“Uncle Walt’s Dream”: The Rise and Continued Domination of Disney Animation

Matt Jones

Post Seven

“Uncle Walt’s Dream”: The Rise and Continued Domination of Disney Animation

Although credited for the first feature length cel-animated film, it was the business decisions made by Walt Disney and his successors that made The Walt Disney Company an entertainment juggernaut. 

A)           When one thinks of animation, the name of Walt Disney is often at the forefront of the discussion.  And while there were many individuals who contributed to the process and development of animation, Disney’s saturation of the market deserves recognition.  Although born in Chicago, IL, Disney’s family moved to Kansas City, MO as a child and it was there that Disney began his journey in animation by working at the Kansas City Film Ad Service, creating short animated films which he called “Neuman Laugh-O-Grams” for a local theater chain.

                Soon after, Disney moved to California and began a business relationship with Margaret Winkler, a successful animation distributor in New York City.  Winkler was fond of Disney’s series of “Alice” films, which featured a combination of live-action and animation.  Winkler was very fond of keeping the animated films heavy on gags, and light on plot development.  However, Disney felt he was capable of creating more complex films.  Eventually the “Alice” series began to lose steam, and Disney introduced a new character, the fully animated Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, now described as a combination of Julius, the animated cat in the “Alice” films and what would become Mickey Mouse.  Eventually, after Margaret Winkler married Charles Mintz, Disney was edged out of the company and away from the character that he created, yet did not hold the rights to. 

                Ousted out of the lucrative character that he had created, Disney along with his brother Roy, Composer Carl Stalling, and Ub Iwerks created the animated short Steamboat Willie featuring the new character that would become famous as Mickey Mouse.  While Disney partially recycled the appearance of Steamboat Willie, as well as some of the gags contained in the short, the film was a rousing success.  Away from Mintz and Winkler, Disney was free to structure his film in any manner he wished.  This of course allowed him to further explore narratives.  This alone helped ensure Disney’s dominance in entertainment.  As the sheer novelty of the animated film was waning, along with the preponderance of simplistic sight gags in silent cinema, the rise of the sound cinema meant that the audience expected more in the way of a narrative structure and a comedy based in the spoken word. 

                This success led Disney to produce the first feature-length cel-animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.  The film was groundbreaking on several levels, not only being the first feature length cel-animated film, but also going to great lengths to realistically capturing movement in its animation.  Stand-ins were used for the dwarfs and a ballet dancer was used to animate Snow White’s movements.  The results were astonishing and the film became an immensely popular and profitable film, allowing Disney to set the groundwork for what would become one of the top media conglomerates of all time.  Disney continued his model of basing stories on folktales, fables, myths, and legends until present time. 

                Disney, despite his success was not immune from the production code that swept through Hollywood in the 1930s.  Cartoon characters were forbidden from spitting, animals were not allowed to be seen relieving themselves, and the villain was not allowed to escape without punishment.  In response to his combination live-action/animated film Song of the South (1946), Joseph Breen suggested that Disney “take counsel with some responsible Negro authorities...As I have already presumed to suggest to you, our Negro friends appear to be a bit critical of all motion picture stories which depict their people, and it may be that they will find in this story some material which may not be acceptable to them.”  (120)  To me, this statement is at the same time hilarious and sad.  It is hilarious that someone could actually believe that African-American’s at the time simply took offense at their depiction in cinema simply to be contrary.  And unfortunately, it is sad for the exact same reason. 

                During the Great Depression, Disney’s success allowed for a great number of people to be employed, however, as the economy regained strength however, tensions between the company and its labor intensified.  Disney fired a number of the union organizers before any actual picketing occurred; however as a result, Disney lost a great deal of talented artists. 

                Despite their success in the feature length animated film, Disney began producing live-action films and later fully adopted the process by the end of the 1940s. Their success in film production allowed the studio to open a theme park, forever changing the business of media manufacture and marketing. 

Despite Disney’s expansion as a business entity, concerns still existed regarding their representation of women.  The country as a whole was changing during the 1970s and 1980s and the definition of what was considered a “respectable woman”.  Between 1989 and 2005, Disney produced eighteen feature length animated films, six of the films featured primarily non-human characters, and thus issues of female representations could not be adequately evaluate.  However, the remaining twelve films presented three categories for female characters: The Princess, The Good Daughter, and the Tough Gal. 

The Princess is evidenced in characters such as Ariel in The Little Mermaid and Jasmine in Aladdin.  In most cases the princess is presented as having no mother and is often an only child. 

The Good daughter is evidenced in the characters of Belle in Beauty and the Beast and the eponymous character in Mulan. 

The Tough Gal is evidenced in the characters of Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Meg in Hercules.

While the expansion of roles and differentiations in character presentation provided better female representation than was seen in the past, there were still problems.  Ariel for example was convinced that a fork was actually a tool called a dinglehopper and was used for combing hair.  Despite all evidence that this information was in fact wrong, Ariel continued to believe it.  Whether this was simply for comedic effect, or if it was a true issue in representation is very much up for debate. 

B.)          Given the reading for this week I decided to view a Disney animated short: The Art of Skiing (1943) featuring the character of Goofy. 

This is an example of orthodox animation and serves as how-to video with Goofy’s ineptitude as a skier providing much of the humor.  However, the evolution from mere sight gags is shown in this short animated film, as the conflict between the narrator’s dialogue and the actions of Goofy.  The nature of the instructional video (a well-known convention) and the failure of Goofy to be instructed by it allows for a great display of comedy.  The fluidity of Disney’s animation is also evident in this short film, providing for more humor.

C)            I have had the chance to speak to several SIU faculty members about the study of intertextuality and how it relates to The Simpsons.  I feel that these discussions are almost as valuable as journal articles and book sections as it provides me the opportunity of gaining instant feedback.