, bought with money borrowed from Brother Roy - paints, brushes, spotlights, everything for the production of cartoons. Roy becomes Walt's partner (Roy's stake was $ 250 and another $ 500 was borrowed) and they create a cartoon studio called the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.

Soon, Roy faces a gigantic problem: how and with what to feed his brother, who has plunged headlong into work? Roy usually left the garage and went to the small room where the two huddled together to prepare a modest dinner for two. But suddenly Walt, who did not pay attention to any everyday difficulties, makes a terrible scandal, during which he yells at the confused Roy that he will not be, there is that miserable gruel that his brother feeds. And then Roy decides to take a “desperate step”: he proposes to his beloved girlfriend, Edna Francis, who, having become the wife of the unlucky chef Roy, moves to the brothers and becomes their cook for many months.

Roy Disney and his wife Edna Francis

And Walt himself was already thinking about getting married. A wonderful girl, Lillian Bounds, got a job in the studio. She was mainly engaged in pouring paints - that is, coloring the characters created by Walt. Walt didn’t need to look after Lillian very much - she immediately fell in love with her “boss”, and when he was broke, she easily gave up her honestly earned 15 dollars a week - for the good of the studio.

Walt Disney with his wife Lillian

Walt got the idea for the first cartoon when he became interested in the animated films of Max Fleischer. I saw that Fleischer was using a very interesting technique: combining animation with real filming. Those. - the cartoon character seems to enter the real world. But Disney didn’t copy Fleischer’s innovative solution. He did everything a little differently - he introduced the REAL hero to the cartoon world, which is, in fact, much more complicated. First of all, it was necessary to choose a plot (come up with a script). Since childhood, Walt loved the book "Alice in Wonderland", so he decided to stage a cartoon with the participation of this character - a little girl Alice.

Alice's model in real life was the girl Catherine Beaumont, who also dubbed her.

The work on this cartoon required unbearable stress. Walt was already unable to stay awake at night for a long time, so he hired two aspiring artists. These were two friends who studied at the same art school as Disney - Rudolph Aising and Hugh Harman, the future authors of the animated series "The Adventures of Bosco", "Barney Bear" and "Joyful Harmonies". Disney explained to the two guys his requirements for an animated film, and finally the work really started to boil.

Early line-up of Walt Disney Production

After receiving a little money for this cartoon, Walt and Roy decided to change the name of the studio. On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney signed a contract with Margaret Winkler, a distributor from New York. This date is considered the founding day of the current Walt Disney Company. This name turned out to be more fortunate for the brothers.

Vice President of the Walt Disney Company Roy Disney

The studio produced films about Alice for four years, and then Walt decided to switch to the production of fully animated cartoons. The star of the new series is a funny rabbit named Oswald, invented and drawn by Walt Disney. In just a year, the studio released 26 episodes about the adventures of a rabbit, but when it was time to start a new season, Walt was horrified to find that the practical Margaret Winkler had managed to lure four studio artists and now plans to release cartoons about Oswald without the participation of the creator. Alas, the contract was drawn up in such a way that it was the distributor, not the author, who owned the rights to the cartoon character. It was a poignant but rewarding lesson for Disney, who has since carefully ensured that the rights to all of his creations belong only to him.

Margaret Winkler

The Walt Disney Studio Team. Here you can see Yub Iverks and Walt Disney holding Louis Hardwicke, the fourth and final girl to play Alice. Middle Bottom - Roy Disney.

The beginning of the Mickey Mouse era

After the loss of Oswald, Disney had no choice but to come up with a new star for their cartoons. This is how the famous Mickey Mouse mouse was born (" His name was originally Mortimer Mouse, but my wife Lillian did not like this name, and she suggested that we call him Mickey. In such a trifle, I could not refuse her - this is how Mickey Mouse was born, which brought my company worldwide fame"- recalled Disney.), Suspiciously similar to his older brother rabbit. Disney himself and the chief artist of his studio Ab Iverks took part in its creation.

However, the studio could not sell the first two cartoons with the participation of Mickey Mouse: they were dumb, and sound had already come to cinemas. Cartoons were created quite quickly for the studios of that time, moreover, we must not forget that the Disney studio was partly artisanal. As soon as sound films appeared in 1927, Walt immediately adopted the experience of his fellow cinematographers and began to voice cartoons. The third film in the series (already with sound) was released on November 18, 1928, and this day was the beginning of the era of Mickey Mouse.

