Disney 1930s-1940

The Walt Disney studio creations of the 1930s -1940 prepared them to dominant animation film history and create some of the most beloved cartoons of our age. After the terrible drama with distributor M.J. Winkler taking over Oswald the rabbit being as well as many of Disneys cartoonists, Walt needed a new character and a new plan for his cartoon career. On Disneys train ride home from New York he created a cartoon mouse named Mortimer, but later named Mickey Mouse by his wife Lillian. (Gabler 2006) In 1930 Dsney signed with Columbia pictures. (Gabler 2006) This was the beginning of Walt Disneys successful career in cartoon animation, merchandise, and gaining the hearts of the young and old around the world. Mickey Mouse is the most well known character of the 20th and 21st century and it all started with an easy design and quick laughs. Mickey mouse was skinny, voiceless, shoeless, gloveless, and rowdy in his first appearance in animation by Disneys animator Ub Iwerks. As more of the films were primed out he obtained light colored shoes, infamous white gloves, charming personality, and memorable voice. (Solomon) Mickeys first two films Plan Crazy and Gallopin Gaucho were unsuccessful because they didnt have distributors. (Gabler 2006) His third film Steamboat Willy is better know as his debut because it had a famous distributor and was the first animated film to have sound.(Random History 2008) Though other animators such as Dave and Max Flechier had sound, their sound wasnt throughout the entire film and didnt sync with the characters movements like Mickey Mouse, the movement of the character to the music was later coined Mickey Mousing. (Mickey Mousing) Many more animation breakthroughs brought Mickey Mouse worldwide appeal.

Mickeys first appearance in 3-strip Technicolor was in 1935s The Band Concert. (Solomon) Though the film was gritty and the color was slightly faded the film became very popular among audiences and prepared Disney to create his best works. The Band Concert showed Mickey as an intense conductor, Donald Duck as his annoying extra player, and finally a swirling mass of animation and sound as a tornado tries to sweep away the small town. The movements arent as fluid as his later films and most of the expressions of the characters are found in the eyes and hands. In The Brave Little Tailor Mickey becomes apart of an adventure story, instead of a reel of gags and laughs. He must defend the kingdom against he giant, and does so effortlessly with his tailor materials. In this film the audience see a more adventurous Mickey and his first kiss from Minnie. This is also the last film to show Mickey with only black ovals for eyes. (Wikipedia) Though Mickey was a good little charmer, Disney knew that gags and laughs are what would keep his audience and decided to create funnier characters such as Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. His last film in black in white Mickeys Service Station introduced the trio shorts with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. This film also showed the studios exhausted use of Mickey Mouse who doesnt do many gags and is more of the good loser throughout the short.(Kilpatrick 2009) Donald Duck is the second most famous Disney character and is known for his impatient outburst of anger and gullibility. His usual angry and rowdy quacks are understood more by his body language. Donald is also very mischievous and playful, but cant take the backlash with laughable quacks of annoyance. In the 1930s Disney films Donald is used as Mickeys side character and apart of the Fab Three shorts with

Mickey and Goofy, later he gets his own shorts. Donalds character is less-developed in the trio shirts he appears in such as Lonesome Ghost, where he, Mickey, and Goofy are invited to exterminate ghost by ghost. His emotions and temper are his main gags and laughs in these films and dont give the viewer much background on Donald. We learn a little more about how Donald thinks and reasons in the short Donalds Nephews where Donald reaches his most prominent appearance for future films, he is round, cute, and extra-short tempered in his blue sailors shirt. The film introduces us to Donalds trio of fun-loving, but reckless nephews and further emphasizes Donald ducks character as trying his best to do good, but easily provoked. Pluto was the loving, goofy, and loyal dog of Mickey Mouse. He eventually became popular enough to gain his own shorts in 1934 with Playful Pluto. This placed Pluto in a variety of situations that a normal dog could go through, but much more humorous, especially with the garden hose and flypaper. Pluto was the only famous Disney animal character that kept his real world characteristics, he chased after cats, sniffed at things that interested him, and didnt understand how some objects worked. All of his emotion and means of communication with the viewing audience is in his face expressions and types of bark. In Lend a Paw Pluto gains a voice through his good and bad consciousness on befriending a new kitten. His good conscious eventually makes him do the right thing in the end and gain the respect of Mickey and his new friend. In most Pluto shorts he learns how things work that he has never seen before. The cartoon Bone Trouble is one of his funniest experiences in learning how to use The Hall of Mirrors to scare off his enemy and keep his new bone. In Bone Trouble Pluto is characterized as

many different animals by the magic mirrors and gave viewers a glimpse of animators playful possibilities for Pluto. Throughout the 1930s Disney studios also created Silly Symphonies, which were a variety of cartoons that relied on music to show emotion and moods. Silly Symphonies didnt break ground with Disney audiences until the short Flowers and Trees gained Technicolor and every short after that followed suit. (Girveau) Who Killed Cock Robin is the most adult and radical of the Silly Symphonies as it deals with racism and sexism and mocks the law of the 1930s. A black bird representing a black man, a big and bad looking bird, and cuckoo that is literally cuckoo is accused and judged by a all male and all the same jury. They are almost hanged by the sexual Jenny, but are saved by the bird Cupid who exhibits homosexual behavior.(Grob) All of these were the bigger social issues of that era and mock their ridiculousness accordingly. Bedtime stories and fairy tales came alive in Disney animated shorts such as The Tortoise and Hare and The Golden Touch and The Ugly Duckling. Disneys next animation break through was the use of the multi-plane camera in the Silly Symphony The Old Mill to create a 3D effect. In the beginning sequence viewers are given a sweeping glance of a waking barn and all of its animals. All of the animals are almost life-like in appearance and animation, as well as the barn and plant-life. Each Silly Symphonies had a new set of characters and allowed Disney animators to experiment with possibilities, which eventually went into Disneys animated films. The biggest and most celebrated development of the Disney studios 1930s career was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was the first animated feature film in American history. (Smith 2006) The film was an instant success and became the highest

grossing film of all time in the late 1940s. (Random History 2008) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began the churning of fifty animated films has brought the world today and continues to grab the imaginations of children of every generation. Disneys struggles paved the way for new characters and better story lines, while new inventions such as sound, color, and 3-D visions paved Disneys way into great animation history. Disney has become a multi-million dollar industry that has etched the love of animation into the hearts of many.

Works Cited Company History (n.d.). In The Walt Disney Company . Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link]

Gabler, N. (2006 ). Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (). New York, NY: Vintage Books. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link]

Girveau, B. (n.d.). What Disney at the Museum?. In One upon a Walt Disney . Retrieved February 7, 2011, from [Link]

Grob, . (2010, May 30). Who Killed Cock Robin?. In Dr. Grob's Animation Review . Retrieved February 7, 2011, from [Link]

Kilpatrick, R. (2009). Disney Film Project. In The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts . Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link]

Mickey Mousing (n.d.). In TV Tropes . Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link]

Smith, D. (2006). Disney A to Z (3rd ed., ). New York, NY: Hyperion Books.

Solomon, C. (n.d.). The Golden Age of Mickey Mouse. In The Walt Disney Family Museum. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link] amilymuseum/exhibits/articles/mickeymousegoldenage/[Link]

The Happiest place on Earth- A History of Disney (2008, September 23). In Random History and World Orgins for the Curious Mind. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from [Link]