Born: December 5, 1901 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Died: December 15, 1966 (age 65), Los Angeles, California, U.S. Much of this information can be found in the book Walt Disney An American Classic, by Bob Thomas
Walter Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago. His family bought a farm and his father struggled to raise his family. Four years of back-breaking work and the family sold out their farm, barely breaking even on his investment. It was four years work with nothing to show. The family then found themselves in Kansas City in 1910 when Walt was 8.
When Walt lived on the farm, he had his first exposure to movies in a nearby theatre. Movies had just come into existence in 1895 and 1896, largely the work and research of Thomas Edison in NJ, but by 1904-1914, movie theatres proliferated throughout the United States and other parts of the world. Millions in the United States attended weekly by 1914. Disney became enamored with the movies and they became a part of his life. He and his wife would date, going to the movies, Disney was married at 24. Vaudeville and Burlesque, as it was back then, also were influences on his life.
Disney was fond of drawing and sketching, especially caricatures, which he made for 25-cents a piece in local barber shop. For the better part of his childhood and into his teenage years he had an arduous newspaper route, for which he received only a small allowance, his father taking most of the money for family expenses. Neither he nor his father were heavy drinkers; Walt enjoyed a scotch in the evening as an adult after he had become successful.
Charley Chaplin was a Disney idol, the creation of Mickey Mouse was influenced by Chaplin, however, Mickey Mouse was said to be a creation “devoted to Horatio Alger.” Alger was a writer that had studied under Henry W. Longfellow with the hopes of becoming a poet. He wrote scores of novels concerning the American Dream, of a poor boy becoming rich through hard work and diligence. For a time he was a minister, but was found guilty of molesting young boys. Nonetheless, his novels became a popular American literary tradition during the early 1900s.
Walt’s father was a socialist, his family had English and Irish roots. Disney did political cartoons for his father’s socialist newspaper, however, he did not stick to his father’s political persuasions and became more and more conservative, in the American political tradition (more along the lines of Reagan’s ideology), as he got older. He became staunchly anti-communist. Hollywood, of which Disney was a part, was effected by labor strikes and struggles with communist ideology from within. Disney felt he would be a political cartoonist, but ended up pursuing what was gaining popularity in the early 1920s , that is cartoons. The first cartoons made started appearing from before 1914 and Felix the Cat (not Disney) preceded Mickey Mouse, but failed to gain the huge success that Mickey Mouse did; although many of us can still remember the TV jingle, “Felix the Cat, the wonderful wonderful cat.. whenever he gets in a fix he reaches into his bag of tricks, Felix the Cat….” But Disney stated that Felix the Cat never evolved, had remained 2-dimensional, and didn’t grow in personality.
Mickey was different, and many of Disney’s own animated personality was incorporated into the Mickey persona. When Disney was first created he was to be known as Mortimor Mouse. His wife objected, and the name was changed to Mickey.
Disney and his family
In December of 1933 the Disney’s had a little girl Diane Maria Disney. They later had a second little girl, their only two children. The Disney’s remained together until his death of cancer and circulatory failure in the 1960s, at the time that the plans for Disney World were being approved by the city officials in Orlando, Florida. His brother Roy was his business partner for all of the years of the Disney legacy, and continued to work with the Disney empire even after Walt Disney’s death. He was more sensible and level headed, but frequently got into “blowout” fights with his impetuous brother Walter. Walt never got to see Disney World.
Walt Disney had something a volatile temper. His family was aware of it and cautious. He had two daughters, and on one occasion, he reached across the table and slapped his little girl across the face. When he went to work he looked forlorn. An employee asked him why, and he told her. “There must have been a good reason,” the worker said. “Damn right,” Disney, she gave me "that dirty Disney look.” After getting into a head to head battle with his brother, he always seemed to be the one to go and make amends. His older daughter is said to have inherited his hot temper, and frequently got into clashes with her father. Whereas his younger daughter is described as “daddy’s little girl,” and didn't inherit the fiery disposition.
Child Abuse
Disney was the victim of child abuse himself from his boyhood years until the time he was 14, his father apparently “thrashing him” often, with whatever he could get his hands on to strike or beat the boys with. The last event happened when Walt was 14 years old, his father didn’t like the speed of his work and sent him to the basement for a beating. His older brother Roy shouted out encouragement, “Don’t let him do it to you again. Don’t let him treat you like a boy.” When his father grabbed the handle of a hammer to beat Walt, Walt grabbed it from his hands and held his father’s arms. His father broke down and cried and never beat him again. Interestingly, a scene in the animation Disney film Pinocchio, so vividly corresponds with this experience of Walt at 14, that it is striking. It demonstrates that memories of child abuse are long lasting even for adults many years later.
