Disney

Which two films were unaffected by the war or strike?

- "Dumbo" (1941) and "Bambi" (1942), they were both critical and financial successes. - dumbo barely qualified as feature film length but was inexpensive to produce and loved by audiences - Bambi showed realism and required many new animation techniques to make it as real as possible

Disney and colour?

- Disney was the first to use superior and expensive Technicolours, three process colour - made the company sign a three year exclusivity clause so that he was the only cartoon studio to use this -first used in "Flowers and Trees"

"Lady and the Tramp" (1955)

- Disney's first feature film not based on a pre-existing book, play, fairy tale, etc. -HUGE hit - first animated feature in the "Cinema-Scope" widescreen format that proved both challenging and liberating to the animators.

When did Disney's Studio start?

- The Disney's started the Disney Bros. Studio in 1924 which was renamed Walt Disney Productions in 1926

"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" the creation

- a cartoon Disney created for Universal Studios in 1927 - these cartoons showed a high level of sophisticated animation. - animated by Ub Iwerks

What happened during the Great Depression for Disney? 1941

- a lot of great animators were lost, etc. because he paid shitty wages because of the depression. Also the strike of world war II caused production problems that lasted until the end of the decade.

Disney after Laugh-OGram?

- after his company laugh o gram went bankrupt,, he moved to Hollywood and took his first half completed "Alice" short.

Snow White

- almost three years to complete - used special effects for storms etc. - costs were sixfold more than what they budgeted for and almost made him bankrupt -re;eased in 1937 and became the FIRST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED SOUND FILM - became most watched film of all time.

Cinderella 1950

- animated feature film to follow Pinocchio and Dumbo - huge box office and critical success, favourably compared to snow white.

last narrative and animated feature released until 1950s?

- bambi

"Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

- costliest and most ambitious animated film - Walt wanted to be his masterpiece but failed to win over critics and audiences and lost money - the angular look of animation (no round faces) was one reason people didn't like it - also lead characters in story made it bad

Pinnochio (1940)

- critical success but a financial failure due partially to world war II in Europe and Asia that cut off lucrative foreign markets. -". The film was costly because a lot of the early work was scrapped and they essentially restarted because of Disney's unhappiness with the story. The film never recovered its production costs during its initial run. It did become a huge financial success when it was re-released in 1947. "Pinocchio" represents the apex of Disney's animated films. It contains detailed backgrounds, special effects sequences, and multiplane camera work that would never again be achieved at that level of sophistication due to the intensive labor required.

multiplane camera? What film did it debut in?

- developed by Disney A standard tool of 2D animation used to produce effects of camera movement and motion and depth perspective - debuted "The Old Mill " 1937 - gave almost a three dimensional look to animation

"Three Little Pigs" (1933)

- enormous hit and gave Disney its first hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" -represented his continuing search to define individual personalities for cartoon characters through their movement and action.

Mickey Mouse debut?

- first big character - originally gonna be named mortimer mouse - Mickey didn't receive interest from distributors in the first cartoon "Plane Crazy" so he made it sound synchronized sound cartoon and its marriage of sound and image in "Steamboat Willie". This created first hit

Flowers and Trees (1932)

- first film to use technicolour - reiterated the idea of personification.

"The Skeleton DancE" 1929

- first of the silly symphonies - created the animation and designed it for a specific set of music -Stalling wrote music for this - showed why music was good in film.

Carl Stalling?

- got Disney thinking about the combination of music and animation. - created the idea of Silly Symphonies, and the Skeleton Dance.

Disney's good and bad things?

- he was bad at animating, but good at story telling and recruiting talent.

Iwerks left Disney when?

- in 1930 to start his own cartoon studio - in 1930 he released the first colour cartoon, was a two colour process

"Peter Pan" 1953

- long in the production stages and a long time favourite of Disneys but was only a moderate hit in the studio. -failure could be blamed on story, or lack there of

Fantasia (1940)

- most daring and artistic film from Disney -continuation with Disney's fascination for music and animation - used more multi-plance camera shots -didn't do well for audiences because they were expecting more like the two previous films. So lost money on it

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

- not success that walt had envisioned - failed to impress audiences despite having many impressive and creative animated sequences -failure could be blamed on lack of story

"Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom" (1953).

- one of the new directions and styles of animation which Disney tried out - was a response to the graphic revolution and 'limited' animation popularized buy United Productions of America (UPA)

Disneyland Amusement Park ?

- opened in 1955 -represented another huge financial gamble for Walt as many people thought it would be a bust, but was instantly successful and become a big money maker for the studio. - also valuable because another way to market their things.

"Alice" Cartoons

- silent and short cartoons made by Disney. His brother Roy Disney was the manager of them and Margaret Winkler the distributor of the film.

Results of Snow White film?

- started merchandising - financial success of film gave walt disney money to build a bigger more modern studio in burbank that could hold a lot more employees and make feature length films easier.

Processes Walt Disney Studio created for animation?

- story boarding cartoons, specialization of work for each animator, separate story department, multi-plane camera

"Mickey Mouse Club House" 1955

- success from the onset, led to more live action tv shows

Mickey after Iwerks left?

- success still because it had become a national celebrity and international star. - due to his lack of a distinct personality though, animators were forced to create a stable of other characters to interact with him. - these characters became more popular than mickey

What were Disneys bankers worried about regarding the success of Snow White?

- they thought that it was due to its novelty factor as the first feature length animated film and the financial returns from Pinocchio were a truer measure of audience interest in this type of film.

Disney and television?

- tv almost ruined movie industry in the 1950's but Disney explored it. -had an hour long special called "Disneyland" and also used the program to promote and recycle older things. Also started Mickey Mouse Club in 1955

Laugh-O-Grams? (1922)

-first studio created by Disney and Ub Ewers in Kansas city - started it after learning the basics of animation at a film advertising company for which he worked for - worked a few cartoons spoofed from fairy tales - usually spent more money making cartoons than Disney made selling them and thus the company went bankrupt

Story boarding?

A sequence of drawings, with directions and sometimes dialog, that represents planned shots for a movie. - created by Walt Disney Studios

How did Disney get double crossed and by who?

Producer Charles Mintz double crossed Disney and took "Oswald" and most of Disney's animators away from him in 1928. This left a bitter legacy with Disney, who became obsessive about copyrights and trademarks after that experience. The Walt Disney Company re-acquired the rights for Oswald back from NBC/Universal in 2006 (essentially trading the rights for football announcer Al Michaels who moved from "Monday Night Football"!)

United Productions of America (UPA)

cartoon studio co-founded and staffed by some animators who left disney during the strike.

"Song of the South" (1946)

contained twenty five minutes of animated sequences in total but were most entertaining parts of that film. -live action