Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Question 2 - Disney

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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