Walt Disney was an American businessman, animator, writer, voice actor, and film producer who lived from December 5, 1901 until December 15, 1966. He was a forerunner in the American animation industry, and he pioneered a number of innovations in cartoon production.

He is well known for creating Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, as well as being a pioneer in the field of animated cartoons. He also conceived and built Disneyland, a vast amusement park outside of Los Angeles that opened in 1955, and at the time of his death, he was working on a second, Walt Disney World, outside Orlando, Florida. He founded the Walt Disney Company, which has gone on to become one of the most successful entertainment companies in the world.

Early Life

Walt Disney’s Childhood

He spent the majority of his boyhood in Marceline, where he began drawing, painting, and selling images to his neighbours and relatives. Walt’s family moved to Kansas City in 1911, where he acquired a passion for railways. Later, Disney worked for the train as a summer employee, selling refreshments and newspapers to passengers.

At the age of 16, Disney stepped out of school to join the army, but was refused down owing to his age. Instead, he enlisted in the Red Cross and was sent to drive an ambulance for a year in France. He returned to the United States in 1919.

When he returned to Kansas City in 1919, he supplemented his income by working as a draughtsman and inker in commercial painting studios, where he met Ub Iwerks, a talented young artist who was instrumental in Walt’s early success.

Walt Disney career

Disney relocated to Kansas City in 1919 to pursue a job as a newspaper illustrator. He met cartoonist Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, better known as Ub Iwerks, at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, where his brother Roy obtained him a job. Following that, Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he created cutout animation advertisements.

Disney began experimenting with a camera and hand-drawn cel animation around this period. He made the decision to start his own animation studio. As his first employee, he hired Fred Harman from the advertising agency.

Disney and Harman agreed to show their Laugh-O-Grams cartoons in a small Kansas City theatre. Because of the popularity of the cartoons, Disney was able to purchase his own studio, which he named after himself.

Iwerks and Harman’s brother Hugh were among the employees hired by Laugh-O-Gram. They created Alice in Cartoonland, a series of seven-minute fairy tales that mixed live action and animation. However, by 1923, the studio had become insolvent due to debt, and Disney had to declare bankruptcy.

Mickey Mouse’s creation to the first Academy Awards: 1928–1933

Disney’s first popular film starring Mickey Mouse was Steamboat Willie, a sound-and-music-equipped animated short. The Colony Theater in New York hosted the premiere on November 18, 1928. When sound was first introduced to movies, Disney was the voice of Mickey, a character he designed and had made by his principal animator, Ub Iwerks. The cartoon was a huge hit right away. Silly Symphonies was released in 1929, and it featured Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto, Mickey’s new friends. In 1933, Disney published The Three Little Pigs, dubbed “the most successful short cartoon of all time” by media analyst Adrian Danks.

Walt Disney movies

Disney produced more than 100 feature films.

Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Cinderella (1950)
Treasure Island (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Peter Pan (1953)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
101 Dalmatians (1961)

Disney’s Television Series

Disney was one of the first to use television as a source of entertainment. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color was a famous Sunday night television show that Disney used to promote his new theme park.