However, Disney was not what you could say, a purist when it came to artworks nor an idealist, “Give the people what they want,” he stated; one of his driving ambitions was success, popularity and commercialism. He encouraged a young artist to abandon pure art in favor of “commercialism,” where money could be made and popularity achieved. This was especially true during the making of such movies as Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, when the company was under much financial pressure. Action and violent scenes were deliberately added and accentuated, to hook the audience and draw crowds. (Violence in children's cartoons continues to be a problem. A 1996 survey revealed that 8 out of 10 Saturday morning children's cartoon characters were violent. George Gerbner, Media and Democracy: A book of Readings and Resources 1996 - Media Violence-Opposing Viewpoints, NY p.154. ) Exposure to violence, even in cartoons, can effect a child's mental, emotional and neurological development.
World War II
During World War II, troops occupied Disney studios in California. Disney plunged wholeheartedly into the war effort. It was during that time that Disney was creating both Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Bambi, as well as some other projects. All of these projects were postponed until after the war, with the exception of Bambi, which continued. One animator left for the war, and returned 4 years later, resuming his animation work on (a film concurrent with Bambi) the very same sequence that he had left behind for the war 4 years earlier. Disney was under financial pressure for hits, and Alice in Wonderland, completed after the war, had the pace of a 3-ring circus, but in Disney’s words, “has plenty of entertainment and should satisfy everyone.” Animators tired of the project, as did Disney, calling it “punishing work” and everyone, including Walt, were relieved when it was finished. As it turned out, the movie wasn’t financially successful. Dumbo, by contrast, which was made on a limited budget, less than $1,000,000, was, though, successful financially. During the war years, Disney and his “organization,” were responsible for scores of war training movies for the navy, army, and especially the air force. Disney had read a book, “Victory Through Air Power,” from a Russian author, Alexander P. DeSeversky, that became the basis for the most pivotal of Disney’s war films, and that gave strong persuasion for the success inherent in airpower. When Bambi was finally completed, a long project, he immediately started to work on the movie “Victory Through Airpower,” Seversky even coming in to assist. “ He [Disney] applied his skill to explaining bomb sights and factory methods with the "same zeal that he had to recounting the exploits of Mickey Mouse and Snow White.” The Dwarves themselves were actually featured on a war film produced during that time period. Donald Duck also was used in a cartoon where he wakes up from a dream working in a Germany munitions factor, with a song and the famous duck saluting Adolph Hitler. It delighted audiences, although it was banned in Germany.
The Disney team often did their wartime work with little thought to making money. Disney animators designed 1400 insignia emblems for military uniforms at the mere cost of $25 each, making no money on the project. “I had to do it,” Disney is quoted as saying, “Those kids grew up on Mickey Mouse, I owed it to ‘em.” The ideology of heavy use of air power, was part of Disney's philosophy for the war, and his movies on this subject had a profound influence on Winston Churchill, who sent back to the US for a copy to break a decision deadlock when the US and Britain were planning assaults on Germany. He was in conference at the time with Roosevelt. The Disney movie proved to be the tie-breaker, and a huge air offensive was planned and implemented; it proved to be a part of the Allied forces winning strategy for D-Day. Roosevelt was amazed by the way Disney’s airplanes “masterfully wiped ships off the seas.” The Joint Chiefs of Staffs also viewed the film and it had a powerful influence on their war plans.
Details of ways to eliminate hydropower dams of the enemy were visualized by Seversky and animated by Disney, before actually carried out by the Royal Air Force, who went on to bomb the Rhineland dams, in almost the exact method proposed by Seversky and later in Disney’s films. When Walt was in Washington he was invited to a meeting with high naval offices who complained about his neglect of naval power and emphasis on air power. Walt stuck to his guns and air power continued to be a major theme of his war effort in animated films.
Bambi
The Disney classic Bambi was the only film that continued to be produced during WWII by Disney animators during WWII. The story behind the movie is of interest; the novel Bambi, ein Leben im Walde (Bambi, A Life in the Woods) is a book by Felix Salten, first printed in 1923. Felix Salten was the pen-name of Siegmund Salzmann, a Jewish author, who was born in Budapest, Hungary but grew up in Vienna, Austria. The book was translated from German into English by Whittaker Chambers, who needed to supplement his income while working at a Communist newspaper. Felix Salten wrote a sequel, entitled Bambi's Children. Salten's works also inspired The Shaggy Dog, a Disney film in the '60s. Salten, being Jewish, fled to Switzerland during the Nazi occupation.
