Unfreeze Walt NOW

Why it is important to unfreeze Walt Disney Now

2007-09-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Thousands of people demand that Walt Disney should be brought back to life now. Of course this would be dangerous for his health, as we all know that there is no safe cure for cancer at the moment. Some scientists claim that they would be able to cure Walt's cancer in a basis of research, but the common sense says that unless Walt Disney takes 100% guaranteed operation for removal of his cancer, he is not to be unfrozen.

Though, the number of angry citizens that demand Walt back in the business grows by thousands. More than 20.000 Russians gathered yesterday in Moscow and yelled that Walt should be unfrozen AND NOT STALIN. All over the world messages of encouragement arrive at Disneyland and are kept in a special chamber for Walt Disney to read them all upon his resuscitation.

Wow, lots of things to read, huh?

Walt Disney's Academy Awards

2007-09-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

Among many awards, Walt Disney holds the record for having the most Academy Awards - 22 in competitive categories, and 4 honorary:
1932 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Flowers and Trees (1932)
1932 Honorary Award for: creation of Mickey Mouse.
1934 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Little Pigs (1933)
1935 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Tortoise and the Hare (1934)
1936 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Orphan Kittens (1935)
1937 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Country Cousin (1936)
1938 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Old Mill (1937)
1939 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
1938 Honorary Award for: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) The citation read: "For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field" (the award was one statuette and seven miniature statuettes)
1940 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ugly Duckling(1939)
1940 Honorary Award for: Fantasia (1940), shared with: William E. Garity and J.N.A. Hawkins. The citation read: "For their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia" (the award was a certificate)
1942 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Lend a Paw (1941)
1943 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
1949 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Seal Island (1948)
1949 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
1951 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Beaver Valley (1950)
1952 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Nature's Half Acre (1951)
1953 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Water Birds (1952)
1954 Best Documentary, Features for: The Living Desert (1953)
1954 Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: The Alaskan Eskimo (1953)
1954 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953)
1954 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Bear Country (1953)
1955 Best Documentary, Features for: The Vanishing Prairie (1954)
1956 Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: Men Against the Arctic
1959 Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects for: Grand Canyon
1969 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Mickey Mouse

2007-09-26T05:38:00.002-07:00

After having lost the rights to Oswald, Disney had to develop a new "star". Most Disney biographies state that Disney came up with a mouse character on his trip back from New York. It is debated whether it was he, or Iwerks who actually designed the mouse (which basically looked like Oswald, but with round instead of long ears). Another explanation is that this was simply the drawing style of animated characters back then, and that Iwerks adopted it. Besides Oswald and Mickey, this can be seen in the Alice Comedies which featured a mouse named Ike the Mouse, and in the first Flip the Frog cartoon called Fiddlesticks, showing a Mickey Mouse looking mouse playing fiddle. The first films were animated by Iwerks, his name was prominently featured on the title cards. The mouse was originally named "Mortimer", but later christened "Mickey Mouse" by Lillian Disney who thought that the name Mortimer did not fit.
Mickey's first animated short produced was Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became a success, and Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1946. After Steamboat Willie was released, Mickey became a very close competitor to Felix the Cat, and Walt Disney would continue to successfully use sound in all of his future cartoons as well. Upon the failure of Felix the Cat's transition to sound in 1930, Mickey Mouse became the world's new favorite animation character.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

2007-09-26T05:38:00.001-07:00

By 1927, Charles B. Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business, and ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character, first drawn and created by Iwerks, became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired back Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.
In February of 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short from Mintz. Disney was shocked when Mintz announced that not only he wanted to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short but also that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng (notably excepting Iwerks) under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Disney.
Disney declined Mintz's offer and lost most of his animation staff. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the "Krazy Kat" shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and began work on the first entries in the Looney Tunes series.
It took Disney's company 78 years to get back the rights to the Oswald character. In a move that sent sports broadcaster Al Michaels to NBC Sports for their Sunday night NFL coverage, the Walt Disney Company reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal in 2006.

Who was Walt Disney

2007-09-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Disney is notable as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Walt became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $30 billion.
Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He received twenty-two Academy Awards and forty-eight nominations during his lifetime, holding the record for the individual with the most awards and the most nominations. Disney has also won seven Emmy Awards. Disney and his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse. He is also well-known as the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, France, Japan and China.
Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, a few years prior to the opening of his Walt Disney World dream project in Orlando, Florida.