Disney Animated Movies
Disney is definitely the animation studio of all times. They have created some of the funniest, the most moving, and the most memorable animated shorts and full length feature films to ever appear on the silver screen, along with countless unforgettable musical scores. Walt Disney was constantly pushing his animators to accomplish feats that had been thought impossible before he made them a reality. The Disney studios were the first to make a full length animated feature and the first studio to add sounds to their cartoons. They also managed to create animated characters who had real personalities.
The first full length animated Disney movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released on December 21, 1937. It premiered at Carthay Circle Theatre in Hollywood, to a full house. In addition to the packed theatre, there were 30,000 people waiting outside who hadnıt been able to get seats! One critic declared, "If you miss Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, youıll be missing the ten best pictures of 1938!" The film also won Disney a special academy award. One big one, and seven little ones, all on the same stand, to represent Snow White and her seven dwarfs.
Surprisingly enough, Disney's next three movies were flops at the box office. With the Disney studio in deep financial trouble, it pulled through and produced Dumbo, the well known story of the little elephant who could fly. Then, Bambi hit theatres, and although it too became popular in re-releases, it lost a great deal of money on its first release. After Bambi in 1942, the Disney studio didnıt produce another full-length animated feature until Cinderella in 1950. Their next nine films were either many shorts strung together, or live action films interspersed with animated sequences.
After Cinderella, some of Disney's subsequent full-length animated projects included Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. Then came Mary Poppins, which also consisted of mainly live action, with animation incorporated into the film when the actors jump into a picture drawn on the sidewalk with chalk. This was the last animated Disney movie in theatres while Walt Disney was alive, but Disneyıs legacy lives on in ground-breaking films like Toy Story, the first full-length computer animated film and Fantasia 2000, the first full-length animated IMAX film. Itıs not just revolutionary movies like these that spread the Disney name however, but also classic favourites like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.
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Last updated April 5, 2000 by Andrea