The 1906 book Josephine Mutzenbacher - The Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself, was an erotic novel first published anonymously in Vienna, Austria in 1906 that is also attributed to Salten and that is famous in the German-speaking world, having been in print in both German and English; for over 100 years it has sold over 3- million copies, becoming an erotic bestseller described as a "pornographic classic". I t has been translated into English, French, Spanish, Hungarian and Japanese, and been the subject of numerous films, theater productions, parodies, and university courses, as well as two sequels, still being popular today. The novel Bambi is a deep symbolic representation, not only of the perils of hunting, but also has a striking or symbolic comparison, a foreboding prophecy of sorts, of what Jews in others would experience in the "man hunt" of humans by the Nazis. The novel is shockingly violent at times, and glimpses of Salten's past work in pornography, are apparent in certain scenes. Incest and even lust directed towards children, or sexuality involving children, is part of the landscape in the original novel. One child's librarian stated that the novel Bambi, was not for young children, but one would be better to wait until being older to read it. The studio, during these years produced “Chicken Little,” reproduced in recent years, which was originally a war propaganda film that depicted the evils of mass hysteria. Disney wanted to prove that he could produce war training films and produced hundreds of war films, pretty much abandoning his cartoon making during that time. The studio had been preparing for its wartime role since before Pearl Harbor. Disney succeeded in “exerting a vast influence on the thinking of both the public and policy makers.” This was at a time when other movie companies were entertaining an “entertainment hungry” United States with war musicals and war movies. It was a few years after the war finished that Disney started making plans for his Disneyland dream in California.
Disney's own difficult beginning in life is a reminder that often times child abuse takes place behind the scenes, and that it is passed on from generation to generation, but at the same time, it is possible to break that chain of abuse. Some have found their escape in fantasy, however, children and victims of abuse need to be anchored, they need nurturers and protectors. All who are aware of this need can think about taking up work in assisting and caring for children. In some states in the US and other countries, there is a need for teachers. Preschool and Kindergarten teachers of high quality are also of much value. Special education teachers perform a vital role in caring for children with special needs. This is true not only in the US, but in every country in the world today. Sigmund Freud made the accurate comment before WWI that we are enamored by fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty were folk tales for centuries in Germany and some other countries. The Brother's Grimm were the first, in the 1700s to document these folk tales and put them in writing), as a result of trying to regain the childhood that we have lost through oppression in one's childhood. This seems to be the case with Disney and his fantasy world for children.
Donald Duck made his debut in 1934 in Silly Symphony, The Wise Little Hen, described as “the explosive Donald Duck.” A silent version of Snow White had been produced in 1915, that Disney had seen. This formed the basis for Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Disney acted out each part, every dwarf, the Evil queen, with his face beaming while depicting the dwarfs. He gave a 2-hour performance, and that sold the idea of Snow White as the future major feature movie. Snow White is described as a 14-year-old girl, Prince Charming was 18. The end of the movie is when the Prince’s kiss awakens the sleeping Snow White. Some had tears in their eyes. The Queen is described by Walt’s directing as “A mixture of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf. Her beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves, she comes ugly and menacing when scheming and mixing her poisons. Magic fluids transform her into an old witchlike hag.” Disney fantasy movies often involved a “climactic kiss,” as one mother and New York Times Magazine writer described, but as far as discussions about or movies about sex, Disney preferred to leave such discussions as private matters (good advice for parents today and for film-makers. Children's PG and even G movies today are often chock full of sexual innuendo, some of which goes over their heads, but some of which keeps them thinking for days and weeks afterward.)
However, the fantasy romances of such movies has evolved, according to the Time article, into a “Princess Culture,” (See December 24, 2006 New York Times Magazine for full article) and taken on a life of its own. Some parents are concerned with the lessons that such movies teach children. Day after day exposure to the idea of a Prince Charming, firmly plants such seeds in the mind and hearts of little girls. This is a concern for many parents. Also, the escalating nature of the violence of children's movies is also a concern, as is the sexual content and innuendos of many children's movies today. The sexual content has increased in recent years and this is of concern.
Fantasia, based on the earlier feature, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, was made in 1940. The Reluctant Dragon in 1940. Of all the Disney films, by the time of WWII, only 3 or 4 actually were profitable, which put some pressure on Disney and the company.
In 1941 Disney was raw: threats of workers, dissatisfaction, political tensions and alliances, he was “saying and doing things he later realized were unwise. He had suffered a nervous breakdown of sorts at one point around 1931 and left for an extended vacation with his wife to recuperate and regain his health, his doctor tried prescribing treatments, until the time that he returned from his rest, and told his doctor that he was no longer in need of such help. The prolonged vacation seemed to help. In 1935, during the production of Snow White, he again started having the same feelings of emotional fatigue, and took another extended rest, which again gave him sufficient strength to continue his work. Disney went on to produce the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 1938, which was an old fairy tale, interpreted from a poem. Mickey was the apprentice whose sorcerer’s powers ran astray disastrously, choreographed from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Sacre De Printemps), music of “primitive people of the Russian Steppes with weird dissonances.” Walt complained one day that it seemed as if “artists had never grown up. “How can you grow up in this atmosphere, for God’s sake?” replied one observer, “It’s like living in Santa Clauses workshop.” Disney tried to perpetuate the myth of Santa Clause with his girls as long as he possibly could. (Many of his most popular movies come from childhood myths and stories written in the late 1800s.) The spiritistic nature of Disney films has often been a subject of discussion and also of psychological study. A recent study published in Child Psychiatry, analyzed negative stereotyping and use of "demonizing" words in Disney films, finding an average of 5.6 per film. The psychological implications for children are many, according to the study. (Much in children's programming similarly embraces the spiritistic theme. One example is Scooby Doo, the new movie of which has a long and poignant scene of voodoo euphoria. Some of the Scooby Doo books have prolonged conversations or discussions on witchcraft and wicca, ghosts and the paranormal.)
