Walt Disney Was Born 125 Years Ago This December, and the Mouse Was Only the Beginning

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, so this December marks 125 years. It is hard to explain to someone who grew up with the Disney brand how small and risky the beginning was. He started in animation in the early 1920s, lost control of his first big character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and had to start again with a mouse.

Film still: Walt Disney / Ub Iwerks, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mickey Mouse arrived in 1928, and Steamboat Willie, with its synchronised sound, was what made audiences pay attention. A few years later Disney took the gamble that people thought was crazy, a full-length animated feature. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened in December 1937 and was the first full-length cel-animated feature made in America, and the doubters called it Disney's Folly until the tickets sold.

Poster: Gustaf Tenggren, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The list that followed is the backbone of the studio: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella. Disney also moved into live action and television, and opened Disneyland in Anaheim in July 1955. He won 22 competitive Academy Awards, which remains a record, and he kept pushing his animators to do things they said could not be done.

Photo: Theme Park Tourist, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

He died on December 15, 1966, before the Magic Kingdom in Florida opened, and the company has spent most of the decades since arguing with itself about what he would have wanted. I do not think that argument has a clean answer. What I will say is that the early films, made with pencils and enormous patience, still look better than a lot of what came after.

Photo: JeffChristiansen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which Disney film from his lifetime is your favourite? I am torn between Pinocchio and Dumbo, and I change my mind depending on the week.