The Wonderful World of Disney and is a picture of someone who has succeeded in achieving all his goals. Walt Disney's life can be summarized in the guidelines that all rich people follow. Whoever wants to be successful, must work hard, never give up, and follow passion more. Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. His mother, Flora Call, was a German woman, while his father, Elias Disney, was of Irish Canadian descent.
But there was one idea that always bothered Walt Disney—the idea of working on his own—especially since he had heard that some employees would be redundant when the busy season was over. He was excited by the prospect for two reasons. First, he wanted to be on his own, and second, he was eager to do something new and original, not just to please his boss and his customers.
Disney, along with a friend, Ube Iwerks, founded his first advertising art agency. His first client was a chain of restaurants. Disney and his friend managed to make a deal with the restaurant to build their workshop in the new restaurant building, without any payment. But, in return, they had to create advertising posters for the restaurant.
In addition to working to fulfill the contract with the restaurant, they were free to work on other projects. To attract customers, Walt made a special plan. He would go to a store or company and find out if they had an art department. The person in charge of the company might say that there was no need for such a department. Then Walt would offer his services on a freelance basis. So, if the company didn't have a job for him, "no problem." But whenever there was a job to be done, Walt and his friend were ready to provide their services. In a short time, this way of working allowed Walt and his friend to save a lot of money that they would not have been able to save if they had only worked for one company.
The business seemed promising, but one day Walt came across an ad in the newspaper that the Kansas City Film Ad Company needed a cartoonist. He faced a dilemma: Should he stay in business with Ube or should he try to fulfill his boyhood dream of making animated cartoons? Once he had mastered his new skills, there was nothing to stop him from starting out on his own again.
This consideration led him to take the job seriously. In 1920, Disney finally entered the world of cartoon animation. He would soon make a name for himself in the field, and his characters would become popular all over the world.
KC Film Ac Company was responsible for all aspects of the film’s advertising and soon recognized the young cartoonist’s abilities. Shortly after starting, Walt was given the task of creating a poster of a man wearing a fashionable hat. Walt drew the poster, but the man’s nose was replaced with a light bulb! When the poster was shown on the screen, the boss exclaimed: “Finally something new has appeared in this place: I’m tired of these pretty faces.”
Walt's originality and vision of the world around him made some of his friends and superiors unhappy. They were jealous and considered him a troublemaker. So they wouldn't let him try a new technique to improve his cartoons. He had the brilliant idea of making some drawings and celluloid, then photographing them and stacking them up and finally filming them. The bosses wouldn't hear of it. They felt that their old way of working had been working well enough up to that point. They saw no reason to change their techniques, since the customers were happy with it anyway. Walt Disney knew he was right. After months of coaxing his bosses, Walt was finally allowed to take one of the company's cameras home with him to do some experiments. Walt Disney never looked back from that point on.
In an empty garage that had been converted into a studio, he began making short animated films using his own techniques. He then showed his work to a famous cinema director. The man was very impressed. Walt's sketches and film techniques were very different from what had been done before. His first cartoons were soon shown in theaters.
Originally these cartoons were intended to replace commercials to keep the audience entertained during the breaks. Walt called them “Laugh-O-Grams.” Walt’s cartoons were a hit with the audience and from then on in Kansas City Walt Disney was no longer ridiculed as the “young eccentric” but was respected. His salary increased. In a short time Disney became a famous figure in the city.
He returned the borrowed camera and bought his own with the money he had saved. Cartoons became more popular. Walt Disney rented more office space for his small business, Laugh-O-Grams Corporation, with an initial investment of $15,000. He hired several apprentices and a salesman to promote Laugh-O-Grams in New York City. His dream of being independent became a reality when he was only 20 years old.
He then decided to leave KC Film to work on his own. But success did not come by itself. High production costs and Walt Disney's perfectionist attitude (which made him reinvest all his profits to improve his work), in addition to a very limited market, soon led to bankruptcy.
This was a dark period in his life; he had thought that his hard times were finally over. He had no room at all and was forced to live in the workshop, eating and sleeping on a small bench, the only furniture he had. Worse still, once a week he had to go to the train station to take a shower.
Eventually he got a contract to make an animated cartoon to educate children about the importance of brushing their teeth. One night, the dentist who had commissioned the cartoon came to see him and invited him to his office. “No way,” Disney replied. “Why?” the dentist asked. “Because I don’t have any shoes. My only shoe is at the cobbler’s to be repaired, and I don’t have any money to pick it up.”
Despite facing difficult circumstances. Walt Disney did not give up. There was an idea in his mind. One night in July 1923, carrying all the money in the pockets of his old gray oilcloth suit, this skinny young man boarded a train to Hollywood. He was determined to become an important person in the world of film.