After Snow White, Disney produced Pinocchio, which was originally written by Carlo Collidi (Lorenzi) in 1880. Collidi saw himself in the character of Pinocchio, a boy who was always in trouble, always doing something wrong. Disney “pursued the new project almost demonically,” and he was determined to make Pinocchio even greater than the preceding Snow White feature. “Pinocchio should use every ounce of force he has in his swimming to escape the whale. This should be the equivalent of the storm and the chase of the queen in Snow White,” he directed.
While trying to get started in finishing Peter Pan after the war, Roy and Walt got into one of many angry shouting matches. Roy yelled back to at Walter, “Look you’re letting this place drive you to the nuthouse. That’s one place I’m not going with you!” Walt later tried to reconcile saying, “Isn’t it amazing what a horses ass a fellow can be sometimes,” both smiled and the argument was assuaged. It has been noted that many Disney films, and other children's films in more recent years, capitalize on the emotions involved with "separation anxiety" and in that respect, Disney and some other children's films, can lead to emotions in children that might not be healthy in their formative years. Some have referred to Disney films as "horror movies for children," although today, horror movies that are truly horrifying are part of the social landscape of a large percentage of children, with and without parents knowing what their children are watching through cable and satellite television systems.
Cinderella became the first hit movie since Snow White and helped to shrink the companies debt in the 1950s to $1,700,000. Cinderella was a French/German children's fairy tale from the 1500s, that the Grimm brothers recorded in their book on children's tales in centuries past. Actually, it is believed that the first Cinderella story originated in China in the 9th Century. Cinderella is a story, that is really about child abuse, a wicked step mother and sisters who abuse Cinderella in various ways, and it is one reason why it is such an enduring tale, any woman or girl who might have experience abuse as a child, can relate to this simple, yet compelling story.
Disney received a medal from the League of Nations for his Mickey Mouse creation. He met with a number of presidents, receiving a medal from Lyndon Johnson, and was even received by such politicians as Mussolini of Italian (WWII) fame. After WWII, visitors and employees were often perplexed by his silence and manner, his disinterest, and gruffness.
Winnie the Pooh:
A.H. Milne, author of the original Winnie the Pooh story, 1926 story that was eventually sold by his widow to Disney movies (1961). Milne was also wrote novels, plays and poems. Christopher Robin was the son of the author of Winnie the Pooh. Christopher wanted a name to call Milne’s character all to himself and without stopping to think, he said “ Winnie-the-Pooh. And so he was," stated Milne. (The "Pooh" part of the name came from a swan of that name.) Thus, the name of the famous lazy bear in the stories became Winnie-the-Pooh even though traditionally "Winnie" is a girl's name and Winnie-the-Pooh is definitely a boy bear.
Unlike Bambi, there is nothing scandalous about Winney the Pooh. (In a couple of illustrated scenes in Winnie the Pooh series, it does make one wonder, when Christopher Robin invites Winnie the Pooh to watch him take a bath. There is a suggestion there that might not be appropriate for children of today's or even yesterday's era. Whether Milne deliberately created that situation, or if it was something written in a more innocent era, it still raises a lesson that perhaps children are best not taught.)
In the way of textual criticism, Winnie the Pooh (the book series), of which there were four, are simple enough and gentle enough for any child. The theme of a single boy or girl in the midst of fantasy creatures or animals, is something that had been developed already in literarary history, most notable, in Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. Carrol, a pen name, was an epileptic, and quite possibly on medications for his epilepsy. There has been much written about the fantastical story of Alice in Wonderland, as it relates to Carrol's severe epilepsy. Also, there has been speculation about Carrol's relationship with Alice, a real girl, some have said, his daughter, other's have said a friend of his family, but these allegations seem to be unfounded.
Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, wrote for a politically satirical journal in the early 1900s in London, and the illustrator of Winnie the Pooh Ernest Shepherd, was a political cartoonist in the same paper. Winnie the Pooh, seems to be have written during WWI, when Milne was in the army in England, as a diversion from the rigors of army life, according to what we can piece together from comments in his biography, although it was not published until the mid-1920's. Following the primary book, Milne wrote three others, for a total of four Winnie the Pooh books. Some of these give the impression of a lazy summer vacation.
