On October 16, 1923, exactly 100 years ago, the Disney brothers signed the first contract to create a series of animated shorts entitled Alice Comedies, thus began the adventure of Walt and Roy Disney’s The Walt Disney Company, founded in Burbank, California .
Born in 1901 in Chicago, Walter Elias Disney created a true animation empire, creating unforgettable characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofybut also princesses like Cinderella and Snow White. It was precisely his characters, full of life and emotions, that won the hearts of adults and children, making Disney one of the most loved and well-known brands in the world. In one of his famous phrases Walt Disney says: “I don’t make films just for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether he’s six or sixty.”
It all started in a small animation studio where, in 1928, with great courage, he created the first animated sound film Steamboat Willie, presenting for the first time the famous Mickey Mouse, known in Italy by the name of Topolino. In reality, the name Walt Disney originally thought of was Mortimer Mouse, but Lillian, Walt’s wife, didn’t like the name Mortimer for the little mouse and she suggested Mickey Mouse.
In 1937 the first color feature film was released: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which was enormously successful, broadcast for 28 consecutive weeks in the same cinemas, and in 1938 it was the highest grossing film of the year. In the following years, other great classics were released such as Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty did terribly at the box office. Its creation required 10 years of work, with a total production cost of 6 million dollars, after this failure he made the decision to no longer use Princesses in fairy tales, until the creation of The Little Mermaid which brought success to Disney again.
Walt Disney is the man who received the most Oscars throughout his career as a producer and with Mary Poppins, from 1964, he was awarded five Oscars.
But Disney didn’t limit himself to animation, in 1955 he inaugurated Disneyland in California, the first theme park, it was the first of a series all over the world: Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Disney World in Tokyo and Disneyland Paris. Furthermore, in the 1980s, Disney’s presence in the entertainment industry was expanded, acquiring important production companies such as Pixar Animation Studios and Marvel Entertainment which produced highly successful productions such as Toy Story, The Avengers and Frozen. In 2000, Disney’s fortieth classic animated film The Emperor’s New Groove was released and was considered one of Disney’s best films and was nominated for an Oscar for the song My Funny Friend and Me, performed by Sting. The film was born as an epic musical but, during the six years of production, was transformed into a comedy in which Kuzco, a young and selfish Inca emperor, mistakenly transformed into a llama by his advisor Yzma who tried to poison him, tries to find the his human form helped by the farmer Pacha, who teaches him to be altruistic. There was also a sequel and a spin-off entitled Kronk’s New Groove (2005) and an animated television series: School with the Emperor.
It’s been 100 years since the birth of the Walt Disney Company but the impact it has had on the world of entertainment is more vivid than ever. Walt Disney’s ability to make us dream and take us to distant ways is what made him an iconic figure, loved by millions of people around the world.