ABSTRACT
Looking back on Disney’s Folly from today’s perspective, it seems that no one should have been surprised that Walt would be so single-minded. He had done the same thing with short-form animation, producing Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Willy (1928), the first cartoon with sound, and, later, the Silly Symphonies cartoons with Pluto, Goofy and the rest of the colorful cast of characters. He had already signed up more than one million members of the Mickey Mouse Club and had successfully produced Flowers and Trees (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon. The Three Little Pigs (1933) and its theme song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” was an anthem for those oppressed by America’s Great Depression. Walt had a history of successfully marching to his own drummer, and once he had it in his head that a feature-length cartoon was practicable, there would be no stopping him.
