Les Clark's Credibility

You probably can’t find anyone on the seven continents in the civilized world who has not heard the word Disney. No other person in the world has played both to, and with so many people’s imagination. Both young and old admire what Walter Disney accomplished in his lifetime.

When it came time to hire Eisner, Schneider, a Disney’s first president, explained, “…Michael [Eisner] had an amazing track record coming from Paramount. He’d had hits, Oscar nominations, Terms of Endearment. He was a winner when he was hired to come in and run Disney. He also was a man who liked to blow things up.” Eisner had a lot of experience in the film industry and was very successful, too; he was the perfect fit to help bring Disney out of their downward spiral. With Eisner’s help, he was able to use his previous experience at Paramount to lead Disney to success once again. Similarly, Katzenberg was willing to help lead Disney out of their misery by being the lifeline of the film division. Eisner recalled, “He was a worker. He was committed. He was obsessed”. When the film division no longer had hope, Katzenberg was there to guide it to something more than it had ever been before. He made the animators excited and pushed them to the next level. He held them to high standards. He never stopped until the drawings reached perfection; if that meant hundreds of edits to one drawing, then he would wait for the edit that eventually made the drawing flawless. With his determination, he was able to lead the film division to produce The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and many

Even though he retired he had decided to make a manga series for a magazine without charging them for his art. Transition to 2nd main point: Now that we have talked about the main founder and the creation of the studio, let’s talk about the relationship said studio has with Walt Disney

Rafiki, the wise baboon from The Lion King, explains to Simba that “the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Rafiki teaches Simba a valuable lesson: to use other peoples’ mistakes to avoid making the same ones; when people reflect on their past and are willing to confront the mistakes head on, they can be very successful. Waking Sleeping Beauty gives viewers an inside look from 1984 to 1994 when Disney reached the peak of “The Disney Renaissance”—during this period of time, Disney produced some of their best animated movies. Although Disney was successful during this era, it took a lot of work for them to get to that stage. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Disney was put into shambles due to the death of Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney. Simultaneously, Disney produced The Black Cauldron which proved to be a failure; not only was it expensive and made little return, it was beat out in the box office by The Care Bears Movie which was an embarrassment for Disney Animation Studios. At this point in time Disney was a hopeless, downwards spiral on its way towards bankruptcy. Disney needed a leader that was willing to take charge and restore the company to its magical ways and beyond. Ultimately, Waking Sleeping Beauty answers the following question: After their downfall, how was Disney able to recover and produce successful movies in the 1980s and 1990s? The documentary has several responses to this question, but its main focus explains that Disney was able to thrive once again by hiring new personnel in leadership positions who were willing to lead Disney into “The Disney Renaissance”.

What would the world be like without Walt Disney’s magic, whimsy, and optimism (Just Disney)? As described by the late David Low, “the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo (About Walt Disney).” Through Disney’s creation of a new kind of feature-length animated cartoons and live-action "family" films, he became not only a successful businessman, but also a renowned American filmmaker (Walt Disney).

While Disney was working in Kansas City he was co-workers with Ubbe Iwerks. A year after working at the studio, the two got laid off and moved onto bigger and better things. They created their own business called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The company was not so successful and only last one month. The two friends stayed together as they passed through jobs. They worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company drawing cartoons for movie theaters. Disney took a camera from the company to use for his “stop-action animation” with his original drawings. His continuous practice on his Laugh-O-Grams made them far more advanced than his studio work (Schwartz). Walt Disney made puppets of his characters for his films instead of drawing them so he could save time and make the process easier on himself and Iwerks (“Walt Disney Interviewed by Fletcher Markle”).

It took almost two decades for someone to bring the same finesse to animation that McCay brought. That person was Walt Disney. Disney’s turning point in his career as an artist began at the age of seventeen, when he was hired as an apprentice for the Gray Advertising Company. The CEO’s of the company agreed to give him a week trial run. By the end of the week, he had lost all his confidence that they were going to keep him on but too much of his relief, he was hired on at $50 a month. It was at Gray Advertising that he met Ub Iwerks. Iwerks was hired because he was an excellent lettering artist. As a matter of fact, Iwerks was getting paid ten dollars more than Disney. During the time that both men worked at Gray’s Advertising Company,

Sicinski, Adam. "My Conversations With Walt Disney About Life, Success and the Power of Imagination." IQ Matrix. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. .