When he arrived in Hollywood, Walt Disney was just one of many people hoping to make his dream come true. His older brother Ray had been living in California for some time, and he gladly invited his younger brother to stay with him. Walt began visiting film studios one by one. He was willing to do any job that had to do with film.
To advance in a particular field, one must go into it at all costs. Disney soon learned how difficult it was to get into the Hollywood film studios. Many others before him had applied for jobs and were turned down. Walt Disney was not discouraged by this. If others could get in, why couldn't he? In his eyes, there were two kinds of people:
“Those who feel lost and abandoned if they can’t find work and those who can find a way to make a living no matter how hard the times are. Disney has always tried hard to be in the latter.”
Experience taught him that one must rely entirely on oneself. He went back to the drawing board determined to find a niche for himself. He drew comic strips with the intention of selling them to movie theaters. He simply re-used the experience he had gained in Kansas City with Laugh-O-Grams. One movie theater owner was so interested that he bought a series of comic strips. He even ordered the Alice in Wonderland series that Walt Disney had begun working on in Kansas. Disney was offered $1,500. That was more than he had expected. The Alice in Wonderland series ran for three years. With the proceeds from the sales, Walt Disney was able to buy a house and even build his own film studio. After the Alice in Wonderland films, Walt wanted to create something new and truly original. Thus was born the clever little creature he called “Mickey Mouse,” a name given to him by Disney’s wife, Lillian Bounds. Mickey Mouse quickly became a worldwide star, even more famous than many Hollywood stars. However, at first the producers greeted Mickey with less enthusiasm.
Around this time, talking pictures began to appear and people began to boycott silent films. Disney reacted. With his team of assistants, he introduced a new method for synchronizing sound and animation. Walt continued to search for new techniques to improve his skills. He also implemented a new process: “technicolor.” With this new technique, he no longer needed to use two-color combinations. In Bambi, he used 46 shades of green for the forest. His first color cartoon, Silly Symphony, delighted movie fans.
Disney increasingly realized that if he wanted to continue to work on a larger scale, he had to build a team of smart brains, meaning he had to surround himself with smart assistants who could deliver quality products. To establish ourselves, we knew we had to train our own assistants.
Disney felt that the cartoonists working for him were too often using old-fashioned tricks. He knew that the only way to change this was to provide training courses for them. His goal was simple: improve the quality of his drawings and animation techniques. As his company grew, he decided in 1930 to start his own school, where he would teach all the techniques of cartoon animation to aspiring cartoonists.
The school soon began to look like a zoo. In order to make his cartoon characters more realistic, Disney had turned his classroom into a real-life biology laboratory with various animals that the students observed in various behaviors and attitudes while sleeping, awake, eating, etc. These observations would also help him in making documentaries about the wonders of nature in the future. In 1938, Disney introduced his first feature-length animated film, Snow White. It took him two years of hard work to make this film. It was one of his masterpieces.
Soon after, he built a modern film studio in Burbank, California. There he would employ 1,500 people. At that point he seemed to have achieved what he had dreamed of. Step by step he became what he had wanted to be. I just have to do a good job if there are obstacles to overcome. I'm afraid if things go too smoothly, because I'm afraid of sudden changes in the situation.
After World War II, Ray and Walt Disney received several military contracts to make documentaries and war posters. Once the war was over, business became more busy for the Disney Studios, and Walt devoted more attention to his art. He often worked late into the night. It was said that he would often rummage through his wastepaper basket to see what was inside. The next morning he would have his assistant examine what he had found; these scraps of paper were said to often contain great ideas. It was during this time that Walt Disney created many of his greatest films, including Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Bambi.
In the 1950s, Walt Disney's phantasmagoric dream of Disneyland began to develop. At the time, all his friends, especially his bankers, said the project was crazy. Once again, Disney would show that human dreams could come true.
The idea of creating Disneyland came to him while he was walking in the park with his two daughters, Sharon and Diana. He imagined a huge theme park where children could meet their favorite cartoon characters. When Walt Disney finally decided on the project, no one or nothing could change his mind.
Disneyland finally came to fruition in Anaheim, California, in 1955. It was a big day for Walt Disney. He said: If I had listened to myself, my park (his cartoon characters) would never have been finished. Here, at last, was something I could work on over and over again.
In 1985, Disneyland welcomed its 250 millionth visitor. When Walt Disney died in 1966, cinema lost one of its greatest creators. Two important principles motivated his entire life: to do what he loved and to believe in his ideas. Without these principles, he would never have become the great Walt Disney: recipient of 900 honors, 32 Oscars, five Emmys, and five docs.