Walt Disney and How He Revolutionized the World of Animation

Essay by socksahoyHigh School, 11th gradeA+, March 2005

download word file, 5 pages 4.3

Walt Disney revolutionized the world of animation. "Walt Disney pioneered the art of animated film cartoons."(Simon, 8). Walt Disney symbolized the very best in animation and entertainment by being both an innovator and a man with vision. Animation had a long history prior to Walt Disney's life. Even though animation was nothing new, Walt Disney did it like no one had ever seen. The first pictures of motion appeared on cave walls. People drew pictures of animals over and over again in multiple positions; sometimes with several sets of legs. If you quickly passed your eyes over the drawings, the figures almost seemed to move. In the 1800's, machines that imitated motion, were invented. Thomas Edison created one of the first motion picture machines in 1889. George Eastman, of Eastman Kodak, created film which would move continuously. With these two inventions, movies with live action were possible (Selden 28).

The first animated cartoon appeared in 1906 while Disney was just a boy.

Disney developed a love of drawing and drawing cartoons in particular while growing up. He delivered newspapers for his father and experimented with his creative side by acting and taking art classes whenever he could. After a time with the Red Cross during World War I, Disney was working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, using old fashioned methods, such as, moving hands and legs on paper dolls. Walt was becoming impatient with these old ways. A new technique of animation using celluloid transparencies was under development and Walt Disney wanted to be a part of this new technological advancement in the field of animation. By borrowing a camera from his boss, and setting up a lab in his garage, he began making short cartoons of funny scenes. These became known as Laugh-O-Grams. These were so...