Historical Texts (part 2/5)- 'Walt Disney 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937)

About the text:

Walt Disney has produced many animation feature classics that we all know and love. Classics such as ‘Pinocchio’ (1940), ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (1959), ‘101 Dalmations’ (1961), ‘The Jungle Book’ (1967), ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991),’ ‘Aladdin’ (1992), ‘The Lion King (1994), the list is just endless. Altogether Walt Disney created 37 animation feature films in total and it all began with ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937).

Significance in the development of the genre/ achievements for the genre:

· Since founded in 1923, Walt Disney has become one of the largest and most successful industries in the world ever. 'The Walt Disney Studios distributes motion pictures under Walt Disney Pictures - which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios and DisneyToon Studios' (5).

. 'It was after ‘The Little Mermaid’ (1989), that Disney changed there method of animation from hand drawing and painting to ‘CAPS’ (Computerised Animation Production Systems). This reflects the development in animation moving from traditional hand drawings/paintings to computers. It also shows how technology was advancing. Computers have now become involved in creating animation films.

· Walt Disney movies starting from 1990 and beyond (8 in total) were all made using ‘CAPS’ , with ‘The Rescuers Down Under’( 1990) being the first Walt Disney film made through the new method. Others such as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991) and ‘The Lion King’ (1994) followed
· the first full-length animated feature film in colour

Society at the time (in general):

1937

· Dandy, the worlds longest running comic strip was first published (Dec 4)
· The Great Hong Kong Typhoon killed 11.000 people
· Recession of the Great Depression- American economy going downhill, productions declined as did profits and unemployment increased



Source/s:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29
2. http://www.animated-news.com/
3. http://www.justdisney.com/animation/animated_features.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937
5. http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html

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Note: After traditional animation, Stop-motion animation developed and animations transformed from being 2D into 3D. ‘Wallace and Gromit’ and ‘Chicken Run’ are two examples. The arrival of stop motion animation was part of the development of animation however when CGI finally arrived, stop motion was disappearing