There are references in Winnie the Pooh that seem to reflect Milne's preoccupation or comic satire concerning the subject of medicine for children. In two scenes, in separate books, Piglet, first, is given "medicine," "MMMM...medicine," says Piglet, "I don't need any mmmm.....medicine," he says with trepidation. "Take your medicine!" .......is the basic idea behind one scene. In the second book in the series, Tiger is similarly given "medicine" to help him with "energy.” There have been books written that analyze the characters of Winnie the Pooh and their significance. Eeyore, you might say displays the traits of a, sometimes volatile, depressive alcoholic. Winnie the Pooh sometime resembles a (honey) alcoholic, in his activity, or a "binger," when it comes to his passion for honey.
Milne was a passionate smoker, pipes being the order of the day in early 20th century England, and some of the scenes in Milne's stories remind one of a group of men sitting around a bar and "chewing the fat," telling "fish stories" and the like, over drafts of beer. Also, Milne was a prolific writer, he had a dry English humor. He wrote scores of plays, novels, articles, and an interesting, if not dry, autobiography as well. But unlike Salten of Bambi, his books for children are not Orwellian in nature, (as Bambi's is), but are merely books for children, that reflect Milne's own experiences and concerns in life, a fantasy.
The illustrations, by Earnest Shepherd, of Winnie the Pooh have remained largely unchanged since they were created in the 1920s, (designed after the book was earlier written, which perhaps accounts for the gap between the later years of WWI, when Winnie the Pooh was most likely written, and when the book was published in the mid-1920s.), and Shepherd's wife of many years died after the first Winnie the Pooh book, and before the second book was written, with health problems associated with asthma and medication.
Winnie the Pooh, Bambi and Mickey Mouse are elaborated on here, because these characters form emotional bonds with children from the child's earliest ages, from the first days of a child's life, Winnie the Pooh is inculcated. These type of cartoons, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny, today, Dora the Explorer; Bambi, from the past; Square Pants Bob, that is Sponge Bob, the Flintstones, are emotionally bonding cartoons, "soft-bonding" cartoons. (Bart Simpson and friends, Rug Rats, are a little more advanced in satire and crudeness, but the same principal applies.) The characters are well enough developed that children bond to them emotionally. This bonding process lasts well into high school and for some adult, an emotional bond exists with these characters well into adulthood.
Winnie the Pooh has been linked with Taoism, a best selling book has been written entitled, the Tao of Pooh, and there are striking parallels between Taoist holy writings and those of the Winnie the Pooh novels for children. (A recent biography on Charles Schultz, the creator of the popular Snoopy and Peanuts characters, interestingly gives insight into Shultz's Buddhist persuasion and how that is reflected and influenced his comic series.)
Disney’s personality and foibles
Disney was a passionate smoker, and despite the warnings from his doctor and family, continued to smoke until the time he contracted lung cancer. He often smoked his cigarettes down to the butt and beyond! Smoking eventually led to his physical decline and he died at the age of 67. He had other health problems, a polo accident led to a back problems. Rather than having an operation, he paid visits to a chiropractor. As he result, though, of the chiropractic visits, he continued having back pain until his death, for which he found no relief (he felt that the chiropractic treatments contributed to the continued back problems rather than assuaging them.) In has last years, he suffered with many pains, hot compresses were necessary to assuage the pain in his face throughout the night.
Disney believed in God and was a non-practicing Protestant. Christmas and Birthdays were strong Disney traditions. Disney is said to have respected all religions. His daughter attended Catholic school, but was married in a Protestant Church, she and her husband to be, baptized there shortly before the wedding, but neither he or his family were religious. Disney became something of a work-a-holic. Disney’s daughters had a number of grandchildren, the 5th child of the oldest daughter, being named, finally, to Walter’s relief, after himself, Walter.
Disney had been told by a fortune teller before his work started in earnest, that he would die before his life’s work was completed at an early age. It was something he never forgot, and Disney’s later years were marked by severe physical pain and he did in fact die before seeing the approval or ground breaking of what might be considered the greatest achievement in his name, Disney World. His brother and son-in-law remained a part of the team after Disney died, and Disney World has become a Universal symbol, for some 40 years. End of article.
Born: December 5, 1901 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Died: December 15, 1966 (age 65), Los Angeles, California, U.S. Much of this information can be found in the book Walt Disney An American Classic, by Bob Thomas
Walter Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago. His family bought a farm and his father struggled to raise his family. Four years of back-breaking work and the family sold out their farm, barely breaking even on his investment. It was four years work with nothing to show. The family then found themselves in Kansas City in 1910 when Walt was 8.