In parallel, Walt Disney launched a new series - Silly Symphonies. It was built on different principles: in each film, new characters appeared, which was supposed to stimulate the creative thinking of the studio's animators. This series became a kind of training ground for Disney artists, where they practiced new animation techniques before using them on larger projects. Nevertheless, it was the cartoon from this series that won the first Oscar for the studio in 1932 as the best hand-drawn film. From that moment until the end of the pre-war decade, cartoons from Disney received an Oscar every year. He received 29 such awards for his work.

Very handy for the Disney company, it turned out that cartoon characters can become a good source of additional income. Once a businessman from New York offered Disney $ 300 for permission to put a picture of Mickey Mouse on fountain pens. Walt Disney just needed the money, so he willingly agreed to replicate the image of a mouse.

Yub Iwerks painting Mickey Mouse

After that, portraits of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters began to appear literally everywhere: on plates and toothbrushes, towels and school notebooks, candy wrappers and wallpaper for children's rooms. In 1930, the first series of comics about Mickey Mouse came out. All this brought good money, and most importantly, contributed to the promotion of cartoon characters and ultimately led to the fact that many of them turned into national legends of America.

In 1927 Walt Disney and his wife Lillian move into their own rather spacious apartment. Walt gives Lillian the dog as a Christmas present. He began to play the role of Lillian's beloved child, who had no children. By the way, two attempts of the Disney couple to have a child failed: both times Lillian had a miscarriage. And when she became pregnant for the third time, Disney, who seemed to want to get an heir, suddenly lost all interest in his wife. In one of his letters to his cousin, Walt wrote: "I am married, and all I can brag about is a cute little wife and a handsome Chow Chow."

So, in 1933, Walt and Lillian's daughter, Diana, is born. On the eve of her birth, Walt sends a letter to his mother, where he complains: “ Lilly is expecting her daughter. Personally, I don't pay any attention to her. I don't want new disappointments. Our whole room has turned into a parody of a nursery, pink and blue diapers are everywhere ... But I don't want to know anything about it. I believe that the most disgusting father in the world will come out of me ... " It's funny that it was at this time, at the end of 1933, that Walt was being awarded by Parents magazine for his contribution to the upbringing of the younger generation of Americans.

In the same 1933, Disney released its first color cartoon, Three Little Pigs. The song "We are not afraid of the gray wolf" sounded there became a national hit.

Meanwhile, the studio is growing. Several more cartoons are being filmed. Mickey Mouse wins the hearts of millions - not only Americans, but also Europeans. Filming "Funny Melodies", the screens appear quacking Donald Duck, the howling dog Pluto and the stupid Goofy, trying to scoop water from the pond into a colander. Disney signs with Columbia Pictures, then United Artists.

In 1934, Walt Disney announced to his employees that he intended to direct a full-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At first, many were skeptical about this idea: few believed that a picture in which there were no live actors would be able to interest viewers in the same way as a big movie. However, gradually the idea of ​​Disney ceased to seem fantastic, and the work began to boil.

The shooting of the film lasted three years and cost an insane amount at that time - $ 1.499 million. Only the Bank of America loan, whose head, Amadeo Giannini, was very fond of Mickey Mouse, saved Disney from going bankrupt. But the result was worth the money, since Snow White was the highest-grossing film of all time for a long time (only Gone with the Wind broke her record). And in 1939 Walt Disney won the ninth Oscar for this feature-length cartoon. It is worth noting that during the awards ceremony, Disney, in addition to one full-fledged statuette, received symbolically seven small "Oscors" - according to the number of dwarfs. Since then, the Disney studio has come to regard feature-length cartoons as the main and potentially most profitable product.

Together with the studio, the Disney family also grows. Lillian, again having failed in the field of motherhood, decides to adopt. In 1937, Walt and Lillian take a little girl and call her Sharon Mae Disney.

There is more and more money. The Great Depression had little effect on Disney's work. Well, unless there was just a couple of strikes in the studio - you see, the artists did not want to work under the supervision of a person who paints worse than them and who has such a meager education (one year of college), but who considers himself a director. The strike very soon "resolved": in essence, the conflict grew out of Walt's quarrels with the producers who wanted to become the official co-authors of Disney.

