Disney

With the release of their 53^rd animated feature film Frozen recently I am taking a look back at the mouse house itself from its inception to its present and recommending some of its finest films for your viewing pleasure.

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most successful conglomerate businesses in the world; now owning Marvel, Pixar, ABC television network and Lucas Films which it bought last year for a staggering $4.5 billion. It has one of the most recognised symbols in the world and Disneyland is a dream holiday for families. So how did one man create one mouse and turn that into one of the most thriving and beloved companies in history in the process?

Walt Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago; he started his company in 1923 with his brother Roy as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (it took on its current name in 1986). They worked in the animation industry, finally making it big with the creation and introduction of Mickey Mouse in 1928 with Disney’s first sound film Steamboat Willie. It was the success of his Mickey Mouse series that lead to the advancement to feature length films.

In 1934 Walt Disney started planning and producing his first feature length film, it took 3 years to complete. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937 and became the highest grossing film of the time (up until 1939). Disney delivered further high quality films into the early 1940’s many of which are still family favourites today, including Pinocchio (1940) about a wooden puppet that is given life by a fairy. Fantasia (1940) a miss hit for Disney but a charming film; featuring cartoons put to classical music. Dumbo (1941) the baby elephant who can fly due to his enormous ears and Bambi (1942) about a baby deer and his life growing up in the forest. This last entry is a must see if only to see many grown men choke up (I’m sure you know which moment I’m talking about) as World War 2 began many of Disney’s animation team were drafted and it was a quiet time for the studio.

It took until the release of Cinderella (1950); about the young girl mistreated by her step-family but ending up marrying a prince for Disney to get back on track. They also released Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953) based on the classic children’s stories, both of which had been in production before the war. In 1950 Walt Disney also launched into live action feature films with the classic Treasure Island. In 1953 Disney created their own distribution department Buena Vista. They also branched out further still in 1950 with a television programme on the NBC network; in 1954 they created Disneyland which became one of the longest running programmes in history.

The Disney Company became more and more successful in every area it pursued, Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) (clue to the plots are in the titles) became classic favourites. The live action attempts such as Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap (1961) were big successes for Disney. But even more so was the masterpiece that was Mary Poppins (1964) based on P. L. Travers books about the flying nanny; which won Julie Andrews an Academy Award for Best Actress is still fondly viewed today by new generations of children and families. In 1964 Walt Disney had scouted and found the location for his second Disneyland (to be called Disney World) in Orlando Florida, things were going incredibly well for the Company.

On December 15^th 1966 Walt Disney died from complications involving lung cancer and Roy Disney became the CEO of the company. The last film that was supervised by Walt before his death was released in 1967; The Jungle Book tells the tale of a young boy who grows up in the jungle among the animals and due to the return of a fearsome tiger must return to the local village where he can be safe among his kind. With magical songs and a fantastic story The Jungle Book has become one of the highest regarded of the Disney canon.

The 70’s brought a post-Walt Disney future and the first film released was The Aristocats (1970) which did good business. Followed closely by the live action mixed with animation classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) starring Angela Lansbury; so far so good for the Disney team. But another blow in the form of the death of Roy Disney in 1971 left the company in the hands of others.

The 1970’s was a time of change for the Disney company, trying to create great films and also keep to the image Walt Disney had created for his company was a tricky path to follow; there were many good examples such as Robin Hood (1973), the animated film portraying the famous do-gooder as a fox. Freaky Friday (1976); the live action comedy starring a young Jodie Foster who swaps bodies with her mother and the mouse team whose job it is to help children in need; The Rescuers (1977). However none of these have had quite the impact that a film such as Snow White or Mary Poppins had on audiences. This troublesome time continued for Disney, even became worse in the 1980’s with efforts like The Black Cauldron (1985) failing to spark interest with audiences, this is not to say that the company was not doing well; on the contrary Disneyland was booming and it’s Television division had some great programmes on schedule but it wasn’t until 1989 with The Little Mermaid that the last golden age of Disney feature films really began.

Ask anyone what their favourite Disney film is and there is a very high percentage it will come from the following list of spectacular films released in the 1990’s. Disney seemed to have found its magic again and created some truly amazing movies. Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first animated feature nominated for an Oscar for Best Film, it was followed by Aladdin (1992) and my personal favourite The Lion King (1994). I think the reason these films did so well was a combination of things; great songs written by well-known artists of the day, famous actors with distinctive voices were drawn to the heart-warming stories being created; it is by bringing all these elements together that had spectacular results. By the late nineties into the noughties Disney was creating more live action than animation, for every 5 or 6 live action films there was a Hercules (1997) or Treasure Planet (2002). Disney has long been in collaboration with Pixar and many are unaware of the difference but in comparison it was clear that Pixar was producing gold the likes of Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003) and Wall E (2008) and Disney was trailing far behind with unmemorable and unimaginative offers.

Happily things have begun to look up for Disney, it has never struggled with its many other divisions; Television, the theme parks etc. It also now owns many separate businesses so that it controls more than anyone could probably imagine. But now the poor productions that have been coming from the film department seem to be behind them. With the release of Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012) the quality of all the elements required to make a successful movie appeared once again, it is clear in watching the movies that a lot of time has gone into the casting, the screenplay and the songs as well as the animation. Disney now has to live up to the likes of Pixar, DreamWorks and other companies who are vying for the top spot in their field. With the release of Frozen (2013) Disney have shown that they are not done yet and have a lot of fight left in them. With an impressive looking schedule for the next few years it’s clear that Disney are aiming to do Walt proud again and give us some more classics to gush over and force our children to watch in years to come just so we can watch them again. I for one can’t wait to see what they come up with.