ABSTRACT
The most amazing aspect of Walt Disney’s many accomplishments is that he had no precedent to follow. Nobody preceded him. He put sound and color into cartoons, fostered the invention of the multiplane camera and then went ahead and made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It wasn’t like it is today, when animation producers watch what Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney are doing and then try to do the same thing. Walt Disney, 33 years old in 1934, had nowhere to look for inspiration except into his own imagination. Consider the situation that he faced. Filmmaking of any kind was barely 35 years old when he began production on the movie. Cecil B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man, Hollywood’s very first feature film, was produced in 1910. D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation was released in 1915. Movie directors were still trying to figure out how to best use editing. There was no sophisticated marketing department to tell him in advance that Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey would be merchandising behemoths. In 1934, there was not yet a Disneyland or a Walt Disney World. Therefore, building and populating new theme park exhibits was not a consideration. Television had not been invented yet, so there was not going to be a series spinoff if the movie was a hit. There were no DVDs or VHS copies to be sold or rented, no Internet streaming, no social media. Really, all he had was himself, his sense of the marketplace and an empathetic connection with the audience. He realized there was money to be made through merchandising because Mickey Mouse had become so popular and profitable, but merchandising potential was not foremost in his mind. Contrast that to the situation today at Disney Animation Studio, where merchandising potential is often the tail that wags the dog when movies are put into production.
