Fame: enter Disney

It's hard to believe the huge breakthroughs that the small Disney studio productions company was making. Then again, how else would Walt and Roy have made it to the top? No climb comes without risks and striving towards new ideas. First, Walt decided to make color cartoons, which seemed very difficult financially. But of course, the products came through and did much for the benefit of the company: "the reaction was almost as sensational as that for Steamboat Willie...the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Flowers and Trees the first Oscar for a cartoon" (81). These color pictures definitely held promise for the Disneys. Later, Walt came up with undertaking an animated feature. His wife, Lilly, one of many who questioned Walt's resolve, asked, "Who wants to see a feature cartoon? Cartoons last eight minutes. People would be bored if they were ten times as long" (97). However, Walt desired a challenge, and this only motivated him more. As apparent in today's society, making a feature-length animation took the Disney company above and beyond to give them huge success.

Though Walt and Roy's personality differences have always existed, they are most evident during the time the small company was making these huge steps in their production. Readers can clearly see the division: Walt's imagination versus Roy's sense of reality. For example, Walt wanted to produce cartoons in color, which Roy was overwhelmingly shocked. The opposition of their viewpoints can be clearly seen: "Roy argued that color would add greatly to the cost of the cartoons, and United Artists wouldn't advance any more financing. Walt countered that color would enhance the popularity of the cartoons" (80). Unfortunately for Roy, it seems Walt's ideas have always turned out for the better, no matter how much money was needed. Nevertheless, Roy mostly remained a skeptic; he comments on the company's welfare, "Very frankly, our business has been growing so fast and expanding in two or three directions, that we are still about as close run for money as ever" (89). Despite these statements, Roy does acknowledge his brother's ingenuity and his positive mindset that ultimately lengthened the Disneys' survival in the business.

~ Outside Reading #3

Thomas, Bob. Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire. New York: Hyperion, 1998.
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