The Walt Disney Company has famously billed itself as "the happiest place on Earth" for nearly a century. From theme parks to family films, Disney‘s fingerprints adorn many of childhood‘s most joyful memories. However, the road to becoming one of history‘s most successful media empires featured plenty of bumps for Walt Disney and his animators.
Long before Walt Disney World resorts and Disney princess sing-alongs, the Disney brothers struggled for years to launch their humble cartoon studio. A hyper-focus on innovation and quality storytelling slowly built the Disney brand into an animation powerhouse and household name. Let‘s dive into the major milestones, challenges, and rich legacies behind Disney Animation‘s first decade.
One Mouse to Start It All: Disney‘s Pre-Mickey Days
Contrary to popular belief, Mickey Mouse was not Disney‘s first successful cartoon character creation. Walt Disney‘s animation career began in the early 1920s alongside fellow illustrator Ub Iwerks. After forming the short-lived Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists venture in 1920, the duo eventually relocated to California to launch their first formal animation business.
After two failed attempts, Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios officially incorporated in 1923 alongside Walt‘s brother Roy, who handled the finances. Their earlyoutput consisted of live action/animated hybrids called Alice Comedies, which Disney sold to film distributor Margaret Winkler. Starring a real young girl who interacted with animated characters in a cartoon world, Alice Comedies were Disney‘s first original hit series.
Eager to own their creative properties outright, the Disneys developed new all-cartoon stars like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But after demanding unrealistic concessions from Winkler‘s husband Charles Mintz, Disney lost ownership over the Oswalds series in 1928. Devastated but determined, Walt channelled his energies into a new character inspired by pet mice around his old Kansas City studio.
Debuting Mickey Mouse in the 1928 sound cartoon short Steamboat Willie, Disney took huge financial risks by adopting synced sound recording technologies early on. But the endearing Mickey pioneered "appeal animation" with his mischievous charm and smoke and mirrors ingenuity. Mickey Mouse rapidly became a global pop culture sensation throughout the late 1920s.
Snow White Sparks an Animation Revolution
By continuing to self-finance and distribute early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies animated shorts, the Walt Disney Studios stayed financially afloat through the Great Depression. But Walt Disney never abandoned his ambitions of creating the first feature-length cel animated film.
Disney story artists started developing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1934, using live actors to photograph key scenes before animating frame by frame. Industry peers mocked Disney‘s "Disney‘s Folly" pipe dream of a six year, $1.5 million film project with no fingerprints in sight during the depths of Depression-era banking instability.
Undeterred by naysayers, Disney mortgaged his own home and poured personal savings into production costs, while supervising over 750 artists during "Snow White‘s" arduous development. Released in 1938, Disney‘s gamble paid off spectacularly with all-time record ticket sales and dozens more re-releases for decades after.
Adjusted for inflation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs stands tall as one of the top ten highest grossing films ever. Disney proved that feature animation could mesmerize audiences young and old for 90 minutes. Follow-up films Pinocchio and Fantasia expanded artistic boundaries with rich storytelling and technical innovations. And animation gradually gained respect as a legitimate cinematic art form through Disney‘s early pioneering efforts.
The Winds and Costs of War
Unfortunately for animators, smooth sailing rarely lasts long at Disney Studios. Building on Snow White‘s momentum, Disney embarked on several ambitious feature projects in the early 1940s. Expanded materials access and research budgets showed in acclaimed films like Bambi (1942). Disney also nodded to European folkloric styles in productions like Fantasia (1940).
However, World War II severely hampered Disney‘s content pipeline. Materials rationing, foreign market shutdowns, and over 50% staffing losses to a 1941 animator‘s strike sparked an era of penny-pinching "package film" releases cobbled together from animated shorts. Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948) kept Disney afloat through forced wartime austerity.
Uncle Sam further commissioned Disney himself to produce animation/live action propaganda films supporting the U.S. war effort. Education for Death depicted chilling realities of Nazi youth indoctrination, while Victory Through Air Power directly led to ramped up military aircraft production. Government films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros also nurtured diplomatic relations between North and South American nations.
By the late 1940s, over half of Walt Disney Studio‘s output documented wartime efforts in some form. This taxing workload severely delayed Disney‘s production of full animated features. But those fiscal and logistical challenges set the stage for Disney‘s true explosion into mainstream popularity throughout the 1950s and beyond via reinvigorated classics like Cinderella (1950).
Technical Innovation in the Disney Vault
While Disney‘s output fluctuated, technological experimentation rarely stopped. Animators constantly tweaked multiplane camera depth effects and other visual tricks perfected through Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony shorts. Walt Disney himself earmarked substantial funds towards research and development projects.
Fantasia (1940) built custom Fantasound technology directly into theaters to push stereo surround sound innovations further. This was over a full decade before common cinema sound systems caught up. Cost overruns from Fantasia‘s bold audio designs did sink Disney financially for a few years. But that boundary-pushing ambition never faded from studio priorities moving forward.