When Walt lived on the farm, he had his first exposure to movies in a nearby theatre. Movies had just come into existence in 1895 and 1896, largely the work and research of Thomas Edison in NJ, but by 1904-1914, movie theatres proliferated throughout the United States and other parts of the world. Millions in the United States attended weekly by 1914. Disney became enamored with the movies and they became a part of his life. He and his wife would date, going to the movies, Disney was married at 24. Vaudeville and Burlesque, as it was back then, also were influences on his life.
Disney was fond of drawing and sketching, especially caricatures, which he made for 25-cents a piece in local barber shop. For the better part of his childhood and into his teenage years he had an arduous newspaper route, for which he received only a small allowance, his father taking most of the money for family expenses. Neither he nor his father were heavy drinkers; Walt enjoyed a scotch in the evening as an adult after he had become successful.
Charley Chaplin was a Disney idol, the creation of Mickey Mouse was influenced by Chaplin, however, Mickey Mouse was said to be a creation “devoted to Horatio Alger.” Alger was a writer that had studied under Henry W. Longfellow with the hopes of becoming a poet. He wrote scores of novels concerning the American Dream, of a poor boy becoming rich through hard work and diligence. For a time he was a minister, but was found guilty of molesting young boys. Nonetheless, his novels became a popular American literary tradition during the early 1900s.
Walt’s father was a socialist, his family had English and Irish roots. Disney did political cartoons for his father’s socialist newspaper, however, he did not stick to his father’s political persuasions and became more and more conservative, in the American political tradition (more along the lines of Reagan’s ideology), as he got older. He became staunchly anti-communist. Hollywood, of which Disney was a part, was effected by labor strikes and struggles with communist ideology from within. Disney felt he would be a political cartoonist, but ended up pursuing what was gaining popularity in the early 1920s , that is cartoons. The first cartoons made started appearing from before 1914 and Felix the Cat (not Disney) preceded Mickey Mouse, but failed to gain the huge success that Mickey Mouse did; although many of us can still remember the TV jingle, “Felix the Cat, the wonderful wonderful cat.. whenever he gets in a fix he reaches into his bag of tricks, Felix the Cat….” But Disney stated that Felix the Cat never evolved, had remained 2-dimensional, and didn’t grow in personality.
Mickey was different, and many of Disney’s own animated personality was incorporated into the Mickey persona. When Disney was first created he was to be known as Mortimor Mouse. His wife objected, and the name was changed to Mickey.
Disney and his family
In December of 1933 the Disney’s had a little girl Diane Maria Disney. They later had a second little girl, their only two children. The Disney’s remained together until his death of cancer and circulatory failure in the 1960s, at the time that the plans for Disney World were being approved by the city officials in Orlando, Florida. His brother Roy was his business partner for all of the years of the Disney legacy, and continued to work with the Disney empire even after Walt Disney’s death. He was more sensible and level headed, but frequently got into “blowout” fights with his impetuous brother Walter. Walt never got to see Disney World.
Walt Disney had something a volatile temper. His family was aware of it and cautious. He had two daughters, and on one occasion, he reached across the table and slapped his little girl across the face. When he went to work he looked forlorn. An employee asked him why, and he told her. “There must have been a good reason,” the worker said. “Damn right,” Disney, she gave me "that dirty Disney look.” After getting into a head to head battle with his brother, he always seemed to be the one to go and make amends. His older daughter is said to have inherited his hot temper, and frequently got into clashes with her father. Whereas his younger daughter is described as “daddy’s little girl,” and didn't inherit the fiery disposition.
Child Abuse
Disney was the victim of child abuse himself from his boyhood years until the time he was 14, his father apparently “thrashing him” often, with whatever he could get his hands on to strike or beat the boys with. The last event happened when Walt was 14 years old, his father didn’t like the speed of his work and sent him to the basement for a beating. His older brother Roy shouted out encouragement, “Don’t let him do it to you again. Don’t let him treat you like a boy.” When his father grabbed the handle of a hammer to beat Walt, Walt grabbed it from his hands and held his father’s arms. His father broke down and cried and never beat him again. Interestingly, a scene in the animation Disney film Pinocchio, so vividly corresponds with this experience of Walt at 14, that it is striking. It demonstrates that memories of child abuse are long lasting even for adults many years later.
However, Disney was not what you could say, a purist when it came to artworks nor an idealist, “Give the people what they want,” he stated; one of his driving ambitions was success, popularity and commercialism. He encouraged a young artist to abandon pure art in favor of “commercialism,” where money could be made and popularity achieved. This was especially true during the making of such movies as Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, when the company was under much financial pressure. Action and violent scenes were deliberately added and accentuated, to hook the audience and draw crowds. (Violence in children's cartoons continues to be a problem. A 1996 survey revealed that 8 out of 10 Saturday morning children's cartoon characters were violent. George Gerbner, Media and Democracy: A book of Readings and Resources 1996 - Media Violence-Opposing Viewpoints, NY p.154. ) Exposure to violence, even in cartoons, can effect a child's mental, emotional and neurological development.
