Early+Disney+Mastaerpieces

(Time Frame: 1930s- 1940s)

News Article: Since 1939, the Walt Disney Company pioneered major innovations in animation, technology, and artistry while usually succeeding commercially. When Walt Disney planned to release the first animated motion picture, he faced many skeptics. Audiences familiarized animated cartoons as short ten minute features that appealed to children, therefore they concluded that an animated feature would not appeal to a general audience and would be too boring to watch. Walt Disney challenged this perception when his studio produced //Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,// which ran approximately 80 minutes in length. To satisfy a cynical public, Disney worked extensively developing and adapting the Grimm Fairy Tale. Synthesizing the characters of the story, Disney decided to experiment with the personality of minor characters. With screenwriters and animators, Disney refined seven dwarfs with seven distinct personalities that were “Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Doc, and Dopey.” Developing the personality of side characters became a hallmark of the studio, becoming the standard element characterized with the artistic success of the studio. The studio also refined the variety of landscapes for the production. A rich musical score from beginning to end, developed by Frank Churchill, kept the Disney tradition established by the //Silly Symphonies// of having music function as a way to develop cheery moods that are today described as “Disney-esq.” When the Walt Disney Company released //Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs// on 1939, it was an immediate critical and commercial success. Shirley Temple presented Walt Disney seven dwarf-sized Oscars for the picture. After Disney died of lung cancer, he held the record for winning the highest number of Academy Awards. After //Snow White//, many believed Disney pushed all of the technical innovations to its fullest limit. The studio proved them wrong. In 1940, the company released //Pinocchio//, a film speculated to symbolize Disney’s artistic and technical height. It brought the multiplane camera into the scene of cinema, an innovation that put more texture into scenery. This innovation was pivotal in scenes when the fairy came into the workshop to make the wood puppet a real boy, and when Pinocchio was in the stomach of the giant whale. The detailed animation layout and scenery in Pleasure Island, the puppet show, and the woodshop pushed the artistry set in precedent by //Snow White//. Again, this film was a huge commercial and critical success. Satisfied with this success, Walt Disney had a bold vision he hoped would trump these two features: to synchronize the great classical works with animation. This vision eventually became //Fantasia//. //Fantasia// was a bold and expensive production, requiring detailed animation layouts and experimentation with different methods to gradating the luminescent pallet Disney demanded. The company collaborated with the Philadelphia orchestra, adding to the expenses of the final production. //Fantasia// was the first feature film to use a surround sound system, or as Disney coined it, “fantasound.” Disney requested that the theaters would install this sound system, but many of them refused. As a result, //Fantasia// became a road-side production that went to whatever theater would use the sound system. The first time the film was officially released throughout the United States was in 1990, even though it was originally released in November 1940. Disney suffered a little bit after the film debuted. It was a commercial flop for the studio. Critics accused the studio for being pretentious, and some were offended that a Beethoven symphony during the Roman mythology segment. These three films are considered the finest the studio produced within its 70 year history. Each has been honored by the American Film Institute, either when it released its list of the top 100 movies, or the subsequent lists honoring the great films in animation. By Wyatt Sarafin Links: rss url="http://www.wdwinfo.com/rss/distv.xml" link="true" number="10"Over the years, Walt Disney proved instrumental in developing a amusement park that is claimed to be a masterpiece in the fields of engineering and design. The Disney World and Disney Land amusement parks call back on the traditional hallmarks of Disney's early years. On this rss feed, you will be able to stream content of videos of the amusement park.

rss url="http://www.waltdisneystudios.com/corp/news/unit/76.xml" link="true" number="10"

This is a link of the Disney Studios today, as it is progressing with new features. Even though most of their masterpieces are considered to be produced during the late 1930s to the early 1940s, it is nice to check up on the progress as the studio. In 2010, Disney's stock did go down even though the company produced such hits like //Toy Story 3//. It lead the //New York Times'// business section that the Disney Company was "Falling, with Style." The surge of live action and computer generated films that Disney produces, which is evident by this RSS feed on this day (June 14, 2011), shows that the company is steering away from traditional animated features that lead the company to its fortune. It is interesting, for these reasons, to periodically check up on the company as it plans for the future.

media type="youtube" key="vyR1bd1Z9-A" height="349" width="425"

Here is a trailer for Disney's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It provides a perspective on the ways Disney tried to make it markable to a cynical public.

media type="youtube" key="UQzZANZ4R14" height="349" width="425"

Here is a trailer for Disney's second feature. It is one of their most critically acclaimed pictures, with Roger Ebert including it in his essay's entitled //The Great Movies.// media type="youtube" key="SG_fTGNbmk8" height="349" width="425"

Here is a trailer for Fantasia, which was viewed as "Disney's folly" at the time.