After becoming rich, Walt buys his parents a mansion. However, upon closer examination, this mansion turns out to be somewhat flawed: its gas heating system is dangerously damaged. One sunny November morning in 1938, gas begins to ooze from a pipe directly into the living quarters, Flora Disney, the mother of our "hero", falls dead on the floor, Elias Disney tries to lift her, and he himself also receives a dangerous dose of gas. Elias survived, but Flora could not be saved. Walt has been suffering for a long time with a sense of guilt after the death of his mother, because he knew about the damage to the heating system, but all the time he put off solving this problem until later.

Filmed during World War II, Pinocchio, Fantasy, Dumbo and Bambi, which had every chance of repeating Snow White's success, did not bring Disney the expected profits. During the war, the studio had to concentrate mainly on shooting propaganda and educational films for the military commissioned by the US Department of State.

Walt Disney with the Gold Medal for the Bambi cartoon,

and Joan Bennett as Bambi

But all bad things come to an end. By the early 1950s, the Disney Company was able to regain overseas markets that had been taken away from it by the war, and again began making feature films, including those with live actors.

In 1954, the Disney Company began producing television programs, becoming one of the pioneers of first black-and-white, and then color television in the United States. The first television hit from Disney was the Disneyland series, which, having changed its name several times, lasted 29 years on the screens of America, and was shown exclusively in prime time. A year later, the debut of the famous Mickey Mouse Club program took place, in which many future stars of American show business took their first steps.

Disney is already a mature person, an accomplished person, who has lost the opportunity to develop creatively due to the fact that a lot has already been achieved, but from all this he is no less full of enthusiasm. It is thanks to him that Disney partially finds a way out of its creative stagnation: love for animals, which had been Walt's quality since childhood and manifested itself when working on early full-length cartoons, made itself felt again and came to Disney's mind, this time, in the form of an idea to create a series documentaries about nature. So, from 1953 to 1959, the Disney team shot 7 documentaries, united in the series "True Life Adventures".

Of course, these films turned out to be wonderful and influenced not only the company's further projects, but also ordinary documentary programs about nature, however, in this way, Disney could only take away his soul, but in no way repeat his success as an innovator in the world of cinema. But, as it usually happens, Disney needed a little rest and stability before committing anyone who wishes can come and walk with them completely immersed in a fairy tale. So, in Anaheim, California, in 1955, the first Disneyland opens.

Disneyland - Dream Land for children of all ages

Gradually, however, Walt Disney's talent became cramped in the film and television business. A new field for activity was prompted by his father's experience. Walking with his daughters, Walt often went to zoos, carnivals and other entertainment events. While the children rode on the merry-go-rounds, the father patiently sat on the bench and waited for the daughters to frolic. During these gatherings, he came to the conclusion that America really lacks a place where it would be interesting to spend time for both adults and children. And then Disney decided to create such a place himself.

Wald Disney with his wife and daughters. 1954

In the first project, Disney invested several hundred thousand dollars of personal money and several million loans. Few believed in luck: even the faithful Roy believed that his brother was odd. A large plot of worthless land was bought - soon a toy railway, a river stuffed with electronic crocodiles, Snow White's castle, countless Mickey Mouses and other wonders appeared on it. The park, still unfinished, began to make a profit; the second project, Disney World, turned out to be even more successful. The Disney company was running at full throttle, and the sudden death of the founding father did not stop the car he had debugged. Even the power struggle that broke out then did not affect the profits: Roy Jr. and Diana's husband, former football player Ron Miller, fought for the inheritance for about ten years.

Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago. Disney's family was large: besides him, his parents raised three more sons and a daughter. The father was distinguished by a despotic character, which was most likely due to his unsuccessful attempts to provide for his family. Whatever he undertook - be it the construction business or the sale of newspapers - he suffered a fiasco everywhere. After being beaten by his father, Walt sought solace from his older brother and mother, who healed his mental wounds with fairy tales.

When Walt was 5 years old, the family moved to a farm in Missouri, and a few years later - to Kansas City. Disney felt much better here. He looked after pets, most of which he made characters in his cartoons in the future. It was then that Walt first became addicted to drawing. The father was against his son's new hobby, so he never bought him pencils and paper.

