Disney through the years is an amazing success story as the company has grown from strength to strength. If you look at the man behind it all, Walt Disney, then you can see that he was extraordinary and very proactive, as you can see by his quote to the right.
In the beginning, nobody ever thought that a nondescript mouse cartoon character with some humorous adventures would ever catch the imagination of its audiences way back then (and now).
Mickey Mouse was the beginning of success for the Walt Disney Company. He came in and swept it along and transformed it into the entertainment empire that it is today.
For the last, almost 100 years, the company founded by Walt and Roy Disney has defined children’s first cultural tastes of likes and dislikes. Through the years, Mickey Mouse and his company of friends would delineate the kind of children’s entertainment for that generation.
Disney Through The Years
Through the years, each of the characters, both new and old, has grown into the consciousness of many children’s and adults’ sense of fun and adventure.
In the meantime, the Walt Disney Company grew along with the success brought about by Mickey and friends. The years boomed with more and more success in all the other areas – financial, creative, and managerial.
The company’s growth was sideways, too. It did not waste time and started producing more and more child and family-oriented movies and shows. It also started acquiring production studios and TV properties as well as establishing theme parks for kids and the kids-at-heart.
Even as some children grew up and dismissed the Disney Characters as childish, they always end up coming back to them once they have children of their own. I too relived these lovable characters that I so loved as a child along with my own daughter.
The Golden Age (1937-1942)
Major Works: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi
This period beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and ending with Bambi is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of Disney film-making.
These films were all overseen by Walt himself and established Walt Disney Studios as one of the leaders in animated film-making. However, the term “Golden Age” is actually quite misleading. With the exception of Snow White and Dumbo, in terms of financial success, the “Golden Age” wasn’t all that golden. In fact, Dumbo was originally supposed to be merely a short film, but Walt decided to make it a full-length feature to try and recover from the losses suffered from the making of Fantasia.
The Silver Age (1950-1967)
Major Works: Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book.
This era of Disney through the years is also known as the “Restoration Age.”
The Silver Age marks Disney’s return to making big-budget full-length films and it is marked by its beautiful animation with ornate backgrounds with soft colors. All these films had an otherworldly feel, and make even common day settings look magical. The background animation in Sleeping Beauty, for example, was designed to look like a painting. Though some of these films did not go over well with critics, they were enjoyed by audiences and were for the most part financially successful for the Disney Company.
Walt Disney’s death marked the end of the Silver Age, with The Jungle Book being the last film he personally worked on before passing.
The Bronze Age (1970-1977)
Major Works: The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers
The death of Walt Disney spiraled the Walt Disney Studios into the Bronze Age which is also known as the “Modern Era.” This was a period of trial and error film-making, and the Disney Studios struggled to find their way without the guidance and imagination of Walt. The Bronze Age also shied away from fairy-tales and focused more on darker, secular stories.
The Dark Age (1981-1988)
Major Works: The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company
During this time, there was a shift from hand-inked films to the use of xerography. This method saved both time and money, allowing animators to directly print their drawings onto cells. However, this process did have its limits and initially, only black lines were possible using this method.
The grandeur and scale of these films were less than that of previous Disney films, and the era had a very introverted feel to it. It didn’t explore bigger themes as well as previous Disney films had, and movies of this era did not make a lasting impression on audiences. Winnie the Pooh is the only exception to this, reflecting on childhood and the fantasies surrounding it. However, this era began to set the groundwork for a newer and better era in Disney film-making.
The Renaissance (1989-1999)
Major Works: The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty, and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, The Lion King.
Perhaps the most widely agreed upon era in Disney film-making, the Disney Renaissance is considered the pinnacle of Disney films. It saw profound success at the box office, with its movies returning to the musical fairy-tale storytelling that Disney was known for.
With The Little Mermaid, Disney had produced the best achievement using xerography. It also was the first Disney fairy-tale movie in almost twenty years. These were also the first films that Howard Ashman and Alan Menken worked on, both of whom would soon prove to be Disney masterminds and a key element in Disney’s musical success.
The Experimental Era (1999-2008)
Major Works: Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur, The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt
What really defines this period of time is Disney Studios trying to find a new method of storytelling, much like that of Pixar’s. With the exception of Lilo and Stitch, films during this time didn’t see much box office success and were not wildly popular. However, part of this moderate success was a result of big movie franchises such as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings drawing in audiences and detracting from other films being released.
The Revival (2009-2014 and Present)
Major Works: Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6
The present era of Disney film-making that we are in, the “Revival Era” is also being called the “Second Disney Renaissance”. With John Lasseter taking over the animation division in 2006 and Disney’s eventual purchase of Pixar, the pieces once again began falling into place.
The 2009 release of Princess and the Frog was praised for its return to original Disney animation while also earning $270 million worldwide. Disney decided with their next film, Tangled, to try their hand at CGI animation once again.
With the release of Tangled, Disney and audiences realized that they were once again (like with the Disney Renaissance) in the midst of something great.
The Revival Era reached new heights with the release of Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, taking in over $1.2 billion worldwide. It also took home Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature, among other honors.
New Myths, New Stories, New Characters
Today’s children have an even wider choice of many lovable and mythical characters created by new storytellers and mythmakers at Disney. They also come in from old and new media – books, films, television, newspapers, magazines, and even from the Internet.
Many of them have wonderful stories to associate with one’s dreams and aspirations. Think of the success of the Disney Princesses. Every little girl has a favorite princess that they aspire to be.
Each time a new Disney movie comes out, there is a new craze of Disney Characters that come along with it, and it takes a long while to die down. A good example of this is the movie Frozen, which is still extremely popular worldwide.
Disney through the years has grown from strength to strength as I said at the beginning of this post, and I hope to see many more new characters and brilliant Disney movies over the next few years.
