Some-things you may not know about Walt Disney Animation!

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse." - Walter Elias Disney

Mickey Mouse was born on a train ride from New York back to Hollywood. Walt Disney had just lost the rights to Oswald Lucky Rabbit to Universal. Had Mickey Mouse not appeared then the huge Disney Conglomerate you see today would not exist. It's also true that when Walt needed funding and distribution help for his Mickey Mouse cartoons Universal attempted to get Mickey Mouse from him too, but Walt wouldn't back down quite so easily this time. Mickey Mouse was the saving grace of Disney that started it all.

It turned out to be third time lucky for Mickey. Steam boat Willie wasn’t the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. It was the third but it was the first to become a success. The short films weren’t picking up the pace the way that Walt had hoped, so he began experimenting with sound on cartoons. After many failed attempts he met Pat Powers. Powers had developed a technology named Cinephone the only sound system that could produce what Walt Disney wanted for his beloved Mickey Mouse. With the help of Powers Steamboat Willie became the first animated cartoon to feature a fully synchronised soundtrack.

However, things took a turn for the worse when Roy Disney (Walt’s older brother) discovered Powers had been keeping money the Disney’s and when the contract with Powers was terminated, Powers went on to threaten to sue any studio who distributed a Walt Disney creation. And in addition he prised away Walt Disney’s friend, helping hand/ Chief animator, Ub Iwerks - who was known to have spent tireless hours drawing frame after frame of Mickey Mouse cartoons so that Walt could meet his deadlines - thinking that without Ub, Walt Disney Animation would soon crumble. But that never happened, because Harry Cohn head of Columbia Pictures was a ruthless man who wasn’t even frightened away by Powers, he told the Columbia legal team to fight any attempt from Powers to prevent Columbia distributing Walt Disney’s work and once again Walt Disney Studios were saved.

Eventually the time came when Walt was no longer satisfied by the success of his animated shorts (Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies) he wanted more, he wanted to create something bigger.  This was when he decided it was time to make his first animated feature that was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Towards the end of 1937 after nearly three years of trial, experimentation and artistic and financial crises production of Snow White seemed to be finally nearing completion. In December of 1937 Disney held a preview screening for Snow White. And from its opening night Snow White drew capacity crowds and raves from the critics The New York Times called it one of the ten best films of the year. By the end of its first week Snow White had become one of the must see films of the year, and in the 1939 at the Academy Awards ceremony Walt Disney was given a second Special Award a full size Oscar and seven small ones, for the films ‘significant screen innovation which has charmed and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon”

Snow White Oscar

After Walt passed it's easy to forget that Disney animation went through a tough time. Everyone remembers the success of the likes of the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, but those success didn't come without trials, and bitter disappointments. Perhaps seen as the pinnacle of the 'dark days' of Disney Animation is the Black Cauldron, Not only did it take much long to make than first thought, but it came in millions over budget and to make matters worse was beat out at the box office by the Care Bears Movie it failed to make back the money that the studio had spent on it.

The animation department was slowly crashing and burning whilst live action was thriving and eventually the Animators were evicted for the old Ink and Paint studio to make more room for the live action department.

But the administration of Michael Eisner would see a shift in quality and style in Disney feature animation. Disney features soon became bombastic animated musicals, using music as well as high-quality animation to attract audiences. This coincided with the introduction of computer-aided animation techniques, the first of which was CAPS in the late 1980s. Also playing a role was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a non-canon Disney-produced film with both live action and animated element that helped re-spark interest in Disney animation.

Beginning in 1988 with Oliver & Company, Disney released a string of profitable and enduring blockbusters. The next five films including 1989's The Little Mermaid (the first Disney animated film as a fairy-tale for 30 years), 1991's Beauty and the Beast, 1994's The Lion King would each win the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The Lion King still stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated feature ever made, being the top money-maker among all films in North America in 1994. The last Disney feature to be made using traditional techniques was Home on the Range in 2004 after Disney sold off all their traditional equipment in order to keep up with the likes of DreamWorks and Blue Sky Studios. The first 3D animation film was Chicken Little in 2005 and followed by Meet the Robinsons and Bolt.

The transition to CGI was not enough to renew interest in Disney animation as Disney's features were routinely outperformed by those of corporate partner Pixar, whom Disney had contracted to create CGI films originally. In response to this, Disney purchased Pixar in 2006.

On November 24, 2010, Disney's 50th animated motion picture, Tangled, Disney's first 3D-animated fairy-tale, was released. Tangled spent six years in production at a cost that has been estimated at $260 million which, if accurate, would make it the most expensive animated film ever made and second most expensive movie of all time.

  

Over the years Disney animation has been at the heart of many people’s younger years as they grew up with the films.  But this isn’t the end for Disney Animation as Disney have now released their 51st animated feature in the form of Winnie the Pooh and the 52nd was released on November 2nd 2012 under the title Wreck It Ralph.

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