Walt Disney's Pro-American Films

Walter “Walt” Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago. Disney’s parents are Flora Call and Elias Disney. Disney spent most of his childhood on a farm in Marceline, Missouri and later on moved back to Chicago to study art because from a young age he had always had an interest in it. With his artistic abilities, he created many safe, family environments and other interesting sources. Walt Disney, who is known for his life’s work of creating family oriented parks and activities around the world, is one of the most influential leaders of all time and these factors have made him a very prosperous, famous man (Boman 1).
At the young age of sixteen, Disney moved to Chicago to study art. He acquired a job drawing cartoon animation and
later relocated to Kanas City, Missouri in 1920. After three years of working in Kanas City, he relocated once again to Los Angeles and opened his own cartoon studio. Soon after opening his own studio, he announced his most legendary cartoon character, Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse with the help of Ub Iwerks; the iconic mouse cartoon when on to become the official mascot for The Walt Disney Company. Later Disney created Mickey Mouse a significant other and called her Minnie Mouse, and was specifically created to be Mickey’s life-long sweetheart (Boman 1).
In 1926, Disney produced a full-color series of Silly Symphonies, which is a series of 75 animated short films. The Silly Symphonies, which there name applies, was originally envisioned as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music. These Silly Symphonies features Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Santa Claus etcetera. Even though this series of funny, interesting, worth watching short films were extremely popular over a ten-year span, they finally discontinued them. After that, Disney started working on something new and better, he released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and following those were Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi (Boman 1).
During World War II, Disney studio produced educational films for the United States government.
Disney’s films benefited the government in generating pro-American war propaganda in an effort to increase support for the war. More than ninety percent of Disney’s employees were dedicated to the production of these educational films; he also made films for each branch of the United States military. Throughout World War II, Disney studio manufactured four hundred thousand feet of educational war films, which is equivalent to sixty-eight hours of film. Disney designed insignia that appeared on planes, trucks, flight jackets, and other military equipment (Boman 1).
Treasure Island, which was produced on June 29, 1950, was Disney’s first movie with live actors. Soon after his movie Davy Crockett came out in 1955, and Mary Poppins in 1964. Mary Poppins and Davy Crockett were very successful in both theaters and with live actors. In 1954, Walt lunched a television series featuring some of the studios creations. He also began to produce True-Life Adventures, a series of short films showing unseen natural settings; also, he released The Living Desert in 1953, which was the first full-length nature film (Boman
2).
On July 17, 1955, Disney opened his very first amusement park in Anaheim, California, and opened his second one in Orlando, Florida on October 1, 1971. He also opened up three more amusement parks in France, Japan, and Hong Kong between the years 1992-2005. Walt Disney acquired his inspiration to build amusement parks as he was sitting on a bench, at an amusement park, watching his daughters play, when he noticed how raggedy and neglected that the amusement park was. He also noticed how the parents of the children had nothing to do, and how parents would be anxious to go home, while their children were still playing and having fun. Walt Disney once said, “What this country really needs is an amusement park that families can take their children to. They’ve gotten so honky tonk with many questionable characters running around, and they’re not too safe. They’re not well kept. I want to have a place that is as clean as anything could ever be, and all the people in it [his park] are first-class citizens, and treated like guests” (Boman 2 and Kent 3).
Disney’s amusement park in Orlando, Florida, which is called Disney World, and is on twenty-seven thousand four hundred forty three acres Florida land.
Disney World consists of Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, each of these is their own individual park. Each one of the individual parks has its own underground tunnel system that consists of hallways, offices, and parking garages that allow the workers to enter and exist without the visitors seeing them. Disney World averaged ten thousand visitors per day since it first opened in 1971 today that number has amplified to fifty thousand visitors per day. Walt Disney World employs close to sixty thousand cast members making it one of the largest employers in the United States, Walt Disney’s Costume Department is the largest in the world, holding over 1.2 million pieces of clothing. Disney World has several ways of transportation buses, a monorail that has logged enough miles to make thirty round trips to the moon, and a ferry that carries people back and forth to Magic Kingdom (Case 2 and
3).
Disney’s Magic Kingdom consists of several different themed lands; these lands are Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, and Tomorrowland. In each of these the areas, people can partake in several different activities, such as visit Cinderella Castle, or ride the Dumbo Elephant ride. Many people say that there is no way to take on Magic Kingdom in one day because there is just so much that people can do. Magic Kingdom has numerous parades during the day and night. During the month of October, they host a villain parade, and during the month of December, they have Cinderella Castle lit up like a Christmas tree. Disney’s Magic Kingdoms, It’s A Small World is not that small after all; it encompasses over fifty square miles (Case 2).
EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) Center is a park that would teach people about the past, future, and different world cultures and opened on October 1, 1982. In 1989, Disney’s Hollywood Studios which was built as a tribute to Hollywood and Hollywood Studios Tower of Terror, which stands at 119 feet tall, and is home of the Rock-N-Roller Coaster which is based on the band Aerosmith. Animal Kingdom is the most recent addition; it is also the smallest out of the other three parks in Disney World. Animal Kingdom has a safari ride with numerous exotic animal, 3-D shows and much more. The new Avatar division of Animal Kingdom expected to open in 2015 at a cost of four-hundred million dollars (Case 3).
Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966 at age sixty-five from lung cancer. Disney was a chain smoker his entire adult life, but not once was he seen smoking around children. As scheduled to undergo surgery to repair and old neck injury, but during his pre-operative x-rays, doctors found a tumor in his left lung. Five days later a biopsy showed that the tumor to be malignant and had spread throughout his entire left lung, after the removal of the left lung on November 11, doctors informed Disney his life expectancy was six months to two years. On November 30, Disney collapsed at his home, and the fire department personnel revived him and rushed him to the hospital. On December 15, at 9:30 am Disney died of acute circulatory collapse, which the lung cancer caused. The final productions in which Disney played an active role in was The Jungle Book, The Happiest Millionaire, and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Case 2 and Carr 4).
Roy Disney returned of retirement and took full control over Walt Disney Productions and WED productions. Roy also gave a speech in front of Cinderella’s Castle, and he said, “Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney…and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney’s dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring joy and inspiration and new knowledge to all who come to this happy place…a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn-together.” Since Disney’s death, his company has added several improvements such as, a set of resorts, cruise lines, golf courses and luxury hotels. However, if people cannot tell, all of Disney’s movies have inspired his theme parks and cruise lines look. All the improvements that were made have been well needed such as the parks has become more tech-oriented since 2008. Disney’s company noticed that they were losing luster because technology started becoming more popular, so the parks division formed a group in hopes of a new and improved ideas (Carr 2). As the group started brainstorming, they came up with electronic bands and they would call it the MagicBand. The MagicBands would be guest’s way into the park, coupons, store photos, would be there room key, and can synchronize credit cards. These MagicBands would also allow people to order their food online and at arrival the restaurant employees would scan, the band and the food is automatically delivered to the costumer. Two hundred and thirty park entries also needed updated and the parks got their own Wi-Fi coverage all over the parks. Disney World has several more improvement coming in time if not already happened, like the new, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom (Carr 4-13). Even after his death, Walt Disney continues to change many of children’s lives. Walt Disney’s life work was to inspire families by creating numerous family oriented parks and activites, along with being a very prosperous, famous man. Disney adored creating cartoon animation, filming movies, and inventing new things for his amusement parks. Disney’s daughters were an enormous inspiration to him and his career. Even after his death, Disney’s legendary empire continues to create wholesome family entertainment (Kent 2 and Carr 13).