World War II
During World War II, troops occupied Disney studios in California. Disney plunged wholeheartedly into the war effort. It was during that time that Disney was creating both Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Bambi, as well as some other projects. All of these projects were postponed until after the war, with the exception of Bambi, which continued. One animator left for the war, and returned 4 years later, resuming his animation work on (a film concurrent with Bambi) the very same sequence that he had left behind for the war 4 years earlier. Disney was under financial pressure for hits, and Alice in Wonderland, completed after the war, had the pace of a 3-ring circus, but in Disney’s words, “has plenty of entertainment and should satisfy everyone.” Animators tired of the project, as did Disney, calling it “punishing work” and everyone, including Walt, were relieved when it was finished. As it turned out, the movie wasn’t financially successful. Dumbo, by contrast, which was made on a limited budget, less than $1,000,000, was, though, successful financially. During the war years, Disney and his “organization,” were responsible for scores of war training movies for the navy, army, and especially the air force. Disney had read a book, “Victory Through Air Power,” from a Russian author, Alexander P. DeSeversky, that became the basis for the most pivotal of Disney’s war films, and that gave strong persuasion for the success inherent in airpower. When Bambi was finally completed, a long project, he immediately started to work on the movie “Victory Through Airpower,” Seversky even coming in to assist. “ He [Disney] applied his skill to explaining bomb sights and factory methods with the "same zeal that he had to recounting the exploits of Mickey Mouse and Snow White.” The Dwarves themselves were actually featured on a war film produced during that time period. Donald Duck also was used in a cartoon where he wakes up from a dream working in a Germany munitions factor, with a song and the famous duck saluting Adolph Hitler. It delighted audiences, although it was banned in Germany.
The Disney team often did their wartime work with little thought to making money. Disney animators designed 1400 insignia emblems for military uniforms at the mere cost of $25 each, making no money on the project. “I had to do it,” Disney is quoted as saying, “Those kids grew up on Mickey Mouse, I owed it to ‘em.” The ideology of heavy use of air power, was part of Disney's philosophy for the war, and his movies on this subject had a profound influence on Winston Churchill, who sent back to the US for a copy to break a decision deadlock when the US and Britain were planning assaults on Germany. He was in conference at the time with Roosevelt. The Disney movie proved to be the tie-breaker, and a huge air offensive was planned and implemented; it proved to be a part of the Allied forces winning strategy for D-Day. Roosevelt was amazed by the way Disney’s airplanes “masterfully wiped ships off the seas.” The Joint Chiefs of Staffs also viewed the film and it had a powerful influence on their war plans.
Details of ways to eliminate hydropower dams of the enemy were visualized by Seversky and animated by Disney, before actually carried out by the Royal Air Force, who went on to bomb the Rhineland dams, in almost the exact method proposed by Seversky and later in Disney’s films. When Walt was in Washington he was invited to a meeting with high naval offices who complained about his neglect of naval power and emphasis on air power. Walt stuck to his guns and air power continued to be a major theme of his war effort in animated films.
Bambi
The Disney classic Bambi was the only film that continued to be produced during WWII by Disney animators during WWII. The story behind the movie is of interest; the novel Bambi, ein Leben im Walde (Bambi, A Life in the Woods) is a book by Felix Salten, first printed in 1923. Felix Salten was the pen-name of Siegmund Salzmann, a Jewish author, who was born in Budapest, Hungary but grew up in Vienna, Austria. The book was translated from German into English by Whittaker Chambers, who needed to supplement his income while working at a Communist newspaper. Felix Salten wrote a sequel, entitled Bambi's Children. Salten's works also inspired The Shaggy Dog, a Disney film in the '60s. Salten, being Jewish, fled to Switzerland during the Nazi occupation.