Other Disney inventions like the groundbreaking Xerox photostat camera drastically accelerated animation background creation down the road. Even the fundamental storyboarding processes now ubiquitous across live action and animation alike first developed inside Disney‘s workshops.
Wartime also birthed beloved characters like flamboyant Brazilian parrot Jose Carioca from Saludos Amigos (1943) and The Three Caballeros (1945). Donald Duck‘s worldwide fame exploded through his foreign escapades. Disney‘s sharp marketers built out an entire Donald Duck universe that persists internationally.
Lastly, Walt Disney himself became heavily involved in diversifying the studio‘s business interests into merchandising, publishing, music recording and new media distribution. After dealing with outside distributors on unfavorable terms for years, Disney founded its own Buena Vista Distribution subsidiary in 1953.
These overlooked innovations behind beloved film classics powered Disney‘s rise. Walt‘s willingness to reinvest profits across his company catalyzed both cutting-edge creativity and mass commercialization in unprecedented ways. The synthesis of that high concept, high quality approach quintessentially defined Disney for the 20th century.
The Numbers Behind Disney Animation‘s Early Gambles
Bringing to life the fruits of Walt Disney‘s nonstop imagination required substantial investments over three decades. Disney poured huge sums into his passion projects, often using one film‘s profits to finance the next ambitious undertaking. This led to extremely uneven cash flows in early years.
For example Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi all cost at least twice as much to produce than Snow White based on increased production values and salaries. But only Dumbo turned an immediate profit during WW2 box office slumps.
Here is a comparison of budgets, box office revenues and release timeframes across Disney animation‘s first decade:
| Film Title | Initial Release Date | Production Budget | Lifetime Box Office Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | $1.5 million | $418 million |
| Pinocchio | 1940 | $2.6 million | $84 million |
| Fantasia | 1940 | $2.28 million | $83.3 million |
| Dumbo | 1941 | $950,000 | $1.6 million |
| Bambi | 1942 | $858,000 | $267.4 million |
Balancing costs versus long run investments characterized Disney‘s risky strategy. But early successes like Snow White set precedents for just how much audiences would flock towards quality animated stories. Walt Disney held firm conviction that his studio‘s films advanced animation as a legitimate art form.
However, staff animators often paid direct physical prices for the relentless workload required of Disney‘s perfectionist culture. Repetitive stress injuries ran rampant, leading to multi-million dollar lawsuits against Disney in the 1940s and 50s from injured employees. Disney offset some costs by effectively establishing the first offshore Disney animation studios in Canada and Latin America.
But ultimately Walt‘s constant drive to push his teams further creatively fostered most innovations. That stew of fiscal gambles, legal battles and tireless creative energy brewed up Disney animation for decades of magic to come.
Lasting Legacies Beyond Feature Animation
Beyond box office numbers, cultural influence proves the strongest legacy of Disney‘s early era. Timeless childhood morality tales continue teaching wisdom and wonder to new generations worldwide. And the company‘s pioneering efforts to feature animation as serious cinematic art laid foundations for broader mainstream acceptance.
Snow White begat the Disney princess archetype still going strong generations later. Alice In Wonderland and Peter Pan littered Western pop culture with iconography and references thatmany may not trace directly back to their Disney adaptations. 1950s Disney voices like Kathryn Beaumont and Jerry Colonna contributed acting talents still identified immediately today.
And from a business lens, Disney‘s empire became a case study in vertically integrated media synergies. Walt Disney helmed new music and publishing ventures alongside patented toy manufacturing and endorsements. Disneyland‘s 1955 opening kicked off decades of global theme park expansions advancing Walt‘s visions. Even years after Walt‘s 1966 death, the company continued reaping benefits from their founder‘s calculated empire building strategies started decades earlier.
The Walt Disney Company‘s market capitalization valuation today surpasses $200 billion for its multimedia dominion. And that entertainment kingdom might still pale beside Disney‘s broader cultural currency at times. Many adults today unconsciously whistle while they work or wish upon stars thanks to Disney animation‘s embedded ideals. That timeless appeal persists as Disney‘s most valuable long term asset.
Disney Animation Stands the Test of Time
In Walt Disney‘s words, he simply hoped to leave beloved stories and characters that brought a little joy and moral wisdom to his audiences. Nearly a century later, evidence of achieving that modest goal lives on in every child‘s bedroom and family film collection across the globe.
The Walt Disney Company stands today atop an entertainment kingdom of characters, stories and childhood nostalgia unmatched across the world. Generations raised on dazzling Disney animation and visionary technology carry these legacies into the future. That cycle of inspiration persists thanks to a handful of struggling animators that dared audiences to dream along with them nearly 100 years ago when they unveiled that very first sparkling animated feature film.
