Disney, a corporation who has a reputation of manufacturing incredible films, and who surpasses those expectations. Disney is the leader of the film industry, a company’s whose name almost every child in the Northern Hemisphere has heard of. Does no one wonder about what it takes to make such a large and prominent company? Does no one want to know what obstacles it faced, what it had to overcome, and what is next for the company? The story of Disney is an impressive one, a tale of a young cartoonist doing what he loved and making other people happy in the processes. A tale of what Disney had to do to make it big and what lead an unknown animator from Illinois to creating the biggest children’s movie company ever.
After Walt Disney had discovered he preferred working on his own to working for another art studio, he began his own cartoon company- Laugh-O-Grams. Sadly, though, by 1923, the studio had become burdened with debt, and Walt was forced to declare bankruptcy. Disney and his brother, Roy, soon pooled their money and moved to Hollywood. There the three began the Disney Brot...
problems. In a study done on the role of the Walt Disney Company, Vincent Faherty explains
Back in the roaring twenties America was seeing such world-changing phenomenons such as The Great Gatsby, and penicillin, but what took the world by surprise was none other than Walt Disney and his lovable creation, Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney, throughout his entire lifetime and career, always had an idea, a spark, and a way to make things better. Even in the face of tough times, he never failed to keep his optimistic attitude and kind faith in humanity from infecting those around him. A major part of his success was due to the technological innovations that revolutionized the film industry.
The Walt Disney Company is a highly diversified media and entertainment company that has been growing by leaps and bounds since its inception in the late 1920’s. In the past few decades, The Walt Disney Company has expanded into numerous markets and diversified its business greatly. The company states that their corporate strategy is targeted at creating high-quality family content, exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and expanding internationally. Upon studying the happenings of the company throughout the years, it is easy to see that the company is executing this strategy well through numerous strategic moves in the industry.
The Disney corporation is easily the greatest empire of entertainment in the world, thanks to the creator Walt Disney and his brother. Disney’s influence has been great within culture and society and I learned how much of an influence Disney has had through our course this semester. This influence is reflected and broadcast through the many works and readings that we examine in class. The articles gave me new knowledge about Disney that I was previously unaware of.
[1] Information was mainly taken from the Harvard Business Case Study “The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King”
The Disney Brothers Studios was founded by Walt and Roy Disney in October of 1923. As the brothers increased their reach in the entertainment market, this small studio evolved into the corporate giant known today as the Walt Disney Company which has interests in entertainment and media enterprises including Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, The Walt Disney Studios, ABC, Inc., ESPN, Disney Channel, Disney Stores, television and radio stations and Internet websites.
...cartoons. Roy, Walt’s older brother and Walt moved to Los Angeles to set up the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Here they made the "Alice Comedies" and "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." In 1926 Walt changed his cartoon studio name from Disney Bros. to what we now know it as today, Walt Disney Studios. ( www. JustDisney.com NP) Things took off in November of 1928 when Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their debut in "Steamboat Willie." This movie is what made Mickey, Minnie and Walt Disney famous. Early on, Walt Disney was working so hard he was having some trouble sleeping, so he took some sleeping pills to help him sleep. His wife, Lilly was unable to wake him up one morning and she called the doctor who prescribed a long trip for rest and relaxation. (Ford NP) After Walt came back home well rested, he went right back to work. He began to work on the first Disney movie! Walt wanted each of the dwarfs in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to be a distinct individual. The solution was to create names for them that would reflect their personalities. (Miller NP) "Snow White," which took three years to make, was released in 1937. This was the beginning to what we all know today as Disney movies.
His work in modern media was revolutionary. Moreover, he broadened communication and made it easier to learn about new cultures. Disney’s movies play a vital role in children’s development and their productivity when they enter the “real world”.
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
“During the fall of 1918, Disney tried to get into the military service. He got rejected because he was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and taking Red Cross official places. When he returned from France, he wanted to get a job in commercial art, which led him into animation.” (Brad A.) He created animated films in Kansas City. Walt Disney started to create short animated films called the Alice Comedies. The Alice Comedies were about a girl in an animated world and her adventures she has. He moved to California to try to start a business and his brother Roy O. Disney who was already in California. It soon became too expensive to handle...
Zipes, along with other scholars such as Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, authors of the book Deconstructing Disney, explore and catalogue the various ways in which Walt Disney-the man-and Disney-the corporation that is his legacy-perpetuate social figurations of race, gender and ethnocentrism through they films they produce. They furthermore critique Disney for reducing fairy tales to over-simplified, over-sanitized and over-sentimentalized banalities designed solely as a profit-generating products. Such analyses prove to be truly important work, as the socio-cultural ideas propagated by Disney, as well as the means by it executed such propagation prove key in unlocking the messages that are sent through seemingly harmless "entertainment". As Zipes keenly point out,
The Walt Disney Company is the largest entertainment company in the world in terms of revenue. It was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy O. Disney. They started the company, The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where they became the leader in the American animation industry and later working in live action film production, television and their world famous theme parks. Through different acquisitions, they have diversified and now do business in theater, radio, publishing, online media, music and own several television channels (Disney History Institute).
Who knew that the creation of one cartoon mouse would result in one of the greatest success stories all time, and it all started with an entrepreneur named Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a man who changed the world between his multibillionaire dollar companies including Disney movies, resorts and theme parks. He was a man who started from humble beginnings and has grown into a business mogul that set a standard for business and entrepreneurs for generations to come. The “American Dream” is viewed as success and accomplishment, usually associated with great amounts of money or assets. Although Walt Disney seemed like an idealist, was a true pioneer of the “American Dream”. Disney’s upbringing, business sense, ideas and personality all played a part in Disney becoming a model of the “American Dream.”
Walter Elias Disney was born on the 5th of December in the year 1901 in Chicago. His parents were of English/Irish and German descent. Traveling quite frequently, he and his family moved between Missouri, Kansas City, and back to Chicago. Disney grew up with a passion for art. He took art classes as a child, and also had the opportunity to be the cartoonist for his school’s magazine. Walt soon dropped out of school to join the army, and was rejected for being underage. Soon after, in 1918 Disney began to drive an ambulance in France after enlisting in Red Cross. One year later, he moved back to Kansas to start his career in what took him down the road to fame, the film industry. (Walt Disney Biography) Walt Disney formed Laugh-O-Gram Films in 1922. One year later in 1923, he relocated to Los Angeles where he incorporated the Disney Bros and partnered with his brother Roy. He signed a contract with Margaret Winkler
In 1920, while working at an ad company called Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio in Kansas City, Walt discovered the great world of animation and submerged himself within it. While keeping his day job, he began making Laugh-O-Gram ad films and animation shorts with artist Ub Iwerks, whom he met working at the Art Studio. Laugh-O-grams Films soon went bankrupt, and Walt, moved to California with very little money in his pocket (Walter Elias Disney). Disney ran into a lot of road blocks and hard time, but that would not stop him. His dreams and imagination keep him