In 1929, Walt’s drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production of his “Silly Symphonies.” In 1932, the film entitled Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique; it was the first to be produced in color and to win an Oscar. . In 1933,The Three Little Pigs and its title song “Who's Afraid of the the Big Bad Wolf?” became a theme for the country in the midst of the Great Depression.
On December 21 of that same year, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Cart-hay Circle Theater in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard of cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Great Depression, the film is still accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.
In 1940, construction was completed on Disney’s Burbank studio, and the staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men and technicians. During World War II, 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.
An the mid-40s,Disney created “packaged features” groups of shorts struns together to run a feature length, but by 1950,he was once again focusing on animated feature;Cinderella was released in 1950, followed by Alice in Wonderland(1951), Peter Pan(1953), and a live-action film called Treasure Island(1950),Lady in the Tramp(1955),Sleeping Beauty(1959), and 101 Dalmations(1961).In all, more than 100 features were produced by his studio.
Disney was also among the first to use television as an entertainment medium. A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961. The Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro were popular favorites in the 1950s. A variety show featuring a cast of teenager known as the Mouseketeers. Walt Disney's wonderful world of color was a popular Sunday night show, which Disney used to begin promoting his new theme pars. Disney's last major success that he produced himself was the motion picture Mary Poppins, which mixed live action an animation.
Disney's $17 million Disneyland theme park opened in 1955. IT was a placed where children and their families could explored ,take rides and meet Disney characters. In a very short time, the park had increased its investment tenfold, and was entertaining tourists from around the world. Within a few years of the opening,Disney began plans for a new theme park and Experimental Prototype Community of tomorrow in Florida. It was still under construction in 1966,Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer. He die on December 15,1966, at the aged of 65.After Disney die his brother Roy carried on the plans to finish the Florida theme park, which opened in 1971 under the name Walt Disney world.
During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art,Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David low,the late British political cartoonist,called Disney “the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo Davinci a pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney along with members of his staff received more than 950 honors and citations from ever nation in the world including 48 Academy Awards and 7 Emmys in his lifetime. Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California and UCLA; he was also the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations.
Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds and emotions of millions of Americans than any other man in the past century. Through his work, he brought joy, happiness and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly, our world shall know but one Walt Disney.