Major Blog Post 5: Walt Disney- Early Life

Posted on by Wendy Kong

In this class, we studied the life of  Walt Disney, who was an animator, storyteller, film maker and entrepreneur. Disney’s interest in drawing grew when he was a child. He started as an illustrator for commercials in Kansas City where he met his best friend Ub Iwerks. They both had a passion for making their original animation. After a few times of failures, Disney began producing Alice’s Wonderland, combing live-action with animation in Laugh-O-Gram Studio. From there, we can see that Disney has a passion to work on fairytales and classical stories. Alice’s Wonderland was a big success so Disney invited his friend Iwerks to Los Angels.

Good days didn’t last long for them. After they created another successful character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927, it was stolen by their producer Charles Mintz. I felt very sad for Disney and Iwerks as their creativity was stolen. At the same time, I also respect their spirit of not giving up.

To replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, they created Micky Mouse together. An employee said that “Ub designed Mickey’s physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul.” Plane Crazy (1928) was the first appearance of Micky Mouse. Even though it was a silent film, I found it so interesting as it had tones of dynamic shots. Steamboat Willie (1928) which we might see it at the beginning of some of Disney’s famous animation, was the first Disney cartoon with sound and music. I love how the characters were moving with the beat perfectly. It soon became the most popular animation of its day. 

I’m sharing another old Mickey Mouse cartoon called Giantland (1933). Enjoy!! ^o^

Wendy Kong

Major Post 6: Ub Iwerk

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

 

When you think of the creator of Mickey Mouse I bet your brain doesn’t jump to the name, Ub Iwerks.

Ub Iwerks was born in Kansas City Missouri and shorten his full name, Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, for ease. He was known for his fast ability to draw and his quirky sense of humor. He was Walt Disney’s partner and helped create the face of Disney itself, Mickey Mouse. He also was the lead animators in many of Disney’s early films such as the Skeleton Dance and Steam Boat Willie. But early on into the creation of the Disney empire Ub split off to start his own animation company, Iwerks Studios. This studio brought forth its own line of characters, such as, Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper. The studio didn’t last long and eventually tanked.

However, Iwerks legacy didn’t end there for he snatched up two Oscars for his work. As well as got to work on many other classics like the Looney Tunes and The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock.

LeAnn Schmitt

Below I have linked one of my personal favorite cartons produced by his studio