However, the resourceful guy still managed to make drawings with a stick and resin. One of the neighbors once bought a drawing of a horse from Disney for 25 cents. This incident pushed Walt to the idea of ​​becoming an artist. In the evenings he drew fairy-tale characters, and during the day he worked at his father's company, distributing advertising brochures and letters.

In 1917, the Disney family returned to Chicago. After working for a little in the company of his father, Walt went to Europe, where the First World War was going on. For a whole year, he drove a Red Cross ambulance in France. After returning to America, Disney worked for some time as a cartoonist for a newspaper, and then as an artist at a film advertising studio. By that time, he already dreamed of a dream - to build a film studio where it would be possible to shoot animated films.

On the road to glory

Walt Disney's stormy career began in the 1920s, when he and his friend Ab Iwerks created the animation studio "Laugh-O-Gram". However, it was difficult to call it a full-fledged studio. It was located in a garage and had primitive equipment. The budding filmmakers had practically no money. When Walt and Aba's first cartoon "Little Red Riding Hood" failed, they had to leave town to escape their creditors.

Walt moved to Los Angeles with his brother, who believed in his ideas and agreed to invest in the company. Together they founded the studio "The Walt Disney Company", which marked the beginning of a great film empire. Walt was involved in film development, his brother Roy was in charge of finance, and Iwerks became the lead artist. In 1924, the premiere of the first successful Disney cartoon "Alice's Day at Sea" took place.

Despite a good start, the money raised was only enough to pay off debts. It is worth saying that for the first ten years the company was always on the verge of bankruptcy, and only Disney's reluctance to give up made it possible to keep it. In difficult times, Walt was always supported by his wife Lillian Bounds, with whom he married in 1925. At first, she worked as a secretary in the studio, and then helped her husband paint the characters. Together they raised two daughters: their own Diana Mary and adopted Sharon May.

During one of the periods of bankruptcy, Walt made a sketch of a mouse, which was later named Mickey Mouse and immortalized the name of Disney. The producer often recalled that this image appeared in his head for a reason. When he worked in the garage, he constantly watched the mice, and even tamed one. In those years, all of America was discussing the flight of Lindbergh across the Atlantic, and resourceful Disney came up with the idea of ​​putting his hero at the helm of the plane. This is how the first silent film with Mickey Mouse "Crazy Airplane" (1928) appeared, which was a resounding success.

Best of the day

Very soon the first sound cartoon "The Walt Disney Company" "Steamboat Willie" (1928), which tells about the adventures of the same Mickey Mouse, was released. The film turned out to be expensive and brought the studio to bankruptcy. But Disney was not discouraged. He always said that he does not create cartoons to make money, but makes money to create cartoons. This was not the first and not the last such situation in the career of a producer. When Walt set about making the 1937 full-length cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1934, he knew he was taking a big risk. His fears were justified. The film practically ruined the company, but it was a resounding success and brought Disney an Oscar.

The making of Disneyland

Gradually, the Walt Disney film studio came out of the crisis and became one of the most influential in the American film industry. The 40s and 50s were the golden age of animation. Cartoons such as "Pinocchio" (1940), "Fantasy" (1940), "Dumbo" (1941), "Bambi" (1942), "Cinderella" (1950), "Peter Pan" (1953), The Sleeping Beauty (1959). Masterpiece after masterpiece was created at the studio, and Disney did not have time to accept awards from all over the world.

However, Disney had another crazy idea - to create an amusement park where parents could have fun with their children. When he told his brother about her, he just laughed. Experts assured Walt that this project was doomed to bankruptcy, but he believed in his success to the end. The producer sold his own house, but this money was only enough to make the drawings. And then he made a deal with his worst enemy.

In those days, Hollywood and television fought for viewership. Hollywood had a monopoly on entertainment, so television remained unpopular. When the management of the ABC channel laid eyes on the Disney film library, he agreed to give the rights to show his cartoons in exchange for financial assistance. This is how the film producer's dream came true, and in 1955 the first Disneyland was opened in Anaheim.

It is worth saying that this deal not only contributed to the creation of the largest entertainment complex in the world, but also turned the nature of television upside down. Once a week, ABC began airing the program "Walt Disney Presents ...", where the producer's cartoons were invariably shown. So, with the light hand of Disney, television became entertaining!