Referring to one incident, Williams and Denney remarked that “Another early crisis in Walt Disney’s career tested his leadership ability and revealed what authentic leadership is all about. There is much we can learn about leadership by emulating Walt’s strengths and avoiding his mistakes” (Gitlin 73). 7. As a producer Walt Disney had not only perfected the art of creating visual representations for his animations, but he could also transfer the same skills in the actual vocals. As a result, Walt Disney was able to demonstrate to the world that his passion for animation was inherent by giving ‘real life’ to the visual animated objects.

When it came time to hire Eisner, Schneider, a Disney’s first president, explained, “…Michael [Eisner] had an amazing track record coming from Paramount. He’d had hits, Oscar nominations, Terms of Endearment. He was a winner when he was hired to come in and run Disney. He also was a man who liked to blow things up.” With Eisner’s successful experience in the film industry, he was the perfect fit to help bring Disney out of their downward spiral. With Eisner’s help, he was able to use his previous experience at Paramount to lead Disney to success once again. Similarly, Katzenberg was willing to help lead Disney out of their misery by being the lifeline of the film division. When describing Katzenberg, Eisner recalled, “He was a worker. He was committed. He was obsessed”. When the film division no longer had hope, Katzenberg was there to guide it to something more than it had ever been before. By making the animators excited, he pushed them to the next level. He held them to high standards. He never stopped until the drawings reached perfection; if that meant hundreds of edits to one drawing, then he would wait for the edit that eventually made the drawing flawless. With his determination, he was able to lead the film division to produce The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and many other successful, animated

Disney has become a marketing goliath and the #1 entertainment company in the US. They have been able to develop a creativity-driven philosophy that over time was tempered by financial responsibility and that benefitted from powerful synergies between its divisions. From the very beginning, Disney has been synonymous with innovation within the children’s entertainment industry, from their introduction of animations with synchronized audio, full-length animated feature films and then later into theme parks and on-ice and Broadway shows. One important element of Disney’s success was the extent to which they integrated and expanded into different

Each one of these nine old men had their areas of expertise which contributed to the team’s overall success from Les Clark’s re-imagination and update of the original Mikey Mouse to the villains of Milt Kahl, to the furry friends of Eric Larson. Disney said it the best “You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality” (Company). It was Disney’s leadership that started a legendary entertainment company, but it was the people around him that planted the seeds for an entire industry and created a one of a kind company. When Walt Disney passed away in 1966 it was Wolfgang Reitherman that kept the team together (Mason, 2014).. The essence of what Reitherman accomplished

Walt took classes at the Chicago Art Institute three nights a week. When summer finally rolled along, Walt worked for his father at the post office. Of course, even when working, Walt made drawings.When school started back up again, Walt was seventeen years old. He dropped out of school then to try and fight in the war. He got denied to fight because he was too young. So Walt lied about his age, and he got a job as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. The Red Cross sent him to work in France, and of course in his free time, Walt drew cartoons. When he came back he didn’t want to work for his dad again, “I want to be an artist.”(Walt Disney) So he moved to Missouri, and when he finally found a job, it only lasted for six months. During those six months, Walt met a man named Ubbe Iwerks. The two men decided to go into business together. They wanted to make animations, or pictures that move. To make money to help make the animations, Walt and Ub made short films, which were about a minute long. Their first production was, “The Alice Comedies.” Walt wanted to make loner movies though which were about seven minutes long. He longed to make fairy tales. Walt and Ub finally came out with the production of Little Red Riding Hood. It took six months. Both men quit their day jobs, and opened a company called Laugh-O-Gram

In a world where technology is rapidly developing and evolving, it is sometimes hard to keep up with the changes that are made. When looking back on changes that are made it is particularly interesting to look at the development of animation over history. Today when one thinks about animation it is impossible not to think of Disney and their major motion pictures. The Shreck films, Finding Nemo, and Happy Feet, to name just some of the dozens of animated films Disney has produced, raked in million upon millions of dollars at the box office, and have been hit films with people in all age groups.

Ever since I was ten, I have always been fascinated by cartoon characters that dash off into the speed of light and face an enemy that has become consumed with power, and threatens to ruin everyone’s happily ever after. Without animation, there would be no fairytales, romance, or happily ever after’s. The magic that animation brings to all ages is outstanding. The Lion King is filled with laughter, romance, and excitement. I want to be a part of that excitement and magic that brings the smile that cracks upon children and adults faces. I know that I will have to face many obstacles on my journey to a successful career in animation and it can be hard working in the animation industry because of the fact that this is a competitive career with some low quality studios that end up going bankrupt, which means people without jobs. It is vital to know the issues and conflicts that arises when entering this field, because I’ll know ahead of time to be mindful of Strategizing, the rules and regulation, how to deal with a computer and how to survive in animation.