DVRG MAGAZINE
By: Ira Wulandari
Since his childhood life in Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney has started to learn drawing and painting. It turned out that he excels his skill. He sometimes sell his drawing to neighbors, family and friends. When summertime coming, he worked at the railroad, selling snacks and newspapers to travelers. Although for some period of his life, young Disney was very into train, but he never leaves his blood thirst to draw. He took drawing and photography classes in high school where he drawn cartoons for his school paper.
After spent his teenage life sharpening his drawing skill, he continued his path and enroll to Kansas City Art Institute. He met Ubb Iwerks there. He finally met a partner with same vision and passion, which were leading both of them to built a company. He and Iwerks have made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled “Newman’s Laugh-O-Grams”. Unfortunately this company’s life is not long, and went into bankruptcy. However, they did not lose their hope, they tried to travel to the Hollywood and started work a new series, about a live-action little girl who went on a journey to a world of animated characters, entitled “Alice Comedies”. This works has been distributed by M.J. Winkler and financed by his brother Roy O. Disney. They also work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Everything looked perfect and wonderful, until Walt Disney realized that M.J. Winkler did something bad to him. She and her husband stole their rights to every character on their series and also the animators. They left Disney with nothing, except for his loyal partner, Ubb Iwerks.
Hey There, Disney!
When everything looked dark and full of sorrow, Walt Disney decided to go home by using his second favorite thing, train. In his journey to his home, he realize that M.J. Winkler might has stolen the characters and his animators, but she couldn’t stole Disney’s idea to create another ‘souls’. In that very train, he doodled and drew something on a piece of paper and there, with all the pain that struck him, he gave birth to the most phenomenal mouse character in the world, The Mickey Mouse.
From that very moment, with Iwerks who’s a co-creator of Mickey, his wife Lillian Disney, his brother and his sister in law, Walt Disney rose from his darkest moment and re-built his dream. It was not an easy path at all. Promoting Mickey Mouse really need strong faith and hard work. But Walt Disney believed in it. The physical appearance of Mickey was redesigned by Iwerks to be more simple and eye-catching. His new catchy appearance brought Mickey to pop in the animation film, but he still was not that popular. The miracle happened when Disney gave voices to Mickey. The cute little mouse finally has its soul. Since then, Walt Disney began to create the animation version of everything that he really into. He and his team create Snow White & 7 Dwarfs, which happened to be the first Long Animation Movie, and followed by other magic characters with soul and live forever, even longer than their creator.
Walt Disney was dyslexic, he loves lemon meringue pie and ice cream soda, but do you know why he became interested in personalizing animals’ characters? It is because, he was carelessly killing a small owl as a young boy, he then felt deeply remorseful and guilty and vowed never again to kill a living creature. Imagine if he never killed that small owl. Maybe this world never gets to know the magnificent Mickey Mouse and Friends. Every moment in our life has its own power to shape us as a person. It is our choice, to make that power to turn us into a better or into a worse human being. Walt Disney chose to be better. His mistake has brought him to be a world legend.
Some people say that Walt Disney also has a mood swings, whenever he get depressed or had a hard feeling, he would call Richard M. Sherman to his office and have him play “Feed the Birds” from “Mary Poppins” shows, his favorite song.
Talking about the famous Disneyland, Disney’s $17million theme park opened in 1955. If you ever go to Disneyland, you would realize that Disneyland always framed by a train. He still loves the train and he wants everyone to experiences his love for the train. He once said that as long as there is still an Imagination in this world, the Disneyland would never be complete. I completely agree on what he said.
“Here you leave today, and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy” was written in Disneyland famous plaque. Before researching about Walt Disney, I always wonder why it has to be Disney? Why from all people that can draw pictures, or loves doodling as well as animation, it has to be the Walt Disney that became a world’s phenomenon?
We all know that his chain smoker behavior has led him to his lung deathly cancer, but until his very last time in this world, he still thinking about works. His last words while lying on the hospital bed where located across to the Disney Studios, were about how shabby the studio’s water tower looked. Visible from a nearby freeway, towering above the back lot, it is adorned with the image of his most beloved creation, Mickey Mouse. What I see from the life of Walt Disney is a true heart of caring and perfection. He could make his characters alive, because he genuinely put his piece of hearts into every character.
Let’s get into the conclusion. So what do you think? Why it has to be Walt Disney? Why the Mickey Mouse is more popular than the Cheese Cake for kids? You can have your own opinion, but for me, it is because Disney has shown his heart to everyone without feeling ashamed or afraid. He used his drawing and pictures to get him to the place where he never been before. He already left his ‘today’, he is the first who realize that he could enter the world of ‘yesterday’, ‘tomorrow’, and ‘fantasy’. What makes him special amongst all is, that Disney could invite other people to those worlds. The places where actually has always been there, but only Walt Disney could make people realize, and only Walt Disney who could bring those people into the places they never been before.