Walt Disney had many grandiose plans, but he was not destined to realize everything. On December 15, 1966, the great film producer passed away. His business was continued by his own daughter Diane Mary, who for a long time was one of the leaders of The Walt Disney Company, equipped and improved its famous Disneyland.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Walt Disney set a kind of record, being nominated for an Oscar 59 times and receiving 26 statuettes! However, he never chased after fame and money and always said that success can only be achieved if you do not think about material gain. And the most important thing is to follow your dreams and not turn off the road!

The name Walt Disney is familiar, probably, to each of us…. This is especially true for those who grew up watching his films and cartoons. Everyone remembers the cheerful little mouse Mickey Mouse, crazy Goofy, funny Donald Duck ... and how many girls were brought up and brought up on Disney princesses!

However, we are so used to cartoons in sound and color that we take Disney works for granted. Still would! Who will surprise you with Mickey the mouse now, if the animation has long reached such a level that the characters literally crawl out of the 3D screens right in the cinema.

It's hard for us to imagine that cartoons were once black and white and silent. And that it was Walt Disney who made a revolution in the field of animation, made the boy's dream, his dream come true.

Few people know, but it was the work of Disney that became an example for the rest of the world. Japanese animators at one time were tasked with reaching the level of the famous Snow White - and so the anime appeared. Comrade Stalin himself, who closely followed the achievements of Disney, said that Soviet cartoons should be the same: you will be surprised, but most cartoons of the USSR times were born exactly as an imitation of the American animation studio ("The Scarlet Flower", "The Little Humpbacked Horse"), and in Some ("Three Little Pigs") generally used songs translated into Russian. "We are not afraid of the gray wolf" - for the first time this song was performed in the Disney version of the tale about the three pigs.

What can I say ... Other geniuses were drawn to Disney from all over the world. Sergei Prokofiev himself, a famous Soviet musician, personally asked Walt Disney to draw a cartoon for his "Peter and the Wolf"! An animated film to the music of the composer was created a little later at an American studio. Also known is the unfinished cartoon project, developed by the animation genius in conjunction with.

In short, the merits of Walt Disney can hardly be overestimated ... they were really large-scale. This is undoubtedly reflected in the number of awards - in particular Oscars. No one has been able to beat the Disney record yet - he received 25 Oscars during his lifetime and one posthumously (some experts indicate the number 29, since one of the awards was one Big Oscar and 4 small ones).

During his lifetime, the genius of animation lamented that every child knows his heroes, but few people know his own face, his personality. Indeed, we know practically nothing about him. However, Walt Disney's personality deserves no less attention than his work.

Today we will not delve into a detailed biography of Walt Disney, but take only the most important, most interesting and most controversial facts and passages from life, consider them from the point of view of System-Vector Psychology, which will allow us to better understand this mysterious genius.

Walt Disney in the light of System Vector Psychology

Like most geniuses, Walt Disney possessed a sound vector. After all, it is precisely such people who, as a rule, act as innovators: they are able to give birth to new ideas, look beyond the usual things, create something fundamentally new, sometimes condemned and not accepted by society, but, of course, original. People with a sound vector, possessing abstract intelligence, are inherently inventors (especially skin-sound and urethral-sound). They always think outside the box, otherwise.

In addition to the sound vector, Walt Disney also had visual, oral, anal, and cutaneous vectors. The anal and visual vectors gave the cartoonist the opportunity to become what he was - the creator of cartoons. How else, without a subtle sense of style and color (according to various sources, Walt Disney distinguished more than 1500 shades, when, like the eye of an ordinary person, an average of 356 can be perceived) and without perfectionism, combined with perseverance, create a cartoon? Just imagine how much work it takes to make the picture move! Walt Disney voiced his first characters himself. And in this matter, he was helped by the oral vector.

And, of course, the genius cartoonist was an excellent leader and organizer, a director who created a great animation studio that had a long monopoly on the animation market. In this case, Walt Disney was assisted by a skin vector, which correctly showed him the way. Needless to say, the "cartoon dictator" earned more than one million dollars from his cartoons?

Features of Walt Disney animation. How did cartoons begin?

