Ah Disney. Most of us have fond memories of growing up with Disney classics, and I personally have many times broken the ice with the question: “what’s your favorite Disney movie?” While I was younger, the focus was perhaps more so on Disney princesses, but with Disney constantly expanding and growing, there are many options of movies or content that anyone in the family can enjoy.
It started with the man himself: Walt Disney. In the year 1919, young Walt Disney was making short animated commercials with the Kansas City Slide Company. He eventually left the company and created Alice In Wonderland, a movie where an actress was put into the animated world. Although initial attempts at starting a company failed, Walt didn’t give up. He moved to L.A. and made more films, and also created the character of Mickey Mouse with his animator, Ub Iwerks.
Mickey Mouse and his famous friends (Goofy, Donald Duck, and Pluto) brought Disney huge success in the midst of the Great Depression. Eventually we got the first full-length animation with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Disney, with the rise of World War 2, produced a handful of propaganda films, but after the war was Disney’s Golden Age. We got Cinderella, a full-length Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and The Sword In the Stone.
Did you know that The Jungle Book was the last animated film Walt Disney himself worked on? In 1966, Disney found out that he had lung cancer and passed away in December, at the age of 65, right before the film was finished.
With a wide range of projects, from animated films, to live-action features, to tv series, and even amusement parks (Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which Walt Disney himself planned, and Disneyworld, in Orlando, Florida, which was opened by his brother, Roy, in 1971), Disney steadily grew and continues to grow today.
It’s interesting to me just how how much Disney has changed from the initial Alice in Wonderland shorts of the 1920’s. Today, Disney has various successful franchises, the most famous of which is probably Disney Princesses. It includes Star Wars, Marvel, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more, yet distinctly faces criticism of sequels and remakes. Despite all this, we all know and love Disney (well, if we don’t love it--chances are we have Disney+ anyway).