Walt Disney

                     Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5th1901, in Chicago, Illinois. Walt is the fourth of 5 children. Elias and Flora Disney were their parents. His childhood was marked by economic hardship, his dad always changing from one job to another. He spent his childhood on a farm, in a village in Missouri. There, he lived surrounded by nature and animals. His mom would read classic tales to him and that's when his interest in drawing started to grow inside him. In 1909 his dad got sick, and the whole family had to move to Kansas City. During that time, Walt was selling newspapers and occasionally making some money with his caricatures. He enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute, where he learned his first notions about drawing techniques. It was then, during those teenage years when he discovered the cinema - an invention he was passionate about since the very beginning. In 1917 he went back to Chicago with his family, and in 1918, he faked his birth certificate and enlisted at the age of 17 in the Red Cross to fight in WWI”. He made it to Europe when there was peace already, but he was based in France and Germany until September 1919. When he got back, he found a job at an advertising agency, where he met Ubbe Iwerks (ab aiwerks), a talented cartoonist who would become his partner in crime in all their adventures throughout the years. They together decided to create their own company of animated films, but they had to close it down soon after because of the financial failure of one of their most important clients. In 1923, Disney decided to move to Hollywood.

                   However, the film industry didn't welcome Disney's nicely as he had expected. So he decided to create his own animation business with his brother Roy. In October 1923, Disney Brothers Studio was created. A year later, Ubbe Iwerks joined the company and Walt could stop working as an animator to dedicate his time to the task he had always been more qualified for: the creation of characters, plots, and directing. In 1925, Walt married Lillian Bounds, a young worker of the studio, with whom he had two daughters: Diane Marie, born in 1935, when the couple already thought they could never have children, and Sharon Mae (mei), adopted in 1936. In 1926, they moved to bigger studios and they changed the name to Walt Disney Studios. Everything seemed to be going full steam ahead, but the company suffered an important misfortune when its most important client took over the rights of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This character, created by Disney, had been the protagonist of the most famous short films of the studio. In 1928, convinced not to fall into a similar trip, they looked for a new character.  

                Designed by Iwerks and using Walt’s voice, Mortimer Mouse came to the world, who would soon be renamed as Micky Mouse. A star had been born. Mickey Mouse turned into a success in no time. Walt, always on the lookout for innovation, hurried to incorporate sound in the Micky movies, and on November 28th Steamboat Willy was released - a total success for both the public and the critics. A workaholic himself, Disney had a series of health crises that led him at the end of 1931, to go on a long vacation to Europe with his wife. There, they were influenced by European arts. Back in Hollywood, he joined a sports club where he practiced boxing, wrestling, and golf. Soon after, he discovered horse riding, and finally polo. He was a big fan of polo for the rest of his life - a hobby as important for him as his passion for trains and miniatures. Always supported by a team of excellent cartoonists and illustrators, Disney let all his creative spirit do its work in his first series of Scilly Symphonies (1932), created in technicolor. They were the reason why he got the first of the 26 Oscars he would receive throughout his whole career. In 1934, Micky was already surrounded by Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and the short-tempered and wicked Donald Duck. When he had already built a name in the Hollywood industry, Walt Disney decided to produce the first full-length cartoon film in the history of movies - SnowWhite and the seven dwarfs (1937).   

                   This movie was a total success, but it left Disney in debt for almost the rest of his life. The movie was inspired by the Grimmsbrothers's tale, the first of many adaptations of these classic tales that fascinated Walt so much. After Snowwhite came Pinocchio. It was a triumph with critics, but a failure with the public. The company recovered thanks Dumbo the elephant and the touching Bambi, during the times marked by WWII. It was then that Walt Disney, a convinced anti-communist, filmed pro-capitalism Propaganda Movies and started collaborating actively with the FBI in witch hunts, promoted by the senator Joseph McCarthy. In the 50s, with the help of an investment from the Texan Howard Hughes (jiús), Disney released some of the most acclaimed classics in the history of animation: Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). On December 15th, 1966, after making a dream come true by constructing Disneyland, a huge amusement park based on his characters, the TheBurbank magician died due to lung cancer.  

                  This was only a few months before The JungleBook was released. Same as his movies, Walt Disney himself is surrounded by legends, from the minute he was born, till his death. There’s a rumor that says Disney was born in Spain, specifically in Mojácar, and emigrated when he was a kid with his single mom to theUS. Also, we can’t forget about one of the most spread urban legends in the world: Is Walt Disney’s body really frozen? Hmmm nope. Disney died at the St. Joseph’s Hospital and his family had a close funeral for him so that only a few people could see his body, hence the legend. Two days after his death, he was cremated and moved to their family cemetery. Walt Disney was a complete pioneer, his movies meant a turning point in the history of cinema. His legacy is still growing and his more than80 full-length movies are still enjoyed by millions of people around the whole world!