Walter
Elias "Walt" Disney was an American business
magnate, cartoonist, animator, voice actor and film producer. As a
prominent figure within the American animation industry and throughout the
world, he is regarded as a cultural icon, known for his influence and
contributions to entertainment during the 20th century. As
a Hollywood business mogul, he and his brother Roy. O. Disney co-founded The
Walt Disney Company.
The Walt Disney Company started in 1923
in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles.
It was there that Walt Disney, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short
live-action/animated films collectively called the ALICE COMEDIES. The rent was
a mere $10 a month. Within four months, the ever-growing staff moved next door
to larger facilities, where the sign on the window read "Disney Bros.
Studio." A year later, in 1925, the Disney’s made a deposit on a Hyperion
Avenue lot in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. Construction began on
the new studio shortly thereafter. During the next 14 years, many changes took
place at the Disney studio: Mickey Mouse was "born" in 1928, followed
by Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, and the rest of the Disney gang.
In 1937, Disney's innovative first full
length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released to
critical acclaim and worldwide success. In order to expand and meet the
expectations of his audience, Walt saw a need to increase the size of his
studio. With profits from Snow White, he made a deposit on 51 acres of land in
Burbank and began designing a modern studio specifically for the purpose of
making animated films.
Next to Electric/Plumbing was the
Special Effects shop, where the craftspeople created the myriad of unique
effects that have come to be associated with Disney films. Flying cars,
spaceships, miniature paddle wheelers, and medieval armor that comes to life
are just some of the effects produced by this department.
The Paint Shop, which is in another
large metal building, does everything from spraying cars and furniture to be
used on a movie set, to spraying the set itself.
In the 1950s, as live-action films
increasingly played a major role in the success of the studio, so did the
inclusion of visual effects. Such memorable films as 20,000 Leagues Under The
Sea and Darby O'Gill and the Little People began a tradition of combining
complex optical effects with miniatures and matte paintings to create rich
fantasy worlds on the screen. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Process Lab,
renamed Photo Effects and then Visual Effects, was home to the distinguished
artists and technicians responsible for the effects seen in Mary Poppins, The
Absent Minded Professor, Blackbeard's Ghost, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Pete's
Dragom, and Tron.
All charts are ranked by international
theatrical box office performance where possible, excluding income derived from
home video, broadcasting rights and merchandise. Animated family films
have performed consistently well, with Disney films enjoying lucrative
re-releases prior to the home video era. Disney also enjoyed later success with
its Pixar brand, of which the Toy Story films
and Finding Nemo have been the best performers; beyond Pixar
animation, the Shrek, Ice Age, Madagascar and Despicable Me series have
met with the most success.
Frozen is one
of Disney's most successful animated movies produced within the last three
years. It has swept across the world, whipping kids into a crystal frenzy, lightening
parents’ wallets as of the past weekend (Jan 29 2014) by over $810 million. The
Disney picture just surpassed "The Lion King" to become the second
most successful original animated feature, and it has "Finding Nemo"
in its sights.
"Frozen"
still has its China release — a now highly lucrative market — and with
its soundtrack selling in the millions, a “sing-along” version of Frozen was
released in selected theaters on January 31 2015 complete with on-screen lyrics
and bouncing snowflake.
Early teasers
and trailers for "Frozen" didn't feature princesses in tiaras,
instead opting for boyish hijinks between snowman Olaf and reindeer Sven,
as well as an emphasis on the fvm’s action sequences. It was an interesting
gamble, but not without precedent.
Disney pulled
the same sleight of hand with "Tangled" in 2010, effectively packing
theaters with testosterone-fueled half-pints, who then were subjected to a
picture about a very longhaired princess. That still leaves the question, why
are even boys coming back for seconds and thirds with "Frozen"?
Every Tuesday morning, Pixar
co-founders Ed Catmull and John Lasseter fly down to Walt Disney Co.
headquarters in Burbank. The following day, they catch a flight back to their
offices in Emeryville, Calif., where Pixar is based. The two execs have been at
the helm of Disney’s entire animation division since CEO Bob Iger acquired the
smaller animation house for $7.4 billion back in 2006 (a sale that turned the
late Steve Jobs, who helped start Pixar, into Disney’s largest shareholder at
the time). Lasseter, famous for his colorful shirts, is known as the creative
whiz who helped bring iconic movies like Toy Story to life (a new
installment in the popular franchise is currently in the making).
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