The 1906 book Josephine Mutzenbacher - The Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself, was an erotic novel first published anonymously in Vienna, Austria in 1906 that is also attributed to Salten and that is famous in the German-speaking world, having been in print in both German and English; for over 100 years it has sold over 3- million copies, becoming an erotic bestseller described as a "pornographic classic". I t has been translated into English, French, Spanish, Hungarian and Japanese, and been the subject of numerous films, theater productions, parodies, and university courses, as well as two sequels, still being popular today. The novel Bambi is a deep symbolic representation, not only of the perils of hunting, but also has a striking or symbolic comparison, a foreboding prophecy of sorts, of what Jews in others would experience in the "man hunt" of humans by the Nazis. The novel is shockingly violent at times, and glimpses of Salten's past work in pornography, are apparent in certain scenes. Incest and even lust directed towards children, or sexuality involving children, is part of the landscape in the original novel. One child's librarian stated that the novel Bambi, was not for young children, but one would be better to wait until being older to read it. The studio, during these years produced “Chicken Little,” reproduced in recent years, which was originally a war propaganda film that depicted the evils of mass hysteria. Disney wanted to prove that he could produce war training films and produced hundreds of war films, pretty much abandoning his cartoon making during that time. The studio had been preparing for its wartime role since before Pearl Harbor. Disney succeeded in “exerting a vast influence on the thinking of both the public and policy makers.” This was at a time when other movie companies were entertaining an “entertainment hungry” United States with war musicals and war movies. It was a few years after the war finished that Disney started making plans for his Disneyland dream in California.
Disney's own difficult beginning in life is a reminder that often times child abuse takes place behind the scenes, and that it is passed on from generation to generation, but at the same time, it is possible to break that chain of abuse. Some have found their escape in fantasy, however, children and victims of abuse need to be anchored, they need nurturers and protectors. All who are aware of this need can think about taking up work in assisting and caring for children. In some states in the US and other countries, there is a need for teachers. Preschool and Kindergarten teachers of high quality are also of much value. Special education teachers perform a vital role in caring for children with special needs. This is true not only in the US, but in every country in the world today. Sigmund Freud made the accurate comment before WWI that we are enamored by fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty were folk tales for centuries in Germany and some other countries. The Brother's Grimm were the first, in the 1700s to document these folk tales and put them in writing), as a result of trying to regain the childhood that we have lost through oppression in one's childhood. This seems to be the case with Disney and his fantasy world for children.
Donald Duck made his debut in 1934 in Silly Symphony, The Wise Little Hen, described as “the explosive Donald Duck.” A silent version of Snow White had been produced in 1915, that Disney had seen. This formed the basis for Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Disney acted out each part, every dwarf, the Evil queen, with his face beaming while depicting the dwarfs. He gave a 2-hour performance, and that sold the idea of Snow White as the future major feature movie. Snow White is described as a 14-year-old girl, Prince Charming was 18. The end of the movie is when the Prince’s kiss awakens the sleeping Snow White. Some had tears in their eyes. The Queen is described by Walt’s directing as “A mixture of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf. Her beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves, she comes ugly and menacing when scheming and mixing her poisons. Magic fluids transform her into an old witchlike hag.” Disney fantasy movies often involved a “climactic kiss,” as one mother and New York Times Magazine writer described, but as far as discussions about or movies about sex, Disney preferred to leave such discussions as private matters (good advice for parents today and for film-makers. Children's PG and even G movies today are often chock full of sexual innuendo, some of which goes over their heads, but some of which keeps them thinking for days and weeks afterward.)
However, the fantasy romances of such movies has evolved, according to the Time article, into a “Princess Culture,” (See December 24, 2006 New York Times Magazine for full article) and taken on a life of its own. Some parents are concerned with the lessons that such movies teach children. Day after day exposure to the idea of a Prince Charming, firmly plants such seeds in the mind and hearts of little girls. This is a concern for many parents. Also, the escalating nature of the violence of children's movies is also a concern, as is the sexual content and innuendos of many children's movies today. The sexual content has increased in recent years and this is of concern.
Fantasia, based on the earlier feature, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, was made in 1940. The Reluctant Dragon in 1940. Of all the Disney films, by the time of WWII, only 3 or 4 actually were profitable, which put some pressure on Disney and the company.
In 1941 Disney was raw: threats of workers, dissatisfaction, political tensions and alliances, he was “saying and doing things he later realized were unwise. He had suffered a nervous breakdown of sorts at one point around 1931 and left for an extended vacation with his wife to recuperate and regain his health, his doctor tried prescribing treatments, until the time that he returned from his rest, and told his doctor that he was no longer in need of such help. The prolonged vacation seemed to help. In 1935, during the production of Snow White, he again started having the same feelings of emotional fatigue, and took another extended rest, which again gave him sufficient strength to continue his work. Disney went on to produce the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 1938, which was an old fairy tale, interpreted from a poem. Mickey was the apprentice whose sorcerer’s powers ran astray disastrously, choreographed from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Sacre De Printemps), music of “primitive people of the Russian Steppes with weird dissonances.” Walt complained one day that it seemed as if “artists had never grown up. “How can you grow up in this atmosphere, for God’s sake?” replied one observer, “It’s like living in Santa Clauses workshop.” Disney tried to perpetuate the myth of Santa Clause with his girls as long as he possibly could. (Many of his most popular movies come from childhood myths and stories written in the late 1800s.) The spiritistic nature of Disney films has often been a subject of discussion and also of psychological study. | |