How did modern animation begin? Since being a 14-year-old teenager, Walt Disney, working as a newspaper delivery boy, once saw a silent cartoon about Snow White in the cinema. It was then that his dream was born, which came true a little later ... after all, it was Snow White of 1937 that became the standard of high-level cartoons, finally conquering the hearts of children and adults all over the world.

The first Disney cartoons (about Oswald the rabbit, Mickey Mouse, etc.) are inextricably linked with humor. Disney's humor is special, not always understandable, at times anal stupid, oral vulgar and sound absurd. The first films of the genius of animation are not so much for children as for adults. This is a satire on topical topics, brutally denouncing the imperfection of the modern world. But the work of Walt Disney could not be limited only to this, otherwise they would not have called him a genius.

Walt Disney cartoons are also inextricably linked to music. Starting with "Parahodica Willie", music begins to play a very important role in the animator's tapes, which, of course, is not surprising for a person with a sound vector who perceives the world through the ear. Music is not just a background for the characters' dialogues. She occupies the central part of the genius cartoons: many songs live in the memory of the audience to this day. Walt Disney cartoons are a world of harmony between image and sound.

From this point of view, Fantasia of 1940 deserves special attention, which is an attempt to convey music in color, to subordinate the drawing to the musical context. Walt Disney takes the works of the greatest geniuses of music - Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Stravinsky and other geniuses. "Fantasy" is a cartoon-association, cartoon-abstraction, which was ridiculed by the critics of that time and recognized as the standard of bad taste. However, already in the 60s, this tape received a higher rating. For the first time stereo sound sounds in "Fantasy". The music for the cartoon itself was recorded by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski.

Walt Disney's innovation was not limited to sound alone. In his cartoons, for the first time, three-film cameras for the three-color Technicolor process were used. For a long time Disney studio was the only one who used this technology, having patented it.

The innovator Walt Disney appreciated in the people who worked at his studio, originality and the ability to come up with ideas. He took as his employees the same as he was - gifted owners of the sound vector - and in every possible way encouraged them for new solutions and original tricks. A little later, one of Disney's projects will be a university for creative youth, which, alas, was not destined to be realized during the life of a genius.

The main themes in the work of the Genius

One of the main themes of Walt Disney's works is the theme of the family. Many of his heroes are orphans who have lost their closest people - parents (often mother). The absence of mothers in many of Disney's works often caused rumors and gossip among the audience ... to the extent of accusing the cartoonist of sexism. However, there are some other reasons behind this.

The first reason- in his films, Walt Disney wanted to show how the personality of his characters changes and grows. The loss of his parents (and especially his mother) deprives the hero of a carefree childhood and puts him in front of the need to grow up. Now he must learn to take responsibility. He collides with life and, in spite of everything, stands up and wins.

Another reason the absence of mothers in many Disney films is associated with the cartoonist's personal experiences. The fact is that in 1938 a tragedy happened in the life of a genius - his mother, the closest and most important person for every owner of the anal vector, died from a gas leak. Walt Disney felt guilty for this tragedy, because it was he who bought a house for his parents, which required serious renovation. Disney's mother often complained about gas supply problems, but the cartoonist always put off solving this issue until later, which ultimately led to a tragedy.

Walt Disney felt guilty and could not come to terms with the loss. The topic of losing his mother became very painful for him. Probably with these thoughts in 1941-42. he creates cartoons of Dumbo and Bambi, the main motive of which is the loss of his mother.

As for the other side attributed to Walt Disney, it is associated with the typical perception of a woman by a man with an anal vector. Like most analogs, Disney, on the one hand, idolized and admired women, but on the other, had patriarchal views. A man is a breadwinner, head of a family, a father. A woman is a mother and wife, whose duties include everyday life and children. That is why he did not accept female animators at his studio, believing that a man would cope better with this work.

Walt Disney himself married the beautiful Lilan Bounds - a girl with a skin-visual ligament. For a long time, Lillian Bounds, like many skin-visual females, could not get pregnant. Several of her pregnancies have ended in miscarriages. In the end, after 8 years, the couple was able to have a child - baby Diana Mary was born. The second girl was adopted by Disney, giving her the name Sharon May.

For a man with an anal vector, no matter how genius he is, family remains a priority. Walt Disney devoted all his free time to his beautiful wife and daughters. It was during the next walk that the genius came up with the idea to create a park for children and adults - Disneyland.